Zelensky Ukraine and Biden

Zelensky has not acted with truthfulness and integrity
His lies will be exposed
A bad spirit will come between Zelensky and the western news media.
When they realise that he has duped them
They will be filled with scorn,
They will turn on him and attack him with a vengeance.

They will accuse him of doing the things
that he has accused his enemies of doing.
His false accusations will turn back on his head,
and he will lose his place.

A bad spirit will come between Z and his people.
When they realise that he has lied to them,
making false promises that he cannot deliver
and used their men as cannon fodder for no benefit,
destroying their country
and wrecking their economy,
while stealing their wealth.
They will hate him, and he will lose his place.

The battle has been heavy
but he did not acknowledge it
so something bad will close in on them.
Some of the soldiers whom he betrayed
will be so angry
that they return to Kiev
and destroy him.

Ukraine will be given into the hands
of the people who have plundered them.
The oligarchs and neo-nazis who rule the country
will be exposed
when they openly seize control.
Their true character will be revealed.

God will surrender them in the hands of the nation they hate
His hand will be against them
so they cannot stand against it.
Things will go badly for them
as they come under intense pressure.

Western military and political leaders
will be embarrassed when they realise
who they have been supporting
and will turn against them with a vengeance.
They will break faith with each other,
and blame each other for their failures.

Joe Biden has not acted with truthfulness and integrity
so God will release a season of fire in his nation:
His funding and equipping of bloodshed
to strengthen the hand of evil
will come back on his head
Violence will come home on him
and release a spirit of violence amongst his people.
Fire will come out and devour him.
A flood of violence will sweep across the land.

God will send a bad spirit between Biden and his people,
His bad actions will be turned back on his head.
He is playing God, and trying to weaken Russia,
but his nation will be divided and weakened under his rule.

God will be against Biden
He will not be able to stand against the flood
moving across the southern border.

Biden He will believe he is winning,
but it is just chasing the shadows of mountains.
God will be against him.
A woman will fracture his authority
and his power will be destroyed.

(December 1922)

Shoah

The term “Holocaust” is derived from a Greek word meaning "burnt offering" (the Hebrew equivalent is “olah”). It has become the most common word used in English to describe the Nazi extermination of Jews. The word Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of other groups that the Nazis targeted, In contrast, The Hebrew word Shoah, which means "catastrophic destruction", refers exclusively to Jewish victims.

A correspondent asked me if the Shoah (Holocaust) was prophesied in the Bible. This was not a question that I had thought about, so it started me thinking. I began with a study of the Hebrew word “shoah”. It is used in the Old Testament about a dozen times, meaning calamity, disaster or ruination. It is applied to Job a couple of times. David uses the word shoah three times in Psalm 35 to describe the terrible afflictions that had come upon him.

Shoah is used for the future in Zech 1:15 for a day of rage and a day of distress and ruination. However, as far as I know, there is no specific prophecy about the Shoah that the Jews experienced due to the Nazi movement in the 1930s and 1940s.

However, the experience in Europe fits within the general prophecy given in Deuteronomy 28, where Moses describes the blessings that come with keeping the covenant and the curses that come with breaking it. These curses are the consequence of losing God's protection from evil. Deut 28:65-67 describes the last most awful stage of disobedience in this way.

Among those nations, you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. So your lives will be hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will say, 'If only it were evening!' And at evening you will say, 'If only it were morning!' because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see.

This is a good description of what the Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe felt, but what actually happened is far worse.

This might be a bit controversial, and difficult for many Christians to accept, but the Shoah (holocaust) was not announced by God through his prophets because he did not plan it. It was far more horrendous than the curse of the law required. The Shoah was far worse than specified by Deuteronomy 28:65-67, which is the culmination of the curse.

I believe that the Shoah was planned by the spiritual powers of evil as part of a bigger plan to develop Zionism and circumvent God's plan for restoring Israel by bringing about a return to the land before the right time had come.

I also believe that the Calling of the Jews and their return to the land is an epochal event in New Testament history that opens the way for the fullness of the Kingdom of God because God's team will be complete.

The spiritual powers of evil could not prevent God from completing his plan, so they tried to disrupt it by pre-empting it.

The restoration of Israel described in the Old Testament is a glorious event, with a massive outpouring of the Spirit, tears of repentance, joy in the Lord, and the nations graciously opening the way for God's people to return. We have not seen the fulfilment of these scriptures yet. The land has not been restored to the “milk and honey promised”. Instead, a massive amount of water has been used on a few parts of the land.

The return that we have seen is what Ezekiel called a "return by the sword". The spiritual powers of evil implemented a plan where the Jews were returned using political manoeuvring and military power. The nation of Israel relies on political scheming for its security. This dependence on political and military power has given a place to angry and violent spiritual powers. We can see the ugly consequence of this spiritual problem being outworked right before our eyes in the current disaster in Gaza.

The spiritual powers of evil planned the Shoah because without the guilt that it created, the Western nations would not have supported the creation of the State of Israel. So, the Shoah and the establishment of the state of Israel was a package developed by the spiritual powers of evil to invigorate their evil plans. They planned to disrupt God's plan for the calling of the Jews, the restoration of Israel and the coming of the Kingdom. This is why it was not prophesied by God and his prophesied.

However, God is God, so he will not be circumvented. He will complete his purpose, and millions of people who are descendants of Jacob (many without realising it) will awake and return to a restored land. This will open the way for the collapse of political power and the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

However, God's plan might take a little longer because many of the Jews bought into the false plan developed by the spiritual powers of evil. Their plan will produce great hostility to Israel amongst the nation. It may end with an invasion of Israel by Western military powers.

This war might result in serious destruction and contamination of the land by the nasty weapons that are used by both sides (warned in many Old Testament prophecies, eg Jer 4:20). God might need to wait for the land to recover before he can bring the descendants of Jacob back in the glorious and joyful restoration prophesied in the Old Testament.

Presidential Immunity

Someone posted this video on Instagram of John Stewart commenting on Presidential Immunity. With typical American arrogance and ignorance, he insulted the millions of people whose system of government includes a constitutional monarch/king. But that is a side issue.

Presidential immunity is too important an issue for joking. The United States has always offered “implicit presidential immunity” to its leaders so that they have freedom to act boldly in the exercise of the duties of their office.

From my reading of history, almost all US presidents have committed crimes, and none have ever been prosecuted (except possibly one). For example, I am currently reading a history of the CIA. It tells a shocking story of presidential behaviour. President Eisenhower, assumed to be one of the best, ordered the CIA to bomb the military forces of Indonesia in an attempt to overthrow its democratically elected president. John Kennedy asked the CIA to eliminate the president of Vietnam. Robert Kennedy, who was allowed to stand for the presidency, had ordered the CIA to assassinate Fidel Castro. None of these actions were authorised by Congress. None of these crimes were prosecuted.

In the current situation, there is a strong case for the Supreme Court to re-define the scope of presidential immunity, which currently seems to work as follows.

• Crimes committed before the person becomes president don’t matter if the electors know about them, and voted for him/her anyway.

• Crimes committed during the presidential term are not prosecuted if they are done in the pursuit of American interests.

• Crimes committed during the presidential term that are done in the personal interest of the president are generally not prosecuted because this would damage the prestige of the presidency. The investigations into President Nixon weakened the presidency, so he was pardoned. President Kennedy’s adultery was tolerated, even though it created a security risk, because Americans like their president to be virile. President Clinton was impeached, not prosecuted for his crimes.

• Crimes committed after the presidential term are not prosecuted unless they are really serious because that would undermine the reputation of the presidency. A serious crime like murder would be prosecuted, but theft or fraud might be tolerated because most Americans want a president who is sharp at doing business. Consequently, most ex-presidents get rich, often by means that are marginally legal.

The standard remedy for presidential crimes is to vote them out at the next election. If the problem is more urgent, then the remedy is impeachment. It is a better process for investigating and dealing with a presidential crime.

The Supreme Court will need to be careful about tightening the scope of presidential immunity because it will fear weakening the presidency, at a time when its status is already fragile.

The real problem is that the US election process has thrown up two ugly, fairly incompetent, old men for the next presidential election. Both have been involved in embarrassingly dodgy dealings. The reality that one of these two uninspiring leaders will be elected is hardly a sign of a great nation.

The solution to this very serious problem is not getting politically-appointed district attorneys or special prosecutors to twist the law and charge one of them before judges with strong political loyalties to hamper his election campaign. Nor is attempting to impeach the other. These solutions will both undermine democracy and trust in the law. The only genuine solution is to trust the voters. The fact that political leaders are stooping to these underhand solutions confirms that they don’t trust the voters, but what does that say for the state of their democracy?

Political Power

Most Christians still trust political power. They will often criticise the abuse of power, but that often smuggle it in the backdoor so it can be used to advance the Kingdom of God.

The hard truth is that Jesus renounced power. He refused to use it to advance his kingdom, or even to do good. Paul also renounced political power, although he couched his critique carefully, to avoid putting his followers at risk from Roman power.

In Revelation, John went hard out, and explained that the spiritual powers of evil use political to advance their cause. Paul had said the same in Ephesians 6, but in a slightly veiled way, that modern people often miss.

To fully understand the Kingdom of God, we need to fully renounce the use of political power to advance God’s work on earth.

In my book called Government of God, I explain how God will establish his Kingdom without the need for political power. The church can retreat for safety while engaging in prophetic challenge and social transformation to advance God’s kingdom. Kingdom communities that are outward looking, inclusive of people who are not followers of Jesus, can provide protection, welfare, and justice (plus whatever else the modern state promises but fails to deliver) voluntarily without the need for the use of political power.

Power and Authority

The Bible makes a helpful distinction between “authority” and “power”. Some disagreements would disappear, if the terms were defined more clearly and “power” was more carefully delineated.

Jesus had authority due to the wisdom of his teaching, but he had no power to enforce his decisions. He had the power to force out out demons and heal the sick.

The Jewish leaders had authority over religious issues. They had a little bit of power, due to their ability to throw dissenters out of the synagogue, but people could choose to ignore them if they wanted to. The real power was exercised by the Romans. The Jewish leaders needed Roman power to kill Jesus.

The preaching of the gospel led to a shift of authority from the religious leaders to Jesus. However, Jesus had no power, so he had to use his authority cleverly to influence people and challenge them to change their thinking. The authority that Jesus had been given did not last, because when the chips were down prior to the crucifixion, many people gave authority back to the Jewish leaders.

Emotions

I read an article recently that was very good, but I had a quibble with the statement that “emotions have no moral value”. I understood what was being said, but it is not quite right. I think it depends on where the emotion comes from. I have just read in Zechariah where God says that he has a “great passion” for his people. God is good, so that emotion must be good.

Some human emotions can be good. If I am angry at injustice because the Holy Spirit stirred me, that emotion is good. The compassion that the Good Samaritan felt for the wounded man was good. We need to get better at experiencing that kind of emotion and responding to it with positive actions. On the other hand, the glee that some of the crowd felt when Jesus was dying on the cross was probably stirred up by the bad spirits they carried, so it was evil. Some emotions can be good or evil, depending on where they come from.

Then again, emotions that come out of hurts that have been done to me by people in the past, or trauma that I have experienced as a child, just tell me what is happening within me and how my memories of those events are affecting me now. These emotions are unpleasant or uncomfortable, but they are not good or evil. They are neutral; just an indication of who I am, although they might be teaching me something about myself which is uncomfortable, but true.

The most important point is that our emotions tell us nothing about our value in God’s sight. We were all created good, in his image. His heart is always towards us for our good, no matter how we are feeling.

Second Coming

My hope at this time is not the second coming. My hope is in the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus will return at the end of the age, but he will not return until the church has completed its work, cooperating with the Holy Spirit. He will not return to rescue a church that is failing. Many Christians are currently hoping that Jesus will return soon, but that is actually an escapist hope. It is a hope that Jesus will return and do what we can’t be bothered doing.

This type of hope is part of what is wrong with the church. Instead of doing what God is telling us to do, we would prefer that Jesus do it for us, either by returning, or by doing it for us by sending revival. An old lady that I once knew said that prophecies about revival are the hope of the lazy. I think she was right.

My hope is greater than the second coming. My hope is that the Holy Spirit will bring in the Kingdom of God by working through his body here on earth. That is a far greater task and will produce a far more beautiful kingdom than the ugly, brutal kingdom prophesied by those who hope for Jesus’ return.

I am absolutely certain that the Holy Spirit will do what he has promised to do, but it will take some time, because he will not force people to change. He is patient, but he will eventually get he work done.

US Commercial Real Estate

The US commercial real estate sector is under considerable stress. Will it become the next subprime?

• Despite every effort, downtown businesses have not been able to get all their workers back because they liked foregoing the long commute.

• Commercial real estate valuations are falling and properties are difficult to sell.

• The number of properties with negative equity is increasing.

• Commercial real estate delinquency rates have already jumped to 6 1/2 percent—up 30 percent in a matter of months. Rates of distress in office loans just hit 11 percent.

