Rabbi Schneider - Are We Witnessing the Collapse of Civilization?
I remember it wasn’t too long ago I had a prophetic dream. And the Lord often speaks to me through my dreams at night. I don’t mean every day or even every week but I mean often in my journey with Him over 40 years. And in this particular dream, I was on this big warship and I was just one of the people that were in the ship. There was, you know, hundreds of men and women that were in this warship, sleeping there. Each one had their own little place where they were sleeping. And we had been out on this mission. And this mission that we had been on on this ship had been very, very difficult. And finally, we were on the end of the journey. We were pulling into a port and we had completed the assignment connected with this particular mission.
And I was in my room getting dressed, getting ready to get off this warship after being aborted for months at sea. And I could feel in my spirit that this journey had been so hard, that lives had been lost, that the people on the ship had really been beaten down through what we had been through. It was very, very hard. I could feel the grief and the sadness and what it had cost people to have been on this journey. And as I’m getting ready, beloved one, to get off this warship, thinking, praise God, it’s over, we’re pulling into the port now, it’s going to be like spring, I’m going to get off the boat, I’m going to take a big breath of air and be free.
As I was getting ready to disembark from the boat, the ship, an officer walked into my cabin, into my room, in this vision of the night, and he said to me this. He said, «If you think that was hard, get ready. The next thing is going to be even harder». Beloved, Paul said, know this, in the last days difficult times will come. Yeshua warned us of this. And the most prolific writing of the last days, the end times, and the difficulties associated with it, is the book of Revelation. And that’s what we’re doing on this journey. We’re going through the book of Revelation. Now more than ever we feel what’s happening. We can feel in the atmosphere that the bottom has fallen out. We feel the evil. We see the chaos. We’re living in what I call the chaos of evil.
Evil’s first front is chaos, because once the enemy can produce chaos, there’s nothing left in terms of strength and order to hold foundations together. And what we’re seeing all over the world is the work of the enemy breaking down culture, morality, institutions, the family, even gender identity, through a spirit of chaos. And this chaos is what creates an open door for evil to arise and show its more violent side, which is, beloved, just hatred. Oh my gosh, I know we’re all feeling this together. It’s like a foreboding that we’re feeling.
I mean the world watched in horror when on October 7th the Hamas militants broke through Israel’s borders and just massacred people. And they did it with such hatred and such malintent. It wasn’t just a strategic attack for the purpose of an objective gain. It was just to destroy. The hatred just came out. I mean, yeah, they had strategy behind it. You know, they’re wanting to get back at Israel. They’re wanting to… But I mean, the way that it happened, it was just pure evil, pure hatred with no respect at all for humanity. We’re living in a new world.
You see, the attacks now that are happening all around us are not just strategic attacks by military forces that are operating under the rules of law and the rules of war. Instead, we’re seeing people being attacked at shopping malls, concerts. Even in our school systems, our kids are being subject to mass killing. We’re all aware, beloved, that we are living in a time like none other. It’s scary. We feel it. And in the natural world, it is dangerous. In fact, a poll was conducted. Over 70% of Americans say that they lose sleep worrying about their family. Over 70% of people in the world believe that in the next year, there will be a major outbreak of some type of nuclear war, biological war, weapons of mass destruction through chemicals, or whatever.
The world’s in terror right now because there’s nothing holding things together anymore. We’re living in the chaos of evil. And countries that were once kind of staying in order because they were afraid of the superpowers of America and our nuclear capabilities and the former USSR and its capability, now small row countries have gotten their hand on nuclear weapons or at least have access to nuclear power, and they’re now shaking their might at America and Israel, and it’s only a matter of time before things just blow up. And we all feel it. Iran, who wants to see Israel wiped off the face of the earth, is shaking its fist at Israel and America.
I remember not long ago when I was in Israel, I’ve been there many times over the years, but I remember, beloved one, being in a shop in Israel not long ago, and I said to the owner of the shop… you know, this was before the war broke out. I said, «How are you feeling here? How is the country feeling»? And he was completely, beloved… Again, this was before the Hamas attack. He said to me, «You know, we used to… as Israelis, we were optimistic». He said, «But we’ve tried for so long, we’ve tried so hard to find a way of peace with our neighbors, and nothing we have done has worked. And we’ve basically,» he said… It sounded like they had given up hope that there could ever be peace in the land.
He said it’s just a matter of time before a country, one of our nations, we’re surrounded, as everybody that’s listening knows right now, Israel’s surrounded by their enemies. And the shop owner said to me, «It’s only a matter of time before one of our enemies is able to pull the trigger, so to speak, and we’re going to have mass destruction in the Holy Land». Let me give you more specific information I alluded to some statistics a moment ago. Let me actually read the verbiage here about these statistics. «In the United States, 7 out of 10 adults worry about keeping themselves or their families safe at night. A third of Americans fear a total economic collapse».
I mean, think about this. After World War II, the country was booming. Everybody was living optimistically. We were watching Leave It to Beaver. Now, a third of Americans fear a total economic collapse as our government is out of control in their spending. And we can’t rein it in. The government is a monster. It’s so big. The bureaucracy is so huge. It’s monstrous. And no one can rein it back because everybody is trying to hang on to what they have. In fact, what many of the bureaucrats are being told is make sure… like if they’re given a per diem expense that they can use when they travel, they’re being advised, make sure to spend all your allotment. In other words, if they have $120 a day for meals or etc., make sure they’re being told to use all your expenses because if you don’t use all your expenses, they’re going to cut back our division’s expenses for the next year.
