WND EXCLUSIVE
'OF COURSE' MARKET PLUNGE 'IS GOD'S JUDGMENT!'
Top names in Bible studies go public on Wall Street bleeding
Well-known Christian evangelist Pat Robertson was criticized for suggesting the “Black Monday” stock-market collapse was a “taste” of the “judgment of God” for national sins such as abortion
But another Christian leader is adding his voice to the controversy – and he says Robertson is right.
“Of course it is judgment!” says Mark Biltz, pastor of El Shaddai Ministries and the discoverer of the “blood moons” tetrad.
He argues the United States of America has courted God’s judgment with mistaken policies, especially with regard to Israel.
The final blood moon arrives next month, and Biltz noted he predicted “economic judgment” coming upon American in his book, “Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs.”
After observing two major stock-market declines earlier this century, on the day before Rosh Hashanah in 2001 and on the day before Rosh Hashanah in 2008, Biltz wrote: “Could the coming blood moons signal our third strike, and we will be out economically? We already see the signs of economic collapse coming, with America being so much in debt and our government in a comatose condition.”
Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged about 1,000 points. It did the same in the first five minutes of trading Monday but then rebounded slightly. On Tuesday, there was a bounce in the market, then it plunged again. The Dow is down about 13 percent now from its recent highs. That means trillions of dollars in stock and bond equity have vanished.
Religious teachers, analysts and international media outlets are warning of the possibility of American economic collapse, with some going to so far as to predict “economic apocalypse.” And while other Christian leaders shy away from specific predictions, they caution America may well be facing heavenly judgment.
Evangelist, filmmaker and author Joel Richardson told WND he would “never say that every negative or corrective cycle in the stock market is God’s judgment.”
However, the author of “When a Jew Rules the World: What the Bible Really Says About Israel in the Plan of God” argues Americans should not dismiss the larger reality of God intervening in the fate of nations.
He stated: “The fact is, God does indeed humble nations because He desires for them to repent of their sins and return to Him. There can be no question that many within the United States are increasingly rejecting God and His ways. No doubt, as a nation, we need to turn back to Him. Desperately so.”
Richardson also observes there is much that’s still good about the United States and the contributions the country makes to the international Christian community.
“We must also consider realities such as the fact that the American Christian church still accounts for roughly 80 percent of the funding for the global missions movement,” said Richardson. “If the United States suffers severe economic catastrophe, this will have a horrific effect on the Gospel going forth among the nations. I do not believe this is what the Lord desires.
“It’s important to say that we are discussing God humbling this nation out of His love and mercy toward us. He burns to see us return to Him. This is quite different, however, from that which some are suggesting, namely that God is actually going to destroy the United States. When I consider the story of God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, I am reminded that if only for 10 righteous people within that city, he would have held back judgment. So despite the increasing popularity of wickedness in the United States, there are still many righteous who do live here. And so I do not expect that we will ever suffer complete destruction.”
Richardson believes economic decline is a signal to American Christians to turn back to God.
“I think that the church should see this great drop in the Dow as a sign to pray,” he warned. “Let us pray that judgment doesn’t hit this nation.”
Pastor Carl Gallups, a former law-enforcement officer, talk-radio host and author of the upcoming book “Be Thou Prepared: Equipping the Church for Persecution and Times of Trouble,” believes hard times and even persecution are in store for American Christians. He thinks economic difficulties may only be the beginning.
“I am listening, along with the rest of America, to the various financial pundits insisting that what we are watching with the recent market percentage collapse is a ‘market correction’ or a ‘typical market drop’ for this time of year,” said Gallups.
“Those definitions may indeed prove to be true, in this particular case, as the next few weeks and months go by. But, I do know this – even if this particular financial disaster passes and/or corrects, America has a day of reckoning coming. And when it arrives, it will make what is happening now look like child’s play.”
When asked what he meant by that analysis, Gallups responded: “There is no way that we can teach our children – for several generations – that we originated from an accidental, random, cosmic explosion and that there is no need for God – and that the Bible is a simple collection of fairy tales and myths, without the Lord having His say in the matter. We are already paying the ‘reap what you sow’ curse, as we can see with the moral rot in our country. But there is worse yet to come if we don’t repent.”
Gallups continued: “How can we exterminate 55 million of our most precious national treasures and resources, our own children, and not expect God’s hand of judgment to eventually fall – and fall hard? How can we arrogantly usher in the Sodom and Gomorrah spirit of degradation and abomination; and then celebrate it, embrace it, glorify it, and codify it – while somehow expecting the author of life and marriage to remain silent?”
