Revelation

The Great Shaking

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 21-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 189

Dictation Name: RR129L21

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Revelation 16, the Great Shaking.

“16 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”

Revelation gives us two contrasting forces, powers, and movements; which are portrayed variously as two women, two cities, the radiant woman, the scarlet woman; the Jerusalem which is above and the Jerusalem which is below; the city of God, and the city of man. The wrath of God is poured out on scarlet woman, the Jerusalem which is below, called also Babylon the Great; which represents the pride and pretension of all nations as they claim to represent the true kingdom and the true paradise.

In the ranks of Babylon, we find all those churches which serve the dragon, which serve Satan; which declare that the kingdom is the result of man’s effort, is a product of social action rather than regeneration; which identify the kingdom of God with a human social order, and who look forward to the death of the church. For it is the death of the church that the modernist churches look forward to.

As one leader in this movement declared some years ago, “In the future the church will be dissolved in the state.” For such men, paradise means the sovereignty of man. For the saints of God it means the sovereignty of God, and man’s subjection to it and fulfillment within it.

In this chapter we have a summary statement of the judgement of God on the worlds continual attempt to create paradise without God. It is given to us in this vision of the seven vials or bowls of wrath or judgement. This chapter, as well as the succeeding ones, echoes Ezekiel 27 the judgement on Tyre; and also Isaiah 14, where the king of Babylon called Lucifer is portrayed in his demonic pride as exalting himself against God, and is seeing history fulfilled in himself and in his works, rather than in the purpose and council of God.

For the people who are the citizens of the earthly Jerusalem, of Babylon, history finds its fulfillment in man. But for the saints, it finds its fulfillment in the purposes of God. These seven bowls of judgement are very similar to the seven trumpets of Revelation 8 and 9. We are simply given the same fact of history from a different perspective. Like the seven trumpets, these seven bowls of judgement are Gods dispossession notice against the world. The world claims to be the true heir, the true claimant to the estate; and Christ serves eviction notice, and the judgments are directed at evicting the ungodly from the world.

The inheritance is victory over sin and death, and the restoration of mans forfeited paradise, his inheritance. But the sons of Adam seek to establish always a counterfeit paradise; and in the name of Babylon they claim Gods world. And so the eviction notice, the seven bowls or vials.

The first bowl is in the second verse, and this plague recalls the sixth of the Egyptian plagues, the plague of boils. Egypt was a type of the world power, of an apostate empire that had set itself up against God and deified itself. And the plagues as well as Egypt are to be understood typically, because the reference here harks back to Egypt. The spiritual and mental sores destroy the peace and complacency of the worshippers and members of the world power; all the devotes of a paradise without God. In other words, as Scripture declares: “There is no rest, saith my God, to the wicked.”

And so it is, the ungodly, the further they separate themselves from God, the more they are plagued with inner sores, mental distress, spiritual distress; so that they tear themselves apart, as it were; plagued within.

The second bowl is in the third verse, and it recalls the first Egyptian plague and the second trumpet. And here it is portrayed as more extensive, and as total. In the first Egyptian plague, the Nile which was the source of their life was turned into blood. It is hard for us to imagine the catastrophe this meant, because for the Egyptians, their entire life and economy is dependent on the Nile; and for the Nile to be polluted is a death stroke against the nation. Their advantage became their disadvantage, and their strength became their destruction.

And so, as God says, that the waters of the seas are turned into blood, as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea, so God uses the very advantages and the strength of the nations of the world to destroy them. Every advantage of the nations is given by God to be used for the glory of God, or else it will serve to their damnation; it will be cursed by God, so that their strength will be their downfall.

In the third bowl, verses 4-7, the third Egyptian plague and the third trumpet are recalled; so that the rivers and fountains of water become blood, and the altar concurs in the judgement. The streams and the rivers feed the sea, and they are the powers and the influence which go into the making up of the world movement, the world sentiment. And these are all smitten by the same corruption, the streams of life grow putrid. And so those things which should feed man destroy him. And so we have a picture of the entire world polluted, because man is in rebellion against God. And so when man is out of peace with God, he destroys the world; and the inner and outer wellsprings of life are corrupted.

In the fourth judgement, verses 8-9, the sun, the very source of light and life and all growth, becomes instead a destructive and blasting force. It becomes a curse instead of a blessing. And so, from the heaven itself, destruction descends upon men.

