Are You Ready for What's Coming?

by Russ Schmidt

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priests for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” Hosea 4:6.

There is no question in my mind that in the last five or six years, we have turned a corner in this Age of Man. Actually, you can go back as far as 9/11 and say that we were just coming into this turn back then.

Then we had, what they have dubbed, The Great Financial Crisis (GFC), which began in 2007 and climaxed in 2008-09. Many economists have said, they never did repair the damage done during that time, they just put a Band-Aid over it by printing money. 

And what the world is experiencing now, as far as inflation, is a combination of all the money printing that took place during the GFC and then followed up by even more extreme money printing during COVID in 2020. The more dollars that are in circulation, the less the dollar you have in your pocket is worth. The result, inflation! You need $2 dollars now to buy what $1 bought, just a short time ago.

Many of these same economists say that our Fractional Reserve System of banking under the Federal Reserve, is unsustainable. Basically, this system is a Ponzi Scheme. For example; say I am a bank, and you deposit or invest money through my bank. I then, lend out that money, and collect interest on it. 

Then a second person comes and either deposits or invests money through my bank, I take that and loan it out and collect interest on that. This goes on and on, but then one day customer number one, wants to withdraw their deposit.

Since that money has been loaned out, I as the bank, no longer have it. So, what I have to do is the next customer that comes in, I have to use their money to give customer number one their money back. That’s what is called a Ponzi Scheme. Eventually what happens in a Ponzi Scheme, you get more customers wanting to withdraw their funds then the amount of funds you have on hand. That is now called a Bank Run.

This happened a few times in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. So how did they rectify this? In 1913 the Federal Reserve Banking System was created, which is the system we have today. In order to solve the Bank Run problem, they created what is called, the Fractional Reserve System.

In this system, it allowed banks to print money out of thin air. For example; a customer comes to my bank and deposits $100. When I put that $100 on my books, I enter $100 as a liability (meaning, it is an I.O.U.) because I owe that money to customer number one. But in order to try and prevent a bank run, and also to make a hefty profit, as the banker, I also can list that same $100 as an asset on my books. 

In other words, customer number one deposited $100 in my bank, and it gets listed in my books as $200; $100 as an asset, and $100 as a liability. So, a new $100 was created out of thin air. So now I can lend out the newly created $100 to draw interest on it, and still have $100 on my balance sheet in case customer one comes back for their deposit. 

However, as per the Fractional Reserve System, I don’t even have to keep the entire $100 on hand. I can use as much as 80% of that money to invest to make a profit for myself. Yet, for the most part today, you as a depositor gets very little, if any interest on your money. Basically, you are giving the bank your money, so they can make a profit on it.

Although the system was designed to prevent bank runs, it still is not fool proof. Since banks are lending out a portion of the money you deposit, if enough customers want their money back at the same time, a bank run can still occur.

Now, this is a very simplified example, but you get the idea. If you can own your own bank, it is probably one of the most profitable businesses to be in. With that all that said, when these independent bankers came together in 1913 to create the Federal Reserve system, they knew that this system would one day run its course.

The first time this became evident was in the 1930s when President Roosevelt, in order to fund our military because of the turmoil in Europe, they had to print more money. Back in that time, the US dollar was backed by gold. In other words, if you had a dollar bill and took it to the bank, you could exchange it for the amount of gold that the dollar was worth.

In order to create more money, they had to have more gold to back that currency. Since there wasn’t enough gold in the US Treasury (Fort Knox), Roosevelt had to confiscate gold from the American citizens, and made it illegal to hold gold outside of jewelry. This occurred in 1933.

Eventually, there were more dollars out in circulation than there was gold to back it, so, in 1971, Richard Nixon had to remove us totally from the gold standard because there was no way to account for all the gold needed to match the amount of dollars that were in circulation.

By 1973, Nixon’s Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, brokered a deal with Saudi Arabia to tie the US dollar to oil; this was and still is called the Petro-Dollar. This deal saved the US dollar from collapse, and made the US a very profitable nation once again.

Now, here we are in 2025, and that system is collapsing, but this time, there is no commodity of value in the world that can back the amount of dollars that are in circulation. 

My point with all this is that a major change is coming to our financial system. It is a change that cannot be stopped. The US Petro-Dollar has run its course with the US $36 trillion in debt, with a one-trillion-dollar yearly interest payment. It is projected, if the financial system is not somehow corrected, that by 2035 the interest payment alone on the debt will be as much as $1.8 trillion. 

Right now, the government is just paying the interest on that debt, and not only are they paying just the interest on it, but they need to borrow or print money just to pay it. So, the debt is increasing at least one-trillion-dollars a year. The problem with that is, so does the interest payment go up every year. Do you see how unmanageable that is?

So, where am I going with all this? There are big changes coming. This will be the biggest financial transition in the history of mankind. This is also why there are wars and rumors of wars. During times of financial crises throughout history, governments tend to start wars to deflect attention from the economic situation. Plus, the fact that wars are profitable.

Behind the scenes, a new system is being built. It’s been in the works since the GFC, and possibly even before, but there are differing global factions vying for their system to be the one. The EU has already announced that in October of 2025, the Euro will introduce their version of a digital dollar (Central Bank Digital Currency).

