Volume 48 | Number 3 | May–June 2020

Inglés Español

Has the Time Come for the Appointed Feet Of World History? – Part Three


By Dr. H. T. Spence

John Adams, our second United States President, declared:

A constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

We are now experiencing with growing permanency the principles of this statement in our country. Our freedoms are diminishing with paralyzing rapidity and in shocking proportions. How has this become a reality in the last stronghold of Western civilization, the United States? Both freedom and liberty have been our watchwords and beacons of hope for many across recent centuries?

Fear: The Compelling Force

Fear has been the major weapon of compelling force wielded by governments during these recent months of 2020. The human mind instinctively seeks relief from fear and especially the growing angst of the unseen and unknown. When crises come, Christians naturally seek consolation from Scripture and through prayer and faith in God. But if we place our faith in natural hopes or dwell upon that which is creating fear, we become totally unrealistic, irrational, and unfaithful to God. This can produce reactions that drive us away from God and His Word.

We are drawn to the words of Robert Nisbet, an American-born sociologist of the 20th century, who wrote a thought-provoking little book entitled The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America. He made a unique observation about the collapse of socialism by pointing out the following:

The death of socialism in the West opened the field of ideology, of “isms,” to a number of entries which had not been especially noticeable before the Second World War.

One of these “isms” was the rise of egalitarianism. Egalitarianism includes all the equality movements that have overwhelmed America in recent decades—equality for women, races, religions, genders, moral preferences—to name a few. Nisbet suggests that the void in the minds of intellectuals left by the death of their “beloved” socialist theories led to the rise of a host of strange cults, radical causes, and utopias. Nisbet writes

Socialism, held these vagaries—to the extent that they even existed as ideals in the minds of most intellectuals—together or kept them down as mere latencies—for exfoliation perhaps in the very distant future. But when socialism ceased to be the energizing faith of the Left in the West—primarily because of the repulsiveness of the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany, one and all founded by lifelong socialists, but also because of the indisputable fact that the Third World nations that took up capitalism—as in the Pacific Rim countries to the west—were faring immeasurably better than were those that took up socialism—when the socialist dream passed, the result was a mess of new idols in the marketplace.

This failure is what has brought the current fascination in liberal government and academic circles with “politically correct” thinking. Socialism, though theoretically idealistic, will not work without enforcement by governmental powers. Though socialism has proved a failure without totalitarian government, the political ideology of socialism continues to be thrust upon us in ideological terminology and rhetoric.

In the conclusion of Nisbet’s book (written in 1988), he suggests that the climate in America appears to be as ripe for a revolution in the world of ideas as it was in the 18th century, when our founding fathers first established a constitutional republic in the New World. This position is where the advocates of a new world order prefer us to be—poised on the threshold of a new era, a new world, and a new political theory.

One of the mental weapons they will use in their revolution of ideas is the weapon of fear and dread over something that could globally destroy much of humanity. War has brought such fear to a nation; the loss of wealth, home, and property has brought this fear; and the dreaded phobia of losing health and ability of life has equally brought such fear. The abounding of such fears has helped to overthrow the people of great nations. Sometimes, such fears have been unfounded while a populace was overcome by an evil hoax.

The Global Hoax of Darkness

One crucial truth always ignored or denied by utopian dreamers was clearly understood by the writers of the Constitution of the United States—the depravity of man. Every utopia has presumed that it can build a perfect world order with imperfect and depraved people. The so-called Marxist dream attempted through indoctrination, coercion, torture, and execution of life to change the hearts of its citizens. In the case of Plato’s The Republic, citizens were placed in perpetual bondage to a class of rulers whose natural intellect and understanding placed them above the people. Our present-day Progressives and Socialists believe they have been entrusted with psychic “illumination” (not realizing they are being instructed by demonic beings referred to by the New Agers as “ascended masters”).

Despite such utopian claims, we are often reminded of the words of Sir John Dalberg-Acton of the 1800s who was addressing an Anglican bishop:

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

In this crucial hour in the history of our country, this principle has been proved through the mandates of governors, mayors, and other local powers.

