Prepare to Greatly Reduce Your Standard of Living!

Introduction

 Herbert W. Armstrong published an article by this title in the Plain Truth magazine in January of 1980 advising us to prepare for what lies ahead. While he may have been decades ahead of his time, his advice rings even truer today.

In the article, he tells us of the economic hardships that would be on the horizon and that we should begin to steel ourselves now against those inevitabilities.

He republished the same article again in May of 1983 identical to the first with just a few updates to include the latest news headlines.

In it he speaks about the stranglehold of inflation and a coming economic depression. At the time, we were just coming out of the Nineteen-Seventies with gasoline rationing, double-digit mortgage rates and the fear of continued unemployment.

In the article, he spoke of how the British Empire had risen to world dominance and its subsequent fall. He forecasted the United States to follow the same pattern. After rising to lead the world, the United States would follow the same downward path.

He outlined how the meteoric rise of both empires were due to the unconditional blessings God had promised to Abraham. Yet, once God had FULFILLED his promise to Abraham by giving us that national wealth, power and greatness, it became CONDITIONAL on us whether we should retain it!

Once fulfilled, those blessings became conditional on the moral and spiritual health of the nation. Maintaining those blessings beyond measure, were and still are dependent on obedience to God’s Law and principles. As ancient Israel did not keep God's statutes, commandments, and sabbaths; as a nation, NEITHER HAVE WE!

We have rebelled against the authority of God over us, worshiping the false gods of science, evolution, and greed. We no longer rely on God. We have made science and technology our new Messiah trusting in them to deliver us from our troubles.

We have adopted the WAY OF LIFE of Satan, the god of this world - utter selfishness, lust and greed, envy and jealousy, competition in every walk of life - business, politics, sports, society - leading to violence and destruction!

And now, FOR OUR OWN GOOD, an all-wise and loving God is about to PUNISH our nation, in order finally to bring us to HIM!

He said this back in 1980! How much farther have we fallen since? How do things look today 40 years later?

Read Leviticus chapter 26 and Deuteronomy chapter 28, the blessings and cursings chapters of your Bible, where it outlines the blessings that would come from obedience to God’s commandments and statutes and the curses that would come from disobedience. They read like today’s headlines.

Our governments have become corrupt and our business and economic systems are dishonest, deceptive, and greedy.

Today, we are looking at the fall of the American standard of living with the dawn of the 4^th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the Great Reset.

This Great Reset promises that all debt will be relieved. It may sound good on the surface but they won’t just wipe out our debt and we’ll go on with life as usual. The debt will be relieved alright but in exchange we will give up ownership of every bit of property we have!

“You’ll own nothing. And you’ll be happy.”

As jobs are eliminated, some by robots in manufacturing and self-driving semi-trucks for example, the government will provide you with a Universal Basic Income, a UBI, at a subsistence level, barely enough to survive. We will then be totally dependent on the government. Remember, a government that can give you everything you need can take away everything you have.

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is coming that will make cash obsolete. It’s been predicted that when implemented, cash will instantly be worthless and any deposits you have in the bank or in your 401K will be converted at 10 cents on the dollar.

A digital currency controlled by the government can be turned on and off like a faucet. Further, it will be programmable. Your individual digital currency will be programmed to be accepted only in accordance with your unique needs as deemed by the State.

Our purchases will be monitored and evaluated. Too much fatty food, your health insurance cost will go up. Too much alcohol, you’ll be recommended for rehab. You’re buying cigarettes? You’re not fully vaccinated? No health insurance for you at all. And further, no admittance to the hospital. We can’t take you. We don’t want you. Your money is no good here.

You believe in the 2^nd Amendment? Sorry, you can’t buy guns or bullets.

What we say on Facebook, or Twitter, or any other social media platform will be monitored and scored. You’ve been posting things that are critical of the government? You’ve been posting “misinformation” that runs counter to the prevailing narrative? You won’t just be placed in Facebook or Twitter “jail” where you can’t post for 30 days. You’ll be put in real jail or sent to a re-education camp to get your thinking straightened out.

