Grandchildren update

Three short clips of our grandchildren, the people we will miss the most when we go on a mission trip. Our daughter complained that it’s always grand-children and not children, but actually everyone has their day.

Ksp goes grocery shopping: Toddlers are very cute. They can be so busy doing absolutely nothing. Sometimes we are like that too, keeping very busy with things that have little or no significance. Are you spending your life on trivial pursuits?

Cheery baby: Nothing brightens your day more than the broad smile of a baby. They are innocent as doves with no hidden agendas, and so trusting. No wonder Jesus said unless we are like children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Ksp and Sophia wrestle: Take more pictures/videos of your children. They grow up too fast. Before you know it they have grown to be mischievous. Enjoy your family time together. Soon such times will become fewer and far in between.

Changes

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Pictures show:
* Don’t be afraid of change
* Change is the law of life
* Change is good
* Call on yourself to make a difference

Case 1: The school which our kids attended was sold last year by the school board to a developer who will build luxury homes on the property. Soon after school was out this summer, workers sprayed painted big orange X’s on 10 large, mature trees slated to be cut down; only 3 will remain as decoration for the new residences. After Labor Day a crew came to set up a chain link fence around the property, and last week workers began dismantling inside the building, soon to be torn down to make way for the new development. Having lived in this neighbourhood for nearly 30 years, and had spoken out on behalf of the school when interest-groups wanted to turn it into alternative uses, there is a certain sadness to see its last days. But the school board had to reckon with finances, so nostalgia gives way to supply and demand.

Case 2: Our daughter and son-in-law are renovating their house to put in a basement apartment, and upgrade the entire living area. So 10 weeks ago they packed all their furniture into their garage, and temporarily moved into our basement with a suitcase of clothes each. The only one who still has most of her possessions with her was our grand-daughter, as they brought her crib plus boxes of toys. All of a sudden there is “stuff”, mostly infant, everywhere in our house – in the den, dining room, basement, and garage. Refrigerator space becomes a premium. We got a new wake-up service, as the little munchkin gets up early in the morning, without the need for alarm clocks. The worst is waste disposal. Because the household population more than doubled, so does the amount of garbage, and our garage became a temporary waste dump until our son-in-law hauled everything to a dump site. But we have lots of fun, as we watched her grow and learn new “tricks” every week, climbing up sofas, then stairs, climbing down stairs, then sliding down. We will surely miss the patter of her tiny feet as she walks around the house bare feet, poking her nose and pudgy hands into everything.

Case 3: Our own house, near my age, needed an overhaul too. Two weeks ago the renovators moved in, while things in my wife’s study, the bathroom, the laundry room got moved around. There were tools and equipment everywhere, and dust/mortar all over the place. Needless to say our routines got interrupted. Then it was the external contractor’s turn, who resealed our concrete driveway and patio. We were glad when all the contractors finally moved out, happy that we can get back to “normal” again, only to discover that the central vacuum system and the canister vacuum cleaner had both broken down, with no one claiming responsibility!

Changes – most people don’t like them. They disturb our equilibrium. We don’t want to rock the boat, and we like things nice and easy. But if things never change around you, then you are not making progress. Sure sometimes it’s three steps forward and two steps back, but the net result must be a change in order to move you in the right direction to accomplish the desired goal.

Sometimes there are auxiliary benefits. I guess my daughter and son-in-law learned that you don’t need a lot of stuff to survive. You learn that too when you go on a short-term mission trip for a couple of months and travel light with only two suitcases in hand. We ourselves got to enjoy our older grand-daughter’s antics for nearly 3 months. The joy of that is something no money can buy.

After the renovators are gone, we enjoyed our old house even more. We appreciate more what we do have, and not look with envy at what we do not have. I guess that’s the essence of contentment. I’m not saying that all changes are for the better, many aren’t, but even dark clouds have a silver lining. So, much as you dislike changes, you can’t live without them. Many are beyond our control and inevitable, learn to embrace them with a positive attitude.

