By Pastor Hal Mayer
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry once again. I’m glad you joined me today because we are going to look at the loss of liberty for God’s people. But that cannot happen unless there is a general loss of freedom. The Bible predicts that those who do not receive the mark of the beast will lose their ability to buy and sell. We can see from prophecy where the world is headed. We can also see from prophecy what we must do to get ready for it.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we realize that we are at the end of time. There is no question about it. Satan has been given more power to deceive. Please come to us today to help us navigate our time with truth. Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse. That means things are going to get worse and worse and worse before they get better. And they will get better because You’re going to interrupt the course of evil when it seems impossible to escape the evil. Please protect us from the evil one. Please send Your Holy Spirit today to be with us as we study the collapse of liberty. Help us to see and understand with our hearts how we should live in this degenerate age. Teach us what we should do and how to live for Jesus. In Jesus name, amen.
Please turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 13:16, 17. Let us read these important words.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
This is talking about God’s people, because those who do not receive the mark of the beast are not willing to sacrifice their loyalty to God and His law for anything. Those are God’s true people. The rest of the Christians who have been merely professing the truth, have all fallen away by this time and turned against the true and faithful. Today, I want to think about what it will be like just before the Sunday law is passed.
It should’ve been a day like any other. You’re at the gas station filling up your ride. You head into the store to pay.
“$77 please,” says the cashier.
You pull out $80 in cash and slap it on the counter.
“Sorry, sir. No cash. We only take cards from now on.”
With a grumble, you pull out a debit card and swipe it.
“Thank you, sir. Just so you know, a note on your credit says you’re almost up to your $80 limit in fuel for the week. You’re also getting close to your government allotted carbon emissions for the month…”
Walking out of the store, you remember the recent announcement in the news that the government had made a new law limiting the amount of carbon emissions that a person can emit. It was one of the flurry of new laws to help gain control of climate change that is now wreaking havoc on ecosystems that human beings depend on.
For instance, honeybees have recently been largely decimated by a fast-spreading disease that has killed billions of them. One by one the crops in the growing areas, particularly in the West, had become stressed through drought and the loss of pollinators, and farmers had lost millions because they wouldn’t produce much produce. Many farms lie idle, machinery and equipment just rusting away. It had also affected the supply chain to grocery stores, and the produce sections are largely empty. Wheat to make bread and other things is very hard to come by and expensive. The shelves are empty because of the lack of ingredients for making food products. You didn’t realize how many prepared food products had wheat in it, pasta and pizza dough, breakfast cereals and crackers, baked goods like muffins and energy bars, desserts like cookies, cakes and other baked sweets, and baking mixes for pancakes, waffles, cakes, and even salad dressing, sauces and soup. Now even these items are in short supply.
This has put millions of people in the big cities in great difficulty where it has been very difficult to get enough to eat. Restaurants and eateries have closed because of food shortages. There have been fights in the supermarkets over a box of Cheerios, or a small box of tomatoes. People are getting desperate, and they’re willing to do things that they have never done before to get something to eat. Some stores have closed just because of the shoplifting, making it more difficult for honest people to buy food and other necessities. And the government has run out of food reserves because it has been releasing them to stem the shortages.
People, who haven’t learned to adapt their lifestyle, and be creative, suffer the most. Not only can they not get what they used to get at the grocery store, they don’t know what to do with what they CAN get to survive. The cities have become concentration camps. They are starvation death traps.
It also has made life quite difficult for those living in the country, though not as bad. But country folk who had depended on the system to provide for their wants and needs, and not learned to grow their gardens had been very stressed too. They too couldn’t get food.
You remember this statement in Great Controversy, page 629 that says: “While the wicked are dying from hunger and pestilence, angels will shield the righteous and supply their wants. To him that ‘walketh righteously’ is the promise: ‘Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.’ ‘When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.’ Isaiah 33:15, 16; and 41:17.”
Only those who had followed the council of God were immune from the extreme stress and hunger. The Bible is their guidebook. Somehow, they had gardens anyway. It seemed that what few honeybees, and other pollinating insects there were, they made sure that their gardens were pollinated. It was as if the angels guided them to the gardens of people that were loyal to God and followed His counsel. At least that was the rumor that was going around at church.
Now everything was controlled by the government. The government cannot discern the will of God so everything they do these days seems to work against what God requires of His people.
