Phrases like "nine meals from anarchy" are no longer casually dismissed as apocalyptic nonsense. Consider these factors: What if the flow of oil was suddenly and sharply curbed? What if truck and rail transportation was severely hampered by serious fuel shortages and, as a result, food began to disappear from supermarket shelves?

We know that we are in trouble. What we don't know is how bad it may become. Is this merely a temporary economic crisis, however severe, or one that will lead directly to the fulfillment of the major biblical prophecies detailed in the books of Daniel and Revelation?

Author Paul Roberts stated in USA Today: "Global demand [for food] is soaring, yet arable land and water are becoming scarce. Fertilizer costs are rising, and then there are the climate swings. So what's the world to do?" ("Today's Food Crisis Isn't a Blip," May 23, 2008, emphasis added throughout). Very good question!

A darkening world picture

Overall population growth and rising standards of living in countries like China, India and Brazil put growing pressure on precious food supplies. Professor Roberts continued: "Global meat consumption will more than double by 2050...Most of the world's readily farmable acres are already in crops... In fact, the world is actively losing farmland—to erosion, overgrazing and development. Even in the USA, the inexorable spread of suburbs, malls and golf courses costs us nearly 2 acres of farmland for each birth or new immigrant."

True, we have coped in previous crises by employing new technologies, massively increasing irrigation and using powerful new fertilizers to generate higher crop yields. Human beings can be and have been very resourceful. Yet the crisis over natural resources is probably just beginning, and we have yet to see how bad it will become. The threat to our security and well-being certainly appears to be real and deepening.

A feature article in Time magazine predicted that "the 21st century will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life" (Jeffrey Sachs, "10 Ideas That Are Changing the World," March 24, 2008). Up until now, some areas of the world have largely escaped widespread suffering, but that may change sooner than we think.

Time went on to say: "In some locations, societies have outstripped the carrying capacity of the land, resulting in chronic hunger, environmental degradation and a large-scale exodus of desperate populations." Keep in mind how crowded our planet is, which means such problems can spread rapidly!

Western civilization in serious jeopardy

A New Scientist article stated: "We believe our global, technological society is immune from collapse. If only it were true. As the networks that connect us become ever more intricate and finely tuned, modern civilization is becoming increasingly vulnerable" (Debora Mackenzie, "The End of Civilization," April 5, 2008).

Could the consequences resulting from something like a global pandemic bring society to its knees? Human civilization is considerably more precarious than we realize!

Some observers believe that the hour is getting late, that the peace and prosperity the Western nations have enjoyed may be coming to a swift end. For example, the geopolitical balance and economic influence of nations may be gradually shifting to Asian countries like China and India—accompanied by a growing crisis over global natural resources.

As an insightful article in The Tablet stated, "Changes in the distribution of economic activity across the world will change the balance of political and military power" (Nicholas Boyle, "The Hour Is Getting Late," May 10, 2008). Economic power is inevitably followed by political and military power.

Of course, unanticipated catastrophic events can considerably alter the course of global trends in ways many have never imagined before.

The disturbing leadership deficit

The stark reality is that a handful of nations and Western institutions keep order in the world and strive to keep terrorist activity at bay. But they need the active and loyal support of their peoples and allies. Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens recently observed that "the West has prospered because of its commitment to an international system grounded in rules as well as military might" ("A Message From Obama for Those Infuriating Europeans," July 18, 2008).

However, public confidence in governmental leadership has weakened to disturbingly low levels. The United States is still the world's only superpower. Yet only three in 10 Americans approve of the U.S. president's job performance. Confidence in Congress is even lower, currently ranking in the single digits. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan plus more recent economic difficulties, such as the housing crisis and skyrocketing gas prices, have hurt the popularity of nearly all politicians.

It's not only U.S. leaders who are unpopular. In Britain Melanie Phillips reported that "the stench is becoming overpowering. Political sleaze scandals are raining down upon us like the unstoppable effluent from a burst sewer pipe...Endemic sleaze is a symptom of decay, not just for a beleaguered prime minister, but for democracy itself that is in trouble" ("This Epidemic of Sleaze Is a Sign Our Democracy Itself Is Decaying," Daily Mail, June 30, 2008).

