The Coming Economic Crisis/Program 3

Introduction

Ankerberg: Welcome to our program. We’ve got a great one for you today. We’re talking with Dr. David Jeremiah. He’s the Senior Pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, CA, and you’ve probably seen him on Turning Point, in terms of the television program, or you’ve been listening for years on radio. He is our guest today. I’m glad you’re here, David. We’re talking about his new book, The Coming Economic Armageddon, which is on the New York Times best-selling list. It’s a fantastic book. We’re talking about the material in the book. And the topic we’re going to talk about today is this: the new global economy. There’s an ever-increasing presence of the new global economy that is coming into our world. And what has precipitated this, in part, has been a series of economic crises in the United States that have led to our government gaining more and more control of our society. We’re also witnessing a new phenomenon here – a growing electronic financial net that is surrounding the earth, and it’s creating the global economy that we’re going to talk about. It’s also setting the stage for end-time realities. Let’s talk about some of the crises that we all know that we’re experiencing right now.

Jeremiah: John, it’s interesting that we know about crises, most of us can list them, but we don’t know where they’re taking us and that’s what’s important about our discussion today. Crises are catalysts to an organized progression of changes. And there’s little doubt that the world has been driven toward greater globalization by these crises that we have been experiencing. One of the illustrations of the power of a crisis is in a book by a friend of mine by the name of Erwin Lutzer. The title of the book is When a Nation Forgets God. He tries to help us understand how what happened in Germany was really the result of the crisis, and that Hitler took control of that nation based on the crises the people were facing.

Ankerberg: Yeah. Let me just read the quote that you put in the book, if you will let me do that. “Let us not be quick to condemn those who were willing to give Hitler a chance, given the economic chaos that spread through Germany after World War I. He could have never come to power if the German economy would have remained strong after World War I. He rode to victory simply because he promised to rebuild the collapsing German Mark and put the nation back to work.” But, again, it was precipitated by an economic crisis and he stepped in and took control of this. Talk about how the Mark changed in terms of value.

Jeremiah: Well, back in 1919, the German Mark was worth 25 cents. And within four years it declined in value until four-trillion Marks were needed to equal the buying power of one dollar.

Ankerberg: Yeah. This is the inflation that comes in when you start printing money. And the banks didn’t have money, and so all of a sudden, they started printing it and the government started printing it and so the value went down. And the problem…

Jeremiah: The middle class lost everything.

Ankerberg: Yeah.

Jeremiah: They lost their entire savings; a global depression hit Germany; and it prepared the way for Hitler to walk in to that depressed economy and offer the hope.

Ankerberg: You know when I was working for my doctorate I was going through all the books and I read Hegel. And I was surprised that you brought this up. You said that “today’s proponents of the one-world economy embrace the philosophy of Hegel.” Why?

Jeremiah: Well here’s something that Hegel said, John. He said, “Desperate people will give power to those who seem to have the answers to their crises. As a result…,” now listen to this, “little by little, fewer and fewer make more and more of the decisions.”

Ankerberg: Yeah. And I think that’s what we’re seeing happen here in America right now. More and more people are giving up their power to fewer people who are actually controlling everything.

Jeremiah: And we’ve even found ways to bypass the check-and-balance that we built into our government. We just appoint “czars” and they have absolute power controlled by the president. So it is really frightening to see how some of these patterns are being experienced here in our own country.

Ankerberg: Alright. Take Hegel and tie this to what many people think, historians and economists think, was the start of this new global economy; this one world order that they’re working for. It goes back to New Hampshire, where your wife is from.

Jeremiah: You’re right, John. My wife is from New Hampshire and on numerous occasions we have visited the Mt. Washington Hotel, which is in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. It was there, in 1944, that 730 leading representatives from 44 allied nations gathered to lay the plans for the new world economy.

Ankerberg: You actually walked through the lobby and you saw some of the things that they did.