• $929 billion of commercial real estate debt is coming due before the end of the year. That’s up 28 percent from the previous year.

• National Bureau of Economic Research has estimated that up to 385 American banks could fail over commercial real estate loans alone.

• The FDIC is essentially guaranteeing more than $20 trillion in deposits with just more than $100 billion in reserves.

US Debt - Warning

Some disturbing financial information is coming out of the United States.

US budget deficits are having a huge effect on US debt levels.

• The federal budget deficit, one source of increasing debt, is tracking at $1.7 trillion for 2024.

• Federal debt has been recently increasing by $1 trillion every 100 days.

• At the current pace, US federal debt will surpass $35 trillion by the end of April, and reach $40 trillion some time in 2025.

• Projections indicate that federal debt could reach $60 trillion by 2034.

• After hitting 1 trillion in late 2023, interest expense on US debt has risen to 1.1 trillion.

• If debt continues to grow and interest rates continue at the current level, annual interest costs could rise to 1.6 trillion by the end of the year.

• In 1970 the figure stood at $378 billion of public debt outstanding, which represented 34.9% of GDP.

• On the eve of the 2008 crisis, U.S. federal debt to GDP was around 64 percent, the same level as in 1995. This allowed some flexibility. As of the most recent quarter, the ratio of debt to GDP is now nearly double that, at 122 percent. On this measure, the United States is now among the top 10 most indebted countries in the world.

Update on Digital Currencies

A few weeks ago, I published an article about money called Money Developments. Readers who want an update on what is happening around the world with digital currencies should read this article called On the Brink of Change: The Digitization of Money by Efrat Fenigson, an independent journalist.

I will give a few interesting quotes as a taste.

Stablecoins could be the way in which the US is further globalizing the dollar, spreading its adoption directly to the world’s general public in order to continue increasing its debt and encourage uptake and usage of the dollar”, says Mark Goodwin. He suggests that the politician’s outcry of de-dollarization and the weakening of the dollar are a distraction from perpetuating the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

“While CBDCs are what people are becoming fearful and aware of, it may just be the red herring, and the real strategy of the US dollar's survival is highly regulated stablecoins (such as Tether), which can easily be programmable, even more than CBDCs, as well as seized, regulated and controlled indirectly by governments. 100 billion dollars in treasuries were already purchased by Tether, its subsidiaries and owners. Tether is positioned alongside the top 20 nation states buying debt from the US, with around one tenth of China or Japan that have a trillion dollars debt to the US”.

One to watch.

Ripple, a digital payment network and transaction protocol that owns the cryptocurrency XRP, is considered one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, and is strategically positioning itself at the heart of government financial innovation, aiming to be the cornerstone of future CBDCs. The company is in talks with about twenty governments around the world to develop their CBDCs using Ripple's technology. In May 2023, Ripple launched a dedicated CBDC platform to assist central banks, governments and financial institutions around the world in issuing CBDCs and stablecoins. To date, Ripple has partnered with six governments for CBDC pilot projects.

Promoting its platform as an infrastructure for a CBDC, Ripple advocates for government regulation of cryptocurrencies, and tries to position itself as the preferred solution for CBDC projects. Its claim to fame of being the ideal CBDC partner for governments is the combination of speed, efficiency, a sustainable and "green" blockchain network that uses little energy (compared to the Bitcoin network), and interoperability - the ability to communicate and work with CBDC solutions in other countries on the Ripple infrastructure.

In my article, I noted that governments do not have the skills to develop the technical infrastructure needed to support a digital currency. It had not occurred to me that large corporates would see this as a gap to move into and exploit, but I should have expected it. A large corporate could shift technology between countries to reduce the cost of CBDCs. Ripple is the first to have a go, but others will follow. Giving large multinational corporations authority to develop and maintain the computing infrastructure needed to operate a CBDC could create risks for economic security and privacy.

Privacy is related to anonymity.

In a discussion at the European Union Council in 2023, Christine Lagarde emphasizes a point: the digital euro will not be anonymous. Privacy will exist in the system, but not anonymity. Let’s break this up in a different way: for the banks, the key to surveillance and control is identification. The bank must know who the citizen is and verify their identity, in order to exercise law enforcement or regulations, through technological restrictions. Lagarde's claim that the technology will allow privacy but not anonymity is unfounded: apparently the central bank considers itself and the financial service providers some kind of god, since in front of them the citizen will be identified, and therefore it is not clear what kind of privacy can exist, without anonymity.