Volume 39     Issue Six      June 2020
Last Trumpet Ministries, PO Box 806, Beaver Dam, WI 53916
Phone: 920-887-2626 Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

History And Uncertainty In A Pandemic Age

"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that."

"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will examine the current events of the historic time in which we are living. As a boy, I can recall my father telling stories about my grandparents and how they lived through the Great Depression. To date, it is the worst economic downturn "in the history of the industrialized world," (1) and with the current coronavirus crisis now wreaking havoc on the global economy, new comparisons are being drawn to that dark period of American history. Are there any similarities between what happened then and what is happening now?

To be sure, the root cause of the Great Depression is different from the economic calamity of today. When the Great Depression began in 1929, it was not caused by the outbreak of a virus. Rather, overconfidence in the stock market caused a flood of investing throughout the decade of the 1920s, a period of time that has come to be known as "the roaring twenties." (2) At the time, it was widely believed that investments were the path to sure prosperity, and individuals all over the country began to invest. They would sometimes invest with money they did not have but instead had to borrow. They expected the return on their investments to provide the profit necessary to pay back their loans. This technique seemed to work for a while, but on October 24, 1929, people began to sell their shares in the stock market en masse, leading to a steep drop in overall value and widespread panic. On that day, which would come to be known as "Black Thursday," a record 12.9 million shares were traded on the American stock market. Five days later on October 29, 1929, conditions further eroded with 16 million shares of stock being traded on this day, which somewhat unimaginatively was called "Black Tuesday." (3) Because so many people had made investments with money they had borrowed and the value of their stocks suddenly disappeared, banks began to demand repayment of the loans. These repayments could not be made, causing banks all over the United States to fail. As consumer demand dropped precipitously and factories shuttered, unemployment rose to record levels. By 1930, some four million Americans were looking for work, but could not find jobs. Farmers could no longer harvest their crops, and food was left rotting in the fields, even as crowds of people resorted to bread lines and soup kitchens to feed their families. (4) By 1932, fifteen million people were out of work. At the time, this accounted for more than 20 percent of the American population. (5)

The poor economic conditions of the United States soon spread to other areas of the world and caused great distress in much of Europe. Amongst the struggling nations was Germany and its young Weimar Republic. The discontent of the German people led to the rise of the world's most famous dictator, Adolf Hitler. Thus, the Great Depression was a contributing factor in the start of World War II. (6) Oddly enough, it was World War II that spurred a surge in economic activity in the United States. In 1942, the unemployment rate in the United States finally dropped to below pre-Depression levels. (7)

Human Suffering Like The Great Depression

As we ponder the past, one might wonder how does the economic downturn of today compare to the Great Depression of the 1930s? A report published by Sky News on May 21, 2020, puts it bluntly. The headline declares, "Coronavirus: Economic cost and human suffering in US like 1930s Great Depression." (8) The article notes that since the crisis began, 36 million people in the United States have lost their jobs. This is the worst increase in unemployment in the United States since the Great Depression. (9) Like the dark decade of the 1930s, people today have resorted to bread lines and food pantries to feed their families. "America is fundamentally underprepared for recessions and has no social safety net… the aerial images of thousands of people waiting in cars for food banks are [like] the bread lines of the 1930s," said Claudia Sahm, of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. (10) Indeed, families are struggling to put food on their tables during this crisis. According to an article published by CNBC on May 12, 2020, the cost of groceries in the United States has seen its most significant jump in 46 years. (11)

