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Guest (Male): Modern debit cards need only a tap, and a wristwatch can buy your groceries. Such digital transactions are popular, but should Christians use them? Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah considers whether believers should be part of the digital economy and offers biblical wisdom on money and contentedness with the conclusion of his message "Economic Chaos: A Financial Prophecy." Here's David.

Dr. David Jeremiah: And we will look both at the Old and New Testament as we open our Bibles together today and learn more about what the scripture has to say about future financial times. Tomorrow, we're going to begin two days of discussing a theological prophecy as we talk about what the scripture says will happen before Jesus comes back. The Bible says there will be a falling away. What does that mean? We'll talk about it tomorrow. Hope you'll join us.

And we still have a couple of weeks left in this study of *Where Do We Go From Here? Tomorrow’s Prophecies, Today’s Problems*. During the month of March, we're making available to those of you who will help us with a gift a brand-new Turning Point publication called *Understanding Biblical Prophecy*. A 30-day Bible study, 176 paperback pages, and it's put together in a beautiful way to help you answer critical questions about prophecy in the Bible and how to find the answers and how to understand them.

How to open the scripture to prophetic scripture and not be terrified or manipulated by it, but to listen to what it says and learn how it works. It's only available from Turning Point, and it's yours for a gift of any amount to Turning Point when you ask for this resource. We'll send it to you right away. All right, let's get started with part two of "Economic Chaos: A Financial Prophecy."

Imagine a day of backbreaking labor, getting up early in the morning, going out and working your tail off, if I can use that expression, and come back and realize all you got that day was a quart of grain, and it isn't even enough to feed your family for one day. The Living Translation puts it this way: "A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay, and don't waste the olive oil and wine."

Now, this verse describes a period of time when basic staples and supplies will be outrageously expensive because of the broader condition of the world. We know it as inflation. We've experienced that periodically in our world's history. One of my favorite stories about this is what happened in Germany when inflation happened. And it took so much money to buy food at the grocery store, you couldn't carry it in your car.

And there's this story about a man who went to buy groceries and in order to have enough money to buy groceries, he had to take a wheelbarrow and fill it up with money because everything was so expensive. He went to the grocery store, bought his food with all that money, and when he came out, somebody had stolen his wheelbarrow because it was way more valuable than anything that was in it. That's the kind of disparity that there will be in terms of financials in that time.

The tribulation will be a period of extreme economic inequality. Most people will struggle to find basic supplies just to get through the day. Yet, perhaps those who gave themselves most fully to an addiction of money prior to the tribulation are going to have a hard time just getting enough money to get through the day. They will continue to indulge in a luxurious lifestyle, but they won't have any way to support it.

Now, it says something here about oil and wine. It says, "touch not the oil and wine." Oil and wine were the commodities of luxury of well-heeled people. They didn't deal in barley and wheat; they dealt in oil and wine. And the scripture says don't touch that. So all the wealthy people kept all their wealth, all the poor people got poorer and poorer. It sounds like a description of socialism.

Socialism cries out for equality, and they say everybody's going to be equal. Let's make everybody equal. If you study any socialist nation, you discover what a joke that is. What happens is the poor people get poorer and the people who control the wealth get richer, and the disparity in the economy is gross. I believe that when Jesus comes back, socialism will be rampant on this earth.

So here's another area in which COVID-19 fired up the wrong rockets. While millions of Americans lost their jobs in 2020, the net worth of American billionaires rose by 35% from 3.4 trillion in January 2020 to 4.6 trillion in May of 2021 during COVID-19. An old saying goes like this: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And we're seeing that truth today, and we'll see it even greater of inequality as we get closer to the tribulation.

What we're seeing now—and this is on the news about every day—about the inequality of income. Why is it? It goes into this whole thing about privilege and why some people have so much money and other people don't. Well, don't be surprised by that because that's the front edge of what's going to happen in a full-blown way during the tribulation period. The issue of income equality will be a big driver in the tribulation chaos.

Then thirdly, not only the addiction to money and the acceleration of inequality, the adoration of the Antichrist. Just as financial addition and rising inequality conjure up scenes of the future, the Bible tells us that a cult leader will be revealed who will deceive the whole world and ultimately declare himself to be God. The Antichrist will be the personification of charisma, and people will do anything for a glimpse of him.