In all the leadership of the world, both men and women are amassing great wealth through the power of their leadership. Vladimir Putin is reputed to be the wealthiest billionaire in the world today while also deepening in his own corruption. It is estimated that some of the wealthiest people in the world live in Russia. And then, there are the many politicians who have been in power over many years who have amassed their wealth through their political scheming and corrupt usage of the government. Though Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, makes some $223,000 a year for her position, her worth is estimated from between $200 million to $500 million (depending on what source appraises her worth). In his brief political career, Barack Obama now a private citizen continues to amass his hundreds of millions of dollars. Government leaders in both democracies as well as socialist and communist states continue to become wealthy through currency manipulation, theft of state property, and embezzlement, while people are dying of starvation, disease, and squalor. This contrast is clear between the people of North Korea and their dictator Kim Jong Un, reportedly worth an estimated $5 billion.

James 5:1–6 truly becomes a fulfillment of these days:

Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days [Received Text, “in the last days”]. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

The founders of America created a constitutional republic where power was divided among the people, the state governments, and the federal government. At the federal level, power was again divided across executive, legislative, and judicial lines. Power was then limited again, not only by a written constitution, but by brief terms for those who held office. And the colonies came together believing collectively in the God-given rights and freedoms of each individual.

Our founding fathers studied the civilizations of the past thirty centuries, all the way back to the Greeks and Romans. However, the experience of the founding of America was in no way a precedent for forming a world government of totally diverse peoples. It is one thing to have people of colonial America come together in federation against an oppressive power. It is another thing for the United States of America to merge with a world government where Muslim and Marxist dictators stand as equals to our government, surrendering our sovereignty unto a global consensus. But this is what is presently being pressed upon us by creating fear concerning our lives and our families.

The powerful, liberal bureaucrats of America know that people desire to live the way they want, where they want, with whom they want, and to worship their God the way they want. These desires drive the social engineers of the deep state government toward great anger; they fear losing control of the people to direct them into what the elite feel is best for them.

But because human government can never really change people’s hearts, they lean toward massive military force and an equally massive police power in order to control what the leaders believe is the best for society. For a global government, such a world army or world police will not come cheaply. The coming world government is going to have an immeasurable cost, not only affecting our finances but also our liberties and personal lives.

Through the coronavirus this year, America is experiencing a foretaste of how this governmental absolute control will be instituted and then accepted. It is almost surreal that we as a nation have been brought under the oppressive control of governmental leaders during these recent months in every aspect of our lives. We are told how we are to live, what we are to buy, when we are to buy it, how we are to buy it. We have been forced to give up our jobs and submit to a mock house arrest. It has structured a new class of people, destroying basically the middle class of America.

In 1974 (the year of the birth of the Foundations Ministries), the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, advocating that “the prevailing disparities in the world be abolished.” This global mandate of the UN declared several laws: (1) the transfer of wealth to Third World nations; (2) nationalization by Third World governments; and (3) economic special protection for poorer countries. In simple understanding, the Third World in the United Nations has already voted to take away the wealth of Europe and America and give it to themselves. Only the lack of police powers currently in the United Nations and the veto power of the Security Council have prevented this resolution from being implemented. President Donald Trump has been in constant battle with the UN over these matters.

Apart from President Trump and a handful of conservative leaders, the leadership of America is collectively pressing for the principles and laws of this country to be destroyed and all Americans to enter a world citizenship under global government. If this comes about, dear reader (and it will), our Constitution and Bill of Rights will no longer apply. The pressure arose during the days of the Obama Administration, as noted with his bold anger to endeavor to outlaw private gun ownership in America. Although President Trump has been an advocate for this liberty, these changes are coming soon. The new global government cannot have a system that permits people to keep arms; it cannot allow for dissenters to foment riots and revolution. The right to keep and bear arms will be one of the very first casualties of liberty in the coming world government.

