Are We Headed For Economic Disaster?

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question: Dear Dave, I remember back in the 80’s when I read, Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust, that you believed that the so-called financial doomsday prognosticators were wrong in predicting worldwide economic upheaval.As I remember, you based your view on the scriptures, specifically the verses that pointed to the time of Noah before the flood, when people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, just before the flood came and Noah entered the Ark. Do you still hold to that view, especially now that we are facing not only economic collapse because of our National debt, but pending terrorist attacks as well? Any one of these things could make the Great Depression look like a holiday.

Dave:

Well, Tom, I—the Bible hasn’t changed, so they’ve been talking about this for a long time, the collapse of the dollar. Now the Euro is going up, has been going up against the dollar, but these things go in cycles as well.Canadian dollar is almost par now with the American dollar, but that could change. How important that is, and I know that there are Bible teachers and economists who talk about the debt. I don’t understand this National debt. I don’t know how to put together—you know, I’m a CPA, but I still don’t know how to put together private assets, and so forth. It seems that foreign countries, the Chinese and so forth, still want to buy U. S. Treasury notes.U. S. Treasury notes are the soundest investment in the world, last I knew, I’m not the expert but if anyone who read that book—when was that, ’85 I think?

Tom:

Eighty-five was Seduction of Christianity, so I think it was prior to that.

Dave:

OH, it was ’83, and as I recall, the Dow Jones Industrial average was around 700.

Tom:

You know I was going to look that up, because I couldn’t believe lately when I heard you say that, I couldn’t believe it, but it’s true. What’s it at now, 10,000 or something?

Dave:

No, no, it’s 13.5, somewhere around there, maybe 13.7, I don’t know.

Tom:

In the double digits.

Dave:

So, had you followed my advice, (laughs) which I didn’t do myself, I’m not into those kinds of investments, we don’t have the funds to do it anyway, but the prognosticators, all the experts in fact, were saying, You’re going to crash! And almost like the words of this letter, it’s going to make 1929 look like a Sunday school picnic. By the way, I was just reading about Sir John Marks Templeton, and what he did—but this was a, I think, a little bit later, it wasn’t ’29 but ’37, something like that, this is in the depth of the depression. He invested some money, he bought 100 shares of every stock on the New York Exchange that was selling for less than a dollar. I mean, this is the bottom, and it wasn’t long before he began to have a profit, and if you imagine, these same stocks are around, now they are selling for hundreds of dollars. If you think of the splits, the stock splits they’ve had—I’m not giving anybody advice out there, it goes up and down.

Tom:

Well anyway, look at all the good he did with that money, talk about a heretic.

Dave:

It eventually comes back unless there’s going to be a total collapse of the American economy, and then it wouldn’t do you any good if you had it in a bank or in gold, or whatever. So, in those days, I recall, the unsold houses,we’re in kind of a situation like that right now, it was just unbelievable, the houses for rent, I think there were 80,000 in the LA area, unoccupied dwellings, and you couldn’t give them away. All the books in the book stores, Christian book stores, The Collapse of the Dollar, The Attack of Russia on Israel, that was the big news, these were the popular books. And I simply went by the Bible, because I said, Well, I don’t think so, because the Bible—Jesus said: As it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot.Now He’s not talking about the evil, it was very evil, everyone knows that, that’s not what He’s emphasizing. Says they were eating and drinking and buying and selling—

Tom:

Marrying and giving in marriage.

Dave:

—and building and planning and, you know, partying. It doesn’t sound to me like an International financial collapse. Now, that we may be on the brink of this, that’s another subject, but at least, this is the condition that would exist at the Rapture. Well, the Bible hasn’t changed, I still think that this is the condition. I think people are better off now, they’ve got more cars, nicer houses, and bigger salaries of course. So, they are probably in better financial condition now than they were then. Now what is ultimately going to happen? It will all be destroyed, but this is in the great tribulation. So I think the coming of Christ is near, I’m looking for the Rapture, I sure hope so.

Tom:

Me too.

Dave:

But, this is what? Over twenty years ago, twenty-four years ago. My first chapter was titled, A Contrary Scenario. Ergonomics, I said, is going to work, Russia is not going to invade Israel, we’re not going to have this International financial collapse, not yet, not before the Rapture. Well, I think that’s what the Bible says, and so I’ll stand on that right now, and nothing has changed.

Tom:

And we’ll see, if we’re still around.

Dave:

If we’re still here and if the opposite happens, I don’t think you could have the opposite happen from what Jesus said. So, unreasonable or whatever, I’ll just stick with Jesus. Unless my understanding is totally wrong, I think it’s pretty straightforward.