What's Ahead in the Next Few Years?
But it is the coming dry cycle in the early 1970's that FRIGHTENS weather experts — and it ought to frighten us all! By that time rural, city and industrial demands will have depleted our remaining underground water resources. With that final drought coming unexpectedly — as most droughts do — we will have no reserve! So terrible will it become that one third of the entire population WILL DIE OF FAMINE AND DISEASE. So said the prophets (Joel 1:10; Ezekiel 5:12).
You say it can't happen here? BUT IT WILL! History and prophecy prove it! Human civilization has always brought disaster to the land and death to its inhabitants. There has been no exception! Do we think that we will escape any more than other people?
Have we forgotten that the forefathers, our English-speaking peoples — the "lost" ten-tribed House of Israel — brought ruin upon the land of Palestine?
In Abraham's day the Jordan Valley was well watered, like the garden of Eden. But by the time that God cast our forefathers out of the land, Palestine had become desolate.
Notice what happened to Babylon. Ancient Babylonia was watered by the Tigris River. The inhabitants denuded the mountains of forests; the river beds were filled with silt; fields were flooded, sweeping away irrigation works. The remainder were destroyed over the centuries by invading armies. A decaying, pleasure-loving nation looked to the government for help — just as we are doing today! But what the people could not do for themselves, the government could NOT do!
Have we forgotten that vast portions of the Sahara were once forested and inhabited? Look at it today! Persia, Syria, Israel were all civilizations based upon irrigation. And it was the exploitation of this system that made the land a desert.
America Going the Way of Rome
In 1952, while traveling with Mr. Dick Armstrong through Yugoslavia, I stood in amazement at the desolate, rocky countryside.
I have since found out why the 'soil is untillable, the region arid.
At one time the hills surrounding the Mediterranean were heavily forested — today not a trace remains! The Romans began the destruction of the forests. The Slav inhabitants continued to denude the hill slopes. The Venetians consumed the remaining trees for timber for their fleets. The hillsides can't be reforested today. They are too badly eroded.
The same process is occurring in the U.S.A. today. WE SEEM TO BE UNAWARE THAT SOIL EXHAUSTION AND EROSION HAVE PROGRESSED MORE RAPIDLY IN THE UNITED STATES THAN IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, except perhaps South Africa.
Apparently we have also forgotten that the Romans knew the value of contouring, the value of grasses and legumes, the rotation of crops and organic manuring! Simkhovitch, a historian who wrote about the fall of Rome, said that Roman knowledge of agriculture was "fairly startling."
Yet Rome fell!
Why?
Listen to the answer!
Taxation to support an ever-increasing bureaucracy and a huge army, wiped out the farmers who couldn't make sufficient profit. Most Roman farmers then borrowed money. Taxes increased. The farmer, in turn, had to exploit the soil to pay his debts. Within a few generations of the height of the Roman Empire, the soil of the entire Mediterranean (except Egypt) became sterile by overwork and ruthless exploitation.
TODAY taxes — for a huge bureaucracy and great military machine — eat away more than one third of all income. Poor farmers are being forced off their lands. Drought in 1963 covered most of the United. States east of the Rockies. The land is constantly becoming more exhausted. History Is repeating itself! We are going the way of Rome.
Most farmers know many of the better agricultural methods — but for economic reasons they do not practice them. Better farming methods are not always immediately profitable. The initial cost is often high. Many farmers are victims of circumstance — sometimes victims of their own poor judgment or faulty management.
As we have said before — periodic droughts and floods are here to stay: They are going to become worse and worse until this nation is brought to its knees and DESTROYED!
There is only one hope that could change the outcome.
Only One Way of Escape
Learning better farming methods — applying sound principles of forest conservation — the building of many small dams — these and other practices need to be done, but they will NOT solve the problem. At most they can only forestall doom! Let's understand why.
First, the world situation is such that the average man feels he must exploit his land in order to make a living. Taxes — both direct and hidden — are consuming one third of the entire earnings of the average American. No country can stand such a burden for long.
Second, even if we should practice better methods of conservation, our neighbors will NOT do so. We often have to suffer with them for their mistakes. That is why drought will strike even the best farm lands. This generation will literally REAP THE WHIRLWIND. There is no stopping it. Humanity will not change its course.
That leaves us only one solution. What we need is protection — DIVINE PROTECTION — in the times ahead.
