“THE RISE OR FALL OF AMERICAN EMPIRE?”

GOD OF FORTRESSES

Part I

“The Rise or Fall of American Empire?”

 By Doug Krieger

“But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses”
(Daniel 11:38a) 

By 2005 the United States of America had amassed some thirty-eight large and medium-sized bases spread throughout the globe—mostly air and naval bases for our long-range bombers and fleets.  Roughly, this equates to Pax Britannia’s thirty-six naval bases and army garrisons at its height in 1898.  Empires, like Rome built, by its ultimate expansion under Emperor Trajan in 117 AD demanded thirty-seven major garrisons to police its ever-expanding acquisitions from Hispania to Armenia, from Britannia to Egypt.¹  Indeed, the suggestion that imperialistic aspiration leading to world domination even in the present age ranges somewhere between thirty-five and forty.  Such colossal fortresses seem militarily reasonable, given the age of information and travel within a world becoming increasingly smaller. 

In “part three” of Chalmers Johnson’s inadvertent trilogy, Nemesis, the Last Days of the American Republic (the first two parts being Blowback and The Sorrows of Empire), America’s imperial muckraker makes a determinant effort depicting Romish comparisons to America’s military-industrial complex wherein the USA has crossed the Rubicon under President George W. Bush through grandiose Imperium projection of its military presence and prowess, secrecy, along with Congressional acquiescence, coupled with Judicial compliance. 

The consequence of this crossing by Julius Caesar spelled the ultimate demise of the Roman Republic and the establishment of the Roman Empire—exchanging Roman democracy for Roman dictatorship and consigning the aristocracy of the Roman Senate (comparable to the politico elites who currently inhabit the halls of an American Congress bought and sold by her military-industrial-Congressional complex with its myriads of registered lobbyists whose numbers now approach (2005) some 34,785 or 65 for every member of Congress)² to the trash bin of history. 

How ominous the tones of the final days of our republican democracy sound—especially from the likes of General Tommy Franks, commander of the American assault on Baghdad whose predictions of another terrorist attack upon American soil or upon her significant possessions bespeak of dictatorial inevitability: 

“(another terrorist attack will) begin to unravel the fabric of our Constitution . . . the Constitution could be scrapped in favor of a military form of government.”³ 

Chalmers’ depictions add credence to Frank’s scenario—here Presidential prerogative, Congressional compromise and the aggressive devolution of Constitutional guarantees have now reached epidemic proportions:  The American experiment lies prepared as a sacrificial offering upon the altar of political expediency! 

“The president now dominates the government in a way no ordinary monarch possibly could.  He has at his disposal the clandestine services of the CIA, a private army unaccountable to the Congress, the press, or the public because everything it does is secret.  No president since Harry Truman, having discovered what unlimited power the CIA afford him, has ever failed to use it.”  (p. 17, Nemesis, The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2006 – and throughout) 

Harvard professor, Michael Ignatieff, whose defense of “Empire Lite” as the American expression of “humanitarian imperialism” pontificates on behalf of American Empire in his New York Times Magazine piece, January 5, 2003: 

“Ever since George Washington warned his countrymen against foreign entanglements, empire abroad has been seen as the republic’s permanent temptation and its potential nemesis.  Yet what word but ‘empire’ describes the awesome thing that America is becoming?  It is the only nation that polices the world through five global military commands; maintains more than a million men and women at arms on four continents; deploys carrier battle groups on watch in every ocean; guarantees the survival of countries from Israel to South Korea; drives the wheels of global trade and commerce; and fills the hearts and minds of an entire planet with its dreams and desires.” 

If this were not sufficient hubris to ignite the monarchial flames of subjugation—let’s ponder some of the one-liners extended from the imperial pen of Ignatieff: 

“Multilateral solutions to the world’s problems are all very well, but they have no teeth unless America bares its fangs. . . . Regime change is an imperial task par excellence; since it assumes that the empire’s interest has a right to trump the sovereignty of a state. . . . The question, then, is not whether America is too powerful but whether it is powerful enough.  Does it have what it takes to be grandmaster of what Colin Powell has called the chessboard of the world’s most inflammable region?. . . The case for empire is that it has become, in a place like Iraq, the last hope for democracy and stability alike.”⁴   

Wafting in the background the poem of Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 “The White Man’s Burden” can be heard . . . written prior to Pilipino subjugation cir. 1899 by American Manifest Destiny:  

“Take up the White Man’s Burden

And reap his old reward

The blame of those ye better,

The hate of those ye guard”

 

RULE BRITANNIA  

How delightful that the Lion and her cubs, especially her main pup, the USA, find extraordinary common cause in the War on Terror.  Tony Blair’s departure as Prime Minister is a sad day in Anglo-American Empire building.   

Likewise, how frightful the notion that Brits who forfeited Empire post-World War II, in exchange for democracy, have once again tempted fate by signing up under Pax Americana—thus, extending her white man’s duties and the bane of blame and hate for those she betters and guards. 

Joseph Conrad complied the foremost work on British Imperialism and its raison d’être in his 1899 novel Heart of Darkness.  Conrad received inspiration for his imperial diatribe from one R. B. Cunninghame Graham, himself an aristocrat and socialist whose views of Britain’s extensions drew his disgust.  In Graham’s “Bloody Niggers,” he encapsulates British imperialism as follows:   

“Far back in history, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians lived and thought, but God was aiming all the time at something different and better.  He let Greeks and Romans appear out of the darkness of barbarity to prepare the way for the race that from the start was chosen to rule over mankind—namely, the British race.” 

The racism embedded in British imperialism, initially justified by divine mandate, was ignobly supplanted by, of course, one of their own, Charles Darwin; hence, biological considerations wherein the survival of the fittest carried the day and ruled the waves. 

Chalmers quotes Tapan Raychaudhuri, an emeritus fellow of St. Antony’s College, Oxford: 

“All Indians (Asian Indians), whatever their status, shared the experience of being treated as racial inferiors. . . . The life stories of Indian celebrities are full of episodes of racial insults.” (Ibid. p. 80). 

Globalization a la the Brits has now been inherited by the Americans who have learned well from their forebears.  Thomas Friedman’s Lexus and the Olive Tree:  Understanding Globalization and his The World Is Flat, proposes, according to Chalmers, bringing Anglo-American economic configurations in parallel alignment to wit: 

“[t]he integration of capital markets and investor protection contribute mightily to the well-being of peoples under sway of either the British or the American empires.  Though the idea does not survive close scrutiny, it has proved a powerful ideological justification of imperialism.” (Ibid. pp. 80-1). 

In point of glaring fact—notwithstanding the Herculean efforts of historic economic revisionism—the notorious concept that the British Empire allocated generous economic benefits upon its subjugated peoples is naught but the pure ideology of British capitalists.  Chalmers rightly adjudges this subterfuge of British historicity: 

“[a]s impervious to challenge by empirical data as former Soviet prime minister Leonid Brezhnev’s Marxism-Leninism or George Bush’s belief that free markets mean the same thing as freedom. . . . At the apex of those who profited from British-style ‘free trade’ at the end of the nineteenth century was the Rothschild Bank, then by far the world’s largest financial institution with total assets of around forty-one million pounds sterling.  It profited enormously from the wars—some seventy-two of them—during Queen Victoria’s reign, and financed such exploiters of Africa as Cecil Rhodes. (Ibid. p. 82)

 

PAX ROMANA 

The Roman Republic rather abruptly consigned its aristocratic democracy under the ruse of assassinating Julius Caesar and the ultimate replacement by Octavian—a.k.a., Augustus Caesar—her first bona fide emperor (a.k.a., dictator).  Ruse?  Of course.   

“Caesar seems not to have comprehended that in the conflict between haves and have-nots, the haves are really have-it-alls. . . . The Roman aristocrats lambasted the past reforms as the worst kind of thievery, the beginning of a calamitous revolutionary leveling, necessitating extreme countermeasures.  And they presented their violent retaliation not as an ugly class expediency but as an honorable act on behalf of republican liberty.”⁵   

Thus, as Brutus plunged the dagger that Ides of March into the heart of the Senate’s chief competitor, one Julius Caesar, we can still hear the acclamation of that memorable event from the lips of Cicero: 

“That memorable almost God-like deed of yours (Brutus) is proof against all criticisms; indeed it can never be adequately praised.” 

Yet, dripping with hypocrisy from the lips of these aristocrats within the Roman Senate were droplets of self-interest so resistant to anything of Roman Republic that, given the ultimate threat to their class interests and privileges, they impiously embraced political dictatorship “over the most anemic traces of popular rule and egalitarian economic reform.” (Ibid. Parenti, p. 50, 204.) 

Pax Romana gave way to an extravagant disparity of wealth within that Empire—much akin to today’s egregious gulf between the “haves” of American wealth and the “have-nots” – viz., most of the world’s populous, excluding, of course, those elites, who as the “merchants of the earth,” so greatly benefit from her largess. 

Tom Holland of the BBC wrote a splendid adaptation of Herodotus’s Histories and Virgil’s Aeneid, and has produced an even more riveting observation of Rome’s final days of republic:  Rubicon:  The Last Years of the Roman Republic.  His thesis translates as follows:  “The comparison of Rome to the modern-day United States has become something of a cliché . . . .”  Chalmers amplifies: 

“(Holland) draws a picture of the late Republic that seems a model of the modern United States with its flamboyant excesses of wealth, bad taste, and arrogance, as well as its impulse toward militarism.  His social history of republican decadence, highlighting a puerile Roman vision of politics and war, sounds very much like the second Bush administration and the shop-until-you-drop world of American consumerism. . . . Corruption in the Republic threatened to putrefy the world.” (Ibid., pp. 57, 59). 

One opportunity after another—of course, foisted upon Rome by circumstances beyond their control—propelled them to Imperium.  The vast commercial empire of the Punic Peoples—inheritors of Tyre’s Phoenicians and the Canaanite merchants of antiquity (Ref. Ezekiel 26-28) succumbed to Rome’s protection and subsequent incorporation into her collective; undoubtedly exponentially embellishing her commercial expansion, as well as the military capacities to sustain her newly acquired wealth throughout the Mediterranean.  The wealth of the world poured into her coffers and enriched her capitol. 

Where do the comparisons, after two millennia, cease to be realistic?  Without dispute—Rome’s most reliable attributes when juxtaposed to America’s insatiable drive toward empire fixate on militarism.  It is this most disquieting accompaniment that saps the strength of its constitutional democracy. 

Her founding fathers—Madison, John and Quincy Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, John Jay, Franklin, etc.—attempted to emulate most of Rome’s accomplishments:  separation of powers, checks and balances, government based on constitutional law, fixed terms in office, the presidential “veto” and even the toleration of slavery! 

These architects of democracy were so taken up with Rome’s majesty that the very creek which once flowed through this Nation’s Capitol Mall bore the name:  Tiber River.⁶  

Holland entombs the civic responsibilities that once were Rome: 

“By the first century BC, there was only one free city left, and that was Rome herself.  And then Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the Republic imploded, and none was left at all. . . . As a result, a thousand years of civic self-government were brought to an end, and not for another thousand, and more, would it become a living reality again.”⁷ 

Rome’s Senate, much like the Congress of these United States, could not accommodate the burdens of imperialism and the residue remaining from its consequence.  These quick sands eventually, like black holes, suck(ed) the life out of expression and so-called enviable freedoms we hold so dear.  Here is where bureaucratic paralysis awaits all those who struggle to break free.  This is where the troubled masses will or have inadvertently welcomed America’s Imperial Presidency with its empowered military and accomplice in Constitutional crime, the Congress—all in the name of stability and the War on Terror. 

Chalmers sums up this debilitating exercise in descending democracy which, in point of fact, was anything but a participatory democracy – Alas!  A millionaires’ club, an oligarchy of aristocratic families who dominated the Roman Senate—much like the fabulously wealthy who run our reigns of government in Washington! 

“However, the Roman outcome—turning over power to a dictator backed by military force welcomed by ordinary citizens because it seems to bring stability—suggests what might well happen sometime in the future as a result of George Bush’s contempt for the separation of powers. . . . Imperialism provoked the crisis that destroyed the Roman Republic. . . . Rome was the first case of what today we call imperial overstretch.  There were several aspects to this crisis, but the most significant was the transformation of the Roman Army into a professional military force . . . members of this large standing army (estimated at over 700,000), equipped by the Roman state, signed up for twenty to twenty-five years . . . (eventually) . . . Caius Octavianus (Octavian – Augustus Caesar) decisively changed Roman government by replacing the republic with an imperial dictatorship . . . He (Cicero) recognized that ‘for all his struggles the constitution was dead and power lay in the hands of soldiers and their leaders.’  In Cicero’s view, the only hope was to try to co-opt Octavian, leading him toward a more constitutional position, while doing everything not to ‘irritate rank-and-file opinion, which was fundamentally Caesarian.’  Cicero would pay with his life for this last, desperate gamble.  Octavian, still allied with Mark Antony, ordered at least 130 senators (perhaps as many as 300) executed and their property confiscated after charging them with having supported the conspiracy against Caesar.” (Ibid. pp. 60-68) 

It may be duly noted that although Julius Caesar exercised dictatorship from 48 to 44 BC – he, nevertheless, a month before his assassination by the senatorial conspiracy, had arranged that his name be changed to DICTATOR FOR LIFE.  The Roman Senate, wishing to have their cake and to eat it as well, was ultimately terminated as aforementioned with the birth of the Roman Empire, and her first official Emperor, commenced in 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.   

The trappings of democracy still persisted, as Augustus hand picked the new and cooperative Senate—this rubber stamp body simply embellished his entitlements to include Tribune for Life (23 BC), giving Augustus final veto powers over any Senate decree . . . for he had the military to back up his authority; and, rightly so, since the Senators were so handsomely rewarded for their contrivance. 

Furthermore, the notion for positioning the Empire’s troops into far off places is not a novel idea—it is a military necessity.  By the transference of virtually all Roman legions (approximately 6,500 in a legion) from Rome to these distant provinces and fringes of the Empire—he guaranteed that their commanders would not “invigorate” the political process.  Then by creating his own CIA-SS and/or personal bastion of intensely loyal troops under his personal command—the infamous Praetorian Guard (an elite cadre of some nine thousand men)—Augustus was able to insure his own safety and the safety of his entourage.  This secret service, par excellence, was designed to watch the regular Roman army—but as Chalmers postulates:  Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? (Who will watch the watchers?) (Ibid. p. 69).

 

FUNDING THE GOD OF FORTRESSES 

The neocons, the American patriot pastors and the ubiquitous military-industrial complex have become so obsessed with US-military might and alleged world stability, that its infringements have extensively penetrated all continents and nearly all nations withersoever they desire to place their battlements.  Chalmers attempts to quantify the number of such intrusions:  

“During fiscal 2005, the military high command deployed to our overseas bases some 196,975 uniformed personnel as well an equal number of dependents and Department of Defense civilian officials, and employed an additional 81,425 locally hired foreigners.  The worldwide total of U.S. military personnel in 2005, including those based domestically, was 1,840,062 supported by an additional 473,306 Defense Department civil service employees and 203,328 local hires.  Its overseas bases, according to the Pentagon, contained 32,327 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and 16,527 more that it leased.  The size of these holdings was recorded in the inventory as covering 687,347 acres overseas and 29,819,492 acres worldwide, making the Pentagon easily one of the world’s largest landlords.”⁸ 

Defense Department accountants acclaim that the overseas bases are worth at least $127 billion—and an estimated $658.1 billion for all of them, foreign and domestic. (Ibid., p. 139)  

Swimming the waters of annual Defense expenditures within the National Budget is like breast stroking the English Channel in the midst of a raging storm—just when you thought you’re making progress, an additional Congressional military appropriations bill slams you smack down on the President’s desk for signature.  The law of the Empire is “military Keynesianism.”  Jobs on military bases hither, thither and yon carry the day in all final decision-making when it comes to funding—i.e., “the artificial stimulation of economic demand through military expenditures” (Ibid. p. 138).  The fact of the matter is straightforward:  Domestic base closures literally traumatize the US Congress!  We’re all for ending the war in Iraq but keep them domestic bases open. 

Configuring the nigh overseas 1,000+ large bases (plant replacement value (PRV) of over $1,584 billion), medium-sized bases (PRV between $1,584-$845 million) and small bases (e.g., the so-called “lily pads” or “Cooperative Security Locations” juxtaposed to “Forward Operation Sites” (FOSs) which are much larger but downplayed by the Pentagon), along with the maintenance of domestic active and retired military personnel, along with their medical expenditures and armaments, coupled with the federal and private contractor support for the military (American citizens and host-nation support personnel) – added to the staggering costs to militarize the atmosphere above the earth (a horrendously staggering cost indeed and deplorably ineffective—e.g., the infamous Strategic Defense Initiative) – it, therefore, can be embarrassingly calculated that these expenditures for the Department of Defense, Energy (wherein massive amounts of money are spent for militarily-related projects), Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, NASA, Veterans Affairs and scores of other federal departments and agencies – the total yearly outlay, according to Chalmers – is over $1 Trillion.  The entire federal budget in fiscal 2007 is:  $2.8 Trillion. 

The annual shortfall (2007) is calculated at $400B (i.e., taxes/revenues are exceeded by expenses) – the national debt as of 2007 approximates $9T.  This inflated economic time bomb is held by virtually all foreign central banks—but especially the Chinese and Japanese governments (nigh $2T with China holding more than Japan), as Chalmers concludes, “continue to be willing to be paid in dollars in order to sustain American demand for their exports . . . for the sake of domestic employment, both countries lend huge amounts to the American Treasury, but there is no guarantee how long they will want or be able to do so.” (Ibid. p. 271) 

The consequence of our overspending—precipitated by our military expenditures for armies and weapons—is so onerous that even if a “severe reduction in our numerous deficits (trade, governmental, current account, household, and savings) would still not be enough to save the republic. Because of the unacknowledged nature of our economy—specifically our dependence on military spending and war for our wealth and well-being . . . . Ever since we recovered from the Great Depression of the 1930s via massive governmental spending on armaments during World War II, we have become dependent on ‘military Keynesianism,’ artificially boosting the growth rate of the economy via government spending on armies and weapons.” (Ibid. p. 271)

    

CHALMERS CONCLUDES: 

The summation of where all of this has gone or will be going is hopelessly bleak, according to Chalmers Johnson.  I believe his conclusions bear immediate reflection prior to our biblical accounting of the matter—which utterly confirms this inadvertent trilogy of exposure and despair: 

“History is instructive on this dilemma.  If we choose to keep our empire, as the Roman Republic did, we will certainly lose our democracy and grimly await the eventual blowback that imperialism generates.  There is an alternative, however.  We could, like the British Empire after World War II, keep our democracy by giving up our empire . . . the people of the British Isles chose democracy over imperialism.  For this reason, I can only regard Britain’s willingness to join the United States in its invasion of Iraq as an atavistic response. 

“Britain’s closing down its empire is one of its more admirable legacies.  I do not share the nostalgia of contemporary Anglo-American writers who urge the United States to take up the ‘white man’s burden’ and follow in the footsteps of British imperialists.   

“I believe that to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent.  The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government—a republic—that would prevent this from occurring.  But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency.  We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire.  Once a nation is started down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play—isolation, overstretch, the uniting of forces opposed to imperialism, and bankruptcy.  Nemesis stalks our life as a free nation.” (ibid. pp. 278-9)

 

“WHO IS ABLE TO MAKE WAR WITH HIM?” 

Antiochus IV, the Syrian king who ruled from 175 to 163 BC, gave himself the name Epiphanes, “God is Manifest,” but those who “knew their God” (i.e., the Maccabeans who rebelled against his Hellenization of their Jewish culture) declared him to be Epimanes, the “Madman.”  This mercurial figure and his exploits are described in detail by the prophet Daniel (Daniel 11); however, as one pursues the machinations of this vile person (Daniel 11:21) a not so subtle metamorphosis transpires wherein the Madman, under divine inspiration imparted through Daniel, takes on cosmic significance (Daniel 11:29-45).  The despicable one is now ensconced in prophetic adumbrative language, presenting a gruesome figure of the Antichrist in his entire futuristic calamity: 

“Then the king shall do according to his own will:  he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God or gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done.  He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all.  But in their place he shall honor a GOD OF FORTRESSES; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.  Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain (i.e., profit)”  (Daniel 11:36-39). 

There is an unforgiving reliance and hideous expression of military dependency far in excess of any figure to have countenanced this planet now upon the scene.  Here abides Julius Caesar, who through Octavian, revives to embody Empire and concomitant destruction and desolation—all in the name of Pax Romana.  No, the Bible is not silent in so far as the military alignment of this one . . . who’s latter day manifestation was foreseen not only by Daniel, but certainly by Jesus, Paul, Peter and, most assuredly, by the Apostle John. 

“When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make WAR against them, overcome them, and kill them” (Revelation 11:7). 

“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make WAR with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17). 

          “So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast?  Who is able to make WAR with him?’” (Revelation 13:4) 

“And I looked, and behold, a white horse.  He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out CONQUERING AND TO CONQUER” (Revelation 6:2). 

“He who KILLS with the sword” (Revelation 13:10). 

“These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast . . . These will make WAR with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them” (Revelation 17:13-14a). 

“And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make WAR against Him who sat on the horse and against His army” (Revelation 19:19). 

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong.  It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet.  It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.  I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little (i.e., “younger”) one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.  And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words” (Daniel 7:7-8).         

“Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth of iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet; and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.  I was watching, and the SAME HORN WAS MAKING WAR AGAINST THE SAINTS, and prevailing against them” (Daniel 7:19-21). 

“The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces.  The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and another shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings.  He shall speak pompous words against the Most High.  Shall PERSECUTE THE SAINTS of the Most High, shall intend to change times and law, then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (Daniel 7:23-25).

 

THE “YOUNGER HORN” IS THE ANTICHRIST – NOT A EURO-UPSTART! 

It is at this juncture that literary courtesies will be shelved.  “Mr. Europe” is not going to be the Antichrist, no more than Javier Solana Madariaga will be anything more than George W. Bush’s water boy! 

In 1961 J. Dwight Pentecost of Dallas Theological Seminary is quoted by one, Herb Peters, of Fulfilled Prophecy (going into apocalyptic seizure over the EU’s “Recommendation 666”): 

“The time will come when the nations of Europe will say to one man, ‘You take authority over us. . . . This man will appear as a savior and deliverer.  He will bring peace to world tension by settling the Arab-Israeli dispute by his united power.” ⁹ 

Likewise, Dr. John F. Walvoord is quoted by Peters: 

          “The resulting prosperity of Europe under this arrangement has brought forth many predictions of an ultimate United States of Europe which could eventually include not only Europe itself, but the     Mediterranean world.”¹⁰   

Of course, in the Nineteenth Century this prophetic proposition seemed altogether viable.  The prognostication that the ten horns/ten toes would some day give birth to the Eleventh Horn—and that this Eleventh Horn must of necessity come forth directly out of Europe proper (i.e., a “Revived Roman Empire”)—has led to an eschatological entrapment of blinding, insurmountable, geo-political embarrassment; and, worse yet, pompous, ignorant, patriotic claptrap! 

So entrenched is this thinking among well-meaning, but wholly deceived, Premillenarian brethren (pre-mid-post tribulationists, it doesn’t matter) that any attempt to persuade them otherwise appears to be but a foolish attempt on this author’s part—naught but an exercise in eschatological futility; akin to throwing “pearls before swine.” 

If these were not my brethren in Christ, there would be no bother—but they are precisely that; therefore, my persistence in the matter will not abate. 

Allow me to quote one of the foremost spokespersons of the Euro-Antichrist, Herb Peters, from his book and lectures on the coming Son of Perdition: 

“As I said before, if those 10 European nations known as the Brussels Treaty Powers are to become the 10 kings of bible prophecy, then I knew one man would soon rise to a place of power alongside them.  So I began watching for the creation of an office within the European Union that could accommodate such a person.  This happened with the signing of the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997. 

“Europe needed one voice to speak for the many nations that made up the European Union.  They also needed someone to help the Council of the European Union in matters relating to their new Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).  The EU nations had big ambitions in this area.  What they needed was someone who the world could call “Mr. Europe.”  So, at Amsterdam, the 15 EU heads of state met together and decided to create the new office of High Representative for Common Foreign Security Policy. 

“Although the Amsterdam Treaty was signed in 1997, it didn’t become effective until May 1999.  Then just five months later, on October 15, 1999, a remarkable man became the first to hold this office.  He was a 56-year-old Spaniard by the name of Javier Solana Madariaga.  He was a member of the Spanish Socialist Party and had been the prior head of NATO.   

“Solana’s position as High Representative also made him the Secretary General of the Council of the European Union.  The Council is one of the three main governmental institutions that make up the EU.  The other two institutions are the European Parliament and the European Commission.” (Herb Peters, Recommendation 666, The Rise of the Beast from the Sea, 2004, Part II, Chapter 8, Introducing Mr. Europe, http://www.fulfilledprophecy.com/contents_menu.html) 

Peters begins from his Euro-Antichrist perspective (as if America’s 1,000 foreign bases have not even appeared on his radar) to connect the dots of his—and, unfortunately, countless others so deceived by this fixation—Euro-Antichrist as possibly this Spanish Socialist: 

“Then on November 25, 1999, while America was about to celebrate Thanksgiving Day (Note:  We Americans are always ensconced in some form of religious posturing—after all, this “godly nation” simply could not be the platform for Antichrist?), something big did happen—something even I wasn’t expecting.  Solana’s already lofty position was made even more powerful.  Solana put on his third hat and became the Secretary General of the WEU (Western European Union) military alliance.  In other words, Solana had now been placed in a position of influence over those “core” 10 Brussels Treaty Powers.  He now was the head of Europe’s exclusive military club.” (Ibid.) 

And, just how “exclusive” is this military club?  Let us examine Eurocorps a bit more closely and ascertain the military significance of this formidable possibility as Antichrist’s bastion of beastly power. 

“In January 1988, France and Germany formed a joint Franco-German Army Brigade consisting of approximately 40,000 troops. Since becoming operational in 1990, Belgium and Luxembourg have joined the force, with Spain and the Netherlands expressing interest in joining. The force is now called the Eurocorps, and has the following missions under the control of the WEU: common defense of allies, peacekeeping and peace enforcement, and provision of humanitarian aid. Late 1992 saw agreements established on the relationship between the Eurocorps and the NATO military structure under the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR); this includes plans for Eurocorps employment under NATO.”¹¹ 

Now let’s discuss how expansive this Eurocorps has become, given the strategic placement of the Spaniard at its helm: 

“Eurocorps is a force which consists of up to 60,000 soldiers drawn from the armies of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain. It is independent of any other military command, although it can be placed under the command of international organizations. 

According to its founding treaties the Corps: 

1.       Is to be prepared to carry out humanitarian aid missions and population assistance missions following a natural or technical disaster,

2.       Can be made available for peace-restoring or peace-keeping missions, for example within the scope of the United Nations Organization (UN) or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)

3.       Can be employed as a mechanized army corps in high-intensity combat operations, in order to ensure the common defense of the Allies in application of article 5 of the Washington Treaty (NATO), or of the Brussels Treaty (WEU).  

In order to enable integration with NATO in the case of commitment under point 3, the Corps has adopted NATO structures and procedures. However, the Corps is able to perform outside of NATO command.”¹² 

Eurocorps entanglements with NATO, even the UN—whose American dominance is altogether overwhelming (see links to NATO)—so compromise this military absurdity that all comparisons to American military superiority in Europe are akin to the mouse that roared . . . the 800-pound gorilla could care less, nor has any intention of moving off his most comfortable European bed, let alone his intercontinental hospitality houses! 

Notwithstanding, the shocker continues: 

“I was shocked by this news (i.e., Solana’s imperial positioning!).  The prophetic implications of this event were many.  I knew if the Brussels Treaty Powers were to become the 10 kings of prophecy, then one man with influence in the EU would rise to power among them.  And this had just happened.” (Ibid.) 

Now the confirmation: 

“In fact, it was this event that caused me to write the column about Solana that Constance Cumbey read when she decided to give me a call.  Needless to say, these three positions – High Representative, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and now Secretary General of the WEU – made Solana an extremely powerful player in the EU.  This would make him – or someone who is to hold his office in the future – a good candidate for the Antichrist. 

“Constance Cumbey brought Solana’s comment to my attention.  She calls this press conference Solana’s ‘Head of the World’ speech.  And her point is well taken.  Who did Solana mean when he referred to the ‘Head of the International Community?’  Was he referring to himself or to someone else?” (Editor’s Note:  If Solana were referring to himself as “Head of the International Community” then he is either delusional or something got lost in the translation.) (Ibid.) 

The insightful backslapping going on between Cumbey and Peters astounds, for the EU or WEU or Eurocorps or whatever could or will someday be on a war footing, according to Peters, with the USA? 

“The creation of an independent European army brings Americans to an interesting question.  In light of what we’ve been learning about the European Union’s ambitious new foreign policy, is war with our European allies a future possibility?  Even if Americans don’t think so, our allies might.  According to an essay written by Carlos Masala, senior academic researcher for the Institute for Political Science and European Affairs at the University of Cologne, our European allies are already considering the possibility of such a conflict.” (Ibid.) (Editor’s Note:  Dr. Carlo Masala now works as Researcher at the NATO Defense College, Rome—see link above) 

Peters sums up his otherwise brilliant thesis: 

“So, after 50 years of depending on the United States for security, why are our European allies suddenly willing to spend their citizens’ hard earned money for an independent military capacity?  They tell us it is to strengthen NATO.  They also say it’s because of their global humanitarian concerns.  And, perhaps, we still have friends in Europe who really believe this. But, as we’ve been seeing, the prophecies in the Bible indicate there may be forces at work that have other plans for the EU’s new crises management capabilities.  And these forces are definitely not our friends.  I’m referring, of course, to those wicked spiritual forces that make up the mystery of lawlessness.” (Ibid.) 

What is this significance? 

“Solana was not only the head of the most powerful agency in the EU (the Council of the European Union), but he was also the one entrusted with creating and directing Europe’s new Common Foreign and Security Policy.  And now he was also in tight with those 10 core nations.” (Ibid.)   

Peters’ military analysis, however, is the most breathtaking imaginable: 

“Yet I couldn’t help but wonder (given the Eurocorps prominence and all):  Why would we Americans want to make NATO resources available to our European allies for their independent use?  I realized that something big was happening in Europe that the American people didn’t know about.” (Editor’s Note:  And, most definitely EUCOM hasn’t heard a thing about this either!) 

“The balance of military power that had existed for the last 50 years in America’s favor was going to change.  Europe was on its way to once again become a military power.  And they were going to do it with our equipment and help.” (Ibid.) (Editor’s Note:  Without USA technological support current NATO troops from Germany and France in Afghanistan would be totally incapable of anything but garrison duty—and that’s precisely what they’re doing there now—so much for both Euro-NATO troops and the vaunted Eurocorps)  

 

PETER’S 70TH WEEK, AND THE FALSE PROPHET 

 Getting excited about Solana’s ENP (European Neighborhood Plan) Action Plan wherein Israel is “the first nation to begin participating in Solana’s ENP covenant with the many" (January 1, 2007), is a major eschatological disturbance in the force for Peters et al.   

