Hashkama: Don’t Bank on It
There was shock and widespread condemnation in 2010 when PayPal permanently suspended Wikileak’s account. Then in 2022, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau froze the bank accounts of those that protested and stood against his vaccine mandate policies.
As is already being done on a mini-scale, those that do not go along with the official narrative will have their assets not only frozen but taken away. Very recently, PayPal shut down Toby Young’s ‘Free Speech Union’ account as well as his personal blog account, ‘The Daily Sceptic’.[i] He received a notification from his personal PayPal account informing him that it was being shut down because he’d violated the company’s ‘Acceptable Use Policy’. He looked at that policy and it covers things like fraud and money laundering so his first thought was it must be a mistake. Then, a few minutes later, he received another notification, this one from the Daily Sceptic’s PayPal account. That, too, had been shut down and for the same reason. Then, another email, this one from the Free Speech Union’s PayPal account. Same story – the Acceptable Use Policy. PayPal appears to be closing down the accounts of all activists. Toby Young spoke about his PayPal experiences on GBNews, and he has written about it in his blog. Should we continue to use PayPal? (Toby announced on GBNews tonight, 29th Sept., [after I had finished this article] that PayPal have now opened his account – after Jacob Rees-Mogg had publicly accused PayPal of trying to cancel Toby. Toby’s response was that he trusted them once, but he won’t be trusting them again. He went on to say the only circumstance in which he would trust PayPal again, are if it restores the accounts of every person and organisation it has deplatformed for political reasons). Other, less high-profile instances of people with dissenting views being deplatformed by companies similar to Patreon, Crowdjustice and GoFundMe are taking place. Even Coutts, the private bank of the rich has a clause in its terms and conditions reserving the right to close accounts of customers who engage in ‘discriminatory conduct.’
It’s not only in the UK; the US payments giant PayPal has been accused of “blatant” political discrimination after the accounts of Covid lockdown sceptics were closed.[ii] The organisers of UsForThem, a group that campaigned to keep schools open during the pandemic, are reported to have discovered that their PayPal account was closed. The Daily Wire reports that a gay rights organisation opposed to paedophilia was deplatformed by PayPal[iii], only to discover that pro-paedophile organisation Prostasia continues to be on good business terms with the financial technology company. Bank accounts will be closed if you don’t follow the official narrative. A woman related how she went to her bank to withdraw £5,000 cash from her personal account. She was made to give an explanation on what she was going to use the money for, and was then told that she could not withdraw that amount. She got around it by withdrawing the money over a period of weeks. She could hear someone else further down the counter in the bank being asked the same questions as her. When the world system chooses to, Christian bank accounts will be closed down, and you will not be able to finance other Christians that struggle to live. A cashless society will be at the mercy of the controlling elite. When a Christian brother or sister loses all, other Christians will not be able to give them money to help them to survive. Parents and grandparents will not be able to give pocket-money to their children and grandchildren, or to slip a banknote or two into a birthday card or Christmas card. The little things we take for granted will all disappear in a cashless society. It will be Babylon re-visited.
We see in the Gospels how Jesus was betrayed into the hands of the authorities by a religious coalition of priests and Judas Iscariot (Matthew 26:14-15); and how members of the society accused a disciple of being a follower of Jesus (Matthew 26:69, 71, 73). A Christian friend was horrified when he read accounts of what happened in the old Communist USSR, where KGB officials told a family to spy on a neighbour that lived across the road, and to note who went to their house, and when they went out. They were told that if they did not comply, the authorities would take their house from them. People in the UK were encouraged to report their neighbours to the authorities during Covid, and again during the water shortage. In the future, there will be those that recognise you as a follower of Jesus and will report you to the authorities. Brother will betray brother to death and a father will betray his child, and children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death (Mathew 10:21; Mark 13:12). Jesus was betrayed by His disciple, Judas (Luke 22). If we are in the habit of betraying Jesus now by disobeying His word, by doing what we shouldn’t do, and not doing what we should do, we will betray Him when the persecution comes, and when Christians are put outside the world camp. What we have hidden in our lives will be revealed under the pressure and stress of world authorities. Those who claim to be strong but are weak will fold. Those perceived to be weak might be found to be strong (2 Corinthians 12:10). These are well-known Scriptures that perhaps some living today will experience, on a world-wide scale. Teaching the Scriptures without paying attention to detail could be costly. In my last article, The World Economic Forum[iv], I mentioned “The Great Reset.” The Reset is simply a rebranded Soviet system, which threatens to strip away property rights, restrict freedom of movement and association. It intends to radically reshape what we eat, and our whole way of life. The Great Reset is the long-planned reorganization of the world imposed by technocratic global elites. The ideas of Karl Marx appear to be more popular in the West than they ever have been, and is due to the invidious influence of Michel Foucault’s apostles, the Frankfurt School, the New Left, the Alinsky-ites, and the likes of Zinn, Chomsky, and Moore. We haven’t voted for any of the changes occurring, but it is what is taking place. The unprecedented suspension of liberties in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has emboldened the forces behind the Great Reset to achieve their centrally planned vision: monitoring, planning, censoring, crushing dissent, controlling the lives of the masses for our “safety”—all in the name of “The Science.” The very real threat of oppressive rule by unelected experts in government is now threatening to engulf the world in the wake of the COVID lockdowns, “phased re-openings,” vaccine passports, contact tracing, mask mandates, capacity limits, bans on church services and social gatherings, stay-at-home orders, and travel restrictions. Citizens of once-free Western democracies faced limits on where and when they could go out—subject to the whims of government bureaucrats. These drastic limits on our liberties were put in place largely without legislative votes or public hearings. In addition, climate-inspired energy regulations, massive government spending, supply chain issues, food shortages, debt, out-of-control crime in major cities, spiralling inflation, wars, and economic “degrowth” all helped create the perfect pandemonium to empower the forces of the Great Reset.[v] It has been and is, a gradual process of dehumanisation – a process that began in Genesis Ch.3, and will conclude when Jesus returns and makes “all things new.” This will not be some pathetic Reset, it will be the Kingdom of God!
