Given the state of geopolitical affairs today, it is key to see that groups of countries must come together to assemble sufficient common-minded heft to affect their agendas. Why? Because there is no longer a common global consensus, as we will show. Power is being spread more widely.

Globalism is on the ropes. Critically, this long-running trend is beginning to break up in our time. This is a fascinating and momentous development for many reasons. However, this writer believes the most notable one is that it reveals the birth pangs of minilateralism. What is this? It is the geopolitical fragmentation of national relationships that (we believe) will eventually set up the emergence of the 10 Kings.

This group of kings is mentioned or pictured in the Bible a total of 10 times. They must, therefore, be an important end-time actor. And indeed, this is the case.

The West, Downhill and Fading Out

Why the global tumult … and why today? For one, countries are becoming less cooperative. They are driven by self-interest, non-aligned objectives, hatred, and quixotic human actions. This makes for much strife and volatility. And since the world is secular and evil, at least some countries will gladly aspire to help fulfill the Antichrist’s agenda.

As mentioned, most interesting of all is this connection: It sets up the world for the 10 Kings. Minilateralism dovetails with the 10 kings mentioned in Scripture—a small group of countries that, under the aegis of the Antichrist, successfully aggregates sufficient power to control the entire world.

In our view, this development unfolding before our very eyes … is at the very doorstep. The 10 kings must emerge first, before the Antichrist is on the scene. At that time, the 10 kings give their power to the Antichrist. “The […] ten kings […] have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast” (Revelation 17:12-13). And then, “The beast […] was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation” (Revelation 13:5-7). He must have enough power and authority so that “no one will be able to stand against him” (Daniel 11:16).

There are plenty of reasons to beware, but this one particularly so. Quickness! The 10 kings are not in service for very long. For example, no sooner have the 10 kings allied with the Antichrist that three of them are uprooted according to Scripture (backstabbed or betrayed?—Daniel 7:24). Events will unfold rapidly, as “he must remain for only a little while” (Revelation 17:10b).

A common question, therefore, is this: Are the 10 Kings revealed before or after the Rapture? We can’t be sure. But suffice it to say that the preparations or events that signal the advance of the 10-King association will be difficult to keep hidden. To the contrary, we think. The tumultuous geopolitical chafing and shifting will be hard to miss in the New York Times or Washington Post.

Following, we provide some evidence for this view.

Restless Nations

Fragmentation of geopolitical affairs can be seen everywhere.

Recently, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India and host of the recent meetings of the Group of 20 (G20) in New Delhi, welcomed the attendees with a Sanskrit slogan, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.” Translated, this means, “The world is one family.”

The emphasis of the conference was global unity. The reality, however, is quite the opposite: The world is riven with rancor and strife … and increasingly so.

Since India took over the presidency of the G20 in December 2022, nearly two dozen ministerial meetings have failed to nail down a single communiqué. Usually, meetings of these major conferences always produce a report of agreed-upon resolutions. The world is obviously not in a peaceful state.

Clearly, the New Delhi G20 meeting showed how significantly global power institutions are fragmenting. Consider that two major members, Xi Jinping (General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party) and Vladimir Putin (President of Russia), skipped the meeting entirely.

Also note the United Nations General Assembly of 2023. For most of the UN’s nearly eight decades of existence, meetings were always the high point for its participants, when world leaders met to argue over the pressing causes of the day. Apparently, no longer. Despite serious “world” issues such as the war in Europe, a spate of coups in Africa, natural disasters blamed on climate change, and friction between China and America, only one leader (France) of the five permanent UN members that wield veto votes was in attendance.

Next, we provide more evidence of global fragmentation. Observe the World Trade Organization. It officially commenced operations in 1995, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had been established in 1948. It has been a long time since any new initiative of this organization has been ratified by its members. Its operations have effectively been blockaded by the US. (Regional trade agreements, however, have moved forward sporadically, but there have been no “global” initiatives.) This is globalism today—unwound, toothless and frustrating.

A major catalyst for anti-globalism initiatives is a high dissatisfaction with the West … the superpowers … and rich-country bullies (as other, less powerful nations may see them). Nations such as the US and other wealthy countries still dominate (i.e., NATO and the G20 … and others). As such, failed progress for global unity is spurring the efforts of non-aligned countries. They are forming new organizations that are intended to disrupt or weaken the West. Some of the more prominent of these are listed next.

A new contender making fast tracks is the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). It is a multilateral development bank and international financial institution, which aims to collectively improve economic and social outcomes in Asia. Already, it is the world’s second-largest multilateral development institution. Headquartered in Beijing, China, the bank currently has 106 members, with 14 prospective members from around the world (even including Canada).

Next, we review the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). It is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc … so far. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations’ members and contain 55% of the world population.