Daniel’s 70 Weeks 4

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Pictures show:

* Daniel’s 70 weeks
* Daniel’s 70th week

Yesterday I listed why I do not hold the preterist view (wrong start date, wrong calculation, wrong end result which does not fit the text) and why I believe the futurist view to be correct. Today we wrap up with the 70th week yet in the future:

Dan 9:26-27 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

We have already seen the Anointed One (Jesus) was cut off (crucified) in AD 33. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the sanctuary in AD 70, when Titus besieged the city and burned down the Temple. All these have happened exactly as Daniel predicted when he wrote the book around 530 BC, 600 years before the events actually took place, proving along with other fulfilled prophecies that the Bible is inspired by God and trustworthy.

Opponents to the futurist view object that the text continues without a break into “The end will come …”, so taking the last ‘seven’ to be future, with a gap between the 69th and 70th seven, is artificial. But the text is itself divided into seven ‘sevens’, sixty-two ‘sevens’, and one ‘seven’. Furthermore, an unseen time gap is not uncommon in prophecy. For example:

Isa 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. Jesus was born over 2,000 years ago, but the government has yet to be on His shoulders and He has not yet reigned on David’s throne.

Isa 61:2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn. In Luke 4:19, when Jesus inaugurated His public ministry, He quoted this verse but stopped after “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”, in the middle of a verse. Why? Because the day of vengeance of our God has not yet arrived and there is a time gap in between. So while the objection is valid, a time gap is reasonable when part of the prophecy has yet to be fulfilled, as is the case in this instance. What’s the gap for? We call it the church age, a period of time unknown to us for the propagation of the gospel, so that the good news can be preached to all people, and then the end will come.

What happens in the 70th week? The ruler who will come (the AntiChrist) will confirm a covenant with many for seven years. But in the middle of the 7 year period i.e. after 3.5 years, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering, by setting up an abomination of desolation in the Temple.

This is confirmed by the apostle John in Revelation. Rev 11:2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it (Temple) has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. 42 months is 3.5 years, the second half of the last ‘seven’.

Rev 13:14-15 Because of the signs he (the false prophet) was given power to do on behalf of the first beast (the AntiChrist), he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed.

The apostle Paul added in 2 Thes 2:4 He (the man of lawlessness, or AntiChrist) will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

These things have yet to happen, that’s why we believe the futurist view to be correct. What should we do in the light of these prophecies? Mt 24:42, 44 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Come, Lord Jesus (Rev. 22:20)

Daniel’s 70 Weeks 3

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Pictures show:

* Futurist view starting 444 BC with 483 years ending in AD 33
* 483 lunar years conversion to 476 Gregorian years

Yesterday we concluded that the start date for the 70 ‘7s’ should be 445-444 BC, based on the fourth decree by Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem. Today we continue to explain why I believe that is the correct interpretation. The key is in V 26:

Dan 9:26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

According to v 25 the sixty-two ‘sevens’ is after the seven ‘sevens’, since the Anointed will be cut off after the sixty-two ‘sevens’, it will be a total of 69 ‘7s’ after the decree.

Preterist View:
Remember the calendar jumps from 1 BC to 1 AD, as there is no year 0.
Start 457 BC + 483 years (69 ‘7s’) = 27 AD = Year Jesus baptized
457 BC + 483 years + 3.5 years = 31 AD = Year Jesus crucified
457 BC + 490 years = 34 AD = Year Stephen martyred

I have several problems with this mathematics:
1. The start date is only the decree to rebuild the temple, not to rebuild Jerusalem.

2. The end date of the 69 ‘7s’ is when Jesus was baptized, not cut off or killed according to the text. Preterists try to side-step that by arguing that Jesus’ crucifixion 3.5 years later is also after the 69 ‘7s’. Technically it is, but this contrived interpretation puts it in conflict with v 27:
Dan 9:27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

V 27 says The ruler who will come will confirm a covenant with many for 7 years, then in the middle of it he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. The above view would equate Jesus’ crucifixion to the ruler’s putting an end to sacrifice and offering, which it definitely is not.

3. The calculation is flawed because it mixes the lunar calendar used by the Jews with our Gregorian calendar. The Jewish calendar has 360 days, versus our solar calendar of 365.25 days. Daniel was Hebrew and used the lunar calendar, so by adding 483 or 490 lunar years to a Gregorian start date and assume the end result to be the nominal Gregorian year, of course it will be wrong. To convert lunar years to Gregorian years, you need to make the following adjustment:
483 lunar years X 360/365.25 = 476 Gregorian years

I believe the calculation should be:
Start 444 BC (4th decree) + 476 solar years = 33 AD (No year 0) = Year Jesus crucified

This interpretation fits all available data from the text and is not “forced”, and should therefore be correct. The only thing that remains is the last 70th week, which we will look at tomorrow.

(to be continued)

Daniel’s 70 Weeks 2

Futurist view starting 445 BC with 483 lunar years ending AD 32, plus 7 years in the future

Yesterday we determined that the seventy sevens refer to 490 years decreed for the Jewish nation, and looked at the preterist versus the futurist views. Today we continue to examine the clues. What time period does this 490 years cover? When does it begin and end? The answer is given in v 25-27:

Dan 9:25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

The period starts with the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and is made up of 3 parts:
1. seven ‘sevens’ i.e. 49 years,
2. sixty-two ‘sevens’ i.e. 434 years
3. one ‘seven’ i.e. 7 years.
It ends with the final one ‘seven”, which in turn is divided into two halves by “an abomination that causes desolation” in the middle. Let’s pin down the start date first. When is the decree to rebuild Jerusalem?

There are four decrees as given in Ezra and Nehemiah:

1. Ezra 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (539 BC), in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ” ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.
3 Anyone of his people among you–may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.
4 And the people of any place where survivors may now be living are to provide him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”

2. Ezra 6:1 King Darius then issued an order (512 BC), and they searched in the archives stored in the treasury at Babylon.
Ezra 6:7 Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God. Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.
8 Moreover, I hereby decree what you are to do for these elders of the Jews in the construction of this house of God: The expenses of these men are to be fully paid out of the royal treasury, from the revenues of Trans-Euphrates, so that the work will not stop.

3. Ezra 7:20 And anything else needed for the temple of your God that you may have occasion to supply, you may provide from the royal treasury.
21 Now I, King Artaxerxes, order (457 BC) all the treasurers of Trans-Euphrates to provide with diligence whatever Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law of the God of heaven, may ask of you–
Ezra 7:23 Whatever the God of heaven has prescribed, let it be done with diligence for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and of his sons?

4. Neh 2:5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”
Neh 2:8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests. (444 BC)

Which of these is the decree referred to in Daniel 9:25? Here is the second place where interpretations diverge. Preterists hold that everything is already fulfilled in the past; they typically subscribe to the third decree (457 BC), since 490 years later would bring it to 34 AD, the year Stephen was stoned and persecution of Christians started, leading to the spreading of the gospel to Gentiles. Futurists believe that one seven remain in the future, so generally they choose the fourth decree (444 BC), as 483 lunar years (69 ‘7s’) later would bring it to 33 AD (to be explained in the next post), the year Jesus was crucified. No reputable scholar pick the first two decrees as their end dates don’t match that of any significant event. Which is correct?

Again, the answer is in the text. The first three decrees, by Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, were all for rebuilding the temple, not Jerusalem, and would not fit Daniel 9:25. Only the last one, from Artaxerxes to Nehemiah, was to rebuild Jerusalem, so this is the decree, and our start date is 444 BC. (Note: Some commentators hold to a 445 BC to 32 AD period.)

(to be continued)

Daniel’s 70 Weeks 1

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* Preterist view starting 457 BC with 490 years ending AD 34
* Futurist view starting 445 BC with 483 years ending AD 32, plus 7 years yet to be fulfilled

* Q. What is Daniel 9 24-27 seventy-sevens talking about?

A. This passage is known as Daniel’s “seventy weeks” in prophetic literature. Volumes have been written debating different interpretations. I can give only a brief summary and my view.

Dan 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
[25]”Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
[26]After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
[27]He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.

