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All Calamities Are Decreed By The Lord

Isaiah 45:6-7

That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me.  I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’

Amos 3:6-7

If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?  Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

Job 2:9-10

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

The above verses are self explanatory.  The faithful are expected to listen to the warning of the coming end time birth pains, stay watchful, prepare and endure when they come.  They should not be caught unawares.  In Rev 18 when God judges Babylon and destroys all wealth, He expects the faithful to come out of her before plagues of mourning, famine and death visit.

Scripture makes it clear that calamitous judgments from God are true and just.  It is wrong to believe that calamities are evil works and try to “absolve” God of His sovereign will to decree calamitous judgments.

Rev 16:5-9

And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments.  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.  It is what they deserve!”  And I heard the altar saying,

“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
    true and just are your judgments!”

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

What Response Does God Expect When He Sends Calamitous Judgment ?

2 Chron 7:13-14

When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

1 Kings 8:35-40

“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because your people have sinned against you, and when they pray toward this place and give praise to your name and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the right way to live, and send rain on the land you gave your people for an inheritance. When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts, and spreading out their hands toward this temple—then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know every human heart), so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.”

How Majestic Is Your Name

Psalms 8:3

G                   Em

When I look at Your heavens,

C                          D

The works of Your fingers, O Lord, our Lord,

G                              Em                                               C                  D

The moon and the stars, which You have set in place, O Lord.

C           G         Bm             Em

How majestic are Your works,

Am              D      G

Bless Your holy name.

The Lifter Of My Head

Psalms 3:3-4

Em              C                 D                 Em

(Thou) O Lord, art a shield about me.

Em                    C                     D                   Em

(You are) my glory, and the lifter of my head.

C            D     Bm        Em

I cried aloud to the Lord

C                              D                        G               G7

And He answered me from His holy hill,

C            D     Bm       Em

I cried aloud to Lord

C             D             Em

And He answered me.

 

Come Out Of Babylon

Rev 18:1-8

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”  Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, …she glorified herself and lived in luxury,… for this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine,…”

It is clear from Rev 18 that the Babylonian system, led by this latter days city of Babylon, is unmistakably the alliance of governments (kings of the earth),  global multi-national companies and the supply chain links (merchants) and the global shipping lines, seaports and financial centres (those who make their living by the sea) forming a global supply chain and financial system engaged in globalized trade.

All have grown rich from the power of this Babylonian system. (Rev 18:3).  This is the current capitalism we know today.   As a result, the nations have grown haughty to believe in their own wealth and might.  We see this haughtiness peaked in changing God’s universal laws of sanctity of life and marital relationship and His abhorrence of homosexual sins.  That also birthed the apostate Christianity in hyper grace, prosperity and NAR movements basking in her glory.

How do we come out of Babylon which is a haunt for EVERY impure spirit, unclean and detestable animal, and unclean bird ?

We have to get out of Babylon in getting out of :

  1. All kinds of greed. Luke 12:15;  1 Tim 6:6-10; 17-19.  (A haunt of every impure spirit).
  2. Being weighed down by carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life. Luke 21:34.  (A haunt of every unclean and detestable animal).
  3. Being lured into the false gospels of hyper grace, prosperity and NAR movements.  Matt 13:31-32.  (A haunt of every unclean bird).

God had already so warned that if we fail to get out by the time He judges all wealth (Rev 18:17), we only have ourselves to be blamed for being caught in the plagues.

God’s judgment will be true and righteous and we should rejoice when it comes.

Rev 18:20; 19:1-3

Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has given judgment for you against her!

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Postscript :

(In the book of Revelation,  chapters 5 to 16 talk about the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments.   Then chapters 17 and 18 talk about Babylon before the rest of the book talks about the return of our Lord, His final judgment and the coming of new heaven and new earth.   Babylon in chapter 17 and 18 talk about judgment of her religious system by the beast as the spiritual harlot, and judgment of her financial system by God in destroying all wealth respectively.  It is not chronological.  When the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments are released,  all systems will be destroyed or made subservient to the Antichrist anyway.  So the destruction of Babylon will logically come during the birth pains to pave the way for the rise of the one world government and currency.)

