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by Scott Webster
 I think the best way to see into who God is as the Sovereign One is to look into what is now taking place in the earth’s financial and political systems, and to see how God is actively involved.
Revelation 18:1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. 2 With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.
We are living in a time of economic meltdown because God is judging a system that has been overtaken by satanic principles: “She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird”(Rev 18:3). The system is rife with wrong principles of competition, scarcity, price gouging, collusion and all kinds of practices designed to maximize profit. Babylon is everything that is driven by dark value systems and deficient standards – it is a “home for demons” – the word home means a permanent dwelling place. The indication is in the time of the end, humanity has been so inundated by a lack of ethics and the quest for profit above all else that it is completely compromised. Babylon is the place where mankind has become one with darkness.
Babylon can’t live without the business cycle humming along without interruption; when it is suspended or threatened the whole earth goes into a spasm. But note the cause and effect – the merchants mourn because no one buys – not because people are being judged and dying. This is a time of ultimate judgment; an angel of great authority is shouting from heaven, a raging fire is burning Babylon to the ground, but the reason merchants weep and mourn is that they are going out of business. They don’t grieve at the realization that they have built and participated in a false system that prioritizes carnal economic power over human life. When God is on the move bringing final resolution to the earth, they are tormented because the markets have frozen up. It is not the fate of the mass of humans living in darkness that produces distress; it is an interruption of the business cycle and the possibility of continued recession. What a wicked and terrible reality – no wonder God has to judge it.
Key Observations
With these clear descriptors of Babylon and in light of the economic meltdown that began in 2008 and continues through today, we can make some observations.
These Scriptural realities are major definers and broad trends that will characterize the times to come. These are not individual flashes of revelation or prophetic predictions of specific events – they are an examination of clear descriptions from the Word of God about how life will be in the future (1)
a) The presence of economic chaos in the earth is an indication of the Sovereignty of God
It is a powerful angel whose splendor fills the entire earth that is sent by God to declare that Babylon has fallen. God is behind the crisis that was unleashed on the world’s economies in 2008 and which continues to bring stagnation. Not only has America’s economy stopped growing and unemployment is stuck at over 9 percent, but natural disasters have increased in number and severity, extracting costs from a nation with an already overdrawn checkbook. This year was the costliest year on record for natural disasters – by the month of July! The first six months saw$265 billion in economic losses, well above the previous record of $220 billion for all of twelve months of 2005(the year Hurricane Katrina struck). Everything else that has happened since mid-year is adding to the bill for preparation, rescue and clean up. This year is "one for the record books," said Bob Hartwig, head of the Insurance Information Institute. "We are rewriting the financial and economic history of disasters on a global scale."
In the U.S. ninety-eight events (storms, flooding, fires and earthquakes) left $27 billion in economic losses, more than double the previous 10-year average.
The total number of events is trending up as well: the first half of 2011 produced more events than most entire years before 2006. If the tornadoes that hit the U.S. in the spring of 2011were counted as a single event it would make it into the top 15 costliest events of all time as well. This pushes up insurance rates for everyone, further stressing the economic reality (2)
Hurricane Irene was only a Category 1 storm, a relatively small hurricane, yet because it dumped rain on a demographically dense area of the nation it ranks as one of the top 10 most costly disasters in U.S. history. It devastated the fall foliage season for New Hampshire and Vermont, and right in its wake Hurricane Lee emptied the beaches of the Gulf Coast during Labor Day weekend. People stayed home instead of spending money, and the bills keep adding up while the tax base keeps decreasing because of lower property taxes and fewer employed workers. It is a lack of sight of the Sovereign One that causes people to interpret Irene and the small earthquake which rattled Washington, DC the week before as some sort of sign regarding U.S. government policy. In fact a much more correct view is how these and other disasters are happening in the middle of an attempted recovery from the Great Recession. The lack of economic growth, the natural disasters and the political polarization all are having a cumulative negative economic effect on this nation and the entire earth. We must have prophets who know this Sovereign God who is not only the God of blessing and prosperity, but also of destruction and economic collapse (Isaiah 45). His aim is not to restore America or revive the economy; He is the one who is breaking it down. The false god that consists of equal parts capitalism, hyper-faith teaching and an American sense of exceptionalism is being exposed as a figment of a self-indulgent church’s imagination – and the object of its lust. Of course some will say that the strategic destruction cannot be God. Of them we could ask: what is your philosophy and Scripturally based view of what is happening?
Is God in charge or not? If you say He is not, then how can He be God if all these things are happening outside of His will? If you say that He is, then what is His purpose? Make no mistake; the presence of economic chaos in the earth is an indication of the Sovereignty of God.
b) The events that move us to the end of time cannot be fixed by the efforts of man .
