The Judgment of Thunder – Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

February 12, 2011

We’re going to continue with the series entitled The Judgment of Thunder.  Last Sabbath we looked at how Thunders have to do with judgment and how the attitudes of a large number of people will begin to be changed by these Thunders, along with the Trumpets as we continue going forward.  And I hope we understand more and more just what it takes for people to come to repentance, especially if you understand what God is doing.  The more we see what God is doing and the process He’s going through of bringing mankind to what He’s going to bring them to, to a point of humility, meekness, so He can work with them.  Man has to go through a lot!  It takes a lot to humble mankind, but even at that very few compared to the population of the earth are really going to repent.

So, it’s really an incredible thing what we’re going through because each time something happens, if you look at the scattered nations of Israel and where they are, when they’re humbled does that slow down the rest?  No, they’re filled with pride because now they’re going to step in and fill the vacuum.  And so you have problems with Europe now and then Asia doing what they do; and the reality is not until the very last day is everything addressed to bring mankind to humility.  It’s an awesome thing to understand the stubbornness of human nature!  And we, of all people, should be able to understand that, our human nature.  The longer you’re in God’s Church, the more converted you become in this way of life, the more you’ve had to address your carnal selfish nature!  And it’s not fun!

It’s not fun to see what human beings are like; and yet that teaches us a great deal because it shows us the need for God’s spirit in our lives, yes, first of all to make those changes, but more than that – we can’t stay this way.  We can’t stay in these bodies.  As long as you’re in a human body you’re going to have selfishness and you’re going to have that battle to fight and so yes, you can bring it into subjection, or strive to bring it into subjection all of your life, which is what we do.  We strive to do that, and realize how short we are or how short we fall in that, because we never can bring it completely into subjection; but that’s what God has called us to do, to fight the fight and to bring it into subjection.  And so we willingly choose to do that, we desire to do that with all of our being...at least as a whole we do, and as we grow, and the more in maturity spiritually we grow, the more we do that.

And so we come to a greater yearning.  I have come to a very great yearning – I understand far more deeply what Paul had to say when he was talking about the desire to be out of this body.  And the more you grow the more you understand and comprehend that, that this isn’t what life is all about.  When we’re younger it’s so difficult sometimes to grasp and comprehend, “How could anyone ever think that way?!  ...because I haven’t done this or I haven’t done that.  I haven’t had a family!  I haven’t had children!  I haven’t had grandchildren!”  On and on it goes, “I haven’t experienced these different things ahead to experience.”  You learn after a time it’s not what it’s all about, it’s about something far greater that God has as a plan that’s far richer and far more meaningful; far, far, far more valuable!  And so we yearn for God’s Kingdom more and more and more.

Last Sabbath we reviewed the second Thunder, which is the increasing destruction generated by earthquakes.  And then we reviewed the fourth Thunder which is global economic upheaval.  And I hope you hear it more and more and more.  And candidly, things are starting to overlap each other in a very powerful way now.  It’s not only Thunder out there – that’s how much closer a giant storm is coming and things having to do with the Trumpets and things having to do with the end-time.  And as I’ve always mentioned here and in the book as well that I read from last Sabbath, even the Thunders continue all the way to the end.

So we covered how that the only way for mankind to be humbled, as I’ve already mentioned in part here, is for the catastrophic events that must yet come to pass, otherwise mankind simply becomes more embedded in his own stubborn pride.  That’s what’s happening today with the economy here in the United States, and with the stock market.  People are more deeply entrenched now in their stubborn pride.  It’s an amazing thing that’s taking place here!  It’s brought that more to the surface than it was in the past; and when there was a point in time when there was fear, that’s been replaced now.

It’s very much like what happened to Pharaoh.  It’s is exactly, spiritually, like what happened to Pharaoh; when a plague came and he was humbled a teeny bit, as soon as that plague was gone what happened?  He became more hardened, and that’s exactly what’s happened in the world and in this country especially, today. And so it takes a lot to free mankind, takes a lot to free mankind from a system of Babylon and give them true freedom, the Kingdom of God, to rule the earth.  That’s where we are in time.  Those are the very things that are taking place and we are witness of those events that are crammed into a small space of time that have happened for the past 6,000 years with mankind; and we’re all witness of that in what we’re experiencing, what we’re seeing unfold, and what is coming to pass.

Let’s return today to Revelation 18 and read again a couple of the verses before we continue with the rest of the chapter there.  I want to read some of this again because, even this past week, the more this comes to life the more awesome it becomes - the difference between Jerusalem and Babylon.  And that is the comparison that we need to make.  Satan’s world/God’s world.  It’s that kind of a difference that we’re looking at here – the fall of Babylon.

And there are some misconceptions that have come from Traditional Christianity that we have held onto that are going to be expounded upon, that God is giving, to help us to understand in a greater way, a better way, exactly what He’s talking about in Revelation.  It is not just the Catholic Church, okay?  It’s not just about the Catholic Church!  It’s far greater than that when it talks about the great whore, the mother of the harlots of the earth – it’s far, far greater than that and we’ll discuss that as we go along.

So picking it up again in Revelation 18:10 - Standing afar off for fear of her torment, said, Woe, woe, and as I mentioned, that’s an expression of mourning!  It’s deep-felt, of something that they see disappearing, being taken away from them that they’re mourning over.  They truly are mourning for this system that’s being taken away - that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour has your judgment come.  Everything that’s happening with the Thunders, with the Trumpets, everything is about judgment and the closer it gets to the end the greater the judgment in the sense of what God is doing on this earth.

It astounds me in the last few years here of how God has blessed us to see in a greater way when He talks about judgment; so many places in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament of things that have been taken in a different way but that actually has to do with this time of judgment; this time of judgment, not the Great White Throne!  That’s a time of opportunity!  ...and yet we have looked at that as a sense of condemnation, that the Bible, when it’s talking about judgment and so forth that so often that’s the time it’s talking about.  NO IT’S NOT!  That is great opportunity for the masses of the earth to repent, to have an opportunity to drink in of God’s way of life, to become converted, to receive of God’s spirit, the impregnation of God’s spirit.  It’s a great opportunity!  Yes, there’ll be some judgment that comes at the end, as there has been before that, the previous 7,100 years.

But so much of judgment in the Bible is about the time before God’s Kingdom comes, before the Messiah comes, before God brings that period of time.  And that judgment is what’s coming at this time; as much as what happened in the time of the flood.  That was great judgment upon the earth!  This is magnified many times over with what God is bringing! And so much of the Bible that talks about judgment is about what’s getting ready to take place.  Awesome when you understand those things and begin to see those scriptures in that light; in the Bible the Word of God comes alive more and more and more as it has been for so long for us.  Every year that goes by it comes alive more and more and more.

Verse 11 - And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn for her; for Babylon!  The ‘merchants’!  It’s an incredible story that’s being told here because you have to know where all that came from in the first place and what ‘they’ began to do and what ‘they’ began to live and what ‘they’ began to experience in their lives... the one who is the first in carrying his merchandise, his goods, his trafficking to the world, to mankind – his system, his way, his religion, his ideas, his so called ‘freedom’.  Incredible!  And so the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her: for no man will buy of their merchandise any more: it isn’t about physical goods only!  That’s only a small thing to learn a bigger picture of something that God is doing here and what this all represents.