Parable Of The Weeds

Matt 13:24-30; 36-43

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.  27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’  28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.  “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’  29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”  36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”  37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.  40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will WEED OUT OF HIS KINGDOM everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

The field is the world and believers and unbelievers are already living together in it, so it is pretty obvious that there is no need for the devil to plant his agents in the world outside the kingdom of God.  It is stated clearly in verse Matt 13:41 that at the end of age,  the angels will weed these devil’s agents OUT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.  (Further scriptural references supporting the premise are found in Matt 8:11-12 and John 15:1-6).  When Jesus our Lord was explaining the above parable to the disciples,  He shared more parables about the Kingdom of Heaven.  In the parable of the net, He said that the Kingdom of Heaven Is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind till it was full. Later the men would sit down and sort the good into the containers and throw out the bad.  Again the sorting was done not with the whole sea of fish but only the fish that were gathered in the net.

Sometimes we really wish that the weeds (the false teachers and their minions who are agents of the devil) can be weeded out now out of God’s kingdom, but our Lord explained that if the weeding is done by the servants of God now, the wheat might also be uprooted probably because men are still fallen and are not perfect in discernment. The angels will do the weeding at the end of age instead.  An example was the Spanish Inquisition.  In the name of weeding out heresy in Spain,  the objective turned out to be consolidating the power of the Spanish monarchy.   Many innocent believers suffered brutal deaths.

So we must bear this in mind that not all who call themselves Christians are wheat.  We must also accept the fact that some whom many hold in high esteem as apostles of Christ and servants of righteousness may be the devil’s agents who are skilled workmen in disguise and deception.  It is sad that most believers are so receptive of the feel good messages of these seeds sown by the devil.  When the few true prophets were proclaiming the judgment of Israel at the hands of the Babylonians, Israel chose to believe the feel good messages of the numerous false prophets then.   Likewise today, we should not expect the false teachers to preach on the coming birth pains, the nearness of salvation and the impending return of our Lord.

The End Of The Road For My Specific Mission ?

I was given a very specific mission by our Lord some 17 years ago to share a message of the coming economic flood.  At every juncture,  it was so amazing to experience our Lord’s timely guidance and encouragement, and opening of doors.   I have witnessed the fulfillment of 3 visions.  Thanks be to God for strengthening me through the fulfillment of these 3 visions in 2001, 2008 and 2015 against incredible odds to keep me going against cynicism at best and outright hostility at worst.  (Thanks be to God also for fellow comrade pastors and ministry workers in Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar for believing in me and following up on my proposed preparation.)

Firstly I did not have any network to call upon and He had opened doors beyond my wildest imagination to share in numerous pastoral conferences across the Asian region.  Secondly,  I was tasked to write a book on this subject and amazingly, He opened the door for the book to be published by Charisma Media 5 years ago.  Thirdly, I was further tasked to galvanize church pastors and ministry workers to learn about agricultural enterprise in order to prepare to weather the impending crisis.   And then He laid the path for me to be involved with teachable pastors in the region to start such enterprise, and they are more than pleased to share the same with other pastors in their countries.

In September last year,  I sought the Lord whether I should continue to warn or to start preparing for myself and my household.  I have gone without any meaningful income for the past 17 years and have depended on the Lord for His given wisdom and provision.  I was given 2 words – “hermitic life” – and that my Phnom Penh trip in February 2020 would be the last for this specific mission.  I shared in some chat groups in jest that I would be living a hermitic life from then. (See my Whatsapp message to one chat group in November 2019 below.)  I could not understand the message as the economic flood did not seem to me to be on the horizon any time soon, though I have shared often that the next crisis will be on or before September 2022.  (http://www.jcmanifesto.org/when-will-the-global-financial-system-finally-collapse/)

(I prayed, if God so willed, that I would make the last 2 trips to Japan and India to warn the Christendom there in early January and March respectively.  Both did not materialize even though I did make it to Japan in January.  In hindsight,  it is really astonishing for me to experience the Holy Spirit God’s specific guidance.)