“And, on January 1, 2007, Israel’s Action Plan will be conformed to fit Solana’s new seven-year ENPI.  In other words, the stage may now be set for the 70th Week of Daniel to begin on January 1, 2007” (Ibid. Epilogue, Herb Peters) (Editor’s Note:  Of course, it didn’t!). 

Peters is enthusiastic that Daniel 9:27 MAY (thankfully, Peters always encapsulates his forecasts with MAY) be fulfilled through Solana’s orchestrations with Israel. 

“It is commonly believed the passage (Daniel 9:27) foretells the rise of a strong leader from out of a revived Roman Empire who will make a seven-year covenant with Israel, which he will violate 3 ½ years later.  In other passages from Daniel, we learn this leader will rise from among a 10-nation alliance (Daniel 7:7-8).  And, in the New Testament book of Revelation, we learn he will somehow be connected to the number 666 (Revelation 13:18). 

“This appears to be exactly what we’re seeing.  As I’ve been reporting, a 10-nation alliance did appear on January 1, 1995.  It’s a 10-nation military alliance known as the Western European Union (WEU).  These nations are members of both NATO and the European Union (EU).  What binds these 10 nations together is their mutual defense obligation under the modified Brussels Treaty.  They are also known as the Brussels Treaty Powers” etc., etc., etc. (Ibid. Epilogue). 

Israel’s dependence upon Euro-trade may be of interest to some; however, she can trust the Europeans as far as Solana can throw them when it comes to security issues!  Furthermore, the Israel-USA Military Alliance is so ironclad that to countenance any other arrangement or “peace accord” orchestrated by any agency or Euro-supernova connected with the EU is altogether laughable! 

Only the United States of America is capable of enforcing any security agreement with Israel—there is absolutely no other entity Israel will or can trust:  NONE; particularly the wishy-washy EU, and, in particular Rumsfeld’s Old Europe! 

But let’s get on with Peter’s thesis, predicated as it is upon the Euro-Centric Antichrist of the Nineteenth Century . . . 

“If the first beast of Bible prophecy is to be born from events associated with Recommendation 666, then it is likely the second beast could be born from the world changing events of September 11. 

“Here’s why I believe this:  sometimes we focus so much on our attention on the first beast described in the 13th chapter of Revelation that we forget there is a second beast.  Unlike the first 10-horned beast that comes from the sea, the second beast has only two horns and comes from the earth.  

“The second beast – later called the False Prophet – is a powerful religious figure who will direct worship toward the first beast.  This second beast will also cause all people, both rich and poor, to receive a mark on their right hand or forehead in order to buy or sell.  And, if you recall, a beast in Bible prophecy is a king and his kingdom that rises over Israel. 

“Here’s my point:  this religious figure will need some kind of kingdom to enforce his global religious and economic control.  I believe his kingdom will be the United Nations.  And I believe AMERCA MAY PLAY A BIG ROLE in bringing his kingdom about” (i.e., the kingdom of the False Prophet). (Ibid., Epilogue, Chapter 12, Recommendation 666, Herb Peters) 

O.K. – so Peters has the First Beast (i.e., the Antichrist) being some Euro-Centric character like Solana—especially since he’s picked on the European Neighborhood Plan for Israel.  But who might the Second Beast, or False Prophet of Revelation 13 be? 

Here we go . . .  

“In other words, in the aftermath of September 11 and the Iraqi war (Editor’s Note:  Now that a gazillion military bases, troops, and the Empire’s footprint is all over the Middle East, especially in Iraq), I believe AMERICA AND THE UN will create the end-times Babylon of Revelation.  And it is this Babylon that the Antichrist and the 10 kings will destroy in one hour at the end of the tribulation.” 

Yikes!  Peters has somehow got the USA building a megalomaniacal citadel—in cooperation with the UN (who’s no where to be found in Iraq now) known as BABYLON ON THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES (not Babylon on the Hudson).  Hey, at least Peters has America doing the building—no doubt with Halliburton and their subsidiaries.  Babylon will rise in all her former glory thanks to what will undoubtedly be the world’s largest building program ever undertaken on the face of the planet all done by the USA. 

This will be the GREAT CITY of the last days that will be destroyed by the same 10-nation Euro-Revived Roman Empire confederacy of the last days!  Thus will Revelation 17 be fulfilled, literally! 

Now, America’s all over the Middle East—just like they’re all over Europe.  Apparently, the Euros thought that their little Euro-Mediterranean Partnership would somehow dominate the Middle East (economically, at least), according to Peters . . . . 

“But, thanks in a large part to September 11, America would go to war in Iraq.  And what the European leaders who opposed the war feared would happen, happened.  American forces would go to war and remain, giving America and the UN (wherever they are) a large, permanent footprint in the Middle East.  So the events of September 11 may have set the stage for the second beast from the earth to appear – the False Prophet and the Babylon of prophecy.” (Ibid., Epilogue) (My emphasis.) 

Interesting, isn’t it – but not as much as this: 

“Now here is where it gets interesting.  As I said before, the prophecies tell us the 10 kings and the antichrist will hate this Babylon and destroy her in one hour with fire.  With the way the European nations who implemented Recommendation 666 now appear to hate the United States over Iraq, it’s not hard to see how this event could happen. 

“However, there is another reason they will hate this Babylon.  The Bible tells us God will put it into the hearts of the 10 kings and the antichrist to have a common foreign policy – His foreign policy – to want to destroy this end-times Babylon (Revelation 17:16-17).  Why will God do this?  Because this Babylon killed His people who refused to receive the mark.  And this Babylon divided up His land Israel (Revelation 19:1, Jeremiah 50:25, Joel 3:1-2).  Yes, the end-times stage is being set.  But few are noticing.” (Ibid., Epilogue) 

Well, at least Peters has Babylon the Great as an amalgamation of the USA and the UN teamed up to build their tower to the sky in Iraq.  What’s so incredibly distracting and utterly deficient about his analysis is America has now become the False Prophet?  Where in Scripture does it say that the False Prophet will be destroyed by the First Beast, the Antichrist?  Nowhere, that’s where; and Peters knows this convolution of Scripture is absurd to the uttermost—it is a shameful misinterpretation and manipulation of the Word of God and it should be stopped.   

Furthermore, depicting the False Prophet (which allegedly is the UN) teaming up with Babylon the Great (a.k.a., the USA, especially HQed in Iraq’s monstrous soon-to-be reconstruction of its ancient city, undoubtedly to be known as Babylon East; juxtaposed to Babylon West, the USA) is nowhere to be found in the Bible. 

The Antichrist is a product of the culmination of Western Civilization—the ultimate byproduct of Gentile World Powers (A progressive development from Neo-Babylonia, to Persia, to Greece, to Rome, to the Ten-Toes, and finally to the 11th Horn.).  To circumvent the conclusion of the West’s hegemony through the United States of America of all things economic, military and even religious, is a gross oversight of immense academic and spiritual ignorance, as well as false patriotism on the part of Christians found within the confines of Babylon the Great. 

Now, for Peters to suggest that America is to play second fiddle to the Euro-Antichrist is the height of eschatological insanity and bespeaks of a preposterous hermeneutic of Scripture that has a “wag the dog” mindset wherein we find, in Peter’s analysis, the tail (Europe) is to wag the dog (the USA). 

Not even his carefully crafted MAYs shall obfuscate the error of his instruction—nor, giving Babylon’s destruction the new entitlement as False Prophet (mixed in with the UN), shall prosper his thesis one iota.   

Brethren, and those of you who view our “eschatological food fight” – to be mesmerized by the Euro-Antichrist and to think that Babylon’s newly designated False Prophet status can comfort us in this most difficult hour wherein all things take place apart and outside of the confines of this glorious party swirling within the ballroom of these United States, while the earth is about to be shaken to its core . . . think no further about such absurdities! 

Antichrist will come forth, indeed he has, from the 10-Toes of the Image who colonized and WALKED the face of the whole earth—then he arose and continues to arise ripping out three horns in order to manifest his pomposities (England, France, and Spain know full well) – Europe gave birth and will and has given all authority to this ignobility whose destruction and desolation are all too known throughout the globe.  The Empire that was Rome has revived and it is right in our own backyard, let alone the backyards of the entire world! 

 “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes.  His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; he shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive; he shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people.  Through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule; and he shall exalt himself in his heart.  He shall DESTROY many in their prosperity.  He shall even RISE AGAINST the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without human means” (Daniel 8:23-25).

          “But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.  And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined is poured out on the desolator” (Daniel 9:27b). 

“At the time of the end . . . he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through.  He shall also enter the Glorious Land, and many countries shall be overthrown . . . he shall stretch out his hand against the countries . . . he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things . . . but news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to DESTROY and ANNIHILATE MANY.  And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him” (Daniel 11:40b-45).

 

A FINAL APPEAL TO SIRITUAL REASON

 Now, given the extremity of the times, and the unyielding – yea, ruthless pursuit of the weapons of war and all the concomitant dependence wrought by such military aggrandizements – is it not time for you who find yourself among the “multitudes in the Valley of Decision” – for “the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision . . . the sun and the moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness” – to rise up and prepare to meet your God?  “The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and the earth will shake; but the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.  So you shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Joel 3:14-17a).  Yes, decide to assuage your fears, confusion and inner turmoil – wars within and wars without – what will you decide? 

Right now—it is time, your time of decision, to embrace with all the fiber of your being, the Son of Man, who awaits your call for divine deliverance!  Perhaps you still hold out some hope for American Republic or Pax Americana?  Alas!  That fruitless search for peace is but a dead end—yours is a choice that must be made—this is your Valley of Decision:  Choose you this day whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! (Joshua 24:15) 

NOTES: 

1.       See maps of the Roman and British Empires in “The Next American Empire,” Economist, March 18, 2004.

2.       Bill Moyers, “Restoring the Public Trust.”

3.       Newsmax, “Tommy Franks:  Martial Law will Replace Constitution After Next Terror Attack,” November 21, 2003,           http://www.propagandamatrix.com/211103martiallaw.html.

4.       Michael Ignatieff, “The Burden,” New York Times Magazine, January 5, 2003; reprinted in various places under the title “The  American Empire (Get Used to It).”

5.       Michael Parenti, The Assassination of Julius Caesar:  A People’s History of Ancient Rome (New York:  New Press, 2003), p. 191.

6.       For a map showing the “Tiber River,” see James Sterling Young, The Washington Community, 1800-1828 (New York:  Columbia University Press, 1966), p. 67.  Also see Byrd, Senate of the Roman Republic, p. 183.

7.       Tom Holland, Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (New York:  Doubleday, 2003), pp. xv-xvi.

8.       Department of Defense, Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Installations and Environment), Base Structure Report, Fiscal Year 2005, p, DOD-78.

9.       J. Dwight Pentecost, Prophecy For Today (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961) p. 90.

10.     John F. Walvoord, The Nations in Prophecy, p. 89, 93.

11.     Major C. A. McNerney, NATO:  Anachronism or Answer – an Argument for Collective Defense – Master’s Thesis, USMC      Command and Staff College, United States Army, Conference Group 5, http://www.fas.org/man/eprint/mcnern.htm (Editor’s Note:  Carefully note this is a Master’s Thesis prepared by a member of the US military!)

12.     Eurocorps, Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocorps

 

 

BYE-BYE BABYLON

Part II

“The Rise or Fall of American Empire?”

 By Doug Krieger 

Here comes another in-house food fight—but it’s affecting everyone out there who claims to have a Weltanschauung or is remotely interested in Weltpolitik.  If anyone should understand the supposed demise of American power, just ask the Germans, whose words have become part of the King’s English because they fit so well. 

Having beaten back the Huns twice (actually thrice, considering the Hessian conscripts during the Revolutionary War) and then having America’s military-industrial complex, with a multitude of super bases located all over Germany, along with transporting nigh all who really mattered in the Nazi rocket programs into America’s lift off (as well incorporating scores of Nazis into America’s intelligence operations after the War)—well, just ask the Germans who’s the Babylon of the Last Days; better yet, who’s the new Rome.   

Thankfully, the Germans came to their senses and elected Angela Merkel to recover from the Euro-firsters of Gerhard Schroeder.  No wonder Forbes Magazine considers Merkel the most powerful woman in the world—and perhaps one of the brightest:  For example—whatever it takes to make the USA happy, she’ll find a way.  Ah, the vicissitudes of Empire—ultimately, knowing how Weltpolitik is played out carries the day—Auf Wiedersehen to the Schroeders who attempt a separate path to a Europe void of the Empire’s tentacles, after all, every time Europe’s been left to her own demise she’s imploded and started planting new killing fields. 

You bet America would like to see a united Europe—as in united around the good ‘ole USofA!  And, that continues to be the case in nation after nation . . . let us consider Schroeder’s counterpart . . . (Note:  I should have said “client state” as in “client state after client state.”) 

For Jacques Chirac—is now Bon Voyage as the Frenchman goes sailing off into legal entanglements . . . the Americans are much more comfortable with the likes of Nicolas Sarkozy—a man inspired by the “economic liberalization” of America and Britain . . . money has a way, after all, of calling the shots, even in French culture.  And, of course, the Italians are right in there with their newly-elected and familiarly pro-American Romano Pordi—sort of fits well with Pax Romana or for that matter, Pax Britannia . . . all of which nicely fit into Pax Americana (a.k.a. Blair-Bush). 

Whoops!  Sorry to get distracted from the in-house food fight—but there’s nothing like watching the Europeans so enthralled with America’s political, economic and military charm . . . all this in spite of Javier Solana as the foremost possibility of the Antichrist since Nero and the not-so-distant rumors of America’s death!

 

RUMORS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED BY CERTAIN EVANGELICALS! 

Never let it be said that astute Amero-Centric evangelicals—viewing the world no doubt from Jules Verne’s Around-the-World-in-Eighty Days Hot-Air Balloon (cir. 1870s) chanced upon a European view simply mind-numbing for its ever-increasing separate course, leading to the denial of their insipid social (i.e., socialism) nets (including a full month’s vacation for all during August with scores of low productivity holidays propping up the employment numbers and the Euro).   

Let me explain . . . 

Jules’ tale includes a rather entrepreneurial adventurer by the name of Phileas Fogg and his servant Passerpartout—both names caught my imagination as to how they might fit into my seemingly benign metaphor, likening the cir. 1870’s tour to Americans (though they were Brits) now wafting over European capitols.  It’s just that Fogg seems such an apropos name given the vision thing and all; and, of course, Passerpartout fits as well—which doesn’t sound as if everything is all there. 

Now, connecting the scenic dots to another American novelist, Mark Twain, a.k.a. Samuel Clemens, who lived about the same time (1835-1910), we begin to see how the mind somehow strings things together to make a point! 

Aside from touring the planet—much like the Jules Verne characters—this witty and sardonic sort scored multiple quotes endearing generations of Americans.  Faulkner called Twain the father of American literature!  One such quote had to do with rumors of Twain’s death—apparently very real at the time. 

Twain was delayed in New England on the yacht of his friend, Henry H. Rogers, because of treacherous seas (heading back to New York City), the ever prescient New York Times circulated the viable notion that Twain had drowned at sea—not knowing he had enough sense to stay dry until the storm passed—then again, nothing like fanning the flames of reliability (media-wise, nothing’s changed). 

When hearing of his death, Twain muttered the profundity:  “...I will make an exhaustive investigation of this report that I have been lost at sea. If there is any foundation for the report, I will at once apprise the anxious public."  This was akin to an earlier dislocation wherein his death had been confirmed some years earlier—to which he replied:  "The report of my death is an exaggeration" – hence, “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” 

Well, I’d be obliged to liken the evangelical American perceptions in Jules Verne’s hot air balloon as true colonial fantasy—even to this day the Fogg persists; and, likewise, their belabored attempts to dissuade the masses that somehow America is not found in Bible prophecy, but she is woefully omitted, and purposefully so (somehow).  Furthermore, since even an ostrich must pull its head out of the sand from time to time to behold blatant realities of the real world, it appears that a number of these beloved brethren—knowing full-well there’s an 800-lb. gorilla talking on the bed—have now concluded that if this monstrosity is to play second fiddle it must be extinguished or delimited as a world player . . . thus, the American patriotic evangelicals have turned on Americana (easy to do with all her sins rising to the heavens) and are busy about destroying her from some of the most unimaginable gyrations that would make Verne’s fantasy come alive and confirm, once again, that “rumors of my death have been grotesquely exaggerated!”

 

DANIEL AND THE HORNS  

It’s a tough task being a super patriotic American, while at the same time trying to figure a way out of this mess—i.e., how an ascending Europe will overtake America (somehow) and constitute the singular base of the 11th Horn of Daniel, the infamous Antichrist yet to appear on earth’s scene; therefore, let us review these poignant verses prior to an excursion into American-style hari-kari or how to eliminate the 800-lb. talking gorilla from my bed.  A variety of semi-prophetic proposals have surfaced of late . . . but let’s consider Daniel’s “younger” or “little” horn, known as the 11th horn: 

Daniel 7:7-8 . . .  

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong.  It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet.  It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.  I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little (lit. “younger”) one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.  And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous (lit. “great things”) words.” 

Prior to these verses (Daniel 7:2-6) the clear outline of the three beasts of history are graphically portrayed—all came forth from the Great Sea, including the fourth Beast:  The Lion = Neo-Babylonia; The Bear = Medo-Persia; The Leopard = Grecian Empire; and now the fourth beast:  Rome.  And, out of this fourth beast—out of its “ten horns” arises an Eleventh Horn, the Younger Horn.  Obviously, it comes forth from Rome and it plucks up or “uproots” three of the first horns in so doing.   

The “horn” - as a Biblical metaphor - constitutes “authority” or “government.”  Hence, the ten-horned fourth Beast is a composition of authorities or governments banded or affiliated together with common aspirations, yet distinguished; even so, the Eleventh Horn is likewise distinguished and has similar aspirations, so it would appear, from the original ten horns; however, by uprooting three of the “first horns” it obviously expressed a violent overthrown of these three in order to express its youth, and assert its 11th-Horn posture as supreme; notwithstanding, this 11th Horn surfaces out from “among them” – indicating that ALL somehow participate in its expression. 

The fact that this younger horn has “eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous words” personifies him, not only as another authority (i.e., kingdom) but also as a human figure associated with GREAT THINGS (harkening ahead to the GREAT CITY BABYLON); and, therefore, can clearly be heralded as that future “King of Babylon.” 

Daniel continues: 

“Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful, with its teeth or iron and its nails of bronze, which devoured, broke in pieces, and trampled the residue with its feet; and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows.  I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, prevailing against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom” (Daniel 7:18-22). 

Here the younger horn (i.e., “other horn”) now takes on the “appearance” which is “greater than his fellows.”  Something has happened wherein the younger horn now prevails over the other ten horns of the beast, let alone the three that were plucked up when this “other horn” came forth.   

In the Revelation we discover another Beast—similar to Daniel’s Fourth Beast having ten horns but no mention of the 11th Horn.   This Beast of Revelation, like Daniel’s has “ten horns” (Revelation 17:7); however, he is now identified as having seven heads as well (Revelation 17:7).  The discovery of the Antichrist within Revelation’s description takes place when we discover that “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the Beast.  These are of one mind, and they (the ten) will give their power and authority to the beast” (Revelation 17:12-13).  

Here, what was introduced in Daniel’s accounting as the 11th Horn (“11,” incidentally, is in Biblical numerology, one less than “12” and indicates “Satanic connection” and/or deficiency—Judas, made the disciples “11” in number; the 11 sons of Canaan vs. the 12 sons of Jacob, etc.) has now been entitled by John’s accounting as the Beast – thusly, we are dealing not only with a person who has become the Beast from the Abyss (appearing half way through the 70^th Week of Daniel in Revelation 11:7; 13:1-10) but we are dealing with a BEAST NATION or “horn/government/authority.” 

Finally, Daniel adds further clarity to this ten-horned beast and the younger horn Beast person and nation who comes forth from the ten-horned beast. 

“The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces.  The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom.  And another shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings.  He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.  Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (Daniel 7:23-25). 

Firstly, the fourth beast is a fourth kingdom – but from this fourth kingdom shall arise “ten horns” who are “ten kings.”  Therefore, at some future time from the remnants of this fourth kingdom shall ten separate kings arise or, if you would “ten kingdoms” or “ten authorities.”   

The fact that the Revelation indicates that this ten-horned beast also has “seven heads” which are “seven authorities” (Mountains, not “hills” – Revelation 17:9) indicates that “complete authority” is involved—the ten-horned beast has seven heads which are mountains upon which the Woman sits.  It is safe to say that earth’s seven continents—i.e., the entire earth—is involved in the expression of this authority. 

Also, “There are also seven kings.  Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come.  And when he comes, he must continue a short time.  THE BEAST (i.e., not the ten-horned beast) that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition” (Revelation 17:10-11).   

I know this is difficult to follow; however, it is abundantly clear that “The BEAST” is both a person, as well as a nation or kingdom.  These kingdoms and/or leaders are a succession.  Many Biblical scholars suggest that the “five have fallen” are juxtaposed to their relationship with ancient Israel.  At the time of John’s recordation of the Revelation, the five kingdoms that had already treaded down Israel were:  Egypt, Assyria, Neo-Babylonia, Medo-Persia and Alexandrian Greece.  The current or “one is” would have been the current Roman Empire (not a particular Caesar—Preterists have to gyrate all over the map trying to determine just how many Caesars there were between Julius or Augustus and Domitia in order for their synthesis to make any sense).   

Finally, “the other has not yet come” (i.e., the “seventh”) would complete the succession of Gentile World Powers usurping the Promised Land.  Yes, this “seventh” is a Revived Rome but wholly distinct from the ten-horned beast or “original Roman Empire revived”—apart and separate as both a King with a Kingdom.  This kingdom and figure is none other than the 11th or Younger Horn, THE BEAST, the Seventh King; however, his entitlement as THE BEAST is not accorded to him until the “Beast that was” (i.e., Ancient Rome), and is not (i.e., “something” has happened to the Seventh King), “is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition” (Revelation 17:11).  

These segments of John’s Beast are remarkable in that the Seventh King or Kingdom has now been transformed into the EIGHTH, but is still connected to the seven . . . in other words the Antichrist-Seventh King/Kingdom has now been transformed into the Beast-Eighth King/Kingdom or Beast Kingdom.  We affirm, though time does not permit, that this transformation is naught but the incarnation of Satan into the body of Antichrist and the commencement of the Reign of the Beast and the falsification of the Resurrection of Christ (i.e., the Eighth – “8” in numerology connotes resurrection).  This eighth king is referred to “going into perdition” or “destruction” as Judas became the “son of perdition” as “Satan entered into him” to commit the betrayal of Jesus (cf. John 17:12; Luke 22:3; II Thess. 2:3). 

All this to say that in the latter days there will most definitely be a Revived Roman Empire—headed up by the Antichrist-Beast whose own Empire-Kingdom is superior to the ten-horned resuscitated Fourth Beast which will be comprised of ten affiliated kingdoms from the old Roman Empire-Fourth Beast.  These ten kingdoms will grant the Beast their authority – willingly or by force (Note:  Three of the horns were ripped out to make room for the younger horn.).   

It’s quite obvious where were going with all this—and that’s what grates our beloved brethren flying around up their in their hot air balloon with Fogg and Passerpartout.  So, how do we get rid of the 800-lb. gorilla . . . and you thought just by neglecting him that he’d go away . . . . shame, shame . . . he’s beginning to speak with some heavy-duty pompous talk? It’d be wise to listen.

 

EVANGELICALS SPREAD RUMORS OF IMPENDING DEATH 

By now, Twain would have shot my thesis through with all sorts of holes and spurious tales—just get to the point, lad, and be done with the profundities . . .  

So, how do we start—because there’s hoards of gorilla-deniers out there utterly unaffected by his smell, size, chest, looks or any other sensual descript? 

Larry Fox, of Fox Ventures—and with the Assemblies of God—a denomination with whom I am still in fellowship (somehow) . . . tells it like it is (or isn’t) when it comes to America’s place in Bible prophecy; simply put: 

“What is America’s role in end time Bible prophecy?  How will the economy, military preparedness, terrorism, political isolationism, globalism and civil disturbances affect America? 

Sure enough . . .  

“As an American, one of the first questions I have when considering end-time events is, ‘What role does America play in prophecy?’  A study of the Bible does not reveal any clear references to America, although scholars associate it with various images in scripture.  Our country appears not to have a decisive or maybe even significant role in end-time events. Because America has been so influential in world events in the past, we can only speculate about what will happen to reduce our national power.” 

Here we go . . .  

“One image in the Bible people associate with America is that of Babylon (Can’t image why?).  Is the Babylon of the last days the ancient site in Iraq (Note:  Where the 82nd Airborne, along with scores of monster-military bases are now located, and the world’s largest super-duper embassy (USA), along with 200,000 troops are located and growing no matter the Europeans nor the wishy-washy Democrats say)?  Is it the apostate church? (Yes!)  The world system? (Yes!)  America? (Big YES!)  The free market system based on greed, as found in America? (Super nailed it!)” (My interruptions throughout in parenthesis, sorry.) 

“There are many similarities between America and the descriptions of Babylon in Jeremiah 50-51 and Revelation 18.  It is possible there will be multiple fulfillments of those passages, with America being only one (There’s one bold statement for humanity!).  If America is the Babylon of Jeremiah 50, a vicious attack from the north will destroy the country (Jeremiah 50:3, 9, 41 and 51:48).  The only countries north of America are Canada (most likely) and Russia (least likely), and the later is the better candidate for military aggression against us (Sure, just consider the nuclear missiles and shield that Bush is planting all over Eastern Europe in getting Putin utterly flustered—no biggie, “Russia’s not our enemy” – and who could have possibly made that egregious statement?).  If Russia will invade America in the future, it must be before God destroys the Russian army in Israel! (Man, that makes a lot of sense!) 

O.K. – in this scenario American has been destroyed by a Russian invasion—somehow found in brother Fox’s Bible.  With America destroyed by Russia—only God can stop the Russians attacking Israel later on in this thriller. 

But, there’s more … 

“Let us consider other scriptures that might refer to America.  In Isaiah 18 there are two identical descriptions of an unidentified nation.  In verses 2 and 7, it describes ‘a people tall and smooth-skinned, . . . a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.’  That is a pretty good description of today’s America (DUH!).  Verse 7 is a very vague prophecy (Yeah, it occurs after the final Syrophoenicia and/or Arab-Israeli conflict known as the Burden of Damascus with this strange and vague nation picking up the diplomatic pouches throughout the region and orchestrating some kind of peace after Israel exhausts herself against Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank—a.k.a. stronghold of Ephraim (cf. Isaiah 17-18; Zechariah 9—and now that Gaza’s a separate entity, all the more vague) about that nation sending gifts to the Lord Almighty, to Mount Zion.  Even if it does refer to America, it only means that the nation sends gifts (Notwithstanding the FACT that millions of evangelical Christians who support Israel will do precisely such a thing after Israel is exhausted.).  It gives little indication of the country’s condition, except that it is aggressive and widely feared.  This passage may NOT even pertain to the end times (Sure, that’s why “Damascus will cease from being a city” (Isaiah 17:1) and the fact that “All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:  when he (this mystery nation) lifts up a banner on the mountains, YOU SEE IT, etc.” – I guess some don’t…therein lies the rub.). 

This goes on until America is in free fall . . . 

“We often think of America as a Christian nation and for this reason many believe it will continue to be strong until the Lord returns.  This country’s founders wrote many Christian principles into its law:  the equality of men, Judeo-Christian principles of justice, freedom of worship and speech, and others.  Americans have supported more missionary and evangelistic efforts than any other people in history.  There are churches in virtually every community.  We have ‘In God We Trust’ on our money.” 

But, Alas! 

“But America is NOT a Christian nation.  Political processes run the government, not righteousness.  Pleasure motivates the people, not righteousness (Now, we’re getting somewhere!).  The heart of the people determines the heart of the nation, and Americans focus on self, not God.  America is a secular nation, based on some Christian principles and containing some Christian citizens.  There will be Christians in America as long as there are Christians in the world, but America is NOT a nation of Christians.  God always works with a remnant.  He often chooses the few, the weak and the insignificant to demonstrate his own glory.” 

This is tough for patriotic Americans of evangelical persuasion to admit—but sometimes the smell of the gorilla is overwhelming!  So let’s wrap it up for Fox: 

“My opinion is that America does NOT play a significant role in end-time prophecy, which means it must fall from world influence.” 

Fundamentally, Fox’s pietism has gotten the best of him when it comes to America’s demise—and rightly so.  But, just because the gorilla stinks does not mean it somehow will disappear from the bed!

 

DENIAL AIN'T JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT...Mark Twain 

Mark Hitchcock and John E. Walvoord (son of the late John F. Walvoord, former President of Dallas Theological Seminary) have teamed up to present their findings on why America is all over the place but not in Bible prophecy. 

In there 12-part countdown to Armageddon – Hitchcock and Walvoord meticulously do everything in their theological persuasion to eliminate the gorilla.  Interestingly enough America implodes due to a peace initiative of sorts under the 4th entitlement:  the Peace Index (with sub posting entitled “America’s Decline”); this will be Event 4 (You’ve got to go to their site to pick up on the other events leading up to the end of the world as they know it at Prophecy Hotline.).  It makes for fascinating reading and at least in Event 4 amplifies Hitchcock’s original thesis entitled:  Is America in Bible Prophecy?  This somewhat strange title should have been:  No, America is Not in Bible Prophecy! 

The thesis goes like this: 

“Event #4:  The Decline and Fall of America.  American power and influence in the Middle East fade as the United States retreats to deal with the energy crisis and problems at home (mentioned in some of their former event points).” 

Furthermore, de facto, America winds up in the trash bin of contemporary history (rather briskly I surmise) . . . 

“Although any conclusion about the role of America in the end times is necessarily tentative, the scriptural evidence (???) is sufficient to conclude that America in that day will not be a superpower and apparently will not figure largely in either the political, economic, or religious leadership of the world (strike three you’re outta here! . . . exit the gorilla from the room, thank you). 

          “Yet in view of the imminent return of the Lord, Christians in the United States – and around the world – should remember that the cause of evangelism is urgent.  If prophecy has any one message for this generation, it’s that time and opportunity are short. Impending world conditions soon may close the door for further witness in many areas.  What is true of America is true for the evangelical church throughout the world.  The prophetic timetable serves to emphasize the importance of the present task of spreading the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem to the uttermost part of the world.”  

Man, that was awful and awful fast – let’s break it down: 

“When and How will the U.S. leave Iraq” (Man, that’ll get the Progressives panting.) 

“The front page headline in the New York Times Sunday, May 27 is ‘Chaos is Seen in Iraq Exit, But Experts Split on Degree . . . .’ 

