Understanding Bible Prophecy Series (6 of 7)

When Liberty Drops Her Torch

According to prophecy, the United States will not always remain the bastion of liberty or religious freedom. Grenville Kent explains.

Sitting in St Peter’s Square waiting to see the pope, I got talking to an American history teacher who adored Rome.

Imagine,” she said, “this city ruled the entire known world, influencing politics, culture, religion and trade, even the way people think.”
“Like America is doing now?” I ventured.
She looked puzzled. “Excuse me?”
“Ma’am, John Lennon said, ‘If I were living in Roman times, I would live in Rome.’ Where else? And today America is the Roman Empire and New York is Rome itself.”

She looked surprised and partly complimented, so I continued. “American history says the Yankees rebelled against the British Empire at the Boston Tea Party, and so America is for freedom, not greed-based, exploitative empire. But the US heads a global empire.”
“You think?”
“Well, take politics. Countries either support America or join a small, lonely club. There’s no balancing superpower. And trade: OK, the French hate Euro-Disney and McDonald’s, the Europeans try to compete with their United States of Europe, and the Arab world is seething with hatred, but you’ve still got McDonald’s and Starbucks on every main street and Coke in every tiny village, even in many Muslim countries. CNN, Murdoch and Hollywood are the mass exporters of culture and ideas. The most influential centres for Christians, Jews, New Agers and many other religions are in the US. Welcome to America’s McWorld.”
“But . . . we don’t send troops to the world.”

“You don’t usually need to. Just promise trade or threaten bombing. Why risk American lives when planes can mass-kill by X-Box remote control and show it on CNN? Why veni, vidi, vici when you can vote, veto, video game?”

And we haven’t yet seen the full extent of American domination. According to Bible predictions, America will dominate spiritually as well, forcing a corrupt form of Christianity onto the world.

Sound crazy? Not as crazy as it sounded in 1851, when Bible scholar John Andrews published his findings from The Book of Revelation. Global domination sounded laughable—US troops hadn’t stopped the British burning Washington, and couldn’t defeat Sitting Bull’s ‘Indian’ braves, who wiped out General Custer’s cavalry regiment in 1867. Even 88 years later when Hitler’s Wehrmacht invaded Poland in days, the US Army was smaller than the Polish Army! How could America dominate the world? Today no-one is laughing.
It seems Andrews read his Bible right way up.

the prophecy
So what did Andrews find?
Revelation chapter 13 begins with an animal symbolising the church of the Dark Ages, the spiritual superpower of the medieval Roman Church. It received its “fatal wound” from French atheism during the French Revolution, when a Napoleonic army dethroned the Pope. (See box page 42.) Many said the church was finished, and it did appear that way, but it “was healed,” so that today’s pope is a global leader—spiritually and politically.

Then another beast appears, “coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon” (Revelation 13:11).

In Revelation a dragon symbolises both Satan and the human governments manipulated by him. This beast fascinated the great Bible expositor John Wesley, who wrote in 1754, “He has not yet come, though he cannot be far off. For he is to appear at the end of the forty-two months of the first beast.”1 Wesley’s date was spot-on: America was “conceived in liberty” and born on the Fourth of July, 1776.

Notice, the symbolic beast came “out of the earth,” symbolising a nation starting in an underpopulated area. (In Revelation’s code, water symbolises populations, see 17:15.)

lamb, or lamb-like?
Lamb-like? Revelation uses a lamb 29 times to symbolise Jesus. The same author calls Jesus “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). John’s favourite theme is that grace, freedom from guilt and real personal growth are available through simple faith in Jesus. This beast has a lamb’s horns (horns are a biblical symbol of government, for example, Psalm 89:16, 17; Luke 1:69). So the two horns symbolise twin governments—religious and political.

The US Constitution uses inoffensive “lamb-like” words: “All men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness . . .” and, the government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The US Constitution enshrines magnificent ideals. History has tragic and bloody examples of religions controlling political power, or secular leaders persecuting religions, but America has a better system. These freedom ideals sound like the Lamb Himself, who refused offers of kingship and said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

Yet, according to biblical predictions, this power is only like a lamb—seemingly Christian—for it also spoke like a dragon. And there are numerous dragon-like moments in America’s history—certainly enough to suggest that it can happen in the future.

Presently it is ignoring international treaties on war crimes, landmines, biochemical weapons, the execution of juveniles, arms controls, nuclear test bans and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Richard Neville calls America “the wildest rogue nation on earth.”

And Hollywood values? Don’t even start me. Could they be why America has the world’s highest rates of clinical depression, despite mentioning “happiness” in its constitution? But even this sadness is a marketing opportunity. The annual report of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly chortled, “Prozac changed everything, and that’s just the beginning.”’

American people (generalising) are warm-hearted, generous, can-do and creative. Americans give big to charities. America sends out deeply Christian missionaries by the thousand. But there are many ways in which America is a dragon-like influence globally.

And that’s now. But have a look at the future through a prophet’s eyes: “He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed” (13:12).

Remember the first beast was the Dark Ages church. So America will enforce a Dark Ages–style Christianity worldwide. The issue is worship—true or false worship. And do the words “authority” and “made” sound like freedom? Ironically, the self-proclaimed home of liberty becomes the global spiritual bully. It forgets God’s truth and justice.

Possessing the Statue of Liberty doesn’t guarantee liberty. Rather, Paul says, liberty is where “the Spirit of the Lord is” (2 Corinthians 3:17) There can’t be freedom in worshipping anyone or anything else.

a worship issue
How does America compel the world to worship? “And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men” (Revelation 13:13). In John’s Gospel, a biography of Jesus, “signs” show Jesus is God. For example, Jesus calls Himself “the light of the world,” then heals a blind man (John 8:12, 9). The “sign” teaches spiritual truth. But here Revelation predicts a religion performing false signs and miracles—man-made special effects and miracles powered by the dark side.

