Echo of the Prophets

Well, today I would like the biblical prophets to speak out to us about what the Bible foresees regarding the future of this world. I'd like to do this by referring to a book by Dimitri Orlov. The book is entitled, The Five Stages of Societal Collapse. And you can't help but read the news today and see some of these stages that I will mention. You'll be able to very quickly identify with some of the things that he says in his book. Now, I don't agree with everything that he writes. I don't even suggest that you read the book, but I do believe that it provides at least a basic overview of how societies and empires collapse. And he's specifically talking about the Western world, which we are all a part of. So what does a societal collapse look like?

Well, according to Orlov, society collapses in five general stages. And I'll just quickly give you the stages first. There's a financial collapse. Second, a commercial collapse. Third, a political collapse. I think we could clearly see that already happening. Fourth, a social collapse. I think that's obvious. And fifth, a cultural collapse. And again, I think it's better than looking at these as specific stages as if one ends and another begins.

I think it's better to realize that the number of them are going on at the same time. They're going on simultaneously only at various degrees. And the author offers a very simplified theory of what can be used to recognize a decline in a culture, in a society, that leads to a full-blown meltdown. So I'd like to look at these stages today, and I'd like to have the prophets, the echo of the prophets, talk back to us and help us to realize how the kinds of things that he says and the kind of things that are going on are going to be fulfilled according to the Bible.

And then at the end of my sermon, I would like to specifically address the teenagers and the young people, the young adults in our audience and those in the future who will see this on a video. I have a special message for you that I think is actually more important than what we're going to read about the stages of financial collapse, and that's how I will conclude the sermon.

So let's begin. Stage number one, he mentions, is a financial collapse, and he says faith is lost in the financial system and currency. The population no longer thinks that the economic future will bear fruit. They lose their positive attitude about there being a future for them in this world, and they feel like there's no financial security or a way to build wealth for the future. There was a report that came out in May from the Lending Club, and it said that 58 percent of Americans, roughly 150 million adults, live paycheck to paycheck.

That means they have no savings, and what they make that week or that two-week period is all spent, is all spoken for, is all gone, and if something negative should happen, an unexpected event their car breaks down, their dryer quits running, their roof leaks, then they're in a terrible situation because they're already living paycheck to paycheck. Again, that's 58 percent of Americans. Surprisingly, over 30 percent of people who make a quarter of a million dollars a year also live paycheck to paycheck. So it just shows that sometimes maybe our spending habits, I think it's human nature between you and the lamppost.

I think we usually spend up to what we make, and if we make 20 grand a year, we'll spend it, and if we make a quarter of a million a year, we'll spend that too. So that's just between you and I. Don't tell anybody. But when financial systems like banks are stressed, they get to a point where they can no longer support loans or guarantee assets to spur future growth, and then loans and guarantees to pay back loans.

All of these things are needed to maintain our economy. Every new business that starts usually is looking for investors, looking for somebody to give them a big flush of cash for them to get through an initial startup period and survive. And that happens each and every day.

There are angel investors, and banks invest in businesses that they think can grow and have a future. And all of that is based on a healthy financial system and currency. In time, business and financial institutions become insolvent. Remember, around 2008, we had a series of banks who became insolvent. Frankly, the government had to bail out part of the financial system because so many banks went to insolvency. Savings in time and retirement disappear, and access to loans and capital for future investment are no longer available.

As of today, the U.S. national debt is presently over $30 trillion. That's tea. A trillion with a T. According to Orloff, western nations are dependent on global finance for savings, pensions, government services, food crops, the importation of goods, said another way the U.S. government takes out loans and pays interest to keep the whole system running. So that's really what our national debt is. The United States government does not have enough revenues coming in to cover all of its expenses. So it sells bonds, it sells perceived value.