We certainly don’t have all the details yet, but Trump is also transitioning our financial system. I believe the one good thing he is doing is steering away from a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that the Federal Reserve was working on. In a CBDC system, the government would have total control of every aspect of your financial life.

There is a lot of talk coming from the likes of Elon Musk and others that a universal basic income (UBI) will be needed because Ai will be replacing a lot of human labor. UBI is a set monthly amount of money the government would distribute to its citizens.

And the system they are building is not being built with you in mind. They are building it to benefit themselves; I call it a modern-day Tower of Babel. The first attempt that we read of in Genesis chapter 11, was thwarted by God, and was a type and shadow of what was to come in the future, and we are getting very close to that future event with each passing day.

But here is where I am finally going with this, and why my lead verse was Hosea 4:6. By God stating “that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” is telling us Christians today that we need to take a very close look at our personal relationships with the Lord, and whether that relationship is just a superficial relationship, meaning it’s just on the surface; or whether our relationship is one where we have a close communication with our Spiritual Father, and are we really in tuned with the Holy Spirit, which should be residing within each one of us.

There are many, many Christians’ walking around claiming to be Christians, but don’t even know who the Holy Spirit is and how to interact with the Holy Spirit. And believe me, I know what I am talking about, because I’ve been there, done that. You can read my testimony here.

It is so important to know every aspect of the Bible, which also includes prophecy. Many Churches do a disservice to their attendees because they refuse to speak on prophecy. One of the problems is, that no one really knows how prophecy will unfold. Every so-called prophecy teacher or so-called modern-day prophet has their own idea how events will unfold. 

So, for many church leaders, instead of pinning their idea to something that will cause controversy, they stay away from the topic altogether. I say controversy because in a room of ten people, you can have ten different opinions on a prophetic topic. Or some who either find it difficult to comprehend or maybe even fear prophecy topics, they leave that church, and find a church that just speaks on things that are easy or motivational.

There is nothing wrong with the latter, but when everything is just about those things that are easy on the ears or motivational, it doesn’t prepare the flock for events like Jesus described in His Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Luke 21, & Mark 13). Do you know, Jesus spoke more about prophecy than any other topic in the Bible?

Jesus also told us to watch for the signs he was describing. He then goes on to say in Matthew 24:20, “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.” Of course, by this time, many Christians will have been taken out of the world through the rapture. And yes, I am a firm rapture believer, and that primarily, Jesus is talking to the Jewish nation here.

But there will also be many who called themselves Christians but lived according to the world, who will come to know Christ and repent of their hollow faith after the rapture occurs. This will be during the final seven-year period of this Age of Man before Jesus comes to usher in His Millennial Reign.

So, although many believe Jesus is just referencing the Jewish people at this point of His Olivet Discourse, there will be Christians on earth as well. The two witnesses and the hundred and forty-four thousand will no doubt be Christians because they are anointed by God to preach the Gospel during this time.

As far as prophecy is concerned in the Church, rather than side-step it and leaving the brethren in darkness, we need to speak on what we do know. Instead of being dogmatic about how these events will unfold, or calculating the date of the rapture, or who the Antichrist will be, and what nations will be the armies from the north in Ezekiel 28, because this is where the ten different opinions come from with ten different people, the Church needs to be wise enough to know the season we are in.

The only way to know that is to know what to watch for. Jesus told us to watch for the signs He gave us. If the Church don’t know the signs, how can they watch? In The Parable of the Ten Virgins, Jesus gives us the reason why we need to watch. We need to keep our lamps well oiled so our light doesn’t go out and we sleep while He comes back to gather His bride.

Of course, this is all symbolic of our everyday lives. If we are so caught up in the activities of the world, we will miss the boat and the doors of the ark will be closed by the time we realize what’s happening. We have so many types and shadows in the Bible that God has given us. They are like clues that God wants us to see to help us navigate our current time.

This is why it is so imperative to have a close relationship with Him. In Acts 26:18, Jesus is speaking to Paul on the road to Damascus and tells him what He is sending him out to do, “…to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”

Much of Christianity thinks they are walking in the light, but really are deceived to believe that. They have fallen into the same trap that the Pharisees fell into. Jesus said in Matthew 24:3, “Take heed that no one deceives you.” 

We are in the last days and Satan knows his time is short. Deception is everywhere today. If we are not focused on Jesus, and I mean, not just with our words, but with our whole being, we are susceptible to deception. 

The number one area Satan attacks us is keeping us so busy and focused on our everyday lives that we run out of time in the day in setting aside the time we need in building and growing our relationship with our Lord.

So, let me wind this down. It’s time to take heed of Matthew 6:31-34: 

“31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

When we focus too much on the busyness of life, and our struggles to get ahead, and once we get there, we struggle to sustain it, we wind up getting in the way of building our relationship with the lord, but we also get in God’s way of taking care of us in fulfilling our needs. If that describes any of us, we have succumbed to Satan’s deception. 

We are created to fulfill God’s will for our lives, not Satan’s. And don’t miss understand me, I am not saying we cannot be successful in the world and also have a firm relationship with the Lord, but we need to focus our attention on our relationship with Christ first and foremost. If we do that, we will fulfill Matthew 6:33, as I read above, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  

So, my last point is to be sure we are examining ourselves daily, as the apostle Paul tells us to do in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”

Let’s be sure as we move into these last days that we don’t fail the test!

Maranatha!