We don’t know when it will be; before September 13, 2015, or after.  But after it happens many of the things you could have done to prepare before it happened may very well be much harder or even impossible to do.

The Second Signpost, the Iranian invasion of the Middle East, have some worried simply because it is the next sign given in the Bible telling us the Antichrist is on his way.  We will see brutality and war on a scale across the Middle East that no one currently alive has seen.  But there is another factor to the Second Signpost that has had me concerned for some time.  As the author of Daniel Revisited, and a watchman on the wall for the signs soon to come heralding Christ’s return I feel the need – indeed the responsibility – to you all to make you aware of something, and make it clear.  This is a warning.

And between writing the new book, setting up a garden and chicken coop, and doing some consulting to pay the bills, I haven’t had the time to write up a proper article on this topic complete with many references.  I watch many things.  I have most of my adult life, its just the way God has wired me.  I watch the economic and financial news – the stuff not reported by the general American media.  The articles are far too numerous for the time I have here.  But I want to pour out my heart and thoughts.  I hope you read to the end.  Its a longer than average post but I believe you need to know this.  The topic might get complicated for some of you but I believe you need to see the bottom line.  Google the terms I use here.  Check it out.  Do your homework.

The Second Horseman and Removal of Peace

Daniel 7 and 8 speaking of the Second Signpost show us Iran charging out abruptly to the north, south and west, invading many countries.  Some people say that they will watch for this but they are unaware that there is a strong chance more baggage is attached to this event because of the second horseman.  I believe that the Second Signpost is spoken of in Scripture not only by Daniel 7 and 8 but also by Revelation 6:1-8.  With the colors of the horses and the authority only over a quarter of the earth, as well as the winds of heaven connection with Zechariah at the start of Daniel 7 there is a compelling case for the horsemen releasing each of the beasts.

The theme of Daniel 7 is in verses 17-18 where it says that kingdoms will come and go and then Christ will set up His kingdom.  We are talking about geography here in those first four kingdoms – Iraq, Iran, Turkey’s confederacy and then Islam – the four compass directions west, east, north and south.  The horses travel geographically in Zechariah.  There are even four in number – four always refers to the geography of the world in the Bible.  The first four seals of the seven are concerned with geography and the kingdoms situated in that geography here in the end times.

The reason we cannot ignore the horsemen is because of the possible effects the second horseman will have over the entire earth.  He is the only horseman – indeed the only seal – that explicitly is said to take peace from the earth.  This cannot be ignored.

And second horseman or not, just look at a map of the Middle East.  Iran is to run south.  What is to the south other than Kuwait?  The oil fields.  Its rather obvious.

Now what I am about to say here is not meant to be a scare tactic.  But it is meant to wake people up to the very real possibility of the economic devastation coming to some parts of the world, especially here in the USA and Europe.  And a part of it could be sudden.

So many readers, and many pastors, hear of this coming Iranian invasion and say that they will remember it and see if it is true.  The problem is that the Iranian invasion is not going to be your typical violent-day-in-the Mideast-but-how-does-that-affect-my-day garden variety event.  No, if the second horseman is indeed part of all this, than peace, that is, the lack of concern, the lack of worry day-to-day, is going to be removed.  Peace, i-ray’-nay in the Greek, is always spoken of in the New Testament in regards to not being concerned or worried or troubled.  When Christ said “peace be with you” He was telling us to not be concerned or troubled.  But if you are not ready for this you might be, the world will definitely be and you need to be ready for it.

Three Effects to Remove Peace

When Iran takes the oilfields, three things will occur – the price of oil will no doubt spike up.  How high?  I don’t know.  But when the world lost 6% of our oil supply in 1973 the price doubled.  Now we are to lose 25%.  So who knows?  Three to five times, with $10 per gallon gasoline might not be out of the question.  Or it could go much higher.  There will be three things going on when Iran takes the oilfields –

1) Oil Supply endangered;

2) Hyperinflation of the dollar and US government not being able to spend;

3) Sudden economic devastation from derivatives, on a scale greater than 2008.

Oil Supply Endangered

As I talk about in my book, the only way I can imagine Iran could take peace from the earth is with the oil fields there in the Gulf.  Some have said Iran nuking Israel would take peace from the earth.  No, I disagree, half the world would celebrate and the other half wouldn’t care.  But Iran occupying the Middle East would control one quarter of the world’s day-to-day oil supply.  We don’t know what they might do in this position.  Might they turn off the oil spigot?  Temporarily or permanently?  Sell oil only to those countries in certain amounts that they see fit?  Sell it only in gold or Chinese renmendi?  Fortunately for the USA less than 10% of the USA’s oil comes from there, but the oil supply is global and so prices would shoot up because countries like Japan and South Korea who get almost all their oil from there would bid up other supplies like from Canada, if the Gulf was no longer available.  Can you imagine a nation the size of Japan or South Korea, which depend on oil for two-thirds of their energy needs including transportation, having maybe two or three months to scramble to find a new oil supply or their country starts shutting down?  I shudder at the thought.

Just about everything we need, want and purchase for our daily lives involves oil.  It is our society’s lifeblood.  It gives us cheap transportation.  And everything from tires to roof tiles to food to paint to just about anything you can think of.  If the price were to triple or quadruple, what does that do to everything?  Make everything more expensive or even available?  Food would rocket in price.  It takes oil to power modern farm machinery which is used to grow crops for billions of people.  Oil is used to make fertilizer as well.

Preparation – There is not much anyone can do about oil.  There is one mantra and it is easy to remember, but very hard to do: decrease your dependence on oil.  The Amish had it right – they kept their dependence on oil to a minimum.  Shorter commutes, fuel efficient cars, solar panels all help decrease dependency but may not do much.

The US Petrodollar and Hyperinflation

I believe the one country on this planet that will fall the farthest economically will be the USA.  It is the richest nation, but its “wealth” today is built on debt and an unnatural foreign demand of our dollars. This is caused by the U.S. Petrodollar.  I’ve written about it here and here.  China and Russia have already been getting themselves ready with trade agreements with each other and their trade partners to stop using US dollars.  The Gulf oil is the last large pillar.  If Iran controls the oilfields one thing I can say with 99% certainty is that they will end the US Petrodollar system.  Iran has already been working toward that end.  That system is essentially the foundation of the US’ entire economic system and what allows the government to keep spending and going into massive debt without the dollar going into hyperinflation.  It is the underpinning for the unnatural overseas demand for dollars.

But when those dollars are no longer needed, the countries holding them will head for the exits.  They will buy American companies, property, and one way or another a tsunami of dollars will come back here to these shores.  The US government itself will try to keep spending and try to keep itself alive.  It might try to force everyone’s IRAs and 401k’s to liquidate all their investments and buy US Treasuries which of course in turn will become worthless after a few years.

This whole process with the dollar could take months but there is the third effect of removing peace – another process that will go on that is far quicker.  You could wake up the next morning penniless if you are not careful.  Remember 2008?

Preparation – What to do about a dollar that decreases in value?  Put your wealth in things outside of the dollar.  My mantra for this is: Get out of the dollar!  What do you move your wealth or savings to?  Something that can be denominated or priced in something other than dollars so when a new currency comes along it can be sold or priced in the new currency also.  Precious metals, land, farms, foreign stocks are all examples of things that do not have to be, or not currently, priced in dollars.  US Treasuries and bonds, as well as American stocks – they are only priced in US dollars.  Schiff’s Crash Proof  (links at the end here) has some good ideas.

The Suddenness of Derivatives and the Destruction of the West

Currency market prices rise and fall on the slightest things.  The US dollar has gained 25% strength these last few months for no reason at all (actually there is a reason, just no physical reason).  Right now the dollar should be falling but Fed and foreign central bank manipulation allows the dollar to be pushed higher in value.

The dollar may take months to lose much of its value after the initial Iranian invasion as I said earlier.  However, it is the initial spike; say a 10% to 20% loss of value of the dollar which isn’t unheard of, overnight, that has me concerned.  When Iran takes the oilfields we may see a 10% or 20% spike down in the dollar.  Then it would take months or years for it to continue to go down.  Here in the west – the USA and Europe – there are festering in bank asset accounting these things called “derivatives.”  Just like a stock option put or call, or a commodity future, derivatives are bets on all kinds of things – currencies, interest rates, etc.  When you buy options, futures or derivatives you are buying the legal right to buy or sell something at a specific price until a specific date.  If the underlying commodity or thing being bet on goes down and you are betting it will go up, your option or derivative becomes worthless.  Where you might lose 10% on a stock move, you can lose it all in futures and derivatives.  Remember the Duke brothers in the popular and comedy movie Trading Places?  They bet on the wrong price for orange juice futures; they lost everything. (Note: If you haven’t seen the movie, beware there is some female nudity toward the beginning; the movie maker took a wonderful PG-13 movie and turned it into R because of a few seconds of raunchiness. That was the 1980s.)