There are many more signs of fragmentation around the world. Consider two other contenders: first, the African Union (AU), and second, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The AU is an organization of 55 African nations. (Of note, the African Union also became a member of the G20, as did the EU some time ago.) The SCO was initially founded in 2001 by China and Russia. Today, it consists of 8 nations, covering approximately 80% of the area of Eurasia and 40% of the world population.

Not last by any means, we must mention another group of nations that is also rapidly gaining global clout. It is the BRICs countries. Starting with four members in 1995 (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), this year it welcomed six new members, bringing the total to 11 countries.

Quoting Wikipedia: “BRICs is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa […] The BRICs nations encompass about 27% of the world’s land surface and 42% of the global population. Brazil, Russia, India and China are among the world’s ten largest countries by population, area, and GDP (PPP [purchasing power parity]), and the latter three are considered to be current superpowers, or potential emerging superpowers.”

Already, economists are speculating that this group will eventually be called BRICs Plus 132 … meaning 132 additional members. If so, this will be a powerful group.

By now, the reader will gain a sense of the “restlessness” of nations. Smaller groups and countries are gaining crucial profiles and influence.

Thoughts to Ponder

An interesting phenomenon is unfolding. After almost one hundred years of rapid globalization, international relationships and nation groups are fragmenting as perhaps never before.

What is the agenda? As already mentioned, many nations are rankled with the global institutions (International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the United Nations, and many others) that are dominating policy and have proven to be inflexible at times. Most of these organizations were launched in the late 1940s (prompted by the horrors of the two World Wars). Already in the early 1950s, counter groups were mobilizing.

What must one conclude, viewing the jostling and positioning of nations today? Globalism is in decline; minilateralism is ascending. Many policymakers are losing patience with the calcification of various agencies and NGOs (non-governmental organizations). The consensus approach no longer works.

All of the above, we believe, foreshadows the emergence of the 10 Kings.

No doubt, many of the candidates for a slot in the 10 King line-up are already in existence today.

***

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.

If you have questions or other perspectives, you can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com. Please note that for reasons of volume and investment securities regulation, he cannot give financial advice.

 

Cancellation of debts became a common royal practice in the old Babylonian period. Hammurabi, who was the Babylonian king early in the second millennium BC (around 1800 BC … dating varies), is believed to have founded the basic principle of ruler-mandated debt cancellation in the renowned Code of Hammurabi.

Debt cancellation was one of Hammurabi’s first acts when he came to power. He is recorded to have ordered debt cancellations on at least two occasions (likely more) in his reign. However, significantly, there has been new research on this practice in recent years. Prominent Assyriologists (archaeologists who focus on the Middle East) now take the position that “clean slate” policies were the norm in early times … very much counter to our modern practices, these being of Roman origin.

Announcing a “clean slate” was a wise practice. As in our time today, over-indebtedness was a major problem in Babylonian society. Citizens could easily become enslaved to the creditor class. Anyone falling upon hard times or who was unable to pay taxes would be forced to borrow. Interest rates were onerous … commonly as high as 33% over the duration of the loan period (this sometimes being as short as a few weeks).

Once indebted, people were almost certainly doomed to even deeper debt or slavery. With such usurious interest rates, it would not take long for wealth imbalance and concentration of land ownership to become extreme, this potentially also threatening the power of the king.

It made sense to periodically decree an amnesty from all personal debts (this would not include commercial liabilities in the case of the Babylonian system). This wiping out of debts rejuvenated society and served to maintain a sustainable wealth and power balance.

Biblical Foundations for Debt Cancellation

Down through history, philosophers and religious thinkers came to similar conclusions on the issue of repressive debts and wealth distribution. For example, more than two and a half millennia after Hammurabi, Islamic scholars began to develop principles that sought to achieve relief for the poor and a sustainable wealth balance.

Their teaching of “al riba” served this end. It is the doctrine that money is not allowed to earn income through interest. According to Islam, gain and profit were only to be achieved through labor and trading. If money is allowed to earn income, though producing or risking nothing, eventually it would lead to an imbalance of wealth distribution (a large class of poor people).

Originally, Mohammed’s forbidding of debt interest was more likely rooted in the idea that a fixed rate of interest was an affront to Allah, as only he could determine and underwrite the certainty of future income, not mankind. Later, Islam further intellectualized its view on “al riba.”

But, much earlier than Islam (only some 500 years after the era of Abraham and Hammurabi), during the time of the 40-year wilderness journey of the Hebrews, God gave Moses the commands of the Sabbath.

Later, after entering Canaan, the Hebrews were commanded to observe the Sabbath Year and the Jubilee Year. (We will explain these policies.) Moses codified the rules of debt forgiveness and the restoration of wealth distribution … these being much more advanced than the general haphazard concepts of debt forgiveness of the Akkadians some 500 years earlier.

