February 2011 Letters
From Vancouver:
Dear Brooks, what is God’s purpose in imposing a period of trial and testing for True Israel? It just seems that apart from Biblical examples, we have experienced forty year testing periods many times in the past. Are we passing through such a period now?
Thanks Vancouver:
The first part of your question is easy to answer, we only have to refer to Deuteronomy 8:2-5 and I will record it as Moffatt interpreted, “ … The Eternal your God led you through the desert during these forty years, to teach you your need of Him, to prove you, to find out if it was your purpose to obey His orders or not. So He made you feel your need of Him, He let you hunger and then fed you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had ever known, that He might make you know that man lives not only by food but by every word that comes out of the lips of the Eternal. Your clothes never wore out, and your feet never blistered, during these forty years. You must keep this in mind, that the Eternal your God disciplines you as a man disciplines his son.”
In these days of apostasy it is good to remember what God told our ancestors, “Like I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.” I’m sure he is using the rod of correction on us at this very time.
Nevertheless, many of us believe that the dominion promised to Esau in Genesis 27:40 is about to end and we could speculate that it will take an economic calamity to bring this about and that all the signs for 2011 might see it happen this year, thus bringing to an end the current 40 year test period. I like the way Ezekiel 34: 27 describes it, “… and shall know I am the Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.”
Of course, if 2011 is the end of a 40 year test period, then 40 years earlier, relative events of significance must have taken place that relate in some way to the Esau Dominion, which has reached its present zenith because of its massive wealth. Let’s examine two events that took place in the lands of the Tribe of Joseph; that is, Ephraim Britain and Manasseh America.
It was in 1971 that despite the majority of the people of the United Kingdom being opposed, Ephraim Britain voted to join the European Common Market, now known as the EU, thus taking the huge step toward economic and political union and of course, toward one-world government. The years since have seen Britain give up its independent monetary policy, experience greater difficulty in getting out of recessions, greater sensitivity to interest rates and face loss of independence of fiscal policy. There is some turmoil in Europe at the present time and it is interesting there have been calls in Britain to disentangle itself from Europe.
It was also in 1971 that President Nixon engineered the final abandonment of the Gold Standard and as noted later, far too much of growth from that point on was in finance. The international bankers were the big winners, as evidenced by the events of the past decade or so. Interestingly enough, Ephraim Britain went off the gold standard for the last time, forty years earlier than Manasseh America, in 1931. When you think of Great Britain at that time compared to its third class status today, one has to wonder if they were under a double test period, or two times forty years.
2011 is certainly a year to watch.