“This is a painful time for American military in Iraq (and, no doubt for the American Patriotic Pastors).  This month more than 100 American servicemen have already been killed.  But all experts agree that a rapid withdrawal of US. Troops from Iraq will unleash a bloody round of escalating civil conflict—a violent chain reaction that would destroy the Iraqi government. 

“With the grim prospect of a wave of suicide bomb attacks by Al Qaeda, Shiite militias launching large scale attacks on Sunni civilians, open sectarian warfare for control of Baghdad—it is hard to see how it would stop short of genocide if the U.S. withdraws.  Baghdad would be destroyed by violent partition of its neighborhoods, militias would clash, Sunni Arabs would retreat to the western province of Anbar, the Kurds would effectively seal off northern Iraq and it would cease to be part of the country.  It is hard to believe that Iran could resist joining the mayhem to annex as much of Iraq as possible.” 

Now, here’s the kicker: 

“Can the Western world stand by and watch this happen?  No, it cannot.  But it is clear that the U.S. and British occupation troops in Iraq cannot succeed in bringing peace and will eventually have to withdraw.  This is precisely the situation described in end-time prophecies (What Bible are you reading from?). 

“A new coalition of political, economic and military power must emerge to bring stability to the region.  The time bomb is ticking.  If the region tears itself apart, the flow of oil to the West will stop (and so will your excursions in your gas-guzzling SUV).  Oil fields, pipelines and refinery infrastructure will be destroyed.  This is an unhappy prospect for the United States and Europe.  The West—Europe and the U.S.—needs the oil in the Middle East or economics will be destroyed and governments will fall.” 

Folks, Javier Solana the astute and obvious spokesman for the world, is about to make his showing right about this time—most Americans have no idea who he is, but he’s for real! 

“The Bible predicts that the situation will deteriorate so quickly, that a group of ten leaders from the area of the old Roman Empire will have to form a coalition to bring stability to the region.  This “Group of Ten” (Note:  As aforementioned in our discussions in Daniel.) leaders may emerge before or after the U.S. withdraws from Iraq.  It does not appear that the U.S. will be part of these coalition of forces (That’s obvious—SHE'S LEADING THEM!). 

“There is no happy ending to the current situation.  It is precisely a chaotic situation like this that will allow the leaders of the New Roman Empire (to) rise to power.  And from that coalition of the “Group often,” one leader will emerge as the strong man (… Javier Solana in the wings) to exert the most awesome economic, political and military concentration of power ever in the Region.  This is how the Anti-Christ will come to power (Over George Bush’s dead body he will!) 

“The Bible says that Babylon in Southern Iraq (there we go with that dust bowl again) will be rebuilt as the most powerful capital city in the region.  This is the center of some of the largest untapped oil reserves in the world.  This area must be stabilized or the West will be finished (So, why are we leaving?).” 

“The U.S. and Britain invaded Iraq to control events in the region and guarantee the uninterrupted flow (of) oil.  But if the U.S. military cannot prevail in Iraq, who will be able to stop the chaos?” 

Notwithstanding, THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE (somewhere?) … 

“‘The World Is Mine, and I Am God’; one leader seizes power by uniting the military and economic powers of the West (by this time the U.S. is somehow sucking hind mammary glands – so she just joins in the fray with the Euro-Centric Antichrist – hard to do since she’s declined so much, but, whatever) – declaring himself world ruler (as he steps over George Bush’s dead body). 

“A new world dictator will first reveal himself in the role of a peacemaker in the Middle East.  This event will take place during the first stage of the revived Roman Empire, the fourth world empire described by Daniel.  Symbolically the new world leader is depicted as ‘another small horn’ who will emerge from the ten-leader oligarchy controlling the political and military power of the West (Daniel 7:8), Daniel describes his vision of the new world ruler’s rise to power in these words:  ‘As I was looking at the horns, suddenly another small horn appeared among them.  Three of the first horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it (Perhaps England, Spain and France may recollect that little experience?).  This little horn had eyes like human eyes and a mouth that was boasting arrogantly’ (Daniel 7:8). 

“The Group of Ten that consolidates the power and wealth of the Middle East will soon come under the control of this new leader.  Bible expositors have concluded that this emerging ruler will first of all subdue three of the original ten leaders and then take control of the entire coalition.  The leaders will yield control of the new European Union to this new strong man of the hour.” 

And, so ends the illustrious career of the 82nd Airborne, et al… 

“It now appears that America will eventually withdraw from Iraq bloody and beaten.  More terror plots and attacks will certainly come.  One could reasonably expect that in the not too distant future we will withdraw into our shell and pursue an isolationist position (Will somebody blow more hot air into the balloon!).  As this occurs, one could expect Europe, recognized as the world’s most peaceful region, to fill the gap (well, of course).  This fits the Biblical scenario to a tee (the Walvoord-Hitchcock “tee”).  The Bible predicts that a reunited Roman Empire will rise and initially appear as the world’s great peacemaker, even bringing peace to Israel, which is next to last in the Economist’s peacefulness index (Note:  The Economist Magazine found that America is 96th, tied with Iran, for being the most “unpeaceful nation” on the planet out of 120 or so!).” 

So what’s the “Biblical logic” behind all of this? 

“For Europe to rise as the Bible predicts, the U.S. must lose influence, power, and prestige, and that’s exactly what we see happening (Yeah, just look at Europe’s leaders falling all over George Bush!).  Europe will rise and will probably take some hand in Iraq before it’s all finished.  Europe, under the rule of the Antichrist, will eventually make a treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27).  This move will catapult the Antichrist onto the world scene as the great savior and diplomat.  The world today is ripe for his rise (and ripe for rank deception as well) as people are crying out for peace unlike anytime in history.  People everywhere have a sense of impending crisis.  They are looking for answers.  For someone to bring stability and stop the chaos, especially in the Middle East that could soon tear itself apart.  The world is more dangerous than ever before because of the atomic factor and rogue nations who support terror.  The cry for ‘peace and safety’ will reach a crescendo (I Thessalonians 5:1-3).  The stage today is set for the final act to begin (And America is nowhere to be found!).” 

Finally, towering over one after another European capitol, and then making a quick phantasmagoric detour through the ancient site of Babylon of antiquity, we hear the shouts of the Americans aboard the ever conversant gondola:

 “The world ruler makes Iraq the new commercial and economic center of his world rule.  Knowing what the Bible says about Babylon in the end times, we shouldn’t be surprised by the rise of Iraq.  This rise could serve as the perfect prelude for the building of Babylon in the near future.  It’s interesting that Iraq has come out of relative obscurity in the past twenty years to play a significant role in the world.  The rise of Iraq to world prominence and the ongoing conflict are not accidents.  The staggering oil wealth of Iraq is not just a stroke of good fortune.  The resurgence of Iraq, the efforts that have already been made to restore and rebuild Babylon, and the rich oil reserves available to finance the rebuilding of the city all make the picture the Bible paints for Babylon in the end times very realistic (at least to Hitchcock-Walvoord et al).” 

Thus ends “Event 9:  Iraq:  the New Babylon – Economic Center of World Power.” 

In brother Hitchcock’s “Is America in Bible Prophecy?” he lists possible options on why America is not in Bible Prophecy: 

Option 1:  “America will still be a powerful nation in the last days, but the Lord simply chose NOT to mention her specifically . . . . possible, but it seems unlikely.  In Scripture, the dominant political and military power in the end times is centered in the Mediterranean (somewhere near America’s Sixth Fleet) and in Europe (somewhere near America’s massive Ramstein Air Base in Germany).  The scriptural silence concerning America seems to indicate that by the time the tribulation arrives, America will no longer be a major influence in the world (But why?  We shall soon discover . . . . ). 

Option 2:  America is not mentioned specifically in Scripture because she will be destroyed by other nations (like Russia or Canada).  She will suffer a fall from the outside. 

Option 3:  America is not mentioned in Bible Prophecy because she will have lost her influence as a result of moral and spiritual deterioration.  She will suffer a fall from the inside (now that could happen, but then again, America’s booming porn industry would really be upset). 

Option 4:  America will be brought to her knees by the Rapture.  (YES!)  The Rapture is key. (Note:  The extension of the thought is that so many American evangelical Christians will be Raptured – some say upwards of 60 million – that all bets are off for a quick American recovery from such an enormous population dislocation…hence, America stops being a world player.) 

These aforementioned observations were produced by Stu Johnson of America’s “Prophecy Club” – listen, in spite of Hitchcock knowing full-well statements made by S. Franklin Logsdon, the Sr. Pastor of the Moody Memorial Church, thundering against America, while declaring her as the Babylon of the last days; and Jack Van Impe’s interpretations of Jeremiah 50-51 and Revelation 18 describing America in the last days; and of R.A. Coombes’ brilliant book, America, the Babylon, America’s Destiny Foretold in Biblical Prophecy – Hitchcock’s final conclusion, after this somewhat insurmountable evidence, let alone the realities of our day, was able to simplify the matter: 

“I believe that the ancient city of Babylon will be rebuilt in Iraq in the last days to serve as the religious and commercial capital for the Antichrist’s empire.” 

Thus ends one of the wildest gondola rides ever taken by American adventurers. 

This, however, is NOT an isolated set of American evangelical expositors dismissing America’s decline as proof positive that she is nowhere to be found in Bible prophecy—to the contrary, there are hoards of these enlightened souls spewing forth America’s exit one way or another . . . .  

Our dear friends at Rapture Alert ran Hal Lindsey’s “Where is America in Bible Prophecy?”  And, in sum, Lindsey concurs with Hitchcock—disagreeing only on minor details.  Lindsey sees no relevance of the “mystery nation” mentioned in Isaiah 18 as having the remotest possibility of being linked to America, nor of the “ships of Tarshish” having the same vacuous prophetic impact on America—because we just don’t know where Tarshish is located? 

He sees nothing of relevance in Revelation 12:13-17 where America, says Lindsey, is “busily engaged in an heroic effort to save Israel.”   

Hal then meanders about describing “Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots” and actually sounds like America is today’s Babylon—and, clearly does he suggest that New York City could be Babylon—but then terminates your enthusiasm regarding his insight:  “Provided you are looking at prophecy as if it were given from the perspective of Washington … But it isn’t.”  So much for “Babylon on the Hudson.” 

Lindsey waxes adamant in his belief that America is utterly a non-player in the Last Days:

“America faces threats from mad bombers, mad dictators, a unified Russian-Chinese military adversary and a host of other threats.  Who wants to be the one to say that, biblically speaking, there is no reason to think one of them isn’t going to happen?  But America is NOT A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE LAST DAYS – SHE HASN’T EVEN A BIT PART.” (My Emphasis.) 

And here’s that pre-trib rapture stuff again . . .  

“I personally believe that one explanation could be that our country and its leadership will be so decimated following the Rapture that we will simply cease to be a major influence overnight . . . I prefer that over the alternative” (i.e., being destroyed by Russia; hit by a meteorite; or financially imploding) (Rapture Ready)

 

MIKE EVANS 

 

America’s death, because she will turn her back on Israel, is NOT a rumor of her death in so far as Mike Evans is concerned.  In 2004 Evans published a book entitled:  the American Prophecies; Ancient Scriptures Reveal Our Nations Future.  Evans believes that President Franklin Roosevelt turned his back on Hitler’s gas chambers and allowed six million Jews to perish (Mistake #1).   Mistake #2 – America cut a deal with Ishmael and the Muslims for political expediency—for oil.  Ever since, America has been embroiled in Middle East politics.  Compounding Mistake #2 is America’s duplicitous covenant it cut and continues to cut with Israel – hence, when the prophetic dust clears, America will somehow end up in the toilet bowl of the Middle East—and, this book stood at #10 on the New York Times Best-Seller List and #9 on Amazon’s religion & spirituality best-seller list. (Beliefnet.com)

 

JAVIER SOLANA AS MR. EUROPE – ERGO, THE ANTICHRIST? 

In order for America to descend, Europe must rise?  Right?  The general consolidation of military power within the 10-nation confederacy within the European Union known as the Western European Union (WEU) has been watched by a number of American and European evangelical pundits as a possible expression of the latter-days’ ten-nation confederation (Revived Roman Empire) aforementioned in this tome. 

The late Herb Peters reflected on this phenomenon in one of his Fulfilled Prophecy “What Herb Thinks.” 

“Today, for the first time in 2000 years, we’re seeing the Roman Empire being successfully revived through a European reunification process that has come to be known as the European Union (EU) . . . a 10-nation alliance has also appeared in Europe.  On January 1, 1995, Greece became the 10th nation of a military alliance known as the Western European Union (WEU).  These 10 nations are members of both NATO and the European Union (EU).  What binds these 10 nations together is a mutual defense obligation under Article Five of the modified Brussels Treaty.  These 10 nations are also known as the Brussels Treaty Powers. 

Peters then goes into explaining how one, Javier Solana, received three distinct entitlements within the context of the European Union—making him a very special fellow indeed. 

Title #1 – High Representative – EU’s Vienna summit in December of 1998 created the “Office of High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy for the European Union.”  Henceforth a common foreign and security policy toward the Russian Federation, the Ukraine, the Balkans and, what Herb felt was “biblically significant” – the Mediterranean.  Apparently, this EU summit produced some 2,250 documents; however, the document creating the post of High Representative was number 666. 

Title #2 – Secretary General of NATO – While the aforementioned post was being created, Solana was then Secretary General of NATO – apparently, he was involved in the restructuring of the NATO command after the Cold War realities ended.  Two strategic command centers were realized – one in Norfolk, Virginia, for America, and one in Brussels for Europe – according to Peters, thereby splitting the Atlantic Alliance down the middle as “he turned the 10 WEU nations into a second pillar of NATO.”  Furthermore, Peters observed that “dependence (by Europe) on America was no longer necessary” now that the Soviet threat had ended. 

Title #3 – Secretary General of the Council of Europe – the “EU’s true seat of power.”  Also, the following month in November 1999, Solana was made Secretary General of the 10-nation WEU alliance.  Therefore, Herb Peters conjectured:  “Needless to say, these three positions made Solana a powerful new player in this modern-day revival of the old Roman Empire.” 

Ultimately, “more political intrigue was to come” – so that on June 5, 2000, the 10 WEU nations implemented Assembly Recommendation 666 wherein the new post would recommend to the Council of Europe that the 10 Brussels Treaty Powers should be galvanized as the EU’s new military wing. Also, the High Representative was given emergency powers – powers, apparently that not even the rotating six-month presidency of the EU has.  Thus, as Secretary General of both the WEU and the Council, Recommendation 666 was actually, as Peters points out, “Solana recommending action to Solana.” 

So – this structure is now in order – and, without UN approval, America invades Iraq in March 2003 on the ruse that Saddam had WMDs and was in bed with al Qaeda.  Some EU nations supported America’s Middle East venture—others did not.   

Peters becomes ecstatic when, after the EU alliance had been fractured by America’s unilateral move (the very idea of not seeking the EU’s full blessing on the scheme), Solana came up with a June, 2003, 10-page security doctrine that the EU heads at their summit in Greece could buy into:  A Secure Europe in a Better World.  It called for: (1) Establishment of economic and political stability through the EU’s neighborhood; (2) Establishment of a new international order; and (3) Increasing the EU’s civil and military capabilities to better combat rogue states and weapons of mass destruction. 

This accord eventually led to a “strategic treaty with Washington” – which, according to Peters “is known to have established a joint effort between the EU and America to start fighting the international war against terror together.” 

Now, for the life of me, I can’t see how Peters could use little, if any, of this to demonstrate how the EU or the WEU is calling the shots—especially telling America where to get off.  On the surface it simply sounds like America wants to streamline things a bit so they/we can go about the business of Empire building; and, if the Europeans want to tag along—regardless of their bureaucratic claptrap—so be it. 

Likewise, as we have pointed out in the past, the French and the Dutch have resoundingly rejected the EU’s new Constitution.  These “heads” have until 2009 to make “internal changes” to—in spite of the French, the Dutch and the British not chiming in—somehow salvage the “internal workings of the Union.”  So now without a Constitution these heads must change whatever they can, while, as Peters sees it “pushing ahead the Constitution.”

 

SOLANA AND THE NEW MIDDLE EAST PEACE PLAN  

Peters sees a truly possible fulfillment of Daniel’s 70th Week—i.e., its commencement.  At the December European Council, 2006, the EC approved a new Middle East peace plan; and, since the EU’s purse strings are controlled by the EC, it was imperative to have Solana, not only present with them on January 1, 2007 to oversee and administer his New ENP (European Neighborhood Policy) towards nations of the Middle East, but on behalf of Spain, Italy and France, he was commissioned to bear this peace plan to other members of the so-called Quartet (the US, the UN and Russia)—in sum, jump start the peace process which was accomplished at the “Madrid+15 Conference” (mostly held in secret). 

Now, from here Peters conjectures: 

“For those with a similar understanding of end-time prophecy, the implication of these events is obvious—we may be entering the seven-year period known as Daniel’s 70^th Week.  However, for this to be true, a few more elements should also be in place.  The prophecy tells us that the entire 70 weeks are for the Jewish people and their holy city Jerusalem (Daniel 9:24).  So, it stands to reason that this should be true for the final week also.  And , as we read earlier, the prophecy also tells us that in the middle of the week the covenant will be broken and the coming leader will stop the Temple sacrifices in Jerusalem.  After this event happens, the leader and his 10-king alliance will begin a religious war against God’s elect.” 

 

THE ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS – IN THE MIDST OF THE 70TH WEEK

 

 In mid-December of 2006, the United Nation’s new “Alliance of Civilizations” (AoC) was launched.  Peters sees in it a bridge building scheme between the West and the Muslim world to isolate radical Islam.  The Turks and the Spaniards co-sponsored the AoC.  Not only will the AoC galvanize moderate Arab states to fight radical Islam, but AoC will serve an even greater purpose in rising up against all religious wars, against all who embrace such practices. 

The AoC still must undergo a labyrinth of UN bureaucracies—it will NOT be fully operational nor functional until 2010 (i.e., as Peters sees it—the middle of the seven-year period which was commenced near the beginning of 2007). 

Now, this is “an hard saying” for Peters’ pre-tribulational audience—for, if in point of fact we’ve entered into Daniel’s 70th Week; and the Antichrist, Javier Solana, has commenced the covenant with the AoC (i.e., the neighborhood plan for Israel) ready to break it in the midst of the week—man, what on earth are we doing here?   We should have raptured!  So Peters ends his thesis: 

“Friends, it’s my belief the entire end-time picture may be before us.  And, it’s my fear that, because of doctrinal differences – some very minor – many of God’s people will continue to be uninformed.  There is much more information.  But, in light of all that’s been presented, I don’t think more information should be necessary (my emphasis).”

 

THEY JUST FADE AWAY . . . 

It’s time to say Bye-Bye to America’s Empire; Bye-Bye to the old soldiers who never die, but just fade away.  Douglas MacArthur was right—we fought, we served, and now we’re headed out to pasture.  Oh, Empire, once so relished, how art thou suddenly cast down . . . how disquieting the moment; how ignoble the thought . . . that we who policed the world, are now consigned to view its peace or uncertainty from afar . . . while Europe, once again, has her day in the sun! 

But, the novelists, the Jules Vernes and the Mark Twains of this age of fantasy and make believe, ever spike the bowl of our fertile imagination, creating these aforementioned fantastical scenarios. 

Brethren – I welcome you back to terra firma—to earth’s dust and mud—and to the present realities not afforded by the Fogg-Passerpartout Hot-Air Balloon ride, which is as much phantasmagoric as it is farcical.  The gorilla has NOT left the room—the smell still lingers; and, furthermore, he won’t stop talking.  The entire absurdity that the EU and its much-vaunted WEU military powerhouse of 60,000 troops can somehow impress the military might of the most awesome military machine the world has ever known – or that Europe’s restructuring is somehow connected in the panoply of birthing the Antichrist is both spurious and, I repeat, disingenuous on the part of the Americans. 

Europe’s ability to protect herself, let alone provide for her economic stability—without the under girding of these United States of America—is unobtainable and downright ludicrous.  

You have heard—and there are legions of these voices—repeated confirmations of American participation in some of the greatest moral failures of our time – while at the same time these same voices turn a blind eye to the exploitations of her ever-expanding commercial Empire, maintained by military might—might which is so irrefutably superior and preemptively invasive to anything that the Europeans can contrive, that again, it’s laughable to even compare.

I wanted to end this diatribe by lifting out some Scriptures that would allow for stoning false prophets; however, in lieu of such vindictive, I shall appeal to the novelist Mark Twain who tweaked:  A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. 

Better yet—and in honor of America’s “father of literature” – what flabbergasts me is not that the whole world (even the believing world) outside the USA gets it, but the Americans, especially believers, are so righteously oblivious to her overt role as the focus and fulcrum, the sum and substance, of Babylon the Great – and, ipso facto, the birthplace of the King of Babylon, the Antichrist. 

Let us hurry; it’s time for the hot air balloon to lift off again.  We observe the Americans scurrying into position as sand bags are thrown overboard.  Higher and higher she ascends as the hot air presses against the colorful canopy.  Somehow she’s reversing her course to explore where no man has gone before.  A cheery fanfare of observers bids her farewell.  Then to our rapturous surprise the “Gondola Glee Club” in soft melodic tones is heard as the 80-day wonder vanishes across the horizon:

I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play 

And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken 

And the three men I admire most
The Father Son and Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died 

They were singin' 

BYE, BYE miss American Pie

(a.k.a. Babylon)
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And good ol' boys were drinking whisky and rye?
Singing this will be the day that I die
this will be the day that I die

(AMERICANPIE by Don McLean)

 

 

RUMORS OF MY DEATH PERSIST

Part III

“The Rise or Fall of American Empire?”

 By Doug Krieger 

Response from what’s morphed into Part I (Bye-Bye Babylon) was surprising—our readership increased 200%.  This inspired a keen awareness that something more must be added to this missive . . . especially in light of the pervasive subterfuge being orchestrated by big oil through willing accomplices in both the executive and congressional branches of the United States Government.  Conjecture?  Not really . . . and we’re hardly operating in a vacuum here.   

Therefore, in this brevity we shall expand upon the alleged decline of American Empire, especially from several leading lights of the Euro-Revived Roman Empire Premillenarian evangelical patriotic (in the main) pastors and pundits (Chuck Missler and Charles H. Dyer) . . . while looking at the expanding world of Realpolitic under American aegis.  Finally, we shall consider the immediate implications of war with Iran and her surrogates (Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc.) some time this summer (2007)—imagine, all in one article! 

 

LUGAR – CHENEY – NIXONIAN STONEWALLING    

Now, go figure . . . here we have the stalwart administration foreign policy hack, Senator Richard Lugar, telling us it’s time for Plan B, as somehow proposed by the Iraq Study Group, seemingly political eons ago, jaunting forth at the 11th hour to tell the world that the President’s policies are just about ready to do irreparable damage to America’s image abroad and the war hawk, Senator John Warner, giving the thought a nod.

Meanwhile, Dems. relish the thought that Fred Thompson should somehow give them a clear shot at the Presidency by having Bush can Cheney (conveniently under doctor’s orders as a result of battery replacement for his pacemaker) and take over as VP, thus (Cheney) committing hara-kiri in the process; but giving us all a breather from Halliburton et al—in any event, Cheney’s not a member of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, so who cares; behold:  The Imperial Vice-Presidency! 

Now we hear that “executive privilege” is exercised and the documents regarding the firing of Justice Dept. attorneys (docs. held by former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor) will not be forthcoming—so much for congressional subpoenas (same goes for trying to subpoena warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans—Cheney and Bush say “no way”).  Frankly, this whole charade is about to head for a battle in the federal courts over separation of powers—let the Nixonian stonewalling begin.  We’re talking tough hombre here—as in IMPERIAL PRESIDENT; and that’s what this has evolved into in a little over 200 years! 

The only people more irresponsible than Bush’s quest for commercial empire—feeding America’s 5% of the world’s population, consuming 20% of its oil—is the enfeebled Congress which knows that 80% of the American electorate were disgusted with this amnesty immigration bill being rammed down the throats of the sheeple who were convinced that the only federal entity worse off than the Presidency is the duplicitous, globalist-minded Congress elected to putting a halt to this absurdity; and, as it turns out, are aiding and abetting in the high crimes and misdemeanors being perpetrated upon the disenchanted multitude.  We’ve probably watched the last time that the people were heard over the aristocracy, I mean, the Congress. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury—we have here a remarkable semblance of a foreign policy under a nigh miraculous ability to reinvent itself virtually every week . . . becoming more and more entrenched in the quagmire of the Middle East with no end in sight.  And, listen up—you can surmise all you wish that American military power, as extended throughout the region by this Presidency, is about to implode—but be disabused of that notion, that cannot nor will not happen on George’s watch, and for that matter, on the watch of the “powers that be” who orchestrate these matters . . . no matter what “they say out there”—so entrenched is the military-industrial complex which pervades every nook and cranny of our economy, let alone the world’s economy. 

Talk show host Michael Savage has finally imploded on all this—he’s convinced we’re living in a benign, although ever-tightening, dictatorship; however, it hasn’t quite made it to “military dictatorship” – but that’s not far down the pike; however, in the benign dictatorship the malcontents speak out as they, like flies on an elephant’s back, await the next mud bath, and the cycle repeats itself.   An incident here, a situation there—hey, and for stability’s sake, the American populous would heartily welcome such a full-blown military dictatorship . . . and wouldn’t you know it, it’s the military that scores the highest trustworthy rating of 70% from the American populous vs. the meager President’s 26-32%.  Alas!  Only the Congress’ ratings are lower:  24%.  But, wouldn’t you know—it’s the President who’s Commander and Chief!

 

ONE COLLOSAL EMPIRE – IT WILL NOT GO AWAY 

It seems like only yesterday, but now nigh three full years, that Laurence M. Vance pinned this shocking summation of America’s global empire—and know full-well that the “transformation” of Rome from a republic to a military dictatorship took several hundred years wherein the ruse of the Roman Senate became nothing more than the façade of democracy, all the while Caesar carried the day, orchestrating the major decisions of empire, leaving the Senate to scavenge the more mundane elements of social stability . . . all knew who did the governing. 

So, what you read here has been greatly expanded by multi-billion, even trillion-dollar “security” budgets for the past three years since this summation occurred in 2004 (and growing as we write): 

“There is a new empire in town, and its global presence is increasing every day. 

“The kingdom of Alexander the Great reached all the way to the borders of India. The Roman Empire controlled the Celtic regions of Northern Europe and all of the Hellenized states that bordered the Mediterranean. The Mongol Empire, which was the largest contiguous empire in history, stretched from Southeast Asia to Europe. The Byzantine Empire spanned the years 395 to 1453. In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf in the east to Hungary in the northwest; and from Egypt in the south to the Caucasus in the north. At the height of its dominion, the British Empire included almost a quarter of the world’s population.” 

Now, Vance forms a distinction to US Empire unlike any other . . . 

“Nothing, however, compares to the U.S. global empire. What makes U.S. hegemony unique is that it consists, not of control over great land masses or population centers, but of a global presence unlike that of any other country in history. 

“The extent of the U.S. global empire is almost incalculable. The latest ‘Base Structure Report’ of the Department of Defense states that the Department’s physical assets consist of ‘more than 600,000 individual buildings and structures, at more than 6,000 locations, on more than 30 million acres.’ The exact number of locations is then given as 6,702 – divided into large installations (115), medium installations (115), and small installations/locations (6,472). This classification can be deceiving, however, because installations are only classified as small if they have a Plant Replacement Value (PRV) of less than $800 million. 

“Although most of these locations are in the continental United States, 96 of them are in U.S. territories around the globe, and 702 of them are in foreign countries. But as Chalmers Johnson has documented, the figure of 702 foreign military installations is too low, for it does not include installations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan. Johnson estimates that an honest count would be closer to 1,000. 

“The number of countries that the United States has a presence in is staggering. According the U.S. Department of State’s list of ‘Independent States in the World,’ there are 192 countries in the world, all of which, except Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea, have diplomatic relations with the United States. All of these countries except one (Vatican City) are members of the United Nations. According to the Department of Defense publication, ‘Active Duty Military Personnel Strengths by Regional Area and by Country,’ the United States has troops in 135 countries.” (If you care to check out the list of 135 countries, go to:  The U.S. Global Empire, by Lawrence M. Vance.)

 

IRAQ AND THE MIDDLE EAST:  THE U.S. BASTION 

Somebody out there should notify the European Union, the United Nations, the Russians (all of whom know deep down in their little jealous hearts what I’m saying is true) that America has absolutely no immediate nor far-reaching intention of ever leaving the Cradle of Civilization, the infamous Plains of Shinar, the golden head of Babylon betwixt and between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers.  The region holds 75% of the known petroleum reserves of the world—and there’s no way we’re leavin’!  NEVER! 

You can discuss scale down, redeployment, Plan B, and concern yourselves all bloomin’ day long about America’s image throughout the globe being tarnished—the WAR ON TERRORISM is the perfect cover, and tell the world to bug off.  Now, we may be having a little “interior set to” but it’s all politics—the major thrust is the total militarization of the Middle East by the overwhelming military presence of the USA—a presence wholly enveloping Iran as we speak.  So, if you’re wondering just why Iran wants the bomb, there’s plenty of reasons—least of which is TOTAL ENCIRCLEMENT! 

And if you’re wondering why Iran is freaking out—guess no further.  Indeed, what we’re witnessing here is the irresistible force (USA) ready to destroy the fanatical immovable object of Islamic fundamentalism (Iran) head on!  A massive military encirclement of Iran—now in its full ascendancy—has, like a massive Crusader’s sword descended upon the region to protect the oil reserves of the West, headed by the USA, while ready to crush everything and anything within its path. . .especially, the world’s first and foremost Islamic Republic.  Those with graphic capabilities witness the star-studded map—and the one below, just in case you weren’t sure about Azerbaijan and Armenia which demands equal US military assistance and can’t wait to have a full-blown US military presence in their nation as well. 

One gets the insane image of tens of thousands of Iranian youth, crazed out of their brains, running bear foot across the desserts to blow up minefields on their way to Allah’s paradise and 72 virgins, delirious to crush the Great Satan-USA, while incensed with the Little Satan, Israel.  This strategy of blowing yourself up and taking out as many as you can in the process can only work for so long—eventually “the plan” calls for continued and measured chaos to keep a grip on things and to keep the oil flowing.  SUVs rule! 

