Foot and Mouth – Judgment or Plot? 

Is the foot and mouth epidemic as judgment on this nation?  Certainly coming at the end of a miserable winter in which floods and train accidents have brought chaos to Britain, this can certainly be seen as a sign of God’s displeasure.  The last time foot and mouth struck was in 1967, the year the Abortion Bill was passed, legalising the slaughter of millions of babies in the womb.  This epidemic follows the government pushing through various measures promoting homosexuality.  

The Bible teaches that the destruction of cattle is a sign of judgment.  If Israel walked in the ways of the Lord there would be blessing on their herds (Deuteronomy 28.4), but if not: ‘Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. … Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies and you shall have no one to rescue them’ (Deuteronomy 28.18,31).  The rotting corpses of slaughtered animals in the fields and the giant funeral pyres of burning animals are a dramatic illustration of the spiritual disease afflicting our nation leading to the fires of hell. 

However the problem with this view is that the main victims of foot and mouth are those living in the countryside, most of whom are opposed to the policies of this government, which has shamelessly discriminated against country dwellers and played up divisions between town and country.  There is another interpretation of what is going on which is probably nearer the truth.  Graham Danton, writing in the ‘Western Morning News’ (23/3/01) says, ‘In 1998, an EU meeting of agricultural ministers was told of the European Commission’s long term plan to abolish livestock farming in the UK and make it an area of only crop raising.’    This could explain the ferocity of the mass slaughter of healthy animals which many vets and scientists are questioning the necessity for.  Some are saying that contamination resulting from the slaughter policy could make the farmland affected unusable for years to come. 

According to an article in The Guardian (11/4/01) the government plans a major reduction in the number of farms and farmers as part of a recovery package for British agriculture in the wake of the foot and mouth outbreak.  Ministers expect that by 2005 as many as 25% of farms - almost all small ones - will have closed or merged, with 50,000 people forced to leave the industry.   Many farmers will become ‘custodians of the countryside’ rather than producers of food, with large tracts of land returning to its natural state.  

To make up for the shortfall in supply, there would be an increase in dependence on imported food, much of it coming at cheaper prices from abroad.  This, we are told, would not do much harm to our economy, once compensation has been paid to the farmers whose businesses are closed down.  What remains of food production in the UK could be more economically managed in new computerised factory farms like the one in Aberdeenshire shown on a recent BBC ‘Panorama’ programme where a vast number of animals can be looked after by computer techniques requiring very few humans to look after them. 

All of this means that the management of the food supply for the whole population will be increasingly in the hands of a very few people who also control the rest of the political and economic system.  This raises the suspicion that the crisis is being deliberately created in order to reduce our ability to feed ourselves.  This in turn hastens our entrance into the New World Order / EU plan for global control.   

People can live without cars and computers but they cannot live without food.  If an emergency arises it is much harder to get food from Canada than from Cumbria. Shortage of food gives a government enormous possibility to increase its control over people’s lives.  In the Bible there is an example of a situation in which an entire population became totally dependent on the government to obtain food.  In Genesis 47.20 we read: ‘Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians sold his field because the famine was severe upon them.  So the land became Pharaoh’s.’ The chapter describes how the people of Egypt effectively submitted everything they owned to the central authority run by Joseph in return for food to live on.  Fortunately for them this was a benevolent dictatorship brought about by the emergency of the famine in Egypt and administered by Joseph who feared God and did what was best for the people.  

The Bible indicates that in the last days of this age there will be famines in various places and a central authority controlling all aspects of human activity run by one known as the beast who hates God and does what is worst for the people.  Under his rule people will only be able to buy or sell if they worship his image and receive his mark (Revelation 13.15-18).  The emergency caused by the crisis of the last days will make people willing to give up their freedom for the necessities of life.  Apart from the food supply issue, the current foot and mouth emergency has been an interesting experiment in how the government can make people give up a relatively small freedom (the right to ramble in the countryside) because of a national crisis.  

The crisis of the last days will be short and will be followed (for those who choose the true Messiah Jesus and refuse to worship the image of the beast) by the glorious time of the Messianic Age.  The feature of this time will be abundance of food and every one providing for themselves under the benevolent rule of the Messiah:  ‘Everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken’ (Micah 4.4).

Abrahamic Faith