See, we think about commerce and so forth and can think it’s only about commerce and it’s only about people trading; and yes, the stock market and all the stuff we see in the economy and currencies in the world and all the struggle that goes back and forth...that’s a part of it that pictures it in part. But it’s far greater than that and far deeper than that, it truly is, because it’s about the end of one system and the beginning of a new system – God’s – from top to bottom, whether it have to do with government, religion, economy, it doesn’t matter!  It’s everything!  Babylon is about everything; a way of thinking, a way of life, an attitude – just as much as Jerusalem is about a way of a life and about an attitude and a way of thinking that’s diametrically opposite of the way of Satan.  Powerful!

Verse 12 - The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls... it goes on listing all the physical things that man tends to value and esteem.  But it’s what it pictures that’s deeper – what man values.  Man values the wrong system, the wrong way, the wrong peace.  Man’s sense of freedom and peace is different from what God offers; because mankind has bought into, if you will, a different way and it’s the way of incredible selfishness and pride and ego and arrogance against God.  Incredible!  And so all these physical things are mentioned that man tends to value and esteem rather than what God says we should value.

Verse 15 - The merchants of these things, Greek word here for ‘the merchants’ when it’s talking about this – it’s kind of interesting.  That’s why I kind of ‘tongue in cheek’ said something here last week about the QE2, talked about a ship.  There’s this ship, the QE2 as well, Queen Elizabeth II; and was talking about that a little bit this morning.  Ships can sink.  And it’s interesting the analogies that are given here of some of the things because this word has to do with meaning ‘a passenger on board a ship’.  That’s where it comes from, this word having to do with ‘merchants’; and it’s their ship and how their system Babylon is conveyed, in other words this system that is practiced and holds up Babylon.  That’s what it’s all about and it’s going to sink, incredibly so!

So again, the merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, it’s not just a matter of economy, it’s not just a matter of physical things we see on this earth and physical riches. That’s a part of it and that pictures it, but it’s far more than that...were made rich by her, shall stand...the more people have gained – politics, power, wealth, esteem, whatever it is in life… I don’t care if you look at Hollywood, I don’t care if you look at movie stars and singers, the more they have received, the more they’re lifted up by those things, the greater the fall, the more difficult it is to give her up, to give up Babylon.  They mourn for what they have received on this earth.

And so it says, which were made rich by her, stand afar off for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen; See, even in God’s Church sometimes it’s difficult for people to grasp and comprehend, “Well, what will the music be like?  You mean TV is going to all be taken away?  Movies?  What are we going to do?”  Well, any kind of entertainment is going to be different, as a whole, obviously by far, than what it is today – okay?  Music will be far different from what it is today.  So will recreation and many of the things we have.  But our minds are so twisted and so perverted sometimes in human life that we can’t grasp something that’s better!  We’re so infected from the top to the bottom in our minds and in life and society out here that it’s hard to think differently, it truly is.  So much of what’s on the internet, the way it’s used, is going to be mightily changed so it can’t be misused like it is today!  And that comes through education, doesn’t it?  Of God’s way of life, of how to live life – and a desire then to do those things that are right and good that bring real happiness.  Sometimes we get this concept in our mind that it’s going to be like... I don’t know if I ought to say it...some who’ve seen those shows, ‘Young Ambassadors’.  That’s great for young children, but that’s not what all entertainment is about – okay?  And everything won’t be like that because that’s not fully balanced either – to a point – those of you who are older.  There’s balance, soundness in things and there’s beauty in balance.

And so again, saying Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! Because they see what’s beautiful to them in their eyes, what they esteem and value that’s different; a culture.  There is a strong culture today in businesses, in entertainment in businesses, especially in the entertainment community and so forth of a way of life where they put their head down to snuff up the white stuff in their nostrils.  And they can’t imagine anything different from that!  They can’t imagine a world different from that, from the abuse of alcohol and drugs and so forth.  They really can’t imagine a different life.  And for them it’s a horrifying thing and they fight it with all their being!  They mock it!  They mock at being clean!  Sick, sick world we live in!

Schools out here...you can go to almost any school out here wherever you are and find drugs and marijuana and whatever – high school kids and younger!  It’s everywhere!  Incredible world we live in; sick, perverted!  And some can’t imagine a world without it! Sick, sick, sick!  I hope you’re getting more and more sick of this world and its ways; because if you’re not something’s wrong with you. Something is wrong with you in your mind, in your thinking!

Verse 17 - For in one hour such great riches have come to nothing.  We will not have the kind of problems we have right now; and people panicking and worrying.  Is it the NFL?  What do they call it?  A shut-out?  Shutdown?  Lock out?  I think shutdown is better.   These people that receive millions and millions and millions of dollars for a sport...and people who go nuts...and some of us drink into that sometimes.  It’s fine to watch things, it’s fine to get excited about certain things, but people go too far!  There’s a balance there...and I don’t even want to go into it...have people get upset at me because I’ve made comment about how some wear a team’s name across their shirt– and it’s fine to wear it.  If you love a team and you want to wear their name – fine, go ahead, there’s nothing wrong with that.

For in one hour such great riches has come to nothing; And every shipmaster, I like the analogy it gives here because it’s given for a reason; the merchandise that began a long time ago on this earth, under Solomon especially, and before him.  But he was lauded mightily for things that happened in transporting, because when you can start doing something of that nature and it brings people together in different parts of the earth and then it grew and grew, and then the Vikings and Columbus and different ones that came over here.  It’s become a way of great commerce in the world until finally the airplane came along and that has speeded up the process.  So whether it be shipping or whether it be a matter of ways of keeping nations together in a distorted way, in a perverted way – that’s what’s happened on the earth.

And so the example that’s given here of one of ‘shipmasters’.  It’s not about ‘shipmasters’, it’s not talking about people who are in these different ports and they’re the ones that are upset, they’re the only ones in the world that are upset about Babylon.  “It’s just the shipmaster’s the shipbuilders and the ones who have cargo and their money invested in that.  It’s just about them.”  This isn’t about that! This is given as an example to learn something from, an analogy of something that we can grow and understand what this means for the world, of how people transport and something that’s representative of that, on the waters – that have another meaning as we’re going to see here in a little bit.  It’s about peoples and nations and languages and all the interactions they have and why they have it and how it’s used.  And today is the epitome of it all with technology as we have it.

...And every shipmaster and all the company of ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried; now this is everyone in the world who is a part of this, and the whole world is a part of this, and so different ones mourn when it comes their turn.  Scattered nations of Israel first, then Europe and Asia last.  And all those who get caught in the middle through the war that follows for the short period of time that it’ll exist; in Africa and South America and different parts of Asia, India, different nations around the world that are going to suffer mightily when it comes their way; then they mourn for what’s been taken away.

And they cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, because you see, this is bringing us all the way up to (do you remember the context and the timing?) the last day, the final day when God just destroys it all.  Because this time God the Father, He does the destroying; God Almighty does.  The seven last Plagues, it’s about what God Almighty does to this earth and there is more destruction in one day.  There may be more destruction in one day than all the previous time put together.  It’s the 3rd Woe, the last Woe.  Each one becomes greater and more intense, more powerful.  And God’s showing His great might on the earth bringing man to fear, to be humbled.  And those who won’t? ...have to wait a thousand years anyway.  There are people who have to wait a thousand years no matter what.

So, they cry when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city was like unto this great city!  What are we going to do now?  What are we going to have?  What can be built?  What can be built out of all this rubble?  And God’s going to show mankind what can be built.  And cast dust upon their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Woe, woe, that great city, wherein all were made rich who had ships in the sea by reason of her wealth! For in one hour she has been desolate.

