In the Bible’s Book of Revelation, the 13th chapter, we read—if one supposes this figure is yet future—a description of a world leader who will be so fearsome, he will make mass murderers Hitler and Stalin look like amateurs.

Interestingly, a key feature of this person, whom conservative Bible scholars identify as THE antichrist, will be his ability to assign some sort of “mark” for all people who want to buy and sell. In other words, if one does not have this mark, one cannot participate in commerce.

For many years, Bible prophecy teachers like Hal Lindsey were ridiculed for suggesting that this scenario was coming. Now, we have a global economy that is deathly fragile. Barack Obama really doesn’t have any answers. Neither do our financial experts, etc. The world is ripe for a single, extraordinary leader who will have all the answers.

This beast from the Bible, a man with barbaric appetites and uncommon political skills, will control global commerce. With all the world’s national powers nervous about a domino effect, if a large economy falls, we can actually see a plausible scenario in which this man of evil emerges.

The United States alone has been almost crippled financially, as merely two battlefield fronts in the war on terror have cost over $2 trillion. The world is losing its grip on sanity.

A man much, much smarter than Bill Clinton (or any of the other candidates for the Man of Sin) will rise and appear to solve the world’s problems.

But the day will then come when he will call in every person’s spiritual debt, and the fallout will be much worse than the collapse of any economic system.