November-December 2008

  1. financiers tremble
  2. proper self-esteem
  3. Poem—"pride goeth before destruction"
  4. the place usurped by santa claus
  5. december 25
  6. expulsion from eden
  7. Letters to the Editor and publications
  8. Announcements
  9. back page—thanksgiving—George Washington's proclamation

IN THESE TROUBLED DAYS, and probably for the first time ever, thinking people are puzzled and apprehensive on a truly universal scale as the prospect of a failure and collapse of our world order looms like a dark specter before their minds. In the history of nations we read that, when their terms of existence became unacceptable, men sought and usually found alternatives. It was assumed that alternatives were there for the finding. At worst, when a nation or even an empire weakened and crumbled to anarchic decay, peoples from without would move in and take over. However unpalatable to some, there were alternatives and with them hope in some way.

The puzzling, frightening thought which continually and ever more insistently asserts itself today is that the world of our times is fast running out—or has already run out—of alternatives. There are now no “peoples from without” to look to, since all nations are being drawn into a “one world” all enveloping situation by such influences as the advance of modern technology, the world-wide flow of information and communication, and the shift for corporate business and financial interest from a national basis to a global scale. Weapons of mass destruction proliferate. Whole populations are disturbed, no longer able to control affairs within their own national boundaries. They feel increasingly exposed to menacing situations and the effects of unmanageable crises of many kinds which, in recent years, have spilled out across traditional borders to encompass the whole world.

Many of the experts who study threats to our world order are sounding dire warnings. We hear their fears of world-wide economic collapse, ecological disaster, famine, epidemic disease, devastation of environmental effects of modern weaponry, and the reaction to all of these in terms of social and political turmoil. There is even—as voiced by science—the potential for universal annihilation and planetary devastation. Such things, it is believed, could well be the penalty for failing to seek an alternative in Christ, as a more viable world order. But so vast, complex and intractable are the problems now facing humanity, that here in what is sometimes dubbed “the brain age,” none of these—the world’s wisest men and women— can find a universally acceptable, workable alternative, and factions among them are even unsure that there is one. Fear begins to stalk the earth.

On this subject we wish to consider the Bible text of Hebrews 12: 26, 27, which will be the basis for our comments: “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” (v. 27) “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, “as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.”

It will probably be advantageous to comment on these verses, before making direct application to the conditions coming on our world and its society. The shaking seems to be a manifestation of Divine displeasure with Satan’s present rulership, as established in the various elements of man-made human society, that are based on sin, error, injustice and greed (John 12: 31). These are the things that will not stand under the light of this day and are in the process of being removed—by the great Time of Trouble that is now working in the earth, under the Lord’s direction. This work will eventually overthrow the wrong and establish the right, in preparation for the setting-up of Christ’s Kingdom of righteousness—during the Millennial Age. This text applies to our day and is describing a tearing down that is now in progress, with the view of removing all unrighteous things that are shakable, whether they be in human society’s religious sphere (ecclesiastical heavens) or of earth’s secular aspects (governmental, industrial, and financial) control.

BANK SECURITIES ARE BEING SHAKEN

Everything false, bogus, and inequitable will be shaken. In financial parlance this is equivalent to saying that the “water” will be squeezed out of all the stocks and bonds. Now, in the opening of the New Dispensation, when everything is being “shaken,” we are to expect that all such stocks and bonds will be shaken in value until everything like dishonesty and inequity shall have been shaken out.

One hundred and thirty-six years ago the world’s great bankers and financiers concluded that it would be to their interest to demonetize silver and have only a gold standard. This dually accomplished what they foresaw and intended; it curtailed the world’s monetary supply and enabled the bankers the better to control the entire situation throughout the world. By an elaborate banking system (valuable in some respects), it made each gold dollar multiply itself and do the work of five dollars or ten dollars, assisted by bank checks and drafts. Thus the profits of the larger banks increased amazingly by reason of higher discount and interest charges, making them rich at the public expense.

The public, of course, acquiesced to the law demonetizing silver and making gold the single standard. But they did it under misapprehension, because they believed the banker’s tale that this was really the best thing for the people, and not merely a measure in the interest of the banker and at the expense of the people. It is perhaps but fair to say that less than one-half of the bankers understood the philosophy of the matter; the others were guided by the wealthier and more astute, who did fully understand.

The result has been great profits to the bankers, and great power; for without them, corporation stocks and bonds could not be handled as efficiently. The bankers took over large issues of industrial stocks and bonds, by what is known as the underwriting process. They were capable sales agents for the bonds at a good round percentage of profit, advancing money on the bonds and holding them for sale to the public.

