12/26/05

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America In Bible Prophecy

by Jack Kinsella 

It seems that, at last, they are tired as heck and they ain't gonna take it anymore. But it may be too little, too late.

The Bush administration has started firing back at its critics, both at home and abroad, but it is the international criticism that is doing America the most damage.

When a Democrat says something outrageous like America can't win the war or our forces routinely torture prisoners or that the terrorists are winning, the domestic audience reacts with a yawn and chalks it up to 'political partisanship'.

And to 21st century America, THAT means it is either true or not true, depending on what you want to be true. But in any case, Americans have a grasp of the context of the debate.

When Congressman Jack Murtha calls for an immediate surrender, domestic audiences hear a partisan politician trying to make political points with his constituents or with his party.

The international community hears that America is on the ropes and tries to leverage that to their best national advantage.

The enemy hears a confirmation of his own leadership's assurances that America doesn't have the will to fight on for long. Instead of despairing of dying in a lost cause, he is re-energized to fight on by visions of ultimate victory.

Our own forces, on the other hand, become the ones that are despairing of dying for a lost cause. But to a partisan Democrat, that is an acceptable price to pay for bringing down the Bush administration.

And anyone who dares to suggest that encouraging the enemy and discouraging our own combat forces, holding America up to international ridicule, and providing the international community with political leverage to use against America's national interests is disloyal can expect to be immediately marginalized as a 'Bush' partisan.

It is as if Bush is the head of the Republican Party instead of President of the United States.

This phenomenon may well explain America 's absence from the Bible's record during the Tribulation Period.

Assessment:

For years, well-meaning Christians have tried to find some reference to America in Bible prophecy. The most convincing argument I've heard to date is Ezekiel's reference to the 'merchants of Tarshish and all the young lions thereof' (Ezekiel 38:13)

'Tarshish' is either a Sanskrit or Aryan word meaning 'sea coast'. The identity 'merchants of Tarshish' is a subject of wide debate, with some scholars putting it on the European coastline to the extreme west, with others putting Tarshish on the coast of India to the east.

But to find America in Tarshish, one needs to locate it on Europe's west coast, preferably in Great Britain. The 'lion' then represents Britain, and 'all the young lions thereof' can include America, a former British colony.

As you can probably tell, I am skeptical of this interpretation, although it has many champions, including Tommy Ice, for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration.

During the Tribulation, we find references to Russia and the modern Middle East in Ezekiel's Gog Magog vision. We find references to a massive Oriental power, called the Kings of the East, capable of fielding an army of two hundred million men.

(The approximate strength of the modern Chinese army, according to the CIA World Factbook)

There are references to a pan-African alliance resembling the Organization of African States, and a huge segment of prophecy is devoted exclusively to the revival of the Roman Empire and the role it plays in advancing the antichrist's agenda.

But there is NO reference to anything resembling a fifth political power, especially not one as powerful alone as are the other four powers combined.

That is not to say there is no mention of America in the Bible for the last days-- just not during the Tribulation. I believe America rep resents the Church in the last days, just as the nation of Israel represents Judaism.

If Israel has an indelible identity in the eyes of the world, it is as 'the Jewish State'. If America's identity can be encapsulated in the world's eyes, it is as the world's most Christian nation, which is why Islam declared war on America in the first place.

To al-Qaeda, the war is against Christians and Jews, and therefore, by definition, it is primarily against America and Israel.

The Apostle Paul's ministry was to the Gentile Church. Although himself a former Pharisee, he was chosen as the 'Apostle to the Gentiles'. Paul says little about the Tribulation, but he wrote extensively about the events of the final hours of the Church Age leading up to it.

His description of the moral state of the Church in the last days is a letter-perfect description of American society in the 21st century.

Paul begins by setting the timeframe: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." For America, times have NEVER been more perilous.

Not even during the darkest days of World War Two was the American homeland under direct threat. America had more friends and international prestige while engaged in a war with half the world than it did as it entered the 21st century.

America's social fabric is coming apart at the seams before our very eyes: "men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy . ."

That pretty much covers the top stories in this morning's newspapers.

"Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. . ."

Parents killing kids, teachers raping students, American politicians telling the world America can't be trusted, Christ's banishment from 'Christ'mas, the politics of personal destruction replacing the politics of ideas, etc. Paul's outline couldn't be MORE descriptive of 21st century America. Could it?

The American Civil Liberties Union has made a century-long career out of defending civil rights by opposing national recognition of God as the Guarantor of our civil rights. They defend America's God-given civil liberties by mythologizing the God that gives them.

"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away." (2nd Timothy 3:1-5)

Why America is so clearly envisioned by Paul in the final hours of the Church Age, but so completely absent from the Tribulation record is a subject of considerable debate.

Bible critics argue that America isn't in the record because America didn't exist when the Bible was written. In this view, America's absence is evidence the Bible is really a book written by men and not inspired by an all-knowing God.

2nd Timothy 3:1-5 mirrors 21st century America so precisely that it demolishes this argument without further comment.

The war on terror could account for America's absence from the record during the Tribulation Period. A nuclear missile launched from a terrorist freighter offshore and detonated 180 miles above America would generate an EMP pulse that would plunge much of America, technologically speaking, back to the 19th century.

So could a massive biological or chemical attack against America's major cities. Why would anybody assume that if a terrorist strike blinded and crippled America, America's pantheon of enemies wouldn't take advantage of the situation and finish the job?

Finally, there is a third alternative explanation, advanced by the same Apostle Paul, the Rapture of the Church. As noted previously, and despite constant propaganda to the contrary, America IS the world's most Christian nation.

What would happen to America if suddenly, millions of Americans, (including much of the administration, a good chunk of the Pentagon's military leadership and most of the US military) suddenly vanished without a trace?

America does appear in Bible prophecy. Just not during the Tribulation. Read 2nd Thessalonians 4:15-18 again carefully.

"For this we say unto you BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

Omegaletter