ICG Comments on World News

Flag of the European Union and Jerusalem

ICG’s Mark Armstrong sent out the following comments on a variety of world news items last night:

Our domestic news could hardly be more frustrating. The future price of fuel is being talked and speculated to dizzying heights as the stock market falls and the U.S. dollar continues to lose value against other currencies. Investors fleeing the securities markets are reportedly putting their money into commodities, specifically oil, driving the price ever higher according to a business writer with the Associated Press. This must be music to the ears of the so-called environmentalists. Stuck with CNN over the weekend, I watched one analyst commentator after another warn against new drilling and refinery construction because it might lower the price of energy so that fervor for alternative (and so far, unavailable) energy might abate. It’s enough to drive you crazy.

In European news, Spain just “overwhelmingly approved” the EU’s Lisbon Treaty that was rejected by a referendum in Ireland just last week. Ireland is the only country to date where citizens have been asked their opinion. If you have the time or the patience, you might want to check out an article in Germany’s Der Spiegle describing how EU politicians are gradually, slowly implementing their policies without the consent of national constituencies.

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s pro-American president is in line to be the next president of the EU. He is a proponent of a “common European defense,” and is linked to proposals that France team up with the British Royal Navy toward that end. This is not exactly what you might have expected in terms of an EU military, and we’ll have to see where it leads. We’ve carried several articles on our website on this subject, and Murray Allatt also addressed these matters in his update this week.

The truce hailed as a breakthrough in Israel/Gaza relations has already been violated repeatedly by the usual indiscriminate rocket fire out of Gaza into Israel. How utterly predictable! But, as always, the “peace process” must continue.

Observers have been unnerved by some recent Israeli air maneuvers, fearing that it constituted a rehearsal for an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. Israel denies it. The latest round of sanctions, including the freezing of Iranian accounts in European banks has brought the usual defiance from Ahmadinejad. How long before we wake up to the news that Iran has completed work on a nuclear warhead? Let’s hope we wake up to a different kind of headline regarding Iran’s nuclear facilities!

Domestic economic news is bad, and predictions are worse. The energy news is bad, and beyond pie in the sky about future alternatives, many mainstream reporters and commentators seem to hope it stays bad. It seems as if maybe the bad news may be somewhat overplayed in the media in order to attach blame and disgust to the current administration and emphasize the need for “change.”

It is certainly a serious time in our domestic history, and it would behoove us all to take wise precautions with regard to our preparedness for potential disasters and/or shortages. But we (organizationally) simply will not “merchandize” the bad news, or claim that the “great tribulation” of Bible Prophecy is at hand while several key aspects of the scenario are missing.

Mark Armstrong is correct that the several key aspects are missing before the Great Tribulation can begin. As I have been posting for a while, the Great Tribulation cannot begin BEFORE 2012 and is most likely going to start 1-3 years after that.

Mark Armstrong’s comments about the media and change seems to be a hint that he believes that the mass media in the USA is trying to assist the Barack Obama campaign (to read a purported Kenyan prophecy about him, please see Barack Obama, Prophecy, and the Destruction of the United States).

As far as the Middle East, there was enough news this week that indicates that Israel probably will do something about Iran with the tacit support of other nations (nations who while applauding such actions privately are likely to condemn them publicly–the term hypocrite comes to mind here).

An as far as the European Union goes, as I reported here before, its leadership is determined to get together, no matter what any group of voters decides. And that is something that will happen some how, prior to the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

There is one other news item though, that I would add here that Mark Armstrong did not. It is not just the USA economy that has debt, higher gasoline prices, etc. Notice the following about the UK:

British household debt is highest in history

Telegraph, London – June 28, 2008

British households are now more indebted than those of any other major country in recorded history, it has emerged.

Families in the UK now owe a record 173pc of their incomes in debts, official figures have shown. The ratio of debt to income is higher than any other country in the Group of Seven leading industrialised economies, and is sharply higher than the 129pc of incomes it was five years ago. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/28/cndebt128.xml

The UK is going to experience the beginning of the Great Tribulation just like the USA will. And since both of them have massive debt, the following statements from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk seem to apply to them:

6 Woe to him who increases
What is not his–how long?
And to him who loads himself with many pledges’?
7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly?
Will they not awaken who oppress you?
And you will become their booty.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
All the remnant of the people shall plunder you (Habakkuk 2:6-8).

“Pledges” is another word for debt in this context.

Only massive national repentance and the acceptance of the Christ of the Bible, which is not likely, by both nations can change the path away from the destruction and slavery that the Anglo-American powers are heading down.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? When does the six thousand years of human rule end?
End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something? There is a Mayan calendar prediction for change in 2012. 2012 changes were also centuries ago predicted by the Hopi Native Americans and the Hindu Indians (who were not even on the same continent). Do these Mayan/Hindu/Hopi prophecies have any value? Why might Satan have inspired this date? Can the great tribulation start before 2012?
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”?
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin?