Greece

The economic situation is Greece is being watched closely by people in the financial markets because it has the potential to trigger a much broader crash than what is happening there. Now that the Greek people have voted against implementing the austerity demanded by their European Union creditors, it remains to be seen if Greece will exit the EU or not. We have learned today that the EU has agreed to another bail-out of Greece in return for some scaled-back austerity in an effort to reboot their economy. This will only delay the inevitable since people still don't trust their banks.

If Greece ends up exiting the EU, they will have to stop using the Euro for their currency and will probably start using the drachma again. This means that depositors who currently are not able to get their Euros out of their banks will have their Euros converted to drachmas. They'll find the purchasing power of their drachmas to be less than what they thought they had in Euros.

What is more likely as demonstrated by the latest EU bail-out band-aid is that the EU stake holders will come up with some plan to enable Greece to stay in the EU. The EU experiment of "unity in diversity" can not be allowed to fail. Indeed, the global ruling elite look to the EU model of national collaboration as what they want to expand worldwide. Since austerity has been taken off the table for Greece, it is highly likely that the Greek banks will be required to impose a bail-in on their depositors giving them a 30% haircut. The impact on depositors will be the same as exiting the EU but unity will be preserved and Greece will not have to start printing drachmas.

We know that the EU ruling elite love the bail-in solution to government debt problems because it has already been done in Cyprus and they are forcing all European nations to adopt bail-in legislation. As a matter of fact they are doing this with some urgency requiring their member states to have such legislation on their books by early August or face legal action. It looks as though they think they might have to use it as early as September. This either means there is some economic event planned by the ruling elite which sounds awfully conspiratorial or that even secular authorities know about the economic pattern of the Shemitah.

One way we know that we are close to the return of Christ is the growing spirit of Antichrist as God removes His restraint of evil in the world. The wealth-destroying bail-ins that we'll be seeing in Europe is just one more example of the spirit of Antichrist who, "shall destroy many in their prosperity" (Daniel 8:25). When people don't trust in God for their well being they have to trust in something and this usually ends up being human government. We will see the spectacular failure of human government during the coming Tribulation.

Greece has gotten into debt troubles because of their government's love for expensive social programs coupled with their citizen's proclivity for tax evasion and fraud. One of the Greek islands has almost 500 people fraudulently getting benefits for being blind. This is why the Greek people have consistently voted down any suggestion of tightening their government spending, too many people are making a good living on the dole.

Government overspending eventually has consequences as seen by what the Greek people are going through today. Their government debt is 353% of GDP. That sounds bad but the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is even higher at 370%. One reason why the EU is anticipating more bail-ins is that other European nations are almost as bad or worse. Germany, who is supposed to have it's financial act together has debt at 302% of GDP, Britain is at 546% and Ireland is more than 1,000%.

All the debt we see among the nations of the world sets the stage for the economic system of the Antichrist when total control over everyone in the world will be imposed, "no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (Revelation 13:17, NKJV). For people to embrace this draconian level of control, some great economic crisis has to happen. And this financial disaster may be triggered by some other significant event like a major war or a natural disaster.

Christians watching for Jesus to return hope the Rapture of the Church protects us from the coming economic new world order. Indeed, the Rapture may well be the event that triggers it. When millions of people instantly vanish from earth there will be great confusion, uncertainty and panic among those who remain. This will be the opening Satan is looking for to raise up his man with a plan. People will embrace the Antichrist and his solution for economic world order because there will be no alternative that they can see. The mark of the beast will require them to swear allegiance to the world ruler and most will happily do this so they can buy groceries. Those who don't will be regarded as enemies of the state. The economy of the Antichrist will not be much fun and will fail spectacularly as described in Revelation 18.

While economic cycles come and go, there is a growing expectation that the next one will be significant. We already have a worldwide economy so a global solution will be required to fix it when it crashes. When you look at all the debt and other measures for the health of the economy, it is amazing that our house of cards has not yet fallen. It is God who holds the economy together and allows it to fail in His timing to serve His purpose. For those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior, this is all good. "All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).

The best way to prepare for the coming world economic calamity is to have Jesus in your life. Do not think you can put off this most important preparation for what is coming.