You were speaking out in church or mouthing off at a PTA meeting about critical race theory or the LGBTQ agenda? Off you go! We don’t want you around. You’re CANCELLED!

You believe there’s a God? An invisible man in the sky that tells you what to do and has a moral code that holds the rest of us in judgment? You need to be admitted for a mental health evaluation!

Compliance will be mandatory. Look at what’s happening in China right now to those who are not complying with the lockdowns.

 

Because of the atrocities we have either personally committed or have allowed to take place on our watch, we have put God in a position where He has no choice but to punish us. Our Almighty, Righteous God cannot be who he is and still allow this to stand.

So, we better prepare ourselves now for what’s coming. We need to prepare now to greatly reduce our standard of living.

What Mr. Armstrong means by this is to prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually to do with less. To prepare ourselves now such that we can readily cope with the precipitous reductions that will be imposed on us later.

 

Our country is deeply in debt at the national government level and also at the personal level. The national debt exceeds $30 trillion dollars! Government programs to “Build Back Better” are creating runaway inflation and a national debt that can never be repaid.

How bad is it? In 2020-2021, the U.S. money supply soared an astonishing 27 percent as the Federal Reserve dumped billions of dollars into the economy to prop it up after the COVID lockdowns. It is the biggest jump in the nation’s history. This is far greater than in response to previous national crises such as the Great Depression (10 percent) and World War II (18 percent).

Some “experts” say it doesn’t matter what our national debt is because the U.S. Dollar is the reserve currency of the world. Since the Bretton Woods conference in July of 1944 and the establishment of the International Monetary Fund, and what became the World Bank, the value of world currencies has been pegged to the U.S. dollar.  In other words, other currencies are valued in accordance with how many U.S. dollars they can be converted into.

Concurrently, the U.S. dollar was tied to the price of gold at $35 an ounce. The Bretton Woods system was in place until persistent US balance-of-payments deficits led to foreign-held dollars exceeding the amount held in US gold stock, implying that the United States could not fulfill its obligation to redeem dollars for gold at the official price.

No problem. In 1971, President Richard Nixon took us off the gold standard and ended the dollar’s convertibility to gold.

Once the dollar was decoupled from gold, the Federal Reserve could inject as many dollars into the economy as Congress desired, driving up the inflation of our currency and eroding its purchasing power. One could make the argument that before the formation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 there was no inflation. If you have any doubts about this, read the book, The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin. One dollar in 1913 is worth less than 3 cents today. Another way to look at it is, it would take $3,333 dollars today to buy what $100 could purchase in 1913! And gold is no longer $35 an ounce but $1,884 an ounce! Yet we are still the reserve currency.

Experts argue that since 80% of oil traded between nations is purchased using U.S. dollars, the “petrodollar” it’s called, it doesn’t matter how much money we print.

According to these “experts”, as long as the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency of the world, we can print all we want and other countries still have to use it for trade. However, if the U.S. dollar ever loses reserve currency status, our economy will crash, perhaps overnight.

… and the borrower is servant to the lender. (Pro 22:7)

 

Looking at Saudi Arabia’s oil exports, just 7% is purchased by the United States. Their largest customer is China at 26% and all of Asia including Japan, South Korea, India and Taiwan, accounts for 77% of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil revenues. So, what kind of influence do you think the United States really has at just 7% if these “kings of the East” decide to make their purchases in something other than the dollar, Chinese Yuan, for instance?

From Quoth the Raven blog – the author states “As I noted … in a recent podcast, our quality of life in the United States and our nation’s entire economy is an elephant balancing, on one leg, on the toothpick of the U.S. dollar’s reserve status. Our quality of life relies solely in our unique ability to import the goods and services that we use and need on a daily basis, while exporting US dollars. We’ve been able to print trillions of U.S. dollars into existence over the last couple of years - monetary policy that is anything but sound, regardless of whether or not your currency has global reserve status – because of the luxuries afforded to us by the dollar’s global reserve status. But this reserve status, and the $30 trillion in debt we have accrued and convinced ourselves we will never have to pay, quickly go from being long-term liabilities that we can theoretically ignore to current liabilities that we must address if the dollar is ever legitimately challenged.”

