IS THE UNITED STATES THERE IN THE END?
The United States of America has risen to the place of preeminence, prosperity, progress, power, and pollution among the nations of the world. Because of this, on the part of many there is a growing concern for the future of this nation.
Within recent years, conditions within the country and criticism from without have raised the serious question of the continued greatness of this nation. Can this nation long endure with crime, lawlessness, and anarchy threatening from within, and with jealousy, hatred, and distrust threatening from without? Is this nation approaching dangerously near the point that other great nations reached before they disintegrated and disappeared?
On the part of some of God's people who are more discerning, the significant question is being raised as to the place of the United States in the prophecy of the end time. Do the prophetic Scriptures have anything to say about the United States as a world power at the time of the end? To this question the answer must be given in the affirmative. The Scriptures do have something to say, and the picture that is drawn is not bright.
In answer to this question, I would like to unfold the message of the prophetic Scriptures in four major movements of thought.
I. The Prophetic Diagram of the Age Makes No Provision for the United States as a World Power
The Scriptures clearly mark out the progress of World Empires through the age, and also the pattern of World Empires at the end of the age. Let us look at these in that order.
1. The progress of World Empires through the age is clearly drawn in two important chapters of the Book of Daniel. The brilliance of empires as seen through the eyes of a man is pictured in chapter 2. The bestiality of empires as seen through the eyes of God is set forth in chapter 7.
The brilliance of World Empires unfolds as a result of the dream of the great oriental monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, and as recorded in the second chapter of Daniel. So amazing was his dreaming that when the monarch awoke, though he had forgotten its content, he could not shake off its impression. He then ordered in the wise men, the magicians, and the astrologers, and demanded of them under penalty of death that they reproduce the content of the dream and give the interpretation.
These men stalled for time, but the king, suspicious of their claims, pressed his demand and left them facing death. Unfortunately, the objects of this death penalty also included Daniel and his friends who had been deported from Jerusalem and placed in this company. But they had found favor with the superintendent of this company, and when they requested time to pray to their God who reveals secrets, the request was granted, they prayed, and God revealed the dream and its interpretation.
It was Daniel who appeared before the king and gave the revelation. He informed him that he had seen the gigantic image of a man, brilliant to behold from the head of shining gold to the feet of iron and clay. The head was made of gold. The breast and arms were of silver. The belly and thighs were of brass. The legs were of iron, and the feet were of iron and clay. As the king beheld, he saw a stone cut out of the mountain without hands. It fell upon the feet and toes of iron and clay and brought the whole image toppling to the earth, so that it was pulverized into dust and the wind blew the dust away like chaff from the summer threshing floors. Then the stone cut out of the mountain without hands increased until it became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
Then Daniel gave the interpretation. He addressed Nebuchadnezzar and declared that the head of shining gold represented him and his kingdom. After that there was to arise an inferior kingdom, Medo-Persia, represented by the breast and arms of silver. This was to be followed by another kingdom of inferior quality, Greece, as represented by the belly and thighs of brass. Following this there was to be yet a fourth kingdom, Rome, as represented by the legs of iron, and the feet and toes of iron and clay. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands was the Lord Jesus Christ. His coming was to mark the destruction of this final kingdom, and He Himself would establish His kingdom on earth, which kingdom would never pass away.
Several things are clear from this prophetic dream. In the first place, this covers the progress of World Empires from Babylon to the very end of the age. The Revived Roman Empire is the final World Empire among the kingdoms of men. In the second place, it makes clear that Gentile World Empire will be followed by the Mediatorial Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and it will never pass away. In the third place, a careful examination of this prophetic dream makes it clear that no provision is made for the United States as a world power over the pattern of the empires pictured in this prophecy.
The bestiality of World Empires emerges in the vision given to Daniel, as set forth in chapter 7. As Daniel looks, he sees the winds striving on the sea and lashing the water into fury. As he watches, he sees four snarling, rapacious beasts rise up out of the sea: a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth beast diverse from the others. The first beast represents Babylon; the second, Medo-Persia; the third, Greece; and the fourth, a composite of the preceding three, representing Rome. Even while he watches he sees the Son of Man come on the clouds of heaven and His kingdom supplants all the kingdoms before Him, and His kingdom was never to pass away.