 

PERMANENT DENIAL IS A RIVER IN IRAQ – RUMSFELD, cir. 2000’s 

After reading these series of articles I now believe in evolution—military-style, as only the God of Fortresses can effect: 

April 19, 2003 – Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq:  (1)  Baghdad International Airport; (2) Tallil, near Nasiriya in the south; (3) An isolated airstrip called H-1 in the western desert; along the old oil pipeline that runs to Jordan; and (4) At the Bashur air field in the Kurdish north. (Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, New York Times) 

April 21, 2003 – US Calls for 4 military bases in Iraq – While the bases would be used to guarantee Iraq’s security, they would almost certainly be seen as a threat by neighboring countries such as Syria and Iran, with the latter already concerned by the US presence in Afghanistan . . . Mr. Lugar (Senator Lugar, the same Senator telling the Bush Admin. to get out of Iraq) called on the Bush administration to give clear estimates of the duration and cost of US involvement in post-war Iraq and said the political transition to a democracy could take four to five years (hummm…. that brings us to 2008)

(Alex Massie, The Scotsman) 

March 23, 2004 – Christine Spolar of the Chicago Tribune:  “A long term military presence (is) planned in Iraq…the U.S. engineers are focusing on constructing 14 ‘enduring bases,’ long-term encampments for the thousands of American troops expected to serve in Iraq….” 

November 1, 2004 – Analysts Ponder U.S. Basing in Iraq – During the first presidential debate, Senator John Kerry suggested that the U.S. military is planning to make 14 bases now in Iraq “a permanent concept.”  …Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (April 2003) dismissed any serious talk of a permanent military presence in Iraq . . . “Yes, they are permanent,” he (Military analyst Col. David Hunt, Ret.) said of the bases.  “Building bases there is a good idea, to fight the war on ‘terror and to keep pressure on the

Middle East.” (Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, FoxNews.com)  

February 2005 – Rumsfeld reported again to the Senate Armed Services committee:  “We have no intention, at the present time, of putting permanent bases in Iraq.” (Sarah Meyer, Index Research) 

April 13, 2005 – Afghans Seek Close US Military Tie – “The Afghan people want a longer term relationship with the United States.  They want this relationship to be a sustained economic and political relationship and most importantly of all, a strategic security relationship to enable Afghanistan (to) defend itself, to continue to prosper, to stop the possibility of interferences in Afghanistan,” Karzai said (Karzai is President of Afghanistan). (CBS News) 

May 22, 2005 – Commanders Plan Eventual Consolidation of U.S. Bases in Iraq – U.S. military commanders have prepared plans to consolidate American troops in Iraq into four large air bases as they look ahead to giving up more than 100 other bases now occupied by international forces (in Iraq), officers said . . . U.S. forces currently occupy 106 bases, ranging in size from the sprawling Camp Victory complex near Baghdad’s international airport where the U.S. military command is headquartered, to some outposts with as few as 500 soldiers. (Bradley Graham, Washington Post Staff Writer) 

Mid-2005 – If the U.S. is ultimately leaving Iraq, why is the military building ‘permanent’ bases?  This Friends Committee on National Legislation article then lists 14 MAJOR Bases being built permanently in Iraq. (Friends Committee on National Legislation…source:  GlobalSecurity.org) 

October 2005 – Blood, Sweat & Tears: Asia’s Poor Build U.S. Bases in Iraq – (Note:  This article details how thousands of impoverished workers hailing from south Asian countries like the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal are doing the grunt work for Halliburton.)  Upwards of 100,000 of these “Invisible and Indispensable Army of Low-Paid Workers each earning between $200 to $1,000 monthly are building a vast chain of military bases for the US – prime contractors are Halliburton and Bechtel. (David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch) 

April 10, 2006 – Iraq’s US/UK Permanent Bases:  Intentional Obfuscation – There is Pentagon and US governmental obfuscation surrounding United States permanent bases in Iraq…On the 21st  of April (year?) Rumsfeld said in a press briefing “I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base in Iraq discussed in any meeting…we don’t plan to function as an occupier, we don’t plan to prescribe to any new government how we ought to be arranged in their country…We have no desire to be there for long periods, we simply don’t…and that’s just a cold, hard fact.” (Sarah Meyers, Index Research) 

March 19, 2007 – “Enduring U.S. Bases in Iraq – Monopolizing the Middle East Prize” – It is difficult to believe that with the U.S. establishment having all but conceded defeat in Iraq, and with the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group having signaled that the United States needs the help of its rivals Iran and Syria – as well as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other influential Middle Eastern nations – to contain the Iraqi civil war, the U.S. is still pursuing the war and building permanent military bases in the disintegrating nation.  Yet, this is precisely what the Pentagon is doing. (Joseph Gerson, CommonDreams.org)  

This article continues:  Washington’s current pursuit of permanent military bases in Iraq is not an aberration.  During the past six decades, the U.S. has constructed a network of military bases and access agreements that extends across North Africa, to Persian Gulf nations and Turkey, and onward to the atoll of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, whose Chagos people have been driven from paradise to make way for U.S. bombers and pre-positioned munitions.  U.S. troops and bases in Europe, ostensibly assigned to NATO, have also helped to enforce U.S. Middle East hegemony, as have U.S. subversion, coups d’etat, and threats to initiate nuclear war.  

President Bush, the elder, wasn’t kidding when he said that the Desert Storm war was fought to create “a new world order” in which “what we say goes.”  It permitted the U.S. to reconsolidate its control over Middle East oil reserves.  Bombing Iraq into the “pre-industrial age” served as a warning to all who might challenge U.S. dominance.  It also provided the U.S. the necessary rationales to expand and to revitalize its infrastructure of military bases across the Middle East.  Thousands of U.S. warriors and their fearsome weapons were dispatched to Saudi Arabia.  Kuwait was occupied with air fields, munitions depots, and training grounds.  U.S. bases and other elements of U.S. military infrastructure in Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates were post-modernized. 

The US maintains more that 200 military bases in Iraq and is building an estimated 14 permanent bases. The red circles indicate US military airbases. Source: Global Security.

May 31, 2007 – US Looking to long-term presence in Iraq:  Gates (New Secretary of Defense) – US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the United States is looking to a long-term military presence in Iraq under a mutually agreed arrangement similar to that it has long had with South Korea.  Gates told reporters here that plans still call for an assessment of the US “surge” strategy in September but he was looking beyond that to the type of military presence the United States will have in Iraq over the long term.  (ABC News)

June 9, 2007 – Withdrawal won’t happen – The US plans permanent military bases in Iraq, confirming to many that it really was all about oil . . . this is a geopolitical development of the first importance.  In spite of current difficulties – May was the most lethal month for American soldiers since 2004, with 119 killed – the United States firmly intends to maintain control of Iraq and its vast oil reserves.  Iraq’s neighbors, and energy-hungry states and oil companies, will take note. (Patrick Seale, The Guardian) 

June 13, 2007 – NYT and WaPo:  Iraq Failing Both Politically and Militarily – Iraq will remain incapable of taking full responsibility for its security for many years – five years in the case of protecting its airspace – and will require a long-term military relationship with the United States, said Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who until recently led the U.S. military’s training effort in Iraq. (by Turkana – Source: New York Times) 

June 23, 2007 – Permanent Bases the World Over:  Behold the American Empire – an old story – The Korean Model you know, a limited number of major American bases tucked away out of urban areas; a limited number of American troops (say, 30,000-40,000), largely confined to those bases but ready to strike at any moment; a friendly government in Baghdad; and (as in South Korea where our troops have been for six decades) maybe another half century-plus of quiet garrisoning.  In other words, this is the time equivalent of a geographic ‘over the horizon redeployment’ of American troops . . . in this case, ‘over the horizon’ would mean through 2057 and beyond. (by AlterNet) 

CHUCK MISSLER AND THE DECLINE OF THE UNITED STATES 

“It was the best of times and it was the worst of times” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities). 

“By many reckonings, it appears to be the best of times in America:  We enjoy a robust economy, reinforced by continually advancing technologies.  At least one computer in every home, and a personal telephone on almost everyone’s belt.  People are buying their 3rd and 4th cars.  Our military is the most feared throughout the world.  Indeed, in many ways, it seems like the best of times . . . (Missler then goes into a tirade of moral collapse in America.) . . . why hasn’t God judged America?  The only ostensible answer is God’s commitment in Genesis 12:2-3, in which He promises Abraham that He ‘will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee.’  It may well be that America has been spared—so far—due to its support of the nation of Israel . . . But that, too, may be short lived.” (Monitor The Strategic Trends, Missler). 

Chuck Missler, a techno-eschatologist, follows in a train of American evangelical pundits whose assessment and/or expositions of Scripture find little relevance for America as the Babylon of the last days, nor any dominance as the 11th Horn ascendant over the 10 Horns of the Euro-Revived Roman Empire—ipso facto, Antichrist and his military machinery hail from the WEO/EU, etc.  This, don’t forgive me, convoluted and Euro-centric persistence is remarkable for its denial of both Biblical, as well as obvious geopolitical realities. 

Missler is a bit more sophisticated in diminishing America as a player in the Last Days—juxtaposed to Hal Lindsey who simply asserts:  America doesn’t even have a bit part! 

“One of the mysteries in the Biblical prophetic scenario, is where does America appear?  The final battle—the Battle of Armageddon—is a four-power conflict:  triggered by the ‘Kings of the South’ (Egypt?), responded to by the ‘Kings of the North’ (Syria? Russia?…various opinions), and dominated by a Western Confederacy (The Antichrist, et al) until the ‘Kings of the East’ are drawn in. 

“Where is the United States?  There are many conjectures among scholars.  Some assume that we will ultimately be somehow associated with the Western Confederacy (getting close?).  The continuing erosion of our constitutional republic, plus the increasing move toward a police state to ‘fight terrorism,’ (oh, so close) seems consistent with the growing tide toward a global government. 

“Others assume that America simply will not be a major player at that time.  As variations of this second view, some suggest that America will have become economically and militarily less relevant by then.  Others (disturbed by the hint in Ezekiel 39:6), fear that we may have been the subject of a major nuclear exchange over the growing tensions in the Middle East.” 

Missler wraps up his possible overshadowing of America by the European Antichrist, et al, by taking recourse to the safety of unapproachable ambiguity: 

“It remains to be seen whether the wake-up call of September 11, 2001, will prove to be more effective than simply a brief spasm of patriotism, or where it may lead to a more serious revival and return to our heritage.  In any case, we each need to prepare and to rise to the opportunities that present themselves for a spiritual revival and we must begin with ourselves.”

 

“AMERICA MUST BE DESTROYED” 

The above caption seems to be the only way that these eschatologists can handle the diminishing of America in their scenarios of Bible Prophecy.  Since the bulk of American Premillenarian-Pretribulational eschatologists acclaim a Euro-Centric Antichrist, then America’s decline MUST necessitate a rather violent economic, moral, and military implosion. 

Missler lists 10 “trends” in futuristic Premillenarian prophecy: 

1.       The Struggle for Jerusalem
2.       The Rise of Islam
3.       The Rise of the Far East
4.       The Rise of a European Super State
5.       Global Government
6.       Weapons Proliferation
7.       The Magog Invasion
8.       Biotech & Global Pestilence
9.       THE DECLINE OF THE U.S.
10.     Global Religion 

In keeping with Europe’s ascendancy, it is mandatory that there be “the decline of the U.S.”

“The European Union has steadily moved forward in its attempt to unite Europe politically and economically.  It has succeeded in unifying and strengthening its economic market, creating a common currency, and establishing both a European legislative and judicial system.  It has been suggested by some that the European Union may be the revived Roman Empire.  Thus it is interesting to note that the introduction of the Euro is the first time since the days of Caesar and the Roman Empire that Europe has had a common currency, others have tried, most notably Napoleon Bonaparte, but none were successful.” (The United States of Europe, Missler, April 19, 2005 eNews issue) 

MISSLER’S “WORLD POWER” – THE EU 

Acclamation of Euro-prowess astounds: 

“Over the last few years we have watched closely as the European Union has emerged as a growing world power ... the bitter debate over Iraq between the United States and the EU has been seen by many as a foreshadow of what is to come.  A battle in which the EU, lead by France and Germany, is positioning itself to surpass the United States as the dominant world power.” (Ibid.) (My emphasis.)

Missler’s strategic analysis of the EU juxtaposed to the USA in terms of military dominance flabbergasts; notwithstanding, he attempts to base the following exposition and literal interpretation upon the Word of God.  If I did not hold the man and his analysis in significant esteem, I would not confront in this manner through the internet; however, Chuck Missler holds a tremendous amount of credibility within the believing community here in America and throughout the world—therefore, it is mandatory that we attempt to come to terms with his, and for that matter, the likes of many others with whom we beg to differ, and to differ by comparing Scripture with Scripture and geopolitical realities with the obvious facts.

 

WHERE IS THE 11TH HORN? 

In Missler’s “Twilight’s Last Gleaming?” he excoriates the American association with “Sodom and Egypt” – i.e., as Billy Graham has said:  “If God doesn’t judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!” 

However, America’s immorality and leadership as the world’s pornographic capital, as well as its export of Hollywood and other degradations, including crime, drugs, sexual behavior, adnauseam adinfinitum, does not, as a nation, isolate man’s proclivity to evil—evil is everyone’s business!  One can reasonably argue that Americans, though self-centered and bent on world subjugation and eccentricities relative to evil, are no more degraded than the people of Malta or Sierra Leon or Viet Nam.  The evil of Corinth is akin to the evil in Pergamos, etc.  The book of Revelation is incensed with the “Merchants of the Earth” – who traffic in the “bodies and souls of men” – they are ubiquitous; they are amongst all nations, tribes, tongues, and peoples—ALL!  Grant it, Babylon the Great is the ultimate embodiment of the “abominations of the earth” – full of putridity, etc.—ultimately, she shall be judged! 

But in the meantime, consider where is America in Biblical prophecy according to Missler: 

“The Lord prophesied that before His return a Fourth Kingdom would arise, often referred to as ‘the revived Roman Empire,’ that would crush and rule over all the other kingdoms of the earth (Daniel 7:23).  In more common terms, this implies a global, one-world government will someday exercise total sovereignty over virtually all of the people and nations of the earth.  This suggests that America will eventually surrender its own national sovereignty and submit to the power, authority, and dominion of the coming Fourth Kingdom.  Furthermore, there are many who ask, ‘Why hasn’t God judged America?’” (Missler, The Twilight’s Last Gleaming?  By voicefromzion.org)  

I am not being crude or rude here, nor patronizing; however, the empire referred to in Daniel 7:23 is NOT the Revived Roman Empire—it is, specifically, the Fourth Kingdom, the original Roman Empire: 

“Thus he said:  ‘The Fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces” (Daniel 7:23). 

I am sure that Brother Missler would concur with this exegesis; furthermore, however, the succeeding verse (Daniel 7:24) brings into focus the Revived Roman Empire at the end of days: 

“The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom (Note:  “Out of” this original Roman Empire there shall arise ten horns.)” (Daniel 7:24a). 

Now, just as the “ten horns” are representative of ten kings with ten separate kingdoms (i.e., “states”); even so, the 11th “king” (i.e., the Antichrist) is not only an individual (i.e., “king”) but also has/is a kingdom that will challenge the other kings/kingdoms.  This is critical, insofar as the interpretation concerns—not simply an individual but a SUPERIOR KINGDOM!  Not headed up from within the 10 Kingdoms/Kings but himself a King with a Kingdom which is apart and separate from the original 10 and/or Revived Roman Empire—according to Revelation 17:12-13:  “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings WITH THE BEAST.  These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.” 

Hence, the significance of what succeeds Daniel 7:24a: 

“ . . . and ANOTHER shall rise after them; he (i.e., both a king/kingdom) shall be different from the first ones (i.e., the first 10 kings/kingdoms), and shall subdue three kings (i.e., also, three kingdoms) (Daniel 7:24b). 

Now, this ANOTHER is clearly the Latter Day’s Antichrist and persecutor of the saints of the Most High: 

“He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.  The saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time” (Daniel 7:25) (cf. Revelation 11:9, 11; 12:14-17) 

It is not spurious to adjudge history’s immediate development of the modern nation-state of Western Europe included the three most outstanding clarifications of that Revived Roman Empire—to wit:  Britain, France and Spain . . . all other nation-states gradually developed from the persistent three insofar as Western Europe and/or “Colonial Europe” concerns:  Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Russia matured later. 

Of immediate historical interest in the evolution of the modern nation-states of Europe is the “uprooting” (while still maintaining the identity of the TEN—cf. Revelation 17:12) three of the “first ones” (i.e., first in line) to make provision and/or allowance for the 11th to arise.  History is abundantly clear that England, France and Spain were virtually “plucked up” and/or “uprooted” to make way for the United States of America.  The USA is “out from” the 10—but is wholly separate from the 10!  And, yes, the WEO of the EU (its military wing) is roughly equivalent to the 10 original colonizers of Europe, excluding Russia; however, this is a minor consideration for Denmark or any of the Scandinavian colonizers could be adjudged as part of the original 10, or for that matter, little Luxembourg. 

Missler continues: 

“There are, at present, at least four emerging challenges to America (i.e., to American hegemony juxtaposed to an ascendant Western Europe, Revived Roman Empire—I believe this supposition is within Missler’s thinking):  1) Ezekiel 39:6, which hints at a nuclear exchange; 2) Al Qaeda, with its ‘American Hiroshima’ 3) Iran, and its EMP threat; and 4) The collapse of the U.S. economy . . . it is this last one that is not widely understood.” (Ibid.) 

Here, Missler articulates the position of many of the Euro-Centric Antichrist proponents.  Ezekiel 39:6 states:  “And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security (i.e., “securely” or “confidently”) in the coastlands.”  Missler clearly has in mind a nuclear exchange between the Islamic hosts (allied with Russia) who have come up against Israel (i.e., the “Gog-Magog War”) and the USA (i.e., “those who live in security in the coastlands”).  Naturally, if the “coastlands” are an allusion to the USA, Missler would be correct (cf. Isaiah 66:19); however, it is difficult to conjecture in light of Ezekiel 38:13 that the “merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions” who are contesting the intentions of the forces of Gog-Magog (if indeed, these ancient identifications are representative of a future end-time’s mercantile empire—i.e., the USA—inheritor of the King of Tyre and of the ancient traders/merchants of the Phoenicians/Punic peoples, etc.) actually are destroyed in the “exchange.” 

Furthermore, the account of Daniel (Daniel 11:40-45) places the same Gog-Magog War in the context wherein the forces of gog-Magog (King of the North and King of the South) come up against "him" (i.e., the Antichrist); whereas in Ezekiel 38-39 Gog-Magog come up against Israel--hence Israel and the Antichrist are associated and/or are in alliance during this struggle.  I am not the only evangelical expositor who attributes the Willful King of Daniel 11:40-45 with the Gog-Magog War of Ezekiel 38-39:16 . . . allow me to quote from one of our previous articles on this matter: 

“Later on in Daniel 11:40-45 we read that the Antichrist (according to Robert Duncan Culver in his classic: Daniel in the Latter Days—Moody Press) has, apparently, positioned his forces in the area between the King of the North and the King of the South (NOTE: These North/South forces are referred to in Ezekiel 38-39 as Gog/Magog (northern nations—Gomer, Magog, Tubal, Mesheck, Beth-Togarmah and Iran or Persia—all of these nations are located in Turkey or the Trans-Caucuses); in addition to these ‘King of the North Nations,’ a number of nations to the south of Israel (the Beautiful Land) are mentioned, among which are Ethiopia and Libya. Then in Daniel 11:44-45 the Gog/Magog war is expanded upon; although this time instead of Israel being the object of attack (Ezekiel), Antichrist is the object, who evidently is located somewhere in the Middle East north of Israel-the Bible doesn't specify where. 

“In Daniel 11:40-45 Gog is referred to as the King of the North; and another entity is introduced as the ‘King of the South.’ Now, Egypt is introduced as being allied with Ethiopia and Libya, along with other unnamed countries south of the Holy Land. Now, the King of the North and the King of the South attack—and the object of their attack is Antichrist. We will discuss (in light of America's current invasion and troop placements) the unbelievable significance of the above Gog/Magog conflict which is nigh upon us. I have referred to the fact that the current invasion of Iraq, by America, and the incredible placement of nearly a quarter million American troops in Iraq, is the fuse that will light the Gog/Magog conflagration. 

“It is no small thing that Israel (target of Ezekiel 38-39 of the forces of Gog/Magog) and the forces of Antichrist—King of Babylon—(target of the forces of both King of the North and King of the South in Daniel 11) find that their ‘mutual concerns’ against Gog/Magog—King of the North/South (undoubtedly strengthened through ‘your Covenant with Death and your agreement with Hell’ (‘The Covenant with the Many’ wherein Antichrist underwrites Israel's security in a Defense Pact), appear united in their efforts to defeat the forces of Gog/Magog and/or the King of the North and the King of the South.” (CHAPTER 24 GOG-MAGOG –WORLD WAR III

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE—PART I) 

After America’s possible demise suggested by Missler from Ezekiel 39:6 (and, grant it, our presupposition is that the Ships of Tarshish are clearly identified with the great end-times’ Commercial Empire, Babylon the Great (Revelation 18) and the very seat of Antichrist!), he then suggests that al Qaeda will pull off another Hiroshima in reverse (Alas! the 10 missing nuclear suitcases smuggled out of Russia’s collapsing arsenal have found their way to Osama’s operatives!)—simply another way to destroy America’s involvement, and ipso facto, the establishment of a Euro-Centric Antichrist. 

Next, Missler suggests the same thing from Iran: 

“An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), triggered by a high-altitude detonation of a nuclear weapon, poses a considerable threat to our national security and is one of a small number of weapons that could be used to bring the whole of America to its knees. An EMP attack would strike what has become the United States' Achilles heel - its relatively unprotected, yet vital, technological infrastructure.” (Missler, The Threat of EMP) 

Once again the USA is diminished—it MUST be removed in order for Western Europe’s ascendancy. 

Finally, Missler suggests the veritable collapse of the US economy—that we all can calculate; however, it is highly unlikely until the very last when the judgments under the “Wrath of the Lamb” are poured out upon Babylon the Great (i.e., if, indeed, America is the Babylon of the last days—the great commercial empire of the earth) (cf. Revelation 18). 

Missler conjectures: 

“The U.S. had positioned itself with this (Bretton Woods and Its Betrayal) in mind before the war because it was known that America would end up supplying its allies with provisions, weapons, and thousands of other items during WW II, with the only acceptable form of payment being gold; thus, the U.S. had accumulated a significant portion of the world’s gold by the conclusion of the war.  The Bretton Woods agreement worked well until the guns-and-butter policy of the 1960s was instituted and the money supply was expanded as never before to finance the Vietnam War and Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ programs.” (The Twilight’s Last Gleaming?). 

Missler then devotes extensive time and energy exploring the demise of America’s economic crisis now pending and the ultimate development of a “one world currency.”  However, the economic collapse of the USA, along with the almighty dollar to which all currencies of the world are de facto pegged (even the Euro, the Yen, Yuan, etc.), would so traumatize and economically stagnate all the world’s populations, it would be nigh impossible to adjudge this as a possibility—again, especially, in light of the delay in the judgment of commercial Babylon in accordance with Revelation 18 (which takes place at the final extension of the Reign of the Beast). 

Again, Missler holds out little hope for the USA, however, there is a sparkle of possibility—but not much; he sums it up: 

“The failure of our public schools, a decimated military, a corrupt Executive branch, and an ever-increasing involvement in the United Nations globalist agenda do not bode well for America.  Can we stop this downward trend before it’s too late?   Once veiled in secrecy, the movement toward a unified, socialist government dissolving national boundaries has hit the mainstream.  Even American political leaders are embracing this movement.  Are we playing a deadly game, setting the stage for the Coming World Leader of the Tribulation?” (Ibid.)

 

CHARLES H. DYER – MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE – AND AMERICA’S DEMISE 

I commend Brother Missler for not using the Rapture of the Church (Pretrib) as an excuse for the diminishing of the USA—unlike his counterpart, Charles H. Dyer, current eschatologist of the Moody Bible Institute, who, in his book, “The Rise of Babylon—is Iraq At The Center of the Final Drama?” contends: 

“So where does the United States fit into the picture? It is clear from Scripture that the dominant political and military power will center around the Mediterranean and Europe—not the United States. By the end times, the United States will no longer be a major influence in the world. But how can this be, especially since we are playing such a major role in the Middle East today?

“First, it is possible that the United States is not mentioned in prophecy because we will become a second-class international power overnight when God removes Christians from the earth (i.e., the Secret Rapture of the Church), an event scheduled to occur just before the beginning of this seven-year period. True believers who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ will be taken to heaven before the Antichrist is revealed. Today as many as half of all Americans claim to be ‘born again,’ or believers in Jesus Christ. If only one-fourth of that number have genuinely made a personal commitment to Christ, then over 28 million Americans will suddenly ‘disappear’ when God removes His church from the earth! 

“Can you imagine the effects on our country if over 28 million people-people in industry, government, the military, business, agriculture, education, medicine, and communications—disappear? That is approximately double the entire population of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston all rolled together!” (America is Strangely Absent – pp. 140-143, The Rise of Babylon, Charles H. Dyer, Moody Publishers, Chicago, 1991, Revised 2003). 

The reoccurring theme of the Rapture spelling the demise of America, making room for an ascendant Western Revived Roman Empire and Antichrist is pervasive amongst pre-tribulational Premillenarians.

However, Dyer gives three final possibilities for America’s devolution:  (2)  Moral collapse and “secularization; (3) Terrorists unleashing WMD upon her cities; and (4) “We will suffer a military defeat or simply weaken in our national resolve…financial crises at home could increase our isolationist tendencies…anything less than victory in the current struggles against the twin threats of terrorism and Saddam Hussein (Note:  His entire thesis was the recreation of Babylon the Great inspired by Saddam Hussein—now, in sum, defeated, captured and hung by the Americans via a proxy puppet Iraqi government.) will further weaken America’s resolve and could force us to abdicate our role as world leader.” (Ibid.) 

There you have it—to those of us here at the Tribulation Network . . . to those of us keenly aware of the direct teaching of the Scriptures and of the realities of the current geopolitical world in which we live and of that latter-day nation’s proclivity to military, economic and cultural dominance—there can be no question that these brethren are grossly deceived and inadvertently deceiving multitudes of unsuspecting Christians and are a laughingstock to the nations for the ludicrous notion that somehow America is about to fold her tents and still away through these outrageous scenarios into becoming less than a “bit player” a la Hal Lindsey’s prognostication!

 

ULTIMATE WAR WITH SYRIA, IRAN, GAZA, LEBANON, et al 

Now, as promised, let’s cut to the chase—the pending 7th and final Arab-Israeli War (Conflict) is about to take place.  This conflict will pit, in the main, a radicalized Lebanon (led by Hezbollah), Gaza (Hamas), the “stronghold of Ephraim/Ramallah—the PLO, Syria, along with support from Iran against a combination of Israeli-USA and some miscellaneous coalition forces (primarily the British and miscellaneous support from sundry nations of Europe and USA lackeys). 

Our “spotters” have informed us of these pending scenarios: 

June 29, 2007 – Iran bombers attack our Boys – Iranian forces are being choppered over the Iraqi border to bomb Our Boys, intelligence chiefs say.  Military experts claim this worrying move means we are at WAR with Iran in all but name.  Last night an intelligence source told The Sun:  ‘It is an extremely alarming development and raises the stakes considerably.  In effect, it means we are in a full on war with Iran – but nobody has officially declared it.  We have hard proof that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have crossed the border to attack us. (Tom Newton Dunn, Defense Editor, Friday, June 29, 2007 The Sun Online) 

June 27, 2007 – Bolton:  I’m ‘very worried’ for Israel – Sanctions and diplomacy have failed and it may be too late for internal opposition to oust the Islamist regime (now reeling under gasoline shortages in Iran), leaving only military intervention to stop Iran’s drive to nuclear weapons, the US’ former ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday…  Worse still, according to Ambassador Bolton, the Bush administration does not recognize the urgency of the hour and that the options are now limited to only the possibility of regime change from within or a last-resort military intervention, and it is still clinging to the dangerous and misguided belief that sanction can be effective. 

Bolton continued:   

“The current approach of the Europeans and the Americans is not just doomed to failure, but dangerous,” he said.  “Dealing with [the Iranians] just gives them what they want, which is more time…we have fiddled away four years, in which Europe tried to persuade Iran to give up voluntarily,” he complained.  “Iran in those four years mastered uranium conversion from solid to gas and now enrichment to weapons grade…We lost four years to feckless European diplomacy and our options are very limited.”   

Speaking about Europeans in a disgusted manner when it comes to Israel’s vulnerability: 

“Bolton, who served as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security from 2001 to 2005, before taking the ambassadorial posting to the UN from August 2005 to December 2006, said the failed handling of the Iran nuclear crisis was one of the reasons he had left the Bush administration.  ‘I felt we were watching Europe fiddling while Rome burned,’ he said.  ‘It’s still fiddling.’” (David Horovitz, THE JEUSALEM POST, June 27, 2007). 

June 28, 2007 – Weapons from Iran, Syria flowing easily into Lebanon – The Lebanese Army, assisted by nearly 15,000 United Nations forces, have been ineffective against the increasing influx of Iranian and Syrian weapons to Hezbollah.  The United Nations reported that weapons smuggling to Lebanon has increased over the last few months from neighboring Syria. 

The Lebanese government has agreed with the UN report.  On Wednesday, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said Syria was sending weapons to two camps controlled by Fateh Al Intifada and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.  (WorldTribune.com)

 

WAR BY JULY, 2007 

June 25, 2007 – Israel braces for July war with up to five enemies – Israel is preparing for an imminent war with Iran, Syria and/or their non-state clients.  Israeli military intelligence has projected that a major attack could come from any of five adversaries in the Middle East.  Officials said such a strike could spark a war as early as July 2007. 

On Sunday, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that the Jewish state faces five adversaries in what could result in an imminent confrontation.  Yadlin cited Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda. 

“Each of these adversaries is capable of sparking a war in the summer,” Yadlin was quoted as saying. 

Officials said Iran has direct influence over Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.  He said Al Qaeda has increasingly come under Iranian influence and was being used by Iran and Syria in such countries as Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. 

Already, military intelligence has assessed that Hamas acquired more than 50 missiles with a range of 22 kilometers.  Officials said this would allow Palestinian missile strikes on any part of Ashkelon, the largest city in southeastern Israel and which contains strategic sites.   

Israeli military intelligence has assessed that Hamas was being quietly supported by neighboring Egypt.  Officials said that despite Egypt’s announced ban, Cairo has continued to allow Hamas leaders to enter the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip.  (World Tribune)

 

CONCLUSION 

Predicting this war is a no-brainer; frankly, any pundit in their right mind could figure it out—the timing is what disturbs . . . meanwhile the American Evangelical Church fiddles as much as Bolton’s U.S./European confabs on getting Iran to stop producing the bomb. 

The pending conflict is NOT the Gog-Magog War—we affirm it to be THE BURDEN OF DAMASCUS as found in Isaiah 17-18 and in Zechariah 9.  It will, however, lead up to the Gog-Magog War which we believe will take place after the USA orchestrates, propelled by its supreme leader, the peace accord as prophesied by Daniel the Prophet in Daniel 9:27.  That’s a mouthful, no doubt, but it appears all the more obvious each day where this is leading us.  May the Lord have mercy upon us all—and, especially, upon the innocents in the Middle East whose world is about to change radically in the days and months ahead.  We commend them to His grace and ourselves to His Word which cannot fail! 

