America The Great -

Consumer Nation

Chapter 14

The Bible describes a great “end times” consumer nation.  Could that possibly be the United States of America?  Revelation 18 describes that nation…

²"Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! ³For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury." 

^7”In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, "I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.'”

  ⁹"The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, ¹⁰standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.' 

    ¹¹"And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: ¹²merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; ¹³and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. ¹⁴The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you,^[e] and you shall find them no more at all. ¹⁵The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, ¹⁶and saying, "Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! ¹⁷For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.' Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance ¹⁸and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, "What is like this great city?'

    ¹⁹"They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, "Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.'

The Bible describes a great “end times” nation, that wasn’t even known to exist at the time, so the Bible did its best to describe her in detail so that we would recognize her.  The mystery should not be that hard to decipher.  So what are the characteristics of this mysterious Commercial Babylon?

·        The merchants of the earth have become rich from her trade.

·        She lives across an ocean, lives in luxury and has never been conquered (“has not known sorrow”)

·        The merchants traded with her by sea – not land and from far off.

·        It is a nation that consumes and buys the merchandise from the nations.  There is a long list of items that could read to day – your Toyotas, BMWs, Sony TVs, clothing and every other gadget found in Neiman Marcus or WalMart.

Revelation 16:19 announces the judgment of the three part Babylon.  ^“Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.”  Please see the articles on prophetic timing.  Chapter 17 describes the judgment of “Religious Babylon”, Chapter 18 “Commercial Babylon” and Chapter 19 the judgment of political/military or “Civil Babylon”.  Take the three together.  Could this possibly describe Iraq (where Babylon is located)?  Obviously not.  Or Israel?  Or Russia?  Or even Europe?  Or the United Nations?  This is hardly possible since it is an amalgam of a couple of hundred nations.  No, the Scripture is describing a single nation that is 1) apostate (fallen) Christian, 2) commercially dominant as the great consumer nation of the earth and 3) a great military superpower.  We are in search of that great consumer nation.  Any guesses?

 America the Great Consumer Nation

Only one fifth of the world's people live in industrialized countries, yet they consume more than two thirds of the planet's resources. With less than 5 percent of global population, the United States accounts for about one fourth of global consumption. A child born in a developed country will consume and pollute more over his or her lifetime than thirty to fifty children born in low-income countries. Resources extracted from countries other than those in which they are consumed create environmental damage far beyond local and national borders.

The United States, with less than 5 % of the global population, uses about a quarter of the world’s fossil fuel resources—burning up nearly 25 % of the coal, 26 % of the oil, and 27 % of the world’s natural gas. “In the United States today, there are more private vehicles on the road than people licensed to drive them, the Worldwatch report points out. The average size of refrigerators in U.S. households increased by 10 percent between 1972 and 2001, and the number per home rose as well. New houses in the U.S. were 38 percent bigger in 2000 than in 1975, despite having fewer people in each household on average. As a result of these consumption patterns, the United States, with just 4.5 percent of the world's population, releases 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.”

As a trading partner with the world, we know that America imported about $640 billion in 2004 more than it exported.  If the United States stopped purchasing goods from Europe, Japan, China, etc., the world that trades with America would be wiped out.  With globalization, the U.S. has been helping countries like China develop their manufacturing capabilities.  The Chinese get new factories, jobs, wages, profits, technology, assets, savings, capital, know-how. We LOSE jobs, assets, savings, capital, factories, profits and so forth. But we get big-screen TVs, Game Boys, electronic gizmos, toys and everything else you find on the shelves of Wal-Mart. And lots of debt - $32 trillion but still we consume!  But still, we are fulfilling our role as the great CONSUMER NATION!  We have this strange symbiotic relationship with the world.  They save; we spend - currently, it takes nearly 80% of the entire world's available savings just to keep us spending in the style to which we've become accustomed. They produce; we consume - nobody does it better. They build factories and production facilities; we build too - houses and shopping malls – monuments to consumption.  Obviously, this can’t continue forever, but if ever there was a nation that fits the Revelation 18 description, we are it!

This consumer phenomenon is unique in history and not likely to ever happen again.  In Parts 2 and 3 we showed how America rose to dominance as a commercial power.  But recently it has gone from the great producer nation to the great consumer nation.  It is only because of the strength of the dollar and the good image of the United States that has kept the dollar bolstered so Americans can keep on buying and consuming.

The charts below depict the export growth to the U.S. by country and as a percent of their GDP for the ten year period from 1992 to 2002.  The Chart above shows overall export growth, more than doubling during that time.  The largest increases are from developing countries.  

The U.S. is supporting its buying habits with the savings of the world.  The next chart shows the inflows of capital from different countries that bolster the dollar by purchasing Treasury Notes.  Over half of the Treasury holdings are from China, Hong King and Japan, followed by Singapore Taiwan and Thailand.  We are currently consuming over 81 percent of world savings.  The list consists of two types of countries: developed countries with weak domestic demand and developing countries that are excessively dependent on America.  The World Markets Research Center concludes,

”Looking at the two groups of countries, key protagonists within economies have been at the forefront in warning of the effects of global currency imbalances - which is ultimately the danger of further dollar devaluation. Whilst Europe has grumbled, the Central Bank has not looked to action… The US remains the global motor of growth, and it is in the interest of Asian exporters to keep it that way, even if it means reinforcing the difficult imbalances prominent within the economy.” 

The entire world depends on our trade.  If America “catches a cold”, the world “gets pneumonia”, as the old saying goes.  The U.S. needs $2.6 billion a day to keep going and the countries above provide it to us.  Can America continue to absorb the world’s savings and goods at this rate?  No, these levels are not sustainable.   Yet, America still has 25 percent of the world’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) so she is far from decline.

GDP OF THE TOP TEN NATIONS

Analysis

This is one more reason why the prophetic clock is getting close to the end.  It is true that America cannot maintain this level of consumption much longer.  Nor can it maintain its far reaching military empire without taking some spoil.  But is it likely that another “Christian” nation could arise and supplant her in the next 50 years?  No.  It took America a century to rise to this level of dominance

Given time, China and India may arise and become the next economic and military superpowers, but they are hardly Christian.  They are hardly likely to side with Israel in the Middle East by signing a treaty.  We are not talking about what might be but what now is.  America is the only superpower with the ability right now to dominate the world.  She is the “global motor of growth” and the dominant economy on earth.

Things are bubbling in the Middle East.  Condolleezza Rice is visiting there today and the Palestinians and Israelis have declared a cease fire.  But underlying anger between the Islamic nations and Israel and the U.S. continues to build and will one day reach the boiling point.

There is no other nation like her, with the evangelical zeal, the military, the economy and the sense of destiny.  No other nation fits the description of Revelation 18 nor is there likely to be one in the prophetic time we have left.

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