A few parents or grandparents are
alive today to share their memories of those terrible
years historians have labeled "The Great Depression." So
that you and I can just imagine it, I will share a bit
of history.
"The Great (Economic) Depression"
was global, affecting the entire industrialized,
civilized world. The hardships and sorrows
associated with "The Great Depression" were largely
unknown however and scarcely felt by people living in
the primitive third-world. Poverty for the "primitive
poor" was everyday normal. But things were very
different elsewhere on the planet.
In the autumn of 1929, the legendary
New York City Wall Street Stock Market crashed! At this
moment I am reading the actual headline of ‘The Brooklyn
Daily Eagle’, dated Thursday, October 24, 1929 (a framed
reproduction hangs above my desk): "WALL ST. IN PANIC AS
STOCKS CRASH." Countless thousands of intelligent,
wealthy persons, in America and abroad, were bankrupted
overnight by the crash and lost everything they owned.
More than a few committed suicide rather than face
the "depression of The Depression."
History reveals that The Great
Depression reached its economic low point about three
and half years later in 1932. I wasn’t around at that
time and likely you were not on the ground either. My
mother was though. She was a teen and the eldest of
seven children. Her father, a 1917 immigrant coal miner
from Birmingham, England, worked in Alabama coalmines
supplying coal for the steel mills in
Birmingham, Alabama.
During those Depression years,
heart-wrenching photographs recall the haggard-faced
thousands of American city-dwellers standing in long
"soup lines," begging day after day for a scrap of bread
and nourishment. Multiplied thousands of "hobos," fled
America’s great cities, hopping trains and crisscrossing
our nation, begging for meals and looking for any kind
of employment they could find. Many left hungry and
destitute families at home.
Nothing about the brutal
experience of "The Great Depression" was imaginary for
these people. For those who experienced it, "The Great
Depression" was not a dream it was a nightmare!
You should know that things and
people were different 75 years ago. Seventy percent
(70%) of Americans lived in rural America, many of them
on farms. During the Depression, at least 70% of
America’s population could garden, keep a few chickens
and maybe a cow to feed themselves—not so with
city-dwellers! For more than a decade, millions of
families, in America and abroad, suffered privation!
In Birmingham, Alabama, my yet to be
mother, still a teen living at home with her
parents and six brothers and sisters, at times went for
days without a bite of food in the house! Sometimes a
Good Samaritan would leave a loaf of bread and a few
potatoes at the front door. My mother could never relate
the experience without tears.
Just imagine; at least try to
imagine.
I hope that I am mistaken in my
interpretation of prophetic Scripture, but I don’t think
that I am misreading what the Prophets have written.
Another global Great Depression is on the way, but this
one will be A Great, Great Depression! It will be global
and the entire industrialized, civilized world will soon
be thrust into an unimaginable crisis
Today, America is very different
from the America of 75 years ago. 75 years ago most
Americans left their homes unlocked. Most Americans
allowed their children to walk to school and to
town—hardly imaginable today. Today the tables are
turned. 70% of Americans are crowded into cities that
are waiting to explode with unimaginable human fury and
suffering.
Today, even smaller American cities
are being invaded by vicious gangs, druggies and
increasing numbers of poor that can scarcely find enough
food for a month. When the economy collapses and there
are no monthly checks from Uncle Sam, just try to
imagine!
Imagine angry mobs, looting and
rampaging through city streets, taking what they
need or want. Imagine lawless packs assaulting trucks as
they attempt to deliver food, medicine and necessities
to desperate city centers—trucks that will likely never
arrive because they have been hijacked, looted and
burned as a storm of rage sweeps across the land.
Just imagine.
So where are the police? Hello!
Katrina was America’s wake-up call for city dwellers!
Okay, what about our National Guard? Hello! Most of them
are away fighting mad Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and
the Middle East, and "what has been will be again!"
Aren’t you thankful that you and your
family are not living in or too near a large metropolis?
Aren’t you thankful that you obeyed the warnings of
Heaven and history, that you used common sense, and
moved to a rural setting while you could?
Try to imagine the fear that
will grip thousands upon thousands who will try
to flee the coming fury but find no gasoline in the
pumps. Think of those who will discover major highways
blocked with fleeing-on-foot mobs, throwing stones, some
waving guns, attempting to hijack anything with wheels
and gasoline. Aren’t you thankful that you "got out of
Dodge" before the coming war with Iran and The Great,
Great Depression that will surely follow.