 

 

WHY AMERICA MUST BE DESTROYED

…Destruction Awaits the Experiment

Part IV

“The Rise or Fall of American Empire?”

 By Doug Krieger 

The ultimate consequence of modern, even ancient, Empire—mature Empire—is overextension of its military to sustain economic superiority.  PAX and MAX seem inexorably united in an ever-spiraling cacophony of disintegration, leading to an excessive national socialism wherein big government and industry—and in America’s case, sustained by a militant religious expression—merge forces to perpetuate world hegemonic control of commerce and culture through combat.  The more Empire—PAX AMERICANA—appears to fray, the more she strives to coalesce, to maintain her imperial status.  

Notwithstanding the immensity of America’s presence through its “democratic globalism” – its awesome “commercial empire” under girded by the world’s most techno-sophisticated military spread throughout the globe by history’s most prolific distribution of bases—yes, despite all this, there abides those religionists amongst us evangelicals who aspire to diminish America’s immediate and pervasive world presence to the point of oblivion! 

In spite of America’s incredible and all-consuming military image throughout the Middle East, and her most recent—and altogether impressive—base extensions in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, Central and South America, and throughout Africa, even Australia, these beloved brethren of Bible prophecy persist in eschewing any and all relevance that the “God of Fortresses” might have in the end-time’s scenario. 

Once again, we will highlight the remarkable proliferation of American military prowess, her political will—led by her current president—and her irretrievable pugnacity to marginalize her enemies, capture the “hidden treasures” of the Middle East and unilaterally, as will as preemptively, wage wars of national interest whether Europe or anyone else, including the Russians and the Chinese, diplomatically or overtly attempt to oppose her hegemonic designs. 

Furthermore, we shall demonstrate the absurd notion that Western Europe or the EU, the United Nations or any other political alignment or conspiracy, can or will ever overtake the world’s foremost economic, political and

cultural juggernaut—especially, now that she has in sum and substance the

uncompromised backing of virtually all military alliances (especially that of an ever-expanding NATO) including Pakistan, India, and de facto, most of the English-speaking nations (Australia, Canada, etc.), as well as the backing of nearly all nations of the Middle East, aside from the stigmatized Axis of Evil (Syria and Iran) and for all practical purposes the glare of the Russians and Chinese. 

For Europe to ascend to greatness—as these “literal Babylon-shall-rise-again-in-Iraq eschatologists” conjecture—and that domiciled within her expanding commercial frame lurks the infamous Antichrist, is an assault upon reasonable minds who grasp but the most rudimentary understanding of geopolitical realities.  Likewise, the prophetic myopia and so-called Biblical literalism plaguing these otherwise sincere brethren is an affront to the relevance of the Scriptures which now, more than ever, clearly should and does speak into our world. 

Let us examine, for those who tout the contextual, grammatical-historical hermeneutic, both the initial disclosure of the Beast and his empire in Daniel and its counterparts in the Revelation—this will unequivocally substantiate the nature of the Beast and the ultimate expression of his end-times kingdom. 

Lastly, and contradictory to all macro-economics, America’s colossal control of world commerce, through the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and so forth, will not, nor cannot, suddenly nor gradually dissipate, as these same American evangelical prophets insist.  Nor will her internal corruptions extinguish her efforts to maintain her preponderance as so many of these same evangelical prophets conjecture. 

No, as Richard Combs and S. Franklin Logsdon assert—Babylon the Great is the United States of America . . . and there are no competitors, especially European ones.  In point of glaring, unadulterated fact, the whole world has been made rich—especially its merchants—from her “delicacies.”  Her luxuries, her trafficking in the “bodies and souls of men” . . . as well as her corrupting forms of immorality, are so ubiquitous, virtually the whole earth bears witness to her contagions . . . that, even these aforementioned prophets cannot deny.  Revelation 18 is NOT a veiled allusion to America as the Babylon of the Last Days—it is an in-your-face blatant reality that this experiment has reached its full putridity!  We speak here not of “American hate speak” but of a present and growing reality whose description can fit no other nation on the globe, and whose military, in particular, mirrors the definitions outlined throughout Scripture.

 

G. H. LANG AND BABYLON’S PHYSICALITY 

Moreover, and as a “prophetic sop” extended to those who embrace a literal Babylon (in Iraq) as the center of Antichrist’s ultimate capital (and ipso facto the apparent diminishing of America’s possibilities of Latter-Day involvement—both as the Eleventh Horn’s King and Kingdom) . . . allow me to quote from G. H. Lang’s classic:  The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel: 

“It is only when Alexander attacks the Persians, and makes himself master of Babylon (the he-goat rushing upon the ram, Dan. 8), that his kingdom becomes the third empire of Daniel.  Thus also is it with the fourth empire.  Its ferocity and supremacy are emphasized, but that it would commence, or had commenced, at a city named Rome, is not even mentioned, and what its course would be is unnoticed.  It is when the Antichrist shall have made Babylon its center of universal government that the empire will become what is so vividly and minutely portrayed in prophetic Scripture. 

“And this essential geographical feature might have been learned from the one fact that, because the four kingdoms were represented by an upright image, therefore the center of gravity, if it may be so expressed, of each of the three upper portions was exactly over the spot upon which the feet stood (i.e., Babylon proper).  The center of each empire would be at the same place.  Babylon is Satan’s original and final earth center, as Jerusalem is the Divine center.  And modern world movements tend unceasingly to the Near East. 

“It would have been a great gain to the study of Daniel and the Revelation if the term ‘Roman’ empire had never been employed.  It is not Scriptural.  In the Word of God, the first three empires are named from the countries of their origin, Babylon, Persia, Greece (Dan. 1:1; 2:48; 8:20, 21), but the next is not named, it is simply the ‘fourth Beast.’  Of its rise and career little is said.  It, like the others, would be adjacent to ‘the great sea,’ the Mediterranean; it would be strong and merciless and triumphant.  

“Beyond this, its course is unnoticed until the final stage, when ten kings should arise out of it, and then an eleventh, who should be its last head, and should be destroyed by the Son of Man, Whose kingdom should supersede his.  The interest and detail center upon this concluding stage and final Emperor, and there is no ground for supposing him to be emperor of Rome, but, on the contrary, to have his center at Babylon (Isa. 14:4; etc.) 

Although the allusion to Antichrist’s capital is centered in modern-day Iraq—physical Babylon . . . Lang, nevertheless, clarifies the supposed importance of the physicality of this fourth kingdom’s capital and sphere of influence . . .  

“The histories of the empires (Neo-Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Macedonian-Grecian – as taken from Daniel), however long and checkered, prior to each centering in Babylon, are unimportant prophetically, the great questions being such as these:  Where will be the center of the last emperor, who will arise within the area of the ten (Daniel 7:8; 8:19)?; and what will be the full extent of his authority when one of such ability uses such overwhelming strength to seize dominion?  What power or union of powers can be supposed as strong enough to refuse to recognize his overlordship?  But it appears that the element of compulsion will not be required at the climax of his career, for we read that ‘the whole earth wondered after the beast, and they worshipped the dragon because he gave his authority unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast? And who is able to war with him?’” (Rev. 13:3, 4). (Appendix A, The Universality of the Rule of the Antichrist, The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel, G. H. Lang, The Paternoster Press, London, 1950) (My emphasis)

 

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST AND HIS KINGDOM 

Please, bear with me here, as we examine the nature of the Fourth Beast.  In Daniel 2:31-45 the evolution of Gentile World Powers is depicted in the vision of King Nebuchadnezzar by Daniel.  Minerals or metals/elements are used to interpret the composition and strength of expression of the four and finally “the evolution of the fourth kingdom”; however, their precise names—aside from Neo-Babylonia are, at this time, not disclosed (You (King Nebuchadnezzar) are this head of gold.  Daniel 2:38).   

The other kingdoms are simply referred to in verses 39-45 as “another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth . . . and the fourth kingdom, shall be as strong as iron.”   

Finally, and with much greater emphasis upon the evolution of the fourth kingdom itself (not necessarily a fifth kingdom) the description is given of “iron and clay” (feet and toes) indicating some disintegration of the fourth kingdom (partly strong and partly fragile).  Also, the phrase “they will mingle with the seed of men” (vs. 43a) and “they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay” (vs. 43b).   

Immediately these ten toes are referred to as “kings” – as well as “kingdoms” (vs. 44) – and ultimately we must take note that the “stone (that) was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold” (vs. 45) refers to the coming of the Son of Man and the final destruction of COMPOSITE GENTILE WORLD POWER. 

I emphasize these amalgamated elements to lay stress upon the ultimate expression of the Image whereby ALL original elements are mentioned and must be viewed as the totality of the Image, the ultimate expression of Gentile World Power throughout the ages, culminating in a cohesive destruction by the stone uncut from the mountain without hands. 

Lang’s observations are impressive.  The “four great beasts” who “came up from the sea” (Dan. 7:3) are initially described by Daniel (Dan. 7:4-7) as creatures (Lion with wings and the ultimate semblance of a man (vs. 4); bear with three ribs between its teeth (vs. 5); leopard with four wings of a bird on its back and having four heads (vs. 6); and, finally, the fourth beast which had “huge iron teeth . . . and it had ten horns” (vs. 7). 

Once again, a further examination of these four kingdoms is given—instead of elements of the earth, we have organic creatures given.  But, that these creatures are most definitely associated with the Image of the Gentile Man of Daniel 2, there can be no doubt; thusly, the ten toes have now morphed into the ten horns (i.e., the fourth kingdom, fourth beast). 

Daniel then wholly focuses upon the fourth beast in vs. 8: 

“I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.  And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.” 

This is the initial introduction of the Antichrist—the Eleventh Horn—as well as the Beast’s Kingdom which arises out of the ten or out of the fourth beast.  Indeed, we witness the Fourth Kingdom-Beast, and know full-well that these initial ten toes of Daniel 2 are the ten horns of Daniel 7; therefore, the Eleventh Horn is also a “king” as well as a “kingdom” – for the ten are both “kings” and “kingdoms” (i.e., “horns” or “authorities”). 

In Daniel 7:15-25 the prophet accentuates the description of the four beast-kingdoms by immediately declaring “those great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which arise out of the earth.”  Once again “kingdom” and “king” are indistinguishable.  However, the emphasis in this portion of the prophetic vision is upon the fourth beast-kingdom-king. 

The disclosures are significant (Daniel 7:19)—for now this fourth beast not only has “iron teeth” (alluding to the “iron legs” of the fourth kingdom-king of Daniel 2) but commences to manifest the composition of the original three empires – starting with the “nails of bronze” (i.e., claws – and “bronze” representing the third kingdom of Daniel 2). 

But, again, the emphasis is upon the fourth beast (vs. 20-21) whereby the Eleventh Horn is given prominence: 

“and the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn which came up, before which three fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows . . . I was watching; and the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them.” 

Here the dastardly actions of the Antichrist-Eleventh Horn are exposed:  Making war against the saints, and prevailing against them!  Then Daniel goes into extensive detail on the character of this fourth beast with the ten horns and the eleventh horn: 

“The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces.  The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and another (the Antichrist and Kingdom) shall rise after them; he shall be different from the first ones, and shall subdue three kings (Note:  this is the third time this uprooting of the three is mentioned by Daniel.).  He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.” (Daniel 7:23-25). 

The nature or character of this fourth kingdom (or “king” or ten-horned beast with eleventh horn) is forthright—it is obviously the kingdom which evolves as the fourth kingdom in succession of the original three.  And, yes, it is the Roman Empire—the emphasis, however, as Lang points out, is not upon Rome but upon the culmination of Gentile World Powers:  The Beast and/or the entirety of the IMAGE itself. 

However, that said, Daniel in chapter 7 reveals the most definite “Romish” character of this aspect of Gentile World Power.  Now, in chapter 8 of his prophetic vision he emphasizes the Grecian or Greco aspect of the Eleventh Horn—the, if you would, FIFTH horn coming up amongst the four horns.

 

THE TWO-HORNED RAM – MEDO-PERSIA 

Firstly, the Medo-Persia (two-horned ram) Empire is described: 

“Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the river, was a ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other (i.e., the Persian), and the higher one came up last.  I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward, so that no animal could withstand him, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great” (Daniel 8:3-4).

 

THE FOUR-HORNED GOAT – THE GRECIAN EMPIRE 

“And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west, across the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground; and he goat had a notable horn between his eyes” (i.e., Alexander the Great) . . . “Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. 

And I saw him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram, and broke his two horns.  There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him; and there was no one that could deliver the ram from

his hand” (Daniel 8:5-7). 

Thus we witness the destruction of the Medo-Persian Empire by Alexander the Great. 

But Daniel continues the description of the Grecian Empire (the third empire or third beast) . . .  

“Therefore the male goat grew very great; but when he became strong, the large horn was broken (the death of Alexander the Great), and in place of it four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven (Cassander—Macedonian-Western Europe; Lysimachus—Thrace-Northern Part of Asia Minor; Seleucus—Syria and Eastern Part; and, Ptolemy—Egypt-Southern Part and Africa).  And out of one of them came a little horn (Note:  The same expression given in Daniel 7:8 when describing the “extension” of the eleventh horn.) which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land.  And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them (Note:  This is not “just” an allusion to Antiochus Epiphanes IV – but the ultimate Antichrist himself!).  He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down” (Daniel 8:8-11). 

I would caution you to observe that not only do these descriptions portend the Syrian-Seleucia King, Antiochus Epiphanes IV at the time of the Maccabeans in 164 B.C., but because of its “cosmic” disclosures, it undeniably extends the description into the final disclosure of the ultimate Antichrist himself:  He and his kingdom are the “little horn” or the GRECO-ROMAN character of Western Civilization itself!  This is further substantiated by Daniel 8:21-26 – especially when this “little horn” is said to:  

“He shall even rise against the Prince of princes” (Daniel 8:25) 

It is this Greco-Roman Man – Western Civilization – that is the overarching manifestation of the final expression of Gentile World Power on the earth prior to the coming of the Son of Man. 

Daniel clearly identifies both the ram and the male goat in Daniel 8:20-21 as the Medo-Persian and Grecian Empires: 

“The ram which you saw, having two horns-they are the kings of Media and Persia.  And the male goat is the kingdom of Greece.  The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king.” 

It is not, however, until we arrive at the book of Revelation that the Fourth Kingdom – Fourth Beast – is given further disclosure: 

“Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name” (Revelation 13:1). 

At this interjection, the Beast of Revelation 13:1, is the same Beast of Revelation 11:7.  It must be observed that this Beast is BOTH the personification of the final Antichrist, as well as the Kingdom (i.e., BEAST-KINGDOM) of the Antichrist who has complete (seven heads) authority and the full diadem or support of the ten authorities (i.e., ten toes, ten horns)—but he and his kingdom are distinct from the original ten horns (kings and kingdoms) which originally constituted the sum and substance of the Beast’s origins—until the Eleventh or Little Horn was manifested. 

Now, let us pay careful attention to his final description: 

“Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear; and his mouth like the mouth of a lion” (Revelation 13:2a). 

The “like a leopard” is clearly Greece (ref. Daniel 7:6); its feet are those of a bear (ref. Daniel 7:5) – Medo-Persia; and, its mouth is that of a lion (ref. Daniel 7:4) – Neo-Babylonia.  That’s it.  There is no mention of the iron or of the fourth beast; however, there is ample understanding from the two compositions found in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 that the totality of the Beast and the Beast-Nation-Empire is the expression of ultimate Gentile World Power wherein the Beast, the fourth creature, the fourth kingdom, is the climax of World Civilization – Greco-Roman Man at his zenith.  The emphasis is not upon a Revived Roman Empire, but upon the acme of Western Civilization and the nation that most exemplifies that leadership and manifestation in fullness! 

That is precisely what Lang, I believe, was getting at – Rome and her disintegrated toes which ultimately produce the Eleventh Horn, is nothing more than a stepping stone to Revelation 13:1-10.  The Beast and his Kingdom have reached their full and grotesque maturity—this awful maturation is nothing more than what fallen man and his imperial disposition produce.  To deny the current geo-political configurations which now exist upon the earth wherein the USA holds such superior military, economic and socio-religio clout upon the planet flies in the face of all historic reality. 

At this “prophetic juncture” I would hasten to add that the current military presence, as well as her economic engines of commercial exploitation (i.e., capturing the world’s “cheap” energy (oil) resources), are wholly centered in the Middle East—dominating throughout Iraq and the Persian Gulf, as well as Afghanistan and peripheral nations like Azerbaijan and Pakistan; furthermore, she has built the world’s largest and most impressive embassy ever to countenance the planet in Baghdad.  In sum:  THE UNITED STATES MILITARY HAS WHOLLY SUBSUMED IRAQ!  She sits formidably astride, betwixt and between, the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers with PERMANENT MILITARY bases throughout Iraq.  So, if the question on Babylon’s literal presence disturbs—let it disturb no longer:  Babylon the Great is in full possession of—albeit with some consternations:  Ancient Babylon. 

When the dust of political posturing and strategic uncertainty clears from the talking heads of American media, the USA will confine its superiority to her original purposes—absolute military permanence for an indefinite time frame in order to insure her engines of commercial hegemony. 

Listen, you out there who may be disquieted, and even irate, over this “outlandish” assertion on our part—well, be persuaded in your own mind, as the Scriptures exhort . . . but, as Mark Twain once so wisely stated:  Denial ain’t a river in Egypt – no, it’s right here in America; and, to deny it, you shall find yourself distracted from the Church’s true mission in the midst of this “crooked and perverse generation” among whom we are told to “shine as lights in the darkness” especially as history reaches into the environs of Daniel’s Seventieth Week . . . and we are still here! 

That said, let us elaborate on our convictions and substantiate the insurmountable evidence of the aforementioned propositions . . . knowing this, better to have you upset, yet hopefully relieved of your ignorance through persistent facts and illumination, than to have you abide in your own conceits, fiddling while Rome burns!  Forgive what appears to be a presumptuous spirit; however, time is neither on our side nor your side—we have no other alternative, given the brevity of the hour.

 

AMERICAN EMPIRE DOES NOT LANGUISH 

Before we excoriate our beloved brethren—and we do so in a spirit of deep concern for the folly of ignoring the “times and seasons” in which we live, for we have no ax to grind with anyone—let us rehearse the platitudes of American Empire a bit to solidify the record and remind our readers that this gorilla has no intention of getting off the bed, not even after you finally acknowledge he’s actually there! 

Once the strictures of Communist Socialism were ostensibly overthrown in 1991, a great deal of consternation and uncertainty ensued as to where humanity might be heading.  Since 1991, and after the first Gulf War, as well as after the USA and NATO’s involvement in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as in Serbia and Kosovo, and then in the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, that consternation gained a whole new dimension.   

Indeed, President George Bush Sr.’s declaration that a “New World Order”—which we now unabashedly entitle “The American New World Order System”—was originally designed to bring a measured hope of peace and interdependence among nations; instead, and as a result of 9/11 and both the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, a clarification of that New World Order was redefined as the American policy of unilateral, pre-emptive, wars of national interest which were further interpreted as distinct opportunities for the extension of American Commercial Empire, under girded by the morality of Democratic Globalism and righteous indignation against those who were not aligned with American policy and, ipso facto, were “against us.” 

The Bush Doctrine of the War on Terror took hold wherein an “invisible enemy” was at the gate—omnipresent and decisively evil; it must be destroyed.  India, the EU, Arab states and the Russian Federation – nearly all states – have adopted similar doctrines and implemented strict measures. 

Alas!  The collapse of the British Empire has been supplanted by the world’s sole super power . . .  

“The United States emerged from the Second World War with the most extensive system of military bases that the world had ever seen.  This overseas basing system at the end of the Second World War consisted of over thirty thousand installations located at two thousand base sites residing in around one hundred countries and areas, and stretching from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica.  U.S. military bases were spread over all the continents and the islands in between.  Next to the U.S. nuclear monopoly, there was no more universally recognized symbol of the nation’s superpower status than its overseas basing system.” (“Military Bases around the World and in Europe – the Role of the USA and NATO,” Iraklis Tsavdaridis, Secretary of the World Peace Council, 8 Nov. 2005) 

Tsavdaridis expands his thesis: 

“Through Plan Colombia – aimed principally at guerrilla forces in Colombia (South America) but also against the less than servile government of Venezuela and the massive popular movement opposing neo-liberalism in Ecuador—the United States is now in the process of expanding its base presence in the Latin American and Caribbean region.  Puerto Rico has replaced Panama as the hub for the region.  Meanwhile the United States has been establishing four new military bases in Manta, Ecuador; Aruba; Curacao; and Comalapa, El Salvador—all characterized as forward operating locations (FOLs).  Since September 11 (2001), the United States has set up military bases housing sixty thousand troops in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, along with Kuwait and Qatar. 

“Military bases are also in Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania, Macedonia, Poland, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Ghana, Mali, and Algeria.  Also crucial in the operation is the major U.S. naval base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, apart from the 6th and 7th fleet.” (Ibid.) 

But, military bases for the sake of the military is nonsensical—“it’s the economy, stupid!”  It might cost, but the dividends are what counts. 

“The establishment of U.S. military bases should not of course be seen simply in terms of direct military ends.  They are always used to promote the economic and political objectives of U.S. capitalism.  For example, U.S. corporations and the U.S. government have been eager for some time to build a secure corridor for US-controlled oil and natural gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea in Central Asia through Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea.  This region has more than 6 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and almost 40 percent of its gas reserves.  The war in Afghanistan and the creation of U.S. military bases in Central Asia are viewed as a key opportunity to make such pipelines a reality. 

“Greece spends 4.8% of its GDP for defense; this is the largest among all other European NATO countries. The USA spends 6.6% of their GDP for defense; it almost equals that of the rest of the world combined. It operates 702 bases in 130 countries and has more than 500,000 personnel abroad, military and civilian, 71,000 (alone) are . . . in Germany.  The USA has another 6,000 military bases in the United States and its territories.” (Ibid.) 

Economically, in support of these vast base expansions, Tsavdaridis is convinced that this is wholly unsustainable and that American imperialism “has entered into a tunnel and the exit is vague.”  Little does he know how resilient and clever the American military-industrial complex is!  In point of fact, American military planners are surprised at their own resilience in the irresolvable quagmire of the Middle East—as if some invisible force were circumventing their own strategies in the face of one announced strategic blunder after another.  The Arab-Israeli imbroglio is the perfect storm for US military expansion and subsequent commercial acquisition.

 

NATO’S EXPANSION AND REFUSAL TO COUGH UP MORE MILITARY COIN 

Now, this will disappoint our evangelical brethren contemplating the awesome military preparations going on within NATO, outside the USA.  Remember, the “social safety net” (flat out “socialism”) embracing most European states, is fanatically guarded by politician, pundit and Euro-populous.  That said, when then Secretary General of the European Union, Javier Solana, called upon all members, including the newly applied member states like Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, to cough up a greater share of coin to expand NATO’s military capabilities on behalf of the War on Terrorism, as well as sustaining the military technological enhancement of the EURO-NATO contribution (i.e., “keeping up with American military technology”), they, of course, would find themselves giving a financial windfall to that same American military-industrial complex! 

“This means immense profit for the US war industry and a heavy burden for the peoples of the NATO member states, which will cut off social funds from their budget.” (Ibid.)  

After the 2002 NATO Summits in Prague and the EU Summit in Copenhagen of that same year, a joint declaration was drafted by the ever-compliant EU and NATO (Euro-members) to find a “way for closer political and military cooperation between the two organizations” (viz., the USA and European States).  Specifically, and this is where our Euro-Centric Antichrist evangelical prophetic pundits must understand, this “Declaration on the European Security and Defense Policy” (ESDP), places an onerous burden laid upon the old and new member states of the EU by the aforementioned American military-industrial complex—one that greatly benefits the USA in its quest for Commercial Empire! 

“The ESDP provides a formal basis for cooperation between the two organizations in the areas of crisis management and conflict prevention; it outlines the political principles for EU-NATO cooperation and gives the EU assured access to NATO’s planning and logistics capabilities for its own military operations.  This will lead, as NATO says, to a new, fairer burden-sharing between the USA and a more mature EU or in other words, in a huge leap towards EU militarization.  Now the EU is able to take a greater responsibility for military missions in the Balkans from NATO or US forces (Military Operation CONCORDIA in Macedonia and a police force in Bosnia-Herzegovina are already active) and in Bunia (military operation ARTEMIS).” (Ibid.) 

In other words, instead of the great independent military might of the EU, what we have here is naught but the USA’s military expansion throughout NATO-EU member states—all following our lead.  It is a preposterous notion to think otherwise. 

Listen to Javier Solana spout the policies of American pre-emptive intervention from the European Security and Defense Policy paper entitled:  A Secure Europe in a Better World . . . remembering this:  The EU literally adopted the concept of pre-emptive war a la the Americans in order to play catch up (and they’ve a very long ways to go): 

“The new threats are dynamic… This implies that we should be ready to act before a crisis occurs.  Conflict prevention and threat prevention cannot start too early.” (June 20, 2003 – Javier Solana) 

Those American evangelical prophets who foresee in High Representative Solana’s EU-military accolades the embryonic beginnings of a resurgent Revived Roman Empire and her military image overtaking that of the USA, simply have little or no grasp of the total dependence and integration of America’s military machinery now in the process of incorporating its European counterpart—i.e., America’s infusion through direct persuasion and indirect political coercion of the EU-NATO military—is precisely what “the collective” has in mind:  Resistance is futile! 

The US military has established at least three types of bases.  Firstly, the so-called “strategically enduring installations” like Ramstein, Germany, which is directly accessed from the USA mainland.  Then, there are the “forward-operating bases” like Camp McGovern in Bosnia or Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo—these are not new installations, simply old fortification redoes like airstrips or port facilities allowing the USA a generous footprint in that country or region.  At level three are “forward-operating locations”—bare-bone sites for hospitals, Special Forces or expeditionary contingents which proliferate the landscape, whereby new military interventions can be launched on an “as needed” basis. 

What the world views now are multiple base extensions strategically located in NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe—Poland (Poznan), Romania (Constanta) and Bulgaria (Sarafovo) along the Black Sea.  These, coupled with US-NATO military bases in Germany, Italy (Aviano), Greece (Souda in Crete Island—which can port two US Aircraft Carries at one time, plus multiple warships), constitute the American New World Order’s overwhelming presence to validate her commercial expansion into the Middle East (a sort of “Northern Exposure” to insure strategic encirclement of the majority of the earth’s “hidden treasures”).

 

BIG TRADER – BUT NO STICKS 

It is, unfortunately for the Americans, the strategic fact that her traditional allies within NATO, and for that matter, throughout the world, simply cannot and/or will not field any more combat and/or support troops for the Iraqi/Afghanistan Theater of Operations.  Here’s the bottom line: 

“A common moniker for Europe is that it is an economic giant and a military midget.  While many European militaries are transforming and modernizing (as per US-NATO techno-specifications, making “military systems” compatible and interchangeable with top-flight US configurations), few European countries have significant armies.  For one, those countries don’t spend the cash needed to maintain large numbers of soldiers.  Two, much of the money that is appropriated goes to salaries and training for conscripts, who are only in uniform for nine to 12 months and can do little to expand each nation’s capabilities.” (Peter Brownfeld, Fox News.com – “European Military Might Lacks Numbers,” May 11, 2004) 

Talk is cheap, aside from France’s 40,000-50,000 troop capacity—capabilities which are at this writing NOT forthcoming for the American Middle East efforts—only the British amongst the NATO allies can field additional forces (perhaps 40,000 to 50,000) insofar as combat operations concern.  France is modernizing but up to this point (it may change under President Sarkozy) has resisted Iraqi involvement—it also ended conscription in 2001. 

Non-US NATO troop strength approximates 1.4 million soldiers (2006) . . . 

“The 18 non-U.S. (NATO allies with militaries) have 55,000 deployed on multinational operations (i.e., 3-4% vs. the USA which can deploy at “a moment’s notice” up to 75% of its 2.4 million troops throughout the earth) …yet they (Euro-NATO) feel overstretched… We must generate more usable soldiers and have the political will to deploy more of them in multinational operations.” (Former NATO Secretary General George Robertson, Oct. 2003) (Ibid.) 

Notice, it is the USA that presses her allies to “cough up” the coin to integrate military systems, as well as enhancements for additional deployments throughout the region (and that includes Africa, as well as the Middle East and Afghanistan, let alone continuing assignments in the Balkans). 

As Julianne Smith at the Center for Strategic and International Studies observes: 

“If it is not possible to plunk down more euros, Washington would like to see the countries at least spend more wisely.  Europe spends 60 percent of what America does, but has just a tiny fraction of America’s military might . . . (the) European militaries spend a tremendous amount on bureaucracy and personnel and very little on material, leaving them with minimal war-fighting capabilities . . . you just can’t imagine the bureaucracy that surrounds their militaries . . . It’s just incredible.  You see 10 people doing the job one person would be doing here.” (Ibid.) 

Thus, the WPA-mindset, overshadowing European militaries, continues to stymie.  

According to Smith, even if France, Spain, Italy and the Brits, as well as virtually ever other NATO-friendly (e.g., Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Denmark, etc.) wanted to deploy their maximums (along with their woeful military hardware), they “wouldn’t get 100,000 troops” into the Iraqi Theater of Operations. 

Indeed, the “Cold War” mindset went like this:  We Europeans will deploy large standing armies for Europe, and the rest of the world belongs to America’s charge.  Now, when it comes to garrison duty (police-style operations like the Italian Carabinieri), Europe’s peacekeeping compatibilities are impressive; after all, “peacekeeping is less hazardous than war” (Radek Sikorski, director of the American Enterprise Institute’s New Atlantic Initiative and former Polish deputy defense minister – Ibid.) 

I hope you’re getting the picture here.  In 2005, Nicholas Burns, in a speech to a Brussels think tank, the European Policy Center, commented: 

“…the United States spends over 420 billion dollars on national defense, the combined defense budgets of the other 25 NATO allies was less than half that . . . the capabilities gap is worrisome.” (US Laments Europe’s Military Shortfalls, Brussels (AFP), Jan 10, 2005) 

Notwithstanding, the USA keeps pushing Europe: 

“The United States is also pushing for NATO to expand its missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, while maintaining significant forces in the Balkans and boosting its ties in Central Asia and the Middle East . . . ‘If we are going to be in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Bosnia; if were going to have an outreach to the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia, you need forces, well-equipped, well-trained forces.” (Ibid.) 

Burns woefully concludes upon viewing the utter ineptitude of the “European military venture” . . .  

“At some point . . . the rubber needs to meet the road.  At some point you have to have the capabilities to back up your political ambitions and your rhetoric.  And this growing disparity in capabilities worries us greatly.” 

No, Mr. Burns, as long as the overshadowing wings of the US military continues to flex its muscles throughout Europe, North Africa, the Caucasus and the Middle East, let alone throughout Southwest Asia and the Horn of Africa, into India and beyond, the European military midgets will NOT pick up their fair share of America’s War on Terror, nor will they give up their August holiday and massive social nets for America’s Wars—but be very clear:  He who is not for us is against us . . . that will prove “commercially dangerous” for any European ally who refuses to “cooperate” . . . for one of the highest tech weapons within Uncle Sam’s arsenal consists of her butter, not her guns, and some of the EU’s 28 variegated membership understands this game. 

