The U.S. Economy
This magazine walks in the footsteps of the Plain Truth, founded in 1933 by Herbert W. Armstrong. For more than five decades under his stewardship, the Plain Truth powerfully explained the connection between world events and Bible prophecy.
Mr. Armstrong’s keynote prophecy was of a coming united European superpower. He declared this prophecy even as the smoke from World War ii billowed over the European landscape in the 1940s—and never stopped until he died in 1986. Europe’s rise, he warned, would immediately precede the catastrophic events Jesus Christ discussed in Matthew 24.
But Mr. Armstrong didn’t merely state that a resurrected European empire was imminent. He explained in graphic detail how it would occur. We need to take note of his gripping explanation: It has never been more pertinent!
Mr. Armstrong warned that a massive financial crisis—centered in America, but which would affect the whole world—would spark the rise of a European superstate.
A massive banking crisis in America, he wrote in July 1984, “could suddenly result in triggering European nations to unite as a new world power larger than either the Soviet Union or the U.S. That, in turn, could bring on the great tribulation suddenly. And that will lead quickly to the Second Coming of Christ, and end of this world as we know it” (emphasis his). Consider those words in light of America’s unraveling financial system.
In August 1984, when the Cold War was at its height, Mr. Armstrong explained what would precipitate the ignition of the nuclear catastrophe described in Matthew 24. “Now we’re hearing in the news of a soon-coming nuclear winter,” he wrote. “Nuclear explosions will produce an Earth-covering cloud that will give us a nuclear night. The sun will not get through. Crops will not grow. Billions will be killed by the nuclear blasts. Those remaining will starve. …
[T]his is no wolf-wolf cry! It is prophesied in your Bible! It is real! And … economic crisis threatens to bring this about ….”
We need the faith to connect Mr. Armstrong’s warning to the turmoil currently gripping America’s financial system and the effects it is having on the rest of the world.
Trust in the U.S. financial system has been the backbone of the international economic system. Today that is plummeting. Assumptions are being questioned. Perceptions are changing. Confidence in America’s economic supremacy and leadership is cracking—rapidly—and the world is beginning to transform!
A large global poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that, “with only a few exceptions, the American economy is now seen as having a negative impact on national economies, both large and small, in all parts of the world” (June 12). The world is now positioning itself for America’s economic crash.
Germany, Europe and the rest of the world are mocking the U.S. Federal Reserve. In fact, confidence in the Fed is so low the International Monetary Fund (imf) wants to examine the U.S. financial system. “As part of the assessment,” Germany’s Spiegel Online wrote, “the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission (sec), the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the imf team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests …” (June 26).
The world is deeply alarmed by America’s economic health. As confidence in the U.S. economy tumbles, the number of people looking to reinvest their trust and confidence elsewhere is quickly rising. The need for a stable, well-managed financial system to stabilize the global financial system is growing.
That urgent need is increasingly being met—by Europe. Just as Mr. Armstrong, year after year, decade after decade, warned would happen. As economic crises worsen, it will get easier for people to see how they are precipitating the resurrection of a European superpower.
How could Herbert Armstrong—who has been dead for 22 years—make this forecast so accurately? Where did his understanding come from? Those are two of the most important questions you could ask as you read the Trumpet. Request a free copy of our “He Was Right” sample issue for more.