Given that the United States, or any semblance thereof, is not mentioned in Bible prophecy, one has to take into account the how, why, and so what of that particular implication. If the U.S. is not here, who then fills that vacuum? Who sets the precedence for a global order? What is the reserve currency the whole world leans upon for stability in the global markets? Logic and history tells us, that if the U.S. isn’t filling that role, someone will. How and when does the world get from the current status quo, to one in which it isn’t?
So it is with the outline of Bible prophecy, I am 100% certain. It’s when we get into the subsections of the outline that my certainty drops to between 60-75%. IOW, I’m certain on the order of things, not so certain on the specifics of how those things come to pass. Here is the order:
1. The Rapture of the church (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-55).
2. The 70th Week of Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27, particularly vs. 27; Jeremiah 30:7-11.
3. The Second Coming (Matt. 24:29-31; Revelation 19:11-21).
4. The Millennium (Isaiah 65:17-25; Revelation 20).
5. The Eternal State (2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21-22).
Now, there are other events which must take place, to which I am 100% certain on their fulfillment, but not 100% on the when:
1. The utter destruction of the city of Damascus (Isaiah 17).
2. The temporary desolation of Egypt (Isaiah 19).
3. The Gog-Magog War (Ezekiel 38-39).
4. The signing of a peace covenant (Daniel 9:27; Revelation 6:1-2).
So where on God’s timeline are we, seems to be the reoccurring question that gets so often asked? So here is what we know as of now (December 2014):
1. The United States is in an increasingly rapid state of decline, particularly in three areas: spiritually, culturally, and economically.
2. The economic decline appear to be intrinsically linked to the spiritual and cultural decline as the U.S. embraces its national, post-Christian status.
3. The U.S. economic decline is having a weakening effect on the US military, and our ability to project our force, and a strong image around the world.
4. Paganism, secular humanism, and the normalization of aberrant sexual, cultural lifestyles and belief systems, appear to be filling the void of a declining Christian worldview (Days of Noah and Lot; Luke 17:25-30)
5. The revival of cultural paganism (Neopaganism) is in conjunction with trans-humanism, which is fast becoming a reality due to advancements in technology
6. The U.S. dollar is currently the world’s reserve currency for fiat systems. Factors that are negatively and positively impacting that standing are:
a. $18T in U.S. debt (negative).
b. Rapid changes in currency technology challenging the current fiat system (both).
c. Instability in other currencies (positive).
d. Busts, booms, and general fickleness of the markets (both).
e. Increasing polarity in the U.S. government (negative).
7. Economists and heads of state are currently planning for, and/or prepositioning themselves for the collapse of the U.S. economy.
8. Global interconnectedness has reached an all-time high, and is partly due to the dependency on the U.S. Dollar system, and the rise of the Internet age.
9. The EU is continuing in its growing pains. Economic woes and a rise in nationalism seem to be equally as troubling, as its burgeoning Muslim population. Either way, it’s not looking good like a good place to retire if you’re a Jew.
Here is what I expect to occur due to the aforementioned realities:
10. The collapsing of the U.S. Dollar (due to the global dependence on it for economic stability) presents the ‘perfect storm’ crisis that globalists need, in order to bring about a new order.
11. Saudi Arabia will continue its oil output in order to:
a. Weaken its enemies who rely on oil revenues.
b. Destroy the U.S. fracking industry.
12. Events are continuing to drive the world’s attention back to the Middle East in respects to Iraq, Iran, and Israel. Despite President Obama’s best efforts, events are compelling U.S. forces to return to Iraq.
I think there are two powerful forces currently fighting it out on earth right now. One group wants things to stay the way they are, because they are making money and living fat and happy. This would be groups like the Saudi’s, major energy providers, and anyone tied up with and making a healthy living under the current Petro-Dollar/fiat system. They want things to stay the same and they use oil and other energies, as an economic weapon.
The other group, has grander plans, and see the U.S. Dollar dominance, as a hindrance to their globalist agenda. So they are actively working to debase the Dollar, and by so doing, can get the world onto a new, global, digital currency in which they control.
I imagine that these are the movers and shakers in new technologies andmultinational corporations, politicians of all stripes, those in the central banking industries, and the like. And seeing as we are $18T in debt, one can guess which side is currently winning.
Then of course, there is God, who has the first and final say in all things (Isaiah 46:9-10).
Assessment
My best guess, all things considered, is that we are in a five year window awaiting major, radical, global realignments. If you’d have asked me that five years ago, I would have told you about the same…and yet, here we still are. But I’m no prophet. I’m only a man armed with an informed opinion. But unknown to us five years ago, was that certain things had to transpire that I think will make things significantly different in the days, weeks, months ahead. These are the “black swan” events that will have to play out in the next few years:
1. Israel is no longer interested or invested in playing the ‘two-state’ solution game. They’ve been trying this for the past 21 years, and it has utterly failed each time.