Insofar as world spending on militaries goes – 

·        The 15 countries with the highest spending account for 84 percent of the total ($1,118 billion in current dollars – however, the USA “total military expenditures, including Homeland Security, Dept. of Energy (Nuclear), and Veterans Affairs, accounts for nearly $1-Trillion of America’s annual budget, 2007 + special ongoing military appropriations as needed).

·        The USA is responsible for 48 percent of the world total, distantly followed by the UK, France, Japan and China with 4.5 percent each.  (Anup Shah, “Arms Trade—A Major Cause of Suffering” – World Military Spending, Feb. 25, 2007)

 

DR. DONALD R. REAGAN - AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL? 

Having repeatedly demonstrated throughout this brief series on the demise of America in Bible prophecy—purposefully, and well-intentioned, but with biting sarcasm—be it decisively known, America has no intention of rolling up her tents and abandoning her quest for an AMERICAN New World Order System.  Now we turn (unfortunately) to some of America’s most popular prophetic buffs who (some of them) sardonically, deliberately, and with alleged Biblical craft, seek to dissuade believers and unbelievers alike, that America the Beautiful shall suddenly, and without premonition, collapse through supernatural calamities, be they economic, military, moral and/or spiritual catastrophes—because she, according to these American prophets, is not mentioned in Bible prophecy, and has not even a bit part! 

The well-respected Dr. David R. Reagan, who has for years rallied the faithful in the study of the prophetic Scriptures, speculates: 

“I personally believe that the reason the U.S. is not mentioned in end time prophecy is because we will suddenly cease to be a world power and will therefore play no significant role in end time events.” (“America the Beautiful?  The United States in Bible Prophecy,” Lamb & Lion Ministries) 

Dr. Reagan, as we have discovered in most of our research of American Premillenarian evangelical prophecy stalwarts, must, therefore, dispense with the insurmountable American presence which now encircles the globe – to wit: 

“The destruction of American power is most likely to occur in two stages.  The first could be an economic catastrophe that will result from our out of control debt situation.  Our god is the dollar, and the Lord is going to destroy that god when the weight of our debt collapses our economy. 

“The second stage could occur when Russia launches its invasion of Israel (prophesied in Ezekiel 38 and 39).  I believe it is very likely that they will launch a preemptive nuclear attack against our nation . . . This attack may be hinted at in Ezekiel 39:6 where it says that fire will fall on ‘those who inhabit the coastlands in safety.’" 

Dr. Reagan suggests that the Russian attack “will probably come from submarines deployed off our East and West coasts . . . each Russian sub carries more fire power than all the bombs dropped in World War II . . . such an attack would give us only seven minutes warning, not even enough time to launch a counter attack.” (Ibid.) 

He then goes on to conjecture that with America’s destruction, Russia will then “come down” upon Israel in the infamous Gog-Magog War against Israel only to be supernaturally destroyed “on the mountains of Israel.” 

Then, with the vacuous political instability created by these conflagrations, a “charismatic European political personality who will be energized by Satan” will step into the fray to stabilize this confusion by proposing “brilliant proposals for world peace.” 

Dr. Reagan’s analysis includes the strategic affirmation that Russia “is far more dangerous to the world today than before the Soviet collapse . . . The increased danger is rooted in the instability of the (Russian Federation) government.” 

Naturally, it’s hard for Lamb & Lion Ministries to contemplate “the idea of God using Russia to judge our nation . . . I (Dr. Reagan) believe we (the USA) are far more dangerous to the world spiritually than the Russians have ever been, for we are the world’s moral polluter through the export of our sleazy television programs, our filthy movies, our satanic music and our degrading pornography.” (Ibid.) 

Amazing how we swing from America’s destruction via Russia as a result of America’s economic and/or immorality to America’s devolution as a result of the Church’s rapture (a reoccurring and somewhat incongruous socio-religio theme among these expositors and pundits): 

“There is another possible fate for the United States.  If the Rapture were to occur today, we would be devastated because our nation contains more born again Christians than any other nation in the world – more than all of Western Europe combined.  Further, we have many born again Christians in high positions of commerce and government.  The Rapture would reduce our nation to chaos, removing us from the international scene as the world’s dominant power.” (Ibid.) 

So, who will take America’s place as the world’s Hegemon? 

Dr. Reagan continues in his piece, Europe In Bible Prophecy, regarding the founding of the modern State of Israel, and the formation of the European confederation (the EU), considering them as the two most significant historical events in end times prophecy, bringing us to “the threshold of the Tribulation and the Lord’s return.”  Of course, since the growing super power of the USA is not in this “most important equation” – she, subsequently, is simply left out of any significant feature in Dr. Reagan’s end-times’ scenario. 

Now, although the highly popular web site, Rapture Ready, affirms Western Europe’s military deficiencies, as an ingredient in Antichrist’s acquisitions, they conjecture the EU does NOT need overt military capabilities: 

“I don’t see a requirement in Scripture for the European confederation that will form the Antichrist’s kingdom to achieve super military status (notwithstanding his description as the “god of fortresses” and the fact that he makes war on the saints and virtually the entire earth up through and including Armageddon).  According to Daniel’s vision of the five empires, the kingdom of the Antichrist will be of the weakest quality” (although when he appears, he “uproots” three of the original Ten Horns—doesn’t sound weak to me; furthermore, whatever Bible Rapture Ready is reading is not the same Bible I’m reading . . . not even close when it comes to the “kingdom of the Antichrist.”). (FAQ – Rapture Ready) 

Allow G. H. Lang to address the kingdom of the Beast—the Antichrist—and put to rest the erroneous notion that the kingdom of the Antichrist is naught but a perfunctory expression of the weakest quality: 

“This beast pictures the full development and outcome of the evil that lies in the human heart, which has worked there since Adam fell from God, is working there still, and in this monster will attain its full stature, horror, impiety, and will reach its doom.  Hence the large place and much detail given to it (in Daniel) in the prophecy and its interpretation. 

(i)      It is ‘terrible.’  It acts to the full upon the cruel maxim that a war is soonest won by ruthless terrorizing of the enemy people, that they may the sooner submit. 

(ii)     It is ‘exceedingly strong,’ implying that the resources of mind, men, and material are ample and are organized. 

(iii)    Its power to tear to pieces is irresistible:  it has ‘great iron teeth.’ 

(iv)    It leaves no opposition existing:  it ‘devours,’ absorbs all it attacks, annihilates all that opposes.  No toleration is shown.  It is the spirit lately revived in the West and seen equally in Nazi, fascist, and communistic rule. 

(v)     What it does not positively annihilate it crushes and stamps into helpless subjection with its brass-nailed feet, ‘breaking to pieces’ all organized resistance as threshing machine reduces the corn-stalks to chaff. 

(vi)    In size, appearance, strength, cruelty, and rapacity it will bear no resemblance to any kingdom that has preceded it; ‘it shall be diverse from all the kingdoms.’ 

(vii)   This will be seen very distinctly in its extent; ‘it shall devour the whole earth.’  No empire ever yet has fulfilled this prediction.  All the old empires knew of vast territories that they did not and could not subdue.  But Antichrist will fulfill this prediction.  Yet the beast is not the whole earth; it devours it but is not it.  Antichrist will be given his throne by the ten kings; their territory will be his own proper empire, but this will be so strong that all outside regions must submit, willingly at first, though later some will rebel (Dan. 11:40, 44).” (G. H. Lang, The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel, pp. 83-84). 

The burgeoning military strength of the EU (which Lang ascribes to Antichrist and which will include Europe proper as his empire) is heralded by Dr. Reagan: 

“What the Union officially lacks in a military force . . . it is in the making.  A military staff has been assembled, with a commander-in-chief, and it currently has at its disposal 60,000 frontline troops on standby, with 400 assault aircraft and up to 80 warships.  The British government refers to it as a ‘Rapid Reaction Force.’  That is nothing but a euphemism for an army.  It has been dubbed ‘Eurocorps’ by the rest of Europe, and it is supposed to be ready for action in 2003.  The British are downplaying this military arm of the Union because they want to continue their partnership with the United States in NATO.  The French would like to see the Eurocorps replace NATO, as it probably will.” (Ibid.) 

These glaring strategic oversights and analyses by Dr. Reagan are so terribly embarrassing, that US military strategists and military think tanks, if they ever considered (which joyfully they never will) these renditions and presumptions, would dismiss them outright. 

However, Dr. Reagan persists: 

“Does Europe really have a role in biblical prophecy?  The answer to this question is an emphatic, ‘Yes!’  In fact, the role of a unified Europe in end time prophecy is much clearer in the Bible than the role of the world’s only current super power – the United States . . . as it (the Revived Roman Empire in Europe) grows, and as national identities are de-emphasized, it will most likely be divided into ten administrative areas, just as Daniel prophesied (Daniel 2:42-44 and 7:7 – the ten toes of chapter 2 correspond to the ten horns of chapter 7, as well as the ten horns of Revelation 13).” (Ibid.) 

The EU’s Constitution is, in the main, based upon, according to Dr. Reagan, “the values which resulted from the French Revolution” (i.e., Enlightenment, Socialism, Relativism, etc.).  These “values” are the seedbed of Antichrist’s rise to power.  Simultaneously, however, Dr. Reagan claims that “What is emerging in Europe is a new Holy European Empire . . . Christian Socialism . . . This means a united, Catholic Europe, which was consecrated to Mary by the Vatican in 1309.” (Ibid.) 

PRESIDENT CLINTON EXPANDS THE EU! 

Strangely enough, Dr. Reagan cites former President Clinton and his involvement in the EU’s expansion.  Strange, because America is allegedly NOT in the picture, yet she is the inspiration and driving force behind EU expansion: 

“Clinton . . . was the first American president to receive the Charlemagne prize for his work in promoting European unity (June 2000).  He received the prize at the cathedral in Aachen, Germany, where the first Holy Roman Emperor lies buried.  Clinton called for an enlargement of the EU to even take in Russia . . . President Clinton said the EU should have at least 30 member states, including all the nations of the Balkans, Turkey and possibly even Russia.  He said that European peace and prosperity now depended on the EU setting its boundaries ever wider . . . often anti-American power block(s) in Europe could be in America’s interests, and thus it is surprising that it has been American policy to push for greater unification of Europe.  Perhaps America’s fine new President (George W. Bush) is the man to see the folly of this.” (Ibid.) 

The convoluted reasoning construed above has an extension of the “Clinton follies” relative to foreign policy shooting America in the foot by creating a formidable EU—so says Dr. Reagan.  To the contrary, that is precisely what America is trying to do because the EU will have to grapple with American military superiority and conformity to her leadership in order to integrate her militaries into and under the US-led NATO umbrella.  NATO’s central command is altogether orchestrated by the overwhelming might of the U.S. military—and don’t you kid yourself otherwise—all other “shared or rotating leadership” within the military alliance is purely window dressing:  The Americans are utterly at the helm!

 

TERRY JAMES & TODD STRANDBERG – RAPTURE READY 

The statements appearing in Rapture Ready by Terry James and Todd Strandberg confirm the prophetic thesis of Dr. Reagan whereby “Developments involving the EU are on the leading edge of Planet Earth’s race toward the seven-year peace treaty Bible prophecy foretells will set in motion the tribulation era.” 

They continue: 

“Europe will one day almost certainly be the heart of the Antichrist beast-system of governmental, economic and religious control prophesied to engulf the world . . . the fourth world kingdom to come upon the earth would be, Daniel prophesied, symbolized by the two legs of iron.  The final world kingdom would be shown as the statue’s feet made of iron mixed with clay . . . the fifth world empire symbolized in the statue is prophesied to be an extension of the fourth kingdom.  That is exactly what the EU is – an extension of the ancient Roman Empire.  It is, we are convinced, the feet and toes of the man-image, the reviving of the unity that was once Europe in all its power and glory.  Yet, despite the tremendous power the final form of the Roman Empire will have, the clay mixed with the iron seems to indicate it will have significant weaknesses . . . This all-encompassing prophecy (from Daniel) foretells plainly that the final world ruler, Antichrist, will rise out of the Roman Empire.”  (Rapture Ready)  

Yes it is weak – so weak that the ELEVENTH HORN – The Kingdom and Person of the Antichrist – will await the ten kings to accrue all power and authority to the Beast – to his kingdom: 

“The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.  These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast” (Revelation 17:12-13). 

It is abundantly clear that the ten kings of the so-called revived Roman Empire are utterly POWERLESS without the intervention of the Beast—it is only when the Beast is acclaimed, honored and recognized do the ten receive any vicarious authority, for all authority is in the prevue of the Beast.  What little power and authority they have, they give to the Beast for they have no choice in the matter. 

James and Strandberg then go into an historical accounting of Europe’s Twentieth Century competition with the USA and suggest that World War I was thought, among certain historians, to have been caused by such competition (i.e., Europe playing catch up with the USA).  Notwithstanding all of Europe’s setbacks, they are now coming on strong: 

“The EU is on the march as never before, despite its family feuding on occasion.  For example, just before the recently concluded ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,’ we recall that France, Germany, and Belgium threatened EU nations that sided with the U.S. and the United Kingdom.  These three promised serious consequences if any EU partner joined the coalition that vowed to remove Saddam’s dictator regime.  Yet, just as quickly as the U.S. and Great Britain, joined by a group of like-minded countries, swiftly dealt with Hussein and his henchmen, the EU, headed primarily by France and Germany, was back to business as usual.” (Ibid.) 

Business as usual?  I have no idea what these brethren are talking about.  The USA-Britain, along with Spain, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Ukraine, and the Netherlands (among others in Europe), went marching right into Iraq over the supercilious protestations of the Germans, the French and the Belgians.  The Germans and the French threw out the Chirac and Schroeder regimes and elected strict pro-American executive leadership.  Yeah, “business as usual” all right—get in line or we’ll run over you as well! 

The final embarrassment of EU ascendancy is made when these remarks by James and Strandberg are uttered—and sorry, we’ll not give them a “pass” on this: 

“The European Union, according to some of its primary players, is undeniably joined at the hip—or somewhere—to the United Nations, so far as the whole Iraqi affair is concerned.  It seems that they, together, consider themselves the true representatives of the ‘international community.’ The coalition, i.e., the United States and Britain, did the liberating, but France’s Prime Minister Jacques Chirac (now embroiled in litigious procedures, after his Presidential immunity expired), Germany’s Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder (whose Socialist Party was defeated by the Christian Democrats) and the UN’s Secretary General Kofi Annan (utterly disgraced by his “oil for food” entanglements), with nodding approval from Russian President Vladimir Putin (having been shoved to the side by President George W. Bush as Bush plants his missile defense shield throughout Eastern Europe), act as if their oversight of post-Saddam Iraq is a foregone conclusion.  That anything less than their plans for the region will be illegitimate and unacceptable by nations of the region and around the world.” (Ibid.) (My intrusions in parentheses.) 

And, compounding the ridiculous aforementioned assumptions . . .  

“It is just that sort of arrogance that gave the Caesars of the ancient Roman Empire their lust and determination to try to conquer the world.  Supreme arrogance will inspire Antichrist, ‘the prince that shall come’ out of the revived Roman Empire, to take charge of the ten-horned beast-government and do his deadly worst to enslave the world.  If the EU’s arrogant posturing in the Iraq matter is somewhat of an indicator that we might be witnessing the forming of the beast-government of Daniel 7, Revelation 13, and Revelation 17-18, then things on the geopolitical horizon surely are irrefutable signs that we are bumping up against the very end of the age.” (Ibid.) 

The EU, the UN, the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, the Syrians, Castor and Chavez, et al, are mere pipsqueaks versus the insurmountable military superiority of the USA.  In particular, these puny, perfunctory, pesky little outbreaks with their marches and sieg heils to nowhere are but a drop in the bucket versus the raging fire of American military might and strategic planning—we’ll do what we want, when we want, where we want and how we want and that’s that.  This entire EU posturing and contrivance envisioned by James and Strandberg in order to produce the final Beast nation and Antichrist is either strategic hallucination or abject false prophetic misunderstanding of the Scriptures or both.

 

SCORES HAVE IT WRONG –  

Terry Dasher, whose article appeared in the Indian (South Asia) web site Bharat Bhasha, awaits the Antichrist from the EU as well: 

“The EU is ripe for a powerful leader to advance himself by unifying the federation.  A unified Europe will certainly exceed America in financial strength and market accesses.  I don’t need to remind you that the revived Roman Empire alluded to in Revelation will be powerful because of its ruler and financial strengths.” (Pastor Terry Dasher, “Will the EU fulfill the Revived Roman Empire?” – Broken Arrow, OK, as seen on Bharat Bhasha). 

Contender Ministries’ Jennifer Rast, another respected evangelical ministry, in her article, “Is the E.U. the Revived Roman Empire?” suggests that the original purpose of the EU is “a European super-state or ‘United States of Europe’ . . . that would eventually rival the United States in influence and military might . . . in 1999 Javier Solana became the High Representative for the EU’s foreign and security policy, and through recommendation 666 he was given emergency powers over the military wing of the EU in 2000.  All that currently remains to create a truly revived Roman Empire is the creation of a permanent executive branch of government and the full integration of the new Euro currency.” 

Ms. Rast, then oddly enough, suggests that, quite possibly, the “three kings who are subdued will probably not approve of his rise to power or will object to his far-reaching powers . . . It’s interesting that, prior to the war in Iraq, France, Germany, and Belgium threatened the EU nations that sided with the U.S. with serious consequences if any EU partner joined the coalition to remove Saddam Hussein.”  How is it that Ms. Rast could proffer the notion that these “soon-to-be uprooted kings” threaten the other seven kings without recognizing the magnitude of the one (the Eleventh Horn?) who is causing all of this consternation amongst the ten kings in the first place?  Also, there’s nothing in the prophetic Scriptures that says the seven kings not involved in the “uprooting” are harassed by the three who have been uprooted. 

She continues: 

“We know that the people who destroyed Jerusalem (the city) and the temple (the sanctuary) were the Romans.  From this people (Daniel 9:26-27) shall come the “prince that is to come” or the antichrist.  We can expect then for the antichrist to rise up from a fourth kingdom that will be the revived Roman Empire . . . The Antichrist will speak blasphemous words against God as he rules over the world, and there will be intense persecution of the tribulation saints, those who accept Christ after the rapture of His church. 

“The EU (has) definitely become a world power of clay (diversity) and iron (power) with striking similarities to the fourth kingdom or fourth beast of Daniel’s prophecies.  A world power of so many ethnic groups and representing so many states could easily become a very influential leader at the United Nations and the world.  It’s possible that the U.N. is a beginning for this world government that will eventually be ruled by a revived Roman Empire and the Antichrist.” 

“As you can see, the stage is being set for the emergence of a global political system (the EU and the UN), a global economic system (the Euro and WTO), and a global religious system (the interfaith movement).  The EU would seem to fulfill many of the prophesies of the fourth kingdom that is to come, from which will arise the Antichrist of the end-times.” (Ibid.) (Ms. Rast’s parentheses.)  

In the midst of all this, the 800-lb. gorilla is utterly ignored, missing from the equation, and side-stepped as if nonexistent!  The thought that the United States of America was founded by these same European States and peoples; literally “came up out of these ten,” apparently does not even cross the minds of these sincere brethren.  The peculiar concept that Antichrist’s ascendancy is at the acme of Western Greco-Roman civilization and that the economic and military capacity of these United States, this “mixed multitude,” is far in excess of the EU’s shabby little militaries, is not on the prophetic radar of these brethren—the bald eagle is soaring over the iron and clay toes of this soon-to-be destroyed image. 

Calling the shots in all of this are the Johnny-come-lately Europeans?  And, who, may I ask, controls the reins of the WTO?  Certainly not the Europeans—the same economic powerhouse that controls the World Bank (notwithstanding the Wolfowitz fiasco), the International Monetary Fund, and most of the commerce of the earth:  The United States of America.  It is not the effete Europeans who blandish hyper-arrogance—as if the mouse that roared meant anything to the gorilla—it is the swagger of the Texan that disturbs and magnifies, not the prissy and peevish protestations of the Europeans.  It’s the credible arrogance of the Americans, not the fallacious attempts at arrogance by the Europeans!

 

THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM 

Yes, there is this agenda “to have a global economy, a global politic and a global religion” – but which nation and leadership on earth inspires such a trinity of control?  Certainly not the disparities of Europe—nor the much-vaunted capacities of the EU, nor the cut-and-run from Iraq – food-for-oil-corrupted UN whose HQ sits in the shadow of Babylon the Great! 

Certainly, we have, as President Bush said after the Gulf War of 1991, “A real chance at the New World Order, a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of the nations . . . when we are successful, and we will be, we have a real chance at the New World Order, an order in which a credible United Nations can use its peacekeeping role to fulfill the promise and vision of the UN founders.” (Ibid. - Rast) 

Bush Senior’s falderal of using the UN as the receptacle of this New World Order is but a ruse—for the real power behind the New World Order is the iron fist within the glove of the UN, the USA.  

 

LAMBERT DOLPHIN AND THE UN 

Lambert Dolphin, whose web site and intellectual capacities never cease to amaze, follows in the train of those determined to circumvent the talking 800-lb. gorilla; however, his veiled allusions to his whereabouts upon the bed sometimes mystifies—it’s almost like the overwhelming smell of the creature and the nearness of the depression upon the mattress . . . well, sooner or later someone just might connect the dots. . .  

“We are looking for another empire that will come out of ten nations and then become a world power . . . There is also the intrigue of the individual ruler, who is another horn and another king.  He seems to come out of this alliance somewhere (hmmm, I wonder where?) and, in intrigue, conquers other nations.  This relates to ‘Antichrist,’ and he could be personally responsible for the pruning down of the 15 nations to 10. 

“There are other theories about the fulfillment of this Revived Roman Empire.  Another popular theory involves the United Nations (whose bureaucratic reliance upon America’s nigh one-half billion dollar contribution awaits her grabby little paws – my intrusions throughout).  A decade or so ago, those who study prophecy did not put much emphasis on the United Nations because it seemed that everything they tried was a failure, and no one took their actions seriously (like fleeing Iraq and scamming coin off the oil for food programs).  However, since the Gulf War, and the bandying about the expression ‘The New World Order,’ (which came from the USA’s George Bush Sr.) and the fact that the United Nations seems to be the police force of the world at this point in history (Question:  What history book is Lambert reading?), many people think that the United Nations could be the fulfillment of the prophecy of a last great empire.” (“Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done” – Lambert Dolphin Library) 

To suggest that the UN is policing the globe and, therefore, this policing notion holds credibility, is geo-politically-speaking, ludicrous.  Or, to suggest “prophetic viability” to the EU’s Eurocorps, or NATO, or a host of euphemisms like “the coalition of the willing” or whatever military alliance or military designation, aside from the absolute supremacy of the US military, who perpetuates and leads all of these “front organizations” into battle, when needed and “as necessary” . . . is, frankly, preposterous.  The USA is leading all of these organizations around the world by their noses.  The EMPIRE that all these dear evangelical brethren await is HERE, right now, and is the one who originally suggested and continues to perpetuate, the American New World Order System, right under the noses of these beloved brethren.

 

HAL LINDSEY AND THE EU 

The same beloved brethren, like Hal Lindsey who postulates the idea that the WEU (Western European Union of 10 nations out of the 28 current members of the EU) has produced the infamous one:  Javier Solana—this also is likewise absurd.  Moreover, to suggest that Solana sets “the precedent” for the eruption of the final Antichrist is geopolitically ridiculous.  What disturbs, once again, is the horrendous geo-political unreality of Lindsey’s observations of the political clout accorded the EU: 

“Since 1948, Israel has been locked in an unending series of wars with the many Arab states on all sides that are dedicated to her destruction.  On Sept. 13, the Oslo Accords (sic., August 20, 1993) were signed, setting in motion a three-stage land-for-peace formula between Israel and the Palestinians . . . the agreement was to have culminated seven years after it was signed with an agreement ‘on the final status of Jerusalem.’  That seven-year covenant failed and brought on what Israel calls the ‘Oslo War,’ which then brought Europe into the equation via the Quartet for Peace.  All of this has placed Europe over the United States as the main peace broker.” (Hal Lindsey, ‘Late Great Planet Earth revisited,’ Posted:  December 16, 2004)

For Lindsey to suggest the EU (or some European configuration) as the “main peace broker” flies in the face of the US-Israeli Strategic Alliance—it is totally preposterous to superimpose Europe’s credibility in the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.  Only the USA is trusted in any measure by Israel to affect an ultimate peace accord and to guarantee Israel’s peace—Israel will NEVER trust the Europeans to handle such an agreement between herself and her enemies or quasi-antagonists like Egypt and Jordan. 

In 1969 Lindsey proposed in The Late, Great Planet Earth (several years after Franklin S. Logsdon, senior pastor of the Moody Memorial Church “prophetically accused” the USA as Babylon the Great of the Revelation and the “Lion and her cubs,” along with the ships of Tarshish, of the same notoriety and uncanny link to the USA), the following: 

“We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward the unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the 10-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation.” 

And, ipso facto, the entire “prophetic charade” that America is NOT mentioned in Bible prophecy—for, as brother Lindsey insists:  America does not even play a bit part (in Bible prophecy).  Furthermore, it suggests that the ten-nation confederation and/or supposed Revived Roman Empire will in sum and substance produce both the Antichrist-King and Kingdom-Empire as well—apart and wholly separate (or perhaps, at best, America plays a tangential role—i.e., Lindsey’s “bit part”) from having anything whatsoever to do with the USA.

 

BRITISH ISRAELISM AND THE DEMISE OF THE USA 

Finally, our brethren amongst those who hold to the teachings of the Rev. J. H. Allen (Judah’s Scepter and Joseph’s Birthright)—i.e., the “Lost Ten Tribes of Israel” are the Northwestern Europeans (e.g., the peoples of the British Isles and their transplants in the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa – that is, the Anglo-Saxons)—affirm in at least this adherent’s writings: 

“As Moses delivered the ancient Israelites from Egyptian slavery, Jesus Christ is coming to deliver modern Britain and America and the other Israelite-descended nations from an end-of-the-age subjugation by a modern religious and political system called ‘Babylon the Great’ (Revelation 17), CENTERED IN EUROPE” (my caps) . . . Notice that the ‘yoke’ and ‘bonds’ that enslave the descendants of Jacob (Britain and the USA) are conjectured to be the “descendants of Jacob”) are placed on them by ‘foreigners’—enemy nations (no doubt centered in a European ‘Babylon the Great’ – my interjections).” (“The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy”) 

The USA and Britain must be humiliated, suffer and undergo the Great Tribulation prior to their exaltation and millennial reign with Judah (the modern-day Jews who will also suffer during the Great Tribulation): 

“The United States, which emerged from World War II as the world’s preeminent military power, soon was fighting to a bloody stalemate in Korea and a humiliating defeat in Vietnam.  Even in more-recent wars, such as those in Kuwait and Iraq and Bosnia and Serbia, in which America achieved her military aims, U.S. forces remained bogged down with costly peacekeeping obligations and no easy escape.   

“Only in such overwhelmingly one-sided conflicts as in Grenada and Panama has the United States emerged as the clear-cut victor since its stalemate in the Korean War . . . Even though the United States remains the world’s most powerful military power by a large margin, its advantage is greatly undermined by lack of political will and the commitment to decisively win its wars . . . in another sign of their decline, Britain and the United States (as part and parcel of their immediate diminishing and ultimate tribulation suffering at the hands of the European or Mediterranean Antichrist, my comments) have lost many of the strategic sea gates they gained and maintained at great cost . . . No doubt this trend will continue.” (Ibid.) 

In conclusion, the Anglo-Saxon decline is foretold: 

“Other prophecies indicate that the turmoil prophesied to engulf the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the democracies of Northwest Europe will be only a prelude to a time of tumult and chaos unlike anything the world has seen.” (Ibid.) 

Somehow, some way, out of somewhere around anything but Northwestern Europe (but somewhere in Europe), the Beast will ascend and do his dastardly deeds against the Anglo-Saxon race and thereby bring Israel (the “lost ten tribes”) to their millennial senses, united with Judah (today’s Jews) and the whole lot of them will become one nation! 

Good grief, where am I?  Certainly not in the political system called Babylon the Great somewhere in Europe, or am I?  Frankly, I’m LOST!  Also, just what geo-political maps are these prognostications regarding the loss of “gates” is this British Israelite viewing?  Today there are more “gates” held, if you must, by the Anglo-Saxons, than ever before.  Furthermore, these same Anglo-Saxons have an iron grip on the Middle East and the world’s oil resources.  Likewise, these Anglo-Saxons (albeit I don’t agree with this British Israelism doctrine) are headed up by the USA—the very BEAST NATION currently encircling the globe and holding a hammer lock on the nations of the world, especially the so-called nations of the EU.

 

CONCLUSION    

This ends these escapades into Why America Must Be Destroyed or the failure of the American Experiment.  And, to those who live in her midst – I leave you with these most unusual, yet poignant words from a man some despise, others love, and some simply cannot fathom: 

“Unquestionably, the Tribulation will be a refining time for Christians.  When the heat is turned up on last-days Christians, the dross in our lives will be stripped away, just as gold is refined by fire, until the Master Refiner sees His reflection in us.  No, that process will not be fun.  Yet we should not despair.  We know the pressure is coming, so we should not be surprised when we experience it; we can even rejoice in the midst of those trials. 

‘In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ’ (I Peter 1:6-7 NASB). 

“In the same manner, the last-days Church, the Body of Christ, will come through the time of trials and testings refined as pure gold.  The Church, that group of true believers from every tongue, tribe, and denomination, will not be destroyed by the Antichrist or anyone else.  We have Jesus’ word on it.  He said, ‘I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’ (Matt. 16:18 KJV).  That word has never been rescinded.  In the meantime, life on earth will seem almost intolerable at times.  It will not be easy, but take heart.  You can make it— 

‘Because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught’ (II Thessalonians 2:13-25 NKJV). 

“This end-time period may well be one of the most glorious times in history for the Church.  Besides the joy of working together to help meet each other’s practical needs, we may see more genuine miracles take place than at any time since the earthly ministry of Jesus, or the ministry of the Church in the book of Acts.” (Jim Bakker (of Jim and Tammy Bakker notoriety), Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse, Avoiding the Dangers of Materialistic Christianity in the End Times, Nelson Books, 1998, Chapter 14:  Surviving the Coming Apocalypse) 

Finally, for those of you who contend that these “prophetical squabbles” have nothing to do with the “Centrality of Christ” and of the true purpose and intent of the fullness of the Spirit of Life in Christ, etc., let me remind you in the purest sense of the phrase:  The Testimony of Jesus IS the spirit of prophecy – He is speaking as the Prophet to His people in these last days and, make no doubt about it, He has committed to us such prophetic declarations and Scriptural illumination during these end of days, both to warn and comfort believers and to persuade those who know not the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the Way, the Truth, the Life and THE COMING ONE. 

