The Righter Report

The Coming Perfect Storm
PROPHETIC BULLETIN August 2008 (original print date)

I originally wrote this Prophetic Bulletin for the Streams Ministries Partners at the beginning of August. At the urging of my Board, I am now making it a public Prophetic Bulletin. When I first wrote it, little did I know the events that were soon to happen concerning Todd Bentley, the Gulf Hurricanes, Russia’s invasion of Georgia, the trains that would collide near Los Angeles, Sarah Palin’s nomination and the stir that would cause, or September 15’s Stock Market plunge. All of these are early elements of what the Lord called “The Coming Perfect Storm.”

THE COMING PERFECT STORM
by John Paul Jackson

For those of you who have followed this ministry, you have heard me say more than once during the past eight years that from 2009 or 2010, things will become very difficult. I have been praying and hoping that what I am about to write may be averted. However, I am now concerned that without prophetic people speaking up, we will not play our redemptive part in bringing change for the good.

FIVE ELEMENTS OF THE BREWING PERFECT STORM: As in the movie The Perfect Storm, the storm I see coming to the United States is a combination of more than one element, and when the elements unite, the storm becomes exponentially more dangerous. However, unlike the movie, this storm is not just a storm of merging weather patterns. This storm is worse; it involves five different elements: religion, politics, economics, war and geo-physical events.

At times these five elements will be so intertwined that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish which events are driving a particular manifestation of the storm. Massive problems in these five areas will come often, or in combination, and sometimes repeatedly. Each element has potentially several events that will have national and international ripple effects. Some ripples will be worse than others, depending on where you live and how you make your living. Different areas of the United States will experience different severities. Some will experience more economic elements, others more geo-physical elements; some will experience all elements. Remember, it is the combination and the rapidity that will make the storm problematic.

Also, this does not mean all five elements will hit at the most devastating levels. For example, on a scale of 1–10 with 10 being the worst, one element may strike at a six while another strikes at an eight. It is the particular combinations of elements — the proximity of each element as well as the intensity of each element — that will make this storm so difficult and seem to last so long. This storm will not be short-lived; it will come in waves, one after another.

WHY IS THE STORM COMING? This storm is coming because the Church (the Body of Christ) is no longer the backbone of this nation. From our inception, the Christian faith has been the plumb line of decisions made at all levels of life. The Christian founding of this nation is what makes it different from every other nation, other than perhaps Israel. Other nations may have become Christian in their focus, but none were initially formed with Christianity as the core of its DNA.

The Church is to make known God’s manifold wisdom to the world and the powers of the air (Ephesians 2:2). This demonstration to the heavens is not accomplished by speaking to those powers but through righteous living. How we live opens or closes doors for Satan to legally afflict us and even rule over us via leaders who do not know the ways of God. From Adam and Eve through today, the actions of humankind have given room for the enemy to strike and attack us. The only legal way the enemy has access to us is when the hand of God lifts from us, resulting in a space between Him and us. This space increases as we distance ourselves from Him and His ways.

Anytime there is an increased distance between God and humanity, it leaves room for attack to come and for principalities and powers of the air (rulers of darkness) to take up residence. The longer dark powers reside over an area, the more the people begin to call right wrong and wrong right. Here in the United States, leaders arise from the people; in other words, as the people believe and think, so do the leaders who rise from their ranks. Eventually, the lines between right and wrong, as well as the holy and profane, become blurred. The way to God through Jesus and the Cross is no longer seen as an absolute. In fact, absolutes become touted as “intolerance” first in the world and then even within the Church. Yes, there are exceptions to this thinking within the Church, but through compromise, the absolutes of Heaven and eternity are clearly evaporating.

GOD CAN FASHION A DISASTER – We are living in the days of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who prophesied that God can bring disaster on a nation if that nation continually chooses to walk according to its own plans. God spoke this to Jeremiah:

“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it. Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”

And they said, “… We will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.” — Jeremiah 18:7–12

WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT ARE COMING? What are some of the things/consequences that will come? In time, water will be more expensive than oil, and cities will evacuate thousands because there is not enough water to meet their needs. (As Amos 4:7 says, “I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city.”) Earthquakes will strike not only coastal areas but devastate the Midwest as well. Israel will bomb Iran, and anti-Semitism will escalate as fuel costs soar. A dirty bomb will explode in a coastal city. There will be thunderstorms with huge hail, 24 inches of rain in 24 hours, three feet of snow in six hours, record-setting tornadoes with winds of more than 350 miles per hour and tornadoes in unusual places. There will be an unexpected blight that will hit various hybrid seed crops and weaken the yield. In addition, drought and devastation from storms will dramatically cut into various harvests and the national food storage will deplete.