God has not deserted the world. He can intervene in nature. God is not only the Creator; He is also the Controller and Preserver of the universe. HE CONTROLS THE WEATHER. And He can intervene for you if . . .
. . . if you do what He tells you. This is your only chance of deliverance.
God nowhere promises you won't have afflictions, but He has promised to deliver you out of them. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Eternal delivereth him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19).
Droughts and floods are not new. They have always plagued mankind. They are scheduled to become progressively worse until ONE THIRD OF OUR PEOPLE DIE OF FAMINE AND OF RESULTING DISEASES! — unless our nations repent. In the days of the early Church, when the world brought punishments upon itself for its sins, a drought struck the Mediterranean area and Palestine. God's people needed deliverance from the famine. They cried out to Him and He sent them relief (Acts 11:28-29).
You may suffer from the sins of the world, but God will always deliver you if you remain faithful to Him. Submit to Him, trust Him, obey Him.
Why Droughts and Floods
Do you know why God is permitting these terrible afflictions to come upon our people? Turn to Amos 4:7-9: "And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city" — floods — "and caused it not to rain upon another city" — droughts — "one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: YET HAVE YE NOT RETURNED UNTO ME, saith the Lord."
Drought, floods, famines are the result of man's having turned from the ways of God. Man is bringing these sufferings upon himself. We are about to reap one final catastrophe as a result of our DISOBEDIENCE.
The only way of deliverance is through REPENTANCE — sorrow for having done wrong, and a determination to do what is right from now on.
The Right Way
God created the world. He owns it. God, then, is the Landlord; we are the renters. Maybe we have not thought of it in that way before, but it is true. And what have we done with His property?
First, we have ruined it by overwork and exploitation. Wherever man has been he has finally turned a beautiful earth into a desolate wilderness or an arid desert. We have not learned to care for God's property. We have taken from the soil and given little to the soil in return. We have never allowed good farmland to rest — until it becomes too late to restore its fertility.
What fools we mortals be!
Second, we have not paid our rent to our Supreme Landlord. Yes, you owe God rent, whether you are a farmer, laborer, businessman or housewife. You are using His soil, dwelling on His land, spending His time for your own livelihood. For permitting you the use of everything He created on this earth, He demands only a fraction of the amount which human landlords demand. God gives you 90% of what you acquire, and He asks only 10% in return. That 10%, He calls a tithe. The word tithe means a tenth.
Our people have been robbing God of His rightful rent. Says the Creator: "Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:9-10). This is God's promise.
God promises to bless any nation that trusts Him and faithfully obeys Him. Our nations have NOT done that, and for that reason we face a national catastrophe before 1975!
God promises to bless the individual who pays the tithe. Don't think that God does not notice when you pay Him what is His. He is very conscious of it — especially because so few are honest enough to pay Him His tenth.
A Two-fold Reward
Tithing brings a two-fold reward. God will not only return you added blessings during times of prosperity — which you would not otherwise have received — but He also promises you DEIVERANCE during times of economic adversity, as we have read in Psalm 34:19.
You may encounter trouble, but God has promised — and He cannot lie — to deliver you out of every drought, flood, tornado or famine. There is no other way of protection. If you value your life, if you value the lives of your family, if you value your property, you had better turn to God, repent of your sins and begin to pay God from now on, the tithes you owe Him.
Your past mistakes God overlooks, if you repent. He will not send you any bill for your past failure to pay His tithe. But He will expect you to be faithful from now on.
Only remember that if you do not square yourself with the Almighty Ruler of the universe, that He will collect from you all your past obligations by casting you out of your very own home. These are strong words, but they are true.
God Almighty has spoken through His servants the prophets that He will punish our people for their sins. He will let our own lust cause such droughts, floods, pestilences and famines that we will be totally consumed and carried away captive to other nations as slaves within probably 8 or 10 years.
These prophecies cannot be understood without the KEY to prophecy. You can have it, free, if you write for Mr. Armstrong's booklet "The United States and Great Britain." It makes prophecy plain. None of the dozens of prophecies relating to these catastrophic occurrences, already commencing, have been understood because the nation has been unwilling to admit its national identity — that the English-speaking people ARE THE "LOST" TEN TRIBES OF ISRAEL.
These amazing prophecies all refer to Israel!
Tithing is God's challenge! Are YOU going to practice what He commands you? It is your only protection from the coming disaster that faces our nation.