General

“But always, first of all, I warn you through my servants the prophets. I, the Sovereign Lord have now done this.” (Amos 3:7)

I have a foreboding in my spirit that must be unleashed today. Though we are heading into the springtime season, and some things look rosy or encouraging on the national front, there is a growing burden within me that all is not well and that everything is about to change.

I have been holding this message in my heart for months–maybe years. In the late 1970s I became convinced that America was in serious trouble due to her growing apathy and many sins. I began sharing that message around the nation in a message called “When Free Men Shall Stand.” I knew at that time that the future liberty of the United States was at stake.

On April 29, 1980, Washington for Jesus gathered 700,000 believers on the National Mall for a day of prayer and repentance to call the nation back to God and his purposes. That fall, Ronald Reagan amazingly swept into office and an era of “Morning in America” brought decades of stability and economic prosperity–the longest time peace-time economic expansion in our history.

Judgment had been diverted or delayed due to repentant hearts, increased prayer and godly leadership. During that season, I continually asked God why America was not being severely judged for her sins as she deserved. He made it clear at that time that it wasn’t about us–it was all about his grace and an explosion in global evangelism that was taking place. God was being merciful because the US, despite its many sins and weaknesses, was leading the world in fulfilling the Great Commission.

We still play that role, but many other nations like Brazil and Korea are on the rise. In the past two decades, global Christianity has switched its center from the West (Europe and America) to the Southern Hemisphere (Africa and Latin America) and Asia. Many believe that China is destined to become the leading nation in world evangelization in the 21st century.

At the same time, the light of truth and liberty continues to dim in the United States of America. Now many “prophets” are saying that grave dangers loom… and everything is about to change.

 Today I add my voice to the growing chorus to help warn and prepare us.

First of all, a caveat about the word “prophet.” When I ran in 2006 for the Washington State Legislature, my opponent took some of my writings out of context where I’d referred to a prophetic nature or gifting. He wanted me to look like a wild-eyed kook who wore camel’s hair, ate locusts, and called people to repent. I explained then:

• Prophet with a capital “P” are those who spoke God’s word in Old Testament days and even have some inspired books in the Bible by their names.
• In the New Testament, prophets with a small ‘p’ (e.g. Philip’s daughters and Agabus in Acts 21), possessed a gift for sharing God’s words and sometimes discerning the future. Ephesians 4:11 lists prophets as a gift-ministry in the church and Romans 12:6 mentions prophecy as one of the motivational gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I believe many people in this world are “prophetic” by nature–let alone by God-inspired gift. I happen to be one of them, not by choice, but by birth and calling. Today I want to speak prophetically about what I see coming. I believe with all my heart that something that I have not seen or experienced in my 50 plus years on earth is about to take place.

Many other prophetic voices are saying the same.

Generational Prophets

Last year a friend of mine encouraged me to read the national best-seller The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy – What Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny written by William Strauss and Neil Howe. The authors both live in the Washington D.C. and are involved in the governmental arena in training and research about history and economics.

Their theory is that history goes in cycles that are based on generational traits. One generation is a Prophet generation grows up as increasingly indulged post-Crisis children ( e.g. Baby-boomers after World War II). A Nomad generation follows as under protected children during an awakening (read Busters). Next follows a Hero generation that grows up as increasingly protected post-awakening children (i.e. the Millennials), and are finally followed by an Artist generation that grows up as over protected children during a Crisis (the coming generation).

Strauss and Howe apply their in-depth paradigm to all of American history and many of their predictions are eerily accurate. I believe they stretch their theory in certain places to keep it intact, but they are definitely on to something–that generational cycles–what they call “rhythms in history”–can tell us quite a bit about future trends.

Here’s their view of the future (written in 1997): “Around 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire…The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and the twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II…The next Fourth Turning–America’s rendezvous with destiny–will begin in roughly ten years and end in roughly thirty.”

