Financial Signs

Global economic woes continue to worsen with reports that Fannie Mae (the largest U.S. buyer and backer of home loans) suffered a $2.2 billion loss in the first quarter of 2008, about three times worse than economists had expected. The company said it expects "severe weakness" in the housing market to continue this year, bringing increased mortgage defaults and foreclosures.

Meanwhile, Swiss bank UBS announced Tuesday it would cut 5,500 jobs and reported a net loss of 11.5 billion Swiss francs ($10.97 billion) for the first quarter of this year. The bank warned investors last month to expect net losses of $11.42 billion for the first three months of the year after writing down about $19 billion on U.S. real estate and related credit positions in the period.

And the price of oil continued to rise to an all-time high near $121 a barrel Tuesday in Asia, fueled by worries about threats to supply and a weakening of the U.S. dollar. Chrysler said that it has come up with its own plan to bring back $2.99 gas, which it hopes will spur lagging sales. Chrysler announced a month-long "Let's Refuel America" program that will give buyers of most of its vehicles a card good for purchases of gasoline or diesel fuel that locks in the price at $2.99 a gallon for three years. It was not all that long ago that $3 gas was considered exorbitant

So, where is this all going? Is this headed for the worldwide economic depression prophesied in Revelation 6:5-6 when Jesus opens the third seal? Quite possibly. If not this time, then soon. The financial house of cards built on speculation and debt are anti-Biblical and certain to eventually fail, spurred along by the Satan-inspired New World (Dis)Order folks who will use the financial crisis to bring down the last remaining superpower and take firmer control of global economics.

So what are the saints supposed to do? Pay off your debt. Cut down on consumption. Stockpile real goods. Why? So that we can minister to others from a platform of solid Biblical standards for righteous living. The Church and the saints have become too much like the world. We must become the “peculiar” people we have been called to be. Otherwise, the world sees no real difference – and, unfortunately, there is not much of a difference.