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GLOBAL ECONOMIC TREND
by Fabian Epetuku The current global economic morass plaguing every nation and people is a vivid indication that the coming of Christ is near. The Bible points out clearly there shall be famine in different places as the world draws to a close (Matthew 24:7). This situation shall get worse no matter how hard economic experts try. With the collapse of national economy, even of the economic giants of the world, economic experts and leaders are calling for a New World Order in which the economy will no more be structured along state or national boundaries and needs; rather it will be global in scope and structure. This in their argument will strike a balance between the rich and the poor nations of the world. It will also provide common platforms for global economic actors. This in their view will check recession and its concomitant consequences. What an economic paradise that exists in the world of imagination and dreams. Let us not be deceived by the eldorado the advocates of the New World Order promise. This is a utopia. These "one-worlders" are strategizing on the miasma of global economic meltdown to advocate for a single and unified global economy. This from Biblical perspective is a wild march towards global economic slavery. With a unified global economy, the antichrist shall wield economic control over the earth's economic population. The book of Revelation 13:17 calls attention to this economic slavery and thralldom thus, "And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." The antichrist shall have overriding economic influence over the globe. He through human and electronic means will strictly monitor all economic transactions. This can only be possible in a unified and integrated global economic system. The global economic landscape is being shapened to reflect this single economic structure. Global economic control shall be possible in two major ways: the emergence of a single global currency and global cashless economy. SINGLE GLOBAL CURRENCY. A number of things are happening fast to give the world the economic outlook that will be congenial to the manipulation of the antichrist. Topmost among them is the emergence of global currency. Paul Volcker, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair once said, " a global economy requires a global currency." In his book, The Alchemy of Finance, the international financier, George Sorost, called for the creation of a single global currency, together with an international central bank. On 20th April 1998, Nobel Price Winner, James Tobin gave a Keynote address at the annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics and recommends a single global currency. On June 27 2003, Single Global Currency Association was formed. Its responsibility among others is to work towards the adoption of a single global currency within a global monetary union, managed by a global central bank. Recently the president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Tudhoyono, called for the use of single global currency to prevent pressure on currency when economic crisis strikes. He argued that with a single global currency there would be stability of currency rate in each country, no more currency exchange crisis, money would no more be commercialized and the function of money as a trading value will not change. Similarly, the finance chief of five of the six-member oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council lately approved a proposal to create a monetary union as a move toward adopting a single currency. The name of the proposed currency is khaleeji and 2010 is the target date for the adoption of a single currency. The emergence of an Islamic currency is significant to the advent of a single global currency. The meeting was held in Saudi Red Sea of Jeddah. It may be interesting to know that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-kahn met with Gulf Cooperation Council finance minister and lauded the move toward economic integration. There is a speedy and welcome move towards global economic integration. In East Asia a meeting of finance ministers of fifteen European Union Countries and China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, The Philippines and Brunei met to approve a plan to work toward a Single Asian Currency. South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) seeks economic integration. In January 2004 Indian Prime Minister, Vajpayee urged more economic integration and the adoption of common currency. If the African Union (AU) proposal in AU summit of July 2007 for a United State of Africa sails through, AU member states will adopt a single currency. We are aware the European Union (EU) adopted a single currency (the euro) since January 1, 1999 and January 1, 2009 the euro became ten years old. Sixteen out of the twenty-seven member states use the euro. Many EU countries and non-EU countries, like Iceland, are working towards joining the euro-zone. Without doubt other regional blocs are going to work towards monetary integration. As regional currency comes into use after the EU model, the adoption of a single global currency would be a reality. A currency that would bear the image, name, and number of the beast. CASHLESS ECONOMY. The drive towards a cashless society could be instrumental to the beast's control of global economic transactions, in that the absence of cash as a medium of exchange ensures total control of a given economic population. The use of ATM card, smart cards, debit cards, credit cards and so on is a dominant feature of most developed countries. It is already an index of economic development. Many developing countries are restructuring their economy to reflect this global standard. This might be the hand work of the forerunners of the coming world ruler. When the global economy becomes cashless or predominantly cashless, the antichrist can exercise economic control over the earth. This is not an attempt to ignore the myriads of benefits derivable from a cashless economy. Tax evasion becomes difficult, cost of printing currency is reduced, security is ensured and no counterfeiting. These are the immediate benefits of this economic system. However, it will eventually help in global economic maneuver and bandage. By this electronic means, the antichrist will isolate those who refuse his mark, his name or worship his image from the earth's economic activities. We can imagine the unbearable condition this economic boycott will precipitate. Lahaye and Jenkins agree that by means of cashless economy the coming world leader will have complete control of purchasing, labour, wages and everything else. They quote Terry Look on this thus, "advocates of one world government have for decades been promoting a move towards cashless transaction via myriads of banking plansfunneled through massive computer systems. Eventually, the goal is control of all these computers by economic leaders of the New World Order." With the coming of a single world government, one president (the beast), one finance minister, one currency or cashless economy, as the case may be, one treasury and other unified structures, the earth shall experience the most gruesome form of dictatorship, unparalleled economic slavery, untold hardship and execution of "unraptured saints." It is pertinent to realize that the complex process of economic and political integration of the regional blocs leading to one world government may not be consummated now. Its completion might come during the transition period between the rapture of the church and the installation of the new world leader. Therefore our Lord could come any moment from now. The global economic meltdown evident in closure of companies, collapse in business, fall in stock markets, loss of jobs, rise in prices of food, distress in banking sector and other unfavourable features is indubitable proof that Christ's coming is close. He has to remove the church from the coming tribulation upon this earth. "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,"1Thessalonians5:9. Let us make room for Him in our hearts (Revelation 3:20). If we do not make room for him now, we shall find no room in His celestial kingdom. Jesus is coming soon! References " Chronology Towards SGC" Retrieved from http:// www.globalcurrency.org, February 3, 2009. "Emergence of Islamic Single Currency." Retrieved from http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&page1d=75856 December 19, 2008. Kade Hawkins, "prophecy News Watch Headlines January 8, 2009". Retrieved from http://www.prophecynewswatch.com, January 13, 2009. Doug Manchester, "Smart Cards: Key to Cashless Economy." Retrieved from: http://www.allbusiness.com/professional_scientific/scientific-research/601964-html January 5, 2009. "President of Indonesia Calls for One Single Global Currency" Retrieved from: http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2008/11/05/brk, 20081105_144210,uk.html, December 19, 2008. Tim Lahaye and Terry Jenkins Are We Living in the End Times. (Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers Inc., 1999. Pastor Fabian A. Epetuku is a minister of the gospel with Assemblies of God Warri District, Nigeria. He also runs an end time outreach ministry called, Rapture Culture Ministry. He is a writer and preacher with special burden to prepare the church for the rapture. He is married. www.pastorfabian.org Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |