America in Prophecy: Or, Is It? Part 1

 January 31, 2021                       NOTES NOT EDITED
America in Prophecy—Or, Is It?  Part 1
Acts 17:24; Psalm 9, esp. vss 16-20

 SIS: The decline of America as a world power is a major step toward the coming End of the World, and Christians, especially in America should step up efforts to win the lost.

America has indeed been a glorious example of God’s Providence upon a people, second only to Israel.  **SUN RISING OVER D.C.***  Reagan:  ***shining city on a hill***  Also said, **Am. is great because America is good****.  Many of our Founders spoke of the “manifest destiny” of America referring to a special touch of God’s Providence they felt fell upon this new experiment in nation-building.  Yet Benjamin Franklin upon existing the Constitutional Convention after signing that great document was approached by a lady.  She asked him, “Sir, what have you given us.”  Franklin replied, “a Republic.”  Then, he added what is a prophetic statement, “if you can keep it.” The average age of a democracy or republic throughout history has only been about 200 years.  We are 50 years past that and the signs of our decline are in our face. 

Mark Hitchcock, to whom I am much indebted for what I know and preach about the Last Days, travels all over the world preaching on Bible prophesy.  He is also an adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.  His knowledge of Bible prophecy is broad and deep.  He has remarked on several occasion that most often asked question from an audience in regard to Bible prophecy is some version of, “What about America in Bible prophecy.”  He even remarked that in a recent meeting in Canada the first question that came up was, “Where is America in Bible prophecy?”  He was in Canada and they wanted to know about America! 

It is hard for many people in the U.S. to accept but the reality is this:  the Bible has nothing to say about America directly or indirectly as a major nation on the historical scene during the Last Days of human history.

Now, there are certainly many other nations, and cities mentioned but not the United States or any US city.  Israel and Jerusalem are mentioned many times in Bible prophecy. In fact, Israel is at the very center of God’s story of mankind.  Babylon in Iraq is mentioned.  Ezekiel 38 lists other Last Days Nations.  Some are mentioned by their current name, others are mentioned as ancient territories settled by the different tribes of the sons of Noah.  Before I give you a list of those nations, lets get a BRIEF OVERVIEW of the timeline of God’s redemptive story.  

The End Times Clock started ticking with the Ascension of Christ as we entered the “Church Age.” In 1948 Israel became a nation again, the key element in Last Days theology.  The next event on the Last Days Time-Line has always been the “Rapture” quickly followed by a Seven Year Tribulation, with two great battles serving as bookends.  Ezekiel 38 tells of the Battle of Gog and Magog.  Revelation 16 speaks of the final battle, Armageddon.  This will be the Second Coming of Christ and the beginning of the 1000 year reign on earth called the Millennium.  Satan, who has been bound for 1000 years, will be released and a brief battle will utterly conquer him and consign him to final judgement.  The Great White Throne Judgement will take place and saints will live forever in heaven while those who rejected Christ will suffer forever in hell.  Today, our study lands in the region of the Rapture—the next great event on the Last Days Time-line. [SLIDE] 

Now, let’s go back to review the National Actors in the final scenes of human history.  Here’s a slide point out these actors.  Ezekiel 38 lists the nations as: Gog of Magog, or Russia (or Rosh); Mechech, or Central Asia; Tubal, or Turkey, Southern Russia; Persia, or Iran; Cush, or Sudan and Ethiopia, Put, or Libya; Gomer, or Turkey; Many peoples with you, or other Islamic nations. This is the battle at the beginning of the seven year tribulation. A revived Roman Empire including Western Nations, China and India come into play at the end of the seven years of tribulation at the Battle of Armageddon. 

The Bible also lists Israel and the cities of Jerusalem and Babylon as major Actors on the Last Days Stage . . . but, no America.  

Today, I obviously cannot cover all the aspects of the Last Days prophecies in detail.  We will be studying Bible prophecy for the next several weeks, and then I hope we can get into a verse by verse study of Daniel when society opens up more in the Spring, Lord willing.

This morning I want to briefly survey what I call “POSSIBLE SIGHTINGS of America in Prophecy,” which like “Possible Sightings of UFO’s or Big Foot,” the arguments for the USA in prophecy are less than convincing. What I want to spend a little more time on PROBABLE REASONS for the silence of prophecy in regard to America, and then close with PRACTICAL REPSONSES to prophetic teaching. 

1.  POSSIBLE SIGHTINGS of America In Prophecy

❶The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel  Recall from your Bible history
that Israel consisted of ten tribes of the sons of Jacob.  After the death of King Solomon, they were later divided into a Northern Kingdom of Ten Tribes and a Southern Kingdom of Two Tribes:  Judah and Benjamin, referred to as Judah.  In 722 B.C. the Northern Kingdom (referred to as Israel) were conquered and carried off by the Assyrians.  They never reconstituted as a nation in Israel again.  Judah, the Southern Kingdom, would be carried off into captivity in Babylon through three stages beginning in 605 B.C. and ending 70 years later. (Note: there are other ways to calculate the 70 years of Babylonia Captivity).  We know that Judah, the Southern Nation, did return rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple and dwelling in the land.  So, some groups refer to the Northern Kingdom as the Ten “Lost” Tribes of Israel.  Cults like the World-wide Church of God and Herbert W. Armstrong and the Mormon Church use this idea of “Ten Lost Tribes” to build their false doctrines. The Ten Northern Tribes were conquered, but they were not lost.  Anna, in the story of Jesus as an infant in the Temple is of the northern tribe, Asher (Lk. 2:36).  In Rev. 7:4 we see representative from each of the Twelve Tribes in heaven.  This theory is just one of the many, very suspect, sightings of America in prophecy.

I will mention some other “possible sightings.”  ❷Some see America as the “tall and smooth-skinned people” (Isa. 18:2) from a land of “buzzing insect wings.”  They feel this refers to American helicopters and airplanes.  It actually tells us in Isaiah 18:1 that this is Cush, the region of Sudan and Ethiopia. ❸Daniel 7 mentions an a “lion with eagle’s wings” in the prophecy of the Four Beasts. America’s national symbol is an eagle, so people read that back into the passage. This actually refers to the Babylonia King of the Exile, Nebuchadnezzar. ❹Some see the USA in the reference to “merchants of Tarshish” (or “young lions” in some translations) in Ezekiel 3:13. The thinking goes like this:  Tarshish refers to the general region of Spain; Columbus was from Spain; Columbus found America, so Tarshish refers to America.  This type of reasoning is dubious at best. ❺Some people see a possible sighting of America in regard to Babylon in Revelation 17-18.  First of all, Babylon is a city, not a nation.  Second, of the 300 times Babylon is mentioned in the Bible it overwhelmingly refers to the ancient city in what is Iraq today. ❻A similar attempt is made to equate America with the “persecuted woman” of Revelation 12.  Like other “possible sightings” of America in Bible prophecy, this fails scholarly scrutiny. Other fanciful interpretation trying to find America in Last Days prophecy pop up all the time.  None are credible. 

So, the summation of the matter in regard to “possible sightings” of America in Biblical prophecy is this:  there is no credible interpretation of any text that directly or indirectly refers to America.  America, as the superpower we are today, simply does not exist in the final stages of the ending of the world as we know it, which is right around the corner.  This is very troubling, and shocking, for many people to hear—but it is the cold, hard fact of the matter.

 

So, where did America, the dominant superpower today, disappear to and how does it happen so suddenly.