There are demarcation points in history where a turn is made and the world starts down a different path. March 11, 2011 will be remembered as one of those days. The 9.0 earthquake that rocked Japan, moving the entire island an estimated 8 feet, actually shifted the earth on its axis enough to change the length of our days and nights. It may not have been enough to notice, but even a slight change on our axis can have major consequences over time. The same is true with the social and economic consequence this earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown will have on modern civilization.
It was twenty-two years ago that I first heard Bob Jones talk about a major earthquake that would be coming to Japan. He said that it would set off cataclysmic events. Thousands have heard Bob predict quakes and other natural events with astonishing accuracy. One of the most dramatic was the last San Francisco quake. He foresaw that the quake would be centered in Northern California but south of San Francisco. He said that it would be 7.0 on the Richter Scale, that the bridges would be dangerous, and that “the world will witness it.” Bob shared this at conferences and churches for months before it hit that fall. It struck during the first game of the World Series that year, which was being played in San Francisco, and it was being broadcast to 160 nations who witnessed it live, accurately fulfilling all that Bob had predicted, including how the world would see it.
Many prophetic people were shown the next quake that hit Southern California, and they were told that this was a warning of another much greater one to come. We shared this in many churches and conferences in Southern California. When it struck, we were astonished at how even the churches responded, downplaying its message, and some even boasting that Californians could handle anything. We felt that the quake we had clearly predicted, with many details that were accurate, had virtually no impact on the people, even some of the strongest Christians who had heard the warnings.
When one of the most well-known Christian leaders in the area asked me what could be done to delay or lesson this quake, I was given “a word of wisdom” that the only commandment with a promise was to honor our fathers and mothers, and the promise was that “it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth” (see Ephesians 6:3). The Lord showed me that one way we could do this was the way Israel did it, which was to drink from the wells that our fathers have dug. Spiritually, this meant to partake of their teachings. When I preached this in Pasadena, Lou Engle picked it up, wrote a book about it, and has in a most remarkable way carried this message to the nation through The Call.
Has it worked? I think Lou’s work and that of many others have given us the time that we’ve had. While many were still receiving revelation about the coming big one, and many were expecting it, Bob Jones was adamant that it would not come until the major one hit Japan that he had seen. When the major quake hit Kobe, Japan, Bob was sure that was not the one he had seen. When Bob walked into the service last Sunday after the recent 9.0 quake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown, I immediately asked him if this was the one. I’ve never seen such concern in Bob’s face as he answered, “You know what this means.”
What Does It Mean?
It marks a demarcation point after which great change will come to the whole world, including an ultimate meltdown of the economy. It will also be followed by a major quake on the West Coast of the United States.
Of course, when and where on the west coast that this major quake is going to hit are important questions. Bob was not given a timing on this quake but was only told that it would not come before the big one he had been shown in Japan. Now it can come. However, this does not necessarily mean that it is immediate. It could come today, or it could still be years away. We are praying that it still will be delayed so that everyone who will hear the warning, and should move, will be able to do this in an orderly way.
This does not mean that everyone there, even those who may be near ground zero, should move. Some may be called by God to stay and be used during this impending catastrophe. However, until now, we have counseled all who asked if they should leave the West Coast not to do this unless they heard from the Lord to do so. Now we will begin counseling everyone to leave unless they hear from the Lord to stay.
Until now, I have prayed for leaders who would have the understanding, wisdom, and courage to make the changes needed to avoid this economic meltdown. Now I am praying for leaders with the understanding, wisdom, and courage to lead us through what is now inevitable.
The Nature of Prophecy
As we are told in I Corinthians 13, we see in part, know in part, and prophesy in part. No one has the whole picture, so to get the whole picture, we need to put the parts together. This is why in the Scriptures that say such things as in Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets,” it is always plural, not just a single prophet. No one prophet, or prophetic movement, has the whole revelation. That is a major reason why we need each other.
We know many prophetically gifted people who have seen different aspects of this major quake coming. I do not know anyone at this writing who has what I consider to be a trustworthy timing on it. We will seek to compile these prophecies and share anything we feel is important in future Special Bulletins. As we are told in Proverbs 4:18, “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” It is as we walk and as we need it that the Lord tends to give us more insight. I am just sharing what we do have now.
What Will the Economic Meltdown Look Like?
It can mean many things, but one thing it does not mean is the end of the world, and it does not have to be the end of America as a free Republic. We can emerge from this stronger and better than ever, even economically stronger and better. However, we are entering some of the most dangerous times we have ever had to navigate. Without the right leadership and the right resolve of the nation, which will only come by the grace of God, we can also fall to a terrible tyranny.
Two aspects of this meltdown that I have confidence in is the dollar losing its value with bartering being the currency for a period of time, and that there will be a time when banks are closed and what we have deposited in them will not be available. Obviously, if the dollar has lost its value, we would not even bother to get out what we have deposited in the banks, so it does not seem that these will come at the same time. It could also be that things of value we have deposited in safety deposit boxes will not be reachable.