Verse 20 - it goes on to say, Heaven, rejoice over her, and the holy apostles and prophets; for God has avenged you on her. 6,000 years of what God’s people have gone through!  Finally! And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence, Greek word here has to do with ‘being swift, to rush, as to swift and quick destruction’, that’s what it’s talking about here, making it clear that it’s a very swift and rapid thing that God does here.  Thus with violence, shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

Then continuing on, verse 22 - And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and the trumpeters... it’s amazing here, there’s a scripture we’re going to read later that are in other places that totally parallel all this given in Revelation, things that God gave in the Old Testament a long time ago about some of the same things written in Revelation here.  Revelation just expounds upon it and shows the exact timing of when these things take place as a whole.

...trumpeters shall no more be heard in her at all; and no craftsman, in whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in you; and the sound of the millstone shall be heard no more in you at all;  So whatever made this all work, none of it’s going to be there anymore.  Why?  Because God’s Government  is coming.  There will be no more religions like there are today on the earth, no more false teachings on the earth, no more false teachers on the earth like there are today, no more politicians, no more rulers and despots like there are today taking advantage of people for their own advantage, their selfish means, country against country, people against people.

Verse 23 - And not the slightest light of a candle shall be anymore in you; not the slightest light, in other words, of what you are, what you represent; and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more at all in you: for your merchants were the great men of the earth; for by your sorceries... interesting word here ‘pharmakeia’ – drugs.  The way people are drugged in their thinking about what they think they have.  That’s the analogy that’s given here of what mankind is like when they have taken in of this false system, of what Satan has done to the world; ‘pharmakeia’.  You’ve been drugged, your mind is distorted, you’re not thinking clearly.  People who are under the influence of drugs, the stronger that influence the more drugged the mind is, the more unsound and unclear – especially of this way of life, of God’s way of life.  They can’t even begin to see it!  And God says that’s the way mankind is; the more you drink in of it, the more distorted the mind is.  ...for by your sorceries/pharmakeia, word for drugs, were all nations deceived.  And who does the deceiving?  ...all nations were deceived, led astray, that’s what it means here. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all who were slain upon the earth; of God’s people, that’s what it’s talking about – because the world has always rejected God.  Mankind always has rejected God’s way of life.

We’re going to take a little time to discuss the fourth Thunder a little bit more here, about global economic upheaval that continues to intensify.  It’s good to be abreast of these conditions, what’s going on, because I’ll tell you what, it is so heated up out there.  It’s incredible what’s taking place, what’s just jumping out powerfully!

Here’s an article that I know a lot of you received already, ‘Stansberry Report’; and this goes clear back into December of last year, but I want to read a lot of this to you.  I’m going to take the time to do it because it’s very educational.  I’m not going to read the whole thing, it’s very long, and a lot of you already have it; but you can learn a lot from this, about how things work, and also you can see human nature, of how mankind... this is an example I’ve given before, about how that even in the midst of all that they see coming, that is possibly going to destroy even this country and its entire system, they believe they’re going to come out of it.  “You can be prepared.”  Because they don’t understand.  They don’t comprehend – no, this is the end, there’s not going to be any coming out of this, this isn’t the 1930’s or some other period of time and you’re going to come out on top. Like Egypt right now and something else is going to emerge out of this and you can be on top on the other side of this, or whatever.

He says....

[1] A little over ten years ago I founded Stansberry & Associates Investment Research. It has become one of the largest and most recognized investment research companies in the world, serving hundreds of thousands of subscribers in more than 120 countries.

You may know of our firm because of the work we did over the last several years – helping investors avoid the big disasters associated with Wall Street's collapse.

We warned investors to avoid Fannie and Freddie, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and General Motors and dozens of other companies that have since collapsed. We even helped our subscribers find opportunities to profit....

That’s the way it always is, isn’t it?  “Hey, something’s going to go down; you can profit.”  Is that God’s way?  No, it’s not.  That’s sick!  You can take advantage of someone else’s destruction?  Incredible!  Anyway, that’s the way the world is today.  Whether it’s going up or coming down, if you know what to do you can make money out of it.

We even helped our subscribers find opportunities to profit from these moves by shorting stocks....

Oh, that’s a wonderful thing to have in your economy and the nation!  There won’t be any shorting stocks in the future.  Hmm, won’t even be any stocks.

...and buying put options. To my knowledge, no other research firm in the world can match our record of correctly predicting the catastrophe that occurred in 2008.

But that's not why I created this letter.

I reference our success and experience with Wall Street's latest crisis because we believe there is an even bigger crisis lurking – something that will shake the very foundation of America.

And that is why I've spent a significant amount of time and money in the past few months preparing this letter.

In short, I want to talk about a specific event that will take place in America's very near future... which could actually bring our country and our way of life to a grinding halt.

It’s amazing what people can see, to a point.  It’s incredible!

This looming crisis is related to the financial crisis of 2008... but it is infinitely more dangerous, as I'll explain in this letter.

As this problem comes to a head, I expect there to be riots in the streets... arrests on an unprecedented scale... and martial law, enforced by the U.S. military.

And people say, “Oh, it can never be that way in this country!”  Amazing!  It’s amazing what we heard of later on in 2008 and what was coming down the pike and what they were planning for, depending on how bad it got.

Believe me, I don't make this prediction lightly and I have no interest in trying to scare you.

Well, maybe not, maybe just a little....

I'm simply following my research to its logical conclusion.

I did the same when I tracked Fannie and Freddie's accounting. The same with General Motors. And Bear Stearns and the rest. And when I began giving this warning in 2006 no one took me very seriously... not at first. Back then, most mainstream commentators just ignored me.

That’s the way people are, they don’t want to hear any bad news.

And when I presented my case and exposed the facts at economic conferences, they got angry.

Well, surprise, surprise.  You just taste a little bit what it’s like to tell the truth in some things that people don’t want to see destroyed.  “You’re messing with my baby!”  Amazing!

They couldn't refute my research... but they weren't ready to accept the enormity of its conclusions either. That's why, before I go any further, I have to warn you...What I am going to say is controversial. It will offend many people... Democrats, Republicans, and Tea Partiers, alike. In fact, I've already received dozens of pieces of hate mail.

And... the ideas and solutions I'm going to present might seem somewhat radical to you at first... perhaps even "un-American." My guess is that, as you read this letter... you'll say: "There's no way this could really happen... not here."

But just remember: No one believed me three years ago when I said the world's largest mortgage bankers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would soon go bankrupt. And no one believed me when I said GM would soon be bankrupt as well... or that the same would happen to General Growth Properties (the biggest owner of mall property in America).

[jumping down a little bit....]

The same financial problems I've been tracking from bank to bank, from company to company for the last five years have now found their way into the U.S. Treasury. I'll explain how this came to be. What it means is critically important to you and every American...

[dropping on down a way’s again....]

I'll explain how I know these events are about to happen. You can decide for yourself if I'm full of hot air. As for me, I'm more certain about this looming crisis than I've been about anything else in my life.

I know that debts don't just disappear. I know that bailouts have big consequences. And, unlike most of the pundits on TV, I know a lot about finance and accounting.

[jumps forward in article....]

Instead, I want to show you exactly what I'm doing personally, to protect and even grow my own money, and how you can prepare as well.

