Some reflections on American hegemony from Revelation chapter 13

There are various ways people interpret the book of Revelation. One view, recently growing in popularity, holds that the book of Revelation contains no prophecies that we can look to for fulfillment, now or at any time in the future--at least, not in this life.

If this is your position, you won't find anything of value in what follows. If it isn't, read on. In either case, you can't say you weren't warned.

WHAT DOES REVELATION THIRTEEN BODE FOR AMERICA?

America is known as "the world's only superpower."
As an indication of this unique status, consider that The United States Department of Defense budget, just passed by Congress, is larger than the military budgets of all other countries in the world COMBINED. Thus it could be said of a militarily mobilized America (something the world has not seen in the lifetime of over 90% of its inhabitants), "Who is like America? Who is able to make war with America?"

But these words are not spoken of America in Revelation chapter thirteen. They are spoken of a nebulous kingdom, as anthropomorphically represented by the equally nebulous "Beast". Could this "Beast" be America?

I can't exclude the possibility that in the days to come, America will be at least a part of the Beast of Revelation. But I offer here the likelihood that "The Beast" is a kingdom exclusive of America, and the fact of its future invincibility bodes very ill for the future prosperity of what will obviously have to become the world's FORMER superpower, when Revelation chapter thirteen comes to fulfillment.

Note the following description of the world's coming superpower:

1. It arises from the Sea. The 'sea' in prophecy refers to the Gentile nations. Certainly America could meet this checkpoint, as like no other nation on earth it is a conglomeration of every nation under heaven. But the nations of Europe are rapidly losing their national characters as they themselves are being inundated with immigrants from the world over, even as America was in previous centuries.

2. It has seven heads and ten horns. Horns always represent monarchies in prophecy, and there has never been an American monarchy. However, there are presently TEN European monarchies, THREE of which lost power in the 20th century ( but two of them have since been restored to power). Now it sounds like the Beast could well be Europe.

3. The Beast is of composite character. Its makeup is symbolically represented by:
1) A Leopard.
2) A Bear.
3) A Lion.

Note how such a symbolism could not describe any empire today. The leopard is not a national symbol of any country, but if it were, it would have to be a country in Africa, the only place where the leopard is now native. The Bear primarily symbolizes Russia, which has never been part of a European empire. The Lion could symbolize any number of European countries which use it on their heraldic crests. But totally absent from this conglomeration is the Eagle (which IS part of a composite creature--not a kingdom--in chapter one), the national symbol of the United States (and, I might add, of Austria, on whose crest it appears as a double eagle).

Thus it appears that this superpower to come is larger than any Empire today. The Axis Empire, such as it was--stretching from the Arctic to the Southern Tropics, and holding sway over the North Atlantic and the Western Pacific--surely came close, but it fell before the mobilized might of a single nation, which went on to become the World's Only Superpower. Obviously, for an empire to attain this height of power, and hold it, the United States must either be subsumed into it, or first cease to exist as a military power.

4. It gets its initial power from Satan himself.
This could never be said of the United States. The Founding Fathers, even those who usually considered themselves Deists, could not deny that their country owed both its founding and continued existence to God's providence. Although they attempted to formulate its constitution in purely humanistic terms, the underlying assumption, as stated by the Fathers themselves, was that America could only be governed by the system they had set up if America held firm to its Godly foundations. And for over three hundred years there was no doubt that America was a christian nation. Not so for the new United States of Europe, where God is deliberately excluded from the Constitution, and all religious expression is equally discriminated against. There is already an Empire in the making of which it could not be said that God or Godliness had any part in its founding; and the United States is not a part of that empire in any way, nor does it appear that it ever will be.

5. It initiates a worldwide system of identification for the purpose of regulating commerce.
I mention "the mark of the beast" here because any time a new form of such identification is announced in the United States, officials are always quick to assure the American Public that "this is NOT 'the mark of the beast'." Such an announcement would hardly be necessary in today's secularized Europe. This bodes ill for the continuation of the underlying christian culture of America. In order for this new imperium to go into effect, Christianity will either be subsumed into the New World Order, or will first have been rendered politically powerless. This does not bode well in the long run for Christians who hope to change the world, or at least their own powerful nation, by getting involved in the political process.
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So we can see that an Empire is coming that will displace America from its present position of hegemony, if it still has it by then.

There are numerous implications in this view:

1) The United Nations will no longer be headquartered in New York City, so far from the seat of its future power. Does this mean that they will leave quietly, abandoning their multi-billion dollar complex on the East River? More likely it means that New York City, already the repeated target of terrorist attacks, will be so effectively destroyed that the UN will be forced to seek a new home. This does not bode well in the long run for plans to rebuild the World Trade Center, or investments in the Financial Sector headquartered on Wall Street.

2) Investors following the philosophy of "always bet on the growth of America" have been right over the long term, but such a philosophy is doomed to fail if America itself loses its present position as a military, economic, and political superpower.

3) The repercussions of this happening will be staggering on a global scale. Without the stabilising influence of American hegemony, anarchy will break out everywhere. The emergence of a ruler who can provide security and prosperity--at the price of liberty--will be virtually inevitable, thus ensuring the rise of the Kingdom of the Beast.

By the way, America's doom is sealed by just one passage in Zechariah chapter twelve:

"For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the women ravished, and half the city exiled . . . . Then Yahowah will go forth and fight against those nations. . . . and Yahowah will be king over all the earth."

America, if it still then exists, will be one of those nations.