THE LAST DAYS IN AMERICA
Like so many believers in these days, I have found myself thinking a great deal about the end times. There seems to be a general acceptance among Christians that everything in the Scriptures seems to point to the fact that we are seeing the "beginning of birth pains", as Jesus promised. World events, and the prophecies of the Word of God, are coming together before our eyes in an amazing way. Christian bookstores have shelves of books dealing with the hows and whys, and even the whens, of the matter. There certainly seems to be a consensus that there will soon be a new political structure in Europe, from which will come a Leader who will make peace in the Middle East. In later years, there will be a massing of the world's armies in that part of the world, which will precipitate the return of Jesus. In all my reading on this subject, however, I had a growing sense of uneasiness. There was something nagging at the back of my mind, and it wouldn't go away. I often think that Christians are discouraged from addressing many of these nagging issues that afflict us. We seem afraid of facing our questions, preferring to simply ignore anything that seems unsure to us. However, I decided to face up to this particular issue because it seemed to be crucial to an understanding of the days in which we live.
My problem was this: I could accept that the Antichrist was going to rise from the nations of Europe. I could accept a Russian attack on Israel, and the involvement of China, with its enormous military capability. But what I could not understand was that apparent absence of the United States in the entire affair. After all, the US is now the only world empire, the most powerful economic and military force in the world today. As long as the Americans continued to lead the western nations, how could any European leader hope to eclipse the power and authority of the President of the United States? Furthermore, the State of Israel could not exist for long without the financial and military support of the United States, so I could not see how Israel could face an attack from any nation, much less Russia, without the US coming to its defence.
Some people might think that the absence of the US from the Bible accounts raised doubts about the accuracy of the Bible accounts; but that is not so. The Bible is God-breathed and is completely accurate and reliable in every respect. Of the 2,500 prophecies to be found in the pages of Scripture, 2,000 have been fulfilled literally and completely. All the rest have to do with the end times. The Bible is reliable. The only conclusion I could come to was that, either the United States was no longer interested in involving itself in world affairs by that stage in history, or else it was no longer in a position to be involved. In either case, it would require a major calamity to bring about such a state of affairs. The implications were obvious: between now and the return of Jesus, something profound is going to come upon the United States of America. But what might that be? And does Scripture give any help in understanding this?
I have looked at the writings of many of the end-time experts over the past few years. Ironically, most of these are Americans, and there is nowhere in the world where this issue is more popular than in the States. But, aside from Jack Van Impe, I have not found among the leading writers, anyone who tackles the issue of the role the US will play in the last days. That surprised me greatly, until I began to see what Scripture was saying. What I have found may be highly unacceptable to many, especially American Christians. Believers from the US have a very strong attachment to their country, as do all Americans. But if I am right, then American believers desperately need to know, and to respond to what I believe the Lord is saying in Scripture: the United States is the Babylon of the Book of Revelation.
Let's examine the verses which deal with the fall of Babylon the Great in Revelation and see how these words apply to the US in our day. The first mention is in Rev. 14.8, where an angel cries out that Babylon the Great has fallen, "which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries". But it is not until chapters 17 and 18 that the full details of the fall are given. Beginning in Chapter 17, then, we find in verse 1 a reference to a woman, a prostitute who sits on many waters. She is found in a desert, sitting on a scarlet beast which was covered with blasphemies and with seven heads and ten horns. [v. 3] The woman is dressed in purple and scarlet, the symbolic colours of empire and rulership, and is glittering with gold and jewels. She holds a golden cup full of abominable things and the filth of her adulteries [v. 4]. The title written on her forehead was:
Mystery
Babylon the Great
The Mother of Prostitutes
And of the Abominations of the Earth
In verse 15 we are told that the waters on which the woman sits "are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages". This implies that Babylon incorporates in herself a multi-ethnic and multicultural diversity of peoples. Verse 18 tells us that the woman "is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth", a political entity with superpower status.
In the past, some Bible commentators have held that the woman stands for the old Rome, centre of the greatest empire the world had known in the days Revelation was written. This view was supported by the fact that Peter refers to Rome as Babylon in his first letter [1 Peter 5.13]. However, the context in Revelation is the end times, and the Roman Empire has long since fallen and disappeared. Others agreed that the woman was Rome, but stood for the Roman Catholic Church. That, they said, is the great prostitute which has filled the earth with the maddening wine of her adulteries. More recently, modern commentators have held that Babylon the Great is the coming world religion that is described elsewhere in Revelation. However, both of these interpretations fail to account for other aspects of Babylon described in chapter 18.
