Fear not the Third Horseman

Rising fuel prices have coupled with rapidly rising food costs to cause real pain for the average consumer, even in wealthy nations, and food shortages are literally starving people to death in underdeveloped nations! World governments and agricultural experts agree that a food crisis is upon us and famine is stalking the earth in an unprecedented manner.

The World Food Program Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, recently warned that more than 30 countries have been affected by food riots and that these are "stark reminders that food insecurity threatens not only the hungry but peace and stability itself" (Financial Times, June 21, 2008). And this summer, devastating floods destroyed more than 2 million acres of corn and soybean fields in key midwest U.S. agricultural states. Prior to these floods, corn prices had already increased a painful 80 percent over the past year (Associated Press, June 22, 2008), and global wheat stocks had already fallen to their lowest point in 30 years (Financial Times, April 9, 2008).

Is the nation that was once "breadbasket to the world" now seeing its very ability to feed itself erode? Are food shortages and food riots in the USA and other "wealthy nations" looming? Food scarcity is a very real problem that will become much more severe in the years ahead and is a harbinger of the severe famine that will affect every nation, when the third seal of Revelation is opened, and the third horseman rides!

Revelation 6:5-6 reads, "When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." And I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine." A denarius was worth about one day's wages during Christ's time. Converted to US 2008 dollars, a denarius would be worth approximately $100 to $150! So, we see Scripture warning us that food prices will increase significantly prior to the Great Tribulation.

The third horseman's ride will soon tear apart the very fabric of our society. Do you fear for your own and your family's safety, or do you trust in God? If we truly repent and seek God, then He promises us eternal life (I John 5:10–12) and promises to provide for us, even in the midst of global famine – even during the ride of the third horseman of the Apocalypse! Notice Psalm 33:18 and 19 – which is especially clear in the Moffatt translation – "the Eternal's eye rests on His worshippers, who rest their hopes upon His kindness, that He may rescue them from death, and during famine-days keep them alive."

God promises to provide for us if we obey Him and seek His Kingdom (Matthew 6:31-33), so do not fear the rising food prices. Do not fear the third horseman! Instead, humbly submit to and obey God. God's kind eye will then indeed rest on you and your family now and in the days to come.

To learn more, please request our free booklets, How God Intervenes in World Affairs and Who Controls the Weather? which will further explain how God plans to correct a wayward society, and how those who repent and draw close to Him now, can escape these sufferings.

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