The Bible shows us who he really is. Revelation 13 calls him a beast rising up out of the sea. This ultimate dictator will rule the world during the last days, and he won't be alone. A few verses later, John saw a second beast, this one coming up out of the earth. This beast is called the False Prophet, and he will have one supreme duty: to point humanity toward the Antichrist. It will be a twisted inversion of how the Holy Spirit points people to Jesus Christ today.

In John's vision, we're told this beast had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. In other words, Satan will cause his false prophet to appear like a meek and gentle lamb, when in reality he will have the heart of a destroyer. Satan will be the power behind it all, and the Antichrist will be the political leader, while the False Prophet will be the spiritual leader and the economic leader.

And he'll be able to accomplish incredible things like bringing the Antichrist back to life after a mortal wound and enabling an idolatrous image to speak. You can read all about it. It sounds fantastic, but it's in the Bible and it's going to happen. The False Prophet will also lead people into the worship of the Antichrist. His influence will be supernatural and demonic.

For our purpose here, I want to direct your attention to the False Prophet's economic power. He has two things that he does. He controls the spiritual temperature of the world and the economic temperature of the world. I want you to hear what the False Prophet says at this particular time through the prophecy of John in the book of Revelation. Revelation 13:16 through 18: "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead..."

"...that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; his number is 666." I always think about this passage. I remember a time in a grocery store, and there was a person in front of me that had a cart that was loaded to the hilt.

They got all up there, they checked all that out on the belt, got all done and got the number, and they didn't have any money. And I'm sure that's happened more than once. The checkout lady, she was very gracious, but she had to take all that away and they had to leave because they didn't have any way to pay for it. Now, here's the point. One day in the future, people are going to go to the store.

They're going to fill their carts with food, and they're going to come to the cashier to check out and the cashier's going to say, "Please let me see your hand." And they're going to hold their hand out, and if they don't have the mark or the chip or whatever it happens to be, they will not be allowed to buy any food. Most people that I know who've studied this period of time believe that most of the death during the tribulation will be because of starvation.

If you do not have the mark, you will not be able to transact any business. Millionaire and pauper, free man and slave, everyone will be compelled to receive this mark of the beast, and no one will be exempt. Without this mark, people will be unable to buy or sell anything, and economic access and opportunity will vanish for anyone resisting the Antichrist and the False Prophet. What will this mark be?

Could it be a microchip in your hand or some other emerging technology? As we discussed at the beginning, it's possible. We don't know for sure because scripture does not provide details, but one thing I can tell you. Years ago when I started preaching on this, I could never have dreamed how believable it would be at this particular time in my career as a pastor. It's way more believable now than it was then.

I believed it then because it was in the Bible. I believe it now because it's in the Bible and it's starting to happen. What we know is this: the mark of the beast will indicate that the one wearing it is a worshiper of the beast, someone who submits to his rule. And those who refuse that mark will be traitors, and they will likely starve while on the run or be killed on the spot when they are captured.

In the words of one scholar that I read about this particular period of time, what is portrayed is a tremendous union in which capital and labor are both subject to the control and direction of one man. Anyone who is outside that vast combination will be ruthlessly boycotted. No one will work for him or employ him. No one will purchase his produce or sell goods to him. Bankruptcy and starvation will face such a man.

And even more frightening, Satan and the Antichrist will create a union between religion and economics during the tribulation period. There will be no room for freedom of worship, no freedom of expression or freedom of ideas, no freedom of choice. This will be the ultimate cancel culture. In other words, the entire world will be forced into a cult of massive proportions and of almost unstoppable power.

The Antichrist will be at the top of this cult with his False Prophet by his side, and their unbending law will be worship me or die. They will use economic pressure to flog those who resist them. Now, I know that's a dire story. It's coming. I'm not making this up. It's in the Bible. I've just told you the bare minimum of the story. And I don't want you to be all freaked out over it today.

I just want you to know this is what the Bible says is coming. Why do we need to know this? Because what we're seeing today in our culture is kind of like the hinting at the beginning of it. It's the front edge of it. Here's something that I wrote in one of the chapters of this book and I hope you'll hear me carefully. The Bible says that the Rapture is going to happen. It's going to happen at any time.

It could happen right now during this time. There's nothing that has to take place for the Rapture to occur. It's signless. And so what happens after the Rapture? Immediately after the Rapture, the tribulation begins. When the saints all go up, all hell breaks loose on earth and all these tribulation things will happen. If we believe that the Rapture could happen at any time—and we say we do and we clap when we say it...

