Words of a Prophet

With the current financial and housing crisis as a backdrop, I was just searching lds.org for a talk that I had been told that President Hinckley gave concerning the Old Testament story of Joseph's interpretation of the Pharaoh's dream. Joseph told the Pharaoh that he needed to prepare because there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. In a talk given at the October 1998 Priesthood session President Hinckley read the scriptural account of Joseph and the Pharaoh and then said this....

Now, brethren, I want to make it very clear that I am not prophesying, that I am not predicting years of famine in the future. But I am suggesting that the time has come to get our houses in order. So many of our people are living on the very edge of their incomes. In fact, some are living on borrowings.

We have witnessed in recent weeks wide and fearsome swings in the markets of the world. The economy is a fragile thing. A stumble in the economy in Jakarta or Moscow can immediately affect the entire world. It can eventually reach down to each of us as individuals. There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed.

I repeat, I hope we will never again see such a depression. But I am troubled by the huge consumer installment debt which hangs over the people of the nation, including our own people. In March 1997 that debt totaled $1.2 trillion, which represented a 7 percent increase over the previous year.

In December of 1997, 55 to 60 million households in the United States carried credit card balances. These balances averaged more than $7,000 and cost $1,000 per year in interest and fees. Consumer debt as a percentage of disposable income rose from 16.3 percent in 1993 to 19.3 percent in 1996.

Everyone knows that every dollar borrowed carries with it the penalty of paying interest. When money cannot be repaid, then bankruptcy follows. There were 1,350,118 bankruptcies in the United States last year. This represented a 50 percent increase from 1992. In the second quarter of this year, nearly 362,000 persons filed for bankruptcy, a record number for a three-month period.

We are beguiled by seductive advertising. Television carries the enticing invitation to borrow up to 125 percent of the value of one’s home. But no mention is made of interest. I urge you, brethren, to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.

These were probably not popular words back in 1998. The economy was booming and credit was incredibly easy to come by. But President Hinckley was a Prophet of God, and he knew what was coming. Now luckily as bad as things are we are not under famine conditions. Most people still have the resources to support themselves and their families. But what a different situation this world would be in today if people would heed the words of the prophets.