# Help with a "verse"



## Marrow Man (Oct 16, 2008)

My mom attends a rural church (I'll refrain from mentioning the denomination, but it should be too hard to figure out) that is dispensational _de facto_ in its eschatology (i.e., I'm not sure they know there's anything else out there). The pastor is not seminary trained, though I think he has a two year Bible degree or something akin to it. Anyway, I've been trying to "talk her down" from this perspective whenever we have conversations (limited, since she lives 2 states away in Georgia).

She's mentioned to me a few times recently (in response to the recent financial crisis) that someone told her that "the Bible says that in the end times, people will will have plenty of money but nothing to buy" or something like that. She asked where that was in the Bible, and I told her I was unfamiliar with the "verse." I did several computer word searches while I had her on the phone, as well as a Google search. The closest things I could find are in Isaiah 55 and Revelation 13, but those contexts obviously don't have anything to do with the "verse" in question.

What am I missing here? Am I overlooking something obvious? Can someone more familiar with dispensational theology than I point me toward the "verse" in question? I told her to ask her pastor where this was found; he said he didn't know off the top of his head but it was in the Bible and he would get back to her. Obviously, he hasn't.


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## biggandyy (Oct 16, 2008)

Maybe she is referring to the Mark of the Beast where people will only be able to purchase goods and services if they accept the financial mark instituted by the anti-Christ?

Those who refuse will have plenty of money but unable to buy anything without the Mark.


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## Kim G (Oct 16, 2008)

During a quick Google search, I came across someone who said that when the Bible talks about "a famine in the land of plenty," it means plenty of money but no food to buy.


Also, there's this poem by Rudyard Kipling:


> As I pass through my incarnations
> In every age and race,
> I make my proper prostrations
> To the Gods of the Market Place.
> ...


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## BobVigneault (Oct 16, 2008)

That would be Rev. 6:6:

6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”

The dispensationalist's hermeneutic tells him that this is a time when food will be scarce and very expensive, however, it will also be a time of great luxury and opulence. In other words, their won't be any middle income folks - just the very poor and the very rich. The rich will be insulated from the famine and hunger.


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## Marrow Man (Oct 16, 2008)

biggandyy said:


> Maybe she is referring to the Mark of the Beast where people will only be able to purchase goods and services if they accept the financial mark instituted by the anti-Christ?
> 
> Those who refuse will have plenty of money but unable to buy anything without the Mark.



Perhaps. This is what I was referencing when I mentioned Rev. 13 in my post. It seems to be quite a stretch, however.


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## Marrow Man (Oct 16, 2008)

BobVigneault said:


> That would be Rev. 6:6:
> 
> 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”
> 
> The dispensationalist's hermeneutic tells him that this is a time when food will be scarce and very expensive, however, it will also be a time of great luxury and opulence. In other words, their won't be any middle income folks - just the very poor and the very rich. The rich will be insulated from the famine and hunger.



Amazing. I did an exegesis paper on the first verses of Revelation 6 and did not come across this sort of interpretation.

I think all of you are right in what you are pointing to. My problem is that my mother was told that what she was hearing was "a verse in the Bible." So far, Kim is the only one who has found that exact quote, and in a poem by Kipling!!!


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## turmeric (Oct 16, 2008)

Marrow Man said:


> BobVigneault said:
> 
> 
> > That would be Rev. 6:6:
> ...


 
So much for the Gods of the Copybook Headings!  

BTW, what is a copybook heading? It sounds wise.


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## Marrow Man (Oct 16, 2008)

I'm sure someone out there will read the words from the poem Kim posted and declare that Kipling was the Nostradamus of his day:



> Then the Gods of the Market tumbled,
> And their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
> And the hearts of the meanest were humbled
> And began to believe it was true



That's the stock market collapse, Obama, and the unthinking electorate all rolled into one!


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## MOSES (Oct 16, 2008)

15 The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city *famine and pestilence devour*. 16 And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. 17 All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. 18 They put on sackcloth, and horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. 19 *They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold *is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them *in the day of the wrath* of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it.
Ezekiel 7


They will have gold and silver, but, there will be no food. They cannot eat thier gold and silver that they have hoarded up for themselves...God's wrath of famine and pestilence is severe. There gold cannot save them.

Of course the Dispensationalists' see evertything in scripture as future and every "wrath" as the wrath at the end times...so it is with this verse for them.


Note: Ezekiel is a very, very important book in scripture for the Dispensationalists...so I would not be suprised if this is not the scripture they are referring to.
I hope that helps!


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## Kim G (Oct 16, 2008)

Marrow Man said:


> I'm sure someone out there will read the words from the poem Kim posted and declare that Kipling was the Nostradamus of his day



Here's the first website I found when looking up this issue. Weird stuff.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings


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## Kim G (Oct 16, 2008)

MOSES said:


> 15 The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city *famine and pestilence devour*. 16 And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. 17 All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. 18 They put on sackcloth, and horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. 19 *They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold *is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them *in the day of the wrath* of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it.
> Ezekiel 7



You win. 

That definitely sounds like the passage!


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