Surviving & Thriving in Economic Hard Times by Applying the Laws of Biblical Economics

Yesterday I heard that the U.S. economy is down some 36 percent year to date. This means that many millions of people in America are out of work and are struggling financially. My heart goes out to them. On the other hand, my business (a tree care company) is booming. We have never been so blessed financially. How long will this last? I don’t know. What can we learn from this? I will share my thoughts below.

In 2014 when I was pastoring our local congregation, I gave a sermon about how not only to survive, but to thrive in the economic hard times that the Bible prophesies are coming in the last days. The key to surviving and thriving was based on solid biblical principles and walking in a trusting and obedient relationship with Elohim and abiding continually in Yeshua the Messiah. I made a video of this sermon which is hopefully still on our YouTube channel. Nevertheless below are the updated notes from the talk that I gave at that time.

Truly, YHVH has been faithful to our family in these difficult times. It is humbling and we are grateful. This doesn’t mean that we don’t expect to go through some trying economic times ourselves, and we are actively preparing for this. In the mean time, however, we have seen the hand of Elohim at work in our lives in some truly amazing ways as we have endeavored to follow the principles which I will share with you below. For YHVH’s merciful grace, we give him all the glory. May you be blessed as you hear and obey him as well!


The Bible Prophecies Economic Hard Times in the End Times

Just prior to the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah, Scriptures warns the end times generation about the events that will transpire globally. The student of the Bible and disciple of Yeshua would do well to heed these warning and to prepare for the events that are to come.

Here are several such biblical prophecies:

  • Revelation chapters 13 and 18 is an end times prophecy about a new world order that Scripture refers to as Babylon the Great. There we read that men will be slaves to a global, fascistic, collectivistic, oligarchic economic system that will control their lives and even determine who is able to buy or sell, that is, to survive economically.
  • Revelation chapter six speaks about the famous four horsemen of the apocalypse. One aspect of this prophecy is economic woes which also includes war, famine and disease.
  • In Matthew 24, Yeshua declares that as it was in the days of Noah prior to the flood, so shall it be just before his second coming. That is to say that life will continue with some degree of normalcy, even though the book of Revelation’s prophesies that there will be economic privation along with wars, famines, disease pandemics, and some sort of a global totalitarian governmental system among other things.

In light of what the Bible tells us is coming prior to the second advent of Yeshua the Messiah, how can we prepare ourselves to survive these economical dark times?

Obeying YHVH’s Torah Brings Blessings

The Bible teaches one thing over and over again: obedience to the word, instructions and commandments of Elohim not only is the right thing to do, but it brings blessings from heaven. To disobey (called sin) brings curses. A wise person will obey YHVH’s Torah-instructions in righteousness (that is, to diligently hearken unto the voice of YHVH and follow his Word) so that YHVH can bless a person. When we disobey his instructions (called sin) we bring curses upon ourselves (read Proverbs chapters one through four). If one is living contrary to the Torah-word of Elohim, now is the time to repent of Torahlessness or sin, turn back to wisdom and righteousness and get back into alignment with the Word of Elohim, so that he can bless you. When we are walking in obedience to YHVH’s instructions as revealed in the Bible, we will be living in YHVH’s spiritual river of life where there is safety from harm danger along with blessings and provision. The Scriptures are clear on this:

  • Exodus 15:26, YHVH promises good health to those who obey his commandments. 
  • Leviticus 26:3–13 and Deuteronomy 28:1–14, YHVH promises a multitude blessings for obedience to his commandments (see also Deut 7:12–15).

The World’s Philosophy Versus Biblical Principles

Experiencing YHVH’s blessings and provision in times of difficulty involves the saint living in accordance with YHVH’s kingdom principles of prosperity and blessings. Often these principles are the opposite of what the world practices and what we as humans are naturally inclined to think and do. For example…

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Is This Why Central Banks Are Rushing To Buy Gold?