2. Israel realizes it can no longer depend on the U.S. for its “Iranian Problem” and realizes that their window for stopping Iran’s ambitious, nuclear program is quickly coming to a close and even with the 2016 elections, that may be too late. Events are going to force Israel to act unilaterally.
3. If Russia risked military incursions into Georgia, Ukraine and Crimea before their financial woes, imagine what President Putin will do when his country’s economy is in a freefall.
4. The U.S. is significantly weaker than it was during the last financial crisis of 2008. Echoes of 1928-29 keep being rehashed in the news, and it is possible that another stock market collapse will effectively do, what 2008 could not.
5. President Obama has/is continuing to rule through executive legislation that seems intent on dividing and weakening the U.S.
6. The upcoming 2016 elections may prove the most contentious yet, depending on whether President Obama and the Democrats intend to go quietly into the night, or have a few tricks left up their sleeve. They can’t be too thrilled at the prospect of a Republican triumvirate.
The last 100 years has seen more transition, tragedy, and change than the rest of recorded history. Pagans insist on all things continuing on cyclically, but according to Scripture, there was a beginning, and there will also be an end. Logically speaking, if the United States is the lone economic and military superpower in the world, and we do not warrant a mention either by name or type in the pages of Holy Writ whenever that end may be. Then that means that something happens to us that makes us a non-factor in the final outline of things to come. And if the U.S. isn’t taking the lead, than someone has to because nature abhors a vacuum. We know according to the Scriptures that someone comes out of a revived Roman Empire who ends up controlling the whole earth (Daniel 2:40-44, 9:26-27; Revelation 13).
The Terminal Generation
The Holy Spirit moved Moses to contribute one psalm to the collection we have in our Old Testament. Moses, who lived to be 120 years old still vigorous in mind, sight and strength said this in Psalm 90:10:
“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years,
Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
In context, Moses was speaking to the brevity and frailty of a man’s life. When answering the question the disciples put forth to Jesus about the last days, Jesus’s caps off the numerous indicators with the Parable of the Fig Tree. Yet, the point of the parable isn’t an attempt to define the length of a generation, but to pin that generation who sees the aforementioned signs (Matt. 24:3-28) to the length of the average man’s life.
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:32-35).
Is it coincidence that Israel is alluded to in numerous places in the Old Testament as figs, or as a fig tree? (Judges 9:7-15; Song of Solomon 2:13; Jeremiah 24; Hosea 9:10; Micah 4:4; Zechariah 3:10; Luke 13:6-8; Mark 11:12-14.)
Is it coincidence that Jesus links the budding of a tree associated with national Israel, as being the one sign that some future generation would see and not pass away? Is it coincidence that Jesus states Jerusalem will be trampled on by Gentiles until the “age of the Gentiles” has come to an end?
Is it coincidence that the only psalm Moses penned, happens to discuss the lifespan of a man being 70 to 80 years, when he himself lived to be 120? Is it coincidence that Jesus, being God, would know that we would come to these same conclusions some 2,000 years later, right about the time of all their fulfillments?
I do not believe in coincidence, and according to Scripture, God doesn’t either. God orchestrates kings and kingdoms to accomplish His will and in His time (Daniel 2:27-45; Romans 13:1-3).
Conclusion
At the current rate, things cannot remain status quo. I don’t believe that all the signs and events listed above prove a Rapture. What I do believe is that they point to the signs of the coming seven-year period of time commonly referred to as the Tribulation. I believe that due to the increasing geo-political and economic turmoil we are seeing in the world that we are exactly in the final moments (death throes) of the “times of the Gentiles”…hence the uptick in global turmoil (Luke 21:24).
The final moments of the “times of the Gentiles” has to coincide with Israel already being back in her land, which occurred in May of 1948. May is significant because that is when the early fruit (good fruit) first buds. Because the Jews had to have Israel back as a nation, before they could be attacked in the Six Day War, which resulted in them recapturing Jerusalem. The Jews have to be in control of Jerusalem again, in order to one day rebuild a future Jewish temple. (Matthew 24:15; 2 Thess. 2:4) All of that is colliding with the fact that they have been back as a nation going on 67 years.
Coincidence?
The Bible is clear that we will not know the day or the hour of the Lord’s return. (Mark 13:32.) But the apostle Paul did say we would recognize the season. And just like one can know by looking at a calendar when roughly winter or summer should begin, we don’t know exactly until we start seeing and feeling the changes. I believe that over the last 100 years, we are increasingly seeing the signs and we can know with a 100% confidence that we are in the season of our Lord’s return.
“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.
And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6).