Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust (Sneak Peek)

PEACE, PROSPERITY AND THE COMING HOLOCAUST

Chapter 1

A Contrary Scenario

Peddling gloom and doom has become a huge and prosperous business.  Investment advisors have made fortunes frightening millions of people with their solemn warnings about the "death of the dollar" and the "collapse of the world financial system."  Self-proclaimed "experts" at peering into the future, from psychic seers to social scientists and Christian fundamentalists, warn of spreading famine compounded by the population explosion and the alarming loss of farming land by erosion and pollution.  We are told that cataclysmic upheavals of the land and oceans will soon change major coastlines, wiping out large cities at the cost of billions of dollars and millions of lives.  Even the CIA has gotten into the act, predicting that capriciously changing weathers patterns will so disrupt production of major crops that the end of this decade could well see hordes of starving people marching across continents in search of food.  

Ecologists add their dire predictions to the thickening gloom: that our oceans and lakes are dying and even earth's atmosphere is being polluted beyond remedy.  Scientific studies warn that earth is running out of potable water and that complete ecological collapse could come with surprising suddenness.  According to some experts, the only thing that may save us from completing the gradual destruction of planet earth is a nuclear holocaust.  This horrifying prospect is persuasively presented as all but inevitable by the dual argument that: 1) no hope remains to stop the daily and insane continued production and deployment of more and more nuclear weapons (said to be a million times more destructive than the Hiroshima bomb), in spite of the fact that we already have enough to destroy the earth ten times over; and 2) humanity has never failed to use any major weapon it has developed.  

Apocalypse Now?

The only question among the gloom-and-doomers seems to be whether a nuclear or economic holocaust will hit us first.  As to the latter, there is almost unanimous agreement that the world is headed for a repeat performance of the Great Depression of the 1930s, except that this one will be far worse!  The Daily News Digest, a sophisticated investment advisory letter that condenses the important news from many sources, sent out a promotional mailing in October 1982 warning that "the coming economic, cultural and political upheaval could be unequaled in modern history....Remember: erupting deficits, artificially low interest rates, skyrocketing taxes, a falling money supply and a stock market boom were the final warning signs just prior to the crash of 1929...and are now signaling an even more devastating collapse directly ahead!"  At about the same time, the highly regarded weekly investment advisory service International Moneyline issued the following dire predictions:

Reaganomics will fail...it's just about over.  The casino is still open, but the hour is late...we're on the brink of disaster.  

After the financial panic, the economy will fall faster and farther than anyone now expects....the world is headed for an economic abyss and there's literally nothing that anyone can do to stop it....

There never has been a more certain scenario.  

A very similar gloom-and-doom scenario is endorsed by leading international bankers and government agencies.  The annual report of the World Bank, released in August 1982, "painted a gloomy economic picture...the continuing worldwide recession...high and volatile interest rates...and growing debt repayment burdens."¹   The nine largest U.S. banks have a debt exposure to developing countries and Eastern Europe equal to more than twice their total capital; and many of these countries have neither the ability nor the intention to repay, placing the U.S. banking system in jeopardy.  Early in September 1982, Third World leaders of the so-called Group of 24 (developing countries ranging from Algeria to Zaire and including Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, and Argentina) issued a communiqué directed at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.  It warned that the collapse of the entire international monetary system and a worldwide depression were imminent.  In desperation, the IMF took some emergency measures, but the international crisis has only grown worse, with several other countries joining Mexico on the brink of bankruptcy.²

Has Doom and Disaster Been Overdone?

The obvious seldom happens.  Could it be that the disasters everyone fears and talks about will never materialize?  If so, does the future actually hold something even worse?  Or could it be very good?  Under the present conditions, optimism seems a fool's dream.  Yet there is a growing sense that good times lie ahead, and this contrary opinion is held by a number of very perceptive observers.  They reject the almost-unanimous consensus of doom—not out of a commitment to optimism but based upon careful research.  For example, Reason Magazine reporter Kelly Ross discovered that, contrary to popular reports, we're not running out of farm land.  