Jeremiah: Yeah. After I wrote this book, we went back to see Donna’s brother who lives in Laconia, New Hampshire, and we took a trip to the hotel and I looked for this room. Actually there is a room and they have a little monument there, with some plaques on the wall with the names of the people who signed the document that put into operation what we now know as the global economy.

Ankerberg: And what did they decide there at that conference?

Jeremiah: They came up with monetary rules for global commerce and international trade, and the exchange rates for currency; they made the dollar the standard for international trading. Out of that came some major organizations which are still major players in the new world economy today.

Ankerberg: Such as?

Jeremiah: Well, we have the World Bank which makes loans to poor nations for capital infrastructure programs; we have the International Monetary Fund which is tuned to economic control in the future – it oversees the global financial policies of member nations. And now we have the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade. Both the World Bank and the IMF have a presence in 186 countries in the world.

Ankerberg: Yeah. You say they made the U.S. dollar the reserve currency of the world. What does all that mean? Why was it beneficial to America? Why did they do it on the U.S. dollar? And you say it’s slipping.

Jeremiah: Well, in 1944, at that conference the U.S. dollar was established as the reserve currency of the world – the currency, that is, that is used as the value standard for other currencies. At that particular time, America had the world’s largest and most stable economy and we had the most dollars, or the most units of currency, of any country in the world. Now as I speak, almost two-thirds of foreign currency reserves today in the whole world are held in dollars, and that has made the United States the world financial leader for the last 60 years.

Ankerberg: Which has been a terrific help to our economy right there. Now, you’re saying that that status, of our being reserve currency of the world, may go out the window.

Jeremiah: Well, it’s changing, John. America is becoming “illiquid,” if you will, and our debts are becoming greater than our income. We talked about that in an earlier program. In January of 2010 Congress raised the ceiling for our national debt to 14.2 trillion dollars, and our growing debt is causing investors in the United States and around the world great anxiety over the U.S. dollar. We are kept alive only by borrowing money and most Americans are unaware of this fact. As we continue to spend this money and give money to other poorer nations, this can only go on for so long before the house of debt comes crashing down. This is a major shift in America’s policy and in the world economy. It’s creating a vacuum of confidence around the world and it’s going to make it more and more difficult for us to function within the economy of the world.

Ankerberg: The former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, after describing the financial crisis of 2008 as the worst crisis in over 75 years, you put down the statement that he said next, which is mind-blowing.

Jeremiah: This is what he said, John, he said. “Trends are shifting the world’s center of gravity away from the United States. Much of the world is turning an historic corner and heading into a period in which the role of the state will be larger and private sector will be smaller. This historic crisis raises the question of whether a new global approach is going to work to control banking financial systems of the world.”

Ankerberg: Yeah. I mean it’s a terrible thing to think that we’re going away from the American dollar and we’re going toward a new global approach. And Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote “Why the Dollar is Toast,” what did he say?

Jeremiah: He said that what’s happening is the dollar is losing its power and many people and most nations are now turning to gold to back up their economy. In fact China…

Ankerberg: Is that true?

Jeremiah: Oh yeah, absolutely. China recently surpassed India as the largest gold-buying nation in the world. This means they have more confidence in gold than in American currency. In 2009 the price of gold rose more than 25% due to the demand of the investor. And the reason? They fear that the U.S. dollar is going to be worthless one day and gold has never, in 5,000 years, ever been worthless.

Ankerberg: Yeah. And because of that fact, the nations of the world are looking at the American dollar and they’re getting scared, so they’re going away from it. What the Russian president proposed in 2009 – our American citizens need to know this. What did he do?

Jeremiah: Well, he proposed a new world currency not tied to any nation. He actually came to a meeting with a sample coin. I actually have a picture of that coin in this book that I wrote. This sample coin was of the united future world currency and it bears the imprint “Unity In Diversity.”

Ankerberg: Yeah, and Brazil, Russian, India, and China all agreed that they need this and want this; so they’re heading that direction. What does this mean for the United States?

