Rockin' On: the Blog

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Sunday, October 13, 2024

If you believe Jonathan Cahn, you are betting against the house.

Recently I was sent a link to a video posted by the Messianic Jewish minister and author, Jonathan Cahn. A Messianic Jewish minister is a Jewish individual who believes in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah and adheres to Christian beliefs as presented in the New Testament.

At first, I wrote Cahn off as just another crank scaring gullible people with prophesies of the "end days". Then I learned that Cahn's most recent book, The Dragon's Prophecy: Israel, the Dark Resurrection, and the End of Days, is a number one best seller. That got my attention.

Within just a day of its release, the book reached No. 1 on Amazon's Global Bestseller List. It was also number 1 on the New York Times Bestsellers List and still holds that position today. This fellow is getting the word out and getting very wealthy doing it. He has sold millions of books. I am impressed.

But, I am not impressed enough to believe this dude. I am 77 years old and I have heard this bumph for my whole life. My mother and I did not believe it then and I still don't. Most, if not all, those "prophets" from the '50s are now dead and many of the ones who replaced them are gone as well.

Jack Van Impe died on January 18, 2020, at the age of 88, following a fall.

Tim LaHaye died on July 25, 2016, at the age of 90, following complications from a stroke.

Hal Lindsey, in The Late Great Planet Earth, predicted that the world would end sometime before December 31, 1988. He was wrong. In later years he hedged his bets but at the ripe old age of 93 he is still patiently waiting.

David Jeremiah has not made any specific predictions about the exact date when the world will end but it could happen at any moment. Jeremiah's focus is on spiritual readiness rather than setting specific timelines for apocalyptic events. David Jeremiah is now 82. Time is running out on his prophesies.

Jonathan Cahn is a Johnny-come-lately to all this silliness as he wasn't born until April 12, 1959 but he still has a big "whoops" in his resume. He wrote another book, the Mystery of the SHEmeeTAH, in which he predicted the end of the U.S. as we know it would happen on September13, 2015. Of course, it didn't happen.

I am not alone in taking issue with these self-proclaimed prophets. Click the link and read what Pastor David O. Dykes, Green Acres Church, Tyler, Texas, had to say, "Over the last decade there has been an alarming growth of neo charismatic/Pentecostal influence into conservative politics. I have always considered myself politically and theologically conservative, but there are some religious nuts who have hijacked part of the conservative movement. There has been a rise in the number of people who are calling themselves modern day prophets and are making predictions – about world events. One of them is best-selling author, Jonathan Cahn.

Why am I so confident Cahn will be wrong again? Well, I have more than a thousand years on my side. Some worried the world would end in the year 1000 AD, reflecting apocalyptic fears associated with the millennium and supposedly found in the Bible.

If that is not an early enough date for you, I could reach back farther into the past but I am sure you have caught my drift. If you believe this scare talk, you are betting against the house. More than a thousand years of continuous wins by the "I-don't-believe-it" crowd puts prophets like Jonathan Cahn on the wrong side of the table.

If you would like to read another take, but one in the same vein as this one, check out:

The Agony of Deceit post that says, "Jonathan Cahn does not resemble a biblical prophet but resembles more a charlatan." Well said.

Monday, August 5, 2024

What to do in today's falling markets.

The markets all around the world have gone into tailspins. Why? There are lots of theories, all have a wee bit of truth, but no one has a compete handle on what is driving the losses. So, what does one do? I agree with The New York Times writer: do nothing. Be patient. This will pass and surprisingly soon. There is even a good chance that this global tumble will be followed by some markets actually reaching new highs.

If you have been in the market, Canadian or U.S., for some time, you can take solace in your portfolio bottom line. Even after today's crashing numbers, I bet you are very nicely in the green. Stay focused on your wins and you will get through this intact.

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Journalist must not even appear biased

Recently, a well respected local columnist wrote a column which appeared in the local paper. The local paper is owed by Post Media and many believe Post Media has a hate on for the federal Liberal party. Furthermore, many readers believe that this hatred results in biased reporting.

The column in question said that Finland’s poverty rate was of 0.1 per cent. To put this in perspective, the poverty rate in Canada was given as 7.4 per cent according to census figures.

Whoa! Can that be true? Can Finland actually have a poverty rate of 0.1 percent? A little research revealed the figure may be one reported by MacroTrends. Curious, I looked for the MacroTrends figure for Canada. It was 0.0 percent.

The MacroTrends figures are highly suspect. Heck, I heard from the columnist and even he admitted "Any source that says Canada's poverty rate for 2022 was zero percent is laughable." And that is a quote.

The columnist went on to tell me, my "point was that Finland's poverty rate is significantly below that of Canada and the United States." That is another quote. But, is it also an assumption? The columnist compared a "laughable" poverty rate figure for Finland and a proper census figure for Canada. Is some bias against the ruling federal Liberals creeping in here? Has the columnist bent over backwards to put Canada's poverty rate in the poorest light?

I found a risk of poverty figure for Finland for 2022 published by Statista. It was 12.3 percent. This figure defined poverty as being below 60% of the median income. I could not find a comparable figure from the same source for Canada. But, I did find this figure from Statistics Canada: 9.9 percent of Canadians lived in poverty in 2022. But it is hard to compare this number to the Finnish number. It is not an apples to apples comparison.

I decided the Low-Income Measure (LIM) may be a better choice to use for the Canadian number. It considers household poverty to kick in when an adjusted income is below 50% of median household incomes. I found that themost recent data available has approximately 12.0% of Canadians living at or below the Low-Income Measure (LIM) calculated for 2022. This is the same year as used in the Finnish number.

I could continue this research but I believe I have made my point. The columnist used a laughable (his word) figure to make the point that Canada is lagging far behind Finland when it comes to solving the problem of poverty. Assumptions are not acceptable and his assumption may well be wrong. Period. Canadians should be able to expect more from their newspapers.

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Heart Failure Life Expectancy Calculator

I found two Heart Failure Life Expectancy Calculators online.(https://www.omnicalculator.com/.../heart-failure-life...). AND the Seattle Heart Failure Model (https://depts.washington.edu/shfm/app.php?width=1536&height=864).

I'm going to show these calculators to my heart doctor when I see him next in about five months. I'm interested in hearing his opinion as the calculated results seems so different. Doctors are reticent to give a patient with HF an estimate of their life expectancy. A calculator lets them off the hook, so to speak.

If you go to the first link shown and scroll to the bottom of that page, you will fine an assortment of more cardiovascular system calculators.

And what were my results? Drum roll, please.