In the fifth judgement, verses 10-11, we have Exodus 10:21 and the fourth trumpet recalled. Darkness now covers the entire world of the ungodly, and the very throne is attacked. The individuals or citizens of Babylon are stricken with mental and emotional distress, and the pollution spreads to every aspect of Babylon, and everything which should become a blessing becomes an instrument of curses. And so the strength which Babylon builds up against God is undermined from within, by the judgments of God; and the very center of authority, Babylon, is now infected. And so the kingdom which boasted itself as so full of light and power, becomes darkness; and it becomes inner turmoil and conflict.

The sixth bowl or judgement, in verses 12-16, recalls the sixth trumpet. And now we have a very significant thing, the drying up of the Euphrates. As we saw in Revelation 9:13-14, the river Euphrates was the great natural boundary, which separated the people of God from their great enemies to the east; and the destruction of this boundary meant that the enemies of God were now free to cross the boundary and overwhelm the people of God. And so the drying up of the Euphrates in this sixth judgement, is as it were the abolition of the boundary line between the people of God and the enemy. It is also a symbol of the abolition of all distinctions, of religion, of station, of culture, of right and wrong; it is the world of total anarchy. It is the triumph of every kind of anti-God impulse.

Now this seems curious, that this should be portrayed as a judgement upon the world; this is the goal of the world! The world moves steadily to obliterate all these distinctions, to destroy the church, to destroy every boundary, to destroy Godly morality, to say that there is no longer any distinction between good and evil, to be in Nietzsche’s terms: “Beyond good and evil.” But this is now portrayed for us as a judgement upon Babylon from God, and it is precisely that.

Babylon seeks to destroy the boundary, and to march in and possess the kingdom of God as its own; but this only leads to Armageddon.

Now what is the significance of Armageddon? There are many ministers who will tell you that Armageddon is a place, and that there is to be a great battle there sometime in the future, where all the nations in a super world war will be united, and the anti God forces will be destroyed. But the most obvious fact here is that there is no such place as Armageddon; and we are not to understand this as a literal place. Why?

First of all, Armageddon means: the mountains of Megiddo, Armegiddo. There is a place named Megiddo, it is a plain. There are no mountains there. There are no mountains of Megiddo. So obviously, when John was given this vision it was to recall something, but it was not to suggest a literal place; because it deliberately put two things together that could not be put together. A plain and a mountain? It would be like speaking of Los-Angeles England. If you wrote about Los-Angeles England you would obviously be writing about a place that did not exist. But you would be trying to put two ideas together.

Now, Megiddo has an important place in the history of the Bible; it was there that God delivered his people under Barak, and under Gideon. Under Barak and under Gideon, the Lords people were humanly speaking, helpless and certain of defeat. But the Lord revealed His power to defeat the enemy. Again at Megiddo, Josiah went out to meet Egypt. And God warned him against going to battle, and said in effect to Josiah: “Josiah, you are trying to do too much. It is impossible for you to destroy Egypt; and Egypt is not marching against you, so leave them alone. I will take care of the enemy, the battle is the Lords.”

Josiah went out and attempted to defeat Egypt by himself. He lost his life, he lost the battle, and before too long his country was finished and in captivity to Babylon. He had destroyed everything.

The reminder therefore, in the battle of Armageddon is this: God will, even as He did for Barak and Gideon, and as He promised Josiah if Josiah had been obedient; destroy the enemy at the appointed time, when they seek most to overthrow Him; and that which they do, which will seemingly bring on their triumph, will bring about their downfall.

And what are nations doing today but creating anarchy and ruin? They are creating lawlessness everywhere, in every nation today. And this is no less true behind the Iron Curtain, remember the Red Guards. They are deliberately, by their teachings obliterating the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong, law and lawlessness, and they are thereby sealing their own fate. That which they raise up to destroy us will ultimately destroy them.

The drying of the Euphrates is the forcing of the issue by Babylon, saying: “We will create a Godless world, with all that it involves.” And this forcing of the issue destroys Babylon, not the kingdom of God.

And so today as we see the enemy every day, move to create the kind of world that they dream of as a paradise, the world becomes progressively more and more lawless; it is committing suicide.