Again it is evident that three things emerge from this prophecy. The grand sweep of World Empires is covered from Babylon to the end. The Kingdom of our Lord and Savior is inaugurated and will never pass away. And there is no provision for the United States of America as a world power.
2. The pattern of World Empires at the end of the age is also clearly set forth in the Book of Daniel. And now I want to direct your attention to chapter 11, beginning with verse 36. This passage is intended to describe the rise and final destruction of the Western Power under the direction of the Antichrist at the end of the age. Note carefully several things in this passage.
The designation of time is clearly indicated in verse 40, "And at the time of the end." This does not leave us in doubt as to the period of time under consideration.
The division of power follows roughly the geographical division of the earth. This is all in relation to the little land of Palestine, which in the Bible is regarded as "the middle of the earth" (Ezek. 38:12 ASV). All directions are, therefore, from this vantage point. "The glorious land" (Dan. 11:41) and "the glorious holy mountain" (Dan. 11:45) help to confirm this. The Western Power, the Revived Roman Empire and its king, is alluded to as "the king who shall do according to his will" (Dan. 11:36). The Southern Power is represented as "the king of the south" (Dan. 11:40). Through the centuries this has been Egypt, and is today, though it is very possible that it may represent all of Africa. For 2,500 years Egypt has been under foreign domination. But with the ascension of Nasser to power, at last a native Egyptian assumed direction of the land and now Hosni Mubarak has just resigned and General Omar Suleiman is the Vice President reveals the volitle condition of that empire. Beyond that the military is in charge of government functions at this point. The Northern Power is pointed out as "the king of the north" (Dan. 11:40). Through millenniums of time this has been Syria, and still is. But more recently, another power lying immediately to the north and encompassing one-sixth of the land surface of the earth has projected itself. This is Soviet Russia. Without a doubt this is that gigantic power referred to in Ezekiel, chapters 38-39. Then there is the Eastern Power referred to in verse 44 of Daniel 11, and alluded to in Revelation 16:12 as "the kings of the east." In those lands to the east of Israel, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Japan, and Indonesia, lay two-thirds of the population of the earth. Here are the four great powers of the end time; all or most of the Muslim religion.
The disappearance of these powers, one by one, takes place as the Western Power marches toward world dominion. The first to fall before the king of the Revived Roman Empire is the king of the south (Dan. 11:40). The second is the king of the north (Dan. 11:40), though in this case it is God who destroys this power and brings it under control of the west (Ezek. 39:1-6). The kings of the east finally suffer defeat at the hands of the Western Power, by now in control of the rest of the earth (Dan. 11:44). But even the Western Power is shortly to meet his end when the Son of Man comes riding down the meadows of heaven at the close of the tribulation period (Dan. 11:45; Rev. 19:11-21).
In this unfolding drama at the end of the age, absolutely no provision is made for the United States as a world power. This does not mean that the United States will not exist as a national entity, or in fragmented condition. But it does mean that it will not be a world power in the sense that it is today. Because it belongs to that division of the earth called the West, and traces its origin largely to western and southern Europe, and has always been in alignment with the West, it will doubtless be in some subsidiary position, or decimated by a war, in relation to the Revived Roman Empire.
Since the Scriptures are quite as eloquent in their silence as in their statement, it would be fair to conclude that absence of any clear reference to the United States in the end time as a world power is doubtless to be traced to the fact that it is no longer a world power.
II. The Phenomenal Development Within Recent Years Does Not Guarantee the Continuation of the United States as a World Power
1. The plan of God has already determined the distribution of power for all nations, both as to time and place. When the Apostle Paul went to Athens it was inevitable that he would come into confrontation with the intelligentsia of the city. And he did. He met them on Mars' Hill and delivered to them that great address which in substance is recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Acts. In the course of that address he made this statement: "God . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17:24, 26). Though there may be no recognition of this fact on the part of the leadership of our land, this does not negate the fact. The United States just like every other nation on the face of the earth, both past and present, falls within the scope of this determinate counsel of Almighty God.
2. The program of God will be carried out for the United States just like all other nations of the world. The Psalmist said: "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Ps. 75:6-7). In the good providence of God the United States of America has come to the dominant place it occupies in the world today. But one may listen in vain to the pronouncements of its leadership to discover any trace of recognition that God is the One who has brought this nation to its high place of prosperity and power. But the fact still remains, and by the same token, when God is finished with this nation He will bring it down.
3. Moreover, the purpose of God will be accomplished for the United States as well as for all other nations. This was the lesson Nebuchadnezzar had to learn. Again he had a dream. He saw a tree grow up out of the earth. Its branches reached into the sky and spread abroad, and they were filled with the fowls of the air. Then suddenly it was cut off at the stump. The king ordered his wise men and magicians to interpret the dream, but they were incapable of performing this feat. At last Daniel came to the rescue.
When Daniel heard the dream, he was astonished and for one long hour his thoughts troubled him. Then he summoned his courage to tell this absolute, autocratic, ruthless king the truth. "This is the interpretation, O king . .. they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Dan. 4:24-25).
"All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee" (Dan. 4:28-31).
The king descended from his throne, and he walked out to the fields; there he got down on his hands and knees and began to eat grass like the beasts of the field. There he lived with the beasts of the earth; his body was wet with the dew of heaven at night, and for seven long years he lived like a dumb, brute beast of the field. Then at last, God restored to him his senses and Nebuchadnezzar confessed: "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all those works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase" (Dan. 4:37).
Nebuchadnezzar and succeeding kings passed off the stage of human history, until at last Belshazzar came to the throne. One night he made a banquet to a thousand of his lords and ladies. This was held within the inner citadel of the city. But outside the outer walls, a huge army of an opposing power was turning aside the river that ran beneath the wall that they might enter and besiege the citadel. A banquet at this hour demonstrated the stupidity of the king. This festive occasion was marked by debauchery, licentiousness, and at last it was crowned with sacrilege.
Belshazzar ordered the vessels that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the crowd of pagan revelers might guzzle wine to the gods of silver and gold, and of wood and stone. As he lifted one of these goblets to his lips, he peered out over its brim and saw the great, mysterious fingers of a sleeveless hand inscribe something on the far wall. The account says that the "king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another" (Dan. 5:6). Out of sheer fear he called for the wise men, and offered them third rulership in the kingdom if they would read the writing and give the interpretation. All failed, and at last it was the queen mother who called Daniel to the attention of the king. By this time Daniel was 85 years of age, and he had long since been forgotten since the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was called in and with these words accepted the responsibility: "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation" (Dan. 5:17).
But before doing so, Daniel administered a rebuke to the king. Nebuchadnezzar "was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this." (Dan. 5:21-22).
"Though thou knewest all this." These words ought to fall on our ears with crushing force. These were addressed to a pagan monarch of long ago. If these words in truth could be addressed to him who dwelt in almost complete ignorance of the movements of God, then with what irresistible force those same words should come to the people of a nation that, with all the multiplied mediums of communication available today, has heard the Word of God like no other nation on the face of the earth. Be sure of this, God will yet fulfill His purpose in the United States of America, and this people shall know that God rules in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will.
III. The Perilous Deterioration Now in Progress Is Preparing the Way for the Passing of the United States as a World Power
In prophetic utterance the Psalmist declared: "The nations are sunk down in the pit that they made: In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. Jehovah hath made himself known, he hath executed judgment: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. The wicked shall be turned back unto Sheol, even all the nations that forget God" (Ps. 9:15-17 ASV). This principle of declension is now in progress within the United States. Note three things:
1. The decay of the integrity of a nation always centers in its thinking. The Psalmist declares, in speaking of the wicked, ". . . God is not in all his thoughts" (10:4). At last this has burst into the open in this nation. It would appear that this nation of people is determined to get rid of the very idea of God. There is a so-called scientific principle designed to explain the origin and movement of the universe on the human and natural level. This has so completely impregnated the thinking of men that a dictum of the Supreme Court now makes it practically impossible to carry the Biblical idea of God into the public classroom. This court is defended on the grounds that it is interpreting and enforcing the Constitution of the United States. All this may be so, but that does not remove the fact that at the grass roots level the idea of God in the Biblical sense of that term is disappearing from the classroom. Remembering that this declaration took place almost 50 years ago, it is possible that this may explain what we are seeing today in 4-5 generations of young people who have gone through grade school and high school, and are now the college population of the land?