These Hebrew ordinances proved to be most wonderful for a number of reasons. Both the Sabbath Year and the Jubilee were effective means of ensuring that a permanent poverty class would not emerge, where a society of a few ultra-rich could enslave everyone for perpetuity.

Creation and Multiplying Money

Today, this tendency of “wealth begetting wealth” is viewed by economists as a “flaw” of capitalism. They observe that over time, the competitive economic arena leads to winners who become very large or wealthy and, in turn, have the ability to suppress new competitors. This is sometimes referred to as the “winner takes all” syndrome.

This could be problematic. As such, for example, the US government would intervene. It chose to break up companies that were thought to have become too large …i.e., AT&T and General Motors).

The point we wish to emphasize here is that the natural laws of money, compound interest, and relative advantage (everything else being equal) contribute to the tendency that the wealthy get wealthier, and the poor relatively poorer. Over time, these very trends lead to instability and eventual wealth destruction.

Just such a “late stage” situation exists in America and many other nations today. An extreme state of imbalance between the rich and poor is a worldwide phenomenon. An ever-smaller minority is becoming wealthier. Recent actions in the US political sphere have signaled just how advanced and repressive this condition has become. Everywhere one looks in the world, a cry is heard for “debt cancellation.”

The world groans for a Jubilee Year when all debt would be settled. As Apostle Paul says, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22). Something else is needed to liberate the world, to free the economic captives.

Debt Forgiveness and the Prophetic Plan

Jesus Christ quoted Isaiah’s prophecy about Himself (Isaiah 61:1-2a) when He said: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). Christ deliberately did not read the rest of Isaiah’s prophecy, which further states: “[…] and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:2b-3a).

Why? Because these were things that would be completed at His Second Coming, signifying the arrival of the “year of the Lord’s favor.” While our Lord proclaimed “the year of the Lord’s favor” during His first coming, it was not to occur until His second. The Lord did not rescue the poor at His first coming, rather the “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3 from the Beatitudes). The rescuing of all poor (Luke 6:20, Sermon on the Plain) will be fulfilled in the Millennium.

Prophetic Parallels to the Jubilee Year

Just what is meant by the Hebrew word for “jubilee”? It refers to the continuous blast of the silver trumpets as the Year of Jubilee was ushered in by the priests. “[…] Have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land” (Leviticus 25:9).

Ezekiel informs us that the “year of liberty” (year of freedom) will again be observed in the Millennium. He describes a procedure that will apply to a prince during that time: “But if he gives a gift out of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his until the year of liberty [the Year of Jubilee]; after that it shall be returned to the prince; only his sons may keep a gift from his inheritance [permanently]” (Ezekiel 46:17, AMP).

While it is indeed prophetic that the Jubilee Year will again be reinstated, it is the prophetic parallels and symmetry of the 50^th year of Jubilee to salvation and the Millennium that are the most inspiring.

To begin, the number 50 is the year that follows 7 weeks of 7. Therefore, the Jubilee year was the 8^th Sabbath in a 50-year period. The number 8 in the Bible signifies a new beginning. The blasts of the Jubilee trumpets parallel or foreshadow the final trumpet of the Lord (both for the Church, this being the final calling in the “Sabbath Rest”) and the last judgments in the Tribulation period, these being followed by the Millennium reign of Christ.

The precious year of the Jubilee can also be seen as the prophetic parallel of the Millennial “Year of our Lord.” That year is the Jubilee Year of the Lord. All sins and debts will be forgiven, i.e., canceled.

We see that financial debt in the physical dimension is the parallel of spiritual indebtedness to our Creator. Both must be paid back; both can be forgiven. There is only one difference: While mankind may be able to pay back debts on earth, he cannot pay back his sin debt. Only Jesus Christ can make this payment.

Thoughts to Ponder

God has created the world for His purposes and glory. He made it so the world could not function righteously without the concept of “cancellation.” It is not a coincidence that we commonly refer to the cancellation of debts as a “forgiveness” of debt.

God has designed a plan for both heaven and earth. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the debt mankind owed to God that he could not pay… a transaction that would be extended to all those who would believe upon Him. Just as in the Jubilee Year of ancient times, this opportunity to cancel all debt (sin) is open to all.

How wonderful then is “cancellation”! How many households today would dance for joy at the cancellation of their mortgage? Consider that the word origin of “mortgage” literally means “death pledge” … a state of affairs that those in foreclosure proceedings will readily understand. However, it is the cancellation of our sin and reconciliation with Jesus Christ that brings the greatest joy for eternity.

We have been given this great promise: “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Hebrew 4:9-11).

The trumpets of Jubilee are ever nearer for the world!

***

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.

If you have questions or other perspectives, you can contact Wilfred at staff@eternalvalue.com. Please note that for reasons of volume and investment securities regulation, he cannot give financial advice.