Ripening Trends #2; Post-Familialism: Part I :: By Wilfred Hahn

Ripening Trends #2; Post-Familialism: Raging Against the Creator – Part 1
Declining Population Growth

Why are children no longer prized? Today’s generations now plan much smaller families … if any family at all. Yes, matters such as these are personal decisions, and people are free to make them. However, while these represent private choices, they nonetheless contribute to unprecedented worldwide trends of declining fertility, births, and aging populations. After all, there are consequences for everything.

In fact, the collective impact of slowing population growth and aging is leading to a serious crisis. Already, its shape and form can easily be foreseen. Why? As is often claimed, “demography is destiny.” Therefore, we can conclude that some of the consequences we discuss here can be known in advance … actually, quite far ahead.

Never before has such a voluntary change in population dynamics taken place in peacetime … and on such a worldwide scale. A rapidly accelerating Post-Familialism has infiltrated the world. The prognosis? The worst of the demographic crises is yet to come.

As this article series focuses on “ripening times,” we will probe into the question of whether these demographic developments are a “significant trend.” In the previous parts of this series, we proposed a set of diagnostics with which to determine whether a development is of prophetic significance. We therefore ask, is the world’s demographic bust a marker of the end times? Crucially, does this massive development line up with Bible prophecy?

We believe that the answer is a resounding “yes.” We will set out our case.

Monumental Trend Underway

This author had the occasion recently to give a speech to a pension and employment benefits conference. My topic centered on the presently unfolding pension crisis—what I have called the “global income crisis” in various publications over the last several decades. This is just one aspect of the overall global demographic problem.

The attendees were interested to learn why the demographic challenges were yet to worsen … and what would be the likely future outcome. My answer, in short, was that the underlying factors contributing to this pension crisis were still accelerating. Most pension professionals were not aware of the social preferences and human values changes that were the factors driving this crisis. In contrast, pension professionals tend to try to explain things with math and economic models. No doubt, such approaches have their uses. However, they are not attuned to the related rapid changes in human values—namely, trends in social preferences and family dynamics.

As it is, it is not likely that pension professionals would even comment on such issues. Why? Because being outspoken with the truth infringes on people’s rights and freedom of choice. To do so would clash with the general trend toward “inclusivity”—everyone’s choices, values and lifestyle are equally acceptable no matter the facts or science … or consequences.

However, as already intimated, the unfolding crisis should come as no surprise. The current situation could have been discerned quite some time ago. Instead, policymakers have been kicking the proverbial can down the road for decades.

To gain a sense of the scale of today’s Post-Familial trends, consider the decline in the number of new births in China, the most populous country in the world. New births fell by two million last year (2018) to only 15.2 million. As such, China’s population growth has fallen to 0.38% per annum. That is very low. A nation requires a fertility rate of 2.1 children per household in order for its population growth rate to stay stable.

The reader may be surprised to learn that population growth has also become a potential problem in the United States. Statistics for 2017 show that around 3.8 million babies were born. That may sound like a lot; however, it represents a drop in the U.S. fertility rate to only 1.76 births per woman. This is the lowest rate ever recorded in the U.S. … a pace that does not maintain the current population.

Similarly, this phenomenon of declining births is now being experienced nearly everywhere in the world. Fertility is declining virtually everywhere. It is simply unprecedented in the history of mankind and is playing out over a very short period of time. Why?

Declining Population Growth Explained

Why the emergence of these rapid demographic shifts?

Some say it is because women are better educated today. However, that would be nonsensical. Are we to believe that better education must lead to a shrinking planet of humans? Apparently, yes, according to some. However, a recent survey shows that it is less-educated women that have had the biggest drop in fertility in the US. And, believe it or not, birth rate declines among minority groups are among the fastest recorded. Something else then must be the root cause of the fertility downturn.

The reasons are lamentable.

For example, surveys today show that parents consider raising children too expensive. This is a growing perspective around the globe … from developed nations to emerging countries. As such, economic issues are becoming the deciding determinative of family size. Birth rates now go up and down with short-term economic trends.

According to various studies, having children sharply increases the likelihood of personal bankruptcy (most certainly so for single-parent families).