Let’s take it verse-by-verse. Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your (Daniel’s) people i.e. the Jews, and your holy city i.e. Jerusalem. But what are the seventy sevens? The context gives us the clue. Dan 9:2 In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. Daniel was praying to God about the prophecy of Jeremiah, which called for the Israelites to be exiled 70 years, during which Jerusalem would be left desolate. So he was thinking about years, not days or weeks or months, and seventy ‘sevens’ mean 70 periods of 7 years i.e. 490 years.

What are these 490 years decreed for? V 24 gave 6 goals:
1. to finish transgression,
2. to put an end to sin,
3. to atone for wickedness,
4. to bring in everlasting righteousness,
5. to seal up vision and prophecy and
6. to anoint the most holy.

This is where the first divergent opinion takes place. Some feel that all 6 goals have been met at Jesus’ first coming, when He died to atone for our sins. This is called the preterist view. Others believe that only the first 3 goals have been fulfilled, but not the last 3, since:
4. we don’t have everlasting righteousness yet, just take a look at the world around you,
5. vision and prophecy had not been sealed up at the First Coming, at least not until the New Testament was completed later,
6. the most holy could refer to the Holy Place, or the Holy One i.e. Jesus. Neither had been anointed at His First Coming. Jesus was anointed for His burial, but not as King.
So the complete fulfillment of all 6 must await some time in the future. This is the futurist view.

Personally I find the latter more convincing, but let’s examine the whole passage before drawing conclusions.

(to be continued)

Ezekiel’s Temple 2

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Picture show:
* Abomination of desolation: man of lawlessness proclaiming himself to be God
* Holy place
* Dome on the Rock on Temple Mount

Yesterday we discussed Ezekiel’s Temple and eliminated the historical (Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple) and symbolic views. There are some who suggested that Ezekiel described plans for a temple which the exiles are supposed to build upon their return, but which was never realized. I reject this view too, as God is not in the habit of giving detailed visions which never come to pass.

Today we continue with the prophetic or futuristic view. While the true church of believers is a living temple, there are at least 3 references in the NT to a future temple building:

Mt 24:15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel–let the reader understand–
2 Thes 2:4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Rev 11:1 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there.

These 3 verses can refer only to a real, not a figurative temple, because:
* only a properly sanctified “holy place” can be made desolate;
* the man of lawlessness (AntiChrist) has to proclaim himself to be God in the real temple;
* the context (Rev. 11:2) refers to a literal temple with outer court.

While the preterist* school interprets these verses to have been historically fulfilled in AD 70 during the destruction of Jerusalem, premillennial* scholars believe they are yet future. However, since the Second Temple’s destruction, its site had been overtaken by the Muslims, who in AD 689-691 built the Dome on the Rock on it, where it sits to this day. For the Temple to be defiled, a Third Temple will have to be built, before it can be desecrated. Accordingly commentators speculate that the mosque will somehow be destroyed to allow the construction of the Third Temple, which some equated to Ezekiel’s Temple.

This identification is possible, but not highly likely. The Third Temple seems to have a short life time. It hasn’t been built yet, and it is likely that it will be destroyed shortly after its construction, just before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ:

Ezk 38:19-20 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground.
Rev 16:18-19 Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.

This leads to our last view that Ezekiel’s Temple refers to a Millennial Temple to be built upon our Lord’s return:

Zech 6:12-13 Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’

The Branch is one of the names of our Lord Jesus Christ. He built a spiritual temple the first time He came. It is believed that He will build a physical temple the second time, which will last throughout the Millennium. This is plausible, but there are just not enough verses to argue this definitively. Nonetheless this is the view of many conservative scholars. I personally subscribe to this view.

What’s the point of all this? That “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my (Jesus)words will never pass away.” (Mt 24:35, Mk 13:31, Lk 21:33) Mt 24:44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. See also Lk 12:40. Jn 9:4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

*preterist – the interpretation that the events referred to had already taken place, or were taking place at the time of writing
*premillennial – the belief that Christ will return and then set up a period of His earthly reign for 1,000 years

Ezekiel’s Temple 1

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Pictures show:
* 3D view of Ezekiel’s Temple
* Plan of Ezekiel’s Temple
* Distribution of land in Ezekiel

Q. In the last few chapters of Ezekiel, he was talking about the temple, the priests’ duties and then the boundaries of the land and how it is to be divided among the 12 tribes of Israel. Wasn’t Ezekiel written after the temple was built and the land divided already? Is it talking about the future?