Our Freedoms Are Being Taken One by One

In these most recent years, only the overwhelming providence of God has kept this country from sliding into the abyss of destruction. For some reason, Heaven is keeping us by an iron thread of Sovereignty from our final total collapse, and from losing the final few liberties and freedoms we still have. Already legal hate crime laws and the enforcement of political correctness have made it a crime to speak out against the beliefs of a Muslim, a Hindu, or an animist, or against the beliefs of a communist or a socialist. Christians are now being brought to court for speaking out against the sins of homosexuality or pedophilia, or for refusing to assist such “strange flesh” with their businesses. The Christian is being quelled and choked from every side. We may witness in our lifetime “freedom of religion” taken away and claimed to be for the cause of the greater good, for the plurality of the nation, yea, the world. Already Christians are being muzzled in speaking about their faith. One way we are losing our freedom of religion is the pressing for the equality of all religions, races, sexual practices, and belief systems. We must remember that just a few years ago a court in the District of Columbia held that the right to forbid discrimination based on sexual preference overrides the existing Constitutional First Amendment rights of religious liberty.

We are soon coming to a forced universal spirit, a global theology that must include all religions. This belief in the natural appeals to Buddhists, Hindus, and even to ecumenical Christianity, including the present Roman Catholic Pope Francis I (whose interfaith meeting recently was a positive declaration for world religions coming together and dissipating whatever differences there may be).

In recent years biblical evangelism has been limited in America and around the world. In most parts of the world, Christian evangelism is a crime bringing several years imprisonment; however, this penalty is not true for Islamic evangelism. The power to overthrow this Gospel method will initially become more and more restricted, and then finally, unlawful. When that hour comes, we will witness the implementing of a law of world indoctrination and thought control.

Dear reader, do we see what is coming in our country? Control of the press has been prominent in the Soviet countries and China, and within the Third World nations. The United States has now fully witnessed the deep state taking full control of the mainstream news media.

Inevitably, private and home schools will have to be shut down. All expressions of thought must be controlled through public indoctrination. There will come required courses in world citizenship at all levels of society, teaching the rights and obligations of citizens of the world. Remember, this is what the Greek philosopher Plato called for. This is what happened in the soviet system in Germany, and in communist China; and is becoming the norm in the public schools in America today. The national schools around the world are preparing a new generation of children to be world citizens, promoting a reverence for the earth (Mother Nature), a sacredness for the environment, for the animals, and for people of all ethnic, religious, and sexual orientations. It would be a global brainwashing, as Orwell’s “newspeak” concept. Only what is good about the leader can be printed. Everyone will be indoctrinated with a uniform set of ideas and beliefs. And with the technology of our time, there will be mass meetings of the world via satellite, where cheering throngs will extol its leader, and marvel at all he offers for the global community.

The world could not have known global control prior to this time in history. A key contributor to this inevitability has been the alarming exponential development of technologies, especially supercomputing. Formerly, it would have been impossible to control global populations. Totalitarian governments have exercised great control over the bulk of their populations, but people could always hide themselves and their monies in some way from the authorities. Often from tyranny escape was possible to a free country somewhere. With assistance from without, revolt was possible. But under a totalitarian, one-world government, there will be no land of freedom. There will be no large power like America holding forth ideals and assisting escapees with political asylum.

The day will come in the rise of a man (and men under him) who will endeavor to rule the world of humanity with a rod of iron. Every citizen will be given a number, coded with his nation, his religion, and his personal identity. The world wonders at the super high-speed mainframe computers that can process trillions of bits of information with lightning speed and accuracy. All of this could now control a world of information about every citizen on the planet.

A checkless and cashless world currency is fast approaching. This development will help monitor and control all movement of wealth. All wealth could be frozen, and assets of every individual totally controlled. The supercomputer in Brussels called “The Beast” handles worldwide bank clearings at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT). Yes, much technology for the global government is in place already.

In this coronavirus crisis we have witnessed governors controlling what we could and could not purchase, what stores are open or closed. This will become the global norm sometime in the future. When will this be initiated? We know by prophecy that all transactions one day will require the mark, the number, or the name: “No man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:17). But what are the prelude regulations and governmental mandates that eventually lead to absolute, full authority? Are we witnessing such prelude exercises just prior to the Rapture?

In the early months of this crisis, we have already heard of geo-tracking technology used to monitor the movement of infected individuals locked in their homes. Smart phones are monitored by governments; drones are used to check for people not following social distancing. Global satellites already monitor the large use of GPS in our electronic devices. China has over 200 million cameras that can register and monitor the intricate details of its citizens, while they also track citizens through their smart phones. In reality, almost all of our phones and smart TVs come from China. Perhaps the world is looking to Chinese technology for the hope of global surveillance.

