The Story of 2008

A one-world system in my lifetime? Never! Yet my frequent radio guest and one of our “Understanding the Times 2009” speakers, Gary Kah, has said this to me for years: “We are just one global crisis away from global government.”

Think this is raging foolishness for those who hold to my eschatology? Here are some secular headlines from 2008: “G20 Leaders Struggle to Reshape Global Economy”; “Global Governance, Here we Come!”; “And Now for Global Government”; “Time to Build a Global Society.” They are spurred on by a global financial crisis, so-called man-made global warming crisis, and the global war on terror. It’s time for change! Where have we heard that in 2008? Make that “global change.”

A financial tsunami hit America and the world in 2008. After leaders in America, including President Bush, sized up the situation, America was largely “bailed out.” We were told there was no other option. Credit had dried up. American establishments were going broke. Unemployment would reach 10% if the government didn’t step in and offer a solution. The only problem is, the solution left capitalism gasping in America and placed socialism on center stage. This set the merry-go-round spinning for the cheerleaders of global government.

Sure, I knew this would happen—someday. The book of Revelation outlines it perfectly for those of us who take that book literally. So in 2008 we saw the prophetic clock go on fast-forward in all categories. But the worldwide cry for global governance almost overnight?

Then global panic set in. The Washington Times led the chorus by saying, “Leaders and economists from Western Europe to East Asia urged that America go beyond reviving a failed domestic bailout and start working on a new global financial system. The next U.S. president should immediately call for a second ‘Bretton Woods’ conference to devise a new doctrine of international finance.” Could “international finance” be another term for a cashless society also predicted in Revelation?

Since the U.S. government is almost as broke as the institutions it is trying to assist, won’t minds be more open now to this idea? Yes! Who is going to bail out the U.S. government when it goes broke, which will surely happen? With America crippled with so much debt, it will clearly take a global solution or global government to fix the American and world economy. It will be presented as the healing balm. When unemployment hits 10% or higher and when it appears people’s retirement savings are wiped out, the world will accept any kind of magic plan. And all this is coming together with rapid speed!

At the same time in 2008 we saw one man captivate global headlines. Newsweek magazine calls President-elect Barack Obama “The President of the World.” The Bible says a man-with-a-plan will come along to dazzle the world. I am not suggesting Barack Obama is the antichrist. We cannot know such things and he lacks some qualifications. The point is the world grabbed hold of one man who promised he would “fix things” and create “change” in desperate times. Hundreds of Web sites called him “the messiah.”

The world has never watched any vote, in any nation, so closely. In country after country, polls show record-high fascination with the outcome. The Voice of America, which broadcasts in 45 languages to a worldwide audience of 134 million, saw "unprecedented interest." In Pakistan there was so much interest in the first presidential debate, the VOA changed its initial plans and broadcast the next two as well. And many in other countries said Barack Obama would fix all the world’s problems.

The coming together of these two issues is no coincidence, and it may be the most significant end-time event since the rebirth of Israel. It was the perfect storm. As prophecy writer Terry James says, “So obvious are the tremendous forces pushing the nations of earth toward one world that journalists who have little to no interest in or knowledge of Bible prophecy are making the connection. This world is changing dynamically, dramatically, astonishingly, even before the much ballyhooed coming administration of Barack Obama . . . “

There has been a misperception that government solves everything when in reality, big government is the problem. The average man on the street is sure that political regimes can save the world. The pump is now primed. The world is wide open to receive a “Mr. Fix-it.” It is also very nearly ready to accept a world without borders. At the very least, it will first accept regionalism and then globalism.

There are no other human options to make the world right again. And none will work until we are under a perfect Theocracy with King Jesus on the throne in Jerusalem! In the meantime, fasten your seat belt. We are in for a bumpy ride in 2009. Those who have an eye on the sky to discern the times will never be bored!