__________________________________________________________________________________________

America in Bible Prophecy

Is America mentioned in Bible prophecy?  Many people speculate as to whether the President is the antichrist, and as new Presidents take the hot seat, you will find many websites declaring this new President as the antichrist.  But this is just pure speculation, with no Biblical truth to back it up, and as we learned from the little horn study, the main antichrist system is none other than the Roman Catholic Church, otherwise known as 'The Papacy'.  But this doesn't mean that America therefore has no role in Bible prophecy.  On the contrary, in the book of Revelation in chapter 13, we see two beasts, the 'sea' beast and the 'earth' beast.  So there isn't just one player in the end times, but two.  The sea beast is known as the antichrist, which is the Roman Catholic Church (for a complete study on the sea beast, see who is the antichrist), and the earth beast is known as the 'false prophet'.  It's this false prophet, the earth beast that we will be focusing on.

Now many people are waiting for one person to fulfill the role of antichrist.  They believe that the antichrist is yet to appear.  But this teaching came from the Jesuits as a counter to the great reformation, which pointed to the Roman Catholic Church as the antichrist.  This teaching of a "future" antichrist by the Jesuits was proclaimed and spread around the world to take the focus off the Papal Church of Rome as being the true antichrist system, and it unfortunately worked, because countless Christians around the world are now waiting for this single charismatic leader to appear as antichrist.  Fortunately you can find the truth here, as we use the Bible as the only source of authority, together with actual historical facts.

Let's take a brief look at the sea beast of Revelation 13 first and look at the defining characteristics of it.  This will then lead us onto finding America in prophecy.  You will see that this sea beast is synonymous with the little horn power of Daniel 7. ..... Revelation 13:1 .....'And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea,  ..... A beast in prophecy represents a kingdom power (see Daniel 7:17).  The sea (water) in bible prophecy represents people, nations, tongues (see Revelation 17:15).  So this kingdom rises to power amongst many people and nations, which can only be the nations of Europe.  The little horn power also arose to power amongst the other ten horns, which represented the 10 kingdoms of Europe after the fall of Rome.  We have a match with the Roman Catholic Church, as she rose to power in amongst the kingdoms of Europe after the fall of Rome.

Revelation 13:3 .....'And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.' ..... So this kingdom power would receive a deadly wound, which would then later be healed.  In 1798 the French marched into Rome and captured the pope.  He then died in captivity and the power of the Papal Church was gone.  Everyone thought that the Papal Church was dead and had come to an end.  But in 1929 Mussolini signed a treaty with the Roman Catholic Church giving them political power once again.  So the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, comes back to life - The Roman Catholic Church!

Revelation 13:5 .....'And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.' ..... Speaking great things and blasphemy is the same as what the little horn did.  This beast continues for 42 months, which is 1260 days.  This is prophetic time actually equates to 1260 years.  This is the exact same time period that the little horn power continues.  The Roman Catholic Church came to power in 538AD and continued for 1260 years until 1798.

Revelation 13:7 .....'And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.' ..... So this beast is a persecuting power, just like the little horn in Daniel 7.  The Papal Church of Rome (Roman Catholic Church) persecuted and killed millions upon millions of Christians during it's reign of power between 538-1798.

Revelation 13:10 .....'He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.' ..... So the last description of this beast confirms that it will go into captivity and be killed.  Well, we know that the Papal Church of Rome went into captivity and received it's mortal wound in 1798.  The next verse in Revelation 13 describes John seeing this second beast rising out of the earth.  So this second beast comes to power around about the time that the Papal church goes into captivity in 1798.  Is there a nation that rose to power around this time?  Yes!  That nation is America.  In 1776 the USA declared it's independence and became a recognized world power by the time of 1798.  So the timing fits America, as no other new nation came to power on earth during that time the way America did.

Is America the Earth Beast?

What about the fact that this second beast came out of the earth.  Does that have any significance?  Let's look at the verse ..... Revelation 13:11 .....'And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.' ..... Well, if you noticed, the first beast rises out of the sea (water), which represented peoples, nations and tongues, a very populated area, which was Europe.  So logic would tell you that the earth which this second beast rises out of is the opposite, ie. a sparsely populated area.  This matches the nation of America, as it rose to power out of a sparse, largely uninhabited land.  The land of America wasn't populated until the 1700's.  Many of the first people who populated the new land of America were the Christians who were fleeing the persecutions of the Roman Catholic Church.  Now this earth beast also has horns like a lamb and speaks like a dragon.  What could that mean?  Well, we know from Daniel 7 that horns in bible prophecy is a symbol of kings or kingdoms.  Were there two kingdom or government powers that America was based on?  Yes!  The Constitution and the Bill of rights, which stand for Civil liberty and Religious liberty.  This nation of America was based upon 'Republicanism' (a government without a king) and 'Protestantism' (a church without a pope).  The lamb represents Jesus in the Bible and this nation was lamb like in it's principles, in that it established religious freedom.  Freedom to choose, just as God has given us freedom to choose to follow Him or not (note, it would be an unwise choice not to follow Him).  The people who fled to America were escaping the oppression of Papal Rome, who were forcing people to follow their doctrines.  Unfortunately, as verse 11 confirms, this nation of America will speak as a dragon.  Now Bible prophecy in Revelation 12 reveals that the dragon is satan.  So this nation will at some point in these end times speak as satan.  It has always been satan's aim to crush God's people, and has tried it with the Roman Church, and now he is going to use the USA also to persecute God's true remnant church.

