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Fears of a “double-dip” recession, or an economic depression are growing.  Some financial experts now urge: “Buy gold. Buy silver. Get as far away as you can from U.S. currency and the U.S. economy” (YahooFinance.com, August 4, 2011).  Considering recent stock-market trauma, and recent record gold highs approaching $1,850/oz., many are turning to gold.  So, what is a Christian’s best investment strategy?

As the United States sees its debt continue to soar out of control, it would be prudent to take time to examine the results of such reckless spending.  Just like any credit card, national debt carries with it the obligation for the debtor to pay interest.  $14 trillion is an immense amount of debt, and it carries with it the burden of substantial interest payments.  Last year alone the U.S. spent just under $413 billion paying off the interest on its loans.

Jesus famously warned that prior to His Second Coming, “nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:1–7).  Centuries earlier, God warned through Isaiah that at the end of the age, “As for My people, children are their oppressors…” (Isaiah 3:12).  These two prophecies are profoundly related.  Furthermore, there is a sobering connection between these two warnings and the “flash mob” violence that has raged from London to Philadelphia!

Four days of mindless violence and anarchy swept across England in early August, taking five lives and engulfing 121 locations. Why? These were not, as some insinuated, “race riots”—even though the initial spark came from the police shooting of a well-known London gang member. Nor were they due to social deprivation, police brutality, political discontent, or government cuts to balance the budget. Neither were they directly related to joblessness or economic despair or poverty. After all, many places did not riot!  So, what is the explanation?

On August 17, 1961—exactly 50 years ago, this Wednesday—East German laborers laid the first concrete blocks of what would soon be called the "Berlin Wall" The wall, cutting West Berlin off from surrounding East Germany, came to be seen as a symbol of Communist tyranny, and for more than a generation the German people grew used to its troubling presence, separating them from old friends and family and marking a moral and philosophical divide as well as a physical one.