If the economic flood is finally here,  then it is end of the road for my given specific mission.   And now in lockdown,  it does seem to be a hermitic life for me for some time.

Scripture has prophesized that in the last days,  many professing believers will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.  2 Tim 3:1-5. And we are exhorted to avoid all such people.  Even with the impending unprecedented economic flood,  I really find many impenitent people in Christendom here.  And I will truly be living a hermitic life if I really avoid all such people as they are in the majority.   After the pandemic and economic crisis,  I believe a great part of Christendom will become even more apostate.  The birth pains will intensify.  I will await eagerly our Lord’s return but meanwhile I am sure I will continue to see the Holy Spirit God’s hand in guiding me once again into the near future, possibly to share the gospel to un-reached peoples who are poor in spirit.  Hallelujah !  Bless His holy name !

The Derivatives Bubble

I hope to provide a simple summary of what I understand about financial derivatives from various good articles and YouTube videos in the net. I hope to explain my God given conviction of an economic flood or reset that the world will face soon with current observation of events in the financial markets. Will the pandemic be the catalyst that cause it through the unraveling of the derivatives bubble ?

The real cause of the 2008 financial crisis was the proliferation of unregulated derivatives during that time. These are complicated financial products that derive their value from an underlying asset or index.  Let us look at the housing mortgage backed securities (MBS) as the asset example.

The US housing mortgages were sold to Fannie Mae to relieve the banks of more funds for lending.  Fannie Mae resold them in a package of other mortgages in the secondary market.  A hedge fund or investment bank then divided the MBS into different portions because of different default risks and then combined with other similar risk levels of other MBS into a tranche and resold that tranche to other hedge funds.  Then the mortgage defaults happened and caused the 2008 crisis. These financial products were so complicated that nobody knew which part of the MBS was toxic, so nobody knew the actual value of the MBS.  The secondary market shut down and banks and hedge funds were unable to sell the derivatives that were declining in value. Soon, banks stopped lending to each other altogether to conserve cash.

This financial derivatives market is complicated and unregulated.  The value of these products are difficult to ascertain.  It probably started as a financial tool to mitigate risks but has now turned into one monstrous gambling game.  Since the 2008 financial crisis, nothing much has changed as far as regulation is concerned. The speculation in the financial derivatives has risen to new heights as a result.  Presently, by some estimates, the derivatives bubble can be anywhere between USD 600 trillion and USD 1.4 quadrillion.  The exposure of the major banks to this bubble is staggering. Warren Buffet called these derivatives financial weapons of mass destruction. And IMF stated that the Deutsche Bank is the biggest threat to the global financial system.  Watch the following video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSsH2dsW5-c

After The Pandemic, What’s Next ?

The following article on Foreign Policy website gave the predictions of 12 leading thinkers from around the world concerning the global order after the pandemic.

These are the main predictions in the authors’ own words that I gleaned from the article :

  1. The pandemic will strengthen the state and reinforce nationalism. Governments of all types will adopt emergency measures to manage the crisis, and many will be loath to relinquish these new powers when the crisis is over.
  2. The coronavirus pandemic could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back of economic globalization.
  3. The COVID-19 pandemic will not fundamentally alter global economic directions. It will only accelerate a change that had already begun: a move away from U.S.-centric globalization to a more China-centric globalization.
  4. Given the economic damage and social collapse that is unfolding, it is hard to see anything other than a reinforcement of the movement toward nationalism, great-power rivalry, strategic decoupling, and the like.
  5. COVID-19 is undermining the basic tenets of global manufacturing. Companies will now rethink and shrink the multi-step, multi-country supply chains that dominate production today. Governments will intervene forcing what they consider strategic industries to have domestic backup plans and reserves. Profitability will fall, but supply stability should rise.
  6. Given the scale of financial market losses the world has experienced since February, companies are likely to come out of this pandemic decidedly gun-shy about the just-in-time model and about globally dispersed production. The result could be a dramatic new stage in global capitalism, in which supply chains are brought closer to home and filled with redundancies to protect against future disruption. That may cut into companies’ near-term profits but render the entire system more resilient.
  7. I would expect many countries will have difficulty recovering from the crisis, with state weakness and failed states becoming an even more prevalent feature of the world.

