America Will Fall Like all empires, the U.S. will come to an end.

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On both sides of the political spectrum, many Americans want the nation to be better than it is. Conservatives want to bring America back to a mythical utopia of the past, while liberals want to push America through to a mystical utopia of the future. Both camps are dissatisfied with where things are today. Christians share in this dissatisfaction, though not for the same reasons as citizens of America do. The body of Jesus Christ longs for the fall of America. The followers of Jesus Christ rejoice in the decline of America. The Church of Jesus Christ sees the destruction of America and shouts, “Hallelujah!”

Don’t buy it? It’s true; this isn’t the case for many American Christians. Sadly, this is unfortunate since the Bible points us in this direction. The Bible promises us that America will fall, and it shows how the saints, in Jesus, rejoice over this fact. This isn’t a doom and gloom prophesy; rather, it is the best news of our time. It is the Gospel in action. The fall of America shows us the victory of God.

The New Nation

The Gospel, according to Jesus, may be different from what you’ve heard at church. The Gospel, meaning “good news,” was a political pronouncement of a new nation that was inaugurated by its King. Jesus explains that proclaiming the Gospel (good news announcement) of his Kingdom was why he was sent to us (Luke 4:43). Like any other nation, the Kingdom of God has its own citizenship (Philippians 3:20). The ‘Jesus Nation’ is where God’s will happens here on earth as it does already in heaven (Matthew 6:10). So essentially, the Kingdom of God is where heaven intersects with earth (Revelation 21:1-3). The nation of Christ is here already, but not yet fully. Jesus tells us in two parables what we should expect about the expansion of his Kingdom.

What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.
Mark 4:30-32

In the parable, the mustard seed starts small but grows into the largest of all plants. Jesus is claiming that his nation will start small, but it will grow. Not only will it grow, but it will also become the largest of all nations. The Kingdom of God will continue to grow, and as it does, the rest of the world cannot remain unaffected. Look at how Jesus describes his nation in his next parable.

What shall I compare the Kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.
Luke 13:20-21

Yeasts are single-celled organisms that feed off of simple sugars, breaking them down into carbon dioxide, alcohol (ethanol, specifically), flavor molecules, and energy. This process is referred to as fermentation, and it is what causes bread to rise when baked. How does this explain what the Kingdom of God is like? In the parable, the yeast is Christ’s nation, and the dough is the world. As the yeast is worked through the dough, it will never be the same again. That dough is thoroughly and forever changed. Not only that, the dough is now able to rise and become the bread it was meant to be. Jesus is saying that his Kingdom is starting to permeate the whole world and transform it into how God intended it to be. But if Christ’s nation spreads throughout the entire world, what happens to all the other human-made nations?

The Prophesy of Daniel

After the Israelites were conquered and brought into exile in the empire of Babylon, one man found favor with the king by interpreting his dream (Daniel 2:31-45). King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of a large statue with its head made of gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay (Daniel 2:32-33). In the dream, a rock was cut out of a mountain, not by human hands, that struck the statue’s feet, destroying them and all the other parts of the statue. The wind came and swept away all the pieces without a trace, but the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:35).

What does this have to do with God’s Kingdom and the fall of America? Daniel tells us as he interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The statue represents the kingdoms of the world, with the head of gold being Babylon. The chest and arms of silver represent the kingdom of Medo-Persia, who would conquer Babylon. The belly and thighs of bronze represent the kingdom of Greece, who would conquer Medo-Persia. The legs of iron represent the kingdom of Rome, who would conquer Greece. Daniel’s interpretation includes the feet of iron and clay as part of the fourth kingdom of Rome that would become divided. Finally, Daniel interprets the rock that destroys all those parts of the statue.

In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
Daniel 2:44-45

The rock is Jesus, who grows to turn into a huge mountain that fills the whole earth. This is God’s Kingdom—the nation of Christ. This nation crushes all other kingdoms. This prophecy is further spelled out later in the book of Daniel in chapter 7, where the four empires are described as beasts. The fourth beast, Rome, is described as having ten horns, which historically, has been identified as the ten Roman provinces of Augustus Caesar, who ruled from 27 BC to AD 14 (Daniel 7:7). Daniel says that as the fourth beast was destroyed, he saw the son of man, Jesus, coming on the clouds (Daniel 7:13). Jesus is “given authority, glory, and sovereign power… his dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14).