...if we believe it could happen today, what that means is all of these things I'm talking about couldn't be any further into the future than a seven-year period. And most of them will happen in the middle of the tribulation as we move toward the end. So this is not just out in the future someplace. It's so far away, Pastor, I don't want to hear—no, no, no. If the Rapture is signless, if it's imminent and it could happen today, all of these things could happen in the tomorrows after that today.

Thank God we won't be here. We'll be in heaven, but those things will be happening on this earth. There's a little law of prophecy that I'll just give you. You can write it down because it's really important. Here it is: future events cast their shadows before them. In other words, things that are going to happen in the future cast a shadow backwards this way. You can see the beginning of the reality through the shadow of what has happened.

So keep your eyes open. Listen carefully to what people say, especially in this area where human identification is being discussed more and more every day. So let's finish this up with this question that I've asked in this book. I've written a number of prophecy books, but I've never written one with a section like this. This is kind of a motivational section of the book. So the book's chapters are all divided into these categories: Where are we now? What does it mean? And where do we go from here?

So let me just give you some thoughts about that. You can respond to this danger with emphatic determination and timely wisdom. So let me give you some things that you should be thinking about. I hope you will do this. First of all, determine to count the cost. In Luke 14 we read: "For which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish..."

"...lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple." Here's what I want to say to you, and maybe this comes as a strange message at a time like this, but I want you to hear it because it's true.

Following Jesus carries a cost. Throughout history, many Christians have paid that cost with their lives. Others have paid it with their reputations. Others have paid it with their convenience, their relationships, their freedom, and even their health and wealth. When Christ is everything, everything else is nothing in comparison. Maybe you've not lost your wherewithal in your life. Many of you are probably paid minimal cost to follow Christ.

Yet our circumstances could change and at some point, they will change, probably sooner rather than later. I feel them starting to change right now with all that's going on in our schools, with what's being pushed on us in the corporations with big tech and all of this. I feel the icy fingers of that reaching out to grab hold of us and gravitate us toward the center.

As the world veers further away from God's values and as time moves closer toward Armageddon, we'll arrive at a moment when proclaiming the name of Jesus requires a sacrifice, even a significant sacrifice, maybe everything. But wouldn't you rather have Jesus than anything the world affords? I mean, let's take this moment and count the cost realistically but optimistically. We can place on one side of the scale all the trappings of the American dream and the modern way of living.

Our riches, our possessions, our comfort, our career, and so on—and on the other side of the scale, place the incredible, unthinkable blessing of eternal life in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Which one do you choose? Think about it. Be determined that whatever happens when the time comes—and it may not come in your lifetime—but when the moment comes when you have to decide for Jesus or for the world which is where you live now, count the cost.

The Bible says we need to count the cost as if we were building a tower and lest we fall short in the midst of the process. Determine to count the cost and determine to be confident. The wonderful news about living for Jesus is that not only can we experience the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, we can also feel confident in the reality of God's presence right now.

No matter what cost we may pay to follow Christ, we will never sacrifice our connection with him. The author of Hebrews put it this way: "For he himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you,' so we may boldly say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?'" The confident Christian knows that he stands in a place of security. He cannot be touched by anything the Lord will not allow.

The confident Christian can stand tall in the midst of all the things that are going on around him. God is enough for any and every situation he will ever face. I love how David expressed this in his Psalms. He said, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Since we have the Lord, we can never be left without a friend or a treasure or a dwelling place.

And this should help us feel secure in the moment in which we find ourselves. When we stand in such awe of the living Lord, the lying world loses its power on us. Do what you want to do; the Lord is my confidence. I stand in him. He's promised never to leave me nor forsake me. So determine to count the cost, determine to be confident, and determine to be content. Oh, how we need to learn this.

I'll finish this message with this thought. Because God will never leave us or forsake us, we can be content with what we have. As the globe spins around us and the worship of wealth will accelerate, the Bible can keep us from yielding to these pressures. There's one incredible secret I want to give you on the authority of scripture. I can tell you how to distance yourself from a materialistic lifestyle.