The seventh bowl, in verses 17-21, echoes Hebrews 12:26-29. Saint Paul declared, as he wrote to the Hebrews that: the whole of the Old Testament period, from the giving of the law on Sinai to the coming fall of Jerusalem was a great shaking. But then there would be in the gospel age a second great shaking which would shatter all the nations. “The things that are shall be shaken so that the things which cannot be shaken might alone remain.” The shaking of the nations. This is the fullness of all the preceding judgments. It is the continual destruction by God of mans every attempt to achieve security, and permanence apart from God. The kingdom of evil, the kingdom of Satan, seeks to concentrate itself against the kingdom of God, but God destroys its very coherency so that it falls into three parts and destroys itself. The only unity which Babylon has is in its hatred of God and its kingdom; but because every member of Babylon is ruled by his nature, by the old Adam in him, each seeks to be his own god, and ultimately his hatred expresses itself against his very allies, and finally against himself. And so the destruction is a full devastation of his kingdom.

There is first the great shaking, so that the ground shakes, and everything which is shakable, everything which is not permanent, which is not established in the Lord is shaken down. And then there is the great hail, which recalls the Egyptian plagues as well as the defeat of Israel’s enemies at Bethhoron, in Joshua 10:1-11; when the Lord cast down great stones from heaven. But in Revelation it is portrayed as a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent. In other words, between 60 and a 100 pounds.

Now, such a hail would have a total devastation wherever it fell; it would destroy everything, it would pulverize everything. Now this is given to us as a symbol of the destruction God will visit on the ungodly world. Every thing that man attempt to create apart from God will be pulverized by the judgement of God. So that there will be a shaking from underneath the very foundations, the earth, and from above; to signify that nothing of this shall remain.

So that, as we face the United Nations, as we face Communism and Socialism, and every kind of atheism, and every kind of modernism, we have the promise of God that the kingdoms of this world shall pass away; they shall be pulverized upon the rock of ages which shall grind them to powder. But the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ shall grow in power and demonstrate its full and total sovereignty over all nations, peoples, tongues and tribes. For Jesus Christ is the king of the universe, and the very stars in their course fought against Sisera in Deborah’s day and Barak’s; and they fight against the Siseras of every generation. For the very firmament proclaims His glory, and His majesty.

Therefore, as the psalmist declared: “Kiss the son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in your way. Bow down before Him. Acknowledge Him to be God and savior, even Jesus Christ our Lord.” Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee that Jesus Christ is king of the universe, and that His great shaking shall pulverize the ungodly; and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. We thank Thee our Lord that Thou hast called us to be citizens of the kingdom of God, members of Jesus Christ, and has given us so glorious a destiny in Him. Fill our hearts ever with gratitude, that day by day we may serve Thee and praise Thee as we ought. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now? Yes.

[Audience Member] …?... meaning of Armageddon …?...

[Rushdoony] No, this cannot be personalized any more than it can be made literal. Armageddon has reference to this continual struggle, and to the final struggle whereby God destroys His enemies. And you see, since we are not of Babylon, we are not involved in Armageddon. So you cannot make it personal on that ground alone.

Another question? Yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Good question; with respect to the history of the interpretation of Revelation. Now, the book of Revelation has had a very interesting history, and it would take a number of weeks to trace the history of its interpretation. But basically, there were two conflicting interpretations at the very beginning. The first of these was the Jewish interpretation. Now, as we know, the first Christians were all Jews or Galileans, that is, Hebrews; and it was their temptation to attempt to reduce Christianity again to the old faith, to Phariseeism in essence. And the Pharisaic expectation was that Christ would come to establish a Jewish kingdom, and of course this is why Christ was crucified, because He did not meet their requirements, and they recognized that the kingdom He was the head of was more than a Jewish kingdom. First, it was not of this world; Second, it was a spiritual kingdom; Third, it was the reign of God over every aspect of life in the whole of the world. And so, as the Sanhedrin said: “It is better for this man to die than for the nation to perish” for our hope concerning the messianic kingdom to perish.

Now, many of the Pharisees did become believers, afterwards, of a sort. The resurrection convinced many. And of course, Saint Paul had this continual problem with these pharisaic believers, or the Judaizers as they are called. These Judaizers insisted on reading the whole of the Bible in terms of their Jewish hope and expectation. And so they insisted in reading Revelation as a Jewish kingdom which was going to be established as a world-wide empire when Christ came again.

Now some of these believers broke away and established their own cults which gradually perished. But others remained within the church. Now this was one interpretation, which saw as the fulfillment of a literal Jewish kingdom, the Jewish hope.

The other element saw it in terms of Old Testament and New Testament theology, as the fulfillment of Christ’s rule as the Lord of all the world; that this spoke in terms of the Old Testament scriptures that the whole world should be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the seas, and that this was to be a series of judgments on the world, so that the world might become Christ’s realm.