There are yet other reasons why population growth is falling. Notably, the world today is smitten with “self-love.” Many people simply choose to live for themselves. They no longer commit to long-term relationships … and children. Remarkably, single-member households are expanding faster than any other sub-group in the US.

Contrastingly, we point to the Word of the Bible on this matter: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own […]” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Others refuse to have children, as they argue that population curtailment is absolutely necessary to “save the planet.” Scientist now think that the earth has entered the Anthropocene era (meaning, a new age where human activity is now the major destructive force upon earth). This is speculative, of course, but nevertheless is a prevailing view these days. Apparently, the evil being perpetrated upon earth is due to the births of new humans!

The Perverse Wisdom of the Age

The United States’ birth rate has continued to fall, as millennials increasingly believe that everything is bad; the world is going to end; and to bring kids into this nightmarish hellscape would be tantamount to child abuse.

This opinion, quoting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on an Instagram Live broadcast, is typical. She says: “The world is going to end in twelve years. If you have kids, it will end in probably like six years or something because they’ll just breathe more.” A similar view is exemplified by a high-profile blogger, Martina Bridges, who says: The most progressive thing we can do is abort as many of the next generation as possible so they don’t have to be brought into this apocalyptic nightmare.”

It is amazing that such people do not see the conflict between their humanist wants and the foundation that the Lord, the Creator, has set. Such an “animalistic” view of humanity that is promoted today, of course, would lead to human extinction.

And, biology and morphology (the physical design of creatures and humans that God has made) are mocked. Feminists are angry at “evolution” for having given them child-bearing organs. Raising children is something that is now looked down upon as a lower caste career. Families are considered to be fluid arrangements.

Crises are the consequence of the choices in “human” values that mankind has made. There we find the ultimate causes, and not in movements of the stars, mathematics or economics. The consequences of “human choices” cannot be escaped. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7).

The dispositions and values implicit in the aforementioned trends play a causal role in the world’s current demographic challenges. At least in part, they give rise to it. While it is wonderful that longevity is increasing and that the quality of life is generally improving for the aged, the plunging birth rates have severe consequences that cannot be avoided.

Rather than raising productive children, financial markets are now expected to deliver secure retirement benefits. But with shrinking families and fertility, this is most certainly impossible.

Thoughts to Ponder

We now live in an era of Post-Familialism … even Anti-Familialism. God allows humanity (and each of us individually) to make choices. We can choose good or evil, and define morality as we wish. But God has the last say. As we already have identified, demography is destiny. That destiny is near. Judgment and consequences will come.

Oswald Spengler, the German historian and philosopher, once observed, “When the ordinary thought of a highly cultivated people begins to regard ‘having children’ as a question of pro’s and con’s, the great turning point has come.” That point has most certainly arrived for most nations. The trend will not reverse, as the point of return has passed.

Patriarchal societies (which have provided societal stability for millennia) are under attack. Fertility rates are difficult to change, as many governments have discovered. The social trends that produced this change—such as new contraceptives, feminism, materialism, narcissism (self-love), humanism … etc.—continue to grow worse. Male contraceptives (a male pill) is another development that will further depress birth rates.

Looking ahead, few economists give proper attribution to the role of lengthening lifespans in the boom of prosperity and material/financial wealth that has been generated in the past two centuries. Now that past demographic trends are reversing, they are dumbfounded and frustrated. Policymakers strive to boost birth rates with money and incentives. However, birth rates are not responsive, proving that low fertility is a “value choice,” not just an economic one alone.

What is the solution? To date, supposed answers offered by the collective wealth management establishment around the world are misleading … even fraudulent. In so doing, they may succeed in deferring the ultimate reckoning day. But what a day that will be when it comes! The longer consequences are deferred, the more perversions increase and the more cataclysmic the final outcome.

God intervened in the days of Noah and Abram. He will do so again in the future, as the Bible clearly outlines.

In the next part of this series, we will examine the question of whether the momentous demographic trends that we are discussing are prophetically significant.

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Wilfred J. Hahn is a global economist/strategist. Formerly a top-ranked global analyst, research director for a major Wall Street investment bank, and head of Canada’s largest global investment operation, his writings focus on the endtime roles of money, economics and globalization. He has been quoted around the world and his writings reproduced in numerous other publications and languages. His 2002 book The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free accurately anticipated and prepared its readers for the Global Financial Crisis. A following book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving true riches in an age of deception and trouble, looks further into the prophetic future.