The growing governmental authority over our homes and children is coming through different cloaks of influence. The recent controversies over Planned Parenthood and their illegal activities have been revealing their real identity and purpose. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, advocated unrestrained sexuality, particularly among teenagers. To address the common results of such wanton behavior, she advocated sterilization and abortion. Sanger’s agenda was an unrestrained licentiousness that would demand involuntary sterilization. Perhaps one of the reasons she was so heavily funded by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations was that she wanted what is called eugenics or “good genes” by which an elite group under her leadership could delete the undesirables and create a master race. Sanger strongly advocated sterilization of blacks, Jews, Southern Europeans, fundamentalist Christians, mental defectives, and the relatives of mental defectives. In 1920, she wrote Breeding the Thoroughbred, a crucial publication which became a revelation of her motives and purposes for Planned Parenthood.

When the Government Becomes God

We have come to the hour when socialists, communists, and advocates of a welfare state want to solve all the problems of man through full government control. For them, government takes the place of the need of God. Up until this virus crisis of 2020, more than half of America (from the rich to the poor) received some financial assistance from the government. Now with stimulus packages passed in Washington, we continue to become addicted to the handouts and care of the government. When the government becomes god, society’s major crimes will be defined as those breaking government regulations or the laws of their god. Morality becomes whatever a majority in Congress or the Supreme Court says it is at any point in time.

Thomas Jefferson described a hope for America when he said, “That government governs best which governs least.” The founders of America at Plymouth Rock and in the Massachusetts Colony felt that they were organizing a society based on the Ten Commandments. They truly perceived this new land as a successor to the nation of Israel, and they endeavored to model their institutions of governmental order after the Bible. In fact, the one who interpreted Scripture to them, their pastor, was given a higher place than the governor of the colony. They believed they were building “the mountain of the Lord’s house,” above all other mountains. All the early leadership of America had been steeped in the biblical principles of the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments. They knew the nature of God, the nature of man, the role of the family, and the moral order as established by the God of Scripture. Many of them also knew the imperative need of a change of heart by God through Christ.

When these values are lost, and God is viewed as no longer needed, and man is no longer viewed as depraved but becoming as god, then only a cesspool of darkness and hopelessness can be the outcome. Man is prone to suicide; he is prone to self-destruction. In recent months governors have made themselves gods, believing they can eradicate our problems through their human sovereignty of “Thus saith my word!” They have become drunk with pride, believing they must wield their power, and, magically, the problem will go away. They falsely believe the “iron” of authority will mix with the brittle clay of humanity.

The Final Freedom: Freedom of Worship

As a Christian in the End Time and as a pastor of a portion of God’s flock, I have believed that both the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of North Carolina most honorably support and protect our liberty and freedom to worship God without any hindrance. In a recent letter to our parishioners, I expressed these words:

I write this letter today regarding the ongoing mandates that have become more and more contradictory between governors, county commissioners, and mayors. While Republican governors are loosening their mandates, Democratic governors are tightening their demands. It is evident that we are nearing the secret coming of Christ; our Christian liberties and freedoms in this country are quickly and intentionally being eroded by the atheistic powers of government. The very first amendment of the United States Constitution declares, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.’ Since the virus was declared a global pandemic, it has prompted global mandates that have profoundly affected public gatherings to worship. This action is unprecedented in world history. Every part of the First Amendment is now being questioned and attacked by many state governors. In recent days, Governor Cooper’s own words are coming down harder upon meetings for worship.

The Constitution of North Carolina is even stronger in its defense of this liberty. Found in section 13 concerning Religious Liberty are these words:

All persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.

It was evident that the governor of our state (and many others) had overstepped his authority.

When our state’s mandates unfolded quickly, it initially allowed a maximum of 100 to gather in the same room; it then moved to 50 and finally to 10. In some states the mandate only allowed 3 people together. Half of Foundations congregation began meeting in eight different rooms of various buildings, while the other half met in their homes (via internet streaming). For the next service the groups rotated. Our heart was greatly concerned for Hebrews 10:25:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more as ye see the day approaching [the Second Coming of Christ; emphasis added].