People buy that, and we pay interest on those dollars. And the reason I say perceived value is because anything like a dollar is a perceived value, right? So here's some money here. It says, in God we trust. Soon it will say, in God we trust, all others pay cash. But right now it says, in God we trust. And this works because I have faith that that has a value. This works because you have faith that that has a value. And when you and I lose faith in that value, it's almost like a biblical faith. Oh, it's like a secular version of a biblical faith. Evidence of things not seen. We believe that this has a certain value, and it's the belief that we all have that makes our currency possible. Let's go to Ezekiel chapter 7 and verse 14. And the events that we're going to be talking about here, as we quote from the prophets, are usually referring to either the great tribulation or the day of the Lord. So that's what we will be looking at.

Again, Ezekiel chapter 7 and verse 14.

Ezekiel was inspired to write. They have blown the trumpet, certainly something that we would expect to see in the end time, and made everyone ready. People are anxious. The whole world, the whole culture is in worry and anxiety. But no one goes to battle. It's like everyone's all hyped up and they're anxious, but it's not like there's an actual war going on. For my wrath is on all their multitude. The sword is outside. There's rumors of war. It's outside, but you keep knowing that something really bad is going to happen. And the pestilence and famine within. There's rising disease. Think of COVID-19. Think of monkey pox. What's next that's going to mutate on our earth, as these many various viruses and things encircle the globe. Again, and the pestilence and famine within. Think of rising disease, food scarcity. Think of the crops in the Ukraine, and what should happen. Apparently there's been an agreement that they can get grain out of the Black Sea. But what happens if the Russians decide they're not going to let that happen? Continuing, whoever is in the field will die by the sword. There's increased violence. So you think if you live in some rural area, you're safe? Oh no, they'll get you. They'll find you no matter where you're at. And whoever is in the city, famine and pestilence will devour him. So the cities of earth are in a terrible situation. Those who survive will escape and be on the mountains like the doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, groaning as they see everything falling apart, as they see a financial collapse that has encircled the earth, and certainly including the United States, each for his iniquity. Every hand will be feeble. Every knee will be as weak as water, a combination of terror, of not knowing what's going to go on in the future, combined with hunger. Again, every knee will be weak as water. They will also be girded with sackcloth. That's symbolic of being sorrowful, of mourning, of being a deep despondency. They're girded with sackcloth. Horror will cover them. Shame will be on every face, baldness on all their heads. Now it's getting a little personal.

I don't know why he had to say that. Verse 19. They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be like garbage. Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They will not satisfy their souls. You know, when you're hungry, eating gold just doesn't do it. It just doesn't fill your belly up, nor fill their stomachs because it, the lust for wealth, the lust for precious metals, materialism, everything that makes our economy run, essentially, because of it, their stumbling block of iniquity. So again, that's tying in with materialism and the thirst for wealth. I'm reminded, growing up, I watched a TV series that really helped prepare me for life and most of the people that I would ever meet. It was called The Twilight Zone. It's narrated by a man named Rod Sterling, who was a brilliant author, brilliant writer. Anyway, I watched every episode of The Twilight Zone. Recently, I've been rewatching The Twilight Zone. And there's one episode in which a group of men steal gold and they go out into the desert and they decide they had set up so they're going to be in, like, suspended animation for a hundred years, wake up a hundred years later, and no one will be looking for them. They'll have all this gold. They'll be multi-millionaires. Everything will be all right. So they go in their little hyperbolic chambers. A hundred years goes by. Being evil men, they all turn on each other. And near the end of the episode, one man, who's dying of thirst and hunger, stumbling through the desert, has this big gold bar in his hand. And he offers it to someone driving by in his futuristic automobile. Remember, a hundred years have passed. And he offers him this gold if he'll take him to get food and water, and then he dies. And the man in the car looks at it. He says to his wife, look at this. Remember this? No. Yeah, he said, this used to have value before we discovered how to make it. He throws it into the sand, gets in his car, and drives away. Well, when I see that episode, I think of what the prophet Ezekiel... It's worthless! It has no value at all. The Bible clearly warns us of a time of financial and economic collapse. Precious metals will be worthless. They'll be pointless in a financial system that has been destroyed with hyperinflation and one that has a constantly devalued currency. Dmitry Orlov states in his book, all that is required for financial collapse is for certain assumptions about the future to be invalidated. For finance is not a physical system, but a mental construct. Again, it works because I perceive this to have value, and you perceive it to have value, and you accept this for me in exchange for my goods or services, and you perceive it as a value worthy of my goods and services. And when everyone loses faith in this, then the economy crashes. Borrowing and lending money are what grease our economic engine. Everything downstream depends on borrowing and lending money from local infrastructure to military assets. Again, money only has value because we believe it has value. Financial and global systems are based on the psychology of belief and the idea that this has value to us. All right, that was stage one. Stage two is a commercial collapse. Commercial collapse occurs when actual products and services become scarce and unavailable.