Scene from Trading Places after the Duke brothers (Randolph, center, and Mortimer, right) were on the wrong side of a bet in orange juice futures.

Official (at left): You know the rules of the exchange, Mr. Duke. All accounts to be settled at the end of the day’s trading, without exception.

Randolph Duke (center): You know perfectly well we don’t have $394 million in cash!

Official: I’m sorry, boys. Put the Duke brothers’ seats on the exchange up for sale at once. Seize all assets of Duke & Duke Commodities Brokers, as well as all personal holdings of Randolph and Mortimer Duke.

Randolph Duke: My God… [clutching his heart] …we’re ruined.

Derivatives

Many people don’t understand what happened in 2008 and why it happened.  Bank runs were a common sight in the news but most people really didn’t understand why it was happening.

One of the many bank runs and bank failures after 2008.

At the time the five largest banks on which most of the country’s economy was tied to had $400 trillion – yes that is right, ten times the economy of the USA – in notional value of derivatives.  There were bets placed on $400 trillion of things like houses, dollars and so forth.  Some of these derivatives were bets on the housing market, and when the housing market collapsed so did the western banking system.  Yes, it collapsed essentially and today the western banking system is insolvent.  However, the laws were changed to protect the greedy.

Banks now owned worthless assets on an unimaginable scale.  If a bank had to have, say, 5% cash reserves versus assets like loans and derivatives, so that cash was $50 billion and derivatives were worth 1 trillion, then when just 5% of the derivatives became worthless, and the bank had to pay up on the losing side of those derivatives, that would use up the $50 billion in cash they had and voila, they become insolvent.  This is why Warren Buffett once said that derivatives are a financial WMD.  Here is a short scene from the BBC movie Last Days of Lehman Brothers.  In this scene all the leading bankers met with then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (played by James Cromwell).  The full 1 hour movie is here.  It is based on real life events and is fairly entertaining.  The central statement was “We have this one weekend where maybe we can come up with something to hold it all together a little while longer.”  At the time they thought that was it.

So the US government changed the accounting rules to save the big banks – liars rules.  Now they can have 1% or 0.1% reserves and keep going.  There were bailouts – that’s why the banks took all the taxpayer money and government handouts and never paid it back.  It’s part of the large bank bottom line right now.  The audacity of bankers adversely affected the lives of tens of millions of people.  I have found it interesting that while on earth, the only people Jesus got physical with were bankers.

Anyway, the banks were starving for cash to pay back their bad bets in derivatives.  That’s why starting in 2008 you get paid 0.01% on your savings instead of 2% – the banks need it.  That’s why credit dried up and the real unemployment rate was 20% and ordinary people were laid off in the millions – banks needed the money for their balances.

So here we are today and what has happened?  While the government has been lying saying prosperous times are back, we never actually recovered.  Tens of millions never went back to work.  Derivatives are now worth a staggering 1 quadrillion dollars (yes, 1,000 trillion) dollars.  This has happened because banks needed derivatives to pay for derivatives.  That’s their excuse.  It became a bigger mess.

Most of these derivatives (around 80%) are bets on the US dollar and US dollar interest rates.  You might see where this is all going if Iran ends the US Petrodollar.  The Fed and big banks (like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and even Wells Fargo to a lesser degree) manipulate the prices of things they have put bets on.  That’s why they can keep reporting huge profits.  I believe the dollar has been going up recently because the banks are betting the dollar will go up.  This is why gold has been spiked up and down.  Remember April 2013 and how gold fell hundreds of dollars per ounce?  It is because the Fed sold 500 tons of pretend paper gold in the form of futures.  The practice is called “naked shorting” and fairly recently was still illegal.

But if the dollar were to spike down, even just 20% overnight (and that is the key – a move must be quick), and interest rates would naturally have to spike up, this would go against banks’ bets.  What makes this time much worse than 2008 is that instead of 10% of bets like on housing we are talking 80% on the dollar.  Instead of $400 trillion in derivatives we are talking $1,000 trillion.  My concern is that what happened in 2008 would just be a taste of what is coming when the Iranians invade the oilfields. And the west has only done it to themselves.  There would be no way out of what’s coming.

The havoc on banks could be beyond saving and the devastation on your savings and ability to make a living could be unprecedented.  Thus the lack of concern and the lack of worry goes away and is replaced by concern and worry.  Peace is removed just like the Bible says in Revelation 6.

Remember 2008?  Remember the string of bank failures and you didn’t know if your bank was next?  The only reason your savings were preserved was due to these herculean efforts on the part of government and the banks (like in the movie Lehman Brothers) – bailouts, changing the percent reserve required for assets, the Fed buying all the bad derivatives that became worthless, the banks grabbing for every possible dollar including the interest it was supposed to pay you, and forcing larger banks to buy smaller banks to keep bank balances overall looking healthy.  The FDIC had nothing to with it.  Their pot was a few billion dollars and we were talking losses in the hundreds of billions.

Real Life Example

I will give one referenced example of what derivatives can do and how fast it can happen.  Most Americans will not have even heard of this.  Most Americans are clueless about many things like this because the mainstream media doesn’t report it and many people might think they are not smart enough to follow this but I believe they are wrong.  Get yourselves educated.

Back in January of just this year the Swiss franc rose in a 30% spike against the Euro.  It’s a similar percentage move and similar time span to how the dollar may move when Iran ends the petrodollar.  It happened because the Swiss central bank, pegging or locking the value of their franc (known as the symbol “CHF” which stands for Confederacy of Helvetica Franc) in lockstep to the Euro decided out of the blue that it was time to unpeg and let it float free and find its real market value.  The Euro had been sliding and the swiss franc is a good currency relatively speaking.  So when the Swiss central bank unpegged the franc, the franc rose against the euro 30% in one day.  This caused some unexpected losses and here is where derivatives come into the picture.  Everest investment funds had as their largest account a hedge fund worth $830 million in derivatives betting the swiss franc would stay low.  What a surprise!  The hedge fund – $830 million – became worthless overnight.  Now you may not invest in such things, but your stockbroker, your bank, and other institutions you may use, do.

(I remember in 2008 a stockbroker I used – E-Trade of all things – almost went bankrupt because they invested their profits in housing market derivatives!  Really?  I thought.  Is everyone greedy to the point they would put their company on the line?  Even E-Trade?  Remember Lehman brothers?  They started as a cotton merchant in the 1800’s but what brought them down was unbridled greed.)

And this is just one fund not quite worth 1 billion dollars.  As I said before most derivatives today are hooked to the US dollar.  Be ready and be prepared for such an event.

Side Note – A Spectacular Irony

There is a spectacular irony here in the end times.  The institution of fractional reserve central banking – begun in England around 1660 and spread to the entire Christian, western world and even Japan by the twentieth century, is probably the one main institution responsible for allowing Europe to conquer and divide up the Islamic Realm.  It was central banking that not only funded Europe’s huge wars, but it also funded Europe’s exploration, investing in technologies, and supporting large navies and armies.  Spain took Morocco.  France took Algeria, Tunisia, and Syria.  Italy took Libya.  Britain took Iraq and chunks of Arabia.  Russia took central Asia.  Only the cores of Iran, Turkey and Arabia stayed independent.

And now, that same institution, western central banking, may be on the verge of collapse when Iran runs out.  This same institution that was the economic engine behind Islam’s demise and its head being mortally wounded, is now about to end and leave the west entirely economically vulnerable to Islam and the coming Antichrist here in these end times.  This will set many countries up for temptation to join the system of the mark.  (I believe this is why God is allowing Russia and China to set up their new currency system, central banking, and trade – it should be relatively unharmed by the second signpost.)

Get Educated and Prepared

Get educated.  There are some resources out there that I recommend –

1) JSMineset.com – This site is run by Jim Sinclair.  He is considered by gold experts to be Mr. Gold.  He was a central banker, an undersecretary of the treasury, gold trader, and now gold company CEO.  He reports daily on his site what is going on behind the financial news.  He started the site back in 2001 or so because he wanted to help the average person.  He refers to “CIGAs” quite often.  These are “Comrades in Golden Arms” – average people.  If you don’t understand at first what he is saying and you have an interest, keep reading and studying.  You will pick it up after a time.  He repeats over and over that you must get out of the dollar and into gold.  Before 1933, Americans’ money was gold.  Everyone was their own central bank.  By letting gold be confiscated we handed that duty over to the Fed.  Gold was confiscated only because FDR was trying to convert our money from gold to paper.