On the personal level, debt has been rising at an alarming rate. Total personal debt in the U.S. is estimated at $15.8 trillion.

$185,682 per household

$51,605 not including mortgages (but automobile loans, credit card debt, student loans, etc.)

The cost of living is on the rise!

Real inflation is running much higher than the 7 percent reported in official U.S. government numbers, as calculation methods have changed. A more honest assessment reveals that if inflation were measured as it was in 1980 the rate would be 15 percent.

Gas prices are UP 48% from one year ago!

Food prices are UP 7.9% to 15% or more in just one year depending on the item!

 

It’s been estimated that a typical family will spend $5,000 more this year due to inflation. That’s over $400 a month!

So, what do we do? What can we do?

As we see the changes that are being planned for this country, and around the world really, what should we do now to help us cope in a world that is going through this Great Reset?

 

Too Much to Lose

 

In Revelation 3:17, speaking of the Laodicean church, it says they’ve become rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. That Laodicean attitude means comfortable. It means their needs are being met and they are in need of nothing. God warned of this back in Deuteronomy 31:20, 29 that when Israel waxed fat in the land, they would turn to other gods.

They lost their sense of urgency about the things of God. They let the oil in their lamps dry up! I would submit that we are cautioned against this attitude because not only have they become lackadaisical but that they have too much to lose. These Laodiceans, rich and in need of nothing, have too much to lose.

We can be controlled by the things we have because we don’t want to lose them. A man is much more motivated to protect and keep the things he has than he is to acquire them in the first place. He’s more motivated to prevent loss than he is to gain.

Remember the rich man that asked what he must do to enter the Kingdom. Jesus told him that he needed to sell all he had and give it to the poor, take up his cross and follow Jesus. Instead, he chose to walk away. (Mark 10:21)

We can become so attached to our stuff and the things of this life that we become unwilling to give them up. Our spirits can become so dependent on the feelings we have for the comforts of this life that when forced to make a choice, we could conceivably choose this life over God.

Choose you this day whom you will serve.

You cannot serve both God and mammon.

I have a friend I’ve known since grade school that left home as a teenager after his father committed suicide. He roamed around the country for a number of years with not much more than the clothes on his back. I met up with him later in life, interestingly enough here in Houston. Coincidentally, he and I work in the same industry and at one point I hired him as a salesman.

He had a sense of freedom about him that I didn’t understand at the time but came to admire. He could not be motivated or coerced into doing anything he didn’t want to do. He described his mindset this way. Once you’ve been on the streets and gotten by with nothing, you’re no longer afraid to lose what you have. It gives you a sense of freedom.

It reminded me of a song from the early Seventies called, Me and Bobby McGee. It was a version of the song by Janis Joplin that topped the U.S. singles chart in 1971.

The song contains a lyric that goes, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Freedom from being controlled by what you have.

I came to respect him in that one quality he had that I did not. He was not controlled by the fear of losing what he had.

I think it is precisely this quality that Mr. Armstrong was trying to address. Much of our anxiety and worry is wrapped up in the fear of losing what we have. We’re not to get so attached to this life that we lose the next.

 

Pro 23:4-5 KJV

(4)  Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

(5)  Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

 

 

Detach – Don’t Look Back

 

We should start now to prepare ourselves mentally and spiritually to be willing to do without and even one day, to leave it all behind.

This is not our home. We are merely sojourners here. We’re just passing through. The things we have, God has given us for our use and enjoyment but not to the point of loving them more than God.

Remember Lot’s wife.

Luk 17:28-33

(28)  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

(29)  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

(30)  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

(31)  In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

(32)  Remember Lot's wife.

