James 5_1-6
Condemnation of the Unjust Rich
According to economist Marc Faber; The critical question over the next decade isn’t “where will my returns be highest?” but “where will I lose the least money?”
Faber states, “I think somewhere down the line we will have massive wealth destruction. That usually happens, either through: very high inflation or social unrest or war or credit-market collapse.”
“I would say that well-to-do people may lose up to 50 percent of their total wealth.”
Faber points out that this bleak outlook for the United States has been caused by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve’s continuous printing of new money. He says that the bailout and money printing will not create any long-lasting wealth or create healthy growth, and that the collapse will come on Bernanke’s watch.
Faber’s prophecies are troubling, but hardly as alarming as the scenario laid out by another economist: “Robert Wiedemer”
Robert Wiedemer accurately predicted the economic collapse that almost sunk the United States. In 2006, Wiedemer and a team of economists foresaw the coming collapse of the U.S. housing market, equity markets, private debt, and consumer spending, and published their findings in the book “America’s Bubble Economy.”
But Wiedemer’s outlook for the U.S. economy today makes Marc Faber sound like Mr. Rogers. Where Faber sees a 50 percent loss of wealth for some, Wiedemer sees much more widespread economic destruction. In a recent interview for his newest book “Aftershock,” Wiedemer says, “The data is clear,
• 50% unemployment,
• A 90% stock market drop, and
• 100% annual inflation . . . starting in 2012.”
When the host questioned such wild claims, Wiedemer unapologetically displayed shocking charts backing up his allegations, and then ended his argument with,
“You see, the medicine will become the poison.”
Wiedemer calls out Bernanke, saying his “money from heaven will be the path to hell.”
It is very interesting to hear ungodly men speak like prophets. Not sure one needs to be a prophet to see the direction we are heading. But for the ungodly to see it, um . . . makes me wonder.
Pastor James, of the First Baptist Jerusalem sees the handwriting on the wall,
after all, any historian who reads the repeated ups and downs of Israel in 1 & 2 Kings and Chronicles, fully recognizes the state of man that continually brings down God’s judgment upon their wealth and happiness. There is this circular chain of events that repeats itself over and over:
When the people of a land read, accept, and live the scriptures of God, bringing honor and Glory to God, the blessings flow
When the blessings flow, the people of the land get caught up in the blessings, forget or become to busy to read God’s Word, reject His Word, no longer living the Word, but live the World, the blessings are cut off and the people humbled.
The humbled people of the land, now have time to read God’s Word, accept it, turn from their sin, return to living the scriptures of God, bringing honor and Glory to God, the blessings flow again.
But when the corruption has reached its peak and God has had His fill, then the end comes for the land. After 400 years of ups and downs, God ended it all by sending the Israelites into captivity for 70 years.
James gets it. Let us see what he sees, looking at the church. Jam 5:1-3a
Go now, [you] rich, weep, howl, for your miseries coming upon [you].
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered (tarnished); and
the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and
shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
You have heaped treasure together for the last days.
James does not see the blessings of the rich, but just their miseries:
• Instead of sharing their wealth with the hard working men and women who are barely making ends meet, the have stored up the extra for themselves, only to see it waste away due to mildew, rust, and rot
• They wear beautiful hand made, costly garments, but they are moth eaten
• Their gold and silver jewelry and house wears are cankered, tarnished, rusted, worn out. Gold does not tarnish, but because it is very malleable it is easily torn up and corrupted.
• The destruction of their goods, those things they push down others to get and heap to themselves shall become a witness against them ( pictures a time in Heaven when these things shall become evidence for the prosecution presented at a trial against the defendant)
• He sees the evidence in their flesh of the destruction of their wealthy eating habits upon their flesh:
o They do not spend their time in fasting and pray, but in feasting and care, medical care.
o They are eaten up with cancer
o Diabetes
o Alcoholism
o Worn out bodies
o It is very interesting that James uses the term fire hear to describe the destruction of their bodies from the eating of food.
There comes a point in the aging process, usually around 40 to 45 where the body can no longer hydrate itself as easily.
When large amounts of food are consumed or high carbohydrate diets it tends to act like a blow torch with in the body and burns out all the moisture. It is kind of like a fire in the body that causes premature aging.
Cells no longer hydrate properly so things like cancer pop up in the body. Cancer gets it start in areas of the body that cannot hydrate well. This is why pancreatic cancer is pretty much a death sentence for people. It starts in areas of the body that do not hydrate well.
Sugar is just such a fuel for the fire. It dehydrates the body because it is the purest form of carbohydrate. Leaving the body open to sickness.
o James’ poor, living on fish, whole grain bread, vegetables do not have this issue. He can visually see the difference like Daniel & Nebuchadnezzar.
• They have wealth laid up treasure in storage for their old age, but they will not even live to enjoy it because of their wealthy life style.
• Don’t get me wrong, I like creme brulee and tiramisu as much as anyone else, but the body cannot eat it every day.
Then James turns the attention of the congregation toward the brothers and sisters in Christ that have been wronged and the sins committed against them by the rich. Jam 5:4-6
Behold, the wages of the laborers,
having reaped down your fields,
having been kept back by fraud, cry (out):
and the cries of them having reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.
The unpaid wages cry out
The unpaid harvesters cry out
And God has heard the cry of both
The wages are looking for their master, so they can climb down out of their storage spaces to be spent, while the people who should have received those wages are searching for the wages so they can unit with their wages and eat.
And the Lord hearing both of the cries, disturbed by the wrong is seeking to right it.
Pleasured on the earth, and been luxurized; you have fattened your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned [and] killed the righteous; [and] he does not oppose you.
You have believers who James describes as if they were a livestock penned, fed and fattened for the meat market. They are the Patented and Illegal to import Kobe beef of Japan.
They say they are lean mean praying machines, but James recognizes them for who they are; Thieves who prey on and steal from their brothers and sisters in Christ.
But because they are brothers and sisters in Christ, though condemned and killed by the righteous, they will not oppose them.
Pastor James is wound up and leveling the congregation with his words. He holds back nothing, because he is not worried about being tossed out of the pulpit for offending. His followers remember the Ananias and Sapphira’s of their day; People who tried to cheat God and died for it.
I will be the first to pray and have been that God spare us from the disaster to come. But, personally, I do not think it is in His plan.
But no matter how bad things get in the world, we should be here for each other. We should not be a people who take from each other.
When one brother or sister has need, we should do our best to help them.
Be careful though. There is a difference between real need and scam. There are those out there who refuse to work. And Go makes it perfectly clear in Scripture, “No work, No eat!
But if we hire others to work for us, and they do a good job and work hard, they should be rewarded, especially if they are in a situation, where their skills and talents do not pay like others.
Be the brother and sister you should be.