Pretty sobering prediction. In 2007, the collapse of major banks, institutions and the housing market happened exactly when they said it would. Strauss and Howe are “prophesying” that the worst part of the Crisis–and whatever renewal grows out of it–still lies ahead and could go on for decades. Though I didn’t agree with everything in their book, Strauss and Howe are “seeing” a likely future cycle in American history.

Economic Prophets

Like many others, I’ve been trying to bone up on economics the past few years because of a fear that our US level of debt, spending, and growing government tyranny is taking us toward a breaking point. A convincing book I read was David & Robert Wiedemer’s Aftershock which forcefully predicts a coming economic meltdown in the West.

The Wiedemer’s have credibility. They were among the few that predicted the 2007 downturn.

They believe we are in a “Bubble Economy” where the three falsely inflated sectors (bubbles)–the stock market, real estate, and private credit–have begun popping (since 2007) and they are predicting two more: government debt and the value of the dollar. They say “Next comes the Aftershock. Just when most people think the worst is behind us, we are about to experience a cascading fall of several co-linked, bursting bubbles that will rock our nation’s economy to its core and send deep and destructive financial shock waves around the globe…Rather than seeing home prices stabilizing and the US economy recovering in the next year or two, as many “experts” want you to believe, we see serious, ground-breaking new troubles ahead. In fact, the worst is yet to come.”

David & Robert Wiedemer predict that 2010 will see some false hopes of recovery, then the final two bubbles will pop in 2011 or 2012, but more likely in 2013 or 2014.

Media Prophets

Glenn Beck of the Fox News Channel is a rising prophetic star in the new media. He also correctly predicted the 2007 real estate crash and is probably the strongest voice today on looming judgment in this nation. I borrowed today’s title from listening to him. He strongly believes that dark storm clouds are on the horizon of this nation. His American Revival tour is committed to raising up an enlightened citizenry that will come back to God and the core principles of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. At times he sounds like a preacher that desperately desires his audience to be informed, turn back to God, put on His armor, and fight for our nation.

Christian Prophetic Voices

Then there are the voices of many prophets in the Body of Christ. I recently read a compilation of prophetic words from about twenty respected Church leaders who believe that judgment looms in our nation. I have never seen such a uniformity of message on this subject. Here are Dutch Sheets’ words from the recent blog Is There Hope for America?:

“Not since October of 2000, have I been so burdened for America…[We] are in a horrendous crisis of monumental proportions, a season much like Israel in the days of Joel. This Old Testament prophet warned of devastating judgment coming to Israel, but laced the warning with hope and God’s mercy if certain things occurred. That is precisely where we are in America. We Americans are a confident and optimistic people, which is often good, but can also create a dangerous denial and crippling passivity. This is happening with many. But please do not be deceived by those who are saying everything is fine. The truth is that we, as a nation, are in serious trouble.”

I have been hearing the same thing message in my heart the past few months. In fact, it doesn’t take much of a prophetic gift to open your eyes and see the danger signs:

• We have a non-revived and apathetic Church that God holds accountable for our national sins.
• Blatant immorality, family breakdown and increased abortions in the land.
• Growing government tyranny and control.
• Unsustainable budgets and deficits for as far as the eye can see.

America–and maybe the global community–is in uncharted territory and great danger. Call it reaping what we’ve sown, economic idiocy, generational cycles, immoral people or corrupt politicians, or all of the above. But any way you cut it, it spells:

Judgment. 

Because if there is a God, he is all wise in directing history, just and holy in punishing sin and disobedience, and merciful in his designs for all to come to repentance. Despite all the human factors, we are in this predicament because God is both holy and gracious.

For these reasons, I believe today that everything is about to change. Whether it’s a Last Days scenario or just another cycle of judgment and renewal, only God knows.

I do know this. We need to ready ourselves to survive and to triumph through Christ. Next week I will discuss the steps we need to take.

Tax Day is Thursday in the United States and the growing Tea Party Movement will be out in force around the nation.  Why is this grassroots network of average Americans turning heads in Washington, D.C.?