You drive to your next errand. Along the way, you notice a long line in front of an ATM machine. You stop to check it out. People are walking away from the ATM in frustration. You ask one of them what’s going on.
“The machine stopped giving out cash,” she says.
Now you feel that little twinge of fear in your gut. You know that feeling. You knew things were getting bad. But surely things are not that bad. You remember reading about the time of trouble that was coming upon the whole world, how that travel would become very difficult, how that the economy would collapse, how that people will die of hunger and thirst. People will become so angry and frustrated that they would look for scapegoats to blame their stressful circumstances on.
That statement from Testimonies for the Church Vol. 6, page 22 comes to mind. “We have no time to lose. The end is near. The passage from place to place to spread the truth will soon be hedged with dangers on the right hand and on the left. Everything will be placed to obstruct the way of the Lord’s messengers, so that they will not be able to do that which it is possible for them to do now. We must look our work fairly in the face and advance as fast as possible in aggressive warfare. From the light given me of God I know that the powers of darkness are working with intense energy from beneath, and with stealthy tread Satan is advancing to take those who are now asleep, as a wolf taking his prey. We have warnings now which we may give, a work now which we may do; but soon it will be more difficult than we can imagine. God help us to keep in the channel of light, to work with our eyes fastened on Jesus our Leader, and patiently, perseveringly press on to gain the victory.”
You also remember what Revelation 18:11 says about the collapse of the economy. “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more.”
You check your phone for news. Wars, terrorist attacks, hurricanes and earthquakes were all wreaking havoc on the planet and causing systems and infrastructures to implode. You remember reading in Gospel Workers, page 264 that all these things would happen in rapid succession.
“The judgments of God are abroad in the land. Calamities follow one another in rapid succession. Soon God is to rise out of His place to shake terribly the earth, and to punish the wicked for their iniquity.”
Everything is in chaos and confusion. Again, you are reminded of that statement in the Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 1, and page 268 that predicts this time. “I was shown the inhabitants of the earth in the utmost confusion. War, bloodshed, privation, want, famine, and pestilence were abroad in the land…. My attention was then called from the scene. There seemed to be a little time of peace. Once more the inhabitants of the earth were presented before me; and again everything was in the utmost confusion. Strife, war, and bloodshed, with famine and pestilence, raged everywhere. Other nations were engaged in this war and confusion. War caused famine. Want and bloodshed caused pestilence. And then men’s hearts failed them for fear, ‘and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.’”
Still, something is definitely up. It’s getting really weird out there, and fast… You head inside the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner. As you head into the store, you notice long lines at the check-out counters. Anger is in the air. The smell of panic is everywhere.
A woman grabs your arm: “They say ‘card-only’ but my card isn’t working. NOBODY is taking cash! and they’re running out of food!”
You turn around and head out. In the parking lot, you send a text to your friend. He says his business can no longer take payments from customers. He wonders if it’s because he donated to that “Freedom” protest. Heart sinking, you remember those donations you made recently.
Another friend urgently texts you. None of her cards work, either. Her online payments are not going through, and her rent is due.
You feel yourself start to sweat. Tomorrow is the end of the month. You have a bunch of bills due.
Another friend says he’s hearing about violence in the streets, people smashing and grabbing whatever they can, banks locking their doors on customers. Your mind races. It must be some sort of system-wide banking crash, you suspect.
In the last few years everything has been centralized and consolidated. Banking is now controlled under one digital system over the whole world. So now when there’s a glitch in the system it affects a lot of people, potentially millions.
There has also been centralization of food supply because of the extended drought. In some of those places, food is grown that supplies millions. And supply chain issues have continually plagued parts suppliers of all types. You can’t get parts to fix tractors or equipment to process food, not to mention to repair automobiles, buses, and trucks.
And some items have been rationed like sugar, meat, coffee, butter, canned goods and even shoes, tires, gasoline and diesel. And fresh fruits and vegetables now require rationing too. And it’s all on the digital system being watched by government regulators and police to make sure that people don’t violate the ration laws.
You rush home…
It’s OK, you tell yourself. You’re prepared. You have a couple thousand in cash under the mattress. Oh, but cash has been outlawed. You’ve got your savings account and 401k nest egg. You check your banking app on your phone. You are greeted with the following message:
“Dear Customer, please be advised certain purchases may be limited or not be permitted according to Federal law. All our ATMs and branches are currently shut down until further notice.”