Another passage was Matthew 22:21:

Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

And a third passage found in Acts 5:29:

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

When our state governor’s temporary mandate window concluded without any reprieve, we then knew we must obey God rather than man. Our state was taking away our liberty of worshiping together; it was violating our “inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of our own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.” We made the decision on a certain Wednesday to return to the sanctuary “together” with social distancing. Local county sheriffs declared the latter part of that week that they would not interfere with worship services because they were sworn to uphold the Constitution of North Carolina rather than the governor. By Saturday a judge placed a restraining order on our governor’s mandate concerning worship services, which opened the liberty of congregant meetings. Although we thank God for this, we have had to remain true to what we knew was needed to be done.

What will the coming days hold for God’s people in America? The “testing of the waters” has already commenced; these actions are unprecedented in our history. The “powers that be” have confronted the very God of Heaven and a man’s conscience before his God in this matter. The only action lacking this time has been police enforcement. Yes, this was a trial run by state and federal powers. They have learned much; they will be back again with police-state enforcement next time. The cost will be higher, and the test will be greater for God’s people. In these days nearing the Rapture, we must be prepared to make decisions that may cost us our very lives.

Conclusion

As a child, I often heard my father preach that we were in the period of the ankles of this image of Daniel chapter 2. The prophet commenced his interpretation of the dream by stating, “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible” (Dan. 2:31). The implication is that Nebuchadnezzar could not take his eyes off what he saw; it was so magnificent. One of the things that fascinated Nebuchadnezzar was the immense size of the image. The description unfolds with adjectives heaped upon adjectives. Amidst the image’s immensity, there was an extraordinary splendor about it; it was beautiful; and because of its tremendous size, the appearance was terrifying. Its greatness may have frightened the king as he beheld it in his dream.

This image is “man,” in the “times of the Gentiles,” in his terrifying glory of ruling the earth. But the prophecy also proves that governmental rule of man grows worse and worse with time. Government must become “iron” to rule (Rome). The final empire (the feet and the ten toes, yet to come) will be government iron trying to mix with humanity’s brittle clay. The force of oppression will have to increase in the belief that it is the only way to rule mankind.

Globalist government is now the great conversation of mankind. This recent pandemic has pressed leaders to speak more and more of it under the guise of “saving us from destruction.” To achieve their goals, the true God must be overthrown in the mind of humanity. Man must be elevated as the great savior through the terrifying glory of his own science and technology.

Following the persecution of the disciples by the Sanhedrin Court, note the words of Acts 4:25, 26:

Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ.

This part of Psalm 2 seemed to have been fulfilled in the days surrounding the crucifixion of Christ. But Psalm 2 continues, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (verse 3). We have come to this hour in this prophecy where man globally struggles to break away from all God-consciousness in society.

There truly is an intensifying hatred against God and His people that is stronger than any other hatred ever known against anything in history. Why does such hatred exist from the nations, the people, and rulers? They imagine, or they “invest deep meditation” (the same Hebrew word of Psalm 1:2) on such hatred. The Psalmist declares that such thinking is emptiness and futility. Before they took this stand, they had “counseled together.” The entire world leadership in this declared pandemic has “counseled together” through their similar mandates. The master minds in all of this counsel had in their subtle purposes for these mandates to separate God’s people from one another, to keep them isolated, without the strength of one another, and perhaps over a long period of time isolated from one another, hoping they may not want to come back together. The world is seeking all ways to cast off the restraints of God’s morals and any obedience to heaven’s mandates. It continues to intensify its hatred for those desiring to live a life of honest conviction according to the Scriptures. The world will not cease in trying to hinder righteousness in the lives of God’s people (2 Thess. 2:7).

The year 2020 may be the most transitional year in the history of the world. This year may commence the beginning stage of the formation of the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. We are seeing for the first time globally a mixing of authoritarian iron with the brittle clay of humanity.

Dear reader, we must be ready to face this iron in the days ahead; we must be watching and praying, lest we fall into temptation, lest the crisis hour overtakes us. We want to be found ready for the secret coming of our beloved Saviour in a Rapture. It is the only hope for the Remnant before the Great Tribulation Period. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”