Fire was a sign from God when the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost (Acts 2:3). But here is a fake Pentecost—a false revival—no doubt exciting, but not of God. Fire also came from God when the Elijah prayed, a sign that Elijah was the true prophet and Jezebel’s pagan priests were false (1 Kings 18:38). But here’s the twist: now the false prophet can do signs and miracles.

Watched any tele-evangelists performing healings on Sunday mornings recently? Benny Hinn has been accused of being fraudulent not only by a BBC documentary but also by fellow Christians, including the magic performer David Copperfield’s coordinator of magic.2 This may be one example of what will be a global trend—a “false gospel characterised by sensationalism based on miracles,” a hyped religion stirring your emotions rather than deep, life-changing faith that takes hold in the heart and brings life change.3 Hinn is not particularly convincing, but imagine when the miracles are real, inspired by demons for deceptive power over the masses.

Miracles are not necessarily proof of God’s involvement. That’s important to remember, because understandably most people will be conned by it. Watch this: “Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived” (13:14).

The rise of the
lamb-like beast

Revelation 12:5, 6 says “the woman” (God’s faithful church), because of persecution, would flee to the “wilderness” for a period of “a thousand two hundred and threescore days*” (also “42 months”; “times, two times, and half a time”), a period referred to seven times in the books of Daniel (7:25; 12:7) and Revelation (11:2; 11:3; 12:6; 12:14; 13:5). The end of the time period marks the beginning of the “time of the end,” according to Daniel (11:40; 12:4).
Just as the domination of the “haughty,” “blaspheming” first beast (13:5) is described as coming to an end (13:9), the lamb-like second beast (13:11) is rising to power. John prophesied that at the end of 42 months one of the seven heads of the beast (13:3) would receive a “death blow.”
In 1798 Napoleon’s General Berthier took Pope Pius VI captive, ending a period of papal domination that began in 538 AD.
Papal Rome arose out of Imperial Rome. In 533 AD Justinian, the Eastern Roman emperor, legally recogised the bishop of Rome (the pope) as head of all Christian churches. But the pope was unable to exercise this civilly recognised authority until 538 AD, when Belisarius, one of Justinian’s generals, routed the Ostrogoths from Rome. The pope was thus freed from civil restraint and assumed the role that would continue for the next 1260 years—until another rampaging emperor—Napoleon—humiliatingly swept Pope Pius VI (pictured) from power in 1798, demanding the pope renounce his authority. Upon his refusal he was taken prisoner and died a year later.
* 1 prophetic day = 1 literal year
(see footnote to “Signpost to Christ”)

a new beast
Remember the first beast of the chapter is a religious system that seizes political power. In the future, America will establish another system that is the image of the Dark Ages church. It will believe the same and eventually act the same.

One example: If you believe unbelievers will go to an eternal hell, wouldn’t logic say it is actually a kindness to torture them for a few hours or days if it might make them repent? That’s what the mediaeval church believed – and so it tortured and killed tens of millions. Yet this belief persists. Might it not again cause similar behaviour, a future Dark Ages? (Fortunately more churches now reject the traditional idea of eternal hell, finding it inconsistent with God’s love and contradicted by Scripture.)

Notice, the beast is “given power” to do signs, but it doesn’t come from God. The power is of satanic origins: “He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no-one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name” (13:15-17).

This describes the use of global economic power and violence to enforce worship. The details are not given, so we’ll have to wait and see, but only an economic and military superpower could manage this.

But how will this happen? I asked this question while backpacking in deepest, darkest Africa, on a bus bouncing between tiny villages, sitting beside a woman holding a chicken. How could America enforce anything on these people? I mused.

Then we noticed a Los Angeles R & B band was playing on the stereo of the GM bus, the guy beside us sported a Miami Dolphins T-shirt, the chicken lady proudly wore the Playboy bunny logo, Coca-Cola was for sale from grass huts near the road, and the village’s one TV played CNN and Baywatch and almost all American content.

“America is here,” I said. “There’s no-where on the planet you can escape it.”
“Yes,” said my wife, “but God is here too.”

Exactly. Reading these dark prophetic warnings, it’s important to remember God is real and invisibly present like radio waves, offering grace, leadership and encouragement via His Spirit. God warns us of impersonators because He wants our hearts Himself. He is here, ready to save the weakest person and teach the most ignorant the truth that will make them free.

I can’t imagine the whole world turning religious, and prophecy doesn’t predict that. Some get “the mark” on the “forehead,” which symbolises the mind and will. Others merely follow trends for convenience, outwardly obeying with their “hand” while believing nothing. Either is damning. Real religion affects mind and body, head and hand (Deuteronomy 6:8).

liberty and peace at last
But there is a happy ending. There is a group of people who escape the mark. “Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads?” (Revelation 14:1). Mount Zion symbolises heaven, the afterlife of bliss forever. The number 144,000 is symbolic, not a limit on who can go. These winners don’t need a Lamb-imitating beast; they know the real Lamb who takes away their sin. They have God’s autograph, God’s character written into their minds.

But notice another thing about this group. They “obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). They won’t accept an imitation Jesus, or let any human authority rewrite God’s eternal law of love. Their obey because they trust and love Jesus, who said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15; see also Exodus 20:6). If the whole world is against them, Christ is always for them, and nothing can separate them from God’s love.

For us the bottom line is how close we are to Jesus. If we are learning to follow Him now, we have nothing to fear.

1. Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, page 735, on Revelation 13:11.
2. See the excellent book by Richard Mayhue, The Healing Promise.
3. Ranko Stefanovic, Revelation of Jesus Christ, Andrews University Press, Berrien Springs, 2002, page 424.