Is this the time of trouble that the Bible has talked about? You turn on the TV to get the news. Images flash on your screen of long lines at supermarkets and gas stations… stock market indexes in the red… riot police and National Guardsmen in the streets to control the riots that are occurring nightly. It seems as if people have lost their minds, and their civility.
The news anchor is nodding his head solemnly: “Today, the White House directed banks and other financial institutions to stop doing business with hundreds of Americans, freezing their personal bank accounts because their religious views don’t line up with the law.
Palms sweating, you switch to the financial channel: “Chaos on Wall Street today, after Congress authorized another round of stimulus payments directly into the spending accounts of every American, a move critics say will only increase inflationary pressures as prices spin out of control…”
You flip again: “Violent protests continue to spread from the cities into the suburbs, in the wake of record unemployment and reports of enforced rationing of electricity and natural gas…”
You wish you would have followed the council of the Lord and moved out of the dense suburbs a long time ago and gotten away from the city and established yourself in the countryside. You had read it from Selected Messages, Vol. 2, and page 356. “Get out of the cities as soon as possible and purchase a little piece of land where you can have a garden, where your children can watch the flowers growing and learn from them lessons of simplicity and purity.”
But you’ve delayed because it was so convenient in the city. Everything was a short drive away. But you didn’t expect the crisis to overtake us as quickly as it has. Now you feel stuck, trapped. And you don’t know very much about growing a garden and living independent of the grid. You always thought the Amish were sort of strange, misfits in society. But they are living like kings and queens now.
Now you are not sure what is going to happen to your family. Your meager garden, in the backyard, that you felt made you so virtuous, won’t sustain anything or anyone for any length of time.
Then something catches your attention. As you watch the scrolling news on your phone, you see an article that runs chills up your spine. The headline reads: “Megachurch pastor: God is unhappy. Sabbath keepers the cause of most problems.”
The pastor sites a litany of calamities such as the economy, the devastating earthquake that took place on the West Coast recently, the category 5 hurricane in the southeast that was happening at the same time, massive droughts in the Midwest and West, and he’s saying that God is angry at our world and he’s blaming those who keep the Bible Sabbath as the cause of the disasters. You knew that Sabbath keepers would be scapegoated and demonized, but you didn’t expect it so soon. Now it’s here. You were generally aware that the details and infrastructure for enforcement of the Sunday law and the fulfillment of Revelation 13:16, 17 were being organized on a global scale. But you had failed to prepare. You regret not taking action on this statement from Great Controversy, page 590 a long time ago. “And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity… As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God’s ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued toward Elijah.”
It started with September 11, 2001 with the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. They created an environment of fear that was used by the government to develop an infrastructure of surveillance and control, including torture and secret prisons, trial by tribunal instead of a jury, and other tools of oppression that have become all pervasive. You had a fearful feeling that although these things were being created for others, under one pretext or another, that one day they would all be turned against God’s people. Now fear is the motivation for the government to justify anything. It now has unconstitutional control of the economy, business, travel, and people’s everyday lives. And it has been steadily getting more and more invasive and controlling. More and more of the pieces for a massive system to control what people do, where they go, what they say, how they live, and even how they think have come together.
Now it looks like everything is in place including the monetary system. The banking system has been centralized with a digital currency known as the “Central Bank Digital Currency” or CBDC. It happened at the end of 2022. And in the last few years it has gone universal. In this new monetary regime, banks have full control over every digital cent in “your” accounts. Every transaction is recorded. They know a huge amount of information about you personally. Privacy has all but disappeared. They know how much fuel you have purchased in real time. They know what foods you have bought, and they keep a record. They know almost everything. You can’t hide anymore, anywhere. What used to be written off as conspiracy theories is now frightening reality.
Signs everywhere say in bland government language,
“Federal law now requires that all transactions must be digital. We do not accept cash.”
The control is global. They can stop you buying from specific stores or particular products or stop you from buying in general from everywhere. If you fall out of line and turn against the elites, you can be cancelled to the very last penny. In fact, all your money can be confiscated. And since the global elites control the universal monetary system and the banks, they have a stranglehold on every citizen on the planet. They can coerce you to do anything they want you to do, or they will restrict your ability to buy and sell. And they can use whatever excuse they want to. And they’ve been doing it too. Maybe they’re testing the system.
