Ready Ourselves
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth no to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”. (2 Tim: 2:15)
Whenever I think back to that day of September 27, 1979 when I addressed the Conference Board of Canada’s Annual Business Outlook Conference and with the greatest of confidence, predicted that Western Canada, anyway, enjoyed unstoppable growth and prosperity. I cringe at how wrong I had been! I just didn’t properly factor in the two (I’s), that is, interest rates and runaway inflation. But both spiralled upwards in 1980; it is still difficult to visualize mortgage rates in the high 19’s or bank prime rates hovering in the low 20’s, or what followed, the onset of the 1981-82 recession, the then worst economic downturn in Canada, the United States and elsewhere since the Great Depression. In America, it was determined that three-fourths of all job losses in the goods-producing sector were in manufacturing, and the residential construction industry and auto manufacturers ended the year with 22 percent and 24 percent unemployment, respectively. Everywhere, small business was decimated, mortgage foreclosures mushroomed, and bankruptcies were considered the only way out for growing numbers of individuals and business entities.
Now, let us go ahead from 1980 to 2020 and while interest rates and inflation are not a factor this time around (so far) they have been replaced by a Covid pandemic and lockdowns of a brutal nature. Government programs have cushioned the blow to some extent, but they are covering up true statistics of just how bad our economic prospects may turn out. Here we are, in 2021, interest rates and inflation are slowly promising to be another one-two punch, while the true effect of the Covid disaster, including, as many today believe, the possible adverse effects of the vaccine cure, are yet to be clearly realized. Forty years apart!
Does the number 40 mean anything from a Biblical standpoint? Well, Bible scholars E.W. Bullinger and Ed Vallowe, both through long years of study, determined that “the number 40 has long been universally recognized as an important number, both on account of the frequency of its occurrence, and the uniformity of its association with a period of probation, trial and chastisement”. Just one example he employs is the 40 years of probation of Israel in the wilderness (Deut. 8:2-5), but how about this one from Numbers 14:34, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise”.
Firstly, did we of true Israel come out of the probation in 2021 successfully? It doesn’t seem so! The very term means, “the release of an offender from detention”. Well, we were falling away from God’s Laws, etc. in 1981 and if you carefully look at 2021, you will have to say that we have even fallen much further. How about the term “trial”? It appears we failed there too! The term stands for a formal examination of evidence before a judge, and typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings. I am certain the great judge is shaking His Head as to how much further we have descended into evil since 1981. Finally, chastisement! In a Biblical sense, it can describe physical punishment and with the pandemic still underway, predictions of different stains on the way, lockdowns, church and school closings, and on and on, we certainly feel the punishment. Then to, the bullying, mostly verbal to date, to those refusing the vaccine, is indicative of a form of chastisement. So, in looking at the entire picture, True Israel has done nothing to be released from probation, from trial or from chastisement. Just look at the great media war against the Caucasian peoples, mainly True Israel, throughout America and you realize that any release will certainly not come internally.
One of our readers pointed out that my articles on the seven prophetic hours, particularly the seventh, seem to suggest we are going to be saved. And that is right! But I believe the rescue will take place sometime in the eighth prophetic hour of 15 years; again, eight standing for a new beginning. If you recall my comments on the seven periods, you will remember that throughout each 15-year period, there has been a tremendous transfer of wealth and freedoms to the dark forces. And that this present prophetic hour will see more wealth and freedoms confiscated than during the previous six periods combined. The seventh hour has approximately two years to run so, sadly, we must ready ourselves for the possible greatest tribulation the Israel nations have ever experienced. Maybe it will come from an economic disaster, maybe war, or a combination of both. Certainly, events around the globe, particular in Russia, China and the Middle East suggest the possibility. Even the almost forced Covid vaccinations might play some sort of sinister part in this evil plot against God’s People, indeed, against the Lord God Almighty Himself.
The prophet Isaiah wrote these words in Chapter 26:20, “Come, my people [Christians], enter thou into thy chambers [come under the Blood of Christ and be protected]. Isaiah goes on to then warn that the Lord will return to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity …. It may take place at the end of the seventh week, maybe the beginning of the eighth prophetic hour or perhaps sometime during the 15 year period ..…” But it will happen! As the Apostle Paul said (1 Thess. 5:1) we can identify the seasons. Yet, we do not know the actual date. But, if all the sudden in the next couple of years, we witness the economic collapse, or a nation like China following through with their threats of war against America, then brothers and sisters, ready yourselves. Be happy you are under the Blood of Christ and pray that your unbelieving brethren will come to Christ before it is too late. I love this verse from Philippians 4:4-8 “Always be joyful, then, in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful. Let your good sense be obvious to everybody. The Lord is near”.
