Dear friends:
 
Since about 1972 I remember continuous warnings of an imminent economic collapse or attack on America -- that God’s judgment was about to fall. 
 
The first I remember is in the early 1970s when Pat Robertson was just beginning to build his TV network.  He had purchased a TV station in Dallas “to proclaim the gospel” and went on TV saying that an economic collapse was imminent, urging everyone to please donate sacrificially and help him pay for that Dallas station before the crash.  I thought it was God speaking, so I dug down deep and gave sacrificially.  The collapse never came, of course.  Sometime later the station was made a part of his personal commercial empire, then sold for millions, and God only knows what happened to my money.  But I gave it in faith and so I trust that God honored my effort.
 
There have been similar warnings just about every year.  In 1995, I even wrote an essay titled “God’s Judgment on America.”  It is still available at http://choicesforliving.com/spirit/part4/judgement.htm.  I still believe the judgment is coming, but I cannot say when.  Maybe after the rapture.  Actually, it is in process now.
 
This message is written because the last few days the Internet has been full of dire warnings of imminent terrorist attacks on our cities, probably nuclear, war, and/or economic collapse. 
 
1.  For example, yesterday I received this frantic one:

Friends, late Friday afternoon August 10, I received an envelope with the outside stamped "Israel's Attack on Iran's Nuclear Sites is imminent" and Gold will EXPLODE…. ISRAEL and THE U.S. are set to ATTACK IRAN during Congressional Recess between Aug 6 and Aug 31.  Confirmed by Israeli magazine "Israel Today" published in Jerusalem and not sold on news stands in

U.S., plus other overwhelming evidence…. If this is permitted to take place, a nuclear war may result as China has equipped Iran with nuclear missiles and we have 20,000 naval personnel sitting in the waters in the Persian Gulf and waters outside that area…. The financial markets will be devastated.  We could see the DOW end up down several thousand points.  The war will have a dramatic impact on Gold upward…. It will be difficult to hide the MASSIVE LOSS OF NAVAL PERSONNEL.  

2.  I also received another frantic one that said:

The credit crunch based in U.S. real estate deepens and serious news will probably start to hit in late Sept or October!  Europe is suffering from the US real estate crash that is in process!  Get all dollars out of US stock Market and if possible all real estate!  Transfer all investments (including Retirement Funds) into Gold and silver type commodities that will weather the COMING WORLD WIDE DEPRESSION!!!

In the past I have concluded that a lot of such talk comes from America haters -- people who actually want to see their own nation fall.  I think some of these people are masochistic sickos.  However, no doubt the world economy has always been a house of cards, miraculously held together by God for His purposes.  Some of it may also be fed by disinformation operations of our enemies aimed at gullible Americans to discourage and depress them.  And based on the wording, some of it is clearly from pathological Bush-haters who want paint a picture of disaster and prove that Bush and the NWO are behind it all. 

Whichever, the prophets of doom have a poor track record, thankfully.
 
3.  In the past few days there have been intelligence reports based on Internet terrorist “chatter” that several U.S. cities are about to get hit by nuclear dirty bombs in the immediate future.  The sources of this are suspect, but the intelligence community and city authorities are on alert.
 
4.  In addition, in his annual New Year predictions, Pat Robertson said there will be terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2007.  See video at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZuk3j9YI4k.
 
Over the years I have seen so many of these dire warnings, my first reaction was to yawn and say, “Yeah, right.  Here we go again.”
 
However, such warnings always activate my inner prophecy inclinations.  There may be something different about 2007. 
 
For example, Shelby Corbitt describes a vision in which she is convinced God revealed to her that the rapture would definitely be in the summer of 2007.  She believes it will be preceded by a period of disruption and difficulty, to paraphrase.  Summer ends with the autumn equinox on September 23.  You can read her Web site and book at http://www.2007rapture.com .  Shelby is so persuaded that she heard from God that she spent thousands of dollars of her own money to put it all in a book and has been distributing them free of charge.  That is a true test of conviction and commitment.
 
Also, Pastor F.M. Riley has written that based on biblical chronology, in which he is proficient, he believes the rapture will be in 2007.  I just discovered this yesterday.  You can read his article at http://his-forever.com/2007.pdf .

(Narrowing the rapture to a specific year is not at all unbiblical.)
 
Will all these things prove to be more gloom-and-doom and prophetic fizzles, or are they keen insights on what lies immediately ahead?  I don’t know. 
 
The only thing I do know for sure is that God is totally in charge, that He is merciful, that His timing on all these things will be perfect, that I am His, that I dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and that I abide under His shadow (Psalm 91:1). 
 
In that, I rest totally in His shalom.  I urge you to do the same.
 
Jim