You see, I can tell you with near 100% certainty that most Americans will not know what to do when commodity prices – things like milk, bread and gasoline – soar. They won't know what to do when banks close... and their credit cards stop working. Or when they're not allowed to buy gold or foreign currencies. Or when food stamps fail...

And those things are going to happen.  [jumps forward in article...]

Let me back up and show you in the simplest terms possible what is going on, why I am so concerned, and what I believe will happen in the next 12 months...

In short, I believe that we as Americans are about to see a major, major collapse in our national monetary system, and our normal way of life.

[jumps forward in article....]

I'm talking about our country's unique ability to simply print more money.

You see, the U.S. government has one very important weapon to use in this crisis: It is the only debtor in the world who can legally print U.S. dollars. And the U.S. dollar is what's known as "the world's reserve currency."

The dollar forms the basis of the world's financial system. It is what banks around the world hold in reserve against their loans. That's a secret that most politicians don't understand:

And they don’t... sad.

As things stand now, the U.S. government can't go broke in any ordinary sense of the word because it can simply print dollars to pay for its bad debts. (It's been doing so since March of 2009).

Dropping on down again....  I’m just trying to pick up pieces here that have a flow to it that would be good for us to think upon.

You see, as things stand today, America is the only country in the world that doesn't have to pay for its imports in a foreign currency. Let's say you're a German and you want to buy oil from Saudi Arabia. You can't just pay for your oil in German marks (or the new euro currency), because the oil is priced in dollars.  So you have to buy dollars first, then buy your oil.

And that means the value of the German currency is of great importance to the German government. To maintain the value of its currency Germans must produce at least as much as they consume from around the world, otherwise the value of its currency will begin to fall, causing prices to rise and its standard of living to decline.

But in America...?

We can consume as much as we want without worrying about acquiring the money to pay for it, because our dollars are accepted everywhere around the world. In short, for decades now, we haven't had to produce anything or export anything to get all the dollars we needed to buy all the oil (and other goods) our country required.  All we had to do was borrow the money.

Incredible!  Dropping on down a little farther....

If oil is no longer priced in dollars, the price of oil for Americans will skyrocket immediately. It will change our lives, overnight.

And dropping on down again, it says....

And just remember: In order for prices to start skyrocketing, all that has to happen is that other countries start preferring payments in something besides U.S. dollars. The U.S. dollar has been the world's currency for decades now... so most Americans don't have a clue about what the repercussions are of losing this status.

And he talks a little bit about Britain and what happened there, how it was at one time the world currency and then the dollar took over.  He says....

What happened to the British currency is now happening to the U.S. dollar.  Not only will the price of gas, oil, and other commodities skyrocket in America, almost EVERYTHING we consume will immediately get more expensive. All the clothing, furniture, and household goods we import from China.

All the food we get from Central and South America... all the electronics, televisions, computers, and cars we get from Asia and Europe.

Sadly, it’s going to collapse before that, but he doesn’t understand – he doesn’t know that either. I’m just reading these to show you his thinking and what he sees and why he sees it.

In fact, it's happening, right now before our eyes: The price of gold is up 85% since the financial crisis. Oil prices have doubled. Soy beans are way up. Copper prices are up more than 170% since 2009. Cotton prices are up 80%... in just the past few months, since July of this year!

You know, it’s an amazing thing.  I was talking last night about how that for the first time I heard an economist on TV talk about why here in the United States when prices go up in food we don’t see the kind of prices in other parts of the world; because most of our pricing is in the packaging and the advertising, not in the product itself in many cases.  So when you buy a small package of something it doesn’t really reflect what’s happening in the world.  So the price might go up a little bit for us over here, whereas in other countries they buy the grain!  They don’t go to the store and it’s the fancy things already made sitting on the shelf.  They go out in some of these countries in different places and they’re actually buying the grain itself.  That’s how they purchase it.  They go out, they do the grinding or they have it ground in large quantities or whatever in different places like that.  We don’t do that, we like it all done up for us.  We like to put it in the microwave and do it as quickly as we can, which is fine, and if that goes up a few cents here and there it doesn’t affect us that much.

But it affects other people in the world!  That’s why you continue to hear on TV what’s happening over in the Middle East, why Egyptians and different ones have in times past, and how that a few years ago they did have some rioting in different places of the world because of these very things.  They can’t buy food!

So he says right now it’s happening already.

In short, when the U.S. dollar loses its spot as the world's 'reserve currency,' it will cause a brutal downturn in the economy, which I expect will be about 10-times worse than the mortgage crisis of 2008.

He doesn’t know what’s coming behind.  He doesn’t know that it is leading up to WWIII, but this is what’s leading up to WWIII, things like this in the world.  Things have always triggered something; something’s triggered a war.  Why different nations have decided to do the things they do – and that’s where we are in time.  There are people who don’t know what the world reserve currency is; they don’t have any idea what these things are all about let alone understanding what is really going on right now, somewhat behind the scenes, but not even behind the scenes.  It’s in your news constantly, but people don’t know what it means; they don’t know the significance of it.

[jumps forward in article....]

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank, at least 46 states face huge budget shortfalls for 2011, on top of the deficits they still haven't completely figured out for 2010. The center reports that the total state budget shortfall could reach $160 billion. And although many states got federal help over the past year, that aid is now gone.

And it just goes on and on and on in different things here.  Goes on to say....

State and municipal governments are so broke, and so desperate, that they are taking unprecedented steps to at least temporarily avoid bankruptcy.

And so it talks about different states, what they’re doing, what they’re selling and how they’re trying to make money.

And the truly amazing thing is that the U.S. Federal government is in even worse shape than the local governments! The only reason we haven't seen the full brunt of this crisis yet on the federal level is because we've just continued to pile on more and more debt.

The states can't print money... but the Federal government can (at least for now). And for the moment, this is all that is preventing a currency collapse of unprecedented proportions.

But you know what?  Other nations are on to this and they don’t like it, they’re getting upset and they’re changing because of what we’re doing.

And this is the important point: What most people don't realize is that the U.S. government can only continue printing dollars... as long as the U.S. dollar remains the world's reserve currency.

[jumps forward in article...]

Like I said, most Americans don't believe the U.S. dollar could ever lose its spot as the world's reserve currency. But I am here to tell you... this process is already well underway.

I’m going to read more of this because you need to understand it.  You need to understand, to a point, what’s happening in the world and why.  And so as you hear news these things thunder out a whole lot more to you, because if you understand these things the Thunder’s a whole lot louder right now, very powerfully so.

Veteran Middle East report Robert Fisk reported on this even in the Britain's Independent newspaper:

"In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese Yen, Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar."

Fisk also interviewed a Chinese banker who said:

"These plans will change the face of international financial transactions. America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate."

And sure enough, after Fisk published the details of this secret meeting...

They got together without the United States.

...U.S. officials and central bankers from around the globe denied these plans.

But as the old central banking adage goes... how do you know exactly when a currency will be devalued?  The answer: Right AFTER the head of the central bank goes on television to adamantly deny that any such transaction will occur. (And guess who just went public in recent weeks with a statement about how the U.S. will "not devalue its currency"? Yes, you guessed it... U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.)

You see, the last thing a central banker wants to do in the midst of a devaluation is to give people a warning BEFORE he can devalue. So they have to deny, deny, deny. After the announcement is made, it's too late for citizens and investors to get out.

[jumps forward in article...]

When you read these facts, I think you'll agree with me that the U.S. dollar's days are numbered, as far as remaining the world's reserve currency.

