Church of God News

Mayors across Canada frustrated with Occupy protests

‎CTV.ca – 10 November 2011
With the “Occupy” protests now dragging into their fourth week, mayors across Canada are growing fed up and beginning to ask protests to leave public areas.

Few tears being shed for crumbling Occupy movement‎ Globe and Mail

With legitimate civil discourse having evaporated some time ago, the Occupy movement in Canada would seem to be on its last tent pegs. The camps are coming down, and with them will fall the outward symbol of Occupy’s ultimately doomed-to-fail protest.

Police move to disband UC Berkeley ‘Occupy’ camp

‎Lincoln Journal Star – 10 November 2011
Student activists attempted to set up an “Occupy Cal” camp on campus despite official warnings that such encampments are not allowed.

Occupy Cal protest sees large crowds, violence‎ Daily Californian

Today, I found the following at an Occupy website, including the last line:

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.

This #ows movement empowers real people to create real change from the bottom up. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don’t need Wall Street and we don’t need politicians to build a better society.

the only solution is WorldRevolution

Based upon on view of those in the Occupy movement, they are not the 99%, but seem to be opposed to the top 5-50% of income earners.

As I have mentioned before seems that the main motivations for those involved in the Occupy protests are a combination of covetousness, political objectives, economic uncertainty, and class warfare. Sadly, many of the protesters apparently believe that they are entitled to assets that other people have accumulated. US President Barack Obama, in my view, has repeatedly encouraged class warfare through his rhetoric and so the “Occupy” movement is no surprise (I believe that if he is re-elected, that there is a good chance that Barack Obama will see protests turning increasingly violent in the future–much more so that we have already seen).

Of course there is economic uncertainty for many in the USA and other lands. I am, though, certain that ultimately the US dollar will crash and be less than worthless as that is consistent with various biblical prophecies. I personally believe that, in the USA, factors such as legalizing abortion, redefining marriage, the increasing acceptance of immodestly dressed females, pornography, violent sports, covetousness, and other sins are the root cause of its economic problems (cf. Deuteronomy 28:15-20).

National repentance, which likely will not happen, is the only hope–and since that seems nearly impossible, personal repentance is the only solution.

World revolution in a human protest movement is not the solution to the problems of the world.  God gave humankind 6,000 years to develop their own systems without Him (Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End?).  As this 6,000 year period gets close to ending, the only real solution is the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom.

As far as world revolution being the answer, notice what Jesus warned about:

21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.  22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.  (Matthew 24:21-22)

Human effort will bring the world to the point that unless God intervened, no human would be left alive.  Thus, to imply, as the Occupy website does, that their type of protests are going to solve the problems facing humankind is a vain and false hope.

Some people have hinted that the Occupy movement may give government officials a sufficient excuse (crisis exploitation) to go more towards a “police state” in order to stop chaos. We will see. The Arab Spring that the Occupy website refers to seems to be leading to a resurgence of more extreme Islamic regimes which ultimately will result in less, not more liberty, for those in those lands who do not believe that they have to live according to a certain interpretation of the Muslim religion.  Even now, non-Muslims in many of the lands affected by the Arab Spring are worse off and have less liberty/rights/freedom than they had before the revolutions.  Perhaps this is something that the Occupy people should consider/