A. There are different interpretations, but I believe the most straight forward one is that it is still in the future. There were two temples in the OT:

1. The first one was built by Solomon in the 960s BC, but destroyed by the Babylonians (Nebuchadnezzar) in 586 BC.
2. Zerubbabel rebuilt a smaller temple in 516-515 BC. This was known as the Second Temple. In 19 BC Herod the Great began expanding it, but work continued until AD 64. This was the temple in Jesus’ days, but it too was destroyed, by the Romans (Titus) in AD 70.

Ezekiel received his call in 593 BC, and his last dated oracle in 571 BC:

Ezk 1:2-3 On the fifth of the month–it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin–the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians. There the hand of the LORD was upon him.
Ezk 29:17 In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month on the first day, the word of the LORD came to me.

He therefore served as a prophet for 22 years. Based on the above chronology, the First Temple was destroyed 7 years after his call. Now, which temple was Ezekiel referring to in chapters 40-43? There are several views:

1. Historical: This is a description of Solomon’s Temple. I disagree with this view, as there are significant differences between this and the First Temple:
* Only outer and inner court, no Court of Gentiles and Court of Women
* No laver
* No table of showbread, golden lampstand, or golden altar of incense
* No veil
* No ark of the covenant
The same differences would rule out the identification with the Second Temple.

2. Symbolic: Ezekiel’s description is only figurative, not actual. His vision was not an architectural plan, but symbolizes the purity and spiritual vitality of the ideal place of worship and worshippers:

1 Co 3:16-17 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
1 Co 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
2 Co 6:16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Eph 2:21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

While the NT does say that Christians are now God’s temple, I am inclined to believe that there is more to Ezekiel’s description than symbolic idealization. There are 318 precise measurements of the temple in Ezekiel, plus he used 37 architectural terms. I don’t think you can explain them away by broad sweep symbolism.

3. Prophetic: A third view takes Ezekiel’s description to be literal, but assigns it to a future date yet to be fulfilled. I will elaborate on this in the next post.

(to be continued)

Some Simple Economics

Q. I’m very concerned about the global economic situation. What’s your view of the economy? Are we heading into the Last Days?

A.Although I had been working in the financial services industry for 33 years, I had not watched the market since I entered ministry full-time six years ago. So take what I’m saying with a grain of salt. However, some things are just common sense that you don’t need to be a PhD in economics to understand what’s going on. Let me quote a few numbers from a recent newsletter I received.

When you want to determine whether you should buy the stock of a public company, you look at the fundamentals by analyzing its income statement and balance sheet. Is it making or losing money? Is the debt reasonable in relation to its shareholders’ equity etc. The same reasoning applies to the economy of a nation. If you look at the US economy, its tax revenue is $2.17 trillion (1 trillion = 1 followed by 12 zeros!). The federal budget (i.e. expenses or spending) is $3.82 trillion. So the shortfall (income minus expenses) or federal deficit is $1.65 trillion! A trillion is an astronomical figure that most people cannot relate to. To make it more comprehensible, let’s divide the above number by 100 million households to look at an average household:

Household income $21,700
Annual expenses $38,200
Net income/(loss) ($16,500)

Now, if you spend (budget) more than you have (tax base), you are heading for trouble. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out! To balance the budget, either you increase income i.e raise taxes, which is what the Democrats (Liberals or NDP in Canada) want to do, or you cut spending, which is the platform of the Republicans (Conservatives in Canada), or you do a bit of both. Regardless of whether you raise taxes or cut social spending, it is going to be unpopular with certain segments of society.

The recent US budget cut is $38.5 billion, which looks big on the surface. But once divided by 100 million households, the cut is only $385 per household! Imagine, you are in the hole for $16,500, and you cut spending by a mere $385! That’s only 2.3%, hardly a drop in the bucket!