Earlier this year Ms. Phillips also stated in her regular column: "The core problem besetting Britain, as in the U.S. and other Western countries, is a chronic absence of political leadership. This is because politicians are themselves led by focus groups and their wish-lists. Leadership, by contrast, means identifying a core issue and dealing with it regardless. That core issue is crystal clear to all with eyes to see. It is the pincer attack being mounted against this country: the onslaught against its identity, Western values and social fabric from both our nation-hating, amoral intelligentsia and the steady encroachment of radical Islamism" (Daily Mail, Feb. 4, 2008).

Another feature article by author Andrew Marr summed up the public's general impression of political leadership: "Celebrity tat, prurience and self-indulgence rule. Our leaders seem small. Gloom over the globe's future is endemic" ("Mankind on the Brink," Daily Mail, Dec. 29, 2007).

Former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore stated: "With rising oil prices and a collapsing economy, never has the need of leadership become more necessary—and less in evidence" ("Look at the Leaders of the Western World—and Be Afraid," July 12, 2008). For the most part, average citizens do not support national leaders the way they once did.

Peter David, foreign editor of The Economist, writing in The World in 2007, clearly stated: "The world has an authority deficit. Authority is draining away from international institutions, from the big world powers (including the superpower) and from the nation-state itself" ("The Authority Deficit").

But where does all this leave you and your family? How can you personally cope with world and regional conditions? Whom should you trust? What should you do?

Living by faith

God is more than just aware of current world conditions and where they are leading us. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows how to lead His people through rough and uncertain periods.

God tells us to live by faith. It is not just a matter of having faith, but exercising this crucial spiritual quality to help bring us through difficult and dangerous times. The context shows that it is used this way in the Old Testament by the prophet Habakkuk, who said, "I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He [God] will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected" (Habakkuk 2:1). Notice that he was actively seeking God's help with his concerns and, if need be, Habakkuk was willing to alter his personal conduct.

Continuing: "Then the LORD answered me and said: 'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run [act swiftly] who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come'" (verses 2-3).

Habakkuk was only one of the Hebrew prophets to whom God gave visions and revelations of future happenings. The previous passage may certainly be applied to end-time prophecy as well as its more immediate application to the ancient nation of Judah. Much prophecy is dual in nature. (To learn more, request or download our free booklet You Can Understand Bible Prophecy.)

This passage in Habakkuk assures us that God's predictions for the future will surely come to pass. They are not in question. As the apostle Peter wrote hundreds of years later, "For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). Earlier Jesus Christ had said of the end time, "For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written [in the Old Testament] may be fulfilled" (Luke 21:22).

Through the writings of Habakkuk, God reveals a major spiritual key in helping us cope with the coming world crisis. "Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). Arrogant and foolish pride will get us nowhere with God. Instead He requires humility on our parts as we learn to live by faith.

Later in the book he appeals directly to God to spread His basic message at the appropriate time. "O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy" (Habakkuk 3:2). He concluded the book by saying "The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills" (verse 19). God Himself will enable us to live by faith just as He did Habakkuk in times past.

Behaving properly under God's providence

Yet another Hebrew prophet also spoke about the importance of humility as a quality of God's true servants. "Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. [If so] It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD's anger" (Zephaniah 2:3-4).

At a later time Jesus Christ spoke to His contemporary followers and to His disciples down through the centuries, especially at the time of the end: "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth" (Luke 21:34-35). This prediction is global in nature. It is an end-time prophecy that we should all heed.

Continue Christ's vital words: "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man [Jesus Christ]" (verse 36).

Christians to live by faith

Years later the apostle Paul wrote: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes [who has faith]... For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written [in the Old Testament book of Habakkuk], 'The just shall live by faith'" (Romans 1:16-17).

Make no mistake. Traumatic and tragic end-time events are going to test the faith even of true Christians. We may be on the threshold of entering that period of time when the major prophecies of Daniel and Revelation will be fulfilled. It is especially then that the just will be called on to truly live by faith (see Romans 8:31-39)—knowing that even when facing very difficult and despairing circumstances, God's salvation is sure. WNP