Dear Brethren and Co-Workers with Christ,
It is about time we face the facts. If we don’t truly repent and turn to God’s ways, disaster lies just ahead for our American and British-descended peoples! The Eternal God tells us in His inspired Word, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov. 22:7). Throughout the Bible, God tells us that we should not live beyond our means. Later in His Word God tells us, “There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer” (Prov. 30:24-25).
Yet most Americans—and millions of Britons, Canadians and Aussies—continually spend far more money than they are actually making, or than they should spend. We run up bills at various stores and businesses. Americans, especially, run up massive credit card bills, and as a nation, the United States—which used to be the world’s greatest lender—has become by far the largest “debtor nation” in human history!
Many articles have come out in the financial press revealing that the U.S. government, technically, is “flat broke.” If we were a bank or financial institution, we would long ago have been put into receivership. America’s total federal debt now stands at approximately $9,500,000,000,000—that’s over nine trillion dollars! This is an absolute disaster in the making. And it will soon get much worse because our contingent liabilities such as future Social Security payments, Medicare and government pensions are not even reflected in that figure.
Add up all these IOUs and it turns out that our actual financial obligations total more than $57 trillion!
Most people, even most economists, have a hard time understanding the implications of that massive indebtedness. It is destined to change everything around you! Right now, for instance, the news reports tell us that the United States government has had to come to the rescue of the huge lending institutions called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—financial institutions partially backed by the United States government that now have almost $6 trillion in mortgages on their books—many of which are in trouble. Also, notice this Associated Press report just out about another huge bank rescue: “IndyMac Bank’s assets were seized by federal regulators on Friday after the mortgage lender succumbed to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures. The bank is the largest regulated thrift to fail and the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, regulators said. The Office of Thrift Supervision said it transferred IndyMac’s operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation because it did not think the lender could meet its depositors’ demands. IndyMac customers with funds in the bank were limited to taking out money via automated teller machines over the weekend, debit card transactions or checks, regulators said” (July 12, 2008).
So how will the U.S. government come up with the hundreds of billions of dollars to “rescue” these financial institutions?
Most honest investment experts acknowledge that it will be accomplished by simply “printing money.” In other words, the government is free to print money of any amount backed by essentially nothing except the good name of the United States government. “The Treasury’s effort is an ‘unmitigated disaster,’ according to famed investor Jim Rogers. Taxpayers will be saddled with debt if Congress approves the plan, he told Bloomberg. ‘I don’t know where these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy stock in Fannie Mae,’ Rogers said” (Charlotte Observer, July 15, 2008). Before long, foreign governments such as China, Japan, Germany and others will demand from within in this manner!
Think about it!
For many years, we have warned our American and British-descended readers that—unless there is a genuine repentance which brings our nations back to the ways of God—our Creator will begin to bring us down for our own good! Millennia ago, the Eternal God warned our forefathers that if they did not repent, “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you” (Deut. 28:43-45).
Dear brethren and co-workers, these words are right now coming true before your very eyes! As God’s servant, I feel duty bound to warn you that it is truly time to “set your house in order”—even in a personal way. Though our government leaders do not seem to understand or be willing to act on what is happening, we must learn to do so personally. So I encourage every one of you reading this to begin to “tighten your belts,” to set aside adequate savings for the proverbial “rainy day,” and to seek God and His blessing and guidance in a special way in the months and years ahead.
Though there will be ups and downs along the way, this financial crisis we are in will not go away! And—as God has clearly prophesied—the incidents of terrible storms and alternating droughts, fires, earthquakes and increasing disease epidemics will grow worse and worse—unless there is a real repentance among our peoples such as has never taken place in modern times!
As most of you long-time readers know, I very seldom get this strong in my letters or articles. But I am truly concerned about you. I love you as fellow human beings and supporters of this Work, and I want you to wake up before it is too late!
So listen! Begin right now to cut back on unnecessary expenditures, cut way back on your use of credit cards or simply cut them up and throw them away. Thousands of you simply cannot afford to go further into debt. You simply do not “need” the latest iPod, the biggest television set, the latest model car, or the newest “gadget” of almost any kind! You do not need to eat out and run up restaurant bills when you could eat for far less at home.
But food and fuel prices are heading up and you do need to eat! So try to realize that you must cut back on other things. And be sure to set aside financial reserves to take care of yourself and/or your family for at least three months in case you lose your job, have a serious injury or illness, etc. For the time has come for God to begin to shake our peoples as never before. As many of you realize, most of your friends, neighbors and relatives simply will not listen to God’s Truth unless they are brought down and truly humbled. Over the next several years, these things will begin to happen as never before. As God specifically warns our modern “House of Israel”—which means our peoples: “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Pound your fists and stamp your feet, and say, “Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence”’” (Ezek. 6:11). And the time is coming when God’s true Work will be shut down and you will not be able to receive help from the true ministers of God. For in this continuing prophecy, God tells our peoples: “Disaster will come upon disaster, and rumor will be upon rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. ‘The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the common people will tremble. I will do to them according to their way, and according to what they deserve I will judge them; then they shall know that I am the LORD!’”
(Ezek. 7:26-27).
Dear brethren and co-workers, please take this warning seriously and begin to take action!
But do not forget that your ultimate protection is from God and from Him alone. So do your part to set aside extra monies—and extra food, water, and emergency supplies as we have warned you before—but also do your part to pray for, encourage and support the very Work of God which is helping you understand the meaning of all these happenings around you.
Do you think you will be “better off” by robbing the very Creator who gives you life and breath and promised protection during these turbulent times? God warns all of us, “‘Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, “In what way have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it’” (Mal. 3:8-10).
For your good, begin to genuinely believe and to act on what your Creator says. Then, in the perilous years just ahead, you can have real faith and peace of mind. For you will believe God’s promise: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5).
With Christian love,
Roderick C. Meredith