I am always ready to serve the Body of Christ in whatever capacity I am called for that is the manifesto of our Lord Jesus. Though I felt honored to be invited to share a message of Christian hope in a memorial service for the first time in Aug 2019, I felt heavy hearted as well. It was not a joyous occasion especially when the loved ones could not have any closure to their loss. I would surely pray that my message could give comfort and hope to the loved ones of the departed brother that the separation is temporary.
I gave thanks to the Lord for the opportunity to have fellowship with the then new director of Salvation Army and a few brothers and sisters.
Fellowship with the then new director of Salvation Army and Pastor Ferdie
I was sharing the message on the coming economic flood based on my book in a fellowship worship service a few weeks ago when I suddenly remembered and mentioned that the editing of the book by the US publisher was stringent. Written approval from all sources of information mentioned in the book were required to prevent falsehood and plagiarism. I would have to travel to Indonesia, Philippines and China to get the approval from a few pastors. If I had to send the written request by post, the launch of the book would be delayed. I prayed that there could be a waiver from the publisher, but to my surprise, the Lord granted my prayer by having all the pastors from these countries coming down to Singapore in the same week ! One was sponsored to attend some sort of anniversary of a local church. The others came on personal matters. Unbelievable considering the odds. Hallelujah !
After I got their signatories on my own draft forms, the publisher sent me their forms. I prayed again that my own forms would
suffice. By the grace of God, my plea
was granted again. Hallelujah ! All thanks and glory to our Lord.
But all this is only the first of the
birth pains, with more to come.“Then
you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the
world because you are my followers.And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.
Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow
cold.
After the birth pains have started with more to come, the
second sign of the end of age will start with persecution of the church. The birth pains and persecution will both
grow in intensity just like birth pains before the baby is born.
In Rev 2 and 3, only 2 churches – Smyrna and Philadelphia churches – remain faithful in the end times while the other 5 will likely compromise and apostatize to avoid the persecution by the state. These 5 churches, with the exception of Ephesus church, will be so deceived by the numerous false prophets in their midst. Though the Ephesus church tries to remain doctrinally correct and continue in good works, they have lost their first love – they will compromise on accepting homosexuality and other state mandates and sever their hand of fellowship with those who do not compromise. We are beginning to see such action now.
The Smyrna churches are outside the Babylonian or western capitalism states anyway in the Moslem and socialist states and are used to suffering. The Philadelphia churches are the smaller fellowship churches (without power and thus less conspicuous) that will come out of the compromised institutional churches in the Babylonian states probably due to betrayal and hatred for their fortitude on obeying God’s laws, or distress caused by rampant false teaching and blasphemous practices.
Though the Lord’s exhortation to come out of Babylon (with her luxurious living and very sinful excesses removing God’s universal laws on gender, marriage and sanctity of life) may cause the Smyrna and Philadelphia churches to suffer economically, but they will remain faithful and endure till the end. Their souls will be so tormented by the rampant sin they see around them and the terrible coldness of love of many.
Had an informal conference with the brothers and sisters of the End Times Preparation Works Ministry, Malaysia over dinner in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. I shared about the coming economic flood to corroborate their long held belief of the coming economic hardship which prompted them to establish this ministry in the first place.
Over the next few days, we visited the land in which some brothers owned and are in the process of converting them into farms. We visited also a goat farm run by a brother whose former profession was in accountancy.
Because they have already worked on the land and have established farming enterprises, they are more than ready to help us should the need arises. We can easily relocate there for these places of refuge are just a few hours’ drive from our place. All thanks to the Lord for this divine appointment.
The residence Dr Sun Yat Sen stayed while in Taiping
I have been meditating on
Psalms 92:1-3 for the past week and I was thrilled to know of what the Lord has
done for me. I decided to sing out these
verses in my Sunday worship devotion.
We must not confuse private revelation with Scripture revelation. The former concerns only MORALLY NEUTRAL events in one’s life and does not involve authority for universal faith; while the latter concerns truth necessary for universal faith and all such truth revelation is complete in scripture. Nobody can say that he or she receives new truth revelation such as the radical grace teaching of the hyper grace false gospel.
How could I explain that an inner prompting telling me to stop suddenly in the middle of the road and I avoided collision; or to be told not to go into a particular city and avoided being persecuted when nothing was amiss all along ? How could I explain the odds of being shown the vision of 911 terror attack 3 days before which I shared with all colleagues, and it happened exactly what I saw, and the continual odds of the same message for 2008 and 2015 ? I encountered so many such testimonies and I comprehend the significance of all such odds cumulatively for I was trained as an engineer. Such revelation do not nullify, subtract or add to the immutable truth of scripture. Our daily relationship with our Lord should be dynamic. It is our moral decisions that should be directed by His commands in His Word which is immutable.