This chapter opens with the declaration that Babylon the Great has fallen. One would think that the fall of Babylon would lead to great rejoicing; but the rest of the chapter describes the universal grieving that follows her fall. Why does the world mourn the fall of the great prostitute? Because their economies depended entirely on her. Verses 11 to 20 describe how the merchants of the earth, the traders, haulers and carriers, will mourn over the lost markets, the centre of economic life on the planet. It was because of her strong economy that the rest of the world profited: "all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth" [18.19] Babylon is not simply a religious power, it is the dominant economic power on the planet. Does this description fit the Catholic Church, or any church? "Your merchants were the world's great men" [18.23]
The power of Babylon extended far beyond the normal parameters of business, however. The list of things traded there included, not only material goods, minerals, livestock and vehicles, but also the "bodies and souls of men" [18.12- 13]. Not only were her merchants the great men of the world, but "By your magic spell all the nations were led astray" [18.23] What could this magic spell be? What influence could one nation have that would so affect the rest of the nations of the world? Since the end of World War Two, the United States has managed to dominate the world's cultural and social life. People of all nations watch American movies, American TV shows. They go to Macdonald's, drink Coke and Pepsi, wear Levi's and eat burgers and pizza. In Europe and Asia, anything that is labelled "American-style" has added attraction for people, especially young people. It is called "Cocacolonization", and "McCulture". This process is destroying national and regional identities and cultures, appealing to the lowest common denominator. Hollywood and teh TV networks are influencing the minds of millions of people throughout the world, impressing on them the values and attitudes of the US. Commercialism, capitalism, a gun culture, arrogance. The really great values America has held to in the past, and less so today, are not praised in these media. Fairness, equality, toleration and honesty are not the values which America respresents to the world any longer.
Is there another nation on earth that fits the description of Babylon? Is there another political, cultural world power, consisting of people from a diversity of linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, that dictates the world's economic and cultural destiny? If the US is not Babylon, where is? If Babylon stands for another nation, which rises to such universal dominance in economic and cultural areas, what will happen to the US? If we are in the Last Days, and if we expect to see the Lord's return in the next years, or decades, then we must accept that only the United States of America can fulfill the role assigned to Babylon the Great in the Scriptures.
The most obvious objection to this theory is that the US has traditionally identified itself with God's people. Doesn't the Constitution of the United States specifically refer to it as "one nation under God"? Do not the words "In God we trust" appear on coins and currency? Has not the US been known through its history as a "God-fearing" country. What of the Bible-belt? What of the myriad television and radio ministries, the churches and Bible colleges? What of the very high percentage of Americans who claim to be born again, church-going Christians? How can this nation be Babylon? Ironically, these arguments only argue in favour of Babylon being the US! Because, in Revelation 17 and 18, Babylon is condemned for adultery. In other words, Babylon is a nation that by rights belongs to God. In 17.2-3, the full story is told:
Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!
She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird.
For all the nations of the earth have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.
The woman was called a prostitute, because she sold what rightly belonged to another for profit. Babylon has become a home for demons, meaning it wasn't a home for demons before. The United States of America was founded by God-fearing men and women. For decades, the main ethos of the nation was based on the Bible. A great civil war was fought, in part, for principles of human equality and value. Honour was paid to biblical values and principles, and God was honoured in schools, homes and government.
But that changed. As the nation grew in wealth and power, so it began to move away from its own ideals. It went from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to All the President's Men. It became the centre for pornography, the focus of the world's drug trade. It became a place of murder, where millions of unborn children were butchered in ways that would not be used against animals. A place where animals were treated better than the poor, billions of dollars spent on feeding and grooming dogs and cats, while millions of people went hungry and sick. Millions of dollars to make movies and TV shows, but not enough to provide health care for the poor and elderly. Fear came to dictate life: fear of outsiders expressed in wars and McCarthyism. Fear of neighbours, expressed in high murder rates and a gun culture unknown anywhere else in the 'civilised' world. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness contained the seeds of selfcentredness, greed, lust, materialism and every kind of religious heresy. Out of the US came the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science and the New Age movement. Americans have become known around the world as arrogant, ignorant of other cultures and traditions, and dangerous, imposing their values and culture for the sake of a dollar. It has become a nation where children murder other children, where parents kill their children. Most importantly, it is a nation that does not realise its danger: it remains convinced of its own righteousness, that its way is the best way. This is not the nation of the Pilgrims. It is not a nation under God. But its sin is that it claims to be under God, and acts in God's name. It uses God as an excuse for its own arrogance and violence, claiming that only the righteous US has the right to impose order and values on the rest of the world.
I had found one accusation made against Babylon hard to understand in the context of the United States. Babylon, according to Revelation 17.6, was "drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus". That did not seem to apply to the US. After all, when had America ever persecuted Christians, much less got "drunk with the blood of the saints"? Then I looked again at the Christians in the US, and I realised that they were, in fact, bleeding. An attack was being made on the gospel of Jesus Christ in the US. Not in the way you might think: by left-wing liberals outlawing prayer in the schools; not by scientists teaching evolution instead of creation. All of this was happening, and would add to the list of sins which made Babylon what it was. But the real attack on the gospel was coming from the Christians themselves!
Remember the accusation made against Babylon: adultery. God's people were at the root of Babylon's sin. Other nations shared the sins of unbelievers, but in the US it was the Christians who turned their nation into Babylon. The situation is similar to that of Israel at the time of Jesus. Israel, too, was accused of adultery, again and again. They mixed God's ways with the ways of the surrounding nations, allowing into their lives things which were not right. By the time Messiah arrived, they had become so blind to their own adultery, they could no longer see the truth, and they crucified the one for whom they had been waiting.