Top researchers at Rand Corporation are predicting, in spite of much hand-wringing about spreading famine due to a "population explosion," that "declining birthrates [in the United States] and the resulting scarcity of young workers will usher in a boom time of low unemployment and huge gains in real wages."³   The Rand group's surprising conclusion continues: "By the end of this decade, employers will be forced to institute huge wage increases to compete for dwindling numbers of young workers...wage hikes will outstrip inflation, resulting in significantly increased real incomes and purchasing power."⁴

The contrary opinion that good times lie ahead is shared by a growing number of experts.  Robert Muller has been called "the philosopher of the United Nations and its prophet of hope."⁵   Having served the United Nations for 33 years, he has "performed diplomatic missions all over the world and today is Assistant Secretary-General in charge of coordinating the work of the 32 specialized agencies and world programs of the United Nations."⁶   Certainly one of the best-informed men in the world, Muller is convinced that "there will be no third world war between the big powers,"⁷  but instead he believes we are headed for a "new age, a new world...a New Genesis, a true global, God-abiding political, moral, and spiritual renaissance to make this planet at long last what it was always meant to be: the Planet of God."⁸   Though he claims to be a "good Catholic," his "God" is definitely not the personal God of the Bible, but an impersonal "basic cosmic force" residing within everyone and everything, "that impels us to respond to our evolutionary duties and...further ascent."⁹

His vision for a "new age" is shared by many other world leaders, and we will discover in a later chapter exactly what this means.  

Herman Kahn, head of the Hudson Institute, a New York research organization dedicated to predicting the future, declares: "Even with all the problems we now face, mankind and the U.S. have a great future!"  Disagreeing with the prophets of doom, Kahn recently predicted that "...many of the fears plaguing Americans today will be all but forgotten in the coming years."

Based upon his painstaking research, Kahn predicts that: the population explosion will soon fizzle, with the birthrate dropping and the world population stabilizing at about 10 billion; the world is not running out of natural resources, since vast supplies lie untapped in space and in the earth's oceans; we have plenty of energy and will never run out of fossil fuels, since there is enough coal alone to last hundreds of years; in addition to nuclear power, there is also solar energy and thermal heat beneath the earth's surface in an almost-unlimited potential that we have scarcely begun to develop; all of the pollution problems that now seem so serious will eventually be solved; the inflation rate will drop below 5 percent and there will be a worldwide economic boom; computers will be the key to much of the above; and genetic engineering will make food plentiful and cheap by developing new edible plants that can be grown in saltwater.¹⁰

Bear Turns to Bull

In the midst of thickening worldwide gloom, the unbelievable happened in mid-August 1982.  With unemployment in the United States at a post-World-War-Two record and still rising in Europe, Japan, and Canada, millions of Americans suffering from indigestion on a steady diet of gloom-and-doom were caught by surprise.  Wall Street was shivering under a heavy cloud of overwhelmingly bearish sentiment.  The highest percentage of investment advisory services in 40 years was directly warning that the stock market still had a long way to fall.  Led by ace prognosticator Joe Granville, many experts were forecasting a worse crash than the one that shook the Street in 1929.  The Dow Jones averages had been tracing out a series of new lows and looked as though they were heading over the cliff for sure...when suddenly the bear turned into a wild bull. 

Exploding to the upside without warning and for no apparent reason, the market repeatedly broke volume and price records, catapulting the Dow ahead by 18 percent in a few never-to-be-forgotten days.  Everyone was left gasping and the experts were dumbfounded, unable to explain or believe what had happened.  

For months, domestic and world news had bred increasing pessimism.  Hopes for a settlement following the Israeli invasions of Lebanon had sunk to a new low.  In spite of the brave forecasts by the Reagan administration, the recession was worsening, unemployment was still inching higher, and bankruptcies were at a record rate, rivaling even the 1932 worldwide depression.  High interest rates, which were squeezing the economic lifeblood out of the already-anemic veins of American industry, labor, and consumers looked to be heading back up again higher than ever.  Then suddenly, without any warning, the news began sounding too good to be true.  On August 18, 1982, the front pages of major newspapers around the country trumpeted headlines and unexpected stories that marked a turning point.  