Of course, everyone knows that many businesses in the United States were forced to close during the coronavirus crisis because the government deemed them to be "non-essential." Thus, there is an assumption that many of the layoffs experienced since April will only be temporary and that when the economy returns to full swing, people will get their jobs back. However, a number of reports are warning that may not be the case. Bloomberg News published a headline on May 6, 2020, stating, "Layoffs start turning from Temporary to Permanent Across America." (12) Another headline, this time from the Daily Wire, warns that "More than 40% of Small Businesses May Close in the Next Six Months." (13) Meanwhile, businesses large and small are facing bankruptcy, including iconic American companies such as J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J.Crew. The spate of new bankruptcies prompted Fortune Magazine to write, "Bankruptcy Attorneys May Have the Hottest Job in the Downturn." The report notes that while job listings overall have fallen by 48 percent, listings for bankruptcy attorneys have tripled since January 2020. (14) Personal bankruptcies will likely increase, too. The Wall Street Journal noted on May 20, 2020, that 15 million credit card bills and three million automobile loans were not paid in April 2020. (15) In another development, mortgage delinquencies increased by 1.6 million in April 2020, which was the largest jump in unpaid mortgages ever recorded. "The impact of COVID-19 on the housing and mortgage markets has already been substantial. It will be months before we can gauge the full extent of that impact. Whatever the ultimate scope, it is almost certain the effects will resonate for many months to come," said economist Andy Walden. (16)

While American President Donald Trump is hopeful for a quick economic recovery in the United States when everyday business is fully restored, experts are warning that the reality might be different from this expectation. Bob Michele, who is the Chief Investment Officer at J.P. Morgan Chase, was quoted as saying, "No, it's not that simple… it's going to take years or longer to get back to where we are, or where we were." He estimates that it will take ten to twelve years to recover. (17) Billionaire Sam Zelle is even less optimistic. "Too many people are anticipating a kind of V-like recovery. We're all going to be permanently scarred by having lived through this," he said. (18)

For most politicians, there appears to be only one solution to save the American economy - stimulus money. The days in which our government would routinely spend millions of dollars eventually gave way to expenditures costing billions of dollars at a time, and now the American government is spending trillions. In March of this year, the United States Congress passed the CARES Act. Donald Trump signed the new legislation into law, and the result was that most taxpaying Americans received a check for $1200 and an additional $500 per child. The program also earmarked billions to add extra money to unemployment payouts and help small businesses procure loans to stay afloat. The price tag for this Act was about two trillion dollars, and while the stimulus checks were helpful, it was not enough to save many families from their current financial troubles. In May 2020, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, led by Nancy Pelosi, passed a bill that would cost an additional three trillion dollars. It has not passed the Senate, but prominent figures have called for more stimulus money to be disbursed. "The scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent. Additional fiscal support could be costly but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery," said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. (19) According to an article published by The Atlantic, a new Great Depression can be avoided, but the price tag to revive the sagging American economy would be ten trillion dollars. Writer Derek Thompson concluded the article by writing, "Conservatives and others might balk at the $10 trillion figure, for its sheer largeness. But this is no time for meganumerophobia. Rather than seeing trillion-dollar relief packages as 'large' or even 'bold' you should see them for what they are: an appropriate response to a once-in-a-century economic calamity. The U.S. can avoid another Great Depression. But it has to develop the civic stomach for fiscal-spending amounts that might have seemed impossible just months ago." (20)

One trillion is a thousand billions. This is a number that is so astronomical that it cannot fully be comprehended by the human mind. The U.S. National Debt today is about 25 trillion dollars. It seems only logical that the debt will have to be paid eventually, but what if the day of reckoning comes and the debt cannot be paid? I suspect that the American economy, along with the economies of all the other countries around the world, will eventually collapse entirely. This will give way to a whole new system instituted by an antichrist one world government. The United Nations wants to have a global government in place by the year 2030, and the coronavirus crisis could go a long way in setting the world stage toward that course.

Operation Warp Speed

Since the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, scientists and politicians have emphatically insisted that there is an urgent need for a coronavirus vaccine. On May 15, 2020, President Donald Trump announced a new initiative to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible. The initiative, which he calls Operation Warp Speed, is aimed at producing a cure for COVID-19 by January of next year. However, Trump has indicated he would prefer it be before the end of 2020. "We'd love to see if we can do it prior to the end of the year. I think we're going to have some very good results coming out very quickly," Trump insisted. (21) If the scientists involved in this endeavor are successful, it will be the fastest pace at which a vaccine has ever been produced. Nevertheless, there are numerous troubling aspects to this new initiative.