If failed states and partial deglobalisation are a reality after the pandemic, let Christendom in each country discern how it will affect them and prepare to weather it. Because not all will be living in cities that make their living by the sea. Rev 18:17.  Or living in cities that are major manufacturing hubs.  Rev 18:15.

Zeph 2:3

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
you who do what he commands.
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the Lord’s anger.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/20/world-order-after-coroanvirus-pandemic/

The Coming Economic Flood (Update I)

After Sep 2015 in which USD 11 trillion dollars were wiped out of the global stock markets and the markets recovered strongly from then,  I sought the Lord whether the economic flood would be the next.  (I was given the vision of 911 attack in Sep 2001, the vision of the global recession in Sep 2008, and the global market crisis in Sep 2015 as recounted in my book, The Coming Economic Flood.)

(http://www.jcmanifesto.org/when-will-the-global-financial-system-finally-collapse/ )

I was told to read on the parable of the vineyard and it was only after three attempts in failing to recover the rent proceeds from the tenants that the landowner finally came and destroyed all these wicked tenants.   I am now wondering if this pandemic is the catalyst that will cause the economic flood.  Whether this coming flood is the final flood that causes the global economy to collapse,  it is definitely unprecedented in history.  (God is ever so patient and He may give some more time for some to come out of Babylon before the plagues of mourning, death and famine hit.  2 Chron 7:13-14.)

With many countries in lockdown for weeks now, if not months of partial lockdown,  it is clear that their economies will suffer recession.   But looking at the various problems that are already surfacing before the end of 2019,  the likelihood of it escalating to a depression is very probable.

Here is an article that believes the corporate debt reckoning is coming.

Quote

“Total U.S. non-financial corporate debt sits at just under $10 trillion, a record 47% of GDP. One in six U.S. companies is now a zombie, meaning their interest expenses exceed their earnings before interest and taxes. As of year-end 2019, the percentage of listed companies in the U.S. losing money over 12 months sat close to 40%. In the 12 months to November, non-financial S&P 500 cash balances had declined by 11%, the largest percentage decline since at least 1980…With economic uncertainty at an extreme and yields spiking, who is going to lend to zombies right now? Exacerbating that problem, we are now at the start of the debt-maturity wall we’ve warned about for years. Roughly $840 billion of bonds rated BBB or below in the U.S. are set to come due this year…

Corporate debt was the defining excess of the past decade’s bull run. Buybacks were funded by debt — over the past half decade, S&P 500 companies have issued $2.5 trillion in debt to afford $2.7 trillion in buybacks. Debt has subsidized the skyrocketing salaries of CEOs. Cheap debt has enabled private equity to take over and financialize Main Street. How severe the consequences will be obviously depends on how long COVID-19 keeps the world locked down. However, a reckoning with debt-fueled corporate greed is coming, regardless of Fed bond buying or government stimulus.”

Unquote

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/corporate-debt-reckoning-coming

Here is another article tracking the unemployment figures right now and comparing with the Great Depression in the 1930s.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/03/recession-depression-data-coronavirus

Whether it is a great recession or a depression,  these are times of testing whether we are truly wise and faithful servants to other servants or sheep to the least of the brothers.  All praise and glory to our Lord.

 

The Lord Is My Rock And My Fortress

Psalms 18: 1-2

Verse :

D                 F#m           G                         D

I love You, Lord, my strength and my rock,

Bm                 G                   Em  A

You are my fortress, and my deliverer.

D                F#m            G                          D

I love You, Lord, my strength and my rock,

Bm                   G                 Em  A

You are my fortress, and my deliverer.

Chorus :

Bm                F#m                      G     D

My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

Bm                    G                           Em                A

My shield, my stronghold, the horn of my salvation.

Verse :

D                 F#m           G                          D

I love You, Lord, my strength and my rock,

Bm                G                   Em A                D

You are my fortress, and my deliverer, O my Lord.