“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” — Jeremiah 18:11

FOUR THINGS THE CHURCH MUST DO: First, the Church must return to knowing God and His ways rather than just knowing about God. We have replaced power with programs, revelation with administration and the Father’s heart with organizational skills.

Second, the Church must learn how to contend for the faith again. We are weak, and we fall away so easily when crisis is not at hand. We have not been tested, and we have lost our resolve. We understand little of the adversary’s plans. We do not know how to debate our faith without becoming angry, and thus we have so few strong, clear, godly voices in political arenas. We have lost our witness — the witness that convicts others and strongly testifies that God is still God and is very, very real. We have lost the witness that demonstrates that God is a personal God in a very impersonal world, the witness that says, “What I do proves God exists.”

Third, the Church must return to the love of God’s Word and the belief that it is infallible and inerrant. This would include the conviction, understanding and knowledge that God is absolute, and there is only one way to know Him: through Jesus the Messiah. We need a new revelation that God’s power is unlimited, His knowledge is unending, His presence is with us always and He never changes. We have made God far too small, and our lives prove it.

Fourth, we will need to declare sacred and solemn assemblies of repentance and corporate fasting in many parts of this nation — a time set aside for rending our hearts before God.

“Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him — A grain offering and a drink offering For the LORD your God?

Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room. Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, “Spare Your people, O LORD.” — Joel 2:12–17

CRISIS IS THE FRUIT OF FOLLOWING THE WRONG GOD God allows calamities to happen in order to draw us to Himself. What does that mean? It means that God allows us to reap the fruit of that which we serve. Walking in God’s ways brings blessings and fullness of life, while walking in the ways of the “god of this world” will bring the fruit of the god of this world: decay, destruction, deterioration and death. We make our choice, then the choice makes us. Sadly, we are developing a history of wrong choices.

Throughout Scripture, when crises hit the people of God, they turned their hearts to Him, and He heard and took action.

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. — Jeremiah 29:12–13

May the people of the United States seek the Lord … and find Him. Remember, we still have the promise that if we turn from our wicked ways, God will heal our land.

John Paul Jackson is a distinguished Christian ministry founder, teacher, author and prophetic voice who has appeared on This Is Your Day, Cornerstone Television Network, Daystar Television Network, Pat Robertson’s The 700 Club, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and God Digital in Europe.

America’s God and Country

Whatever America has evolved into today is a separate issue from what America was in the days of the American Revolution. Where did America’s great strength lie then? And what were the moral foundations of America at its inception? The evidence is overwhelming: the founding fathers tell us that our nation was conceived on the principles of the Biblical God and Christianity. Not on Hinduism, not on Humanism, nor Buddhism, nor the writings of Confucius or Islam, or even Deism, but founded on Biblical and Christian principles.

Here are just some of the facts that are seldom taught in America’s public school classrooms:

The most frequently recognized source for political inspiration for the founding fathers was the Bible, which was referenced in some 34% of the founding father’s quotations.

The first reference to God as the foundation of an American colony was noted in the ‘Mayflower Compact,’ dated November 11, 1620:

“….Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and advancement of
the Christian faith, and the honour of our king and country, a
voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia;
Do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the presence of
God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together
into a Civil Body….”

Many of the founding fathers recognized that the principles of civil law were inseparably linked to Biblical truths. James Wilson, one of the original Supreme Court Justices, and a signer of the Constitution, explained,

“Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine…Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants…”

Additionally, the United States Supreme Court specifically recognized America as a Christian nation. In the case “Church of the Holy Trinity vs. the United States” (Feb. 29, 1892, US457-458), Justice Josiah Brewer, following a lengthy and exhaustive search of early American historical literature, commented, “We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth….that we are a Christian nation….”

