Sermon Illustrations

GETTING WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER

"Celente, who is CEO of Trends Research Institute, has the best track record in the professional forecasting industry, so when he speaks people listen. He was almost alone in predicting well in advance the 1987 stock market crash, the 1990 collapse of the Soviet Union, and the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis. More than a year ago, in November, 2007, he told the UPI that the following year would be known as 'The Panic of 2008,' adding that 'giants would tumble to their deaths,' as indeed happened with Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and other untouchables. He forecast the sub-prime mortgage collapse and a massive 90% devaluation of the dollar from a failed rescue effort."

"Celente [has] forecast ... a social and political revolution sparked by the economic devolution. He predicts food riots, accompanied by a tax rebellion. We may see this as early as April 15th, 2009. He says that by 2012 America will be an undeveloped nation, marked by squatter rebellions by those who refuse to give up their homes or else take over the homes of others. 'There is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of what we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we're going to see many more.' Christmas as a retail bonanza will be a distant memory, reflecting a situation that he says will be 'worse than the Great Depression,' because the so-called safety net will collapse.

"As a forecaster of sociological change, Celente warns that 'there's going to be a lot of crime' at all levels 'worse than in the last 1929 Depression' and that the growing wealth gap between the rich and the middle class will threaten social order because the middle class everywhere in the world will become a revolutionary class using knowledge, resources, and skills 'to shape transnational processes in their own class interest.' He warns, 'There will be a revolution in this country, and we're going to see a third party in response to the bloodless coup by Wall Street' supported by 'a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody's comprehension.'"

(Source: Dr. Robert D. Crane, "The Sky Is Falling: Perils and Pitfalls of Long-Range Predictions, An Islamic Perspective" http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_sky_is_falling_perils_and_pitfalls_of_long_range_predictions_an_islamic/0017052, Dec 24, 2008)

Celente is not a biblical prophet, so his predictions are not fail proof. But he is saying what we all know to be the truth. Over the next few years the situation in our country is going to get much worse before it gets better, if it gets better.

(From a sermon by Joel Smith, "Reason for Hope on the Road Ahead.")

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