A Deadly Delusion
In II Timothy 4:3-4, we are given a most sobering warning:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires;
and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
One of the greatest weaknesses of American Christians is the way that so many have been conditioned against hearing anything they perceive to be negative. They have become the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy above. Many of these have already paid a terrible price for their delusion, and we do have a sure hope that through anything which comes, we can have unshakable peace and joy in the Lord. Even so, very difficult times are coming upon us in which the wise can be prepared and can prevail. These can actually be the most prosperous times for those who are the wisest. The wise win souls, which is why the next verse in II Timothy states: “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
This is going to be the greatest time of harvest of all time. Our preparation needs to be far more devoted to the spiritual than the natural. We can’t just hoard for ourselves, but we must think about how we can be the salt and light we are called to be in anything that happens.
Change has to come. Many of the basic underpinnings of a strong and lasting economy that our nation was founded upon have been abandoned. This has kept us on the edge of the cliff in a most dangerous place for a long time. There has been no strength or resolve in our leadership to make the difficult but necessary decisions to begin moving us away from the cliff. Before the quake hit, fear had begun rising that the Japanese economy, which had been on the edge for nearly two decades, simply could not hold out much longer and would very soon slide off the cliff. This would cause the others who were tottering to go down too. Again, this crisis was impending even before the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown.
Based on the sure evidence of Scripture, in everything that we see like this, we believe that with prayer and repentance these things can be avoided. One example of this was how Nineveh was spared after Jonah had prophesied their doom. For years, we have been praying that there would be the kind of awakening and repentance that would enable us to avoid this whole scenario. However, we also knew that when the quake hit in Japan, these were no longer going to be avoided. Therefore, our strategy has changed from trying to wake up the church so that it would not have to happen, to trying to get God’s people ready for it. We can still pray for the Lord’s mercy and grace through them. The Lord does prefer mercy over judgment, but there is a time when judgment is inevitable, and we have now crossed that Rubicon.
Judgment Is Mercy
A number of different judgments of God are in Scripture—only one is condemnation and only one is destruction. The rest are discipline from the Lord for those He loves. We should be far more afraid if we go without His discipline. The discipline that is about to come to our nation is because He loves us. We are told in I Corinthians 11:31 that if we would judge ourselves, He would not have to judge us. That would be even better, and He has given us much time to do this, but now He is going to have to help us.
The Right Path
As we have already quoted from Proverbs 4:18, if we are on the right path, our lives should be getting brighter and brighter. This does not mean that we will not have trials, but that we should be able to see them with increasing clarity, and we should be able to see where our feet should go with increasing light. This is true for those who are on the path of the righteous regardless of the circumstances. If this is not what is happening in your life, you have missed a turn somewhere. In the Lord, the wrong road never turns into the right road. If we have missed a turn, the only thing we can do is to return to where we missed the turn and get back on the right road. That is called “repentance.”
Through everything that is coming we must live by faith and not be controlled by fear. Unstable and immature people will receive just about any warning with fear and that cannot be helped. Some believe their presumption is faith, and that because they believe it, nothing bad will happen. We cannot let such people control us either.
America and many other nations have drifted from sound doctrine. This includes sound economic policy in ways that cannot be sustained. It would have been much easier to correct these bad practices before a collapse, and we will now have to do it in the midst of much greater challenges. However, it can still be done. America has a destiny that we have not yet fulfilled. God has not given up on us, but we could go no further in the direction we have been going.
The inevitable economic unraveling may not happen all at once. It may not become manifest immediately that it is happening. In recent times, our leaders have become very good at disguising the true condition we’re in. They may be doing this with good intentions, just not wanting to cause panic to those who could not do anything about the situation anyway, while they find a way out. They may be disguising the truth because they do not understand it themselves. Either way, what is happening in the world economy seems to be a striking parallel to the way the Japanese government has been trying to deal with the nuclear crisis—they’re telling us one thing but the instruments are telling us something else. They seem to get one fire under control and another worse one breaks out—the meltdown continues and we keep finding out that things are really much worse than they’ve been telling us.
Again, as a pastor and as a watchman, my strategy has now changed from praying and seeking to intercede with our leaders to make the necessary changes, to helping God’s people prepare to go through the collapse that is now inevitable. How do we prepare?
The Opportunity of Crisis
It is noteworthy that the same Chinese word for “crisis” is the same word for opportunity. This may truly be the greatest opportunity we have ever had. As we see in Daniel 2, when the statue that represents the kingdoms of this world begins to collapse, then the little rock that struck at the feet of this statue will begin to grow into a mountain, which in Scripture often represents government. Then that rock keeps on growing until it fills the entire earth. The kingdom of God that the Lord has had His people praying for these last two thousand years is also inevitable. It is surely coming, and we can live in it now.