(33)  Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

 

In Revelation 12:11 it says, the way we overcome is by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony; and to love not our lives unto the death.

 

Don’t get attached to this life and lose what we’ve all been striving for, longing for, the very reason for our being. Our raison d'être. It is in God that we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28)

 

Our treasure is in heaven (Matt 13:22; Mar 4:19)

We must be ready to give up everything in a moment’s notice for the Kingdom of God and don’t think twice.

 

We need to condition our hearts and minds now to detach from this world and to detach from our possessions. It’s just stuff. It’s ALL just stuff.

Let it go! Let it go!

I know it’s hard. Practice imagining if you had less yet God still provided your basic needs. Condition your mind to be okay with that.

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. ~Jim Elliot

 

Don’t be dismayed or become angry when we see others that live ungodly lives getting ahead. Don’t fret or become angry when we see them prospering and maybe even at our expense. Satan rewards his own.

There are those in this world who attach a righteous nature to those who are prospering. They’ll say things like, “They must be doing something right. Look at all the money they’re making.”

 

Psa 37:7-9 KJV

(7)  Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

(8)  Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

(9)  For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

 

Psa 37:25 KJV  I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

 

Paul tells young Timothy in 1^st Timothy –

 

1Ti 6:5-8 KJV

(5)  Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.

(6)  But godliness with contentment is great gain.

(7)  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

(8)  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

 

At the end of the day, what more do we really need?

 

Might as well give it all up now, mentally. Mentally divorce yourself from the things of this world. Do not be attached to your home, your possessions. Let it go. Be thankful and enjoy them while you can but mentally divorce yourself from them. Your possessions are mere things that you use, blessings from God to be sure but not things that define you.

Mentally prepare yourself that if you lost everything you own tomorrow it’ll be alright. Mentally prepare yourself that if you lost your job, it’ll be alright. Your job is what you do, it is not who you are. It does not define you. You are a child of the living God trusting in Him for your providence.

 

God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2Ti 1:7 KJV)

A Falling Away

 

The Bible tells us in the latter days there will be a departure from God and the Bible.

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, (2Th 2:3)

 

“apostasia” apostasy

 

A recent World News Daily headline reads,

  Number of Americans who use the Bible drops off cliff

They quoted data from the 12^th annual study by the American Bible Society released in April of this year.

Key findings in The Bible in America survey

• Scripture Engagement is at a historic low in America, registering now at just 19% of American adults.

They may claim to be Christians, and we all know someone like this, but they’re not engaging with the Word of God.

• In the past year, nearly 26 million Americans decreased or stopped interacting with Scripture.

26 million who used to read the Bible gave up reading it.

• A quarter of Bible Users said one of their greatest frustrations regarding reading Scripture was that they “never seem to have enough time.” This complaint was common among all age groups. A top answer for Gen Z and Millennials was “I don’t know where to start,”.

We must not let this happen to us brethren even though we be in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. (Php 2:15)

To Rod Dreher, the author of the book, Live Not By Lies, the decline of faith and religious practice among young people in this country portends a cultural transformation for which American churches “are not remotely prepared.”

“We are facing now the widespread collapse of the Christian faith among the American people. If you want to see what America is going to look like in 10 or 20 years, go to Europe. Politics cannot save us from that fate,” Dreher wrote recently in response to questions from the Deseret News.

Dreher says that many Americans have tried to “vote our way out of this crisis,” but says, “Political work is not the main work of the church: evangelization and discipleship is. If we don’t evangelize and disciple successfully, then there won’t be enough of us to make a political difference in our democracy.”

Dreher is not hopeful that a new Great Awakening will stop the decline; his primary message to American Christians is to “learn to live resiliently in a post-Christian world.”

 

We must not allow this “falling away” to happen to us. We must stay focused. We must renew our vigor and zeal for God’s word and God’s way. We must recommit to the covenant we made with God fully and completely.