Now, these are the two basic ways of looking at the book. There were variations within these two perspectives, but these were the two perspectives in the early church. The perspective of the Judaizers had quite a bit of influence at different periods in the middle ages, and then it waned, and then after the Reformation it came in again because so many of the Protestant Reformers and clergy men, while they had Greek in their schools, did not have Hebrew, and they had to go to a Rabbi to learn Hebrew; and this produced a generation or so in the 17th century whose interpretation of Revelation again was subjected to this Judaizing influence. Then it waned.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes. This waned until it was revived again at the last century. So these are the two basic movements within the interpretation of Revelation, there are variations. But the Judaizing influence has lasted longer here than in most parts of the Bible.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes… Mormonism represents the Judaizing element also, very strongly. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, the plague in which the Nile turned to blood, we don’t know much about the details, but there are some historical references; it killed the life within the river; we don’t know, except we are simply told that this is what happened. The Nile was polluted, totally.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, let us check the reference there to see how specifically it is cited, Exodus 7:17. “Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.” So it is very specific there, that it did turn to blood.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, this is one of the beatitudes of Revelation. And Revelation has a number of Beatitudes in it, which are, as it were, asides to the saints. Now, he comes as a thief to the ungodly, but ‘blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.’ In other words, in the midst of all these judgments, the believer is to keep his garments unspotted from the world, that is, he is to grow in grace and in sanctification, and not compromise. He is to stand firm in his faith. And this is set in the context of precisely the destruction of the boundaries, and keeping his garments clean means precisely in terms of the Biblical symbolism, maintaining your separation. The world is destroying the line of division between good and evil, between right and wrong, between any and all religions, between belief and unbelief, and in the midst of this there is a beatitude pronounced upon the believer who maintains the line of distinction, the line of division, who keeps his garments unspotted. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Very good question. If we keep our faith, should we look forward to Armageddon? Both yes and know. Because we have got to recognize, any judgment involves us to an extent in that we are caught up in all the events and the collapse of civilization round about us. In that sense we can’t enjoy it or look forward to it. Yes, in the sense that it will destroy the present order. It will destroy the present order, and make possible a real and a godly order.

Now, these are continuous events in history, although they culminate also in the destruction of all the anti-god forces, at a particular point in history as well. Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Zionism is simply socialism, it is not any different from the kind of politics we have in Moscow, Paris, London, Rome, and Washington D.C. It is the idea of a secular state which is to be man’s salvation.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, it is a modern movement, it was born in the early part of the last century, and is a product of the enlightenment and humanism. And Zionism was until not too many years ago, bitterly resented by most of Judaism. However, now most of them don’t dare criticize it.

Our time is just about up and there are a couple of things I would like to pass on to you, partly in a lighter vein, but first of all on a serious note, from yesterdays paper, I think this item was very revealing as to the kind of economics that prevails today. “Jerry the Miracle worker Wolman; Real-estate construction tycoon, and owner of the Philadelphia Eagles pro football team, has until April 22nd to pull a rabbit out of his hat. Friday, Federal Bankruptcy referee Joseph Kaiser granted the financially troubled Wolman three months to settle 71.9 million dollars in debts and avoid bankruptcy. Success would avoid a major miracle, according to Kaiser.”

Now, this is the significant not; what are is assets as against 71.9 million dollars in debts? Supposedly he has assets of 47.6 million dollars, but the assets include listing a 10 million dollar suit against the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s. Now when you get down to hard, cold cash, what are his assets? Well, here it is: “Wolman listed $24 cash, and a $25 U.S. (?) savings bond.” Now this is modern finance. He is in bankruptcy because he owes 71.9 million dollars debt, and that is all the hard cash he has.

Yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] What?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] No, this was in the Herald Examiner, Saturday, January 20, 1968, page B3. Now, that to me is a very fitting commentary on modern economics.

Now in a somewhat lighter vein, I was at a very interesting meeting a little more than a week ago, and had a very fine dinner, and listened to a lot of horrible, occultist talk; and received an occultist paper which had a lot of interesting information on health and occultism in it; and there was a very interesting remedy for baldness included, and it was stated that it actually cured baldness in a remarkable way with one man. It was the use of fertilizer out of chicken coop, rubbed liberally on the scalp. However it was recommended that you mix a little lavender with it.