China is getting out

Cheng Siwei, a former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee, said that China is going to stop putting so much money into U.S. dollars, and will instead look to the Japanese Yen and the Euro.

China holds more U.S. dollars than anyone else on the planet. But China is getting out of the U.S. dollar as fast as they can without crashing their own economy.

[jumps forward in article... past a chart....]

It shows that China's holdings of U.S. dollars peaked in 2009, but China is unloading as many dollars as they can, as quickly as possible.

...Which we’ve talked a little bit about in times past.  And now the last page here....

This is why World Bank president, Robert B. Zoellick, in a speech at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, recently said: "The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency. Looking forward, there will increasingly be other options to the dollar."

And this is why the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently published a paper calling for a new global world currency.

That’s dumbfounding!  The IMF is asking for a new currency!

A paper entitled "Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability," written by the Strategy, Policy and Review Department of the IMF, recommends that the world adopt a global currency called the "Bancor" with a global central bank to administer the currency.

The report is dated April 13, 2010... and no, unfortunately this is not just a bad rumour.   This is a deadly serious proposal in an official document from one of most powerful institutions in the world. Do you see where this is all heading?

As Brazilian economist and strategist Ricardo C. Amaral wrote recently:

"The US dollar served its purpose since the end of WW II and became the major foreign exchange reserve currency... [but] the days of the US dollar playing that special role... has reached the end of the line, since today that system is very sick and it is dying a slow death...

So if countries around the world see this and we’re stubborn as we are and keep pushing forward like we are, what do you think they’re going to do?  Exactly what’s taking place.

Mr. Amaral added that we will soon see: "the major collapse of the US dollar creating the biggest international monetary crisis the world has ever seen..."

This is why gold and silver prices are soaring:

It's not a matter of "if" the U.S. dollar will lose its status as the world's reserve currency... it's simply a matter of "when."

[jumps forward in article....]

In short: It's not hard to see why people are no longer accepting U.S. dollars... and why many foreign countries are pushing for a new world reserve currency.

The good news is, no matter what happens, I've found several ways for you to protect your savings...



– and you could even make 3- to 5-times your money over the next few years.

See?  Amazing after all this where he goes!  I’ll tell you what, you can go back and listen to some of this later and watch news and try to understand and learn what’s taking place in the world, but it is powerful!  I don’t care if individuals out here didn’t believe a thing about what’s coming to pass prophetically – we, this nation, is going down the tubes.  The dollar is going down the tubes!  We are at a time when nations are talking about reserve currencies and everything about the way of life that this country experienced is changing very rapidly before our eyes; but it’s going to happen a lot more rapidly than what people understand.

I thought I’d read a couple more, just recent articles here, just headlines and a few of the blurbs here.  What are they doing?  This is from Friday....

Prominent Chinese Economist Advises Country To Sell Its $500 Billion In GSE Holdings Before QE2 Ends[2]

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/10/2011 13:33 -0500

Zero Hedge

It ends in June, then we may have QE3. The GSE (I had to look this up, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was) is a government sponsored enterprise like Freddie, Fannie.  There are other things like the Federal Home Loan banks, several of them, also Farmer Mac and some other things where farmers are tied into some of those things.  Talks about how the GSE holds about 5 trillion worth of mortgages.  I want to read a little bit of what this article has to say.

Add one more pill to the daily Oxycodone consumption by the Chair Central Planner. In what is about to become the latest headache for Bernanke, popular Chinese economist Lu Zhengwei, a senior economist at China's Industrial Bank Co., has advised that China should promptly sell its GSE holdings on concerns that continued "blank check" writing by Congress [speaking of the U.S.] to the GSEs will be "almost impossible" as well as fears that as soon as QE2 ends, the entire US bond complex will see a major sell off. In other words welcome to the world of game theory defection: he who sells first, loses the least.

Interesting how they write on some of these things, but people see the handwriting on the wall.  They understand this is horrible and what’s being done is quite perverted and sick.  So they’re quoting here now, this is from Dow Jones...

From Dow Jones:

A popular Chinese economist on Thursday said China should be aware of risks in its holdings of debt issued by U.S. government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC), and suggested that China sell the securities soon.

I’ve already read some things about what some of these Chinese individuals are saying.  And here there are several different named individuals that have different influence; and you know that they’re talking about these things behind the scenes and have already been planning for some time anyway by what they’re doing - you can see it in their actions.

The report by Lu Zhengwei, a senior economist at China's Industrial Bank Co., doesn't represent the views of China's leadership, but it does highlight persistent concerns about the security of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities among Chinese civilians and some influential thinkers.

Lu's warning comes just ahead of a report from the Obama administration, which could come as soon as Friday, that will outline options to gradually phase-out the two companies...

How many of you have heard that?  ‘Gradually phase them out’.  So there’s this game going on they’re trying to play here in the United States; and the Chinese are way ahead.

...reducing the government's footprint in the U.S. mortgage industry.

Although an outright default is unlikely, Lu said that the end of the Federal Reserve's program of quantitative easing [in other words, printing lots of money] could cause the price of the securities to fall. He suggested China sell its Fannie and Freddie holdings before the U.S.'s quantitative easing ends in June.

We are so close to these things taking place, to countries struggling and doing what they can to protect themselves, because we’re talking about such large volumes of money, that if they started doing something, the whole world does it quickly overnight and it’s a quick collapse of everything as we know it.  So how it all comes down?  It’s going to be interesting because, as Johnny Harrell has said so many times, we have a front row seat.  We get to know about what’s coming in advance.  We get to watch these things and understand why they’re happening and why mankind has to be humbled in the way he does: because it’s the only way to humble mankind.

As a matter of fact, I’ll just share with you, we are at a point in time where the Thunders need to be stepped up mightily, powerfully – okay?  We are at that point in time to give us time to do what we’re going to do and need to do.  My prayers are to that end.  I hope yours are turning more and more to that end – but you have to think about it before you pray about it because you’re asking for something very specific here, about what is best for the world – and it’s about God’s Kingdom ultimately.  And if you know how that has to come about, then indeed those things are to be prayed about, because it helps you to think through the reasons why.  When you pray about something it should be from inside, from all your being.  And your ability to pray about it and the stronger you’re able to pray about it shows how you think in your thinking with God – unity with God.  It’s truly what it’s all about!

So he says....

If China were to sell its GSE debt how big would be the damage? Pretty big: $500 billion worth of big.

I’m going to go ahead and read some more of this. You know God talks about those who mock Him; He ends up mocking them.  Just like Satan.  Satan has mocked Him for a long time and tables are turning on Satan now.  He’s starting to get a whiff of what he’s like and has done and he doesn’t like it.

[jumps forward in article....]

As Zero Hedge has been reporting with every single TIC report, China has continued to sell its agency debt, as well as lowering its US Treasury holdings.

According to separate figures from the U.S. Treasury, China has been steadily selling its holdings of agency securities since mid-2008.

So they already see the handwriting on the wall; they’ve been doing this for a long time.  They’re unloading things and buying up mines and resources around the world as fast as they can.

So if China decides to not only not buy any incremental debt issued by the US, but to fully commit to selling, this virtually guarantees QE3, as the only way to find a buyer for the debt will be to prime the Fed's printer. Which in turn will activate the timer fuse on the 21st century's first Wiemar Republic recreation.