For example, page 1 of the Los Angeles Times carried lead articles with such titles as "‘END OF SORROWS' NEAR, LEBANESE PREMIER SAYS"; and "STOCKS SET RECORD FOR ONE-DAY GAIN, Dow Leaps 38.81 Points In Wall Street Optimism Over Falling Interest Rates."

In what appeared to be a sudden and complete reversal of his previous position, Mark Skousen, a leading gloom-and-doomer, declared in a promotional mailer in August 1982:

Contrary to much popular opinion, President Reagan's economic recovery measures are going to start working—powerfully!  The investment climate will shift sharply before the year's end, and you will have the opportunity to make more money than you ever have before!

Interest rates will drop.  Stocks and bonds will come to the verge of a bull market.  The economy will show surprising strength and may well lead us into a major boom! [emphasis in original].  

Looking back now, August 1982 seemed almost certain to be recognized by historians as one of the most dramatic and sudden reversals of the world economic and political climate in history.  In the depths of the darkest valley of despair, the forgotten flowers of hope suddenly began to bloom once again—though the majority of people still couldn't detect their fragile fragrance.  Oblivious to the continued bad economic news, the deteriorating relations with the Soviet Union, and the ecological collapse on the horizon, not only Wall Street but other stock markets around the world continued to climb higher.  

The Thickening Gloom

Whatever the mysterious surge in stock prices was trying to say, few of the experts were willing to listen.  Skepticism was as rampant as ever.  Most financial prognosticators are still convinced that the unbelievable happenings on Wall Street have been a deceptive flash in the pan that will disappear in a puff of smoke and leave us more thoroughly disillusioned and worse off than ever.  Their arguments are persuasive and their predictions frightening.  An Economic News Review and Financial Digest mailer headlined "How to Survive the 1983 Currency Call-In" warned of the imminent collapse of the American dollar.  The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor allowed a little more time before financial doom.  It predicted that "the most massive" inflationary binge imaginable lies just ahead, which will culminate in "the most devastating inflationary blow-off in U.S. history...plunging this nation and the world into the Depression of 1987-1994.  

The promotional mailer sent out in the fall of 1982 by Gary North's Remnant Review was no less explicit.  Its warnings of economic and financial doom just ahead included the prediction that "President Reagan's economic policies will be completely scrapped as he gets blamed for the worst recession in recent history."  The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor keeps its investors fully informed on events around the world that could affect their investments.  Its recent warnings include the following:

Third World debt is on the verge of wiping out dozens of America's largest banks. 

Terrorists in Africa are even now working towards dominating the world's supply of gold, diamonds and strategic metals. 

Soviet-trained agitators are surfacing once again on U.S. college campuses...for another round of anti-draft, anti-Reagan, anti-nuclear demonstrations—and they've promised to cause even more havoc than their predecessors in the '60s.

The Federal Reserve Board is quietly re-inflating the nation's money supply...guaranteeing another round of high inflation just around the corner. 

The ‘Gromyko Plan,' dormant during the early Reagan presidency, has once again shifted into high gear, virtually assuring the Soviets complete dominance of the Middle East oil fields by 1985.

The Fundamentalist Scenario

Over the last 20 years, fundamentalist writers and preachers have incorporated most of these grim forecasts into their interpretations of Scripture, fueling a growing interest in Bible prophecies about the "last days."  Christians generally believe that the gloom-and-doom-financial-collapse-nuclear-holocaust-is-coming-scenario coincides with the "signs" that Jesus predicted would herald the nearness of His return.  But is this really true?  Perhaps we're overlooking something.  Could the timing and sequence of events be different from what most Christians expect?  

A worldwide economic collapse followed by the greatest war in history and a nuclear holocaust do seem to be prophesied in the Bible.  These events are part of that period described in Scripture as the "Great Tribulation" prophesied for the "last days" that lead up to Armageddon.  However, there are statements in the Bible about the "last days" that just as clearly speak of "peace and safety" and imply great prosperity.  Understanding the timing of end-time events is clearly of primary importance: what comes when, and how?

