Is America in prophecy? Yes, it is. As a Middle East analyst and minister who has worked closely with leaders in that region for decades, I tended to be skeptical of attempts to come up with schemes to plug America into prophetic interpretations. I have often referred to such teachers as "Pop Prophecy Peddlers." But, after thousands of hours of research, I am totally convinced that America is found in prophecy, and I believe you will, too, after reading this book.
In a nutshell, here is how the United States fits into Bible prophecy. America has married two brothers, both descendants of ancient Abraham, who was told by God to get out of Ur of the Chaldees (modern day Iraq).
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:1-3 NIA)
One of these marriages was based on America's guilt over its appeasement policies, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. America has attempted to use a tiny democratic state in the midst of a sea of instability in the Middle East-Israel-to assist in deterring communism, fascism, and terrorism. The marriage to the other brother, Ishmael, was one of convenience. A mortal enemy of the younger brother, Ishmael brought a dowry of black gold (oil) to the marriage, and then used it to blackmail America.
The Middle East is home to two-thirds of the world's global oil reserves. OPEC presently accounts for 40 percent of the world's oil imports. According to the International Energy Agency, by 2030 that figure is expected to rise to 60 percent. By that time, the Middle East will supply 50 percent of U.S. oil imports, 50 percent of European imports, 80 percent of China's imports, and 90 percent of Japan's imports.
While Middle Eastern oil flows to the West, we ship arms in their direction. In fact, the Middle East region is currently America's number one client in the world for weapons of war. The U.S. has sold Saudi Arabia alone more than $200 billion in weapons since the 1980s.
Even after September 11, petrodollars earned by countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Libya have been used to sponsor terrorism, produce weapons of mass destruction, and finance a gospel of hatred that is brainwashing millions of Islamic youth. Yet America has been unwilling to admit that it is being blackmailed, let alone draw a line in the sand against it. Many Islamic regimes know that while they have the oil, as Ariel Sharon once said, "We have the matches." It's time for the U.S. to stand up to these bullies and quit capitulating to blackmail. Our future depends on it.
While we know that Israel has had nuclear strike capabilities since at least the late 1960s, today Islamic nations are very close to having their finger poised over the red button as well. It appears that at least one of these nations may have suitcase nuclear bombs paid for by oil sales to America. In addition to this, the Washington Post reported the following on December 21, 2003:
Documents provided by Iran to UN nuclear inspectors since early November have exposed the outlines of a vast, secret procurement network that successfully acquired thousands of sensitive parts and tools from numerous countries over a 17-year period...While American presidents since Ronald Reagan worried that Iran might seek nuclear weapons, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies were unable to halt Iran's most significant nuclear acquisitions, or even to spot a major nuclear facility under construction until it was essentially completed...Iran's pilot facility, which is now functional, and a much larger uranium-enrichment plant under construction next door are designed to produce enough fissile material to make at least two dozen nuclear bombs each year.
Through these two political-and spiritual-marriages, America has stepped into the center of the prophetic storm. America now finds herself trying to accommodate an ancient Jew-hating older brother (Ishmael) who has refused to make peace with the younger (Isaac). In order to live with both, America has appeased them with bombs and bribes-(more than $400 billion in military equipment and $100 billion in aid).
I've heard the same argument about the impact of Islamic fundamentalism again and again. Liberal politicians and special-interest groups continue to propagate a myth that Islam is a peaceful religion. But think about this for a moment. Islam has around one billion adherents worldwide. The actual number is probably higher, but one billion is a nice, even number for the sake of argument. Now, even if 90 percent of the Islamic world is peaceful, as Prince Khalid assured me, it still places the planet at the brink of the greatest crisis of history. Even if 99.9 percent of the Islamic world is completely nonviolent, we are still in grave danger. If only one-tenth of 1 percent of all Muslims were radical Islamists, that is still a staggering number: It means that one million people are intent on killing us. It took only nineteen hijackers to wreak massive destruction on the United States on September 11. Each one of those men believed he was on a divine assignment from God.
The terrorists' war against America and Israel is rooted in this radical religious doctrine called Islamic fundamentalism. This distorted Islamic belief is very difficult for Americans to comprehend, partly because our modern secular world is still getting past the long conflict between science and religion-which most assume was won long ago by science and secularism. Suddenly, a religious adversary is attacking mighty secular America. It's no longer just the streets of Jerusalem that are threatened, but those of New York and Washington.
In April 2003, while the U.S. was in the midst of the Persian Gulf War, I wrote a book that ultimately became a New York Times best seller, Beyond Iraq: The Next Move. In the book, I stated my belief that weapons of mass destruction were in Syria. I also stated that, compliments of the Syrian government and the Iraqi embassy in Damascus, money and key Iraqi leaders were being moved through Syria. This, in my opinion, explains why President Bush had to move so quickly-Saddam Hussein was moving the WMDs and the funds to disseminate them out of Iraq.