Then, it isn't just things like cars or lawnmowers. Remember what was scarce during COVID-19 that you couldn't find? Toilet paper. And human nature, what do people do when they need a roll of toilet paper?

They go and buy 87 rolls at the dollar store of toilet paper. You know, I lived through when I, my wife and I lived in California at the time in the 70s when there was an oil embargo, an oil crisis.

And I remember standing in a line at a gas station for 20-30 minutes waiting for my turn so I could put gas in my car. And one reason the lines were so long is because Californians, being the way Californians are, meaning they have human nature, they would fill up their tank and they would drive around and when they got the three-quarters of the tank, they'd go back to the gas station in fear and clog up the line and make it three times longer than they needed to be because they only had three-quarters of a tank left in their car. That's the way we think as human beings. So these are the kind of problems when you have, begin to have a commercial collapse.

But it's not just things like cars and toilet paper and lawnmowers. It includes food.

Commodities are then hoarded. Ever hear of something called baby formula? No, that's a small foretaste of the kind of things that we can expect to see in the future. The import cycle and the retail supply chains break down, which triggers widespread supply shortages. Soon, ships don't leave port. We've already had that kind of problem in some of our ports in the United States. In time, imported and exported items cease to exist. These items just go away. You can't send them out by ship. You can't receive them by ship. Then the trucking system collapses, and so does the food supply. The population no longer believes that the commercial market will provide for their needs. So what takes over? The underground economy. Wink, wink. I'll do this for you, and you do that for me, and I'll slide you a few dollars under the table or barter.

I'll repair your car, and you put linoleum on my floor, and you know what? The government doesn't make revenues taxes off of an underground economy. So as that begins to take over, the government isn't getting its cut, which puts even a greater burden on its ability to provide services. So these so-called underground economy and bartering take over, and these underground activities do not provide tax revenues to sustain government spending. Let's go to Revelation chapter 18 and verse 4, and see one of the things that will happen in the future regarding Babylon the Great.

Now we're going to use Babylon the Great here and go beyond the perspective of it being a church influence or a religious influence. It's also the heart and core by that time of a global economic system, and we'll see that as we look at these verses. Again, Revelation chapter 18 verse 9. And the kings of the earth, that's the influential, that's the wealthy, that's the politically connected, the influential of the world, the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her, part of that global economic system and interest, and scratch my back, I scratch yours, and fly around in my private jet while condemning everyone else for the global environment problems we have, and all the things that go on in our world today, they lived luxuriously with her, will weep and lament for her. When they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of torment, they don't want to get too close, saying, alas, alas, the great city, babble on that mighty city, for in one hour, in a short period of time, this all happens, collapse. One hour your judgment has come, and the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore. The whole buying and selling system, putting things on ships, exports, collapse, and end. No one wants to buy or can afford to buy your product anymore. Verse 12, merchandise of gold and silver. Think of all the jewelry and the things that we use in our materialistic world. Precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of the most precious wood, bronze and marble, cinnamon, incense, fragrant oil, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, and wheat. We need it for a lot of our food stuffs. Cattle needed for a lot of our food stuffs. Sheep needed for a lot of our food stuffs. Horses in some parts of the world needed for their food stuffs. And chariots, cars. Think of cars, think of automobiles.