2. The descent into unbridled immorality is paving the way for final disintegration. Ideas have consequences. That is precisely what we all believe, and that is the reason we foster and finance a school system. The ideas that go into that classroom and saturate the minds of young people are bound to produce effects. Where young people are taught to believe that there is no God, and that man is the highest order of creation and therefore the measure of his own morality, there can be no other trend in sinful creatures than to justify their evil desires and with clever reasoning conceive a system of morals that makes provision for all the lusts of the flesh.
That is the point of the tenth Psalm. Of the wicked God declares that "His ways are always grievous" (v. 5). The wicked reasons, "in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity" (v. 6). "His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. . . . He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it" (w. 7, 11). Out of the abundance of his heart, the mouth of the wicked speaks, and his ways are marked by a continual descent into immorality. Now that He has manufactured the code of ethics known as the new morality of the new age, with this he palliates his conscience and moves swiftly down the broad way toward disintegration and doom.
3. The disintegration of the basic institutions of this land charts the course toward final disappearance as a great power. Direct your attention now to a portion of the prophecy recorded in Daniel 2, verses 41-43. These words describe the constituency of nations at the end of the age.
"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay."
Iron has always been a symbol of autocracy. It marks the strength of absolute monarchy. In the history of nations there has been demonstrated through millenniums of time the amazing strength and enduring quality of such government. Unfortunately, where kings have been wicked this has resulted in miserable conditions for the subjects. But the enduring qualities were there, for all matters of government were resolved within one person.
The clay, however, points to the seed of men, that vast throng of people who make up the population of the world. Its qualities are brittle and evanescent, but highly cherished by the people as the ideal form of government. The Greeks declared that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Though this form of government never came into its own until the dawn of the twentieth century, it is today espoused by people all across the world. It is called democracy, a compound term from the Greek language. The first element, "demos," means people. The last element, "cracy," coming from a word which means mastery, and combined it means "mastery of the people."
So long as this form of government operates within the controlling influences of the truth about God, it has served a relatively useful purpose. But once the idea of God was lost, the liberty it was intended to exercise has turned inward in the thinking of men, and it is now being interpreted to mean that an individual has the right to express and satisfy his desires without regard for others. It has given birth to what is called "civil disobedience," and has broken out into lawlessness and threatens the land with anarchy. With the audacity born of this conviction, there seems no level of wickedness too low for men to indulge themselves and bring justification of the Constitution to their support.
As a result we have seen the gradual disintegration of some of the basic institutions of society. The home is the basic institution of any society. But that institution is dangerously threatened in the scourge now sweeping the world. The school is no longer a haven of refuge for the dissemination of morals that help to preserve society. The Church has also been invaded with a liberal theology made over the pattern of this type of thinking and is suffering the consequences that go with it. Local and national governments feel their very foundations trembling with wave after wave of revolution and riot, until the best thinkers of the land fear that anarchy is not far distant. All this marks the trend in which this nation is moving. How long can this continue until dire calamity overtakes the entire nation?
History tells its own story of the rise and fall of nations. After the dissolution of the Roman Empire, 1,500 years of history tell their own story. On a far smaller scale the Holy Roman Empire appeared on the scene, but finally disappeared. This was followed by the great Ottoman Empire. Then there came the rise of the Spanish domain. It soon gave way before the French Colonial Empire and the British Empire, of which it could be said that on its shores the sun never sets. But as any high school student knows, these great nations are no more. Are we to imagine that this cannot take place with the United States of America? Such would be sheer fantasy. And the terrifying fact is that nations disintegrate from within before they crumble from without.
IV. The Possible Disappearance of the United States as a World Power Will Not Take Place Until God Has Fulfilled His Purpose in This Nation
The Apostle Paul asserted by divine guidance that God "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Eph. 1:11). With this as a guiding principle, it would be well to take a look at what God has been doing and is now doing through the United States of America. This could give some indication as to the times in which we live and point the direction in which the child of God should move. Three things seem quite evident:
1. The evangelization of the world for the formation of the Church is largely promoted from within the United States of America. Through James at the Jerusalem conference, it was stated that "God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name" (Acts 15:14). Those people are the chosen of God to constitute the bride of Christ. In order to reach them, God has mounted a worldwide evangelistic movement. When these people hear the Gospel they will believe. When the last chosen one has heard the Gospel and accepted it, the bride will be complete and while that is taking place evil gets more evil and the Lord Jesus will come for His Church. God's purpose in this age will then be finished.