See, that article said that they don’t represent the Chinese Government, that’s not their mindset, they’re not doing...  Here’s one:

China central bank says Fed easing ineffective and dangerous[3]

BEIJING | Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:01am EST

(Reuters) - Quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve and other central banks cannot address fundamental economic problems but may lead to excessive global liquidity and competitive currency depreciation, China's central bank said on Sunday.

[jumps forward in article....]

The central bank said the Fed's monetary easing was pushing up international commodity prices and asset prices in emerging markets, including China.

"Quantitative easing policy cannot fundamentally address economic problems, and it may cause excessive liquidity on a global scale as well as risks of competitive currency depreciation," the Chinese central bank said in its 59-page report.

[jumps forward in article....]

The central bank said it would continue to use different tools, including interest rates, bank reserve requirements and open-market operations, to rein in money supply and bank credit growth as a way of handling inflationary pressure.

(Reporting by Zhou Xin and Michael Martina; Editing by Simon Rabinovich

These things are just astounding!  IMF - this is the article here....

IMF calls for dollar alternative[4]

So they don’t want it as a world reserve currency.

S&P and Moody’s warn on U.S. credit rating[5]

That it’s not going to continue to hold its triple-A rating, but they would never do... they might throw a ripple out there and warn, but they’re never going to... because that would mean....  the politics of it all is really quite disgusting.

Let’s go back here to Revelation 17 now.  Again, it’s awesome what’s taking place.  It’s incredible what you’re able to watch right now going on and all the Thunders that are taking place right now and overlapping each other even more powerfully.  And that’s going to step up mightily over the next 2-3 months here especially as we continue on.  And at what point a Trumpet comes, we really don’t know, but that’s getting closer and closer and closer...and then everything changes quickly and all these things we’re talking about of a natural process they think will come through a period of time, whether it’s a year or two years... happen immediately, quickly; because God’s in control of the timing, not natural consequences in the world - God is.

Revelation 17:1 – So there is an implosion that’s building for a complete global economic meltdown; and how nations react and what they do then to plug the holes. It’s incredible!  And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying, Come here and I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits upon many waters: so this sets the stage for the rest of chapter 17 and chapter 18 that we’ve been going through.  We went through chapter 18 starting last week.  But again, talking about judgment and this particular whore is mentioned.

And the definition of ‘many waters’ here...might just jump ahead to Verse 15 – the waters which you saw where the horse sits are people’s and multitudes and nations and languages. It’s all inclusive of mankind and it’s quite all inclusive of mankind through time because it’s about a being and what He’s done for the past 6,000 years.  And so this is talking about ‘her judgment’ that we talked about at the Feast this past year quite candidly.

Verse 1 – And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials and talked with me, saying, Come here and I will show you the judgment of the great whore, which is a harlot, a prostitute.  And interesting in the Greek word, it comes from a word that means, ‘to export for sale’.  All these words that have meaning in them.  ...the great whore who sits upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth, the leaders, the rulers of the earth, have committed fornication/immorality, in everything they’ve done and how it’s done.  It’s the way of Babylon.  That’s what the story is about.  It’s about the great city Babylon and how she functions; and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk, uses ‘pharmakeia’ later in chapter 18, drugged.  Here it talks about being made drunk with the wine of her fornication. In other words, it affects the mind.  And the more the mind becomes a part of it and involved in it, it’s like one who is totally drunken, they’re not able to think clearly. They stagger, things don’t work, things don’t function properly in life; and this is what it’s talking about...with her immorality/her spiritual fornication.  It’s about spiritual fornication.  It has to do with the mind and the mind not being in control.

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, and so now it brings us down to the end-time, it brings us down to what happens at the end-time and of course the vials, talking about the very last day.  It gives us a picture of something that we can understand, that God has given us understanding of – gave to Philadelphia, gave to Mr. Armstrong, talking about this particular beast.

It says, speaking of the woman, upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, speaking of this beast now.  We know full well it’s talking about the Holy Roman Empire.  And then it goes on to say, and ten horns. And that understanding that was given to Mr. Armstrong showing that those ten horns are ten nations at the very end of the last revival, the seventh revival, the seventh head, if you will, of what comes to pass.  So it brings us all the way up to the end-time.  But the point being is that this whore has been around for a long, long time.  It’s not just something what happens here at the end, but it shows what she does at the end.  She has always been over peoples and languages and nations, as it says here, ‘over the waters of the earth’.  That’s what it’s talking about.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations of her filthiness and her fornication:  Babylon; it’s about Babylon.  You know, God gave a name to a city to show something.  He confounded the languages.  Incredible!  And some of the other words that went on before that as well, but talking about a particular region here, He used that particular name as well and even added to it.  It shows what it is, confusion.  Confusion, the opposite of God’s way. God’s way is the only right way, the only true way of life that brings real happiness and understanding and right laws that are to be lived; and when exercised by people they bring right results.  But this other way brings everything that’s opposite of that, everything that goes in a different direction.

Verse 5 - And upon her forehead was a name written, so it’s talking about the same one, her, this whore, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, and so Babylon is the same one it’s talking about here all the way through, the one who’s responsible, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Not just the Catholic Church.  See, it’s easy for us to say, this is about only the end-time and it’s only about this great church and it’s only about what happens in Rome and so forth and it’s really about Rome.  NO IT ISN’T ABOUT ROME!  It’s far greater than that! It’s all inclusive of an entire system around the world that’s been here for 6,000 years – the way of Babylon, which is Satan’s way, the way of confusion, the way of everything that’s diametrically different and opposite from God and what God gave!

And I saw the woman who was drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of martyrs, interesting word, ‘witnesses’... 6,000 years of people who have witnessed what it’s like to live God’s way of life in that world.  It’s not received, God is not received, the truth is not received.  Man hates it, human nature hates it.  ...the blood of witnesses of Jesus: and when I saw her, I was astonished with great amazement, in other words, astonishment or wonder.

Before we continue here in Revelation 17 it’d be good to go back and read some things, because again, as I mentioned, this isn’t just about that one church. There are certain things that epitomize the end of an age.  There are certain things that epitomize and show the power of that being and the distortion in religion.  But it’s not just that religion; but that’s the one that has the greatest, if you will, evil in the sense of taking Christ’s name and God’s name and twisting and distorting something that God gave to enrich mankind very powerfully, that Satan used.  And so this shows the power of his deception and the power to do what he has done by and through one primary religion on the earth.  But it’s in every religion, that confusion, the foolishness and the distortion of the mind, the twisted thinking that takes place, of what people will believe. I think of elephants and the world, and some of these different things that people believe out there in the world, and coming back again as a cricket, a worm or something else.  You’re going to come back and you’re going to be reincarnated.  Satan messes with the mind!  Confusion!  Distortion!  Perversion!  Drunk!  Can’t think right!  Drugged!  Oh, it’s amazing!

And so again here, we started out with the description of a whore and her great judgment that’s come and that’s where we are in time and it comes upon the world because the world has accepted that system, that way of life and can’t appreciate anything different, can’t grasp anything different as a whole unless it’s brought to repentance, unless it’s brought down, humbled.  All is talking about this same one, the woman riding the beast, talking about her head, Mystery, Babylon.

