(Tokyo and the Suburbs in Autumn of 2008)Money, Technology, and Faith
Last night or early this morning I had a dream, though no French girls were dancing there.
I was talking to Ms. Condoleezza Rice who took her seat in a motor coach. I said something about a crisis or such a situation while she looked cool and smart.
Anyway the era of Mr. Colin Powell and Ms. Condoleezza Rice is about to pass.
Everybody might forget it immediately after Mr. Barack Obama is sworn in.
But there seems to exist one thing common among them: less habitually making fun of others in comparison with European Americans of the same class.
Or, in other word, they look more Christian in comparison with European Americans in the same social class.
Let’s see what an American Christian is thinking about the current financial crisis:
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The Last Days
Duncan Heaster
There's a lot of talk about the present financial / liquidity crisis fulfilling Bible prophecy and heralding the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. But searching website after website, I couldn't find anyone quoting any actual Bible prophecies that indicate any kind of financial crisis before the Lord's return. Of course the Lord Jesus predicted that one sign of His return would be that people would "hear" all sorts of things that will make their "hearts fail them for fear in apprehension of those things which are coming on the earth" (Lk. 21:9,26). Now that we do see fulfilled, thanks to the unprecedented media explosion and updates on things like global warming, financial problems etc. being beamed onto our screens 24/7. If one only heard the news once a week or even once a month, our hearts would 'fail us' far less. But those days are gone; for even if I don't look at the media, someone else does and in our global village, their reaction ends up affecting me.
So I turned to the Bible, to see whether the financial crisis is predicted; and what the Bible says about wealth in the last days. I found the very opposite to what's being peddled around by the doomsday boys and prophecy hacks. Passage after Bible passage makes it clear that there'll be a time of unprecedented wealth and prosperity just before the Lord's return. I may stand with my back to the world about this, but so what. If that's what Scripture says, let's hear it out and give God's words their true weight:
- Mt. 24:37: "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the son of man be". And as Jesus points out, the period before the flood was characterized by prosperity and materialism. There was a sharp increase in population, in arts and technology (Gen. 4:21,22) and urbanization (Gen. 4:17). Job 22:15-18 comments on the people living just before the flood that they cast off all commitment to God and yet God "filled their houses with good things" -exactly the scene today. Note how Jesus observes that Noah's world were totally self-obsessed with their hedonism right up "until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all" (Lk. 17:27). The picture is of the Lord's coming abruptly interrupting a pleasure-drunk world.
- The situation in Sodom just before its overthrow was likewise quoted by the Lord as a foretaste of how things would be before His return. "They (as well as our present world) did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded" (Lk.17:28). Their materialism had the same abrupt interruption as in Noah's time- "But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the son of man is revealed" (Lk. 17:29,30). The suggestion seems to be that the people of Sodom were mindlessly doing their thing right up to the point of Divine intervention. Their obsession with daily activities without an awareness of God was as bad as their other sins; a point we would do well to be aware of. However, their eating and drinking must have been to gross excess- Ez.16:49 defines " the iniquity of Sodom" as being " fullness of bread" among other things. "They bought, they sold" suggests that Sodom was a major trading centre, rapidly increasing in wealth; " they planted, they builded" (Lk.17:28) implies a real boom town. Such success resulted in the people being proud, arrogant and of course sexually perverted (Ez.16:49,50). It is these aspects of Sodom which are so precisely matched by our self-centred, money mad world.
- The descriptions of 'Babylon' in Revelation 18 are replete with reference to Sodom (1). This latter day world system is likewise characterized by fantastic wealth and opulence. Rev. 18:11-19 prophesies a heartfelt lament from the unbelievers at how such great prosperity and industry had been brought to nothing in a moment by Christ's return. Some Bible prophecies (e.g. Ez. 38:12) speak of how the wealth of the latter day world will be given over to God's people at Christ's return- the wealth is there in the world at the time of His coming!
- James 5:3 warns the last generation of believers against the absurdity of heaping together treasure in "the last days". If Christ is about to return, why give your life to getting rich just before He comes? The suggestion seems to be that there will be the opportunity for believers to amass wealth immediately prior to the Lord's return.
- Laodicea, the last church addressed by the Lord Jesus in His letters, has been seen as symbolic of the latter day church. And they were characterized by being "rich and increased with goods" (Rev. 3:17). "Increased" suggests an increase in wealth for them in the last days.
- There are at least four predictions that in the final "day of the Lord", ultimately revealed when Christ returns, people will finally realize that their wealth has not been able to save them (Is. 2:20; 31:7; Ez. 7:19; Zeph. 1:18). They are pictured as throwing their silver and gold to the animals in the face of the awesome revelation of God's glory upon this earth. They obviously have that wealth prior to His coming to be able to do that with….
http://www.aletheiacollege.net/ld/25-2.htm
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As you can read the banner of this EEE Reporter blog, since I started this blog in the spring of 2005, I have been giving a warning against the abnormal pursuit of wealth observed in the American society. It is because such a biased quest of wealth really looks like a phenomenon which was predicted to happen in the end of a certain period of history.
The last thing we have to face in a destined fiasco of this financial frenzy must be a highly religious matter.
For some believers, Jesus Christ in person might come again on this earth to save them.
For some pious, poor people, Jesus Christ might just send His Angel in a human figure.
For some ordinary people, Jesus Christ might just perform a miracle from Heaven above.
For villains, oh, I cannot tell and hope anything in this context.
But, look back to the last Global Great Depression which started in 1929, and then you would see that Christianity fairly revived then so as to save many poor Americans spiritually. It also led to establishment of various social and administrative systems planned to help and save poor citizens financially and economically.
Domestically, the socialist fundamentals set during the era after the Great Depression survived until the era of Reaganomics in 1980’s.
In other word, the social and administrative reformation introduced after the Great Depression before WWII lasted for 50 years until the advent of computer-based multiplication of wealth in the money market in 1980’s.
Since then, computers and the telecommunications technology have so developed as we see today along with inventions of Intel CPUs and Microsoft OS.
However, today, development of computers and the telecommunications technology seems to reach a ceiling.
Today’s technologies still cannot allow a computer to offer users a definitive answer to such a question as to what the most profitable money trading is.
Indeed, a financial crisis must come before technology develops to the extent to being able to offer a definitive answer to such a question as to what the most profitable money trading is.
Otherwise, every computer user will try to exploit the power of new computer technologies in the 21st century so as to know definitely what the most profitable money trading is.
Before mankind is equipped with such a super technology, Jesus Christ must interfere with the human world.
It is because such a super technology will extremely endanger the human society, allowing for super fast transactions of trillions of dollars all over the world through simple operations by every Internet user.
We may find some descriptions about such a technology in the Bible.
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Now, you know it is the money market that counts.
But, the money market is sustained by the advanced technology.
Yet, faith and love must control development of the technology.
When love and faith get weaker, technology can be abused for the sinful money market, resulting in an uncontrollable financial crisis eventually.
Therefore, a Religious Revolution must come before a further technological revolution in the 21st century, which I must tell some key figures, such as the Secretary of State, and those who can interview them.
(I think the world can quench this hot financial crisis eventually. However, there is something more difficult to quench.
http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/folk/washington.html )
Mat 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.