Pat Robertson

The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore–cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and perils; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men.

                                         Revelation 18:11–13

America's unquenchable materialistic appetite is the machine that fuels a global economy. Japan's economy would collapse if it were not for the billions of dollars per year gained in trading with America. When America goes into a recession, the world follows. When America's economy is booming, the world's economy strengthens. America devours, yet, is never satisfied. Running out of money, she tells the waiter to put it on her tab. He gladly complies making a tidy profit from the interest. He cannot serve her quick enough. The more she eats, the hungrier she becomes. As time passes, less goes to paying for food and more is needed to pay for the huge debt she is accumulating. Finally, all of her resources are used up in paying for the interest she owes. America falls crashing to the ground in economic ruin, so suddenly, it sends shock waves throughout the world. She is incapable of paying for her massive imports. Merchant ships sit offshore, heavy laden with cargo, weeping and wailing in horror for Babylon has fallen.

In 1929, the debt ratio in relation to the Gross National Product stood at a healthy 16%. In 1990, the national debt increased to an alarming 60% of the GNP. The total debt of America is greater than the combined external debts of all the nations of the world. America's debt is 4.3 trillion dollars which is equivalent to a 270 mile high stack of tightly bound $1000 bills. Each mile representing the depth of the pit America will be unable to crawl out of.

TREMORS OF AN ECONOMIC EARTHQUAKE
In 1929, America was having an economic explosion. Immigrants were pouring in. There were more jobs than people. Farmers were leaving their fields for factories, making twice the income for half the labor. Politicians confidently portrayed a picture of an endless era of unprecedented prosperity. The prophets of gloom and doom were ignored as being fanatical crazies.

Fall is a beautiful time of year. A time of thanksgiving, a remembrance of God's blessing upon the birth of a Christian country. The leaves are in full bloom, ready to fall. It is a time for Sunday drives through the country without a thought of the winter to come. Splashes of color cover the hills and valleys. As the squirrels wisely gather food for a cold long winter, a nation is borrowing and spending because of a thriving economy that can promise only spring and summer.

A ship sails to England in the early part of October, full of wealthy entrepreneurs, a sign of absolute faith in a thriving American economy. While they were on their care–free vacation, enjoying the pleasure away from the stress of their jobs, a powerful economic tremor rippled through the United States. On October 24, 1929, 12,000,000 shares of common stocks traded in a single afternoon. By Monday, October 28th, the trading averages had dropped by 20 points. On Tuesday, October 29th, virtually all trades were to sell. It became A Nightmare On Wall Street. Investors became panic–stricken, resulting in a huge economic land slide. AT&T was down a hundred points, General Electric, 90 points and General Motors, plummeted 150 points. Sixteen million shares were traded at a loss of 10 billion dollars. This is equivalent to twice the amount of currency of the entire USA. Headlines proclaimed, WALL STREET CRASHES. Tens of millions of people's life savings became completely useless. Millionaires were reduced to the unemployed. On Wall Street, it rained the bodies of men jumping from their offices high above. When the ship returned full of happy–go–lucky entrepreneurs, they were worth the clothes on their backs. An economic winter had fallen upon America which would effect the entire earth. An ice age that would last four long years.

Revelation 18 describes an economic earthquake that will hit America with such force it will make the Great Depression seem like child's play. It will be utter destruction in which she will never rise again. A judgment from the hand of God because of a nation that is seeped in adultery and rebellion. A nation that began as a Light on a Hill became a corrupting stench rising up to the altar of the Living God. The moral fabric that would allow America back on its feet from the Great Depression will not be present in this massive economic earthquake. The Beast she rides will devour her flesh so he may rise to absolute world power, filling the vacuum created by America's fall. The only warning will be the prophetic voices of the faithful saints of God who will be hated and despised by the world. For the Harlot will be drunk on the blood of the saints. In her intoxication, her mind will be numb to her impending doom. A head–on collision with a wrathful God. If you have built your life on the sands of the kingdom of this world, your hopes, your dreams, your energies and aspirations will mingle with the smoke that will rise up from the utter destruction of Babylon.

Ten thousand nuclear war heads and the most technologically trained army in the world will not be able to stop America's economic disaster. An implosion that will come from the moral rot inside her heart. A physical army cannot stop the wave of spiritual destruction, for God does not use the weapons of this world to fight against her.