And bodies and souls of men. That's forced labor. No longer will adolescents in China make 10 cents an hour to make tennis shoes. That'll be sold for $200 in the United States. So it's talking about forced labor that exists now in the world and will exist at that time. The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you. Oh, I wanted to live in luxury. I wanted to live in splendor. I wanted to add billions more upon the billions that I already have and exploit people and overcharge for my products and charge exorbitant interest rates. And this whole global cycle of the economy that we have worldwide is coming to an end.

And all things which are rich and splendid have gone from you. In the blink of an eye, it's worthless.

What good is all of this that you had in a bank or in real estate or in any other way when this crumbles and is worthless? What good is it all?

Make sure I pick that up in my way.

I'm afraid the end of my sermon now. I'm afraid there's going to be a rush towards the stage. All right, let me try that again. Verse 14. I'll try to compose myself.

The fruit that you're so long for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all. I mean, it's totally gone.

The merchants of these things who became rich by her, by that global economic system, a big part of it, which is charging usury or interest, which is against a biblical principle, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment. Well, we don't want to be punished as much as Babylon is being punished, weeping and wailing and saying, Alas, that great city was clothed in fine purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, and in one hour such great riches came to nothing. The whole commercial system, buying and selling and providing, importing, exporting goods, has collapsed. Every shipmaster who travels by sea, sailors, and as many as trade by the sea, stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What is like this great city?

So this is speaking about a global Babylonian commercial trading system that exists in our world today, and yet will exist even to a greater degree tomorrow as the world becomes more global in our economy. And there are some elites who are working very hard to have a global economy, global government, and that's something that will continue in the future. The buying and selling of items and human labor stops when a system that's based on exploitation, usually, again, interest and materialism, collapses. All right, that was the second stage. The third stage is political collapse. I believe we can already see this occurring in many ways in our country.

Political collapse occurs when governments can't provide food, shelter, transportation, and basic security for its citizens. The population loses trust in the government. Every survey, every survey shows that people's trust in the government is at its lowest ebb ever in the history of the United States. Political officials try to fix the supply chain, but they can't, because usually they just pass laws and throw more money at something, thinking that's going to fix the problem. The political establishment loses authority and becomes irrelevant to the people. In time, the citizens despise the politicians because they're greedy, they're corrupt, they're only interested in control and power over others. Politicians then begin to live by different rules in the average citizen. We have our own mayors and governors in the United States do this, but also the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during COVID. They passed all these laws controlling people and what they were allowed to do. Well, after a hard day, they're all partying there at Downing Street or wherever in the United Kingdom, and they're openly drinking and having a good time. While if anyone else did that, they would be immediately jailed and prosecuted for violating a lockdown. And we certainly saw enough of that from some of our own politicians. So it gets to the point where everything is about the money, and it's about maintaining power and always doing everything to win the next election. It isn't about service, it isn't about solving problems, it's about positioning myself to be re-elected again.

All right, let's go to the Prophet Micah and a little parental advisory on what I'm about to read here, because this is pretty strong from the Prophet Micah, beginning in verse one. And this is a metaphor of Israel being like sheep. I think it's interesting. I've always found it fascinating because I can't think of a better metaphor to represent the kind of people that we have in politics today. Years and years ago, we used to have statesmen in the United States Congress, and statesmen who ran for president in the United States. Now all we have are politicians and parasites in those positions. And Micah's going to confirm that they're parasites, by the way.

And I said, here now, oh heads of Jacob and you rulers of the House of Israel, it's the two nations that originally were the peoples of Israel, the heads. This is talking to the leaders. Is it not for you to know justice? You're responsible. You're the leader. You should know right from wrong. You should know God's law. If anybody knows God's law, you politicians should know it. Verse two, you who hate good and love evil, who stripped the skin from my people, and the flesh from their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin from them, break their bones, and chop them in pieces like meat for the pot, like flesh in the cauldron.

