Economy Nucleus of Tribulation

December 1, 2025

By Terry James

Reprinted from Terry James Prophecy Line

One prophetic element stands out in considering the seven-year Tribulation era regarding the Antichrist regime. That is the economic platform prophesied to be at the heart of the Beast system.

With so many signals in view that point to the brewing Tribulation tempest, we should expect—if we’re reading the end-times signals correctly—that this heart of the Beast should be well along in its construction. We’ve covered all the indicators found within current issues and events that we believe are signals like those given by Jesus and the prophets. National and world economies have been dealt with in our efforts to make prophetic sense of the dynamic rearrangements taking place in recent times.

America’s staggering weight of debt and threat of economic decline, despite the Trump administration’s determination and successful efforts to begin restoring fiscal responsibility and produce recovery, is front and center in pointing to the fact that this is the generation that stands at the end of one dispensation (the Church Age) and upon the precipice of the next (the Tribulation). Each hour seems to bring additional confirmation that the Tribulation storm is about to break upon an uncomprehending world. We see such confirmation in abundance in the realm of geopolitics and global economics.

Since Bible prophecy clearly says the Antichrist government, thus the economic engine that will power that absolute dictatorship, will emerge from Europe, we need to keep our prophetic antennae pointed in that direction. In other words, we must be especially alert to news involving movement within Europe to cause significant changes to the global economic structure.

The following excerpt from the European Union hierarchy registers an interesting blip on my own end-times radar screen.

“Geopolitical shifts and heightened policy uncertainty remind us that no currency’s global position is guaranteed,” Christine Lagarde told EU policymakers…

The European Union must “do its homework” and seize the unprecedented opportunity to strengthen the global role of the euro at the expense of the US dollar, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde urged on Monday.

Speaking to the European Parliament’s economy committee, the ECB chief said that current geopolitical instability provides EU policymakers with a “unique opportunity … to strengthen the euro’s role on the global stage”.

“The world is in transition,” Lagarde added. “Geopolitical shifts and heightened policy uncertainty remind us that no currency’s global position is guaranteed. It has to be earned.”

The remarks come as U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and attacks on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s independence have sparked deep investor unease about the future of the U.S. dollar, which has dominated global finance since the end of the Second World War…

Many non-Western countries, including the ‘BRICS’ group of nations – which includes China and Russia – have [like the EU] sought to “de-dollarise” the global payments system in recent years, despite Trump’s threats to impose 100% tariffs on nations seeking to move away from the U.S. dollar.

A more “global” euro would allow businesses, households, and governments in the 20-country single currency area to enjoy lower borrowing costs, Lagarde said – much as global demand for dollar-denominated assets has afforded Washington the “exorbitant privilege” of consistently low interest rates despite years of widening budget deficits.

But for this to be achieved, “Europe must do its homework and strengthen its foundations” by integrating capital markets, safeguarding central bank independence, deepening trade links with third countries, developing a “digital euro” that isn’t dependent on US payment infrastructure, and issuing a “safe and liquid pool of EU public debt,” Lagarde said.

“The euro can be more than the currency of a continent and a symbol of unity; it can become a global anchor of trust,” she said, adding that the bloc’s policymakers should help “transform that vision, that dream into a reality.” (“EU must seize ‘unique opportunity’ to supplant U.S. dollar dominance, says ECB president,” https://www.euractiv.com)

Prophecy scholars and others have long pondered why the U.S., the most powerful nation in history, isn’t mentioned by name—or even by significant reference—in God’s Word. We continue to flounder in attempts at finding an exact answer for that question. However, with the recent astonishing changes nationally and abroad, the answer seems to be in the process of forming.

Monetary manipulation is at the root of the change taking place. The American dollar must be removed as the currency standard so that a global currency not underwritten by any national monetary unit can be established. This is precisely the Beast economic order I’m convinced Bible prophecy describes as outlined in the following:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Rev. 13:16-18)

This speaks to me of a computer system—a hybrid Internet whereby all citizens of the global economic order will be absolutely controlled at every level of life. Probably, it will consist at its heart of electronic funds transfer (EFT)–a system of special drawing rights (SDR)—all governed, no doubt, by an ultra-advanced AI technology along with Antichrist’s demonic evil. Anyone refusing to toe the mark of the Antichrist’s regime will face having his or her SDR account blocked or entirely removed from the system. Fear of starvation is a mighty motivator to comply.

Pressures are mounting for a completely changed global economic order. Even the king of the kings of the East, China, is at the center of the dynamics driving the changes.

Most economists who are honest will admit that the current building economic heap of debt cannot continue to accumulate. They are amazed, in fact, that everything hasn’t already collapsed into total, worldwide depression. I again offer my belief that it will be the Rapture that causes the ultimate implosion and collapse.

The great world leader called “the Beast” in Revelation will be there to implement a satanically inspired economic scheme that will at first offer hope; it will, for a time, “cause craft to prosper” (Daniel 8:25). But Antichrist’s plan will achieve what it will be designed to do: enslave most of the world in electronic bondage.

Jesus offers the opposite of what the counterfeit, Antichrist, will produce. Jesus promises: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). We must at every opportunity lift up the Holy name of Jesus before the eyes of a world headed into the terrors of the Tribulation.