So make sure to spend all the money that the government has allotted to you. Otherwise, they’re going to take our budget back for the next year. So we need to keep spending. We need to keep spending. We need to keep spending. The bureaucracy is out of control. It’s so big. It’s monstrous. And there’s no way, beloved, to rein it back in, because the only way that it can be reined back in is by the bureaucrats themselves. And they’re not going to do it because if they do, that means something’s going to be taken away from them. Their expenses are going to be cut. Their budget’s going to be cut. They spend so much money, every division of the government, just so that they can make sure they keep on getting money from the government.
And there’s all this waste. And if they’re working too hard, they’re being penalized. And so if they’re given enough work to last them 30 days… I just saw an attorney that works closely with the government reporting on this. If an employee is given enough work and they say, this is your work for the next 30 days, they might finish it in seven days. But rather than turning it in at the end of seven days, they turn it in a little bit each week, a little bit each week, even though it only took them seven days to finish it. Why? Otherwise, government would what? Would pull back. They’d have fewer employees. And no one wants to lose their job. So I’m telling you that it’s no wonder that the country fears a total economic collapse when we keep spending, spending, spending, spending, spending.
And the people that can fix it won’t, because in order for them to fix it, it means they’d have to sacrifice, they’d have to give up something. I remember one government employee was sharing her testimony and she quit working for the government because she was one of those people that when she came into work she wanted to work. She wanted to keep on banging it out, banging it out. But they told her, no, slow down. And if you don’t slow it down and cooperate with our system here, you’re going to end up missing out on a promotion. So she ended up quitting because she said, this is not the way I was raised. I was taught that I’m to save the taxpayers' money, not cost the taxpayers' money. This is what we’re dealing with. So it’s a real danger.
Continuing with the statistics here, 76% of Americans expect a massive global conflict involving the world’s greatest superpowers within the next 25 years. Listen again. 76% of Americans, 76% expect a massive global conflict involving the world’s superpowers within the next 25 years. I mean, what’s this doing to our psyche? Those of you that are parents right now with children under the age of 18 years old, raising kids in a world where you’re expecting nuclear war to break out. I mean, it’s breaking the psyche of mankind. We’re living in the last days.
All of a sudden, those prophets that used to be standing on the street corners that we used to laugh at back in the 70s and 80s, waving signs on the street corners that were saying: the world’s coming to an end, and we used to laugh at them and mock them. All of a sudden we’re realizing, you know what? They were right after all. The world is coming to an end. And beloved, this isn’t some crazy lunatic that’s talking to you now. This is a messenger of the Word of God. Jesus told us these things will happen, and we’re seeing them happening all around us right now like neon lights. And Jesus said, «and then the end will come». We’re seeing the neon lights, and we should now be prepared, and this is why the Lord gave us the book of Revelation, which we’re covering in this.
This is why we’re going to the book of Revelation. Because Yeshua gave us the book of Revelation to guide us, lead us, empower us, and inspire us so that we can live victoriously, beloved, in the age that we’re living in today. The troubles keep on mounting. And countless believers today, although the troubles are mounting and it’s happening all over us, countless believers today are putting their face in the sand, not squarely facing what is happening around them because they don’t have the courage to face reality. And it’s for the same reason, this lack of courage, that many of those that call themselves Christians, believers, don’t even read the book of Revelation or study the book of Revelation because they’re scared of it, and they don’t want to deal with those type of, these type of because we’re actually in what’s happening, hard realities.
And so rather than facing life squarely, people are trying to hide in pleasantries. But this is not a time for fluff, this is a time for the truth. And we need, beloved, strong medicine. Yeshua said this in Revelation 1:3, «Blessed is he who reads…» He’s speaking of the book of Revelation. «Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near».
We need to wake up. The Lord told us we should consider ourselves as soldiers. And that’s the way that we need to be living. We need to be living as soldiers, recognizing that soon we’re going to meet Him face to face. and you know, many are out there wanting to create a narrative that things are going to get better, but the Bible tells us that what we’re dealing with now is what the book of Thessalonians warned us about, that the time would come that He that restrains, speaking of the Holy Spirit… Paul wrote, it’s the time that would come when He that restrains, speaking of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s presence in the church, that He that restrains, God’s presence in the world, would no longer restrain. That the manifest authority of God in the earth that’s been restraining evil would begin to lift.
Paul said, «He that restrains will no longer restrain». And as the Holy Spirit begins to step back from exerting his authority in the world, what happens instead is a vacuum is created, and in that vacuum evil arises. And in the rising of evil, Paul said, the Antichrist would arise. That the world would become so desperate and so deluded and so deceived and so morally bankrupt that they would put their faith in the anti-Messiah, the Antichrist. Now, what do we mean when we say Antichrist, anti-Messiah? What do we mean when we say darkness? What do we mean when we say devil?
Well, beloved, I want you to think in terms of reality. God is light. The devil is the opposite of light. The devil is darkness. But darkness has personhood to it. Darkness has intent. Darkness has intelligence. Oh, so the darkness is named evil. Jesus said, «I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning». The devil is non-reality. He’s a reality that is non-reality. Everything about him is empty. He’s the opposite of reality. He’s the opposite of light. He’s real, and he’s in a war with God. He’s in a war with God’s people. And as the Holy Spirit is stepping back from exerting his authority in the earth, darkness, Satan, the serpent of old, is releasing his power through his agents in the earth. And he works through human beings as well as demonic fallen angels. And as this is happening, evil and destruction are in the wake, and the world is crumbling, and this is what we’re facing right now.