THE DAY OF RECKONING

Now we see fulfilled the Scripture declaration: “He takes the wise in their own craftiness” (Job 5: 13). How so, do you ask? The reply is that the great banks have been well filled with these bonds and stocks on which they had hoped to make large profits; but which, on the contrary, they are now able to sell only limitedly. These stocks and bonds reckoned in as part of the banks’ assets show them to be wealthy, with immense surpluses; but now that the “water” is taken out of these stocks and bonds it will show an immense shrinkage in the resources of these banks. They will become suddenly poor without actually losing a cent, by reason of the market value of their securities falling.

This fact is realized by all banks. They realize that, if the Day of Reckoning has come, and their holdings—their securities—are to be reckoned at their actual value, it will mean that, instead of large resources and surpluses, some of the richest banks have become insolvent and the governments have been called upon to bail them out. This will be difficult, for the rich men of the world have their capital invested similarly, and the reaction will be bound to unfavorably affect all the great commercial enterprises of the world. As all went well, amazingly well, for the bankers and the wealthy by reason of the demonetization of silver, so when the Day of Reckoning shall have fully dawned, things will go especially hard with these same people. And, although the stoppage and the reconstruction will involve the whole world, poor and rich alike, nevertheless in many respects the rich will feel the pressure most.

The liquidating process has been in process for nearly a century with World War phase I and the great depression of 1929 setting the platform for the further weakening of the nations. We are now beyond that time and have passed through World War phase II, numerous smaller conflicts such as Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. As some of the railroads were in financial difficulty following World War I leading into the depression of ’29 so have their progeny, the world’s airlines, been floundering on the brink of insolvency with some of them folding their wings and calling it quits. Now the transportation corporations and all companies, because of increased fuel prices and even individual home owners are being pushed to the brink. These are now joined by the large banks and some insurance companies due to the storm disasters; adding to the problem have been large and small banking institutions in unwise loans. They have been caught with thousands of home mortgages going into default. This condition has not only hit here in America but has enveloped the global economy. The question is asked, who is paying for all this financial bail-out? It is the taxpayer who holds the bag. With these transactions the “water squeezing” is leaving the financial picture of society in a very dubious position and will undoubtedly accomplish their thorough “shaking.” But meantime the wars, not waiting for the more gradual processes of the law and the ordinary deteriorating business climate, have brought the financial world to a crisis. The nations of the world are being shaken. The casualties of the wars have amounted to many millions of human beings, and trillions of dollars of debt. Financial values are greatly impaired, as are also national credits. The thing needed is solid money backing, as in every war, the precious metals have practically disappeared from all nations. Their home securities will not be salable for cash, and a general attempt will be made to sell American securities, stocks, and bonds, etc. But who will buy these? America will be practically the only market for them, and as we have already seen, American banks and bankers are loaded down—heavily.

When we learn the immense amount of these American shares and bonds held mostly in European and Asian banks and others, we need not wonder that American bankers pale at the thought of their being dumped upon the American market. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board as of July 2008 the grand total of American securities held by foreign entities is 2,676.4 billions of dollars. If but a fraction of these be diversified to realize solid payment, it would mean an avalanche—a financial deluge. American banks, already overloaded with these “securities,” cannot purchase all; hence prices would tumble and wrecks follow.

In view of these matters, is it any wonder that American bankers fear to see the stock exchanges open for business? The U.S. and other governments have stepped into the picture and are working to bolster the world’s financial markets. The government at home has submitted over seven hundred and eighty-five billions of dollars here in the U.S. in order to keep the ship afloat for a time. The face value of the stock market has been preserved temporarily and thereby the banks and bankers have been permitted to continue counting these fictitious prices.

EFFECT OF SILVER DEMONETIZATION

Had silver not been demonetized, bankers would not have had as easy a time as they have enjoyed for over 135 years, in cornering the financial market, and getting large rates of interest and premiums—but neither would they be in the same distress at the present time, for the world would have had twice as much financial backing

with which to do its business. When we consider that the gold coin of the world is not sufficient for paying the interest of the national debts, we perceive how the banking institutions have had the people, figuratively, by the throat, and now are being choked themselves by their own device. The interest upon the debts cannot be paid in gold, because there is not enough of it to pay the interest. Hence the only thing remaining to be done is to issue more bonds, payable In God We Trust. Now that nobody will buy the bonds, what is to be done? Interest on foreign holdings of American “securities,” at a percentage per annum, means drainage of one hundred and seven billions of dollars every year, needed to pay that interest. Now we seem to be coming to a dead stop through these wars, weather-related calamities and unwise loans and expenditures. The wheels of finance which worked so favorably for the bankers in the past are turning in the opposite direction and lacerating them financially.