Just imagine the spiritual
consternation of hundreds and thousands of sincere
Christians, taught by thousands of sincere Shepherds to
proof-text rather than context Bible teachings regarding
the Great Tribulation and the return of Christ.
Self-inflicted blindness is awful!
Through the ages God’s people have
always suffered persecution (tribulation). Christ, the
Baptist and the Disciples suffered tribulation, but
modern millions have been taught that they will be "raptured"
and never experience such tribulation. Somehow they have
failed to read Jesus’ admonition regarding the
Tribulation time: "The disciple is not above his master,
nor the servant above his lord." Matthew 10:24.
Imagine sincere people waiting, waiting, waiting for
deliverance, as the world sinks around them.
Just imagine, at least try to
imagine, when this time comes, how many people would
have appreciated an opportunity to read and heed
insightful warnings, like these, written by a sincere
Christian; Ellen White; who received the instruction
below, by inspiration, 100 years ago:
"The work of the people of God is to
prepare for the events of the future, which will soon
come upon them with blinding force."
"Unless we understand the importance
of the moments that are swiftly passing into eternity,
and make ready to stand in the great day of God,
we shall be unfaithful stewards. The watchman is to know
the time of night... The judgments of God are about to
fall upon the world, and we need to be preparing for
that great day."
"God has revealed what is to take
place in the last days that His people may be prepared
to stand against the tempest of opposition and
wrath. Those who have been warned of the events before
them are not to sit in calm expectation of the coming
storm, comforting themselves that the Lord will shelter
His faithful ones in the day of trouble."
"I see the necessity of making haste
to get all things ready for the crisis."
"In the great final conflict, Satan
will employ the same policy, manifest the same spirit,
and work for the same end as in all preceding ages. That
which has been, will be, except that the coming struggle
will be marked with a terrible intensity such as the
world has never witnessed."
"Transgression has almost reached its
limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror
is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very
near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what
is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming
surprise."
"It is often the case that trouble is
greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not
true of the crisis before us. The most vivid
presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal."
"If in the providence of God we can
secure places away from the cities the Lord would have
us do this. There are troublous times before us."
"The time is near when the large
cities will be visited by the judgments of God. In a
little while, these cities will be terribly shaken."
"Erelong there will be such strife
and confusion in the cities that those who wish to leave
them will not be able. We must be preparing for these
issues. This is the light that is given me."
"For this reason I see the necessity
of the people of God moving out of the cities
into retired country (places) where they may cultivate
the land and raise their own produce. Get out of the
cities into rural districts, where the houses are
not crowded closely together, and where you will be free
from the interference of enemies."
"During the night season I was
pleading with some families to avail themselves of God’s
appointed means, and get away from the cities...Some
were loitering, making no determined efforts. The angels
of mercy hurried Lot and his wife and daughters by
taking hold of their hands... Lot had too much of a
lingering spirit... Those who obey this warning will
find refuge. Let every man be wide awake for
himself, and try to save his family...God will reveal
from point to point what to do next."
"Again and again the Lord has
instructed that our people are to take their families
away from the cities, into the country, where they
can raise their own provisions... Purchase a little
piece of land where you can have a garden. God will help
His people to find such homes outside the cities."
"A great terror is soon to come upon
human beings. The end is very near. We who know the
truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon
the world as an overwhelming surprise."
"The time is coming when we cannot
sell at any price. Hoarded wealth will soon be
worthless. Money will soon depreciate in value
very suddenly when the reality of eternal scenes opens
to the senses of man."
"In the last great conflict in the
controversy with Satan, those who are loyal to God will
see every earthly support cut off. Because they
refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers,
they will be forbidden to buy or sell."
"Now I plead with every soul to look
not too strongly and confidently to human counselors,
but look most earnestly to God, the One wise in counsel.
Submit all your ways and your will to God’s ways and
to God’s will. Spread every plan before God with
fasting, (and) with the humbling of the soul before the
Lord Jesus, and commit thy ways unto the Lord. The
sure promise is, ‘He will direct thy paths.’ He is
infinite in resources."