In a very unusual move, the President announced that the United States government would begin mass-producing various vaccine candidates before they are even approved or determined to be effective. "We're getting ready so that when we get the good word that we have the vaccine, we have the formula, we have what we need, we're ready to go as opposed to taking years," Trump explained. To further speed up the process, the Food and Drug Administration announced that they may issue an "emergency use authorization" for a new vaccine so that it can be used before undergoing rigorous testing. (22)

In last month's issue of this newsletter, I reported that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates insisted that the world will need seven billion doses of the forthcoming vaccine. He also stated that "nearly everyone" would need to receive the coronavirus shot, thus raising concern that it could be compulsory. Gates has now taken it a step further and declared that we might need 14 billion doses of the vaccine. "We need to manufacture and distribute at least 7 billion doses of the vaccine. 14 billion, if it's a multi-dose vaccine," Gates declared. He later went on to say, "Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus. We need to make billions of doses, we need to get them out to every part of the world, and we need all of this to happen as quickly as possible." (23) Thus we see that Gates, who has taken it upon himself to make healthcare decisions for all of humanity, has decided that this vaccine must be given to everyone in every country on every continent. In another hint that the coronavirus inoculation now under development may be mandatory, former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz made a series of infuriating remarks. "Let me put it very clearly. You have no constitutional right to endanger the public and spread the disease, even if you disagree. You have no right not to be vaccinated; you have no right not to wear a mask; you have no right to open up your business. [But] if you refuse to be vaccinated for a contagious disease the state has the power to literally take you to a doctor's office and plunge a needle into your arm." He further went on to say, "That's what a democracy is about. If the majority of the people agree and support that, for public health measures, you have to be vaccinated. You have to be vaccinated." Finally, Mr. Dershowitz said, "They should give you an alternative. The alternative is to live in your home, don't get vaccinated, but never ever leave your home or live in a bubble. But if you want to interact with other people, you cannot become Typhoid Mary." (24) It is interesting to note that Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed plan stipulates that the coronavirus vaccine be delivered by the United States military. "It's a massive job to give this vaccine. Our military is now being mobilized so that at the end of the year we'll be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly," Trump informed. (25)

It is not a sure thing that the government will make the coronavirus vaccine compulsory. However, the fact that they are talking about it is quite disturbing. Nevertheless, such a plan could face stiff resistance from the American people. According to a report published by Reuters News Service on May 21, 2020, one-fourth of American citizens who were surveyed in a recent poll indicated that they have "little or no interest in taking a coronavirus vaccine." (26) Considering the fact that the government is planning to unleash a vaccine without rigorous testing as quickly as they possibly can, it is no wonder that some folks would be reluctant to take it. There is another compelling reason why God-fearing Christians would pass on receiving a coronavirus vaccine even if it is proven to be 100 percent effective and safe. Some forms of the vaccine, including one in development by a company known as Moderna, are using fetal cells from aborted babies in their laboratories. (27)

A New Age Of Technology

As I think back to mid-March 2020, I recall driving home with my wife. The pandemic had just been announced, and we had just traveled to the store to stock up on supplies for our pantry. "It feels like we're living in a movie," I said to my wife. "I know," she replied. "I don't like it." We all know what happened next. Coronavirus infections spread all around the globe, and the vast majority of the world's population was put on lockdown. What was happening would have been entirely unthinkable even one year ago. Things like this are not supposed to happen in real life. In fact, when China put 56 million people in quarantine, such an endeavor involving so many people had never been tried before.