Pat Robertson’s comments were similar, as the genial host of the “The 700 Club” told his audience: “Here in America, we have been complicit in terminating the lives of in excess of 50 million precious unborn children and don’t you think Almighty God is going to hold us accountable for all that? We will pay dearly as a nation for this thing going on.”
Gallups also believes the United States is testing the Almighty’s patience.
“My understanding of the Lord from His Word is that He is merciful and slow to anger, but I also understand that He is a God of justice and righteousness – and that He will not be mocked,” warned Gallups. “We have pushed His mercy beyond anything I could have imagined – and we’re still pushing. I have a feeling that His patience won’t last much longer.
“I am not a ‘doomsday’ announcer by nature. But, I see the prophetic times in which we are living. I see the way we are turning from God and literally running in the other direction away from Him. Israel did the same thing and they eventually paid with their national sovereignty and centuries of horrific captivity in the hands of pagan nations. And it wasn’t as if God did not warn them of the judgment that would befall them if they did not repent. It seems to many biblical scholars as though we are running in the same path of that certain judgment.”
Only days before, WND reported that the state media of Russia had been warning of what it called America’s “economic apocalypse.”
The Russian news service Sputnik, an agency launched by Russia’s state-owned Rossiya Segodnya in 2014 to “target global audiences with its non-mainstream take on world events,” was predicting doom for the American economy in coming weeks.
In a recent article, Sputnik cited several economists warning of catastrophe.
It continued: “Most of the experts agree that all the optimistic data like record earnings on Wall Street and a surging dollar is just disguising fundamental cracks, and the collapse of historic proportions will happen within few months, starting in the U.S.
“No wonder such forecasts, and there are dozens from professional economists, leave U.S. and the world dizzy and shivering in fear and helplessness, just what one would probably feel if the actual apocalypse was coming.”
And author and Bible teacher Jonathan Cahn in a message posted to YouTube called for a period of national prayer and repentance leading up to the pivotal month of September.
He also issued a new warning about a “desecration” that often precedes judgment and is already present in American society. He calls for Christians to prepare for persecution and get ready to stand for God in a coming period of strife that will increasingly be devoid of “gray areas” or middle ground.
In the video, he says his main theme continues to be that of judgment visiting America. This will bring a “shaking” in the financial and economic realms. These tremors may spread beyond the economic realm.
The harbingers of coming judgment that Cahn first wrote about in 2012 in his New York Times-best-seller “The Harbinger” and featured in the acclaimed film “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” have continued long past the writing of that story, he said. The Tree of Hope, a spruce or cedar that in the Bible symbolizes a nation’s strength, was planted at Ground Zero in New York following Sept. 11, but it withered and died. It was finally uprooted on Passover 2014.
When the new office tower built to replace the Twin Towers opened, the first tenants overrun by an infestation of vermin.
But one of the most critical harbingers for America is its relationship with Israel, Cahn said.
“The relations between America and Israel are at its worst. This is a dangerous sign for America. America is now pressing for a deal that Israel says will put Israel in danger. That is also ominous,” Cahn said. “All these things: Israel, the harbingers, the apostasy, the Shemitah, all these things are converging, and we need to take heed now.”
He said he gave dates in his book “The Mystery of the Shemitah” to show that God often works, especially in economic matters, according to the seven-year cycle given to Moses as Mount Sinai and recorded in Deuteronomy.
While this is something “to be aware of the signs of the times,” the bigger issue for America is that judgment is imminent. The U.S. clearly “crossed a line,” he said, with the Supreme Court decisions on abortion, removing prayer from schools and most recently in its arrogant redefinition of the God-given covenant of marriage.
“The first caution is, God doesn’t have to do anything. He is sovereign. He doesn’t have to work according to our understanding, He is beyond our understanding. Nothing has to happen in September or the autumn. It could be very uneventful,” Cahn said. “And if nothing happens, well then, what will we do? We will praise God, we will be bold for the Lord, we will spread the gospel, we will stand as witnesses for God and we will glorify His name.”
Watch Jonathan Cahn’s 18-minute YouTube message in its entirety below:
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/of-course-market-plunge-is-gods-judgment/#XIz7Ud1g9Lbgql3k.99My comments: "The Wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven agaisnt ALL the godlessness and Wickedness of men who Suppress the TRUTH by their Wickedness, since what may be known about God is PLAIN to them, because God has made it PLAIN to them." (Romans 1:18, 19)
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