(July 14, 2010) Earlier this year President Obama created a bipartisan Debt Commission to analyze America’s fiscal status and future financial outlook. The co-chairmen of this commission are former Republican senator Alan Simpson from Wyoming and President Clinton’s former chief of staff Erskine Bowles. These two men spoke at the National Governors Association this past Sunday.
A Washington Post article (Obama’s debt commission warns of fiscal ‘cancer’) states,
“Bowles said that unlike the current economic crisis, which was largely unforeseen before it hit in fall 2008, the coming fiscal calamity is staring the country in the face. ‘This one is as clear as a bell,’ he said. ‘This debt is like a cancer.’
The commission leaders said that, at present, federal revenue is fully consumed by three programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. ‘The rest of the federal government, including fighting two wars, homeland security, education, art, culture, you name it, veterans — the whole rest of the discretionary budget is being financed by China and other countries,’ Simpson said.
‘We can’t grow our way out of this,’ Bowles said. ‘We could have decades of double-digit growth and not grow our way out of this enormous debt problem. We can’t tax our way out. . . . The reality is we’ve got to do exactly what you all do every day as governors. We’ve got to cut spending or increase revenues or do some combination of that.’”
In February of this year Richard Fisher, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, spoke before the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth (Roadblocks to Recovery). In that speech he said,
“Pundits and analysts like to focus on the year in which Social Security will go permanently into the red on an annual cash flow basis—which recently was projected to occur in 2019 but could occur as early as 2016. But they largely ignore the severity of the broader problem: accumulated entitlement debt over the infinite horizon. According to our calculations at the Dallas Fed, that unfunded debt of Social Security and Medicare combined has now reached $104 trillion—trillion with a ‘T’—in discounted present value. And while much attention in recent years has been devoted to Social Security, the lion’s share of the total entitlement shortfall (nearly $90 trillion) actually comes from Medicare. This is a prodigious number. Others—like Pete Peterson’s foundation, which uses a different time horizon in its methodology—calculate the unfunded liability at north of $40 trillion, growing by a sum of $2 trillion to $3 trillion per year. No matter. The problem is frightful, whether you take his numbers or ours.”
The picture these governmental and financial experts paint for America’s future seems to be one of apocalyptic economic devastation. What is the prophetic significance of such an outcome? In September of 2007 I wrote an article titled “The Decline and Fall of America“. In that article (before the 2008 meltdown of America’s economy) I wrote,
“If you read the article “The Coming Invasion of Israel” on this web site, you know that Bible prophecy reveals that a conglomeration of countries will invade Israel in the future. In the last sixty years no non-Arabic nation has dared attack it. There is one very simple reason for this. Any country outside the Middle East knows that America would defend Israel militarily if they initiated a war with them. During the 1967 Six Day War, Russia saw that Israel was decimating its Arab allies. They considered intervening in the conflict but knew that America would have to respond. Thus, a major conflict between the superpowers was averted. Such is the case to this day. However, because of the prophecy God gave to Ezekiel, I believe that America has to lose its superpower status. With a weakened America the invasion of Israel can take place.
Is this another Christian fanatic declaring the sky is falling? Not if you listen to what the U.S. Comptroller General (who heads the United States Government Accounting Office) stated recently in an interview. He is very pessimistic about America’s future as these excerpts from the Financial Times article will reveal:
David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”. Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.