To deal with the global pandemic of COVID-19 infections, countries around the world began to use a slew of new technology to monitor and track its citizens. Not surprisingly, China led the pack in these endeavors as well. Among the various tools in its dystopian arsenal is the surveillance drone. Not only do these drones watch the people down below, but they talk to the humans and bark out orders. In one example documented on the news, a drone in China told a Chinese citizen, "Yes auntie, this is the drone speaking to you. You shouldn't walk about without wearing a mask." In another case, a drone was heard to be chastising a child who was with his father in public. "Don't look at the drone, child. Ask your father to leave immediately," the drone ordered. (28)

If such technology is to be used, most would expect it to happen in the repressive Chinese society. The country already has a robust surveillance system and has been rolling out a social credit score that either rewards or punishes its people based on their behavior. Yet, drones are becoming more commonplace elsewhere around the world, including the United States. During the COVID-19 pandemic, drones were sometimes seen hovering over New York City. These drones were reportedly the work of a private drone enthusiast who took it upon himself to start the "Anti-COVID-19 Volunteer Drone Task Force." These drones behave similarly to the ones in China. "Please maintain a social distance of at least six feet," the drone commanded onlookers down below. The drones were also reported to say, "Please help stop the spread of this virus," and "Reduce the death toll and help save lives." (29)

Meanwhile, in Christianburg, Virginia, drones are now delivering food and medical supplies. These flying robots are owned by a company called Wing, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc. (The parent company of Google.) In the age of a pandemic, the delivery drones have been well received. "It's one of the few technologies that has attracted a lot of early adopters over the age of 65," said Wing's spokesperson Jonathan Bass. (30) In any case, it is likely that the drones are here to stay. "The big concern is that the coronavirus crisis is going to normalize drones and entrench them in American life. The fear is many of these incursions on freedom will outlast the crisis," warned Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union. (31)

Looking back to China, the communist country used more than drones to control its citizens during the coronavirus outbreak. For example, those who were forced into restrictive quarantines at home or in hotels received food deliveries from robots. These people were forced to live under constant surveillance. "It's quite scary how you get used to such things," said Friederike Boege, a German journalist who was quarantined in Beijing, China. She further went on to say, "Apart from the camera, I do believe that the guards and the cleaner on the compound would denunciate me if I were to go out." (32) China also made wide use of smartphone tracking during the outbreak. The program, which is installed on the phones, tracks the movements of its users. If a citizen is determined to have visited a virus hotspot, their phone presents a red bar code indicating a need to quarantine for fourteen days. If they are given a green bar code, they are allowed to travel more freely. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, China announced plans to make its smartphone tracking program permanent. (33)

In another shocking development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently suggested that schoolchildren should be implanted with microchips according to a report from The Jerusalem Post. "I spoke with our heads of technology in order to find measures Israel is good at, such as sensors. For instance, every person, every kid - I want it on kids first - would have a sensor that would sound an alarm when you get too close, like the ones on cars," Netanyahu said. (34)

Here in the United States, a resolution has been proposed by Illinois Representative Bobby Rush, who is a Democrat. The resolution, if passed, would provide 100 billion dollars for contact tracing training and technology. Teams would even be dispatched to households to perform COVID-19 testing. The resolution, which is titled the "COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, and Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act," has a rather ominous number attached to it. The assigned number is H.R. 6666. (35)

In closing, we are living through history right now. What is happening at this present time will be talked about well into the future if this world persists for a while. Developments are happening at such a rapid pace that it is a challenge to keep up with it all, and the future is increasingly uncertain. Will the pandemic end soon? Will there be another Great Depression? Could the growing animosity between the United States and China eventually lead to war? I do not know what tomorrow holds; only God does. James 4:13-15 tells us, "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." Nevertheless, God is still on the throne, and He always knows what to do. I believe God will take care of us in the challenging days ahead. Matthew 6:30-34 gives us these comforting words from our Saviour, "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." I urge every reader of this newsletter to repent of your sins if you have not yet done so, dedicate your life to God, and firmly put your faith and trust in Him.

It is my hope and prayer that God will richly bless each of you. We are so thankful for your kind support of this ministry. We are also grateful that the state Supreme Court lifted the Safer at Home order in Wisconsin on May 13, 2020. Much of the country is now reopening, but we certainly still need God's help, guidance, and protection. If you have any prayer requests, please remember to send them our way. We give each request individual attention. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

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