The United States is guilty of adultery also. The church has mixed the ways of the world with the ways of God, and no longer see it. Material wealth, arrogance, a belief that they are the natural leaders in the world, has led the Christians to adopt much of the idolatry that lies at the heart of the United States. Christians have adopted secular America's religion: patriotism. They take the symbols of the world, and bring them into the church. They swear allegiance to flags and nations, to worldly ideologies and worldly principles. They make allegiance to the US of more importance than allegiance to the gospel. No longer are they the salt and the light, they are an essential part of Babylon. The most extreme supporters of Babylon ally themselves with the Christian churches, waving the flag and preaching the superiority of the American way of life. But America is a nation of the world - not the kingdom of God. The Ameican flag, and even the American Constitution, are products and symbols of the World. Look again at what the Scriptures say:
Do not love the world, or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. [1 John 2.15-16]
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. [James 4.4]
American patriotism is probably the clearest example of this love for the world today. It is triumphalist, believing in the superiority of "the American way". Boasting about what a man has and does is at the centre of American life. "My country - right or wrong" is a belief that puts love of the world above the ways of God and has led to killing, wars, hatred and all kinds of evil. Ironically, it has also led to a serious internal threat to the security of the US. The men convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing represented a fast-growing right-wing movement which identifies itself with traditional Christianity. Although it is far from the gospel of Jesus, this movement seeks a return to the "good old days" when biblical standards were more accepted in America. These people fear and hate foreigners, ethnic groups other than their own, and even the American Government. When these people kill and spread their hatred and paranoia, they degrade the gospel, they bring Christianity into disrepute throughout the world.
Even more damaging to the honour of God in the world has been the preaching of evangelists on TV. They make the gospel a laughing-stock by being so blatantly greedy, money-hungry and false. They come across like the old con-men who sold snake oil in the past. No matter how sincere they may be, no matter how much they may honestly believe they are serving God, they preach materialism and American patriotism, claiming that their nation is God-fearing and true to the gospel. But at the same time, they identify themselves with one particular political party, one particular ideology. Yet these parties and ideologies are not Christianity, they are of the world. Babylon has become a haunt for every evil spirit. And this is why: because the Christians have not held themselves apart from the idolatry of America, but have embraced it, and brought it into their places of worship.
Babylon will fall in an hour! There is a judgment coming on Babylon that will suddenly and utterly destroy her. The evil spiritual powers which have raised her up for their own purposes, will turn on her and destroy her:
The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose...[Rev. 17.16- 17]
What could possibly destroy the US in a single hour? Sudden and complete destruction by fire, eating her flesh and leaving her naked, will come upon Babylon as God's judgment on her adulteries.
Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come! [Rev. 18.10]
Heaven will rejoice over the fall of Babylon, for it will come as a punishment for the way it has treated the saints and apostles and prophets [Rev. 18.20]. On that day, the words of men of God like A.W. Tozer will stand as a witness against the worldly idolaters who chose comfort and luxuries instead of allegiance to the their Lord. Look again at what God's command is to his people in Babylon:
Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues. [Rev. 18.4]
What does all this mean, and what are the believers to do? Should they literally leave the US so as to avoid the nuclear [?] catastrophe that is coming? I think American Christians need to look closely at what they have been giving their allegiance to. The United States is responsible for producing much of the pornography, materialism, occult teaching and deception in the world today. As a nation, it is paranoid, blind, worldly and self-absorbed. This is not how Christians should be, and it is not the kind of nation Christians should feel comfortable swearing allegiance to. No matter what country in which we Christians happen to be living, we are citizens of heaven, owing allegiance only to our King and his Kingdom. No earthly power should come between us and obedience to our God's commands. We should not be using heathen symbols, much less swearing loyalty to them. Come out and be separate. Imagine what a witness it would be to your fellow-countrymen, and to the world, were the true Christians of the United States to stand up for God and deliberately have nothing to do with the evil and worldliness around them. No-one had more reason to be proud of his worldly connections than Paul. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was also a citizen of the most powerful and civilised empire ever known to that time. Yet he separated himself from both allegiances for the sake of the gospel. He called them "dung", not worth thinking about compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ as his Lord.
Compromise on this issue is deadly. You cannot serve two masters, and when one master is the Lord, the other has to go. You are dead to this world and its ways, and you belong to another. Don't commit adultery with the world, even with the United States of America.
If you disagree with my thinking, please satisfy yourself from Scripture that there is another candidate in the world today for the role of Babylon. If there is, please let me know, I would be very grateful indeed to be put right, if I am in error. But is there is no other candidate, then the US is on the road to complete destruction. It is the duty of all Christians to pray for the people of the US, that they would turn to God before it is too late, and be ready for what is coming. Because it is coming: the Scripture cannot be broken. If you are an American Christian, then nothing is more important right now than finding out the truth of this for yourself. If you are convinced, then you need to spend yourself, and everything you have, to preach the Word, in season and out, to sound a warning cry in the church. Wake up, O sleeper. Rise from the dead, and your God will shine on you.