You can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com

Ripening Times – Part III: Discerning Trends of Significance By Wilfred Hahn

The Antichrist? 

We are chronicling the world’s most “significant trends” of the present season. These might be considered among the “signs of the times” that Jesus implored us to discern (Matthew 16:3). The sudden, “significant trend” that we continue to review in this part of the series is the rise of very powerful and large multinational corporations (MNCs)… often called the Global Titans. Among a long list of factoids presented, we pointed out that some of the Titans have more employees that some countries have in population.

The senior executives of these companies indeed wield much power. Among other venues, these executives yearn to participate in the annual pilgrimage to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum meeting (which is sponsored by some 1,000 companies around the globe). There they hobnob with politicians, academics, and anyone else who is a “mover and shaker” in world affairs or ultra-wealthy.

Could these powerful executives be considered the equivalent of “kings” in our era? Could they comprise the 10 kings (mentioned or figured 10X in the Bible)? The Bible allows for some alternative views, mentioning several other groups of powerful and/or wealthy elites. Do these qualify as actors in the last days?

Greatly Honored People

Consider this Bible verse, “He […] will greatly honor those who acknowledge him. He will make them rulers over many people and will distribute the land at a price” (Daniel 11:39, NIV). This verse is excerpted from a section in Daniel that describes the actions of the final world ruler (the Antichrist). We see here that elites of some kind will receive considerable reward for their complicity in supporting the agendas of the final incarnate “spirit of the Antichrist.”

Who are the ones that receive honor from the Antichrist? The answer—those that will acknowledge him. Virtually all English Bible translations use the word “acknowledge.” It means here that certain key people who recognize him and accept his authority will receive a reward—land.

It should be noted that the original Aramaic word used for “land” in this verse can also convey the idea of property or economic domain, as well as geographic area. After all, in ancient times, land was the main foundation of wealth and economy. Today, there are other forms of significant wealth.

It only follows that this must be a small, elite group of people, who likely are already influential. Why? They will be made rulers over many. As not everyone can be made a ruler over many, therefore these will be few.

The elites—whoever they are—are bought off for their loyalty with further reward: the additional pay-off of power or economic domain, we reason. It is the same or similar deal that Satan offered Christ when He was being tested in the wilderness, promising “authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So, if you worship me, it will all be yours” (Luke 4:6-7).

But why did the devil think it worthwhile to specifically test Christ in such a colossal way? Obviously, it would have been great gain for him were he successful. Here was motive and incentive. We may therefore take some license and deduce that there will be similar motives and incentives behind the Antichrist’s endtime reward systems.

Also, the elites selected for reward must have something to barter in return … likely their fame or endorsement. It wouldn’t be surprising then if these were highly revered people, politicians, great humanitarians, or Christian masqueraders … even so-called “angels of light.”

We are given at least a few criteria with which to identify who these elites might be at that future date. In the first instance, they must be humans (not demonic spirits). Also, they must be capable of being rulers, already likely possessing some measure of power and authority—perhaps a large multinational. And, they must be willing, greedy, worldly complicitors.

Although these final events play out during the future Tribulation period (and therefore really do not concern us personally), is it already possible today to discern the power structures that these elites might command? Although we cannot be definitive in light of conditions today, we can certainly consider some possible candidates that play a facilitating role.

Apostle John prophesies about yet another type of rich elite. These are the rich merchants that appear to play an influential role in the world at that future time. These “merchants of the earth grew rich from her [the whore’s] excessive luxuries” (Revelation 18:3). Those that “gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment” (verse 15).

These merchants clearly are wealthy people, and their economic power is on a global scale. It is true that, indeed, merchants (famed business executives of major companies) today are the most venerated people on earth. We live in a materialist culture that worships wealth and affluence.

Can we identify the elite group of people described by Daniel or Apostle John in Revelation 18? Are they one and the same? We cannot know for sure, but likely not. Though they may be different groups of elites, they certainly will be identifiable once the Tribulation Period begins.

