This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report'
At various times, Cyprus has been in the news because it is claimed by both the Greeks and the Turks. In fact, the Turkish Cypriots live in the northern part of the island and the Greek Cypriots in the south. They even have a UN-supervised line of demarcation that separates the two.
In the last few years, large gas and oil reserves have been discovered off the coast of Cyprus. This has focused international attention on the tiny republic and caused a great deal of internal strife over the distribution of the newfound revenues.
Recently, Cyprus has been in the news for quite another reason. One that will have repercussions that may one day be felt here in America.
As a nation, Cyprus, and more particularly its banking sector, have fallen on hard times. So hard, in fact, that without a bailout loan of many billions, the nation faces bankruptcy.
To make a long and painful story short, a group of money powers known as "The Troika," which consists of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, agreed to help the island nation.
But, unlike their bailouts of other European nations like Spain or Greece, this time the Troika demanded more than a tightening of the belt or an increase in income tax revenues or the addition of a national value-added tax. This time, they demanded that Cyprus arbitrarily invade the bank accounts of ordinary citizens and confiscate 7 to 10% in order to help repay the debt.
Cyprus is as an offshore financial shelter for many Russians, like the Caymans for many Americans. Russian president Vladimir Putin was furious over the demand. He protested loudly and angrily. So did the Cypriots themselves.
In fact, their House of Representatives voted to reject the imposition of a tax on smaller accounts, but faced with impending default, acquiesced to a tax on larger accounts. Strangely, so did Putin. In fact, for some reason he agreed to keep his mouth shut when the dust settled and up to 60% of savings accounts in excess of 100,000 Euros was confiscated by the government.
To prevent a run on the banks that would collapse the system, the government abruptly closed Cyprus's banks. What was supposed to be 24 hours turned into two weeks!
What if -- without warning -- you were told you couldn't withdraw money from your bank for two weeks?
Can you think of any action the world powers could take that would send a greater chill through the world banking and financial sectors than arbitrary confiscation of private funds to pay debts run up by socialist politicians? And we've all seen what can happen when there are crises in the banking and financial markets!
Will that happen here? To paraphrase our nation's founders, what Big Brother gives, Big Brother can take away! Unfortunately, it's already happening, but through cleverly disguised "fees" and "account charges." Even more subtly, the same thing is happening to us when the Federal Reserve System prints money backed by nothing and floods the markets. Every dollar printed causes the value of every dollar in your wallet to decrease. The Treasury agents might as well show up at your house and demand that you give them your wallet!
You may be asking yourself, "How does this concern me?" Well, even though the economy of Cyprus is smaller than the smallest state in our union, it's conceivable that a collapse there could trigger other collapses in the Eurozone and spark a complete meltdown. If nothing else, the whole affair is undermining already shaky confidence in European banks and financial markets.
All it takes is a trigger, a lead domino to fall and start the whole chain collapsing. This crisis illustrates just how close we may be to the final meltdown that will open the door to the Antichrist.
President Obama's recent trip to the Middle East proved to be nothing more than a PR tour comprised of photo-ops and displays of "feel good" statesmanship. He made some admirable pronouncements about the strength of the friendship between Israel and the United States. He also issued some stern warnings to Iran, but nothing we've not heard before.
Probably the most important incidents that occurred during the trip were largely ignored by the media. The President's visit to a display of the Dead Sea Scrolls seemed to prompt an admission that the Jews' ties to Israel extend into ancient history. This is something of a significant development for the President. He has previously seemed to believe that the Jews are in Israel as the world's sympathetic response to the Holocaust.
Second, in a rather awkwardly contrived moment, the President apparently forced Prime Minister Netanyahu into issuing an apology of sorts to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan for the Mavi Mamara incident during the 2010 Egyptian-Israeli blockade of Gaza. It caused the deaths of nine Turkish militants. But maybe some good will come of it if it eases tensions between the two former allies.
Finally, last week the Supreme Court held hearings on the constitutionality of two cases related to same-sex marriage. Proposition 8 is an amendment to California's constitution, duly passed by its citizens, that restricts marriage to a man and a woman. The second is a federal statute overwhelmingly passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. It's known as the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. It effectively requires inter-state recognition of marriages only between a man and a woman. It also limits federal benefits only to opposite-sex marriages.
The factor that makes these two cases unique is that both governments who are charged with enforcing these laws -- California and the federal government -- refuse to defend them in court. And some of the justices on the highest court believe that the citizens themselves have no "standing" to defend them.
Though we probably won't know the Court's rulings for several months, this could be a watershed moment in our nation's history. Obviously, if they strike down both of those laws, it will mean that same-sex marriage will be legal throughout the nation. But even if they decline to rule for "technical" reasons, and allow the current lower court ruling voiding Proposition 8 to stand, it will mean that every law passed by a majority of citizens of any state can be annulled simply by the elected officials refusing to defend them in court.
That means that we may be on the verge of a complete takeover of the legislative and electoral process by the US court system -- and unscrupulous politicians. God help us if that happens.
I believe this issue -- the obliteration of the divine institution of marriage between a man and a woman (which has been practiced by all civilizations for thousands of years) and the subsequent acceptance and celebration of same-sex marriage -- may well be the issue that finally brings physical persecution to Christians in the United States. We are fast approaching the moment when we must decide to stand up and speak the truth of the Bible, and bear the consequences, or pointedly deny God's Word and accept a concept that is, as Justice Alito noted, "newer than cell phones or the internet."
Are you ready to stand up and be counted? I'll begin that discussion this week and continue it in greater depth next week.
Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, CPM Network, The Word Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.
God Bless,
Hal Lindsey
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