In another Supreme Court Case, “Zorach vs. Clauson” (1952, US306 307 313), Justice William O. Douglas categorically stated, “We are a religious people and our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.” Further, in “United States vs. Macintosh” (1931, 283 US 605, 625), Justice George Sutherland affirmed, “We are a Christian people….affording to one another the equal right of religious freedom, and acknowledge with reverence the duty of obedience to the will of God.”

At the Constitutional Convention on June 28, 1787, Benjamin Franklin noted: “…The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.”

There are many today who believe Franklin was a strict deist, but Franklin here is not only referencing the Bible, but is alluding in part to a teaching by Jesus Christ from Matthew 10:29.

Concerning the outcome of the American Revolution, John Quincy Adams noted, “The highest glory won from the American Revolution was this: it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated June 28, 1813, John Adams wrote: “The general principles on which the (founding) fathers achieved independence were…the general principles of Christianity.”

Founding father Noah Webster proclaimed much the same message when he said, “The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles…This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.”

Time after time, the founding fathers declared similar beliefs. From the archives of Patrick Henry’s personal notes (handwritten on the back of his copy of the “Stamp Act Resolutions,” made public after his death) we read:

“Whether this (new government) will prove a blessing or a curse
will depend upon the use our people make of the blessings which
a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If they are wise they will be
great and happy. If they are of a contrary character, they will be
miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation.”

Thomas Jefferson was hardly speaking from a strict deist standpoint when he said:

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have
removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the
people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are
not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just; and that His justice
cannot sleep forever.” (Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781)

“I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we
are, who lead our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their
native land and planted them in a country flowing with all
the necessities and comforts of life.” (Monday, March 4,
1805, in his 2nd Inaugural Address)

Remember, a strict deist was one who believed God was like a watchmaker, who wound up the universe and thereafter did not involve himself in the affairs of men and nations. Jefferson obviously believed otherwise.

Speaking of Godly principles, Jefferson stated:

“A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never
seen; it is a document in proof that I am a real Christian,
that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.”
(Jan. 9, 1816 – In a letter to Charles Thomson)

George Washington, the “Father of our Country,” likewise recognized God as supremely important in the American dream. In his first inaugural address on April 30, 1789, Washington remarked:

“It would be improper to omit, in this first official act, my
fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over
the universe.”

On Saturday, October 3, 1789, President Washington said this in proclaiming a day of national thanksgiving:

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of
Almighty God.”

Today, our public schools are in a moral crisis. Washington once noted, “If you remove religious principles from the schools you are going to lose national morality.” How prophetic he was!

Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who was also known as the “Father of Public Schools,” once had this to offer: “The only foundation for a republic is…religion. Without it there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty.”

Don’t miss the significance of that last statement: “..without virtue there can be no liberty….” The principle is clear – a lack of virtue engenders bondage. As one writer noted, “Intemperate men can never be free because their passions give rise to their fetters (bindings).” The more liberties a godless people achieve, the more enslaved they ultimately become in their worldly obsessions.

Still another founding father, the Reverend John Witherspoon, mirrored Benjamin Rush when he declared, “…Civil liberty cannot long be preserved without virtue….”

And finally, let’s not forget James Madison, known as the “Chief Architect of U.S. Constitution,” who once had this to say:

“Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the Cross of Christ.”

This is just a very short list of thousands of such examples that clearly speak of the Biblical and Christian foundations of our Founding Fathers and early America. Along with these there were the church services in government buildings up to and shortly after the civil war; paid chaplains, government authorized missionaries, reliefs of Moses and the Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court building, and so on and so forth. Whatever moral foundations apart from Christian and Biblical principles one may argue was second, was not even a close second. The record on that is clear.

And so today, the debate over the moral foundations of America continues, but not in this quarter. America is in a moral and spiritual decline due to the ungodly secularization of this country. “Thou shalt not” has been replaced with, “If it feels good do it.” The wisdom of God has been replaced with the tenets of men; absolute truths replaced with moral relativism, and “Father God” has been replaced with “Mother Earth.” America is now paying the price for this ill-conceived venture. The remedy: A return to Godly values and principles, upon which this nation “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” was clearly founded.

God bless America.

Recommended readings:

1. Christianity and the Constitution, John Eidsmoe
2. America’s God and Country – Encyclopedia of Quotations, William J. Federer
3. Original Intent, David Barton
4. Faith of our Founding Fathers, Tim LaHaye