From Alt-Market.com at http://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/4057-is-this-why-central-banks-are-rushing-to-buy-gold

Friday, 10 January 2020 04:24 Brandon Smith

This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Birch Gold Group

Gold has seen an impressive price spike in the past 18 months, and if you are wondering what the cause is, you’ll find almost everyone has a different theory. That said, certain factors in historic gold rallies tend to be ignored. For example, the mainstream financial media often hyper focuses on stimulus measures by the Federal Reserve as the cause, but I would remind people that the most recent upward trend in gold started while the Fed was tightening liquidity and raising interest rates, not stimulating. Also, many analysts suggest that precious metals absorb investment cash flows when equities are sliding.  Yet, for now, stocks have been rallying for the past year as gold prices also trend upward. So, what is the mainstream missing here?

First and foremost, it’s important to understand that gold is not necessarily just an inflation hedge; it is also a crisis hedge. As economic and geopolitical uncertainty grows, gold prices skyrocket. The past decade has seen uncertainty and instability that the world has not seen for almost a century. The problem is, the average American is oblivious to this state of affairs. They have no idea how bad the situation can get, as they assume there are checks and balances to counter any potential disaster in the financial structure. They assume that the government or the banks will step in.

However, there are signals that tell us that this will not be the case. In fact, it appears that central banks around the world are preparing for an event that they either cannot quantify yet or simply refuse to warn the public about. This is evident in the acceleration in gold stockpiling by banking institutions.

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The Fraud of Diverse Weights and Measures

Finger an der Waage

Deuteronomy 25:13–16, Different weights. When the Torah was written there was no money. Coinage originated around 600 B.C., about 1000 years after the Torah was written.

Prior to coinage, people carried around nuggets of gold and silver and a certain amount would be weighed out using stone weights as a counter balance. Dishonest merchants would carry two sets of stones: a heavy and a light stone. If a stone was represented as weighing one shekel the dishonest merchant would have a stone weighing more than a shekel for cheating a seller when buying goods, and one weighing less than a shekel for cheating a buyer when selling a good.

What are some modern parallels of dishonest weights and measures? For example, at your job, do you charge your employer for eight hours when in reality you only worked seven and three quarters? Do you give an honest day’s work to your employer or clients (if self-employed)?

How many times have you gone to the store to buy some ice cream or a can of juice and you get home and you read the label and it’s a now a smaller volume or weight than before, but for the same price? How about a box of cereal or chips? The box is large, but in reality it is only half full. The rest is air. This is a form of false advertising. You pay more and get less.

The deception of false weights and measures comes in many forms. Inflation is another example. Your money is worth less and less as time goes on. This is due to the fraudulent practices of the greedy mega-bankers who control the world economies. The list goes on of examples of diverse weights and measures. This is how most of the mega-rich get become wealthy—by cheating others. But the rich aren’t the only ones guilty of this sin.


 

Woe be to a false religious and economic system that are in bed together!

Matthew 21:12, Temple of Elohim…money changers. With the same violence that Yeshua threw out those who loved money from YHVH’s temple, we must cleanse the temple of our spirits by expelling from our souls the love of money, which is the root of all evil (1 Tim 6:10).

At his second coming, Yeshua will destroy the fruitless, end times whore system of banking and religion.

At his second coming, Yeshua will destroy the fruitless, end times whore system of banking and religion.

In this event, Yeshua is coming against the rapacious banking system of the nation of Israel, which was centered around the temple, which was the storehouse of the nation’s wealth. This evil banking system continues to this day and is run by a cabal of global elitists who control the governments and economies of this world for their own benefit. Often the religious and banking systems are united at some level, since both are motivated by the love of money and power. At the highest levels, neither care for the welfare or well-being of the common man — especially the poor and helpless who have little power, wealth, voice and influence. At Yeshua’s second coming, he will suddenly come to his Continue reading


 

Is the Next Economic Crisis Coming…Maybe This Fall?