The economy has been so bad with inflation and shortages at the same time that people have become very unreasonable. Violence has erupted in many cities and even smaller towns. People have demanded a change. Of course, it has all been caused by the globalists, and the oligarchs who wanted a new system that they can control. They got their way by creating chaos so that “we the people” would demand change. The President has touted CBDCs loudly and for all to hear. According to a story in NBC News, “The Biden administration is throwing its support behind further study and development of what would be known as a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency…”
According to Biden, “My Administration places the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a United States CBDC…”
Biden takes big step toward government-backed digital currency [1]
There it is, straight from the horse’s mouth. What is a central bank digital currency, or CBDC? Let me sum up in simple terms: CBDCs are the central bank currencies you already know (dollars, yuan, euros, yen, sterling) but transformed into fully digital versions. They are 100% digital currencies, recorded on a ledger (maintained by a central bank or Finance Ministry).
You might think, this kind of sounds like Bitcoin, right? CBDCs are not cryptocurrencies. On the surface, they resemble Bitcoin, but really, CBDCs have nothing to do with private currencies. These are currencies issued by central banks. They are not created by individuals. And they definitely do not embrace the decentralized model hailed by the crypto crowd.
Some people warn that this digital currency could turn into “programmable money,” because with it, the government would be able to program what you can spend your money on, how much of it you can spend, and, most importantly, what you can’t buy with your own, hard-earned money. And, as you will soon see, these currencies are extremely dangerous.
The CBDCs are thought to be eventually merged into one global currency, but that really isn’t necessary. They are being created by almost all the major central banks around the world, including research that’s now underway in the United States, thanks to Biden’s recent directive.
As many as nine countries have already fully launched a central bank digital currency, including The Bahamas, Nigeria, and seven countries in the Caribbean.
And more are on the way. India is introducing a digital rupee as soon as this year. The Bank of Russia has announced a digital ruble. And the People’s Bank of China had been working on a digital currency since 2014. Digital currencies are being created to replace cash. In countries like Australia most transactions are electronic or digital already for years, so it was easy to implement there. The United States was next?
CBDCs will be highly centralized and tightly controlled by central banks. Bottom-line, a government-issued digital currency will give the government the ultimate control of the economy. It will give them complete access to every citizen’s pocketbook. And nothing will be off the table, especially as the economy spirals into recession and the nations continue to descend into chaos.
This is the stuff of Revelation 13:16, 17.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
There’s no escaping it. Everything is digital now. The only possible way to get food, for example, outside the controlled system, is to barter for it. Bartering is very difficult. If you don’t have anything to barter that someone else wants bad enough, it’s hopeless to survive.
Fear creeps into every crevice of your body. Where are you going to go? How will you survive? You have been keeping the Sabbath for many years now, at least in a formal way. It hasn’t meant that much to you, but now you see the fulfillment of prophecy at every turn. It’s all coming at once, it seems. It’s all too fast!
You are reminded of a number of statements from Great Controversy, about the mark of the beast and the seal of God. For example, page 605 says: “The Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty, for it is the point of truth especially controverted. When the final test shall be brought to bear upon men, then the line of distinction will be drawn between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. While the observance of the false sabbath in compliance with the law of the state, contrary to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God’s law, is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God.”
And from page 604: “Fearful is the issue to which the world is to be brought. The powers of earth, uniting to war against the commandments of God, will decree that “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Revelation 13:16), shall conform to the customs of the church by the observance of the false sabbath. All who refuse compliance will be visited with civil penalties, and it will finally be declared that they are deserving of death. On the other hand, the law of God enjoining the Creator’s rest day demands obedience and threatens wrath against all who transgress its precepts.”
And this one from page 615. “As the Sabbath has become the special point of controversy throughout Christendom, and religious and secular authorities have combined to enforce the observance of the Sunday, the persistent refusal of a small minority to yield to the popular demand will make them objects of universal execration. It will be urged that the few who stand in opposition to an institution of the church and a law of the state ought not to be tolerated; that it is better for them to suffer than for whole nations to be thrown into confusion and lawlessness… This argument will appear conclusive; and a decree will finally be issued against those who hallow the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, denouncing them as deserving of the severest punishment and giving the people liberty, after a certain time, to put them to death. Romanism in the Old World and apostate Protestantism in the New will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts.”