Jeremiah: Well obviously if we lose our status of having the world reserve currency, it will weaken us greatly. I mean, if you think we have problems nationally now with our economy, that will just take us to the next level. So America needs to take this development seriously John, because the “borrower is servant to the lender.” We are in debt to all of these major nations and if they stop loaning us money we will not have what we need to go forward. So, you know, we really need to be concerned about this. And as we see this moving us in this direction of a currency that’s not nationalistic, that’s something that those of us who know prophecy realize that it is a very serious direction.

Ankerberg: Yeah. We’re going to take a break right now. When we come back we’re going to talk about the key question that Christians want to know: How do we prepare for the end times economy that we see coming? Stick with us and we’ll be right back.

Ankerberg: Alright we’re back. We’re talking with Dr. David Jeremiah. We’re talking about the new global economy and we’re talking about the question, also, How do we prepare as Christians for the end-times economy? David, the first question is, why do you think we’re even in the end-times economy or approaching it? What makes you think that?

Jeremiah: Well, John, a lot of things are happening right now and they’re happening so rapidly and I think they’re going right over the heads of some of us. They’re not on our radar screen; they don’t get a lot of press. One of the things that’s just been really amazing to me is what’s been happening over these last years with the G-20 nations, sometimes the G-15, whatever they are, they come together. Back in April of 2009 there was a meeting of the G-20 nations – the 20 most powerful economic nations in the world – and the discussion was all about the banking crisis and the global financial recession that began in 2008. According to the New York Times, these 19 nations plus the EU represent 90% of the world’s gross national product, 80% of the world trade, including the trade within the European Union, and two-thirds of the global population. Now that is a conglomeration; that is a consolidation. And that is just a picture of what’s happening that’s bringing nations together around this crisis we have experienced economically.

Ankerberg: On the screen we’re showing a picture of that crowd of people and President Obama was there. There’s something that the people don’t seem to know about of what the G-20 at that meeting established. Talk about this other thing.

Jeremiah: Well they put together what they call the “Financial Stability Board.” It was put together to represent all of these member countries and it was made up of representatives of all these nations from the banking trade, economic experts from each country. And in short, the purpose of this Board was to oversee and regulate the global economy and they were given permission to do it.

Ankerberg: And we as a nation are a part of that Board. Tell the folks who is representing us on that Board.

Jeremiah: What we found out when we dug into this and began to read the press that came out of the conference is that the Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve System, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of the Treasury are all listed as member institutions representing the United States.

Ankerberg: Now this is new. This has never happened before. You’ve got a Board that has been established in 2009 that is supposed to control the global economy because we’ve had this banking crisis and it has gone across the world. How does this tie in to biblical prophecy?

Jeremiah: Well what’s happening is, we’re giving up our national sovereignty to get what we consider to be a greater gain. But whenever you do that the power of the nation is lost and little by little we are brought together as not national entities, but we become more and more a part of this global unity – which is leading us toward the leadership of the Antichrist in the Tribulation.

Ankerberg: Yeah. Like Hegel said, more and more are giving up their power to fewer and fewer who are controlling it.

Jeremiah: And you mentioned earlier that what’s happening globally is also happening nationally within our culture. That’s one of the things that really frightens me about what’s happening right now – that it seems like we’re giving up power to fewer and fewer people who are making more and more of our decisions. And that’s a little micro-picture of what’s happening globally.

Ankerberg: Alright, David, we’ve got the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and now this new Federal Stability Board. They’re all in place. What does this tell you where we’re going?

Jeremiah: Well, I believe that the return of Christ is near. And one of the things that makes me believe that in the financial realm is this: If the Antichrist were to appear on the scene today, John, he would have almost everything he would need at his fingertips to control world commerce. He’d have these three Boards already in place which are already connected to the nations of the world. And then we haven’t even had time to talk about all of the electronic things, the things that are happening in the internet, and how these nations are tied together, and wealth transfer. He would have all of that immediately. You say, well where is that going? It’s going toward what the Scripture says is going to happen when the False Prophet demands that if you are going to buy or sell you must have the mark – the mark of the beast. And if you don’t have that mark of the beast you will not be able to engage in any kind of personal commerce, and basically you’ll starve because you won’t be able to buy any food.