I believe that economic judgments are about to come on America and the rest of the world. I don’t know when this will occur, but we’ve seen indications of it here and there for quite some time if you’re paying attention. Economic crisis is the one thing that will affect the whole world perhaps more than anything else (e.g. natural disasters, wars, terrorism, famine, disease, etc.). America (along with other so-called Christian nations) is ripe for economic judgment. We’ve worshipped at the foot of the golden calf of greed, money and materialism for a long time now. America has forgotten who made it great. The god that America now trusts in is money, and not the God of the Bible. YHVH wants to wake Christians up worldwide, and it is my convictions that economic crisis will be one of the main ways he will do it. Go read Revelation 18!

Natan

Check this out:

From http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/copper-china-and-world-trade-are-all-screaming-that-the-next-economic-crisis-is-here/.

Copper, China And World Trade Are All Screaming That The Next Economic Crisis Is Here

Trouble ahead concept, Businessman with umbrella standing in the

If you are looking for a “canary in a coal mine” type of warning for the entire global economy, you have a whole bunch to pick from right now.  “Dr. Copper” just hit a six year low, Morgan Stanley is warning that this could be the worst oil price crash in 45 years, the Chinese economy is suddenly stalling out, and world trade is falling at the fastest pace that we have seen since the last financial crisis.  In order not to see all of the signs that are pointing toward a global economic slowdown, you would have to be willingly blind.  In recent months, I have been writing article after article detailing how the exact same patterns that happened just before the stock market crash of 2008 are playing out once again.  We are watching a slow-motion train wreck unfold right before our eyes, and things are only going to get worse from here.

Copper is referred to as “Dr. Copper” because it does such an excellent job of indicating where economic conditions are heading next.  We saw this in 2008, when the price of copper started crashing big time in the months leading up to the stock market implosion.

Well, now copper is crashing again.  Just check out this chart.  The price of copper plunged again on Wednesday, and it is now the lowest that it has been since the last financial crisis.  Unfortunately, the forecast for the months ahead is not good.  The following is what Goldman Sachs is saying about copper…

“Though we have been bearish on copper on a 12-mo forward basis for the past two and a half years, we have maintained a more bullish medium to long-term stance on the assumption of Chinese copper demand growth of 4% per annum and a major slowing in supply growth around 2017/2018 … we substantially lower our short, medium, and long-term copper price forecasts, on the back of lower Chinese copper demand growth forecasts (we have been highlighting that the risk has been skewed to the downside for some time), increased conviction in copper supply growth over the next three years, and increased conviction in the outlook for mining cost deflation in dollar terms.”

It is funny that Goldman mentioned China so prominently.  Even though China’s fake GDP figures say that everything is fine over there, other numbers are painting a very dismal picture.

For instance, Chinese electrical consumption in June grew at the slowest pace that we have seen in 30 years, and capital outflows from China have reached a level that is “frightening”

Robin Brooks at Goldman Sachs estimates that capital outflows topped $224bn in the second quarter, a level “beyond anything seen historically”.

The Chinese central bank (PBOC) is being forced to run down the country’s foreign reserves to defend the yuan. This intervention is becoming chronic. The volume is rising. Mr Brooks calculates that the authorities sold $48bn of bonds between March and June.

Charles Dumas at Lombard Street Research says capital outflows – when will we start calling it capital flight? – have reached $800bn over the past year. These are frighteningly large sums of money.

Just last month, the Chinese stock market started to crash, but the crash was interrupted when the Chinese government essentially declared a form of financial martial law.

And I don’t think that “financial martial law” is too strong of a term to use in this case.  Just consider the following excerpt from a recent article in the Telegraph

Half the shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen were suspended. New floats were halted. Some 300 corporate bosses were strong-armed into buying back their own shares. Police state tactics were used hunt down short sellers.

We know from a vivid account in Caixin magazine that China’s top brokers were shut in a room and ordered to hand over money for an orchestrated buying blitz. A target of 4,500 was set for the Shanghai Composite by Communist Party officials.

So a stock market crash was halted, but in doing so Chinese officials have essentially destroyed the second largest stock market in the world.  China’s financial markets have lost all legitimacy, and foreigners are going to be extremely hesitant to put any money into Chinese stocks from now on.