There is no question in my mind that the U.S. must quickly close the borders of Syria to contain Saddam Hussein's money and weapons of mass destruction. I believe America will ultimately have to go to war against Syria, a much more dangerous terrorist-harboring state than Iraq. Hopefully, that war can be fought through economic and diplomatic means without the shedding of American blood. If not, America will still have to shut down the engine of terror in Syria.
Numbers of Americans have died because Syria allowed Islamic martyrs to use their country as a pipeline from other Arab states into Iraq to attack the "infidels" (American soldiers). There is no doubt that Israel will have to go into Iran and take out their nuclear reactor, and do it quickly (in the same way they did in Iraq). America will likely encourage Israel to do so, and then deny any involvement, as they did in the 1980s.
America will have to allow Israel to fight their war against terrorism that has never been fought. Israel must root out the terrorist organizations in the territories, and they will have to do it themselves. The war on terrorism will never be won as long as the Palestinian territories remain the point of exportation for suicide bombers. The dissemination of media propaganda that enrages the masses in the Palestinian territories must also be stopped.
True hope for peace lies in discerning the truth and acting on it, not in believing myths propagated by liberal power brokers and in ignoring bigotry. Yet too many people in America view the real enemy as the "narrow-minded, right-wing, Bible-thumping Christians" who believe in black and white, right and wrong. The same people who see conservative Christians as the enemy often legitimize the acts of cold-blooded murderers as steps to obtain freedom and peace. These apostles of appeasement have raised the hopes of the Islamic fanatics so high that the national security of America is now at stake. Equally as important, our very freedoms are at stake.
If America had maintained moral clarity, Iran might have continued to be a pro-Western country. Iraq might never have gone to war against Iran, a war that took the lives of 1.2 million Arabs. The U.S. certainly would not have assisted them in doing so. The U.S.S.R. might not have invaded Afghanistan, and America would not have armed and trained thousands of terrorists throughout the Middle East to fight the Soviets. These same American-trained and American-armed terrorists-Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda being the most infamous example-have now turned on America. The truth is, America might never have ended up in this mess if we had maintained our conservative policies of not negotiating with terrorists.
America is the mightiest nation on earth and has long been a partaker of God's blessings. It's time to ask ourselves, "Why?" America comprises only 7 percent of the world's population and is in possession of more than half the world's wealth. America has 63 percent of the world's manufacturing goods, 74 percent of the world's automobiles, 52 percent of the world's trucks, 56 percent of the world's telephones, 47 percent of the world's radios, 46 percent of the world's electrical output, 52 percent of the world's steel, 35 percent of the world's petroleum, and consumes 35 percent of the world's energy.
Yet, during the past few decades, America has seen her "culture polluted, God dethroned, and her heroes defiled." Bible-believing Americans have been demonized as bigots and extremists. God has been taken out of schools, courts, and town squares, and even our Pledge of Allegiance-"one nation, under God"-has been challenged. The same moral compromise that has infected our domestic policy has also infected our foreign policy. In the 1990s, terrorists could clear customs and set up shop inside our borders.
There is absolutely no question that God's hedge of protection was lifted from America. September 11 was a curse on our beloved nation, but worse is the fact that most Americans don't understand why it happened. I believe it will happen again, and again and again, and much worse, if Americans do not wake up to the truth.
The final battle in prophecy will take place in Israel. It is a battle line drawn through the heart of the city of Jerusalem, whose disposition has repeatedly thwarted peace efforts in the Middle East. Palestinians have been offered their own state time and again-first in 1947 by the United Nations, then in 1991 at the Madrid Conference after the Gulf War, then at the Wye River talks, and then again in a desperate President Bill Clinton's final days in office. But the major stumbling block on the way to peace has always been the control of East Jerusalem, the historic City of David where the Temple Mount rests-the very spot where heaven and earth met, and will meet again, and where the most dangerous prophecies concerning the nations of the world are written in the stones. It all begins with, "But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel."
As the 21st century has dawned, no nation stands as prominently between these two brothers, Isaac and Ishmael, as the United States of America. Since Israel's declaration of statehood on May 14, 1948, when the U.S. was the first nation to recognize its existence, to Israel's defense in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and the defense aid we have given ever since, no nation has stood by Israel as we have. On the other hand, since 1945, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with Hitler-supporting King ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and promised that no U.S. decision regarding the Middle East would be made without first consulting the Arabs, neither has any nation been more closely linked to the Muslim nations in that region. I wonder if his death within weeks of making this decision was simply a coincidence.
Our influence on both sides goes much farther back. What these relationships have done is to make the United States the only nation that is the honest/dishonest broker trusted by both Ishmael and Isaac to barter peace between them. And this has placed America squarely in the eye of the storm of biblical prophecy.