In 1754, John Wesley in his note on Revelation 13:11, said of this beast, "He is not yet come, tho he cannot be far off, for he is to appear at the end of the forty two months of the first beast."  - Explanatory notes upon the New Testament, 1791 ed, Vol 3, page 299.

Revelation 13:12 .....'And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.' ..... America will become a persecuting power just like the first beast, the Roman Catholic Church, and will cause the earth to bow down to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, the antichrist.  They will start doing away with the constitution on which the nation was built upon and demand worship of the Papal church, which is the first beast.  We can see today in 2009, that the government, lead by President Obama are slowly eroding away the constitution and the bill of rights, and the freedoms that Americans once enjoyed are slowly being done away with.  Many of the freedoms, like freedom of speech are being taken away from the people.  This earth beast is also known as the false prophet (Revelation 19:20; 20:10).  To be a false prophet, you would have to appear to be a follower of Jesus, but your teachings and actions expose you as false.  Just like America appears to be a religious nation, but it's actions are now showing it to be false. 

America began as a lamb, but is now speaking like a dragon!

Revelation 13:13-15 .....'And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.' ..... So this beast does great miracles and wonders and even causes fire to come down from heaven.  There is a movement in America that has been growing for some years.  That movement is the 'fresh fire' movement, where people believe they receive spiritual fire (the Holy Spirit) which brings about things like speaking gibberish, falling about laughing and other silly things, and they call it revival?!  This is not of God, it is false fire.  The healing movement has also been gaining great strength over the years.  Many people world over are being deceived by these things, just as Bible prophecy in Revelation says above.  Now if you notice, this beast also makes an image to the first beast (Roman Catholic Church).  Many highly regarded protestant leaders are campaigning for not only a union of Church and State, but to enforce a Sunday law.  This is an exact copy of the Papal Church in Rome, which is a Religio-Political power, which has started enforcing Sunday laws again.  This image to the beast is not going to be a literal statue like many believe.  This belief was brought about by the Jesuits to take people's eyes off the Roman Church.  This image is a prophetic symbol, just like the many other symbols in Revelation, and it is a symbol of the Protestant churches in America, which are campaigning for a union of church and state, and for the church to direct the government, just like Papal Rome.

Take a look at this quote from the 'Christian Coalition of America' website:  "You have come to the largest conservative grassroots political organization in America.  Christian Coalition offers people of faith the vehicle to be actively involved in impacting the issues they care about - from the county courthouse to the halls of congress.  The coalition is a political organization..... Today Christians need to play an active role in government again like never before."  -  Website of Christian Coalition-www.cc.org/about_us

So we have the sea beast (Roman Catholic Church), the earth beast (America) and the image of the (sea) beast (Protestant Churches of America).  America will cause the earth to bow down to the image of the Roman Catholic Church, that image being the protestant churches in America who are bringing about the one world church.  The aim of this one world church is to unite all denominations and faiths and to all have a common cause.  But force will be used, which goes against what Jesus is about.  They will force the world to accept their teachings and laws and cause the world to receive the mark of the beast.  Anyone who refuses will be punished and possibly killed.  This is all about worship.  Satan wants to divert your worship from God to him, and he is doing it through the Roman Catholic Church and America.  You may say that you cannot see how this could happen.  Friend, Bible prophecy never fails!  The walls of separation between church and state in America are slowly but surely coming down, and very soon there will be religious laws enforced in America and the world will follow.  You need to choose who you want to worship.  Do you want to worship God and enter eternal life?  Or do you want to follow the world in worshiping satan, and enter the lake of fire?  It sounds harsh, but it's the truth.  The choice is yours. 

So is America in Bible prophecy?  Absolutely!  America is the two horned earth beast of Revelation 13, and you will see it fulfilling the role of the earth beast more and more over the coming years.

For more bible truths that are relevant to this study, see the bible antichrist;  and the sabbath day truth.