An alternative is to fund the deficit by borrowing. That’s possible as a short-term measure, but you need to know one more thing to put everything in perspective. The US national debt is $14.271 trillion, or $142,710 per household. Now, if you were a banker, would you lend $16,500 every year to a family that makes $21,700 a year and is already indebted to the tune of $142,710 (i.e. 6.6 times its annual income)? The cumulative debt would just go higher and higher, as there is no ability to repay. I had been a banker for nearly 2 decades before I became a consultant, offering advice to the leading financial services firms in Canada for over a decade, and then a pastor. If I make that type of loan I would be out of business!

Yet the US central bank’s strategy is to do what people with common sense don’t do. They want to stimulate the economy by quantitative easing, which is a fancy way of saying increasing the money supply by printing more money, which is not backed by hard assets. Now prices are determined by supply and demand. If supplies are plentiful and demand is low, prices fall. Conversely, if supplies are tight and demand is high, prices rise. If you keep increasing the money supply and people are not eager to hold US$ because it’s not backed by anything, no wonder the US$ had been falling in world currencies.

This combination of overspending and excessive debt had caused the decline of the US economy. But instead of reverting to a balanced budget (which was possible 7 years ago), the current administration accelerated the borrowing! Prudent economists had been calling this trend a surefire way to hyper-inflation, which will happen when people lose confidence in the value of their paper money. This had happened time and again in times of war, when paper money became worthless.

So, I am not optimistic about the shape of the US economy. Things are better in Canada, but the situation in Europe is terrible. Are we heading into the Last Days? I believe the signs are that we are. Am I worried? No. When your hope and trust is not in the government but in the King of kings and Lord of lords, you don’t have to worry. But that’s enough for today. I’ll continue next week with more encouraging news.

The Problem of Pain 2

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Pictures show:
* Leprosy – lack of pain results in loss of fingers and toes
* Pain as chastisement for correction
* Spare the rod and spoil the child
* Birth pains – the suffering precedes the joy

Yesterday we looked at pain as a punishment for sin, and as a warning signal to stop and change. Although some people might consider pain as something to be avoided at all costs, that is actually not a good idea. Some years ago I read a book called Pain, the Gift Nobody Wants by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. Dr. Brand was a world-renowned hand surgeon and leprosy specialist. He said he first learned about painlessness while working with leprosy. The disease destroyed the patient’s sensitivity to pain, resulting in disfigurement of the body as the patients literally wore down their fingers, toes and even noses without feeling it. Modern men have not learned this lesson well. Often at the first sign of a headache or other pain they take painkillers to dull the pain and then keep going. They treat the symptom, not the cause. That’s not wise. Deal with the cause, then the symptom will go away.

Closely related to pain as punishment is pain as chastisement in order to discipline and train us. Heb 12:11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. The difference between the two is in the motive. Punishment looks back to dispense retribution for the wrong done. Chastisement looks forward to shape the future of the one under discipline. Chastisement is painful, but if we learn from it, it disciplines us for our good so that we might share in God’s holiness (Heb 12:10). Today’s young parents had been taught, wrongly, that physical discipline is barbaric, and that children should never be spanked. That’s not biblical wisdom, but humanistic folly, because we end up with more spoiled brats than former days:

Prov 22:15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.
Prov 23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
Prov 29:15 The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.

Of course I don’t mean violence. The Chinese of my generation will remember being disciplined as children. We dreaded the rattan cane, and learned to behave. It was unpleasant to say the least, but it did produce a harvest of righteousness and peace.

One more point to note is that of the different type of pains in the Bible, the most frequently mentioned is the pain of childbirth or labor pains. For example, pain or pains appear 13 times in the NIV NT, of which 8 times or over 60% are associated with birth. Why? I believe Jn 16:21 gives us the clue:

Jn 16:21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

I was told that childbirth is the most pain experienced by a woman, but out of this anguish, she experiences the most joy when her child is born. It may be the same way with us. We could be walking through some of the most painful experience in our lives, but if we endure to the end, it breaks forth into unspeakable joy as we see God’s hand delivering us once more from the pangs of death. Out of pain a new life is formed, reaching to a higher plateau. I myself learn more from my painful experience than from times of peace and prosperity. I hope we all learn something from it. Don’t waste your pain.