Kings, merchants and all those who trade, stand and cry out when Babylon is judged – there is nothing they can do to alter these events or to fix the global economy. It crashes because an angel of great authority sent by God forcefully shouts from heaven, and human systems are incapable of repairing that which is being destroyed from the unseen realm. No amount of prayer and intercession and no human’s prophetic decree will change this reality. Likewise no political effort will change the fact that the economy is headed downhill. While there may be an ebb and flow to events, Obama’s newly introduced “jobs bill” will not fix it, nor will the efforts of those on the right. The elections of 2012 will focus strongly on varying political views on how to fix the economy, but what they really are about – what we need to see as we look at the primary and general elections – is the inability of man to fix something that God is breaking.
Human ideologies will be proclaimed and staunchly defended as the right and the left disagree on the way forward, but the economy will continue to limp along regardless of who wins the election in 2012, and no matter which provisions of Obama’s jobs bill are passed or are voted down in Congress. Both sides had ample opportunity to prove the superiority of the system – the free market led to intense greed, consumerism and the meltdown. Yet government regulation will suffocate and cap economic growth – as Milton Friedman once said, “the government is so inefficient if you put it in charge of the Sahara desert they would run out of sand.” Both sides and all initiatives proposed in the future will fail to fix the economy.
Why Can’t it be Fixed?
The Great Depression was a more significant economic downturn than this current recession. Between 1929 and1932 the economy plunged downward, including:
a) industrial production dropped 45%
b) the stock market lost90% of its value
c) homebuilding dropped 80%
d) about half of America’s banks failed
e) unemployment was at25 percent, and up to 37 percent for non-farm workers.
In addition, the New Deal initiated by FDR was vehemently opposed by free market thinkers and politicians on the other side of the aisle. Yet they fixed the economy and led the nation into 70 years of upward growth and massive expansion; the GDP went from $100 billion to $14 trillion. So why could they fix a much worse economic situation while the current problems cannot be repaired? In short, in the 1930s the earth was not ready for conclusive outcomes. Many things occurred in the intervening years that brought the nations to a place of fullness, including:
‣ The American economy grew exponentially and the nation became a primary consuming nation and by extension its economic system became the default economic system of the earth
‣ Japanese and German imperial ambitions were defeated in WWII, after which each nation was rebuilt into a primary trading bloc with the U.S.; together the three nations exercised a dominant economic role in the 2nd half of the 20th century
‣ Soviet empire had to rise and then fall, an arc that took roughly 70 years (from the overthrow of Czarist Russia in 1917 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989). The Eastern bloc imploded due to its inferior economic system of collectivization, which undercut the primary motivation of workers – more money. This caused them to open the doors of the Eastern bloc to Western companies and ways
‣ China opened itself to the world and then liberalized its economy to become more dockable with the rest of the world. Though they have a one party state, their economy is functionally capitalistic, and it is their factories which supply the American and European quest for more goods
‣ India emerged to provide back office services to Western corporations, software support for the computers of the world and strong involvement in medical research – all of which tie it to the global economy.
In essence the Babylonian system had to become more cohesively joined together as “one” through the exportation and adoption of American style capitalism so that one meltdown could ripple across every nation. His Sovereign superintendence of the nations during the Great Depression brought recovery, growth and a global system that became even more exploitive, more interconnected and therefore more fragile. Why is 2011 so different? Because God is now enacting ultimate purpose within an interconnected global economic system, and in this time of finalization, all of Babylon’s riches have vanished, never to be recovered (v 14); and the city will be thrown down, never to be found again(v 21). Mankind and his greed have been mastered by prophetic reality. Translation: God is fulfilling His purpose even though man is exercising his free will.
c) Those who are aware of what is happening will be required to walk through the crisis.
Knowing that God is judging the global economic system does not make us fatalistic, pessimistic or maladjusted. I have never walked around with a sandwich board declaring “the End is near!” (nor will I). Kathy and I laugh together, we enjoy spending time with our children and grandchildren and generally our lives are very healthy. Yet we live with the intense realization that God is initiating a final confrontation with the systems of Darkness. We have no idea how long this might take – years or decades, no one knows except the Father Himself – but whether it is 50 years or 500, the process leading towards the end has begun. We must increase our capacity to interact with God and receive Divine insight while still living in this mortal realm. When Babylon is judged there are saints, apostles and prophets who are present and participating – in other words a functional church exists at a time when global economies are being burned to the ground. Clear descriptions and requirements are given in the Word of God for how we must exist as we partner with God in His Sovereign dealings in the earth.
SOURCE: http://www.scottwebsterministries.org/prophetic-briefs/newsletters/anatomy-of-a-nation-in-decline/06-reference-point-god-is sovereign/
REFERENCES
1) These Key Observations are from Dr. Noel Woodroffe’s teaching entitled 2009 Spiritual Requirements. Used by permission.
2) Quotes and statistics taken from 2011 Already Costliest Year for Natural Disasters,http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43727793/ns/world_news-world_environment
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