Meanwhile, there is no hiding the fact that trade activity in China and in most of the rest of the planet is slowing down.  In fact, world trade volume has now dropped by the most that we have seen since the last global recession.  The following comes from Zero Hedge

As goes the world, so goes America (according to 30 years of historical data), and so when world trade volumes drop over 2% (the biggest drop since 2009) in the last six months to the weakest since June 2014, the “US recession imminent” canary in the coalmine is drawing her last breath

World-Trade-Volume-Zero-Hedge-460x232

As Wolf Street’s Wolf Richter addsthis isn’t stagnation or sluggish growth. This is the steepest and longest decline in world trade since the Financial Crisis. Unless a miracle happened in June, and miracles are becoming exceedingly scarce in this sector, world trade will have experienced its first back-to-back quarterly contraction since 2009.

As you probably noted in the chart above, a decline in world trade is almost always associated with a recession.

That was certainly the case back in 2008 and 2009.

Another similarity between the last crisis and what is happening now is a crash in the price of oil.

According to Business Insider, we have just officially entered a brand new bear market for oil…

Oil is officially in a bear market.

On Thursday, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell more than 1% to settle near $48.55 per barrel in New York.

A bear market is roughly defined as a 20% drop from highs. Crude has now fallen by about 20% in the last six weeks.

So what does all of this mean?

All of these signs are indicating that another great economic crisis is here, and that a global financial implosion is just around the corner.

At this point, even many of the “bulls” are sounding the alarm.  For example, just consider what Henry Blodget of Business Insider is saying…

As regular readers know, for the past ~21 months I have been worrying out loud about US stock prices. Specifically, I have suggested that a decline of 30% to 50% would not be a surprise.

I haven’t predicted a crash. But I have said clearly that I think stocks will deliver returns that are way below average for the next seven to 10 years. And I certainly won’t be surprised to see stocks crash. So don’t say no one warned you!

For those that don’t know, Henry Blodget is definitely not a bear.  In fact, he is one of Wall Street’s biggest cheerleaders.

So for Blodget to suggest that we could see the stock market drop by half is a really big deal.

The closer that we get to this next crisis, the clearer that everything is becoming.

Where are things going to go from here?  Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…


Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and has a law degree and an LLM from the University of Florida Law School. He is an attorney that has worked for some of the largest and most prominent law firms in Washington D.C. and who now spends his time researching and writing and trying to wake the American people up. You can follow his work on The Economic Collapse blogEnd of the American Dream and The Truth Wins. His new novel entitled “The Beginning Of The End” is now available on Amazon.com.


 

Judgment on America: Economic House of Cards About to Collapse

I invite you to watch this video where Dr. Ron Paul very simply and articulately explains America’s current economic plight and the impending consequences of it. His 30 or so minute talk is a real bucket of cold water in the face!

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The later part of his talk becomes an infomercial. I’m not posting this video to promote that. I’m only interested in Dr. Paul’s analysis of America’s current economic condition up to the point where his talk turns into an infomercial.

As a watchman on the wall, I’ve seen what Dr. Paul talks about coming for nearly 40 years. It as at age 18 that I began to take steps to protect myself financially from the crisis Dr. Paul is predicting. Too many people have the idea that nothing bad can happen to America, and that the good times will continue to keep rolling on. This is blind and ignorant optimism. Such a mentality flies in the face of the past history of nations and economies who have faced similar situations.

In the past on this blog, I have shared about the judgments I see coming on America and the rest of the Western so-called Christian nations because they have turned their back of Elohim and the Bible. I’ve even shared scriptures that I believe prophesy this. Economic collapse is just one — albeit a large one —aspect of YHVH’s judgment against his people to bring them back to him.

The purpose of this blog is to do my part to help bring a few of YHVH’s people back to him spiritually. It’s a tiny effort and touches only a few lives, but every bit helps. Here’s the video link: https://orders.cloudsna.com/chain?cid=MKT033949&eid=MKT055370&snaid=&step=start##AST03347