Isaiah 14:3 – We read some scriptures at the Feast in 2010 but let’s notice a little bit more even that’s added to it.  It shall come to pass in the day the Eternal gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from hard bondage in which you were made to serve.  That you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and so it’s the same one, whether it be the king, or referred to as a queen, or a woman, or whatever in particular cases here at different times, but it’s all one and the same.  God is showing a time when people are finally removed from their hard bondage.  They don’t even know they’re in hard bondage.  Think about the Israelites in Egypt; wasn’t too long and they wanted to go back.  It wasn’t ‘that hard’!  It’s amazing how the human mind works because the human mind can become so distorted; and that’s what we’re talking about here, what Satan has done and the power of the deception he’s given.

It says, How the oppressor has ceased! ...in time, things that can be said; How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city ceased! The Eternal has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers. He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, how Satan has... his evil and how he’s worked with mankind and countries, and nations against nations and all the evil that he’s perpetrated by what he’s done, by his rule on the earth.

...He who ruled the nations in anger; Satan has never been happy and he doesn’t want anyone else to be happy. The more he can deceive people into doing sick, perverted, distorted things, people killing each other... he loves it!  He hates humanity!  He hates God’s plan of a Family, of a Kingdom.  He’s hated it from the day he heard it.  Something happened in his mind when he heard it – that which would be greater than him in the God Family, of something God was going to do – and Satan has hated, loathed God’s plan, and he’s loathed humanity.  Anything he can do to distort, to confuse, to twist, he loves.  That makes his day.  It’s like people who listen in sometimes to the sermon...and I don’t get it.  I do get it because I understand the different mindset that’s there and why it’s there.  But to think you would listen to something and that would consume your time so that you can get some kind of a thrill out of trying to find things here and there and throw it out there and twist and distort...and you think, “Get a life!  Go fishing!  Enjoy something in life!  Don’t torment yourself!”  But people do because it’s this kind of a mind.  He’s tormenting himself and he doesn’t understand it.  It’s so distorted!

He who ruled the nations in anger; Who has been over the nations?  It’s not God’s world.  Satan has; he’s been over the governments of the earth – except those with whom God worked with and they weren’t always under that government, they allowed themselves to come under other government by their actions and by what they did.  Israel, perfect example of that was when they separated from Judah.

So, he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, ‘pursued, put to flight’ - that’s what the word means here, and no one hinders. No one can stop it.  In other words it’s something that God’s going to do and He’s going to bring an end to it all and that’s the whole story. The whole earth is at rest and quiet:  When does that happen?  Not until God’s Government is here, not until Jesus Christ returns; and then healing can begin.

...they break forth into singing. God’s Family sings first.  When they’re resurrected, the 144,000, it talks about the song, the things they’re going to sing, the excitement, the joy, the fullness of life that is there in them as the first in God’s Family – other than Jesus Christ, the single, talking about the Son of God.  But as far as the Family of those who come fully out of humanity, out of mankind, born of man and woman.  And so it talks about ‘in time’ what comes to the earth, they break forth in singing.

Indeed, the Cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you were cut down, no woodsman has come up against us.  Finally! Hell from beneath is excited about you to meet you at His coming: the grave.  It stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. They all speak and say of you, Have you also become as weak as we?  Have you become like us?  Talking about those who are dead, though they speak out; “You become like us. Is that your power?  Is that your might?  Is it possible?”  Incredible!

Your exultation/your pride/your arrogance is brought down to sheol, stripped totally of power and ability save what God gives to him for a short spurt in time; and then it’s all over with.  And the sound of your stringed instruments, no longer there: the maggot is spread under you, and worms cover you.

How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, more and more he knows he has but a short time and he’s learning more and more as we go forward through time here.  ...O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit the sides of the mount of the congregation, in the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.   So we’ve read those things in the past, but now a little bit more of the story.

Yet you shall be brought down to sheol, the lowest parts of the pit. Those who see you will gaze on you and consider you saying, Is this the one who made the earth to tremble? People are going to be dumbfounded into the future, into the Great White Throne when they finally learn what happened in history and what happened in time and why they did, and how they were deceived, and why they thought the way they did, and now all of a sudden God’s Kingdom is here and they’re able to see evidence of God’s way of life working on the earth for a thousand years and what God has built by people who love God’s way of life.  Night and day! Easy to receive.  And they’re going to be dumbfounded by thinking... “Amazing!  And look at him, nothing, gone.”  ...who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms; who made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; who did not open the house of his prisoners?

Verse 18 - All the kings of the nations, ALL of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house. But you art cast out to your grave like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword... In other words, those who are dead.  All who are dead, they have an opportunity in the future.  They still have something that’s going to happen to them in time. But for him, not the same.  Who go down to the stones of the pit; like a corpse trodden underfoot?  You will not be joined with them in burial because you have destroyed your land and slain your people.  So it’s talking about the difference between this being and the rest of mankind that he’s deceived, who are dead and all the small and great of the world through time, it doesn’t matter, all of mankind.

...the brute of evil doers shall never be named.  Prepare slaughter for his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, lest they rise up and possess the land, and fill the face of the world with cities.  For I will rise up against them, says the Eternal of hosts, in other words, Babylon!  ...and cut off Babylon the name, and remnant, and offspring, and posterity.  In other words, when God brings down Babylon it’s brought down, and that’s what is taking place in Revelation when we go through and read those things in the book of Revelation.  And so Isaiah here is talking about what God is going to do, things that go along with what’s stated in Revelation.

Let’s turn over and notice Ezekiel 28, because this talks about some of those things we’ve been mentioning that go along with Revelation 18.  Ezekiel 28, again, about Satan and what he did.  Ezekiel 28:15 – You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you.  By the abundance of your trading, that word for trafficking, merchandizing.  That’s why it talks about ships and merchants and merchandizing, because it’s about a system and it’s about their way of doing things that’s corrupt and backward and evil; and how whether it be politics or rulers or things that have taken place – everything is wrong in how man has done it on the earth!

You became filled with violence within and you sinned: therefore I cast you out as a profane thing, out of the mountain of God and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the dust of the fiery stones.  Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty.  Pride, haughtiness, seeing more than what was there, not understanding, not being thankful for what came from God.

You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness, and I’ll cast you to the ground and I’ll lay you before kings, that they may gaze upon you.  You defiled your sanctuaries, your sacred places, by the multitude of your iniquities.  What God gave!  It’s like something similar to when God gives an opportunity, whether it be those in the angelic realm that have been faithful and grasp what God has given, or are thankful for what God has given that’s beautiful, that’s holy, because it’s God’s work...and then those who did not.  And then those of us, when we’re called and we begin to understand and grasp what God says when He talks individually about His spirit.  If we’re in His presence, not only are we in His presence - ‘holy sanctuaries’ - we’re more.  He dwells in us!  He has begotten us!  He lives in us!  Awesome to understand!  That’s why we’re told different things by Paul and things in other areas of scripture as well, not to defile this temple, to understand what God has blessed us with, to fight the fight.

...by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading, your trafficking, your merchandising, therefore will I bring forth fire from the midst of you, it will devour you, and I will turn you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who see you.  All who knew you among the people are astonished at you: you shall become a horror/a destruction, in other words, what this means here, a dreadful event.  Just a dreadful memory for what he did, a destruction, and shall be no more forever.  Incredible!  That’s what he’s going to be remembered as.

Let’s go back to Revelation 17.  They’re all one and the same; and what it’s talking about when it’s talking about Babylon, it’s talking about Satan’s system and the destruction of it.  And he’s pictured here as one who has turned against God, one who has...the word ‘fornication/adultery/fornication’, a whore, all those things, spiritual idolatry in what Satan has done through time with the angelic realm and then with all of mankind for the last 6,000 years.