Knowing God’s Word
Margaret set up a twinning churches programme in the UK with congregations in Israel. It was some years ago when a couple asked if they could be the representatives for their church. It was agreed that they could. Several years later the husband of the couple was preaching. In his sermon he referred to a part of Israel as ‘The West Bank.’ When he had finished his sermon, Margaret attempted to correct him, saying that it is Judea and Samaria, not The West Bank. “Ohhhh” he retorted, “I don’t think about things like that.” When Margaret spoke to a woman in the same meeting about it, the woman replied, “The speaker (I won’t name names) is very intelligent you know; he’s a doctor!” He was as if “he couldn’t possibly be wrong!” So that congregation went away with the impression that part of Israel – Judea and Samaria, is the occupied West Bank, in effect, declaring it to be Palestinian land which is occupied by Israel. This is a man that has been to Israel a number of times, and met with the congregation his church is twinned with. The designation “West Bank” is a misnomer and should not be used by Christians. If we are careless or slovenly now, what will we be when bibles and the teaching aids we take for granted are no longer available?
Knowing Jesus
In John Ch.10, Jesus speaks about His sheep; He knows them and they know Him. “My sheep hear My voice; I know them and they follow Me” (John 10:27). We should use the time available to us to know Jesus and to listen to His voice. After Jesus had risen from the dead, we know the famous Scripture about ‘Doubting Thomas’ as it is sometimes referred to (John 20:24-25); but Thomas wasn’t the only disciple to have doubted. At another time, in a different place, it says in Matthew 29:16-17, “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go (Matthew 26:32). When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. Interestingly, Thomas, called Didymus, was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them; but Jesus appeared to all the disciples together in Matthew and still some doubted. In this case, seeing did not immediately lead to believing. It seems incredible that some doubted since He had appeared to them on a number of occasions previously (Luke 24:36-46; and during the lockdown in John 20:19-31; John 21:1, 2; 1 Corinthians 15:6-7), but that is what happened. We should not be arrogant and think that we would do any better than some of His disciples at that time. They had lived with Jesus; they breathed Jesus and knew Him intimately. Christians in the days to come might face such situations. The fake Christ will throw many into confusion and denial concerning Jesus. It is possible that Jesus will appear to His disciples at various time and diverse places, particularly after the world has visibly and physically rejected them. Will we recognise Him if He appears to any of us if we are alive on earth at that time?
The next article will be the last of my regular Hashkama pieces. People say that age is just a number. The problem is that, as the number gets higher, you begin to lose more and more of your friends and those that pray for you. Prayer support is essential in any ministry or work. Without that support, spiritual power and insight wains; so one has a double-whammy – One’s physical and mental capacity suffers somewhat with the passing of time, and one’s spiritual energy supply wains with the passing of those who prayed for you. There are archived articles available to read online[vi] should anyone want to look them up, and I might be enabled to do an article from time to time, God willing.
Scripture exhorts us to “Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8; Jeremiah 29:12-14).
Blessings and shalom
Malcolm
[29.09.2022]
[i] https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1572315009497038849
[ii] https://www.gbnews.uk/news/paypal-shuts-accounts-of-more-lockdown-sceptics/370244
[iii] https://www.dailywire.com/news/gay-rights-organization-gets-deplatformed-by-paypal-while-pro-pedophile-group-remains
[iv] http://saltshakers.com/?p=2578 Hashkama: The World Economic Forum
[v] The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown, by Marc Morano
[vi] Hashkama Blog artilces: http://saltshakers.com/?cat+11