As the governments of this world collapse, God’s government will become more manifest. As the economies of this world collapse, God’s economy will become more manifest. The kingdom will not fully come until the King returns, but a job that He left for His people to do before He returned was to preach the gospel, or good news, of His coming kingdom. We do have good news to share, not bad.
In Isaiah 40, we are called to help prepare the way for His kingdom by building a highway. This highway is the road on which His kingdom will come. This highway will bring the other mountains and hills down, and it will raise up the valleys and low places. The entire chapter gives a good panorama of what is happening in the nations right now.
When Israel was taken into exile into Babylon, the Lord gave a remarkable counsel to His people through Jeremiah:
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,
‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens, and eat their produce.
‘Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.
‘Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare’” (Jeremiah 29:4-7)
In a sense, Christians, who are citizens of another kingdom, have likewise been in exile waiting for their redemption and the kingdom of God to come. It is the right thing to do to seek the welfare of whatever nation we have been called to live in, and to put down roots there as Israel was counseled above. However, God’s people are also to be a distinct and separate people in many ways and were not to defile themselves with the immorality, perversions, and idolatry of Babylon. Those in exile were to maintain their devotion to the laws that God had given them to make them a distinct people for His purposes. The same is true of Christians. Being a part of our nation and seeking its good, while building our own homes and families, does not mean that we compromise the basic teachings of the kingdom.
Those who have lived by kingdom economic principles have built on a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and they will not be shaken when everything else is. If we have not obeyed the Lord in this, and have foolishly built our estates by the principles of the world instead of the principles of the kingdom, there is still hope. We can repent, be forgiven, and be restored to a right foundation. This does not mean that we will not suffer or will not lose what was built on a wrong foundation, but we still can recover and build on a right foundation. We can do this personally and nationally.
What will the economic meltdown look like? Hebrews 12:25-29 states it quite clearly:
See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.”
And this expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;
for our God is a consuming fire.
The coming economic meltdown will be the removal of everything that is not built on the kingdom principles that cannot be shaken. Many of the founding principles of our nation and our free market system were kingdom principles. We must return to those as a nation, and we must return to them personally.
We are told in Psalm 89:14 and other places that “righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” Righteousness is doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. God’s justice requires fair and equitable treatment of all people, judging issues by one standard for all, regardless of their station in life. It was the American devotion to these basic truths that enabled the greatest economic engine in history to be built here. It has been a departure from these basic principles that has caused every major problem we’re now facing as a nation. We must have a national repentance.
In the Lord’s teaching about those who build their houses on the rock rather than on sand, we are told several things that are crucial for the times we’re now in. First, the storms beat against both houses, but only the house built on the rock would stand. The storms are coming, but if we have built well we will stand.
To build on the rock, we must hear the words of the Lord, and then we have to obey them. As we are told in other places, hearing His words and not obeying them is to bring an even more severe judgment. I have been a Christian for forty years now, and from the time I was converted, I remember hearing warnings about the times that we’re now in. The Lord has spoken loudly, clearly, and abundantly. Many heard, but it does not seem that as many have obeyed.
In many ways, I have been guilty of this too, and I have paid the price for it. Even so, in every case where I have seen it, humbled myself and repented, not trying to cover up or make excuses, His grace has been abundant. I went through a bankruptcy and lost virtually everything I had spent years and great effort building, and two years later, I came out in an even better place.
His grace is still available for us personally and nationally. We will suffer loss if we have done this, and we can expect to go through some hard times. However, if we repent, turning away from our sins, resolving to live in obedience to Him, we can expect to emerge in a much better place. As we are assured in Romans 14:17, “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” It will come in this order too. When we do what is righteous, it will be followed by true peace, which will be followed by true joy.
How long has it been since you’ve known true peace? How about true joy? These are in your future. Now is the time to set our hearts and minds to obey the Lord and to repent of and correct every way that is not in obedience to Him. If we are going to live in His kingdom, building our lives on that which cannot be shaken and can withstand any storm that comes upon this earth, then we must begin by resolving to live by the key to the kingdom, which we are given in
Matthew 6:33-34:
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things will be added to you.
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Christians who are now living, working, or even going to church in the wrong places are there because they made major decisions based on what they wanted or what others wanted them to do, rather than seeking first what the Lord wanted them to do for the sake of His kingdom. To seek His kingdom first, means much more than firing up a prayer here and there for Him to guide us, and then go and immediately do what we want to do. It requires seeking Him until we find Him. When it takes longer than we think it should take to find Him, it could be because we have drifted so far from Him.
Now is the time to do whatever it takes to get in the will of the Lord. There will be an increasingly high price to pay for those who are not. There will be increasing peace and joy for those who are. I am covering these prophecies and the questions arising from them in greater detail in our video Special Bulletins posted on our website at www.morningstartv.com. We would also appreciate you sending in any questions that you have or any revelations that you have had about these same issues. Please include permission for us to use these along with your contact information. Email these to: info@morningstarministries.org.