Revelation 17:5 - And upon her head was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS...everyone that’s picked up her way, all the harlots around the world, and it’s not just in Traditional Christianity, it’s in Judaism, it’s in every false religion out there that’s not living God’s way of life now, every false religion that exists around the world.  They’re all harlots!  They have all adopted something different from what God gave to mankind.  Whatever the belief is, it’s different from what God said it should be or is, in truth.

Verse 7 - And the angel said to me, Why are you so astonished?  I’ll tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, so it brings us right up to the end, because these things are pictured for us, for our time, and the revelation of these things; and as they’re given to us are really at the very end of time.  ...and the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. In other words, the final kingdoms that she rides. The beast that you saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit... What does that remind you of?

Let’s turn over to Revelation 9.  These things ought to jump out at us when we read them, what’s being discussed here when some of these things take place, because it brings us up to, and what it’s talking about, is the final revival and finally what God brings down.  Here in Revelation 9 it talks about the Fifth Trumpet, which is the first Woe.  The second, third and fourth Trumpets aren’t even called Woes.  This, because of what it begins, is called a Woe.  Revelation 9:1 – And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth: and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; in other words... this power that’s going to be finally unleashed in a great way upon the earth.  He can’t do the things yet.  He can’t yet do in Europe what will come. Things are being prepared, things are being set in motion, things are already taking place of why people are taking certain sides and so forth, but to give it power to destroy has not been given yet.  And that’s what this is all about.  And he opened the bottomless pit and there arose smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.  And so it tells in verse 11, as we always look to it as well, showing who this is and what this is and what it’s all about.

But it says, (verse 11) - And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue is the name Apollyon/the Destroyer.  So again here, making it very clear who it is that has this great power of this particular kingdom here and the woman that’s riding the beast.  She’s always been there since this being changed at a point in time when he began to turn away from God and began to first infect other angelic beings.  “God isn’t fair!  God isn’t just!”  And all the things he started to stir up.  And others made choices to follow him and became demons on the earth finally.

And so it talks about here, again, Revelation 17:8 – and the beast that you saw was, and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition/to destruction:  literally unto its own and comes out of that pit to destroy.  That’s what it’s about, the destruction that follows and continues on.  ...and they who dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And so there’s this beast that was... Well, when was it?  In the previous times it was resurrected...and for a period of time hasn’t existed. The Holy Roman Empire hasn’t been around for a little while.  And yet...going on and talking about, and yet it is.

Verse 9 - And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, so we know the seven kingdoms through time and the Holy Roman Empire, on which the woman sits.  And there are seven kings... but he’s been a part of every kingdom that’s ever ruled.  He’s been over every system that’s ever existed, like I said earlier, except one that God worked with, talking about Judah, and talking about the beginning of the Kingdom when God began to work with His Kingdom, with His people.

...five are fallen, this is an awesome thing here!  ...five are fallen, one is, again, referring to when Mr. Armstrong came to understand something, when he realize that was for his time.  That’s what he talked about.  It was for his time when he understood that Mussolini and Hitler and what was talking place... five are fallen, and one is – so this was revealed to him at a particular moment in time.  He began to understand that this is about a particular moment in time when the Holy Roman Empire was revived for a time, and yet it was to be resurrected later on.  That’s why he knew later on when it collapsed that it’s going to rise one more time.  Amazing what God gave to him, what God gives to His people.

So it says, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when it comes it must continue a short time.  Shorter than what we ever knew – thankfully!  Thank God!  And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth.  Interesting; the beast that was, and is not – even he is the eighth.  And so it’s talking overall about the Roman Empire with seven unique revivals.  ...and is of the seven goes into perdition.  So it goes into destruction.

Verse 12 - And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. Thank God it’s a short time, whatever that time period is, talking about this final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, the revival of it. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.  So again, it’s talking about a power that emerges that Satan is upon because he’s the one that brings it its power there.  So it’s talking about a moment in time when it begins to cause the kind of destruction it’s going to cause on the earth.

These shall make war with the Lamb, in other words, it goes all the way to the end - from the time it begins all the way to the end.  We know what happens in Megiddo, in that particular region of the world. And the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is the Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.  Talked about this recently, to realize that when you’re called how awesome that is, but to be one of God’s chosen – the fruition of that – is in your response to your calling as to whether or not you truly are faithful in how you live your life and seek God’s way of life and fight for it with all of your being.

Verse 15 – and he said unto me, the waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations and tongues. Truly through time, not just at the very end.

Verse 16 - And the ten horns which you saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore; I’ve always puzzled over these things.  What on earth?  ...and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.  Well, it’s an awesome thing here, what takes place.  Because of our understanding of certain things in times past and what we believed to a point in thinking that it was talking about a particular church and a particular system; and it is epitomized by that.  That is what it’s about, it’s about a false religious system that’s a part of this, this beast that takes place there.  It is epitomized by that, but that’s not what it’s all about.  It’s greater than that, it’s far, far greater than that because it still goes back to a false system, it does go back to Satan and what takes place...and candidly it’s what leads to his own destruction, because what takes place at the end...  Let’s read the rest.

Verse 17 – for God has put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.  And the woman which you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.  And so it’s talking about things that lead up to the very end and things that happen on this final day when God destroys it all.  But it’s talking about a system here that begins and how that there’s the clay mingled with iron, there’s great power there, but they’re not closely aligned even amongst themselves, and there’s this friction that goes on.  But the greater part of the story is to understand who the whore, the woman is, and what’s taking place – because you see, in the previous verses when we talked about ‘she sits over different kingdoms’ and so forth and where her power is – she’s also the same being that is over Asia, China, Russia – Satan rules over mankind; and what takes place here at the end is a system that brings all of it together where it seeks to destroy each other – but at the end God just uses it to bring it all together in one place where He destroys it.  Read it again later on in that context.

Revelation 18:1 – And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, and I know this is where we started last week, having great power, and the earth was lighted with her glory.  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon...because it’s about Satan, it’s about his system, it’s about what he’s done on the earth for 6,000 years and beyond; 6,000 years with mankind.  And so again here, just the opposite of God’s way of peace.  And it says, that great city has fallen, has fallen, and become the habitation, for a time, of demons, and the hold/imprisonment of every foul unclean spirit, demons and Satan; it’s all about the same thing.  All three of these things mentioned here – just different ways to describe it, and the cage/the prison of every unclean fowl, in other words, hateful bird, as we talked about earlier – not talking about literal birds, but winged creatures, beings, spiritual.

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, so the way of confusion that’s filled the world with pride, evil, politics, greed, the economy, what we see taking place now, things we’re witnessing that produce just the opposite of peace and how it affects people’s live and the hurt and the pain and suffering that goes with it.

And it says, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich with the abundance of her delicacies/her sensuality.  What an incredible story!  To understand what it’s talking about when God talks about Babylon, Babylon that’s coming to an end and it’s not just talking about a final group of people that’s brought to an end.  It’s talking about 6,000 years of pain and suffering on the earth. And I hope you hurt inside for what you see taking place on the earth and the things that you’re witnessing that you can see coming to an end here now that you’re praying about them – that God speed it up, stir it up more powerfully and mightily as we go forward.

~~~end

1. Stansberry & Associates Investment Research – December 2010

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4. IMF calls for dollar alternative

5. S&P, Moody's warn on US credit rating

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