So the prophets condemning the leaders, the politicians of the nations, including our modern nation today, instead of taking care of the flock and defending them, you oppress them in various ways. Between taxes and other forms of abuse, the average citizen's being skinned alive.

The politician, according to the prophet, politicians are like parasites, living the good life with their perks and privileges and rules that they get to live by that no one else dare live by. They're living off of the backs of the people, like wolves who tear the skin off of the sheep. They keep themselves in power and in luxury. You may or may not know this because it's so hidden and so subtle, but the average American pays 40 percent of their income on taxes. 40 percent.

Now, you may think, oh well, my income taxes aren't that much, Mr. Thomas. Well, it may be true that combining your state and federal income taxes don't equal that. How about retail sales?

There's a telephone tax every time you pay your telephone bill, a cable tax. There's an internet tax. There's a gasoline tax and a big one. If you travel, there's a hotel tax, a rental car tax, an alcohol tax, import taxes, property taxes, insurance fees. Oh no, we'll soften and we'll call them licenses and fees instead of taxes because the little drones won't figure it out. So when you renew your driver's license, you pay a fee tax to renew your driver's license.

Or if you get a fishing license or whatever it is, the point is, is when you add it all up, the average American pays 40 percent of their income on taxes. In other words, you were being skinned alive. And that's the truth. Do you remember how many of you have ever seen Les Miserables?

I just loved this one song. There's a song in it called Master of the House.

And here's what he says. He sings that song Master of the House. And he's talking about the innkeeper, him, and he's a scoundrel and he's looking for ways to squeeze money out of everyone who shows up at his inn. But I usually think of a government, our government particularly, when this song is sung. So here it is. He says, charge him for the lice, extra for the mice, two percent for looking in the mirror twice. Here a little slice, there a little cut, three percent for sleeping with the window shut when it comes to fixing prices. There's a lot of tricks I knows. How it all increases, all them bits and pieces. It's amazing how it grows. And that's just what the government does to us in the form of taxes. Riri's Bible note says this about the verses we just read from Micah. The unjust leaders showed about as much consideration for the people as butchers do for carcasses. In other words, you're something to be used. You're just a revenue generating machine for the government is basically why you're here. Have you ever thought about it that way? Verse 9.

Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob, who would that be, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity? We'll have our own nation, our own version of what we call equality so that we can get votes from people, so we can drive an agenda that we have.

But in essence, we abhor justice and we pervert what true equality is. Verse 10. Who build up Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity? Her heads judge for a bribe. It's all about the money.

Her priests teach for pay. Now, just a personal interpretation when I think of that. In a secular world, who are our secular priests today? Have you ever thought about that? Put aside religious churches. Who would be secular priests today? It would be our professors, our college professors.

They're looked upon as august, esteemed individuals. They influence our young. Our young go to these universities by the tens of millions every year to be educated and to learn from them.

So again, her priests teach for pay. The prophets divine for money. Oh, the prosperity gospel! Sell your home. Send me all your money. What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine, and you will be blessed. Show me the money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and they say, well, in spite of all this, is the Lord not among us? No harm can come on us. After all, our money says in God we trust. We're a religious people, is what they say. Verse 12, therefore, because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field. Everything turned upside down.

Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the temple of the Lord bear hills of the forest. So, brethren, we are a modern version, or a parallel, of what this prophet's warning is to Israel. There is an outward show of being religious, including in our politicians, and yes, I think the House of Representatives has a clergy member who opens the House up with prayer. That means a lot, doesn't it? I think the Senate has a chaplain.