Daniel’s interpretation and vision show us how empires rise and fall, each succumbing to the weight of their own violence until during the time of the Roman empire, where something unique happens. God brings his own nation through his son, Jesus, which destroys all other nations, and itself cannot be destroyed. This nation, the Kingdom of God, starts off as a small rock but turns into the largest mountain that fills the whole earth, destroying all other nations. This isn’t an event that happens at the end of the world; Daniel describes it as starting during the time of Rome—the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Enemy Number One

Jesus and his nation are said to destroy all other pagan nations because those nations are enemies of God. They are rival nations. People were never meant to rule over other people, and only evil results from trying. Scripture shows us that human-government is a rebellion against God (1 Samuel 8:6-7). Therefore, the richest and most powerful nations—empires—are the largest affront to God. In Daniel’s vision, it is Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome that are destroyed, but they are merely an archetype for humanity’s hubris. God does not want nations and governments other than his own.

Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. He brings princes to nothing, and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
Isaiah 40:17, 23

God regards all the nations as worthless. This includes America. The United States is the largest empire that the world has ever seen. At its largest, Rome spanned through Europe, Africa, and Asia, but just the 48 contiguous states of America are twice Rome’s size.1 Not only that, America has its imperialistic roots in every continent, not just three like Rome. The United States has over 800 military bases in over 70 countries all around the world. If we call Rome an empire, America should be called a super-empire. While the Bible doesn’t mention America specifically by name, it does have a lot to say about empire, and being that America is the largest empire in the history of the world, every word it has to say is magnified and laser-focused on it.

Defeating America

Scripture teaches that those who attempt to rule other people are in rebellion against God. Jesus himself tells us that anyone who has political authority in government has been given that authority by Satan and even more shockingly that they have to worship him to obtain it. This means that every ruler in governments is a tool of Satan, at least to some degree. These people are deceived, and therefore they are used by Satan to deceive others (2 Timothy 3:13). These deceptions lead the whole world astray (Revelation 12:9). While the center of Christ’s message and calling for our lives is to love everyone, including our enemies, we have to understand that the devil gives rulers and authorities their power. Therefore, we love them as people, we pray for these people, but we recognize that Satanic spiritual forces fundamentally animate their power.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12

While our war isn’t against people, as Paul explains, it is against rulers, authorities, powers, and against the spiritual forces of evil. The Greek words used for ‘rulers’ and ‘authorities’ are ‘archas’ and ‘exousias.’ Paul uses these same words when describing how God will overcome the world.

The end will come, when He will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler, authority, and power.
1 Corinthians 15:24

Because Jesus has now been set up as King, his mission, through his Body, is to destroy every ruler and authority. Rulers and authorities are any people who have decided that they will forcibly dominate others. This includes kings, prime ministers, emperors, presidents, and others in human governments. God is at war with these false rulers. The Church joins God in this political protest. As disciples of Jesus, we use the spiritual weapon of truth to demolish the strongholds of nationalism, patriotism, and statism (2 Corinthians 10:4). The validity of Christ’s rule shows us the invalidity of every other human ruler. Since those in government, like whoever happens to be the president, don’t have the right to rule, they are in opposition to God, and they will fall.

Rejoice!

Just as Israel was in exile in the empire of Babylon, so too did the early Church consider themselves exiles in the empire of Rome. Followers of Jesus are described in Scripture as foreigners, exiles, and strangers in the nation that they live (Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 1:17, 2:11). As citizens of God’s Kingdom, the same is true for Christians living in the empire of America. We are exiles who live at peace with those around us but yearn and long for deliverance from empire.

The book of Revelation describes the most powerful manifestation of the enemy of God’s people—Babylon. No, not the literal empire of Babylon that rose and fell before the time of Jesus. In Revelation, ‘Babylon’ is a reference to Rome, the Babylon of the author’s day. The target of Revelation’s prophetic critique is civil religion (patriotic nationalism) and injustice (military, economic, political, and religious oppression). While the name ‘Babylon’ means Rome, it also means something more than Rome. The fact that the word ‘Rome’ is absent is significant. ‘Babylon’ cannot be limited in significance to the first century. As theologian Richard Bauckham says, “Any society whom Babylon’s cap fits must wear it.”2 Thus, Revelation is also a critique of all nations similar to it throughout history and into the present.