I’m sure you can see the prophetic application of digital currencies. But there are some practical things you should think about.
What do I mean? For starters, one thing, you can expect more “stimulus” payments into your bank account CBDC dollars to stimulate the economy. You can expect negative interest rates, which means that interest rates can go below 0.
To quote the Wall Street Journal, “The main monetary power of the digital dollar comes from the abolition of bank notes. If people can’t hoard physical money, it becomes much easier to cut interest rates far below zero; otherwise the zero rate on bank notes stuffed under the mattress looks attractive. And if interest rates can go far below zero, monetary policy is suddenly much more powerful and better suited to tackle deflation…”
Digital Currencies Pave Way for Deeply Negative Interest Rates [2]
US Congress Taking Revolutionary Steps Towards A Central Bank Digital Currency [3]
The ability to “steal” money with negative interest rates is an attractive idea to a central banker. But what happens to the average citizen, like you and me? It means your bank accounts could be penalized with negative interest rates for holding “too much” money. Instead of earning interest on your hard-earned savings, bonds, or Treasury Notes, you will LOSE money every day you hold it. Money is taken directly from your account. In short: They will MAKE you spend instead of saving, using negative rates. But they will likely steal much more. And not just your money. But your very way of life.
Expect a Social Credit system. As digital currencies migrate deeper into the economy, the government will have increasing control over your money, and thus your life. Remember what happened to the truckers in Canada protesting the Covid mandates? The truckers saw their personal bank accounts frozen, or even seized. The Canadian government froze up to 206 bank accounts linked to convoy organizers, together worth $7.8 million under emergency measures enacted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
But this hasn’t been isolated to Canada. Recently, in Russia, governments, banks and payment processors have cut off services to common citizens. Reuters reports MasterCard and Visa are suspending their operations in Russia: “MasterCard said cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by its network and any card issued outside the country will not work at Russian stores or ATMs.”
But there’s more. According to the Verge, “Customers at a number of banks in Russia can no longer use their bank cards with Google Pay and Apple Pay due to newly-imposed financial sanctions on the country…”
Some Russian bank customers have been cut off from Apple Pay and Google Pay [4]
Just imagine the chaos if cash is outlawed, and cards are cut off like this! And there are bigger plans in the works for even more control over the accounts and purchases of average citizens…
According to the Telegraph, “The Bank of England has called on ministers to decide whether a central bank digital currency should be ‘programmable’, ultimately giving the issuer control over how it is spent by the recipient…”
Tom Mutton, a director at the Bank of England, said programming could become a key feature of any future central bank digital currency: “You could introduce programmability – what happens if one of the participants in a transaction puts a restriction on [future use of the money]? There could be some socially beneficial outcomes from that, preventing activity which is seen to be socially harmful in some way. But at the same time it could be a restriction on people’s freedoms…”
Bank of England tells ministers to intervene on digital currency ‘programming’ [5]
Getting the picture yet? Think about teaching what the Bible says about the beast, or the Sabbath. This new digital money could easily be “programmed” to create limits in purchases of gasoline or rationing of some or all foods. Medical care could also be easily rationed. It could also be used to stop the purchases of those who are in conflict with the law in regard to religion. If you don’t go along with the mandate to attend church services on Sunday you could be banned from online and in person shopping.
There is a word for all this. It’s called “social credit.” Such a system already exists in places like China. Imagine the power to enforce “social credit” once the currency is 100% digital and you can’t pay for anything with paper money?
Jesus words recorded in Luke 19:43, 44 are coming true in our time. “For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”
The building blocks a society are being dismantled in every way, Especially are they targeting religious liberty. Religious freedom, like all other freedoms, is collapsing. They are now making the case for a Sunday law. You wish you had spent time with Jesus every day and built your relationship with Him solid and strong. You open your Bible and bow your head in prayer.
God, I know it’s late in the game, but I need you. The signs are ominous. Religious freedom is on shaky ground. Please take my life and make it what is needed to not only survive, but to live for Jesus and prepare with what little time is left for the time of trouble and the coming of Jesus in the clouds of glory. In Jesus name, amen.