2) Peter Schiff’s book Crash Proof.  I highly recommend this book.  Not only does he talk about what happened and why in 2008, but he did it before it actually happened in 2008.  His book came out in 2007.  Peter Schiff offers two economic storm shelters.  He recommends gold as an insurance policy to shelter your wealth.  He also offers investing in foreign dividend paying stocks which would have a good chance of preserving your income stream.  If the dollar falls against the Chinese or Australian currencies by half, your dividend doubles not making you rich, but preserving an income stream.  By investing in utilities, infrastructure or other defensive companies with yields of 5-7% it gives one an alternative to investing in the US.  His brokerage firm is Euro Pacific Capital.  If any of you have been wondering how they can invest in a good foreign stock and avoid having an offshore account, EPC is a good answer.  You can own foreign stocks but it is an American account.  And EPC converts the dividends paid in foreign currencies into dollars automatically.

3) Video about the banking system, Money and Debt, parts 1 and 2.  This is an educational, humorous, entertaining, animated documentary about how banking works.  The narrator is calm and laid back explaining matter-of-factly how our banking system works.  Did you know that when you deposit “your” money in the bank you are actually loaning your money to the bank – it’s theirs at that point?  Did you know that when a bank makes a loan they are creating money out of thin air and then expect you to pay it back with money you earn?  This is why the economy must always expand and why there must always be some inflation otherwise the system runs out of money for people to use?  We live in a debt-based society and it goes down to the foundation of how our economy works.  But in our foundation are the seeds for our economic destruction on the eve of the end times.  Don’t be like King Belshazzar and think Babylon will never fall.  Don’t be like all those passengers that thought the titanic would never sink.  Since roughly 1913 the seeds have been planted waiting to make themselves known in the end times.  In Part 2 of his video series it is explained what happened in 2008.

Don’t Procrastinate

Put this before the Lord in prayer.  Find out what you should do and must do.  What sparked much of this was a reader who told me that they were going to put off starting a garden until they saw this all happen.  That’s the worst thing one could do.  No disrespect intended but many people don’t think things through.

NOW is the time you can get all the materials you need cheaply.  NOW is the time you have money.  My wife and I are building a vegetable and fruit garden because gardening is in her blood and she’s always wanted one, and the way the Lord has been leading us we are to do this.  So it’s a natural for us.  As I’ve been building the garden I wonder how I would get the wood for raised beds after the second signpost begins.  I wonder how I would get a rototiller later or even the gas to run it to break up the untilled earth.  How would I have good food to nourish me in the day-to-day heavy exercise I am now getting that is needed to get everything together?  Where would I get the hoses and lines for the drip system if I waited too long?

You see, when something terrible happens on a nation-wide scale people will head for the exits and prepare at that point.  In hurricane-prone areas is it better to buy and store water ahead of time or to try to get it 2 days before the hurricane strikes.  The shelves would be emptied.  When a possible event like this occurs where the second signpost’s effects are wreaking havoc on everyone’s lives, the mass of people are doing what you would do but then it is too late.

Everyone will want to build a garden – where will you get the lumber and the fertilizer and the tools if you are starting from scratch when everyone else is also?

Everyone will want to buy gold but it will be sky high in price if you can even get it.  Everyone will rush into gold as a safe haven.  It is best to buy it now where it is anywhere from $1000 to $2000 an ounce so when it is $50,000 an ounce people will beg you to sell it to them.  That is how people generally are.

Start thinking about these things.  Start praying about these things.  Seek the Lord’s counsel of what might He have you do to be part of the solution and not part of the problem after the disaster strikes.  Realize this as well – gold, food and even guns (like for hunting and home defense) – can be good things and God might have you use these things to save your family, but don’t make them your God.  The living God is your God and these things are tools that may very well be useful.  But don’t depend on them ultimately – trust only in God.

If you are thinking of acting and doing something about all this please don’t procrastinate.  Stop worrying about the Nephilim they will be a no-show.  Stop worrying about the banking elite controlling the world they will end here.  Stop looking to broke and bankrupt Europe for the Antichrist.  Stop looking for a Rapture to save you from very rough times ahead.  Realize that the Iranian invasion is next and all it portends.  Now is the time for Bible prophecy to become reality and affect your lives.  It is time to get real.

Categories: ALERT, Signpost #2: Iran

Tags: 2008 Financial Crisis, bank failures, derivatives, food prices, Iranian invasion, oil prices, Prepare, Second Signpost