The Strand Study Bible

LUKE LUKE Tod Robberson, in a Dallas Morning News article (4/3/11) called Fighting in the name of God , asked Douglas Johnston, president of the International Center for Religious & Diplomacy in Washington: It seems that the world’s most intractable wars are fought in the name of God. (Johnston answers) So many of these conflicts are attributed as being religious in nature, and they’re not about that. They’re about political power and the distribution of resources. Religion becomes a badge of identity, a mobilizing vehicle. But the only place I know where you could make half a case that the conflict is religious is the Middle East, where you have competing religious claims to the same piece of territory. But otherwise, Northern Ireland and the rest of them – they’re really not religious conflicts. One of the weaknesses of religion is that it’s just too easily co- opted by power politics. 26 *The world is now telling us that good is evil and evil is good (Isa 5:20). David Wilkerson, pastor at Times Square Church in New York City, in his monthly pamphlet called The World Challenge Pulpit Series (Feb. 18, 2008), noted, “Personally, I am amazed at God’s patience with us in this generation. The rampant moral slide is grievous even to secular observers. Even if you try to keep a clean conscience, your mind is saturated with reports of the evils happening every day. Some things are so vile as to be incomprehensible: murders in schools, vicious rapes, child abuse, militant homosexuality, unspeakable atrocities.” 27 The “great deception” has begun. 5. The depreciation of the U.S. dollar, i.e., the reserved currency of the world (Dan 7:1-8) The United States became a world power after harnessing the atom during WWII. For the next forty years (from c. 1950-1990), during what was called the Cold War, both the U.S. and Russia stockpiled its nuclear weapons, as they shared super power status. Then, due to the Banksters (the people who control the purse strings of the world – Prov 22:7 ), after the fall of the Berlin Wall and Communistic Russia during the early 90’s (Ezk 38:1-4), the United States became the world power. However powerful the U.S. has become the U. S. has forgotten the “The Golden Rule” –whoever owns the gold (the Banksters)… rules ! In order for the Revived Roman Empire, under the dictates of the Antichrist, to fulfill its destiny in prophecy, it must become globally influential ( Dan 7:8a ). Thus, the U.S. dollar (the petro dollar) has to decrease in value. Dr. John F. and John E. Walvoord in Armageddon Oil and the Middle East Crisis note: The Arab oil blackmail and new economic and political alignments in the Middle East and Europe will eventually rob both the United States and Russia of a determining voice in the final settlement… Stung by Vietnam and no longer needed by former European allies, the United States could easily sink into the mire of its own economic problems and become isolated from world influence…An emerging confederacy of Mediterranean nations will consolidate new economic and political power, regulating the rise and fall of national currencies, controlling world trade, and managing the bulk of the world’s energy reserves. 15 In an Internet Article by Mark S. Mendiola, called A Crushing Mountain of Debt , Mendiola notes: 1683 Could a collapse of the U.S. economy plunge the entire world into another Great Depression, leaving a tremendous void that will be filled by this rising European superpower?” The answer to all of the above is “yes.” Because the United States is seventeen trillion dollars in debt to the World Bank (and mounting) the United States is a servant and not a Super Power, no matter how many nuclear weapons are in her arsenal. No nuclear weapon formed by man can change financial principle. Whoever owns the means by which we trade (the Banksters)… rules . 29 6. The depletion of oil ( Ezk 38:12b , Gen 49:25 and Deut 33:24 ) It is not difficult to understand why the world is quickly moving towards the Middle East. It’s called oil. The world simply cannot run without it anymore, thus whoever owns the oil is in jeopardy of being invaded. Owning oil is not the blessing it once was. In an Internet Article entitled “Life After the Oil Crash,” dated 1/30/08, commentator Robert Wise explains the connection between energy and money as follows: It’s not physics, but it’s true: money equals energy. Real, liquid wealth represents usable energy… Nearly all the work done in the world economy, all the manufacturing, construction, and transportation, is done by energy derived by fuel. The actual work done by human muscle is miniscule by comparison. And, the lion’s share of that fuel comes from oil and natural gas, the primary sources of the world’s wealth. The article goes on to note: How has the United States gotten itself into such a mess that threatens the stability of the entire global economy? Basic laws of finance explained in the Holy Bible have been violated by millions of Americans and their political leaders. As a result, the United States is teetering on the brink of absolute economic catastrophe! The Bible reveals that the 10th and final resurrection of the Roman Empire will suddenly emerge upon the world stage as a powerful economic, military, political and religious force of overwhelming might. Tremendous prosperity will result under this future global economic system. 28

In October 2005, the normally conservative London Times acknowledged that the world’s wealth may soon evaporate as we enter a technological and economic ‘Dark Age.’ In an article entitled ‘Waiting for the Lights to Go Out’ Times columnist Bryan Appleyard reported: ‘Oil is running out, the climate is changing at a potentially catastrophic rate; wars over scarce resources are brewing; finally, most shocking of all, we don’t seem to be having enough ideas about how to fix any of these things.’