In Acts 11:27-30, the prophet Agabus shared of an impending global famine which later happened. And the church in Antioch brought relief to the church in Jerusalem through Paul and Barnabas. Such private revelation was God’s mercy for the church to tide over the impending famine at that time. Why did God choose to reveal such private revelation to Agabus only and not the elders and apostles in the Jerusalem ? It is God’s sovereign will to choose to whoever He would like to reveal such an impending event which was morally neutral. We should not box the Lord into what He could or could not do. Such private revelation would not undermine the authority of the Scripture, would it ? Such private revelation would not agree or disagree with Scripture because of the fact that the famine was a morally neutral event and not about Scripture truth.
The Scripture makes it clear that we should not despise such prophecy but to test it. One way as proposed by Dr John MacArthur is to use the law of probability to test. The slimmer the odds the better it is. If I am to predict an earthquake happening in Japan, the chance of getting it right is more than half ! Such a warning with such high probability serve no purpose for the church because such earthquakes are frequent and the Japanese people already know the drills. But if the probability of the prophecy is so terribly slim and its purpose is to warn the church to avert economic hardship such as famine, I see no reason why the Lord cannot warn His people to prepare.
JI Packer explained it well in his book, The JI Packer Classic Collections, ( https://www.jcmanifesto.org/?s=guidance+tested) and also John Stott did not discount such possibility calling such private revelation as prophecy in the lesser or secondary sense unlike the Scripture Revelation which is prophecy in the primary sense. Of course there can be abuse by false teachers to mesmerize their followers which is quite rampant today. So we need to pray for wisdom to test and discern such kind of prophecy in the lesser sense. Take the prediction of a global famine or a global economic collapse. If we prepare and it does not happen, we are none the poorer. But if we do not prepare and it does happen, how badly will we be affected ? Does the person making such prophecy in the lesser sense has an ulterior motive of gain or fame ? Is the prophecy very vague or very precise when tested by the law of probability ? Does such a prophecy, out of the grace and mercy of our Lord, help the church, universal or local, to prepare to avert such disaster ?
Rev 18 details God’s
judgment on commercial Babylon. She will
be burned with fire and all her wealth will be laid waste. Plagues of mourning,
famine and death will follow.
Rev 18:9
When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her.
Not all the kings of the earth commit adultery with Babylon and share her LUXURY. Only those who do so will weep when Babylon burns for they have lived in luxury with her. We can clearly see which are the present western capitalism states that are taking the bidding from Babylon today. I call them the Babylonian Alliance.
Rev 18:11-13
The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore-cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.
I read an
interesting article in the web that summarized the above products into 7
categories of LUXURIES in the ancient world.
Precious metals and gems.
Clothing.
Furnishing.
Spice.
Food.
Animals and implements.
People.
(In modern times, the above
categories are still considered luxuries, even people. We see the buying and selling of football
players in the soccer leagues around the world for an example.)
The next group to weep when
Babylon burns are the merchants who are selling all the above-mentioned categories
of luxuries and have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. Rev 18:3.
Rev 18:17-19
Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. 1When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city?’ They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out…
The final group to weep are
the major seaports cum financial centres supporting the globalized trade
orchestrated by Babylon and have also grown rich by her wealth.
Rev 18:7
Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.
This Babylonian Alliance, comprising all the western capitalism states, has been flaunting their wealth and luxurious living for far too long at the expense of the relative poorer nations in the rest of the world . It is an affront to the Lord and He has declared judgment on all these wealth for the sake of the saints and the labourers and harvesters who have been exploited and defrauded by being in the lowest rung of the supply chain. James 5:1-5.
It is a judgment on wealth and luxurious living and it is not mentioned in the seal, trumpet or bowl judgments during the Great Tribulation. Each of these judgments is an unprecedented disaster such as great earthquake (Rev 6:12-14), great warfare (Rev 6:5-6), hail and fire (Rev 8:7), plague of demonic locusts (Rev 9:1-11) and the killing of a third of humanity (Rev 9:12-21). The bowl judgments are even much worse in destruction. All such disasters will disrupt the global economy terribly during the Great Tribulation anyway. As such, I believe the Rev 18 judgment will happen before the Great Tribulation and set the stage for the emergence of the Antichrist to be seen as the savior of the world in resolving this global financial crisis. In Rev 17, we read as well that the beast and the ten kings will arise to destroy the religious system of Babylon. Rev 17:16.
In Acts
11:27-30, we read of a prophet called Agabus who predicted a global famine. From historical records, the global famine
did happen in AD 45/46 and lasted till AD 65.
As a result of the prophecy, the believers in Antioch began to collect money
to send relief to the Jerusalem church.
And Paul participated in this first collection by bringing the relief
funds together with Barnabas.
From several of Paul’s letters, we learned that Paul further appealed for relief funds from other churches in Macedonia and Achaia (Rom 15:25-28) and the Corinthian church (1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8:9). Since the famine lasted almost 2 decades, Paul also called for prudent spending in order to have resources to help one another to mitigate this famine crisis. (1 Cor 7:26). Even though the Macedonian church was also in need, Paul commended her giving in displaying their genuine love for the brethren.