Because common people are awakening to the economic time bomb that is being systematically built in this nation. They want to dismantle it–because they know that taxes and spending are exploding under the Obama Administration and threaten the future of our children and grandchildren.

One of the best think-tanks in America is the Heritage Foundation which has many publications and divisions, and sends out a daily e-mail on the issues called “Morning Bell.” I’ve only been reading it for a few months, but it’s quickly become one of my favorite sources for useful information on the issues of the day.

The following article by Heritage is one of the clearest presentations on the disastrous policies of our current leadership that I’ve seen. It lays out the progressive agenda of higher taxes, higher spending, slow growth, and Bigger Government that will kill the American Dream and Destiny.

Dick Morris says that the greatest thing you can do in 2010 is to vote for conservative candidates and a change of leadership. I would agree with that statement–after personal repentance, fasting and prayer–RB

Heritage Foundation – 4/7/2010

How The Left Really Plans to Pay for Obamacare

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), over half of President Barack Obama’s new $940 billion health care entitlement is paid for by price-fixing Medicare cuts. Never mind that the President’s own Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says that these cuts would cause “roughly 20 percent” of Medicare providers to go bankrupt in Obamacare’s first ten years. The CBO has to believe these cuts will happen because they are required, by law, to believe everything Congress tells them. The American people are not. So the American people ought to know that instead of cutting doctors’ Medicare reimbursement rates by 21% as required by law on April 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services froze payments at current levels until Congress could come back after Easter recess and rescind those cuts. Again. As they have done every year but one since the cuts were first enacted in 1997.

This doc fix is big enough that, if it had been included as a cost of Obamacare, it would have sent the President’s bill into the red all by itself. But the half trillion dollars in Medicare cuts used to fund the rest of Obamacare are a much bigger problem. Even if we assume they all go as planned, President Obama’s budget would borrow 42 cents for each dollar spent in 2010; would run a $1.6 trillion deficit in 2010; and would leave permanent deficits that top $1 trillion as late as 2020. Add on the half trillion dollars in Medicare cuts that, given Congress’ track record, the American people would be naive to think will ever happen, and the federal government is looking at a pile of new debt.

The left’s solution to this problem has been simmering for some time now. Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) floated the idea to The Washington Post last May. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Charlie Rose it was “on the table” in October. And yesterday White House adviser Paul Volcker told the New York Historical Society it should be considered. The “it” here is a Value Added Tax (VAT), which is a fancy way of saying national sales tax.

A VAT can be (and has been) structured in many different ways. But the real world results are always the same: higher taxes, more government spending, lower growth, fewer jobs and more special interest power.

Higher Taxes: Don’t believe for a second that a VAT will help offset other taxes. International evidence clearly shows that a VAT is likely to increase the aggregate burden of govern­ment. Europeans used to only have a slightly higher tax burden than the United States. But beginning in the late 1960s, European countries began to implement VATs. Since then, the overall tax burden in Europe has climbed rapidly. And once a VAT is in place, the evidence shows that the tax rate rises over time.

Higher Government Spending: Not surprisingly, with more revenues, European governments turn around and spend much more than the United States does. According to a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, government spending grew 45 percent faster in VAT nations than in non-VAT countries.

Slower Growth: According to the academic literature, there is a strong negative relationship between govern­ment spending and economic performance. In other words, more government spending means less economic growth and fewer jobs. Economic growth is driven by individuals and entrepreneurs operating in free markets, not by Washington spending and regulations.

More Power to Washington: There is one economy that would greatly benefit from a VAT: Washington, DC. No VAT could ever be levied evenly on all goods and services. Due to political considerations, a VAT in addition to current taxes would likely exempt politically sensitive items like food, clothing, health care and housing. Industries would lobby heavily for exemptions from the VAT for the economic benefits described above. This would give Congress an even larger role in picking winners and losers in the marketplace. Success would depend less on ingenuity and hard work and more on the ability to gain political favor.

