Birth Pangs

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“But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.”  Matthew 24:8

There is a lot of talk about the birth pangs these days.  Many Christians are saying that we are seeing them now – earthquakes, wars, and rumors of wars, pestilence, even the potential for famines. 

Are we really experiencing the events that Jesus, Paul and John prophesied?   No, we are not.

We are not seeing the birth pangs that were prophesied because they are tribulation events.  We are not in the tribulation.  Are these types of things occurring today?  Absolutely, but nowhere near the level of magnitude as will happen in the 7-year tribulation period before the return of Christ to earth.

It’s easy to take the passage in Matthew – where Jesus is describing wars, famine, earthquakes, lawlessness and love growing cold – out of context.  These things have been occurring since the flood.  But that does not mean they are the specific things foretold as the ‘birth pangs’.

In Matthew 24, Jesus is clearly speaking about the tribulation.  His outline of things to come in response to the disciples question – “what will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?” – fits in precisely with the format we find in Daniel 9, 1Thessalonians 4 and 5, and Revelation.  The format, or timeline, is as follows:

  1. The Church is evacuated to heaven (1Thess 1:10; 1Thess 4:15; 2Thess 2:1-3)
  2. The antichrist is revealed (2Thess. 2:3-12)
  3. Peace and safety on earth (1Thess 5:3; 2Thess 2:8-11)
  4. An agreement is made with Israel and antichrist – probably to allow Israel to build the temple and sacrifice in peace. (Dan. 9:27)
  5. The birth pangs begin (Matt. 24:6; Mark 13:7-13; 1Thess. 4:15-5:3; Rev. 6)
  6. The 2 witnesses are killed (Rev. 11:7)
  7. Antichrist stops the sacrifices and enters Holy of Holies in the new temple in the middle of the tribulation, declaring himself to be God and Savior (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14; 2Thess. 2:4)
  8. Jews flee Jerusalem and elsewhere into the wilderness for the 3 1/2 years (Hosea 2:14-16; Matt. 24:16-20; Mark 13:14-18; Rev. 12:6)
  9. Satan is thrown down from heaven and permanently shut out of the throne room of God (Rev. 12:9-10)
  10. Satan tries to destroy the Jews in the wilderness and the rest of the Jews on earth (Rev. 12:13-17)
  11. Armageddon takes place (Ezek. 38-39:8; Zech. 14:2-3; Rev.19:11-21)Jesus returns to earth at the end of the 7 years. (Zech. 14:4; Matt.24:30; Rev. 19:11)

So, we see there are four other major events that will take place before the birth pangs begin.  None of these events have happened.  One of the main reasons we put the beginning of birth pangs at the number 5 position is because Jesus is answering the question from His disciples, “…what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age”

The birth pangs occur at the end of the age.  They do not occur throughout the age or ages.  And they are signs that verify that the Day of the Lord has come.  The Day of the Lord is an idiom that essentially means the judgment of the world up to and including the return of Christ to earth, i.e. the tribulation. 

This is what Paul explains in 1 Thessalonians.  In his condensed summary of the tribulation, Paul says the birth pangs begin after the rapture and then sometime after peace and safety have been established on earth by antichrist (1Thess. 5:2-3).

The birth pangs that Jesus lay out in Matthew 24 match up with the seal judgments in Revelation 6.

Birth pangs chart

It is also important to remember that Jesus said that the trials he listed are just the beginning of birth pangs.  The pangs continue throughout the 7 years all the way until the firmament is ripped open and Christ is seen coming to earth in the clouds.  They include the Trumpet judgments and the Bowl judgments of Revelation.

The birth pangs are the judgment of the world.  As birth pangs do, these judgments get longer and more painful in magnitude up until the birth, which is Jesus’ return and reclamation of earth.

We are not seeing the birth pangs.  But, with the increasing earthquakes, the locust plagues in Africa and the Middle East, the coronavirus travesty, and now rampant lawlessness, perhaps the Lord is giving a little warning of what is about to come upon the whole earth when the Restrainer is removed.

Read also, Who or What is the Restrainer?, Times and Epochs, The Gog Magog War IS Armageddon, The GreatFalling Away of the Church, Valley of Achor – the Door of Hope, and Three Bankable Scriptural Truths That Guarantee the Church Will Be Raptured Before the Tribulation.

A Day’s Wage for a Loaf of Bread

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“When He opened the the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, ‘Come’.  And I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on him had a pair of scales in his hand.  And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”  Revelation 6:6

The verse above is the description of the 3rd of 7 seal judgments of the 7 year tribulation, or 70th Week of Daniel.  My goal here is to bear out the possibility that we are now living in the circumstances that will lead to the fulfillment of this verse in the tribulation period.  These circumstances are being driven by what is called Modern Monetary Theory, which is now being fully implemented by our government and the rest of the world.  I’ll get into this in a minute. 

You can find various perspectives regarding the meaning of the above passage.  It is pretty much a universal belief that a denarius was about a day’s wage when John wrote Revelation.  Matthew 20:2 seems to confirm it.  And a quart of wheat would make a loaf of bread.