There's an outward show of being religious and respecting God, but it's really all about the money. Of course, who provides the money? You do. And I do. All right, here's stage four, is social collapse. Stage four, social collapse. The population no longer trusts social institutions or their ability to provide services. Many government programs and services shut down for lack of funding. Churches, charities, and other social organizations, they try to take over for what the government can no longer do. But in time, they too run out of funds and money and volunteers to help. I'll give you a classic example. A number of us are on social security, and it's a major part of our retirement, right? Well, in a very few short years, social security is going to get to the point where they can only pay 80% of what they're paying you and I today because they're going to run out of what's left in the trust fund. Meanwhile, the slugs known as the American Congress keep dithering around and spending trillions on wars to support the Ukraine and all kinds of things and do nothing to prop up a system that so many retirees depend on that is soon going to run out of money. Medicare is even worse shape than social security. And what do our politicians do to solve these problems, aside from voting themselves a pay raise, I mean?

So these are the kind of social issues and problems we can expect to see more and more of in the future. In this, the government has to stop providing needed services. Then part of the social collapse are the churches and the charities and the nonprofit organizations, as long as they can chip in and try to fill the gap. But eventually, they run out of the ability to help people in need. Let's go to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24 and verse 6 and see what Jesus said about this time that we're talking about. A societal collapse.

Jesus says, Matthew chapter 24 verse 6, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. If it weren't infomercial, it would say, wait, there's more. Verse 7, for a nation shall rise against nation. And that doesn't have to be all out war. You know, that could be something they call sanctions. Sanctions could be trade wars. Doesn't have to be a physical war. Jesus says, nation shall rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and pestilences like crazy viruses circling the earth, earthquakes in various places. Even nature is warning humanity of a coming calamity if it doesn't get right with God. Then Jesus says, all these are the beginning of you ain't seen nothing yet. The beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you. We've always understood this to be primarily those who are leaders of the church, who are very prominent, and the first ones to be persecuted. The first ones to suffer persecution. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation to kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended. People offended. Oh, you didn't call me by the right pronoun. I'm offended.

You didn't refer to me by the correct gender that I have this week. So I'm really offended.

Many will be offended and betray one another, will hate one another. Have you followed comments on us on anything on the social dialogue recently? See how people turn on each other?

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness, society will get to the point where no one respects law. No one respects propriety, decency, any kind of values. Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Those things that we're used to in our society. General kindness. Treating people with decency. Putting out a helping hand to someone who's struggling. All these things will go away.

Verse 13, but he who endures to the end through all these things will be saved. So basic human decency will depart from our society. Like the book of Judges, everything will be about me and mine, rather than what's good for society as a whole. When I grew up, the determining factor is what's good for everybody. Forget your petty, selfish little demands. What's good overall for society? And of course that is evaporating. That mind and understanding is evaporating. Laws and respect for enforcement is ignored and mocked. Law enforcement is ridiculed.

Everyone does what is right in their own eyes, just like it says in Judges chapter 21 verse 25. If you ever read the book of Judges, you'd see that people degenerated to living like animals.

I can't put it any more succinctly than that. And then there's stage five. Cultural collapse. This is a stage of absolute despair. All faith in humankind's goodness is lost. Human behaviors that bolster the veneer of a society that we're so used to. I'm going to quote from the book, kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, and charity are lost. End of quote. The ship of state is sinking. The institutions of biblical marriage and biological gender, parenting, respecting the Ten Commandments, the Judeo-Christian standards that we all have lived by are overwhelmed by cultural dysfunction, by perversity, that's sponsored by government subsidies for years, and by the media. Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20.

Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20.

The prophet Isaiah writes, again talking about the time of the great tribulation in the day of the woe to those who call evil good and good evil. That's exactly what we do today.

Who put darkness for light and light for darkness. Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who were wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight.

Oh, they think they're just so enlightened, so smart. Woe to men, mighty, a drinking wine. Woe to men, valiant for mixing, intoxicating drink. It's a culture that's addicted to some kind of substance. Cultural substance abuse is what it is. Who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man. Maka righteous. Oh, you're out of touch. You're a dinosaur. This biblical thinking you have, these biblical values they have, they're a myth.