Our nation faces a financial crisis. But low revenues are not the problem. Spending is. Heritage fellow Brian Riedl explains:

“Real federal spending remained steady at $21,000 per household throughout the 1980s and 1990s, before President Bush hiked it to $25,000 per household. Now, President Obama has a proposed a budget that would permanently spend a staggering $32,000 per household annually – and that’s before all the baby boomers retire and add another $10,000 per household in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicare costs to the bottom line.”

So the problem is not declining revenues, but rather a spending spree unlike any in American history. If Washington insists on spending $32,000 per household, it will have to tax $32,000 per household – an unaffordable and unfair tax burden regardless what kind of tax collects it.

Rather than tax America into permanent economic stagnation, President Obama and Congress must rein in runaway federal spending. Simply bringing real federal spending back to the $21,000 per household average that prevailed in the 1980s and 1990s would balance the budget by 2012 without raising a single tax on anyone. Even returning spending to the pre-recession level of 20 percent of GDP would eliminate two-thirds of the projected 2019 budget deficit without raising taxes.

For quite a while political pundits have told us that all politicians are the same–that the Republicans are no different than the Democrats–so it really doesn’t matter whom we elect to office. This unqualified assertion is easy to believe if you haven’t done your homework or simply don’t give a rip.

But the verdict of the first eighteen months of the Obama administration has torn that argument to shreds and brought things soberly out into the light. We now know there are great differences between Republicans and Democrats.

There’s something else we now know: We’d better deeply care about the direction of the American nation we’ve known and loved or its future just might be in jeopardy.

First of all a personal disclaimer. I don’t generally think in political party terminology because parties can easily get off track and not represent people as individuals. They are useful for organizing various factions in a democratic Republic, but often their belief systems deteriorate over time so as to no longer reflect their origins. (The same phenomenon happens to individuals.)

I am not a died-in-the-wool Republican. For most of my life I considered myself an Independent who mostly voted Republican due to similar core values, but occasionally voted Democratic. I supported JFK over Richard Nixon due to his understanding of free markets and tax cuts. When I worked in Washington D.C. during the 1980s, one of my favorite Congressmen was Rep. Tony Hall of New York, a highly principled Democrat. When I ran for public office in 2006, I ran under the Republican banner because its platform best fit my views. I supported George W. Bush for his moral positions and tax policies, but disagreed with him on spending and the growth of government.

Now an historical disclaimer. Political parties change over time. The first “Republicans” in America were the followers of Thomas Jefferson for whom I would have voted. Though a complex spiritual man, Jefferson’s governance was clearly rooted in a Christian worldview that affirmed faith, liberty, limited government, free enterprise, and the importance of biblical morality for the sustaining of government institutions.

 After Jefferson, the “Republicans” became the “Democratic Republicans” and eventually the “Democrats.” It was Abraham Lincoln with his strong Christian principles that gave rebirth to the Republican Party–and since the Civil War, the two parties have been dominant in our national culture.

Over the past fifty or sixty years, it wouldn’t be unfair to say that the Democratic Party has evolved into the party of secularism–or a man-centered view of life. Its progressive or liberal philosophy is more rooted in humanism than in biblical faith which means that it generally promotes freedom in morality (abortion, homosexual rights, cloning, euthanasia etc.) and restraints on business (government control, regulation, and Big Government spending and taxation). In the unspoken Democratic world, the state is God and should both provide for and protect its citizens.

The Republican view of government has stronger Christian roots. Because of their historical biblical foundations, Republicans believe there should be restraints on morality (pro-life, support of traditional marriage and opposition to homosexual unions etc.) and liberty in the economic realm (free enterprise, low taxes, less regulation etc.). Republicans believe that God is our ultimate Provider, that men are fallen (not perfectible), in individual freedom, accountiblity, limited government and God-given rights.