What about the rich of the last days, mentioned in James 5:1-6, and the rule of the 10 kings, mentioned by both Daniel and Apostle John? These two groups of individuals may very well be visible before the Tribulation begins.

What we can safely conclude is that a great economic power structure has emerged over a very short period. These power nodes await some type of elites to play their role in the service of the Antichrist.

Continue to Get Bigger, Concentrating Industry Power

And still, the Global Titans are getting even bigger. These firms gobble up other companies, merge or build new companies at a rapid pace. In recent years, these activities have boomed to frenzied levels. One hundred billion plus takeover deals have become the norm. The total number of mergers or acquisition by MNCs around the world (both cross-border or domestic) has literally exploded over the past twenty years. Clearly, an energized trend is underway.

All signs are that this global favoritism for the multinational company will continue. Some people are even willing to invest greater powers in MNCs. One global thinker advocated that global companies be given the responsibility of international security. Given their superior global information systems, MNCs are the natural choice to regulate international exports and imports and to gather intelligence. We should expect MNCs to become even more powerful worldwide in the years ahead.

Without a doubt, the Global Titans are a major enabler—if not the very epicenter—of an endtime economic and monetary order, whose aim is to conspire against God and persecute the values and beliefs of Christians. MNCs are one of the major “significant trends” on earth today, driving a worldwide convergence toward unified beliefs and values, centered upon money and wealth.

Looking ahead, one can imagine that MNCs as a group will continue to expand and envelope a greater part of the earth’s human economic activity, wielding fierce financial control of world affairs.

The rise of the MNC is of great significance to Christians for more than a few reasons. As we have observed, they are at the very center of globalization and financialization. MNCs are at the forefront of the convergent drive to a worldwide materialistic belief system. In the process, they impact our personal and economic freedoms and challenge and test our Christian faith.

Increasingly, the values and ethics promoted in the places where many of us work are being determined by these basically amoral entities. We see that MNCs as a group wield enormous power over world affairs, as they collectively dominate global economic and financial systems.

The multinational organization is certainly a very influential and relatively new form of human organization, viewed against the human historical timeline. These have strict hierarchies and highly defined “pecking” orders. Obedience is lavishly rewarded, especially among the higher executive echelons. Can Christians comfortably work in the top executive tiers of global Big Titans? In many ways, these new leviathans have created a spiritual and materialistic “straight jacket” that challenges the faith and freedom of overcoming believers.

Thoughts to Ponder

The Bible mentions both rewards and acknowledgement as playing a significant role in the end times. However, there are two different types of reward regimes—one good and the other, evil.

Those elites that acknowledge the Antichrist, get the reward of land and wealth. The Bible also specifically tells us what the reward will be for everybody else … in other words, all the rest of the masses that acknowledge and worship the Antichrist.

What is the reward of non-Christian earth-dwellers? They will not be killed (a negative reward) and will be allowed to “buy or sell.”  Unfortunately, those who do acknowledge him will be eternally condemned.

On the other hand, for all the Tribulation Christians, he causes “all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell” (Revelation 13:15-17).

What then is the reward today for pre-Rapture Christians … and the price?

Certainly, we do not have the promise of something so mundane and temporal as the “land” promised to the elites (in other words, material wealth), position and power in the world. Said Christ, “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:12).

The saints are the ones that the world will hate, as the world also hated Christ. Said Jesus, “[…] you will be hated by all nations because of me” (Matthew 24:9). As Apostle Paul experienced, the saints are more likely to be troubled than coddled, perplexed than self-reliant, persecuted than befriended, rejected than accepted. “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body” (2 Corinthians 4:11).

Finally, says Christ, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32).

Take courage, Christ is coming quickly with His reward. “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done” (Revelation 22:12). For, soon it will be time for “rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great” (Revelation 11:18).

Wilfred J. Hahn is a global economist/strategist. Formerly a top-ranked global analyst, research director for a major Wall Street investment bank, and head of Canada’s largest global investment operation, his writings focus on the endtime roles of money, economics and globalization. He has been quoted around the world and his writings reproduced in numerous other publications and languages. His 2002 book The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free accurately anticipated and prepared its readers for the Global Financial Crisis. A following book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving true riches in an age of deception and trouble, looks further into the prophetic future.

You can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com