The voices predicting a worsening of conditions in the months ahead, leading to economic collapse and World War Three, are so numerous, so well-qualified, and so persuasive that it seems foolish to adopt any other view.  And so many events unfolding in the world today seem to fit neatly into the popularly believed scenario of impending disaster.  For example, there are a number of sensational developments that Christians point to as evidence that the Antichrist is soon to make his bid for power.  A huge computer in Europe, affectionately nicknamed "the Beast" by its creators, is supposed to be tied in already to the worldwide banking network in apparent readiness to fulfill the prophecies in Revelation 13 concerning the control of all buying and selling by the Antichrist.  There are rumors that computer systems around the world have already been set up to read a mark on the forehead and/or hand that includes the Antichrist's number 666 just as the Bible predicts; and even that certain individuals have already received "by mistake" Social Security checks requiring such identification.  These have been recalled hastily and replaced by the government with the embarrassed explanation that they were not to be issued "until 1984."

The alarmed voices warning of the imminent appearance of Antichrist, with Armageddon just beyond, have reached a crescendo.  Others confidently proclaim, with full-page ads in major newspapers, that we are to witness "the reappearance of the Christ."  Who is right?  Is it possible that both are wrong, and that the world is facing a great surprise?  

A Contrary Scenario

Bible prophecy is often purposely clothed in double or obscure meanings and seemingly contradictory statements for important reasons.  This is why it is so easy to succumb to the natural human tendency to color our interpretations of Bible prophecy by our estimate of what we think is going to happen, based on conditions and apparent trends in the world around us.  Instead, we must be willing to let the Bible be its own interpreter.  This is particularly difficult in a time when gloom-and-doom is so unanimously accepted among the experts on the future, both Christian and non-Christian.  

If we can manage to close our ears to the voices of today's prophets and seers, then the Bible seems to be saying something else.  Economic collapse and another great war do not seem to be the next events predicted in Scripture.  In spite of appearances to the contrary in the world around us today, a careful examination of the Biblical description of the "last days" prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ seems rather to suggest that boom, not bust, lies just ahead!

Jesus seemed to place the time of His return in a period of unusual worldwide prosperity:  "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah...before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage...."¹¹   There was probably never a time in human history when everyone felt so secure in the enjoyment of peace and prosperity as just before the flood.  The Laodicean church which Bible scholars generally agree represents the church on earth in the "last days," is pictured as wealthy and in need of nothing¹² —hardly indicative of either a worldwide financial collapse or a nuclear holocaust.  

In contrast to the gloom-and-doom and frightening forecasts of the vast majority of Christians and non-Christians alike, we shall propose "A Contrary Scenario": a coming new age of unprecedented peace and prosperity just over the horizon!  However, there will be some startling surprises, necessitating great caution, all predicted in the Bible.  As King Solomon warned long ago: "The complacency of fools shall destroy them."¹³   The "prosperity teaching" so popular among evangelicals today could fit millions of professing Christians into the coming new age.  Whether that is good or bad is a matter of opinion, and we will deal with this very carefully in the following pages.  

If the Bible is true, then the coming new age of peace and prosperity could be the most dangerous period in human history, a time of mind-boggling deception that will be humanly irresistible.  The Apostle Paul called it the great delusion and associated it with what he referred to as the lie.¹⁴   What is this lie?  And why should a new age of unprecedented peace and prosperity actually precipitate a holocaust of such proportions that the survival of the human race will take a miracle?  That will become increasingly clear as we develop our contrary scenario.

Endnotes

1. Los Angeles Times, Aug. 16, 1982.
2. Ibid., Sep. 4, 1982.
3. Ibid., Aug. 18, 1982.
4. Ibid.
5. Robert Muller, New Genesis (New York, 1982), from front flap of jacket.
6. Ibid., back flap.
7. Ibid., p.xv.
8. Ibid., dedication page.
9. Muller, op.cit., p. 136.
10. Herman Kahn, "Coming: An Age of Prosperity," in Reader's Digest, Feb. 1983, 00. 124-27.
11. Matthew:24:37But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
    See All...,38.
12. Revelation:3:17Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
    See All....
13. Proverbs:1:32For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
    See All....
14. 2 Thessalonians:2:7-12 [7] For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. [8] And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: [9] Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, [10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. [11] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: [12] That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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