The appeals
of Paul, mentioned fairly frequent in Scripture, presented us with a principle that
we ought to encourage and instruct the church to give in times of crisis. And all the more to prepare when it is looming
and prophesized in Scripture, for example in Rev 18.
Furthermore, our Lord had mentioned the various tests of our genuine faith and faithfulness to care for His people in such times in the 4 parables mentioned in Matt 24 and 25. The sheer number of 4 parables should tell us how emphatic is our Lord’s warning on this same test of faithfulness.
We are seeing the following unprecedented adverse economic conditions right now in congregating to form the perfect storm of global economic collapse. Can this be the judgment of all wealth as predicted in Rev 18 ?
Supply
chain disruption and distortion.
Soaring
global inflation.
Rising
interest rates.
Catastrophic
food shortages.
Sovereign
debt crisis of more than half of the world’s poorer nations.
Regardless if it is the said judgment, it is prudent to prepare. For brethren in some countries such as Sri Lanka, Laos and Pakistan, their nations are staring at bankruptcy right now. If we prepare and the crisis never comes, we are none the poorer, but if we do not prepare and the crisis comes, we will be helpless.
The present global supply chain is complex in nature being built up over the years after the second world war. It has been simultaneously strained at all nodes in the last 2 years due to global forcible lockdowns. Usually some nodes may be disrupted due to natural disasters such as earthquake hitting a major city or regional wars affecting energy and commodity supplies, but the supply chain can self regulate to compensate for this loss with supply from other nodes. But this time, the whole world went into lockdown and disrupted all nodes. The sudden lockdown, subsequent easing of restrictions and the return back to restrictions to contain different waves of the virus variants further compounded the crisis.
Covid 19 has disrupted the demand and supply at all nodes. And also distorted demand and supply. Distortion affects demand and supply of final products at the onset while disruption affects the demand and supply of the supply chain nodes that go into producing the final product. People, who normally go to movies and eat out, will stay home instead and spend on goods instead of services as a result of the global lockdown. This is an example of a forcible distortion. Manufacturing and logistical systems are designed to run at high utilization and they are now forcibly disrupted too. In this unprecedented pandemic control, all the three abovementioned factors come together to create this perfect storm of global supply chain crisis.
To compound the current problems are the looming sovereign debt crisis of emerging economies which represent more than half of the nations of the world, inflation caused by all kinds of monetary stimuli from quantitative easing, and the Russia-Ukraine war disrupting a great proportion of global gas and fertilizer supplies. I foresee the supply chain problem to drag on for years and many nations will be unstable. It is the rate of inflation that is frightening for we do not know how quickly inflation will go up and further distort or disrupt the supply and demand.
Postscript : 29 Nov 2022
Glad to find a video of a famous economist, Jim Rickards, explaining so well about the current supply chain disruption.
In Matt 24, our Lord gave 4 signs to His disciples when He was asked about His coming and end of age.
Birth pains of calamitous events – wars and rumors of wars; famine; earthquakes.
Adverse events in the church – persecution; reduction in numbers; gospel will be preached in the whole world.
Great distress in Jerusalem with the coming of the Antichrist.
Unnatural cosmic events.
We have been in the last days for the past 2000 years. When we see wars, famines and earthquakes happening that are of biblical proportion and with exponential frequency unlike in the past centuries, it is very likely to be the first sign. When the church starts to encounter persecution in all nations and many false prophets emerge to deceive the church to compromise, many will turn away from the faith. The faithful will be betrayed and will also leave the deceived church. The faithful will then disperse and form the small and less conspicuous Philadelphia local churches in those days and will be used mightily to preach the gospel to all corners in the whole world, together with the suffering Smyrna local churches. For those who are left in the other mainstream churches, especially the Ephesus churches, their love will grow cold and wickedness will increase. That will be the second sign. When the third sign of the appearance of the abomination that causes desolation comes, the end will be very near at the door. Immediately after this distress, the heavenly bodies will be shaken, the sun will be darkened and the stars will fall from the sky. And our Lord will return. Hallelujah !
The current Russia-Ukraine war may cause a global catastrophic famine. And it may fuel many smaller wars as the poorer nations grapple with the looming sovereign debt crisis. Meanwhile we see the mainstream churches compromising with the state on vaccine mandate without even questioning if it is against God’s designed order. The western capitalism states are likely to be coerced to accept all kinds of abomination in the coming years due to pressure from Babylon (America) since they all grow rich because of her. The churches will be persecuted then for her defiance. Many false prophets will come on stage to deceive many then to compromise. I believe the Lord’s judgment stated in Rev 18:17-19 will happen before the third sign after which the Antichrist will appear on the world stage as “savior” of the world in resolving many of the problems plaguing the nations after the Lord’s destruction of all wealth. The current situation of high inflation, unprecedented supply chain disruption, sovereign debt crisis, and continual quantitative easing may set the initial stage for the eventual global economic collapse.