You're living in the past. Take away justice from a righteous man. After all, if you're religious, then you don't deserve equality. You don't deserve equity. You don't deserve justice. You're one of them. Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be his rottenness and their blossom will ascend like dust because they have rejected the law, the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore, the anger of the Lord has aroused against his people and he has stretched out his hand against them and stricken them. And the hills trembled, their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. Corpses are going to pile up like heaps of garbage as a result of the great tribulation and day of the Lord. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand stretched out still. His hand is still raised for more punishment because there's no repentance going on. There's mourning, there's wailing, there's complaining, there's bitterness, but there aren't any people yet seeking the mercy and forgiveness of their God. And that was stage five, cultural collapse. Well, what we've seen today is just a few of the biblical prophets telling us as an echo chamber, and what they say is disheartening and is very sad, but I want to emphasize to you that you, as an individual, don't need to experience these horrors. Sure, we do live in this world, and we, too, will be affected by some of the early events of these collapses, just like we are already.

In ancient Israel, before ancient Israel left Egypt, they, too, suffered some of the early plagues. They went through the first three plagues, first three of the ten plagues, just like the Egyptians. But it got to the point where God drew a dividing line between the land of Goshen and what was happening to the rest of Egypt. God protected them from the later plagues, including the death of the firstborn, which was the tenth plague. Now, with all this horror and disturbing information that I've read today, I want to give us all some comfort. Psalm chapter 46, verse 1. And we need to believe this, because if you look throughout the Bible, God has the ability to protect you wherever you are. We see that in the prophets. We see that in individuals, though everything was in chaos. And though warring nations came against the land, they were protected.

Though people were starving to death, miraculously food was multiplied for them to be able to survive. We see that over and over again in Scripture. The great psalmist wrote, this is chapter 46, verse 1, God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble.

Do we believe that? We need to believe it now, because times are going to get more difficult sometime in the future. Therefore, we will not fear. The purpose of this sermon today was not to manipulate you through fear. The purpose of the sermon today was for you and I to realize that God is there to protect us. We need to believe that. We need to accept that.

Even though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the seas, wow, that's pretty earth-shaking. Mountains going into the midst of the sea, God's still your refuge. God's still your strength. He's still a very present help in time of trouble.

Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, Selah. In other words, stop and think about that for a minute. God is our refuge and our strength. God is going to be with us in the future, even as this world faces tribulation. He'll protect us anywhere we happen to be. As Moses and ancient Israel stood in the edge of the Red Sea, the people were trembling. Moses said in Exodus chapter 14 and verse 13, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.

And the Egyptians, whom you see today, you shall not see no more in the future. For the God, the Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. And brethren, whatever lies for us in the future, individually or as a church, this is exactly what we need to do. We should not fear the future. There is no place for anxiety and fear about the future if you know that God is your refuge and your strength and your present help in any time of trouble.

So there's no room to live in fear of the future. And we need to watch how God provides salvation because He does miraculous things. He does unbelievable things to protect His people because He loves them. We need to faithfully know that God is fighting for us. And we also need to keep moving forward, not looking backward, not mourning about how bad things are today, but looking forward into the future. And we call that the Kingdom of God.

Now, some final comments to the young adults in our congregation.

In 1972, how old were you in 1972? I was 19 years old. And you know what?

I was sure the world was coming to an end, and I mean fast.

Now, let me give you some things that had happened in around a decade period of time. Socially, any logical-minded person who had ever read the Bible would have believed that the world was going to come to an end. Here's some of the things that happened the previous decade to that. There was a Cuban Missile Crisis in October of 1962. Now, if you ever spent the time, go on Wikipedia, go on the Internet, and you'll find out how very close we came to thermonuclear war. Mr. Graham and I almost never lived to see our 10th birthday, because we came that close to all-out thermonuclear war with the Russian Empire at that time. Then we had the Vietnam War, but at 50,000-60,000 of our boys died in that war. That happened as early as 1955 and ramped up until 1975. We had the assassination of a President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in November of 1963.