America’s scope and power make it far more destructive than any empire before it. America is a nation who committed the genocide of an entire people in order to steal their land. The natives who lived here were systematically murdered in numbers that reached almost one hundred times the total population of the Roman empire. America goes to war with whoever opposes her, leaving death and destruction in her wake. America imposes crippling economic sanctions on any other nation that dares to not comply, resulting in the starvation and death of hundreds of thousands of children. America overthrows any other national leader who does not sell its oil using her dollars, causing social unrest and riots in political coups’ efforts. America borrows trillions of dollars without any long term way of paying it back. The ‘Babylon’ in Revelation is a description of America.

Revelation sings the rejoice of Babylon’s prophesied fall and destruction. Read it’s heavenly proclamation with the word ‘Babylon’ changed to ‘America.’

I saw an angel coming down from heaven. With a mighty voice he shouted:

“Fallen! Fallen is America the Great!
For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The rulers of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the corporations of the world grew rich from her excessive luxuries.
Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
Rejoice, you people of God!
Rejoice, apostles and prophets!
For God has judged her,
the great nation of America will be thrown down,
never to be found again.”

After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.”

And again they shouted:

“Hallelujah!”

Revelation 18:1-4, 20-21, 19:1-3

Allegiance to the Only King

God, through his Body, will destroy every ruler and authority. This won’t happen through violence; it will happen through the spread of Christ’s truth. Christians must shed their allegiance to a pagan empire of the world. If you are entangled with that which God vows to destroy, your own destruction will be inevitable. President Lincoln famously said that America is “the last best hope of earth.” What a destructive, Satanic lie. If you have hope in America, it is a false hope. America will fall. Put your hope and allegiance in the Kingdom of God—Christ’s nation.

Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.
C.S. LewisMere Christianity

The nation of Jesus will never fall; it will “endure forever” (Daniel 2:44). All other nations will be “reduced to nothing” (Isaiah 40:23). All their rulers and authorities will be “destroyed” (1 Corinthians 15:24). The Kingdom of God “will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14).

Since Satan is the god of this world and holds authority over the nations, we should rejoice in their downfall. The fall of America is part of the good news announcement that Scripture calls the Gospel. As America crumbles, it is a reminder of Christ’s victory. This hope is obvious for smaller nations that America has subjugated, but it should also be clear for all followers of Jesus.

The Restoration of God’s Creation

The ruin of America does not mean the world is getting worse. For those who have eyes to see the truth of the Kingdom, the fall of America means the world is getting better. Empires must fall because their authority lies in Satan. Rulers and authorities must be destroyed in order to make room for Christ’s nation. “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15 NLT)

He disarmed the rulers and authorities, [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:15

Jesus was victorious on the cross. Christ was given his crown, and by being nailed to a cross, he was placed on his throne. The rulers and authorities (the prime ministers and presidents) have been put to shame as Jesus triumphed over them on the cross. Now Jesus is in charge. “He is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:10). God “raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). Jesus is now “at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to him” (1 Peter 3:22). “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” declared the risen Jesus (Matthew 28:18). Even according to the book of Revelation, Jesus is already—prior to his second coming—”the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5; 17:14; 19:16) The entire New Testament declares it.

Empires, sin, death, and evil itself have been conquered, but not yet eradicated. Jesus calls us to join with him, empowered by his spirit, to extinguish the works of the devil with the truth of his Kingship (1 John 3:8). The victory against empires like America means that God wins: “It is done!” (Revelation 16:17; 21:6). The new creation inaugurated in the death and resurrection of the Lamb can now be completed (Revelation 21:5). In Revelation, the Church celebrates the victory it has longed for only because the judgment of Babylon means the salvation of the world. But for this to be realized, American Christians need to “come out of her, so that they will not share in her sins,” and forsake their American citizenship (Revelation 18:4).

Give your full allegiance to Jesus and his nation. Accept citizenship in the Kingdom and become a foreigner and exile in America. Spread the truth that Jesus alone is King, and he alone has the right to rule. Take part in the mission of his Body as we destroy every ruler and authority. Work hard as God restores the world through his children. Rejoice, you people of God, and shout, “Hallelujah! Fallen! Fallen is America the Great!”

Footnotes

  1. The Roman Empire’s maximum size was under the emperor Trajan who died in AD 117 and was about 5 million square kilometers. The United States’ total land area is 9,833,520 square kilometers, not counting its territories.
  2. Bauckham, Richard. The Theology of the Book of Revelation (New Testament Theology). Cambridge University Press.