What is not obvious is what the scales, oil and wine represent.

Some interpret this passage as famine with hyperinflation.  Seems reasonable.  Although the 4th seal is the judgment death-by-famine-and-pestilence, and not the 3rd seal.  That brings into question the scales, oil and wine and their meaning.

I interpret this verse symbolically.  The scales are clearly symbolic of something, as are the oil and wine.

Some say the scales represent famine because it would be necessary to measure out the wheat and barley carefully and precisely, due to scarcity.  Some say they represent judgment.  From what I can tell, this is primarily because our symbol of justice is lady liberty holding a sword and scales. 

I think perhaps the scales represent balance and fairness, or justness.  I also have an idea that the oil and wine represent plenty and abundance.  Bread was a basic staple, but oil and wine were luxuries.   

This passage may be describing a situation where hyperinflation is rampant and those with little can barely pay for basic necessities.  However, in this not-so-distant future period, the wealthy are not suffering, and still can have their treats. 

Today in the U.S. and the world, economic inequality, whether measured through the gaps in income or wealth between richer and poorer households, continues to widen.  According to the Pew Research Center, the wealth gap among upper-income families and middle- and lower-income families is sharper than the income gap and is growing more rapidly”.

The Brookings Institute says, “the top one percent of the usual income distribution holds over $25 trillion in wealth, which exceeds the wealth of the bottom 80 percent. That is more than all the goods and services produced in the U.S. economy in 2018”.

In Scripture, one of the purposes for the Year of Jubilee, was to prevent the majority of wealth from winding up in the hands of just a few.  You can find my article about it my new book by clicking the link above.

So, in my hypothesis, what you have in this verse is the lower income strata struggling to survive while the elite wealthy are living their lives essentially unchanged.  The scales then would represent a lack of balance and fairness. 

Modern Monetary Theory is Now the Rule

Until recently, I had no idea about this theory.  Now that I understand what it is, so many things make sense. 

I understand why authorities have no problem printing and spending more money to solve any problem that arises.  I understand why Bernie Sanders and other radical leftists have no problem advocating for universal healthcare, universal government paychecks, universal EVERYTHING!

In short, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) is the belief that by printing more money, any economic problem can be mitigated (I’m getting sick of that word – thank you Fauci). 

It is the anti-orthodox, macro-economic framework which says that any ‘monetarily sovereign’ country does not need taxes or borrowing for spending since they can print as much as they need and are the monopoly issuers of the currency.

A monetary sovereign country is one that has exclusive, unlimited power to create their sovereign currencies.   The U.S., U.K, Canada, Australia, Japan, China and the European Union are entities that are monetarily sovereign.

Because the U.S. is monetarily sovereign, it never needs to tax or borrow, according to the premise of the theory.  It can just just print money to pay it’s bills.  Theoretically, the country can never be pushed into insolvency. 

To quote one source, “Everything you believe about your personal finances — debts, deficits, spending, affordability, saving, and budgeting — are inappropriate to U.S. federal finances. For this reason, your personal intuition about U.S. financing likely is wrong.”

Traditional thinking would say that’s nuts. 

But according to investopedia.com, MMT supporters say, “large government debt isn’t the precursor to collapse we have been led to believe it is.  Countries like the U.S. can sustain much greater deficits without cause for concern, and in fact a small deficit or surplus can be extremely harmful and cause a recession since deficit spending is what builds people’s savings.”

In this theory, taxes are actually a mechanism to take money out of the money supply to control inflation!  In other words, tax revenues are simply destroyed, or erased from the money supply!

Conventional thinking would say that the natural consequence of this policy is hyper-inflation.  But MMT’ers would say nay, you can just adjust policies to correct inflation.  Does the Fed rate come to mind? 

Right now (as of this writing April 14, 2020), the Fed Rate is .25%.  That’s the rate banks can borrow money.  The lower the rate, the cheaper borrowed money is (and the more commercial and personal debt increases), and the slower inflation would creep.

Do some research on it.  Investopedia gives a very nice explanation. 

The Coronavirus Play

So now comes the coronavirus.  My spidey sense is at 100%.  I try to get a 30,000 foot spiritual view of the situation.

This germ panic has prompted governments to declare a lockdown of the entire world economy.  The result of this lockdown is the most unprecedented (I know that’s redundant) printing-fest of fiat currency in the history of the world.  Trillions of new dollars are being printed to ameliorate the economic hardships of the man-made economic shutdown.

Recently, White House economic advisor, Larry Kudlow said that the U.S. economic stimulus package will reach $6 trillion.  $4 trillion would be immediate liquidity (that means cheap borrowing and bloating of the money supply) and the other $2 trillion would be paychecks, essentially. 

Kudlow called it, “the single largest Main Street assistance program in the history of the United States”.   Duh

The world is at full tilt printing new money.  Can you see the picture developing and the rationale behind my interpretation of Revelation 6:6?  Massive debt, hyperinflation, incredible wealth gap, economic depression.

What if the rapture happened right…now?