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Ever since Jesus promised His followers that He would come again, Christians have been longing for our Savior’s return. And in every generation, people have believed theirs was the time, that the events occurring in their generation were fulfillments of biblical end-time prophecy.
The apostle Paul spoke of the gospel being taken to the known world in his day and believed that Jesus’ return was imminent. Many saw the persecutions of the Dark Ages as fulfillment of Bible prophecy and evidence of Christ’s soon return. In the 19th Century, Baptist preacher William Miller’s study of Daniel and Revelation led him to proclaim that Christ would return in 1844. His preaching led to a great revival—but also to a great disappointment when his prediction did not happen. Some of his followers eventually formed the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which makes the second advent of Jesus central in their beliefs. During WWI and WWII, many Christians concluded that the events were surely evidence of the forming of the beast of Revelation and the soon coming of Christ.
Ever since Christ’s resurrection, Christians have believed His second coming would happen in their lifetimes, yet again and again it hasn’t been the case. Why should the events in our day be any different? What reasons do we have to believe that events today make our generation distinctly different from any other in human history? I will give three.
- No safe haven left on planet Earth. While there has been religious persecution throughout human history, at every other time there has always been some place on the earth people of conscience could flee to and find religious liberty. The Americas were a haven for those fleeing religious persecution in Europe. The United States of America was formed upon the principle of religious liberty, the separation of church and state, and freedom of conscience. Since its inception, the USA has been a champion of religious liberty, not only protecting individuals within its borders, but advancing the cause of liberty around the world. During WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, the USA fought to hold back forces that would destroy individual liberties, including freedom of worship.
But today, the USA is betraying its founding principles. Today, the USA is about to remove the protections of liberty. Laws (the Equality Act is one example) are before congress that would make it criminal to speak one’s conscience, to preach one’s religious views, to practice one’s beliefs in their own business dealings. When the USA throws off its core principles of liberty and becomes a persecuting power—a nation that will use power, force, fines, economic pressure, revocation of business or professional license, imprisonment to restrict freedom of speech, assembly, and religion—then the last safe haven will be lost and, for the first time in human history, there will be no place left on the planet for the people of God to flee to and establish a new government of liberty.
This is why many people identify the second beast of Revelation 13, the beast that arises with lamblike horns but eventually speaks like a dragon, as the United States. The lamblike horns represent civil and religious liberty—the Christlike (Lamblike) principles of freedom. These are the founding principles of America. If this beast does in fact represent the USA, which I believe it does, then the Bible predicts it will eventually speak and act like Satan, the dragon—imperially, coercively, and through the taking away of our liberties. Then there will be no safe haven left on the earth, and this will surely mean that we are in the last days and Christ is coming soon.
- The United States blasphemes God. The second beast of Revelation 13 exercises all the power of the first beast before it, and one of the main offenses of the first beast is that it blasphemes God. Blasphemy can be claiming power or authority that is only God’s, like claiming the power to forgive sins; blasphemy can also be disparaging, insulting, or showing contempt for God.
The USA was founded on the belief in a Creator, upon the principles of God-given inalienable rights, which were written into the Declaration of Independence. America was established as a land in which God was honored and respected, in which we put “In God We Trust” on our money and proclaim to live in “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. The United States was founded as a nation that honored the Creator and enshrined this belief and the lamblike principles of liberty and justice for all into its founding documents.
Yet, over the past century, the belief in God has been replaced with godless evolution in our schools, universities, and research centers. Government research grants are denied to research that advances evidence of creation and the Creator. Prohibitions have been ordered to restrict prayer at various public events. Businesses have set policies against sharing one’s faith in the workplace. God’s design for marriage has been replaced, God’s design for human gender supplanted, and those who present biblical values are accused of hate speech.
The impact is that faith in God is being supplanted with a godless worldview and that we are blaspheming God as a nation. According to Pew Research, the number of Americans who identify as Christian has steadily decreased with each generation:
“More than eight-in-ten members of the Silent Generation (those born between 1928 and 1945) describe themselves as Christians (84%), as do three-quarters of Baby Boomers (76%). In stark contrast, only half of Millennials (49%) describe themselves as Christian” (https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/).
As the Silent Generation and the Boomers die off, the population of the USA will become dramatically less Christian. It’s already happening. The values of godlessness are becoming dominant, and the citizenry and government are increasingly denying the founding principles of liberty and blaspheming God by denying His existence and perverting His design for human relationships.
Worse, these same godless leaders, believing we evolved from lower life forms, deny that we were created in the image of God. As a result, they are advancing genetic and cybernetic manipulation of the human being. Through unrestrained genetic engineering and cybernetic augmentation, they are seeking to “evolve” humans to the “next level” of civilization. They don’t believe in a future with a new heaven and new earth recreated to sinless perfection by God; rather, they believe that we humans must save ourselves, save our planet, and create our own future without God.
The second reason why we are in the last days is that the USA is exercising the power of blasphemy against God, fulfilling the prophecy of Revelation chapter 13.
- The USA takes away civil liberties. The third reason is that, in addition to the righteous having no place on earth in which to flee from religious persecution; in addition to the USA turning away from its founding belief in the Creator to godlessness and blaspheming Him, the USA will take away civil liberties. The two lamblike principles (civil and religious liberty) will be replaced with the principles of Satan. Free speech, free assembly, freedom of commerce, freedom over one’s own health management, and freedom of travel will all be restricted and is being restricted. And the USA will lead the rest of the world to follow its dragon-like methods.
The third reason why we are in the last days is that the USA is now advancing policies that restrict civil liberties, and with its restriction of religious liberty is denying the lamblike principles of God and is now speaking like the dragon. There is no land left on earth to which the righteous can flee, and thus the biblical time of the end, the rising of the beastly powers of Revelation, is upon us.
But Jesus told His followers: “On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:25–28 NIV84).
For the righteous, for those who trust Jesus with their lives, for those who have had God’s design law of love written upon their hearts, they have nothing to fear—for Jesus is coming soon to put an end to all the pain, all the suffering, all the abuse, all the injustice, all this sin and to restore His universe to sinless perfection. I encourage you to recognize the time in which we are living, the privilege God has granted us to be part of His end-time people, those commissioned with taking the final message of mercy to the world to prepare all willing people for His return.
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