It's by developing one simple biblical attitude: contentment. Two passages instantly come to mind that you should write down in your notebook if you struggle with being content. Here they are. The first one comes to us from the book of Hebrews. It says, "Let your conduct be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have." And the second is in Ecclesiastes 5:10: "He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance with income; this also is vanity."

Covetousness is very subtle, folks, because it's a condition that exists in our minds. It's the invisible violation that no one else ever sees. You can have your act together on the outside, but inside you can be agonizing, lusting, and being consumed by the desire to have what someone else has. Coveting is a closeted spiritual crime that if not checked will eventually manifest itself externally.

The writer of Hebrews tells us how to replace coveting with contentment. The word for contentment means satisfied, adequate, competent, sufficient. The same term is used in 2 Corinthians 12:9 where God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you." Someone has said Christian contentment is the God-given ability to be satisfied with the loving provision of God in any situation. In other words, wherever we are, whatever experiencing, if we know God, we don't have to be worried about what we don't have.

Or what we might have or what we wish we have. We have God! And I'll tell you what, I know people that have got everything the world has to offer and they don't have God and they're empty, and they don't know what life is all about and they wish they could find the secret that some of their friends who have very little have found: the simplicity of contentment in the Lord Jesus.

Maybe you're worried about this. Maybe you say, "Well, Pastor Jeremiah, I don't think I was born with contentment. It wasn't one of my genes. God didn't give me contentment when I was born; he left that out of the equation." I don't feel satisfied with my life or even with my possessions and I often find myself wanting more. Well, don't let that bother you because I learned something. Here it is.

It's good news and I want you to listen to this verse and then I'll point out why it's such good news. Paul wrote in Philippians chapter four, listen carefully: "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content." Let's just stop right there. How did Paul get to be content? He learned! Contentment is a learned attitude. Isn't that something you grow up with?

I don't know any kid who's content, do you? They always want something they don't have and something somebody else has. The first time they see something they don't have, they want it. But contentment is something you learn as you grow. Paul wasn't born a saint. He didn't come into the world with a vast reserve of contentment. He learned contentment through experience, including both comfort and hardship.

He learned contentment by honestly evaluating the value of wealth versus the value of his connection with Christ. And he learned contentment through the continual influx and influence of God's Spirit in his life. He seemed to be equally joyful staying in a friend's villa or chained in a Roman cell. You know what some people's problem is? Here it is. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. You get that one?

Contentment isn't outside of yourself; contentment is in yourself. And it's an attitude that you learn. And when you learn contentment, the pull of riches and all the extra things—money then becomes just a tool. Use it for the kingdom of God, use it for the basics, enjoy what God has given you. The Bible wants us to enjoy our life. But if you hoard resources, if your goal is to be the richest person on your street or in your company or in your family...

...that attitude will destroy you. Learn to be content with what you have. And what you have is the eternal God and his son, Jesus Christ. Our world's approach to money is troubling. It's alarming. It's the prelude to the tribulation. But we as Christians don't have to follow that path. I'm going to leave you with a statement. It was made famous by Anne Graham Lotz because she wrote a book by this title, but here it is. I hope it's your thought: you can take the world, but give me Jesus. Amen. Amen.

Well, the Bible tells us that before Jesus comes back, there won't be a great revival, but what some have called a great reversal. And how does that work, and is that really true? Because so many people say we're waiting for the great revival and then Jesus will come back. Well, there is some scripture like that, but it's not about the Rapture and it's certainly not something that's happening right now, although we do have moments of revival.

We have experienced some of those recently and I think we will continue to have that, but a major worldwide revival is not a prerequisite to the coming of Christ. And we'll talk about that because the Bible tells us what's going to happen. And we will resonate with it, every one of us, because we will have experienced it or know people who have experienced it. Join us tomorrow for "The Falling Away: Theological Prophecy." We'll see you then.

Guest (Male): Today’s message from Dr. Jeremiah came to you from the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. How was this ministry drawing you closer to God? Let us know by writing to Turning Point, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California 92163. Visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org/radio, or call 800-947-1993.

Ask for your copy of David’s new book, *Understanding Biblical Prophecy: A 30-Day Bible Study*. It’s yours for a gift of any amount. You can also view over 1,200 of Dr. Jeremiah’s sermons on any screen, any time you like, on our Turning Point Plus streaming service for a monthly gift of any amount. Visit turningpointplus.org for details. That’s turningpointplus.org. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue *Where Do We Go From Here?* on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.