That control system, which seemed so fantastic to us when we read about it years ago, doesn’t seem like that anymore. It seems like we’re on the edge of that being able to happen. Now I don’t know if the Antichrist is coming in the next year or the year after that. I’m not looking for the Antichrist – I’m looking for the Christ. But when the Rapture comes that’s all going to happen. We now are at a place where it could happen.

Ankerberg: Yeah. The thing is that if the Rapture doesn’t need any signs to happen – it could happen at any moment. The Tribulation has signs attached to it. And the reason we know the Rapture is near is because we’re starting to see signs that this Tribulation period and the means of controlling it are, for the first time in history, in place. That’s what is really interesting about all of this. Now David in your book you have a very interesting section where you said there was a cartoon by Edward Sorel titled “The Four Horsemen of the Wall Street Apocalypse.”

Jeremiah: Yeah.

Ankerberg: I want you to talk about that in relationship to all the events we’re talking about.

Jeremiah: John, that’s a really interesting picture and it reminds us that future events do cast their shadows before them. He went into the motivations that drove people in the Wall Street collapse and he came up with four things. And he had them in this cartoon like they were horsemen with almost-like-demons riding on the top of them. He said in this cartoon that he was trying to get a message across of the heart attitudes that created the problems in Wall Street. He came up with four things: mendacity, which is an old-world word for deception, and stupidity, and arrogance, and greed.

Interestingly enough when you think through those, John, that’s a pretty good list. There’s lots of illustrations for all of them and I’ve told a lot of stories in the book about them. But there’s one I wanted to share today on this program. One of the illustrations that illustrates the stupidity of materialism is found in the story of Bernard Madoff’s investors. In the earlier story we talked about, in one of the earlier programs, we talked about how he scammed people out of $65 billion. But in reality there was only $20 billion invested with Madoff. The $65 billion is the amount of money the investors thought they were earning. When they got their statements each year, that’s how much they thought they would earn on their investment.

Here’s the stupidity: they didn’t earn any of that money, but they paid the U.S. government taxes on the money they didn’t earn – $45 million of zero-reality money, and the taxes were paid to the U.S. government. These people are so furious they’re trying to go back and see if the government will give some of it back to them. That shows you what happens when you get off the path and money becomes your god instead of a useful tool that God has given us.

Ankerberg: God has something to say about these four. What is it?

Jeremiah: Well you know what? Interestingly enough, John, in the New Testament when Paul was writing to Timothy he gave him some instruction that is very pertinent to our discussion today. In 1 Timothy 6 he said, “But you, oh man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, goodness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” If you go back to the verses before that, he’s talking about materialism. And you know that in the Bible we’re only told to run away from a few things. We’re to run away from adultery, fornication, from greed, and from idolatry. Isn’t it interesting that greed is among those four things? When you look at that you realize that most of us are not. We’re not capable of standing up against the materialistic pressure of the day if we don’t take a proactive stance.

That’s what I think Paul was telling Timothy: you need to take a stand against that and you need to stand against deception and stupidity and the things that are represented by that cartoon, and stand for the things that are godly and pursue righteousness. Don’t let this grab hold of your heart because we can stand here today and sit here and talk and be critical of what’s going on in the world and if we’re not careful, John, it goes on in the world of our own heart.

Ankerberg: Alright. This is great stuff, folks, and we’re just getting into this thing. Next week we’re going to talk about how the economic crisis in nations leads to greater government control and the consolidation of power in the hands of just a few. We’re seeing that; we’re going to talk more about this. This is an important topic in light of the crisis that’s taking place in the European Union right now with Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, and the shift toward big government right here in the United States. That’s what we’re going to talk about next week. You won’t want to miss this. Stick with us.