May God abundantly bless you as you surrender your heart and life to Him, Who’s prophetic Word speaks into our generation!  

 

 

PEACE & PROSPERITY

AS

DESTRUCTION & CORRUPTION

Part V

“The Rise or Fall of American Empire?” 

By Doug Krieger 

“And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.” (Daniel 8:25, Kings James Version) 

“And through his cunning shall he cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he will magnify [himself] in his heart, and by prosperity will corrupt many; and he will stand up against the Prince of princes: but he shall be broken without hand.” (Daniel 8:25, Darby Translation) 

We are about to enter the platitudinous ionosphere of peace and prosperity—the oxymoronic world where peace begets destruction, and where prosperity leads to corruption.  This is the sphere of Antichrist, whose end-times’ weapons of pacification and prosperity were foretold through the Prophet Daniel, wherein craft and cunning are multiplied in his hand; wherein grandiose self-delusion, leading to self-magnification, even glorification, reach an horrid fruition within the very heart of him whose idolatrous quest and five-fold, interior defiance declared:   

“I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). 

The themes of “peace and prosperity” – either peace through strength (the alleged strategies of the current Administration) or as Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich conflicts, strength through peace – await the American public and the world.  Now, if only we’d embrace the policies of one, President George W. Bush, or the “cut and run” proposals of the loyal opposition, we’d free ourselves from “wavering between two opinions” and get on with it—i.e., the peace and prosperity we so desperately desire. 

“Peace and prosperity” sounds so much better than “law and order” – just like presidential candidate Hillary Clinton espouses the role of a “modern progressive” juxtaposed to the worn-out label of a failed socialist:  Liberal.  Being a “Liberal” is now passé, stigmatized by LBJ’s Great Society, all the while perpetuating war in Southeast Asia; moreover, “liberal” has been wholly purloined—hijacked—by a multitude of conservative talk-show hosts, stomped upon, held in contempt. 

How peculiar that the Democrats now identify with the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, whereas the Republicans seek after the revival of Harry Truman, man of strength in the midst of a descending Iron Curtain.   

Identification with Presidential success is a strange admixture of myth and reality; yet, make no mistake, the peace and prosperity which these Imperial Proconsuls seek, bears with it a two-edged sword.  In the case of Antichrist, as was the reflection of his prototype, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (God is Manifest), a ploy and “trickery” (Daniel 8:25, Amplified Version) are exercised with skillful cunning—yet, this peace destroys; this prosperity corrupts! 

That said, let us, in this Presidential debate in the midst of Middle East trauma, explore the pending pursuits of peace through craft and cunning, leading to destruction, all the while spouting the choruses of ever-assured prosperity fraught with deplorable and unmitigated corruption—sad to say.   

Furthermore, let us speak of our beloved Evangelical allies—brethren who know not the geo-political significance of Tony Blair (the new Middle East envoy of the Quartet), juxtaposed over against the political emaciation of one, High Representative, Javier Solana . . . or, cutting to the chase:  Why the pathetic political clout of the EU vs. the USA in orchestrating “peace” in the Middle East cannot be taken seriously—for the toady Blair is fully in the hands of Bush, not the EU . . . and therein lies both the rub and the rubbish of those who continue to countenance the legitimacy of the EU as the base of Antichrist, and do so at their own peril, while causing multitudes of desperate evangelicals and worldlings alike, confusion, as well as immediate despair and disillusionment.

If we are to have even a semblance of credibility and prophetic witness in these last days to the Gentiles, Israel and the Church (let alone those unseen hosts known as “the principalities and powers of the air”), then we must gird up our Biblical loins and wade into the fray of geo-political realities—realities, thankfully, which wholly support the very Biblical realities that so loudly attest to His plan and purpose for the ages! 

Finally, the unavoidable glance toward Syria-Iran-Hezbollah-Hamas-the PLO-al Qaeda observes their subterfuge against the incongruity of the “Great Peace Offensive” leading to “Your Treaty with Death, your Agreement with Hell!”  Dear readers—do not be distracted from the unalterable folly of this ultimate deceit.  Know full-well all the aforementioned “players” are but pawns in the final manifestation of Gentile World Powers, whose interior thoughts bear striking resemblance to those nefarious forces at work bent on the trident wars of the Oracle of Damascus, Gog-Magog and the final Armageddon. 

“And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s (“the chosen ones”) sake those days will be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).  

PEACE IN OUR TIME 

In order to gain the peace—that costly commodity of social and moral stability throughout the earth (which is the burden of the United States of America—not the EU)—certain conditions, extreme conditions, must grip the national psyche of the Imperial citizenry.  Perhaps history, if we only could learn there from, would implore our collective wisdom, thereby avoiding the pitfalls which sacrifice liberty at any price: 

Prior to the Battle of Britain – and, almost in anticipation of the same – the Emergency Powers (Defense) Act (May 22, 1940) was introduced by the Deputy Leader of the Commons: 

“Every private interest must give way to the urgent needs of the community . . . it is necessary that the Government should be given complete control over persons and property—not just some persons or some particular class of the community, but over all persons rich or poor, employer or workers, man or woman, and all property. 

“What the measure does is to place the entire sources of the nation, both human and material, at the disposal and control of the Government.  Henceforward every citizen will be required by law to perform whatever function the Government may deem necessary for the effective prosecution of the war.  

“The new Act, printed on a single sheet of paper, comes near to suspending the very essence of the Constitution as it has been built up in a thousand years.  Our ancient liberties are placed in pawn for victory:  nothing less than the destruction of Hitlerism will redeem them.” (Daily Telegraph, May 23^rd, 1940). 

So anticipatory was the desperation that a once free people, as had already happened in other lands, were driven to Socialism’s ultimate goal wherein the individual fully entered into the collective of the community.  England’s Crown regressed to a time when the Norman king demanded total control over all persons and property throughout the isle—a time before the Magna Charta in 1215 AD. 

Government sought the slavery of an entire people, for the very essence of slavery is the seduction of all peoples of that government under a singular party which claims all rights to persons and their property. 

For Christians like G. H. Lang, whose witness to this impending plight of British citizenry, led to ominous conclusions of this tragic inevitability in the face of this horrific British national crisis: 

“This (the Emergency Powers Act—EPA) simplifies the duty of the Christian, for at once he has the advantage of the guidance of the New Testament upon the conduct of slaves (Eph. 6:5-9; Col. 3:22-25; I Peter 2:18-25).  Ready and faithful obedience is his course, as part of his service to his divine Master, from Whom also his reward will come . . . but however much the Administration here may be better than elsewhere the principle and the extent of the powers taken are as wide as in avowedly totalitarian states . . . it remains to be seen how far the former freedom of the individual will be restored.  It may be fully, which may God graciously order:  but it may be that May 22, 1940, tolled the death-kneel of individual liberty on earth.” (G. H. Lang, The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel, The Paternoster Press, London, 1940, Appendix B, pp. 198-199) 

Let Lang’s prescient remarks be a warning and encouragement to us all: 

“And when will this (EPA) be effected?  It did not come with the death of Hitler.  He was only one exponent of this political principle which has gripped the modern world.  It will not be destroyed until the last world-emperor, the Antichrist, shall have been destroyed by Christ at His coming.   

“Our province does not take us into the reasons for or the possible political and economic results of this profound change.  The strength of the iron element is to remain in the image to the end (Daniel 2:41), and of late it has been reasserting itself strongly (viz. in Britain c. 1940).  Yet on the whole this will make for some kind and measure of order, which is better for society than anarchy.  But our concern is with the bearing of the situation on the religious side, with its present effects in other lands and its possible effects here also . . . The Prince of this world is steadily and stealthily preparing his whole world kingdom for its final developments.” (Ibid.) 

These, and other, futuristic concerns regarding the liberties of humankind vis-à-vis state-imposed restrictions, as a result of the pending threat of National and/or Communist Socialism, deeply disturbed the insightful British prior to the Blitz . . . 

 “The totalitarian State involved a conception of personality incompatible with the Christian doctrines of God and of man, for it was bound to regard and to treat the individual as having this meaning and value of his relationship to itself. . . 

“The man existed for the State, which was itself regarded as the community organized as a self-conscious unit.  Such a theory conflicted with the conception of man as having his ultimate meaning and value in his direct relationship to God.  Some forms of this new or revived heresy acknowledged the reality of God (viz. Hitler’s Positive Christianity), but for all purposes, except the devotional life itself, the State was interposed between God and the soul as effectively as ever was mediaeval priest or Pope.  As the totalitarian theory militated against the Christian doctrines of God and man, so it was only by renewed apprehension of those doctrines that human liberty could be preserved and made worthy to be preserved.” (Archbishop of York, William Temple (now of Canterbury), Times, October 5th, 1938 – given on October 4th, 1938 in Bristol Cathedral to the Church Congress.) 

Be it known the profundity of the Brits on the essence of true liberty and the very interior man which the State, gone totalitarian, seeks to defame: 

“In His famous answer to the Pharisees ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,’ Christ is sometimes thought merely to have made a ‘clever’ answer which embarrassed His questioners:  in fact, it was a profound statement of a great truth.  Caesar, or the temporal power, can control our actions, and can assess our taxes:  he can punish us, unjustly if he will:  he can even put us to death; but there remains, for ever outside his control, the really vital part of our life, our hearts and our things.  These are our own, or, rather, for these we are accountable to God alone.” (Dean Alington, Daily Telegraph, June 1st, 1940.)

 

THE AMERICAN APPLICATION OF LIBERTY LOST 

Into what context do these British designs upon the nature of liberty find their present dispatch?  Upon these United States of America, and the reverberations thereof.  Let us consider the foundations of such immediate totalitarian rule over a people as committed, as was Britain c. 1940, to the ideals of liberty and the preservations of those inherent freedoms we hold as self-evident, inalienable:  

“Our democracy and way of life are now threatened because of our single-minded pursuit of empire with a well-entrenched militarism driving it that's become so powerful and pervasive it's now an uncontrollable state within the state. History is clear on this teaching we can choose as could all empires before us. We can keep ours and lose our democracy, but we can't have both. Rome made the wrong choice and perished. Britain chose more wisely and survived. We must now choose, and so far the signs are ominous. Our current behavior under all administrations post-WW II requires resources and commitments abroad that in the end, Johnson (Chalmers Johnson) believes, ‘will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and....produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent.’ We're perilously close already because a hyper-reactionary statist administration hijacked the government and is driving the nation to tyranny and ruin.” (Stephen Lendman, Crisis and Military Adventurism, A Review of Chalmers Johnson’s ‘Nemesis’ – Global Research, Feb. 27, 2007) 

Lendman’s summations and synthesis of Chalmer’s Johnson’s ‘Nemesis’ are ominous and foreboding, to say the least, when one considers America’s post-9/11 mindset: 

“-- A nation facing no outside threats permanently at war. 

-- Secret torture-prisons around the world with no accountability to which anyone, anywhere for any reason can be sent never to return or receive justice. 

-- The most secretive, intrusive and repressive government in our history and a president who’s a congenital, serial liar. 

-- Social decay at home. 

-- An unprecedented wealth disparity and extent of corporate power. Former US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned years ago: ‘We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.’ 

-- A de facto one party state with two wings and a president claiming ‘unitary executive’ powers ignoring the rule of law and doing as he pleases in the name of national security on his say alone. 

-- The absence of checks and balances and separation of powers with no restraint on a reckless ‘boy-emperor’ Executive on a ‘messianic mission.’ 

-- A secret intelligence establishment with near-limitless funding operating without oversight. 

-- A dominant corporate-controlled media serving as a national thought-control police and collective quasi-state ministry of information and propaganda glorifying imperial wars to ‘real democracy’ without letting on they’re for conquest, domination and repression. 

-- An omnipotent military-industrial complex Dwight Eisenhower couldn’t have imagined when he warned us nor could George Washington, to no avail. In his Farewell Address in September, 1796, Washington said: ‘Overgrown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.’ He meant large standing armies leading to an imperial presidency. They destroy our system of checks and balances and separation of powers and in the end our freedom. 

-- A weak, servile Congress acceding to a dominant president under a system of authoritarian rule keeping a restive population in line it fears one day no longer will tolerate being denied essential services so the nation's wealth can go for imperial wars and handouts to the rich. 

-- A cesspool of corruption stemming from incestuous ties between government and business mocking any notions of government of, for or by the people.” (Ibid.) 

Well, if you will not consent to take the Johnson-Lendman condemnations seriously – perhaps you will, when you observe the realities embedded in the following: 

“Gen. Tommy Franks (Commander of Coalition Forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003) said in an interview with the lifestyle magazine Cigar Aficionado that if another terrorist attack occurs in the United States ‘The Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government.’ The stunning revelation is the headline story on the right-wing news site NewsMax for Friday. Franks said that another terrorism attack will result in ‘... the Western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years...’ He indicated that if another terrorism attack occurs Bush will likely declare martial law and the Constitution will apparently be ‘discarded’’” (By Rob, Tommy Franks Says Bush May Discard Constitution If Another Terrorist Attack Occurs, Daily Kos, November 21, 2003).

 

THE INCIDENT:  MARSHALL LAW DECLARED? 

“Paradoxically, preserving liberty may require the rule of a single leader--a dictator--willing to use those dreaded ‘extraordinary measures,’ which few know how, or are willing, to employ.” (Michael Ledeen, White House advisor and fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli’s Iron Rules Are As Timely and Important Today As Five Centuries Ago)  

Neocon Ledeen fits very nicely into the American Enterprise Institute mindset which seeks to justify both the “just war theory” as well as “extraordinary measures.”   

A reprint in The Intelligence Daily on 22 March 2007 entitled Bush Paves the Way for Martial Law: 2007 National Defense Authorization Act overturns Posse Comitatus Act rehearsed the severity of the restrictions imposed by the Bush Administration in the event if the following takes place in the USA, and, for that matter, something outside the USA having national repercussions in the USA occurs: 

“Under the new law (Entitled The John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007—quietly passed, though drafted in October, 2006) the president can (now) use the military in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or ‘other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.’”  

Now, a certain amplification of that Warner Act provides the following: 

“Sec. 1042 of the Act, ‘Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies,’ effectively overturns what is known as posse comitatus. The Posse Comitatus Act is a law, passed in 1878, that prohibits the use of the regular military within the U.S. borders. The original passage of the Posse Comitatus Act was a very reactionary move that sealed the betrayal of Black people after the Civil War and brought the period of Reconstruction to an end. It decreed that federal troops could no longer be used inside the former Confederate states to enforce the new legal rights of Black people. Black people were turned over to the armed police and Klansmen serving the southern plantation owners, and the long period of Jim Crow began.” (Ibid.) 

The ramifications upon civil liberties are horrendous—let me explain.  Bush now has the right to wholly modify the “main exemptions” contained within posse comitatus which, in the main, were originally defined with the Insurrection Act of 1807.  Previous to this, the president had the authority as Commander in Chief to amass the military in the United States only in so far as insurrection or a direct “rebellion against the authority of the United States” wherein such insurrection or “conditions of rebellion” would have made it impracticable to enforce federal law in any State or Territory through normal judicial processes. 

Now, under the “Warner Act” the President simply notifies congress “as soon as practicable after the determination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of the authority.”  Notwithstanding the immensity of this presidential jurisdiction in cases of such emergency, Bush, as he has repeatedly done throughout his administration, took executive liberty to enhance the Warner Act (unilaterally) through a “signing statement” wherein he announced:   

“The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, and the deliberative processes of the Executive.” 

In one fell swoop of the pen Bush declared he no longer needs to inform Congress that martial law has been implemented!

 

MOVING TO CANADA WAS A JOKE! 

In a previous article entitled MOVING TO CANADA IS A JOKE we brought to your attention the implications of the 2002 federal implementation of the new Northern Command.  Not since the days of the Civil War had the US military been given operational command throughout the continental USA, as well as NORTHCOM (Canada and Mexico), to wit: 

“The creation of NORTHCOM announced in April 2002, constitutes a blatant violation of both Canadian and Mexican territorial sovereignty. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced unilaterally that US Northern Command would have jurisdiction over the entire North American region. Canada and Mexico were presented with a fait accompli. US Northern Command's jurisdiction as outlined by the US DoD (Department of Defense) includes, in addition to the continental US, all of Canada, Mexico, as well as portions of the Caribbean, contiguous waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans up to 500 miles off the Mexican, US and Canadian coastlines as well as the Canadian Arctic.” (Moving to Canada is a Joke, The Tribulation Network, and citing:  http://www.sfu.ca/casr/ft-lagasse1.htm) 

What we did not announce in that article is that NORTHCOM has configured battle plans for MARTIAL LAW in the U.S. (as well as Canada and Mexico—known as CONPLAN 2005 in which 15 separate scenarios in which CONPLAN could be implemented). 

Katrina, the mega fiasco, was actually used by the Bush Administration to demonstrate the ineptitude of local (mostly Democratic) municipalities (State of Louisiana and New Orleans’ Mayor Ray Nagin).  Indeed, Karl Rove informed Louisiana’s governor to impose martial law or to get “as close as we can get.”  Notwithstanding FEMA’s fiascos et al, it was, in the end, the US military (even the Mexican military) that bailed out the hapless victims of Katrina! 

CONCENTRATION CAMPS ARE BEING PREPARED! 

Now you think I’ve really wigged out—not so!  

“In 2006, the Military Commissions Act was passed which, in addition to legalizing torture, allows the president and military courts to declare anyone an enemy combatant without basic civil rights like habeas corpus (i.e., arrest without cause).

“Plans for massive detention centers (i.e., CONCENTRATION CAMPS in North America) are already being prepared. Pacific News Service reported that in early 2006, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to build detention and processing facilities to be used ‘in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S. or to support the rapid development of new programs.’” (The Intelligence Daily, Ibid.) 

“The Final Solution” lingo (“to support the rapid development of new programs”) is altogether the height of Hitlerian subterfuge.  Rumors of such “camps” have been widespread for years in the USA. 

The Guardian opined: 

“The existence and development of internment camps are solely intended to be used to round up en masse and imprison ‘political dissidents’ (anyone who isn’t prepared to lick government boots) after

a simulated tactical nuke or biological attack on a major US or European city.” (HALLIBURTON TO SET UP AND RUN FIRST AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMP

Topic posted Fri, February 3, 2006 - 2:45 AM by  Bob, Tribe) 

Indeed, the militarization of police forces throughout the USA is an altogether open secret—a scary disclosure at that!                                                                                                         

Remember we said, Moving to Canada is a Joke—not only are there COUNTLESS CONCENTRATION CAMPS already established in the USA but check out our collaboration with Canada: 

“Our Canadian friends tell us that virtually all Canadian military bases, especially those north of the 50th Parallel, are all set up with concentration camps. Not even half of these can be listed, but here are a few sites with the massive land space to handle any population:
Suffield CFB - just north of Medicine Hat, less than 60 miles from the USA.
Primrose Lake Air Range - 70 miles northeast of Edmonton.
Wainwright CFB - halfway between Medicine Hat and Primrose Lake.
Ft. Nelson - Northernmost point on the BC Railway line.
Ft. McPherson - Very cold territory ~ NW Territories.
Ft. Providence - Located on Great Slave Lake.

Halifax - Nova Scotia. Dept. of National Defense reserve.... And others.” (American Patriot Friends Network, 01/20/2007) 

Yes, you heard me right the first time:  SCORES OF CAMPS!  Certainly, some may be bogus—but there is so much smoke here, one simply cannot deny that “something huge” is going on in preparation for major civil unrest.  In Kentucky alone . . .  

“Ashland - Federal prison camp in Eastern Kentucky near the Ohio River.
Louisville - FEMA detention facility, located near restricted area US naval ordnance plant. Military airfield located at facility, which is on south side of city.
Lexington - FEMA detention facility, National Guard base with adjacent airport facility.
Manchester - Federal prison camp located inside Dan Boone National Forest.
Ft. Knox - Detention center, possibly located near Salt River, in restricted area of base.

Land Between the Lakes - This area was declared a UN biosphere and is an ideal geographic location for detention facilities. Area is an isthmus extending out from Tennessee, between Lake Barkley on the east and Kentucky Lake on the west. Just scant miles from Fort Campbell in Tennessee.” (American Patriot Friends Network, 01/20/2007) 

FEMA, along with their REX 84 program, and Homeland Security, have made this “preparation” a major plank in their preparedness in the event of military rule—as bizarre and unbelievable as this may sound.  Halliburton’s subsidiary, on behalf of Homeland Security, by securing the $385 million contract, will provide “temporary detention and processing capabilities” for the Federal Government.  This all sounds like the Twilight Zone—phantasmagoric hyperbole and ethereal conjecture by rabid American, paranoid, patriot types gone berserk—but there is simply too much evidence to the contrary . . . this is happening in North America, and happening NOW! 

CUMBEY PICKS SOLANA over BLAIR – BUT WHO KNOWS?  

We now move on to those Evangelical pundits who persist in making Javier Solana (the EU’s High Representative) the ultimate “Man of Peace” (i.e., the would be Antichrist who will “confirm the covenant with the many for one week”).  How strange that Ms. Cumbey, an otherwise astute informant of New Age penetrations both within society and, in particular, the Church, can perceive that President Bush was behind the Blair appointment as special Middle East Peace Envoy for the Quartet, but somehow sees in the disgust of Javier Solana the prospects of one-upmanship when real peace is to be had in the Middle East—i.e., only Solana can pull it off, not Blair and not Bush? 

“Tony Blair has departed from his ten year held British Prime Ministership. His old job is now held by Gordon Brown. Over, it was said, the displeasure of Javier Solana, European foreign policy and security chief, Tony Blair was given a position as The Quartet's envoy to the Middle East. This happened with the active backing of George Bush. Javier Solana was said to have unhappily gone along. Later it was announced that per Javier Solana, Tony Blair would have no power to mediate Middle East Israeli-Palestinian disputes. 

“The same article tells what we already know. Neither Blair nor Solana are happy about the present structure. It appears that Tony Blair is not happy with its limitations. It appears that Javier Solana is not happy with Blair's new job existing at all.

“It should be very interesting to see this one play out. Stay tuned! Presently, I'm betting that Javier Solana will come out on top, but then, who knows.” (Trouble in Jerusalem?  Tony Blair vs. Javier Solana? Constance Cumbey, 23 July 2007 – Zimbio). 

And, on her blog: 

“Post writing update: The editors of Foreign Policy Magazine, by and large the CFR crowd, posted their own blog entitled ‘Five Reasons why Tony Blair would make a bad Middle East Envoy.’ This same crowd gave awards in the past five years to both Javier Solana and Tony Blair. This probably tilts the odds somewhere in the direction of Javier Solana's favor, but who knows? Stay tuned!” 

Stay tuned for what?  That Tony Blair is going to be overshadowed by the pipsqueak, Javier Solana?  Spare me!  This transfixion upon Javier Solana as the would-be Antichrist or precursor of the Man of Sin par excel lance is ludicrous to the extreme.  Ms. Cumbey, whose respect in her field is well acknowledged, should stay clear of geo-politics and the rise of Antichrist—especially from the decrepit environs of post-Christian Europe, hardly where you will find a militant form of Christianity.  And what’s that got to do with Antichrist—plenty.   

For one, the composite Beast of Gentile World Powers led by the final days’ Antichrist-Beast is mounted by an apostate Church.  Rome’s abilities to effect this arrangement, either solely or in concert with the more militant forms of Christendom in North America, is, as of this writing and far into the foreseeable future, a non-factor in this equation . . . she is the laughingstock and perverted pariah of Christendom in general, and in America, in particular—in sum, a grotesque embarrassment to the faith of millions undoubtedly who embrace the Savior within her walls in spite of her awful fornications. 

Ms. Cumbey then proceeds to equate Solana’s naïve remarks that Hezbollah, according to Solana, is not classified by the EU as a terrorist organization—man, is there any wonder why Bush appointed Blair, not Solana, to carry forth peace initiatives, as well as economic development in the region?

 

HOLLY – FULFILLED PROPHECY (Herb Peters) 

 

The revelations of the Antichrist from the European continent abound – and the stupendous discoveries of the EU’s burgeoning military truly astound . . . Holly continues: 

“This morning I stumbled across a paper released yesterday by the Heritage Foundation, an American think-tank, titled, ‘The European Security and Defense Policy: A Challenge to the Transatlantic Security Alliance.’  

“The paper warns that the EU has been developing its military -- not to help provide for its own defense, as it has claimed -- but to rival NATO and, specifically, the United States as a global superpower. The thing that fascinated me about this paper is it was like reading my dad’s book, Recommendation 666, published back in 2003. The policy analysts are finally catching on. 

“My dad (Herb Peters, now with the Lord) warned about the EU’s true agenda at a time when high-level, US government officials were oblivious (many still appear to be). How did he know this was happening? 

“Because he studied the Bible prophecies and believed them. He knew the Bible said that, one day, the Roman Empire would powerfully revive (we see this in the European Union) and that out of it, a 10-nation military alliance would emerge (we see this in the 10 Western European Union Member States). This alliance would put itself under the authority of a brilliant leader (the Antichrist), who would seek control over Israel and the Mediterranean region and gain the economic and political power to launch a massive persecution against God's people. 

“So, knowing the prophecies allowed my dad to recognize when these things started happening in the European Union -- way before the ‘experts’ could see them.” (Holly’s Thoughts, They’re Finally Catching On) 

God bless Holly; however, her Biblical wisdom regarding the Image of Daniel in no way wholly identifies the Fourth Beast as the Roman Empire, and ipso facto, does not give credibility to the concept that the ten toes of that image are the “Revived Roman Empire.”  Indeed, the Scriptures plainly state that the “Head of Gold” is Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon; that the Bear is Medo-Persia; and that the Leopard with four heads is Greece—but that the Fourth Beast is NOT designated as the Roman Empire and, furthermore, in the Revelation, the Beast from the Abyss is described as a COMPOSITE of the original three Beasts/Empires and is, therefore, an EXTENSION, of all these empires (Revelation 13:2a—“Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.”) 

 

HOW DID I MISS THE ANTICHRIST? 

This inordinate fascination with the likes of Javier Solana—to the extent that he “quite possibly” may have pulled off the actual “Covenant with the many” (the infamous commencement of Daniel’s Seventieth Week has ALREADY BEGUN) utterly dumfounds me – yet dear Holly, based on her father’s recollections, enters into this absurd conjecture (Note:  Follow Holly’s/Herb Peters assumptions very carefully . . .): 

“Yet, when I talk to Christian friends about the possibility of peace in the Middle East, they often express skepticism that this could ever happen. But they of all people should know that, one day, it will happen. According to the Bible, there will be a temporary time of peace for the region, made possible by a "covenant with many" brokered and strengthened by the Antichrist. 

“Since it's very possible that the covenant with many has already been made and strengthened, then it's also very possible that a peace deal will soon be made. And when it is, I fear many Christians will miss its prophetic significance--just as they've missed the significance of all the events leading up to this peace deal.” (Why Have They Missed It? Holly’s Thoughts, Fulfilled Prophecy, July 26, 2007) 

Now, if Antichrist has already pulled this off—when?  Somehow through Javier Solana’s clever devices . . . notwithstanding, here’s George Bush, in Holly’s brain, circulating in the background, somehow pulling the strings—will the real Antichrist come forth! 

“Many leaders in the Mid-East peace talks are saying peace is a real possibility. In fact, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has said it could occur in less than a year, before President Bush leaves office. 

“There has certainly been a renewed flurry of diplomatic activity. And Bush is continuing to push along the Quartet's efforts. He and Jordan's King Abdullah met yesterday at the White House for ‘private talks.’” (Ibid.)  

Will someone help me here – is not “the Covenant with the many” somehow the same as the “peace” orchestrated by the Antichrist?  Or, perhaps I’m missing this nuance somehow?  Solana pulls it off in December, 2004? 

“December 9, 2004: It is announced that the Israeli government has approved their ENP (European Neighborhood Policy) Action Plan. That means, Israel is the first nation to begin participating in Solana’s ENP covenant with the many. And, on January 1, 2007, Israel’s Action Plan will be conformed to fit Solana's new seven-year ENPI. In other words, the stage may now be set for the 70th week of Daniel to begin on January 1, 2007.” (Herb Peters, Recommendation 666, Epilogue, And the Beat Goes On) 

Let us disabuse the world that the Antichrist has surreptitiously made a covenant with Israel and the many for one week—we’re close, but hardly was Solana’s efforts with Israel what we’re looking for!  It is this kind of “Biblical nonsense” that not only disturbs, but distracts from what the Gentile World Powers—Powers who have the POWER—are really attempting to do during these Last Days.  Take my remarks as caustic and, if you must, not expressed in the spirit of Christian courtesy . . . but why?  Not because I cannot be gregarious in my expression of Christian virtue—but because these claims of attribution to Antichrist are so outrageous, that I’m finding it difficult to separate them from the very seductive and deceitful spirit of Antichrist who’s desire is to confuse the masses as to his REAL and serpentine activities—activities, that even Holly somehow suspects may drift into the equation after the fact.

 

THE FOURTH BEAST 

The EXTENT of this final Fourth Empire is the full expression of Gentile World Power in the end of days—plain and simple, that’s all—and that is precisely why the current GOD OF FORTRESSES, more than any other empire past, present or into the foreseeable future, and whose heritage is European in its origins, is naught but the world’s only super power:  the USA! 

Once again, allow me to dabble into the writings of G. H. Lang to substantiate this Biblical illumination regarding the Fourth Beast (Carefully note, it is when Gentile World Powers make Babylon their nexus and/or dominate the Mesopotamian plain that their “beastly” character is emphasized and REVEALED.): 

“Thus also is it with the fourth empire.  Its ferocity and supremacy are emphasized, but that it would commence, or had commenced, at a city named ‘Rome,’ is not even mentioned, and what its course would be is unnoticed.  It is when the Antichrist shall have made Babylon its centre of universal government that the empire will become what is so vividly and minutely portrayed in prophetic Scripture.” (G. H. Lang, The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel, The Paternoster Press, 4th Edition, London, 1950, p. 189) 

Now, Lang’s proximity to Babylon and these beasts is significant—significant today because of American persistence to militarize these environs, just as the Neo-Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Grecian Empires did.  Grant it, other empires of lesser Biblical import occupied Babylon, but their significance (e.g., the Moguls) was hardly fixated upon its capture or strategic importance. 

