A great commentary by Terry at Rapture Ready’s – Nearing Midnight section.
It is an amazing assessment of what is happening to us, as a nation, as a people… the worlds last great hope?
More stage setting for what is about to come upon this planet…we are indeed nearing midnight.
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Apr 2, 2012
Catalyst for End-Times Catastrophe
Mark Stein, substituting for radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, was asked by a caller to the program on Friday, March 23, something like the following: “What do you think is China’s reason for building their military at such a rapid rate? Is it because they think they need to prepare to defend their interests against an attack? Or is it because they intend to attack others in a first strike at some point in the future?”
The British-accented political pundit said he personally senses that China is trying to bankrupt the American economy in much the same way the U.S.–under Ronald Reagan’s presidency—caused the Soviet economy to implode. The twist, Stein implied, is that China is accomplishing the bankrupting process through the debt owed China by this nation. Fully 80 percent of China’s military buildup, he believes, has been funded to this point by the interest on the debt America owes the Chinese communist government.
I have pointed out in this column before that students of Bible prophecy have long wondered about the 200-million-troop army, described as the “kings of the east” in the Revelation 9: 5-16 and 16:12 prophecy. In context of the modern red Chinese army, it has been a longstanding question: How could such a force be outfitted, given China’s weak economic position?
When Hong Kong again came under Chinese control, following a decades-long lease in which capitalists mostly from the West held sway over the city’s tremendous economic influence, it was feared by some that the tyrannical Sino leadership of the time would clamp down and put all behind the communist Bamboo Curtain, thus ending that city’s burgeoning economic growth.
To the surprise of all, a newer, younger Chinese leadership–far from imposing communism’s draconian rule—joined China’s economy to the methodologies and direction of that taken by Hong Kong’s financial masters. The results are what we see now. China has been on a phenomenal economic growth track, and is–as Mark Stein pointed out—helping to bankrupt America and at the same time building its own gargantuan military with U.S. interest payments.
And now comes word of America’s second-most-dangerous nemesis of the Cold War teaming up with our “friends” the Saudis, to feed the engines of their industrial expansion. The prospect adds one quite troubling element of confirmation to Stein’s argument, in my view.
The new worry is that the petrodollar might go the way of the dodo bird, along with America’s top position as the nation to which all others are linked in the global marketplace. This is because the largest oil producer in the Middle East and the second-largest petroleum consumer in the world are doing business in a way that troubles Western governments, especially some who worry about U.S. economic interests.
The following is how the deal was described in a recent China Daily article….
In what Riyadh calls “the largest expansion by any oil company in the world,” Sinopec’s deal on Saturday with Saudi oil giant Aramco will allow a major oil refinery to become operational in the Red Sea port of Yanbu by 2014.
The $8.5 billion joint venture, which covers an area of about 5.2 million square meters, is already under construction. It will process 400,000 barrels of heavy crude oil per day. Aramco will hold a 62.5 percent stake in the plant while Sinopec will own the remaining 37.5 percent. (“Saudi Arabia and China Team Up to Build a Gigantic New Oil Refinery – Is This the Beginning of the End for the Petrodollar?” http://www.theeconomiccollapseblog.com)
On top of this stunning development–which mysteriously has gone largely unreported by mainstream news media—China is making deals that indicate a grab for global economic power that will put it on track to replace America as the world’s economic leader by 2014, or at the very latest, 2016, according to some economists.
Sino investment in petroleum refining capacity is unmatched by any other nation. It seems a master at implementing almost ingenious strategies for putting in place world-class refining facilities. Additionally, China is most successful as of late with developing relationships with new OPEC partners. Such relationships mean economic leverage that could soon subordinate U.S. relations with the same countries. The communist regime, with its new-found business development acumen, has partnered with Egypt by providing funding for a new refining project. Nigeria is another nation with which a partnership is being formed. Three new super-refineries are in the works there.
All of this is underway while America has to contend with regulations heaped upon other regulations. The current presidential administration fights every step of the way against constructing pipelines that would have oil flowing from near-neighbor, Canada, and refuses to cooperate with U.S. oil interests in everything from drilling to gasoline production that would eventually be beneficial to the American consumer–thus to the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
These developments, if carried to their ultimate extent, bring about–again, in my opinion— some interesting prophetic possibilities. It also might answer, to some degree, the questions posed by Stein’s caller the other day. Is China building its military at such a phenomenal pace in order to protect its interests from attack? Or, does China intend to initiate a first attack of some sort with their massive military forces?
Again, Revelation plainly foretells that there seems a barrier–the Euphrates River—that will separate the occidental from the oriental worlds until a specific time–as far as military conflict is concerned.
For most of the latter part of the twentieth century, the fear was that the Chinese communist leaders would one day use their overwhelming numbers to militarily invade all of the territory under their hegemony. But then came the new-found economic development brilliance within that leadership. And now, it is an invasion of another sort–replacing the petrodollar and the U.S. with another sort of power-wielding currency.
So, rather than sudden destructiveness through nuclear war exchanges, there is the growing economic bubble of trouble in the West and a growing threat of financial swamping by the Sino-tsunami. It is a somewhat slower movement toward Armageddon. But, the same “slime” (petroleum material) that Nimrod employed to make the bricks with which he intended to build the tower to Heaven (read Genesis chapter 11) is at the center of–is the catalyst for–the building catastrophe Revelation foretells will bring all armies of the world to man’s final war at the time of Christ’s Second Advent.
–Terry
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Click on the article title for a link to full original referenced article.
If you have not asked Christ into your life, the essential gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and that He was raised on the third day (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Believing this is the only qualification for salvation. We are sinners in need of a savior. Jesus died for our sins, and to prove that His death was sufficient for us, God raised Him from the dead on the third day. Believing in our heart that God raised Him from the dead is our assurance that He will raise us, too.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