There were civil rights rights in major cities that occurred from 1964 to 1967.

Martin Luther King was assassinated in April of 1968. Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June of 1968. There were college campus revolts. From 1960 to 1970, many colleges were taken over by their students, who gave demands and literally took over the facilities. Lyndon Johnson declined to run for another term because he had botched up the Vietnam War so bad, his popularity was so low, he decided not to run for another term, and he announced that in March of 1968. And we had another President, Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace in August of 1974.

Then there was stagnation and a recession from the late 70s to the early 80s. And I mean, it was ugly. I can remember the first house my wife and I bought. I may have mentioned this before.

Inflation, the housing rates were like 18 percent if you wanted to buy a house.

Now, we got in the state of Ohio to stimulate the obviously dead housing market.

Had a program in which they offered incredible financing at 9.98 percent interest.

And we should have she got up one morning and she stood in line and we qualified for that. Now today, if you told someone, hey, I'll offer you a loan for just 9.9, they'd say, you nuts?

But that was a bargain. That was a deal during that time of stagnation and a recession, a very bad recession that hit the United States.

Then there were oil embargoes from Arab producers in 1967 and again in 1973.

And then there was the 1979 energy crisis. That's when I'm standing in line in California, waiting, and I wish I was standing, sitting in my car waiting in line for the 30 cars in front of me to buy a gallon of gas to top off their tank. My point is, is that in spite of what the world looked like, it wasn't the right time for God's timing. So the world went on.

In a secular way, by 1973, I'm working at a store called the London Road Electric Company, and I was a counter salesman and people would come in and yes, I'd like electrical conduits and I would try to add a well. Would you like boxes? You need some connectors with that? How about wires? So I was a salesman and I would take their orders. I would get their material and bring it back. And it was the kind of environment where you talked to people because sometimes they'd be the only person in the store. This was a neighborhood store. And I had all kinds of conversations and the typical conversation was something like this. America doesn't exist anymore. This is 1973. People would tell me about the soon coming collapse of the United States. And boy, I sure feel sorry for your generation. I'm sorry, I lived a pretty full engaging life in spite of the problems that existed. The world went on because the time wasn't right for God's perfect timing. When Christ was asked about when the kingdom would arrive, he stated in Acts chapter 1 verse 7, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority and as Paul stated humbly as humans we see in the mirror dimly. We're not as smart as we'd like to think we are. My message to all of you young adults today, teenagers, young adults, my message to all of you is to make the most of your lives because we don't know if Jesus Christ is coming tomorrow or 50 years from now. So grab the golden ring. Be an example. Get a good education. Pursue a fulfilling career. Get married. Have a family. And live your life to the absolute fullest while we all wait for God's perfect timing to take place in the future. Young people don't live in fear and anxiety about the future. Don't put your life on hold. Don't settle for less because others chant the sky is falling like Chicken Little. Just live your lives and live your lives to the fullest and be everything that God intends you to be. Because God alone will decide when the sky will fall. Not any person, not any group of people.

Anyone who tells you they know when Jesus Christ is coming is either a liar, delusional, or deceived. And none of those are real positive characteristics.

So allow God in His perfect timing to determine when all of this happens and when this world comes to an end. And until then, be all that you can be. Make the most out of your lives.

All right, one final scripture. Deuteronomy chapter 31 and verse 6.

Deuteronomy chapter 31 and verse 6.

Message to the people of Israel. Chapter 31 verse 6. Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them, whether them are politicians or people who hate you or cultural degenerates or whoever them happen to be. Do not be afraid of them because you have a power and a force around you that's far greater than them. For the Lord your God, He is the one who goes before you.

He will not leave you nor forsake you. Amen. Have a wonderful Sabbath.