“And this essential geographical feature might have been learned from the one fact, because the four kingdoms were represented by an upright image, therefore the centre of gravity, if it maybe so expressed, of each of the three upper portions was exactly over the spot upon which the feet stood.  The centre of each empire would be at the same place.  Babylon is Satan’s original and final earth centre, as Jerusalem is the divine centre.  And modern world movements (no kidding—and this was said in 1940) tend unceasingly to the Near East.” (Ibid. pp. 189-190) 

Now Lang goes after the notion that ancient Rome and its revival, in so far as the identity of the Fourth Beast, is off base and NOT the expression of the final empire outlined by Daniel the prophet: 

“It should also be observed that the image is an unbroken continuity from the head to the feet; there is no break, with later reunion of its parts.  Similarly, the fourth Beast continues in view uninterruptedly from its emergence to its destruction, it does not die and come again to life.  The phrase, ‘The reviving of the Roman Empire’ is seriously misleading.  There is no Roman Empire known to prophetic Scripture, though the Romans are mentioned in New Testament history; and the fourth empire has never ceased, though, like the three preceding kingdoms, it has gone and is going through internal changes which are unnoticed as not material to prophecy.  It is the Beast personally, the Antichrist, who having lived, dies, and later comes up out of the Abyss . . . (Rev. 17:8-11). (Ibid. p. 190) 

“Thus, in Rev. 13:2 the Beast (personal) is both lion, bear, and leopard, the symbols in Dan. 7 of the three preceding empires . . . The attempt to show that there always have been in the Roman Empire about ten kingdoms, is like attempting to prove that the image had about ten toes, sometimes eight in number, sometimes thirteen, but always about ten, and its toes grew out all down its legs, in fact formed its legs . . . we therefore reject the term “Roman” empire, and dismiss with it the notion that the area of the fourth empire, or the location of its final ten divisions, can be determined even approximately by what it formerly has been.  The empire has not yet reached its full development, and when it does so it may be as much more extensive than at any time before as each of its predecessors when centered at Babylon became vastly greater than it had been at any previous time.” (Ibid. p. 190) 

Now, the very article that Holly resourced by Sally McNamara on July 17, 2007 from the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. included these caveats:  

“The military and civilian presence of the Euro­pean Union has been more about promoting the EU’s integrationist agenda than about making a truly meaningful contribution to international sta­bility. The sheer lack of EU commitment to facing today’s most serious foreign policy challenges, such as Iraq and Iran, demonstrates not only the ESDP’s (European Security and Defense Policy) limitations, but, more important, the EU’s pro­foundly different global outlook.” (Sally MacNamara, The European Security and Defense Policy: A Challenge to the Transatlantic Security Alliance, Heritage Foundation, July 18, 2007) 

Specifically, Ms. McNamara’s Euro-NATO-American-British military analysis, exposes the ESDP’s efforts, and sounds an alarm that the USA has no intention of its immediate or bothersome success to destroy the American-British alliance and NATO’s American dominance.  To the contrary: 

“High-level American support for the ESDP has been lukewarm on both sides of the political divide. President George W. Bush’s tepid endorsement at Camp David in 2001 following a meeting with Tony Blair was undoubtedly given on Blair’s word that NATO would still be the primary security actor in the transatlantic alliance.[43] While these assurances were almost certainly given in good faith, they have since turned out to be false. The ESDP is neither what the British envisioned nor what NATO needs. 

“Both America and Britain should act to ward off damage to the Special Relationship by investing heavily in the bilateral relationship and continuing their close alliance, which was so forcefully reaf­firmed in the wake of 9/11.” (Ibid.) 

With abject assurance I conjecture that the Europeans have neither the financial resources to explore the Euro Corps expansion beyond its miserly 60,000, nor the ultimate support from its members (especially Central and Eastern Europeans) to continue its much-touted, but miniscule expansion.  Mr. Bush is not concerned about NATO’s curious experiment at military competition, and would rather leave the inane conversation to think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, thank you.  The glaring fact that the Euro-Mouse irritates the colossal elephant only serves to demonstrate the USA has no intention of some Euro upstart overshadowing its presence, ever!  The American-British alliance will continue unabated—Blair’s coronation by Bush is precisely in keeping with that commitment—notwithstanding the absurdities of one, Javier Solana, to the contrary. 

It may be duly noted that the “show and tell” of the Euro Corps—much like Europe’s elegant mannerisms is naught but a demonstration that she can still put on a good show of it with clamorous pomp and circumstance to accompany.  No wonder “Ode to Joy” is the National Anthem of the EU!

 

“WAR GAMES” 

The chatter surrounding imminent war between either Israel and the USA on one side, and some constellation of Moslem militants on the other (e.g., Syria and Iran and/or Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, the PLO) is endless—notwithstanding the current acerbic dialogue between America and Iran or the recent PEACE INITIATIVE which is evolving (so Bush et al would hope) into the Mother of All Peace Initiatives. 

Democratic Presidential hopefuls are incensed that the Bush Administration would countenance an imminent conflict with Iran (now that Cheney’s saber rattling has replaced the measured approach to this flashpoint once proposed and pursued by Condi Rice and Defense Secretary Gates).  But, that is precisely what our Leader is doing—ratcheting up the rhetoric of conflict between Iran and the USA (Note:  Imperial Japan was also having peace talks with the USA prior to the outbreak of hostilities.) 

“The US President George W. Bush launched an invitation to conclude a peace conference in the Middle East and undertook to offer 190 Billion (sic. Million) Dollars to the Palestinian Government and that in the context of a speech he pronounced in the White House regarding the Middle East. 

“During this speech he called the Arab States that didn’t sign a peace agreement with Israel yet to put an end to the illusion of the non-existence of Israel, thus, to open a dialogue with the Hebrew State. In addition, Bush said that the Palestinians are facing the moment of choice between the vision of Hamas and that of their President Mahmoud Abbas which (sic. “who”) is more moderate. Bush added that the choices that the Palestinian people have are crystal clear. 

“Furthermore, Bush uttered that the world is exerting more efforts in order to support peace conditions. Hence, he called to (for) an international meeting this autumn that gathers international representatives who support the solution of establishing two states, who reject the violence, who recognize Israel’s right to exist as well as they acknowledge all the agreements between the two parties. The essential participants in this conference shall be the Israelis the Palestinians and their neighbors, Bush added.  

“While the Palestinian Authority and Britain welcomed Bush’s call to conclude an international peace conference in which Israel Palestine and a number of Arab States participate, Hamas considered that this call is a favor for the Zionist foe.” (Bush launches a new peace initiative, Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite, July 17, 2007) 

Now, notice this bizarre move of Solana into the Middle East imbroglio and then the full acknowledgement that America, not the EU, is calling the shots: 

 “Solana’s Spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said that Solana’s sudden and intense visit (talking to both Israeli and PLO leadership) will help him to assess the latest progress with the two parties and to determine the means that the European Union can adopt to carry on supporting the peace process. Moreover, Gallach clarified that the European Union expects that the Quartet will confirm its support to the President Abbas. She also stressed that the European Union presumes that the US Secretary of State (Condi Rice) would explain for the Quartet the new US initiative introduced by Bush.” (Ibid.)  

This incessant one-upmanship is simply tolerated by the US, giving the EU the semblance of importance in the current negotiations of the Quartet (the USA, the EU, the UN, and Russia).  Once, however, Solana and his mice mess with the American cheese, I can assure you forthrightly, they will get their comeuppance—the trap will shut very tightly. 

It is President George W. Bush who shall achieve the unachievable—a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement . . . both at the expense of the Israelis and her Arab neighbors.   

PEACE AT ISRAEL’S EXPENSE 

“. . . one is hard pressed to understand how any intelligent individual can expect to turn murderous terrorists into lovers of peace. Arafat may have won the Nobel Peace prize, but one needn’t be a genius to know that he was always a terrorist. Abu Mazen (Abbas) is no different. Both he and Hamas want the same thing: The complete destruction of the Jewish State.

“Bush seems to be trying to bribe the Arabs by offering millions of dollars to Abu Mazen if he keeps away from Hamas, the fact is that he is denying authentic democracy. The greater majority of Arabs voted for Hamas. How dare Bush tell them that they picked the wrong folks? 

“Any child can see that Bush is trying to force his agenda upon the parties without considering the likely consequences. Clearly Israel has always demonstrated her willingness to back down to America pressure, even at her own peril. But the Arabs have self respect and would prefer to fight to the death rather than submit to presidential dictates.” (Gary Cooperberg, Redemption is at Hand, LibertyPost.org, July 17, 2007)

 

PEACE AT ARAB EXPENSE – EXCLUDE SYRIA & IRAN? 

From Syria – 

 “Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, said the conference’s legitimacy hinged on the involvement of Syria and Iran. 

“Bush ‘did not elaborate on who would be invited. One minute before he declared this initiative, he attacked Syria and Iran,’ Ja'afari said in New York. 

“That means he is excluding, somehow, Syria and Iran from this so-called international conference. 

“I read this morning that the American president spoke of his wish to work for a peace conference. I hope ... this is true, but to this moment these are just words as far as we are concerned," Syria's President Bashar Assad said in an address to parliament after being sworn in for a second seven-year term in office.” (Hamas Rejects Bush Peace Talks Proposal, Anna Johnson, AP, examiner.com, 17 July 2007) 

From Hamas 

“In Gaza, Hamas’ response was harsher, with the militant group denouncing the Bush proposal as ‘lies’ to the Palestinian people. 

“‘We believe that all promises made by Bush are false promises ... They’re lies,’ said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. ‘The promise of establishing a Palestinian state is old. It will not be implemented.’ 

“‘This process will lead to nowhere,’ Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, told the Al-Jazeera TV network late Tuesday. 

“He accused Bush of trying to widen the rift between Fatah and Hamas. ‘As usual, Bush wants to divide the Palestinians and the Arabs into moderates and radicals,’ Mashaal said. ‘A moderate is accepted by America and a radical is rejected by America.’” (Ibid.)

 

From Saudi Arabia (Dedan and Sheba) and Egypt         

“In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abou Gheit, said the Bush proposal ‘contained positive elements that must be adhered to, built upon and developed.’ 

“Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah told Bush in a phone call that both ‘Palestinians and Arabs choose peace,’ according to a statement carried by the state Saudi Press Agency. 

“Abdullah spoke in favor of the Arab peace plan, which provides for the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 Mideast War. It also calls for establishment of an independent Palestinian state and a settlement for the Palestinian refugees issue.” (Ibid.) 

Thusly, it is foretold, that ancient Dedan and Sheba (the Saudi Arabian Peninsula) would, on that day, side with the Ships of Tarshish (the West) against Gog’s intentions towards Israel (Ezekiel 38:13). 

The upshot of the latest peace offensive has received mixed results—even Tony Snow, White House spokesman, said: 

“‘I think a lot of people are inclined to try to treat this as a big peace conference,’ said White House spokesman Tony Snow. ‘It's not.’” (Ibid.) 

But, remember, it’s Bush, not Solana, not even Blair per se, who works for Bush, who’s calling the shots here and working his magic, and, it will inevitably be the destiny of the Western World, under its obvious leadership, to orchestrate the infamous “Covenant with death . . . your agreement with hell” . . . there simply aren’t any other takers! (Isaiah 28:18 & 15)

 

MONSTER BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS HEADING FOR IRAN? 

Peace, peace – then cometh sudden destruction.  How incongruous is this: 

“The U.S. is retrofitting its B-2 Stealth bombers with massive bunker-buster bombs - a move that could be a prelude to an attack on Iran and its nuclear facilities. 

“Northrop Grumman announced last week in a little noticed release that the company had begun integrating on the B-2's a new 30,000-pound-class ‘penetrator bomb’ or bunker buster. 

“‘The U.S. Air Force's B-2 Stealth bomber would be able to attack and destroy an expanded set of hardened, deeply buried military targets’ using the monster bunker buster, the company said in its release.” (NewsMax.com Wires, U.S. Outfitting B-2's with Monster Bunker Buster Bombs - Iran May Be Target, July 27, 2007) 

It gets exceedingly dicey when one considers that Iran’s nuclear programs is buried deep inside her soils: 

“Northrop Grumman is the Air Force’s prime contractor on the B-2, the flagship of the nation's long-range strike arsenal.  

“The new Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), which is being developed by the Boeing Co., is a GPS-guided weapon containing more than 5,300 pounds of conventional explosives inside a 20.5-foot-long enclosure of hardened steel. It is designed to penetrate dirt, rock and reinforced concrete to reach enemy bunker or tunnel installations.  

“The B-2 is capable of carrying two MOPs, one in each weapons bay.

‘This integration contract is part of Northrop Grumman’s on-going effort to ensure that the B-2 remains capable of delivering a decisive blow to an increasingly sophisticated enemy,’ said Dave Mazur, vice president of long-range strike for the company's Integrated Systems sector.” (Ibid.)  

Duplicitous?  Of course – what part of “seizing the kingdom by intrigue” do you not understand (Daniel 11:21)?   On the one hand, the overtures of peace – on the other hand, the preparations for destruction!

 

CONCLUSION 

The obvious is oft the most difficult to determine—even so, as sabers rattle in the Middle East—as the West downplays its expectations for peace—be it ever so plain to the scholar and simpleton:  The United States of America is the only power on the block that can pull off such a peace in our time. 

But there will be no peace, no lasting peace until He comes.  Caught in the middle of the dilemma, these prophetic words are heard, and encapsulated within them is the mystery, I believe, of the Son of Man: 

“Clearly redemption is closer than ever. When the majority of Jews finally realize that none of our leaders is able to help us they will turn in desperation to our Father in Heaven. They will begin to understand that the only explanation for our very existence is owing to His infinite mercy and personal protection. Then we will return unto Him in penitence, prayer and supplication and seek to serve Him by observing His Law. Then we will become worthy of His miracles which will permeate the world and fulfill the prophesies which have yet to come to pass. He will send us one True Jewish Leader who will lead us in battle and return genuine Jewish pride and fear of G-d to our nation.” (Gary Cooperberg, Redemption is at Hand, LibertyPost.org, July 17, 2007)

 

 

 

GUARANTEE THE SECURITY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL

Part VI

“The Rise or Fall of American Empire?”

 By Doug Krieger 

G. H. Lang, 1950 –  

“It has been of late the policy of Israel to seek aid from Gentile powers.  First Dr. Herzl sought the Sultan.  Then visits followed to this and that government.  Until recently the British were in question. This policy will lead finally to an agreement with Antichrist, in hope of his protection during the floods of distress then submerging the nations.  It will be an agreement with death and Hades because it will be known that he is being resuscitated from the world of the dead, and having alliance with him who has the power of death, the devil (Rev. 13:2-4; 17:8).  Thus extreme can become the apostasy of those privileged with divine revelation.  But they will be bitterly deceived.”  (G. H. Lang, The Histories and Prophecies of Daniel, pp 140-41) 

Letter to President Bush from Evangelical Leaders – New York Times, July 29, 2007 

“The only way to bring the tragic cycle of violence to an end is for Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate a just, lasting agreement that guarantees both sides viable, independent, secure states.  To achieve that goal, both sides must give up some of their competing, incompatible claims.  Israelis and Palestinians must both accept each other’s right to exist.  And to achieve that goal, the U.S. must provide robust leadership within the Quartet to reconstitute the Middle East roadmap, whose full implementation would guarantee the security of the State of Israel and the viability of a Palestinian State.  We affirm the new role of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and pray that the conference you plan for this fall (2007) will be a success.” 

And to him they look . . .  

“We hope this support (for President Bush’s two-state solution for Middle East peace for Israelis and Palestinians) will embolden you and your administration to proceed confidently and forthrightly . . . Mr. President, we renew our prayers and support for your leadership to help bring peace to Jerusalem, and justice and peace for all the people in the Holy Land . . . Finally, we would request to meet with you to personally convey our support and discuss other ways in which we may help your administration on this crucial issue.”

The Prophets Daniel & Isaiah: 

“Till the end of the war desolations are determined.  Then he (Antichrist) shall confirm (lit. “cause to bear” – i.e., “enforce”) a treaty (lit. a “defense pact”) with many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering” (Daniel 9:26b-27a). 

“And in his place shall arise a vile person, to whom they will not give the honor of royalty; but he shall come in peaceably, and seize the kingdom by intrigue.  With the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant.  And after the league is made with him he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people.  He shall enter peaceably . . .” (Daniel 10:21-24a). 

“Therefore hear the word of the Lord you scornful men, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol (hell) we are in agreement.  When the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves’ . . . I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet, the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.  Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it . . . it will be a terror just to understand the report” (Isaiah 28:14-19 segments).   

We have entered earth’s most decisive hour—the convergence of all things is at hand . . . for this hour the prophets foretold and with this precision in mind, may those who know their God behold the travesty of the moment, the gravity of the sequence of events about to transfigure the final generation that shall behold the coming of the Son of Man, and the crushing of the image of Gentile World Powers by the stone uncut by human hands, rejected by its builders, but chosen of God and destined to become that great mountain filling the whole earth with divine authority and glory (Daniel 2:35). 

For this cause do we call the people of God to bear witness to the Scripture of Truth (Daniel 10:21) and to the Testimony of Jesus (Revelation 1:2) – we admonish those who “keep the commandments of God” and “have the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17) to steadfastly, and without compromise, align themselves with divine destiny’s inexorable quest toward righteous consummation and vindication, and so prepare their hearts for the coming of that great and terrible Day of the Lord. 

And, what are we to make of these overtures, these strategies of justice and peace to be accomplished between age-old belligerents—between Isaac and Ishmael—so assiduously crafted by well-meaning brethren who follow the faith of Jesus that will “embolden” our President’s fall peace offensive? 

Dare we speak in riddles, in obscurities demanding decoding—somehow so complex are these abstractions (for the Gordian Knot of ceaseless hostility abides the Middle East) that to address them in any other manner, as if this region’s offenses vis-à-vis the world’s confrontations actually do merit the language of the prophets to contest their significance and peculiar sanctity.  The Holy Land, in spite of the new dispensation whereby the Spirit made available to all the promise of Life without the physicality of real estate, nevertheless holds in abeyance the demands of covenantal promise inextricably bound to the character of the Almighty—hence, this debate far surpasses the petty, though extravagant, struggles found in other lands.  Somehow, we’re all riveted on this plot, engaged in its process and even participating in its outcome. 

Is this not reason for these brethren to have written their appeal and encouragement to strengthen our leader’s hand in dealing with this most formidable entanglement—especially, as their claims for involvement center upon the embrace of “the biblical promise to Abraham:  ‘I will bless those who bless you.’ (Genesis 12:3)?”  Whereas it may be duly noted the antithetical portion of that same verse concludes: “Whoever curses you I will curse.”     

“ARE YOU FOR US, OR FOR OUR ADVERSARIES?”   

“And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, ‘Are You for us or for our adversaries?’  So He said, ‘No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’” (Joshua 5:13b-14a). 

The President’s most recent flurry to resolve the irresolvable occurred on July 16, 2007—the same day that Christians United for Israel (a coalition of Christian Zionists under the umbrella of mega church pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church of San Antonio, Texas) gathered in Washington, D.C., to lobby both Congress and the Executive to “stand by Israel.”  This coalition of evangelicals does not support the aforementioned coalition of “progressive evangelicals” who advocate a two-state solution—hence, the quote from Joshua 5.  To Hagee et al the prospect envisioned by the President, and now supported by the self-declared evangelical peace pragmatists, is no solution at all—but a disquieting sacrifice of Israel’s security, a shameful compromise of her biblical claims to Judea and Samaria; and, in fact, harkens back to a former “solution” the Jews know all too well. 

For these American evangelicals to cajole Israelis to “promote the genuine and long-term well being of our neighbors (i.e., Palestinian) . . . to encourage her to remember . . . the profound teaching on justice that the Hebrew prophets proclaimed so forcefully as an inestimably precious gift to the whole world” smacks a bit disingenuous, given America’s rather sterling record of good neighborliness toward her native populations; for example, Mexican and even Canadian incursions and landed appropriations. 

Timing seems to occur in pairs.  While the open letter from Evangelical Leaders was appearing in the New York Times on July 29, 2007, the World Evangelical Zionists and World Likud (Christians and Jews/Israelis) were assembled in Southlake, Texas, near Ft. Worth to strategize—speakers included leaders from the Zionist Organization of America.  Evangelical-Zionist “conspiracies” are rampant between the two camps (Evangelical and Jewish Zionists)—no doubt causing a greater degree of frustration among the aforementioned evangelical progressives, since a great deal of this activity is inspired by Southern preachers . . .  

 

“IN THE WATCH-FIRES OF A HUNDRED CIRCLING CAMPS” 

The sea change in all these pontifications and pronouncements is the growing chasm, this open sore of policy discontent, now seen before the whole world within the American evangelical camp.  Perhaps a history buff would declare that the same antithetical religious forces which propelled us into our own Civil War are now at work, once again, this time to free the Palestinians, as the slaves were freed.  It is not altogether impossible when the likes of Wheaton and Oberlin—bastions of abolitionist activism during the War Between the States—can affix their signatures to this appeal to “justice and peace” to surmise as much. 

And, although the more visible leadership of the pro-Israel “forces” in Americana are decidedly Southern (e.g., John Hagee, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell (now deceased), and now Ron Nash – to name but a few), there are sprinkles of these convictions in the North, just as there are Northern sentiments in the South who can align with the Presidential letter drafted by the predominantly Wheaton-Oberlin-Fuller Seminary constellation of evangelical interests. 

The “Israel issue” is far more complicated amongst evangelicals than so-called main-line an—ever-shrinking Protestant denominations, as well as Catholics (now undergoing a veritable moral failure of unparalleled magnitude, resulting in abject silence to forcefully and confidently speak out on the great moral issues of our time—all compounded by Pope Benedict XVI’s exclusive remarks relative to the one-true Church able to save).  To the mainliners and Catholics who see no theological relevance in the modern state of Israel, the issue is straightforward:  Two state solution or, in the extreme, a Northern Ireland of power sharing within one state—viz. the devolution of the modern state of Israel. 

What complicates evangelicals is their adherence to the Word of God and its interpretation.  Premillenarians who see in Israel’s founding the fulfillment of biblical promise tend toward a very pro-Israel activist one state solution:  The Jewish State of Israel; however, progressive evangelicals, who may be premillenarian, are, nevertheless, and given the present stress within their communities toward “peace and justice” issues (e.g., witness Rick Warren’s efforts), are persuaded that a rump Palestinian state would suffice Israel’s blessing if only it (especially Israel) were guaranteed her security by the United States of America. 

Evangelicals who adhere to biblical interpretations which accord little or no biblical relevance to the modern state of Israel, have, like their theological counterparts within Roman Catholicism and main-line Protestant denominations (now, nigh wholly absorbed in “peace and justice”) no proclivity to eschatological significance when it comes to Israel, and ipso facto resort to blatant appeals to righteous indignation, denounce her as racist and refuse to accord her any and all claims to chosenness and prophetic fulfillment.  What you see on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean is naught but an aberration, a refusal to compromise, a fluke of history, and worse, an apostate expression of the worst wrought by Western Civilization, manipulated by the recalcitrant Jew, in the heart of Islam—causing imminent and ceaseless political consternation throughout the Middle East, the world and utterly acerbating America’s current War on Terror. 

Yes, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is being sung—but who’s doing the singing is at issue, as His “truth goes marching on?” 

BIBLICAL RAMIFICATIONS 

As Israel now polarizes the American evangelical Church—let alone the ramifications of this dispute resounding throughout Christendom and the nations at large—we are obliged to forewarn the unsuspecting pro-Israel elements within this evangelical wing, as well as her Zionist co-religionists and secularists amongst the Israeli population concerned for their security, that support for a two-state solution by their brethren amongst the evangelical progressives (and it is growing more vociferous) is not confined to the “evangelical left” – mainline Churches, Catholics and Orthodox persuasions.  There increasingly are more strident expressions of solidarity with the President’s solution than one would imagine—and those expressions are decidedly Jewish and Israeli in tone! 

It is well-known that the Israeli “Peace Movement” – as well as American counterparts – is, in the main, aligned with the President’s resolution to the conflict.  The “many” of Israel are increasingly predisposed to seek relief from “the overwhelming scourge” which seeks to annihilate the State of Israel. 

The prophetic declarations are ominous indeed.  Tragically, most of the aforementioned evangelicals are utterly antagonist to, disinterested in or completely oblivious to America’s prophetic role—simply put:  America is not in Bible prophecy.  For the vast majority of Premillenarians who support Israel’s claims to the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), even Gaza and the Golan, their involvement in blessing Israel terminates at the commencement of Daniel’s Seventieth Week in the secret rapture of the believing Church—Israel fends for herself thereafter. 

Armageddon is NOT on the radar of pro-Israel evangelical proponents—Israel’s affair with the devil is singular in nature . . . we’re outta here, good luck guys, Messiah’s on the way in any event.  Israel, in her desperation, cares little about such “nuances” (slightly major in nature though they be)—we’ll take whatever “immediate support” we can get—frankly, we’re not obliged to evangelical theology for the future, we’re too busy surviving now!  In any event if you Christians are “raptured out of here” – well, even we Jews might then believe! 

Yet, the same Hebrew prophets who acclaim, as the progressive evangelicals attest, “the profound teaching on justice” – also, announce the end of days and the ultimate betrayal by Antichrist of the Jewish religion and Israel’s body politic.  The usurpation of the “priesthood and the kingship” is embodied in the nefarious, vile personage of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, whose subterfuge with the “many” (i.e., the majority of the Jewish leadership), is the archetype of the Antichrist who will orchestrate the same in a final and vast deception upon both “the many” (Daniel 9:27a) and “the elect” (i.e., upon Jews and Christians—Daniel 8:25; Matthew 24:24; cf. II Thessalonians 2:11).   

Indeed, when the “Prince of the Covenant” (Daniel 11:22) is overthrown, who else but the Man of Sin shall inherit this title—for it is he who shall “exalt himself as high as the Prince of the host” (Daniel 8:11), rising “against the Prince of princes” (Daniel 8:25).  The kingship (political authority in Israel) and the priesthood (religious authority in Israel) will be his and much more, for . . .  

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him . . . they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast?  Who is able to make war with him?’” (Revelation 13:8, 4) 

While American pro-Israel evangelicals look to the European Union and the likes of Javier Solana as the perpetrator and progenitor of the final Antichrist, whose peace efforts and ultimate Satanic incarnation bespeak of the “son of perdition” (even as Satan “entered in Judas” – Luke 22:3; cf. John 17:12; II Thessalonians 2:3), they—blinded by the false hope of the pre-tribulation rapture (condemning those who embrace the “faithful and true witness” who endures unto the end through those who hold fast the “faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12)—are purposefully or inadvertently oblivious to the impending flood whose inundating tsunami will engulf the whole earth. 

Likewise, their evangelical co-harts, adrift with their theological bias against Israel’s materiality are being swept up in the euphoria of “justice for all,” must resoundingly embrace America’s role as a “city set on a hill cannot be hid” for a better world, a world made right through America’s Manifest Destiny now back on track through world leadership beholden to the finest ideals of democracy, peace and freedom.  To that end they are bound to strengthen the very hand that upholds the title of the world’s only super power—ridding her of those policies which conflict with that enlightened self image, including the contradictions held by the pro-Israel evangelical lobby.

 

SETTING UP THE PRO-ISRAEL EVANGELICALS 

It must be remembered, these same Southern Evangelical leaders, and their counterparts in the North (if you would bear with me on these traditional metaphors) find it unbearable to discover they are in contention with their most favored son, George W. Bush—whom they unwaveringly embrace, and whose hand in social, moral, and foreign policy they unequivocally uphold.  What moral and consequent political dilemma they now confront!  Shall they strive to contend with the evangelical progressives who have (and make no bones about it) cast down the gauntlet of biblical blessing to be interpreted in pragmatic compromise—two-state Bush solution or bust? 

There is one possible recourse to the evangelical squabble over Israel—let me explain . . .  

THE INCIDENT SCENARIO – EVANGELICALS RESPOND  

Just as 9/11 galvanized the American populous around the crusader policies of the President (as in virtually all national crisis), giving him (and still “the gift” keeps on giving him in the Senate/Congress superlative spying capacities) unabridged authority to wage war against the infidels of Islamic jihad; even so, the full militarization of our domestic police forces, including the military itself, could easily be implemented upon the unsuspecting American populous crying out for “peace and safety” as a result of an attack on American embassies and/or the much-touted Homeland Security gaff allowing “the incident” to occur upon the Fatherland. 

Furthermore, Iran’s nuclear nightmare is not beyond the imaginative designs of this Administration wherein an all-out assault by CENTCOM upon Iran’s nuclear web could create a similar international incident to “our advantage.” 

Pro-Israel evangelicals would, under this foreboding duress, wholly align themselves with the President’s Middle East two-state solution—a solution which would be a bitter pill for certain Israelis to swallow, but “the many” in Israel would have no other recourse. 

THE INCIDENT SCENARIO – RADICAL ISLAM RESPONDS 

What is far more realistic, and politically precarious—given the pressure for a peaceful two-state resolution by the President and his new-found allies—are reactions from militant Islam.   

It is not unthinkable for Hamas and their erstwhile Hezbollah allies—as well as Syria and Iran who front them—to consider the two-state solution as anathema to their ambitions to wipe Israel off the map.  The Saudis and Jordanians, along with Sunni allies in the region forever desirous to trade with the “Ships of Tarsish” and now (the Saudis) with the promise of billions in high-tech armaments via the USA, are preparing for the worst if the Iranian Crescent reaches fulfillment. 

Simply put—an Islamic incident is a far greater possibility than one might conjecture.  In order to confront Bush’s peace initiative head-on, there may be but one solution:  The no state solution.  As bizarre as this sounds, and as politically insane—a gradual and ever-spiraling cacophony of strategic blunders could easily find these Islamic antagonists enveloped in an all-out hot war with Israel. 

What is far more likely—and, although you may not like to hear this, more biblical—is a series of “incidents” (let alone the “peace offensive”) which triggers the “end of the war” mentioned in Daniel 9:26b.  We affirm this “war” to be the final phase of the now six-fold Arab-Israeli conflict—the Seventh Conflict known in Isaiah as the “Burden” or “Oracle of Damascus” (Isaiah 17), and the trigger of the “Messianic Scenario” (a series of events leading to the Messianic Era) commencing in Zechariah 9, and concluding in Zechariah 14—involving Gaza, Lebanon, “the stronghold of Ephraim” or the West Bank/PA, and Syria. 

This “Syrophenician War” is succinctly followed by the “Covenant With the Many” (Daniel 9:27a) and reads as follows: 

“And till the end of the war desolations are determined.  Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week” (Daniel 9:26b-27a). 

Is the Bush Peace Offensive – the resuscitation of the Roadmap to Peace – what triggers the immediate Islamic radical response above; a sort of preemptive Jihadist effort to thwart that which they feared the most to come upon them—the survival of Israel—let alone some sort of preemptive strike by the West, coordinated with Israel, against Iran and Syria?  Belligerents do strange things when inevitability grips their psyche—they do “things” that don’t make a whole lot of geo-political/strategic sense. 

One thing is certain, this “cup of trembling” erupting within America’s evangelical community is precisely what the President needs, along with perhaps another “incident” of sufficient or even inconsequently result, to have the whole lot of the brethren solidified behind the President’s two-state solution.  Even Senator Lieberman will have been exhausted, throwing his support behind Presidential WILL, aspiring for peace in the Middle East, given the fact that the DEFENSE PACT, aforementioned by the enlightened evangelical progressives desi