News Updates

Personal News

We are on lockdown (somewhat) here in Minnesota. Since I am alone in the office most of the time, I don’t have any problem “social distancing” from others. My sons come in to help with the mail and other things later in the morning. I thought I might have to do my weblogs from the home computer, but after reading the governor’s decree, I realized that they were not yet enforcing a total lockdown. Besides, someone has to go to the office to pick up the mail.

So far, life is not much different for us or for the ministry. We have been prepared for such lockdowns for a long time with plenty of food in the house, and an in-house well of water, too. We have a sump pump in the lower level, which can provide us with emergency water supply if the city water is cut off. We have a gravity-fed water filter as well.

The main difference is that the workload has increased, mostly because emails have doubled in the past two weeks. There are far too many videos to watch, but since most of them duplicate what others have said, I am able to watch a few and glean most of the good information from them.

Darla continues to improve. She has some pain at night, not from the incision but from deep within, but once she gets up and starts walking, the pain subsides. She walks with a limp, but she is back up to speed. In just a few days she walks as fast as she used to. She is making good improvement every day.

We finished up the FFI for April last night and the boys will bring it to the post office today.

Thanks, too, for your continued support for the ministry. With over 3 million people newly unemployed just in America alone, that is a big hit on the economy, and many are hurting financially. We pray for you always.

The Impact on the Church

It is interesting to see how this crisis has shut down the churches along with businesses. Some are able to livestream their meetings, but perhaps they will begin to redefine Paul’s admonition not to forsake assembling yourselves together. Where two or three are gathered, Christ is in their midst. No one has to gather under a steeple to form a lawful assembly.

My hope is that people will discover that they themselves are the church, and that the building is just a building where the church might gather together, if possible. Perhaps people will rediscover the value of home churches, where it all began. I love small gatherings, where everyone can share what God has been telling them and how God has been leading them. Such a format is hardly feasible in large church gatherings. Large churches have more prestige, but they also lose something in the process.

Rodney Howard Brown, the founder of the “laughing movement” (1992), now has a church in Florida. Last Sunday he held two large gatherings in violation of the federal and state restrictions and was arrested today. He is claiming rights under the First Amendment, but in times of national emergency, the Constitution is suspended. That includes the Bill of Rights. No doubt he also thinks we ought to obey God rather than man insofar as assembling together is concerned. But that must be balanced with the biblical teaching to submit to the government laws and regulations, except where the government commands us to sin.

But God never commanded anyone to go to large gatherings. It is not a sin to worship God at home or in small groups. If people rediscover the biblical definition of the church, and realize that the church is the people (“assembly, congregation”), they will take upon themselves the responsibility of “church” instead of delegating it to the organizations and the buildings.

The Impact on the Fed

The information I am receiving from my sources in government is that the coronavirus crisis is being used to make significant changes. One big change is from the Central Bank System (i.e., the Federal Reserve Bank) to a government-owned Treasury that has the power to create money. This is a reversal of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which put America and the world into bondage to the Class A stockholders of the Fed.

With the establishment of the Fed in 1913 came the establishment of the 16^th Amendment that is the basis of the tax system and the reason for the IRS. By misinterpreting the 16^th Amendment, the owners of the Fed were able to impose direct taxes on labor, something that was clearly unconstitutional. America prospered in the 1800’s because there was no tax on labor. People were actually able to keep what they had earned through their labor.

In the past few years we have begun to move back toward the original system, where the government was supported by tariffs and excise taxes. Watch for that trend to continue and for the IRS to be abolished soon. It may be replaced by a national sales tax of about 10% before we go on to a truly biblical system in the Kingdom.

With the disempowerment of the Babylonians taking place, the Fed has become a de facto department of the US Treasury now, if not formally, then by actual facts on the ground. I suspect that there are legal papers being drawn up behind the scenes that will be made public later. Because the Federal Reserve Act was the key to the modern Laodicean Church era, “the church of the captivity,” its nationalization will mark the end of this captivity.

Impact on the Banks

Many large banks hold trillions of dollars’ worth of derivatives, which Warren Buffet once famously called, “weapons of mass financial destruction.” With the downturn in the economy, coupled with the collapse in the oil prices, many oil companies will soon be bankrupt, and the banks that financed them will be in a precarious position as well.

Already, the government has had to bail out Capital One, since they had placed huge leveraged bets on the price of oil that went against them.

https://nationandstate.com/2020/03/29/cftc-quietly-bails-out-capital-one/

I think that the economy will be flooded with Federal Reserve Notes, ultimately making them quite worthless. It seems that this is necessary (1) to lessen the impact of the shutdown, and (2) to destroy the Fed, or rather, to restructure it under the new ownership of the Treasury.

Impact on Gold and Silver

In March the stock market dropped 36%, and gold and silver prices also dropped dramatically. Normally, gold and silver would go up in price when stock prices dip. But with manipulated markets, the fundamentals are hardly relevant—at least up to a point. Silver, for instance, dropped down below $13/oz for a bit, but that price was only relevant to those who speculate in paper. If anyone wanted to buy real silver, he found it hard to pay less than $20/oz.

I called a local coin dealer yesterday, who told me that 1-ounce silver eagles were selling for $24 each. He had only a few left and did not expect to get resupplied for at least a month, if at all.

I noticed something similar back in 2011 when the price of silver dropped really low. Dealers simply would not sell it at the paper price. They raised their premiums from $2 to $7. Today, the premiums are $10/oz. The scarcity of silver and gold has caused the COMEX to default, because when futures contracts expired the end of March, many demanded physical delivery—and there was none to be found at the COMEX.

So they quickly changed the rules to allow the London Exchange to “deliver.” They were said to have plenty of silver and gold. Problem is, their rules do not allow actual physical delivery of metals. You only get a piece of paper saying that you “own” what they are holding for you. That allows the London Exchange to rehypothecate their gold and silver, which means they can sell the same bar to a hundred people, because no one is allowed to actually claim the metal and take personal delivery.

So right now, the gold and silver markets are in chaos as many people are looking for metal to buy. The big gold refineries in Switzerland and shut down because of the coronavirus scare. It is hard to find any on the open market, unless one buys it in gram-size quantities through companies like Karatbars.

I have always discouraged anyone from holding a piece of paper (IOU), because when an emergency hits, paper is quite worthless. Defaults mean paper holders lose their investments.

April 11 Livestream

I am planning to have a couple of livestream sessions on Saturday, April 11, with a guest on one of those sessions. On the second session, I thought it would be nice to have a conversation with you to answer questions and comments, rather than a teaching session per se. This is still in the planning stage, but I thought it would be good to give you some advance notice so that you can plan your lockdown a little better.