However, there are Republicans who sometimes lose their way on these issues (like President Nixon) and Democrats who have good values. During the last twenty years, the lines did seem to blur a bit on what was a true Republican and what was a true Democrat. George H.W. Bush was a man of respected character, but he was a moderate Republican who raised taxes and lost an election as the result. Bill Clinton came into office with a Democratic approach to issues (remember Hillarycare?), but was tempered by the Republican Revolution of 1994 and moderated to a conservative position on welfare while presiding over a balanced budget. He was a moderate Dem. As already mentioned, George W. Bush ran as a traditional Republican but embraced Big Government growth.

Which brings us to today. Through the election of Barack Obama, we now know, once again, what unrestrained Democrats really believe. Barack Obama, by definition, is a radical Democrat. He was the most liberal member of the Senate during his two year stint, and since he took office, with Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, he has ruled as a radical Dem.

There are no shades of gray in Barack Obama. He is against traditional morality and is eroding it at every turn. He is against free enterprise and is taking control of it at an alarming pace. He genuinely believes that Big Government should be the Savior and Provider for the people.

Barack Obama, as the radical Democrat, gives us a clear picture of where the Democratic Party will lead us:

• The Federal Government will continue to explode–gobbling up wealth, liberty and free enterprise at every opportunity.
• The holocaust of abortion will now be fully funded by Obamacare–and increase in number. 
• Traditional marriage and family will continue to decline and become a relic of the Christian past.
• The regulatory state will control our lives. Sixteen thousand new IRS agents will police our eventual conversion to state-run health care. Costs will soar, innovation will decline, and care will be rationed.
• Taxes will have to be raised to keep up with the voracious federal appetite–probably including a European-style VAT tax which will prolong and deepen the Great Recession.
• Under this “soft” tyranny, we will never emerge from double digit unemployment and will probably experience a collapse of the weakening and inflated dollar and US Government default on our soaring trillions of dollars of debt.

From now on, if you vote Democrat, this is your future. It is scary, problematic, and very un-American. When you follow the model of the former Soviet Union, you will reap its same consequences. Because there is a God, nations also “reap what they sow” (Galatians 6:7).

But there is another model for America. It re-surfaced in 1980 when a radical Republican named Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States. His electoral landslide was proceeded by much fasting and prayer and a national gathering that called the America nation to repentance (Washington for Jesus on April 29, 1980).

As a true and radical Republican, Ronald Reagan believed in:

• Faith and hope in God, a “rebirth of freedom” and America’s “Rendezvous with Destiny.”
• Strong marriages and families, traditional morality, and protection for the unborn.
• That free markets best regulated the affairs of business and men, spurring investment, encouraging efficiency and creativity, and producing hard-earned wealth and prosperity.
• Lower taxes were essential for creating wealth and motivating people to succeed.
• The role of government as a strong protector of liberty, both at home and around the world.

Ronald Reagan believed that America had been blessed by God to be a “city set upon a hill” (Matthew 5:14).  His faith, optimism and principles brought the greatest growth period of economic growth in American history from 1982 to 2007. His belief in liberty and a strong defense helped bring down the Iron Curtain.

Ronald was a true/radical Republican.

Barack Obama is a true/radical Democrat.

Now we once again know the difference between the two parties. Republicans–radical Republicans–believe in liberty that is found in Christ. Radical Democrats believe in tyranny that is found in the State.

It’s true that sometimes moderate Republicans make decent leaders when the overall health of the nation is sound. John McCain would certainly not be taking over businesses and nationalizing one sixth of the American economy. It’s also true that moderate Democrats can be adequate leaders when there are other checks and balances (Bill Clinton with a Republican Congress).

But right now, we can’t afford either radical Democrats, moderate Democrats or half-hearted Republicans.

We need radical Republicans who will lead in the very meaning of the word “radical”: “to bring us back to our roots.”

In November and beyond, we need a radical Republican Revolution in the Jeffersonian, Lincoln-inspired or Reaganesque meaning of the words.

Let’s pray that own personal repentance and renewal will help to birth it from the grassroots up.