Inspector General Walker lays out a pretty dismal scenario for America’s future. I agree with him. In the 1960s, Ruth Graham, wife of Billy Graham, read a chapter out of her husband’s new book. After handing the book back to him she said, “Billy, if God doesn’t come soon and bring judgment upon the United States, He’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!” We as a nation continue to live our lives as if God doesn’t exist. Our political leaders’ only goal is to maintain their power at whatever the cost to America’s security. The Judicial system releases child predators, rapists, murderers on a frequent basis. A segment of America wants to ignore the laws of America by allowing anyone to violate the Immigration Laws of the United States. There is a mindset in our culture that declares the criminal is the victim, a victim of bad upbringing or bad circumstances. Pornography, homosexuality, adultery are prevalent throughout our entertainment and in our lifestyles. The legalization of abortion has resulted in the deaths of nearly 50 million unborn babies. The difference now is that society accepts these behaviors as alternative lifestyles. Liberal Churches deny the miracles of the Bible. They deny the Bible’s authority to guide human beings. The lists of America’s ills goes on and on. The rest of the world is no better. Although God’s judgment is coming upon the world, I believe He will start with America…
The downfall of America may come as a result of a financial collapse. It could come from a military defeat. The War on Terror is not going to go away. Just ask the Israelis after six decades of fighting it. The moral climate which declares there is no right or wrong will also play a part. Whatever it takes for the rest of the world to see that America is weak will happen. Once this occurs, the other powers in the world will have a free hand to wreak havoc wherever they please. This will lead to the invasion of Israel and the End-Times.” [end of my 2007 article]
Another factor in the downfall of America could be political in nature. Even if we are economically or militarily capable of continuing our protection of Israel we may be politically unwilling to support it. President Obama’s administration, unlike all the previous administrations since 1947, seems to be turning away from Israel in favor of the Arab nations of the Middle East (see my blog article from March 18th of this year The Decline and Fall of America Redux and Ezekiel 38-39.
I personally do not want to see America decline in any fashion. However, if it is God’s will for this to happen then I want to keep my eyes on Him and be in His will for my life.
(June 20, 2010) 
(June 18, 2010) The subtitle of my blog is What in the world is going on? Looking at news events occurring around the world I think an even more appropriate question is, Is it all falling apart? In my lifetime (52 years) I have seen dramatic changes in socioeconomic, cultural, and technological spheres of human existence. Although the modern era may have begun during the European Renaissance, culturally in the areas of intellectual and artistic pursuits and politically through revolutions, I believe current modernity grew out of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century. Prior to that time human life moved at a much slower pace. Travel was powered by horse or sailing ship. Although the printing press had been around since the 15th Century communication still traveled only as fast as the horse or ship could carry it. With the advent of the 20th Century human innovation had made great strides in improving the human condition. The breadth of human existence had been dramatically changed in the areas of medicine and health, working and manufacturing, travel, education, and communication. Of course technological advancement also led to greater destruction in warfare. In the Nuclear Age humanity is capable of destroying the earth for the first time in human history. The prophet Daniel may have spoken of this development, 
(June 13, 2010) My last post dealt with increased solar activity and attempts by some to link it to Mayan Prophecy. There seems to be a diverse opinion on the meaning and nature of the Mayan Prophecy. The Mayans observed several calendrical cycles for their various social, agricultural, commercial and administrative endeavors and each of which had a religious element in or religious aspect to them. One of the calendars, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, is the one that pertains to the Mayan Prophecy. This Long Count calendar constitutes a period of time consisting of 5125 years. The current Great Cycle of the Long Count will conclude on December 21, 2012. What happens after that seems to be open to conjecture. Beginning in the 1960s some Mayan researchers suggested that some type of apocalyptic event would occur at that time. Since then others have stated their belief that a new age of enlightenment will come upon mankind and the earth. Some believe that there will be some form of Milky Way galactic alignment on the Winter solstice (December 21) of 2012. As I pointed out in my last post, Hollywood has taken the Armageddon approach to 2012 and this is the idea which seems to have taken root in popular American culture. Therefore, I am interested in seeing how the months and weeks leading up to December 21, 2012 play out. The media hype may surpass that which occurred prior to the Y2k scare of 1999. I have read that modern-day Mayans themselves attach no import to the Mayan Prophecy. I believe they have the correct approach to this “event”.
(June 3, 2010) Israel is once again in the world’s spotlight. Last week, a flotilla of six ships apparently carrying a cargo of humanitarian aid to the people living in the Gaza Strip expressed their (