A knowledgeable missionary, familiar with missions on a worldwide scale, several years ago at the time the dollar was trembling, called for earnest prayer. His reason was that any calamity to that dollar could conceivably have a global effect on missions, due to the fact that by far the greater proportion of missionary effort in men and money comes from the United States. If God is using this nation as the instrument to carry out His purpose in these days, it would seem likely that He will sustain this nation until that purpose is fulfilled. But let us take heed. The completion of the Church could be very near, and without a doubt Satan is making great strides, in which the fortunes of this nation (moving as they are) are already heralding the end of the age and the disappearance of the United States as a world power.
2. The preservation of the chosen people of God for that program, which God will renew after the rapture of the Church, proceeds largely from the United States of America. In the same prophecy at the Jerusalem conference, James went on to say, "And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up" (Acts 15:15-16). This can only mean that once God is finished with the Church, He will turn again to Israel and will restore and rebuild that nation as He has promised in the Old Testament prophets. This further means that the people of Israel must be preserved, or there would be no people with which God could fulfill His promises.
The place of the United States in the preservation of this people is little realized, even by the average Christian. Almost 200 years ago, this nation came into being. It provided for the citizenship of Jews on the same level and with equal rights and-privileges, along with all other people. As a result Jews have prospered in this land. No place of privilege or position has been denied to them because of their nationality. When central Europe turned into a holocaust for this people, it was the United States of America that aided in the subjugation of Hitler. When this people sought a homeland, it was pressure from the United States on the United Nations that brought the partition of the Mid-east to provide for the present state of Israel. Even though World War II had ended, there still was no haven of refuge for the Jew in central Europe. Hundreds set sail in the Mediterranean, hoping to find a friendly harbor. But there was none. It looked as though that shipload of refugees would perish on the high seas. At last they cast anchor in the harbor of Haifa. Today, the rusting hulk of that ship can be seen protruding just above the waters.
It must also be said that the presence of divisions of the United States Army and contingents of the U.S. Navy within the Mid-east helps to preserve the balance of power in that area, and to sustain this nation scarcely 25 years of age. Were it not for the presence of military contingents from the United States, this little nation could easily be overwhelmed by Arab and Russian hordes. The appearance of the state of Israel, though small, after these 1,900 years, and the apparent determination to preserve this people, suggest that God's long-promised purpose for Israel is about to be fulfilled. Since the United States is serving as the instrument in God's hands to carry this to completion, there is reason to believe that this nation will continue until God's purpose is finished. But let us take heed, for the time may be fast approaching when this purpose will be completed and God will be through with this nation as a national entity.
3. The alignment of nations into that international arrangement for the end of the age is being promoted by the United States of America. Again, the movement of thought set forth in Daniel 11:36-45 should be carefully studied. There the four great powers of the end time appear. There is a great western power, a great southern power, a great northern power, and a great eastern power. These constitute great blocks of nations bound together by political, social, religious and material interests. The United States appears to be acting as a sort of catalyst. Probably no nation is having such a wide effect on the rest of the world to move nations one way or another. From 300 to 400 military camps of some size are planted across the world. In all, both large and small in size, there are no less than 3,000 such camps around the world. The monetary and fiscal policies of this nation have their widening effect on other nations. This does not mean that these things evoke goodwill, but they do produce movement one way and another into national and international alignments. When the arrangement finally approximates the prophetic pictures, God will be through with this nation as a world power.
As one views the developing scene, in the light of prophecy, it makes him wonder how long it may be before the arrangements are finally complete. Since the promise of Christ's coming for the Church has always been held out to His people as an event that could take place at any moment, surely the events of the present hour in relation to the United States ought to give new stimulus to watch momentarily for His coming. In these days of crisis, our trust should not rest in a nation that may shortly disappear, but in Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will.
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