If you’ve been putting off getting serious until the time comes, the time has come and it’s serious!

We are rapidly approaching a time when people in our own country, to say nothing of the rest of the world, will view us, Christians, as insurrectionists. Our biblical world view, our values, and moral character lie in diametric opposition to the Environmental, Social, and Governance changes they deem necessary. Every corporation of any size now has a position statement on ESG. Even the merchants of the earth are aligning against us.

 

1Pet 1:13 KJV  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

 

We don’t know how much time we have left so we must prepare NOW.

 

Why?

 

The title of a recent article in the Charisma News is, “If American's Can't Handle the Stress Now, What Will Happen When Everything Starts to Collapse?”

It reminds me of that passage in Jeremiah chapter 12 –

Jer 12:5 NKJV  If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?

In other words, if you can’t handle the stress now while we still live in relative peace and plenty, how are you going to deal with it when all around you begins to collapse?

If we don’t condition our minds now for what lies ahead, we risk becoming so distraught and distracted then that we will neglect attending to the more important spiritual matters when it counts most.

We can become distracted with what’s happening on the world scene that we neglect our spiritual well-being.

Watch. We’re told at least 14 times in the New Testament to “watch”.

Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!" (Mark 13:35-37 NKJV)

 

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:36 KJV) 

 

This means to watch the state of our salvation. Be vigilant. Be attentive to the condition of our faith. Stay true to the faith once delivered to the saints.

We live in this world to be salt and light to others as we see the day approaching.

Christ prayed, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” (Joh 17:15 NKJV)

 

Why leave us here?

Who knows whether you were called to God’s Kingdom for such a time as this? (Est 4:14) Do you think it’s by accident that you’re here at this time, in this decade, a part of God’s Church? You bring your unique qualities, your unique personality and perspective in service to the body of Christ and to those God puts in your path.

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. (Jas 4:8) Put oil in your lamp regularly so you’ll have enough to carry you through and be a witness to others when you encounter those whom God is calling.

 

Why was David so sure God would care for him, God would fight for him? Because he spent time with God communing with him, fellowshipping with him. (1Cor 1:9; 1John 1:3) He spent time meditating on his Law and his word day and night.

Give it your very best to make your calling and election sure. (2Pet 1:10)

Just good enough isn’t good enough. God wants and deserves your very best.

 

Let go of the cares of this life. Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:  Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you. (1Pe 5:6-7 KJV)

 

Lay aside every weight of this life, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. (Heb 12:1)

 

2Co 4:15-18 KJV

(15)  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

(16)  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

(17)  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

(18)  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

 

Don’t allow the cares of this life to choke out our focus on the Kingdom.

Don’t allow the urgent to crowd out the important.

Don’t allow the temporal to take precedent over the eternal.

 

This is the message Herbert W. Armstrong was trying to convey.

 

 

Let your conduct be without covetousness;

 

Don’t get wrapped up in trying to hold on to stuff!

 

 

If you would like some suggestions on how to let go of stuff, check out the website, https://www.becomingminimalist.com/ where Joshua Becker will show you how to let go of stuff.

 

 

be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU." (Heb 13:5 NKJV)

 

Learn to be grateful and content with what you have.

 

Treasure in Heaven

 

We can spend so much time on inconsequential matters that we don’t have time for matters of consequence. We need to clear out the clutter in our lives that keeps us from that which is most important. Get rid of those things that vex the spirit, that disquiet your spirit, that cause you to feel overwhelmed. Make a quiet place in your home where you can spend time alone with God.

 

Php 4:11-13 KJV

(11)  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

(12)  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

(13)  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

 

Prepare now to greatly reduce your standard of living.

 

“for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Paul says.

 

Focus on our blessings not our wants. Focus on the Kingdom, not the here and now.

 

Luk 12:29-34 NKJV

(29)  "And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.

(30)  For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.

(31)  But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

(32)  "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

(33)  Sell what you have and give alms; provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys.

(34)  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~