Apparently our financial “house of cards” is trembling and about to fall. Various expediencies are being tried by the governments and the ablest financiers of the world. We might hope that their skill would accomplish the end they desire and save the present financial institutions— from being “shaken” to pieces. But, if we are right in our understanding of the Scriptures, if the great Day of Settlement has come, in which all the shakable things are to be shaken and nothing remains, except that which cannot be shaken, then we may be sure that all human effort will fail, and that the greatest of all crashes of a financial kind that has ever happened—will eventually take place. But despite these dark clouds, God has provided a light at the end of the tunnel.

GOLD IN SHORT SUPPLY

It will be noticed that we are saying nothing new—that what we have just said has been stated in part, at least, by many, and published in the media worldwide. We are merely bringing together these things, and showing their relationship to the testimony of the Bible, that we are now in the great day of “shaking.” To some this will be considered a fanatical pessimism, because the vast majority of people have absolutely no confidence in the Scriptures. Nevertheless, when these things shall come to pass in the very near future, some may be helped to an understanding of the true situation, to a recognition of the fact that the “shaking” upon the nations financially, socially, politically and religiously is of the Lord and not accidental. Under normal conditions American business should be prospering as never before. But with the gold standard in Europe and in America, there is an insufficiency of solid money and the business of the entire world is stagnated. The world’s needs and wants are as great as ever, but it has not the financial backing wherewith to purchase. The demonetization of silver seems to be referred to by the Prophet Ezekiel (7: 19) saying: “They shall cast their silver into the street,” treat it as a commodity and not as money. The Prophet then tells how gold will become scarce and eventually be completely withdrawn from society as the Hebrew text implies “Their gold shall be removed.” Therefore, neither silver nor gold is available to deliver in this day of the LORD’S wrath.

Corporation magnates, and the bankers who hold their securities, perceive that if it is difficult to raise money for the meeting of the interest on stocks and bonds, it will be even more difficult to issue new bonds to replace maturing ones, no matter how sound and well managed they may be. Is it any wonder that the trepidation of the financial and political princes of the earth is great, as they look into the future? Their well-grounded fears were prophesied by our Savior as one of the signs of this present time: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things coming upon the earth”—the social order, and because of the shaking of the “heavens,” the ecclesiastical systems and the “earth,” the secular powers (Luke 21: 26).

BE WISE YOU RULERS!

“Be instructed . . . you judges of the earth” (Psa. 2: 10) Would that the cultured and influential princes of earth could take the proper view of the situation and realize the fallacy of their counsels, the impossibility of averting the great changes which are upon us by reason of the time having come for Messiah to take to Himself His great power and reign! Could the wise of earth realize the situation and fully submit themselves to the Divine requirements of absolute justice and truth. What a blessing it would be to the world! If these princes would turn their attention, from the grasping of power and greed for money, to the enlightenment and uplifting of the people, they would become ministers of the New Dispensation, which would be ushered in with rejoicing. But the Lord informs us that this will not be the case, and that as a result, Messiah’s Kingdom is now ushered in by a “Time of Trouble such as was not since there was a nation” (Daniel 12: 1).

THE GLORIOUS OUTCOME

“He calms the storm so that its waves are still. Then are they glad because they are quiet; so He guides them to their desired haven,. . . Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD” (Psa.107: 29, 30, 43).

Psalms 107 seems to be prophetic, tracing to a considerable degree the experiences of the people of God throughout this Christian Age. It may be applied to the Church and also in a world-wide international way. The cause of all the trouble in the world is sin. God in His wisdom has arranged in His plan for the removal of sin and its effects. He will permit sin to bring storms and difficulties of life to both classes of the human race for their correction; to be tossed about, buffeted and thereby learn to appreciate the sacrifice that our Savior made, whom God has provided to be the Great Deliverer of the Elect and eventually of the world. The whole matter has been Divinely arranged to have Christ step forth with His Church, in power and supreme authority, to command all the storms to cease and bring order out of confusion. Yet this must wait for the Divinely appointed time. During this age the Elect has been selected, and the storms and difficulties of life have been valuable to them in developing and refining their characters in preparation for the kingdom honors, privileges and opportunities in the heavenly realm. They will be a great help to the world, who will be seeking everlasting life on the human plane during Christ’s 1,000 year reign (Rev. 20: 4).

The establishment of the New Covenant at the start of the Millennial Age will see the Ancient and Youthful Worthies, as the earthly representatives of Christ and the Church, taking the oversight of the instruction of the world and ruling in human affairs. This will be after the Messiah has commanded, “Peace to the angry nations and bidden the raging billows be calm.” Whoever has gained wisdom and has observed the lovingkindness of the Lord, can see a light at the end of the trouble, even though for a short space, His righteous sword is unsheathed for the punishment of iniquity and the overthrow of Satan’s evil empire.