Then, just a couple of minutes for something that I thought was mildly amusing, it was a little book written in 1908 by M.D. Halsey, entitled: A Tenderfoot in Southern California. And it is quite interesting as the writer describes a visit to Southern California, and being taken around millionaires row in a horse drawn carriage, Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena, sight seeing and so on. There are a couple of passages which are mildly amusing and I would like to share with you. It is written in the style of the day, and it is quite dated, but it is still pleasant. It is supposedly some letters home.

“When I came out to California, Bill, some blamed idiot who knew it all advised me what to bring. He said, and I will bet my old pair of suspenders he never saw California, he said: “Don’t take any winter clothes out there with you, it is such a hot country you won’t need them.” Well I didn’t, and I like to froze to death. All I had in that blamed trunk of mine was some peekaboo underwear and drop stitch stockings. I wore a summer hat and a summer suit, and a straw hat out on the train to keep cool; and was snow bound on the way to Los Angeles and frost bitten after I got there. It sure was a cold night when we pulled in, and as the train was 4-5 hours late I footed it uptown to a hotel.”

And he says, as he got to this hotel, it was a little one he was able to get: “The landlady hollered after me as I went up the stairs, not to blow out the gas.” (He was an Easterner, you see, and he was a little more advanced, he had electricity) “I didn’t. But I was so stiff with the cold I kept it burning all night to melt the icicles I knew must be hanging from the end of my nose. There was only one measly pair of summer blankets on that bed, and the pillows were so small I came blame near losing them in my ear near morning. I went to bed with all my clothes on, and the rest of the night I lay there and shook until I jarred the bed, and some fellow who had a room under mine pounded on the ceiling and told me to make less noise up there.”

But at any rate… let’s see. Then he has a section on rain. “There are three things in California that are different from the same three things anywhere else on the earth. They are: Sunshine, Moonshine, and Rain. I might add the biggest liars for the fourth, but that is another story. I have seen it rain some in my time, but when it rains in California, it has got all the rest of the country skinned to death. When one drop lands on you in a back-east rain storm, a bucketful strikes you in the same spot out here. It rains in sheets and blankets and comforters, and then some. Every drop must certainly be a comforter, for you never saw people so tickled to death over a rainstorm as these Californians are. Every blamed man, woman and child acts like they struck a gold mine in their own back yard. The kids dance up and down and cry: “Now we can get a red wagon.”” (This was in the days when agriculture depended more, and more water was like gold here; and some of you may remember those days.) “The wife will smile and say: “This will bring the automobile the old man promised me.” And the old man, if he is a farmer, he is talking it over with his neighbor, both of them soaking wet but with a smile that won’t wash out, and crying out: “keep it up, keep it up, it is raining dollars every drop.” If he is a store keeper he is smiling and nodding to everyone who comes into his store, rubbing his hands together all the while, because it means dollars in big letters to each and every one of them. That is why they are so happy.”

Then, oh, he said: “I met the meanest man in California the other day, and if I ever set eyes on him I will bust him up in business buying arnica and court plaster. That man told me, the very first chance I got, to pick a ripe olive and eat it. I did. All I have got to say is, if I ever lay my hands on that critter it will take him longer to (close?) his face than it did me after I ate one of them. There are some things in this world that seem to stick right in your throat, no matter how much you swallow over them; and I bet I will never be able to get the taste of that olive below my windpipe. I will send a couple of them home Bill, give them to your mother in law, and tell her to put them both in her mouth at once, that they have to be eaten in pairs; and if she lives through it and still believes in you, she will stand by you till your money gives out.”

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes.

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Right, some one handed me that clipping last week, and I may be making use of it soon. Well… yes?

[Audience Member] …?...

[Rushdoony] Well, that is quite a big question, we have a very brief time left; but lifting the gold cover, in a sense we have already done that because we have printed far more paper than the reserve clause allows; far, far more. And lifting the gold cover is no answer because the gold will flow out and will be gone. Devaluation is the answer, if we instituted economy immediately. But Devaluation is a drastic answer because of the radical effect it has on every person with any savings. But it is the only step, it is the logical one. After all, no one likes surgery, but if you have gotten yourself into a situation where you have got to have surgery, you have no choice. And in effect what we are doing now is to act like, or at least our Treasury department is acting like a Christian Science practitioner. There is nothing wrong with us, everything is fine. If we only believe it, everything will be well. And so, we will remove the gold cover and everything else, because there is no problem, you see. It’s an insane answer, but it is the logical answer for people who do not believe that there is any God; therefore there is no economic law, therefore what the state does is law. And it is simply the state getting the right combination of laws together that is the answer, is their perspective.

Well, our time is up, and we stand adjourned.