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NOWHERE!
America… This great nation… “One nation, under God…” Founded on biblical principles… is nowhere explicitly mentioned in the Bible!
We can find detailed prophecies involving Israel, Russia, Iran, Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia and many other contemporary nations. Not so for the United States.
We find it incredible that our great nation would not be in the Bible but it’s true. That’s not to say that America won’t exist in the Last Days; or that we won’t play a role in the drama leading up to the end. Still, the silence of the Scriptures is cause for concern.
Will America will fall from within? Certainly our moral corruption is getting worse and worse.
Will America will be destroyed by nuclear attack? By terrorism?
We just don’t know!
Something we do know is that during the period of time called the Great Tribulation the world will be divided into regional socio-political power blocs. The western nations will be led by the head of a revived Roman Empire.
I know what you’re thinking. The United States would never become a part of some ‘western region’ led by the European leader of the revived Roman Empire.
If we continue as a nation, that might be exactly what happens. In fact some people believe it’s happening right now!
Maybe you’ve never heard about the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Many people were not even aware that such a partnership existed until protests at the August 2007 SPP meeting in Quebec made news.
The SPP could be laying the groundwork for the same kind of regional plan that led Europe to form the European Union (EU). A North American Union (NAU) between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico isn’t that farfetched. Given the right conditions you could see how the NAU & the EU might one day merge into one Western power bloc.
What would be the ‘right conditions?’ I can think of one – the rapture of the church.
Jesus – the Person who fulfilled over three hundred (300) Bible prophecies and twenty-nine (29) in just one day – said this:
John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
John 14:2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
A little over two-thousand years ago Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven to start work on a subdivision project. He said that He would return for believers and bring us there – to Heaven, to our mansions.
Here is how it will happen:
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Believers who have died in the centuries since Jesus went to Heaven will be resurrected. Believers who are alive when the Lord returns “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.”
The words “caught up” are translated from the Greek word harpazo, which means to carry off, snatch up, or grasp hastily. The translation from harpazo to rapture involved two steps:
First, harpazo became the Latin word raptus.
Second, raptus became the English word rapture.
The rapture is always imminent. It could occur at any moment. Nothing needs to happen before Jesus can come in the air, catch up the believers from the earth, and then return to Heaven with them.
What if the rapture happened today? Consider the following:
85% of Americans claim to be Christians. They may be cultural Christians but this is how they identify themselves.
Among the Christians, 41% of Americans claim to be born-again Christians.
Among the born-again Christians, 8% of American adults identify themselves as evangelical Christians.
This 8% figure represents about fifteen to twenty million American adults. If you add in kids the number is perhaps greater than thirty million.
Other stats put the total number of evangelical Christians in America at closer to sixty-five million.
Take a conservative number of Americans who claim to be evangelical – say only twenty-five million. That is approximately double the entire population of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston combined.
Can you even begin to imagine the effects on our country when tens of millions of Americans suddenly disappear when Jesus raptures us?
Industry, government, the military, business, agriculture, education, medicine, transportation, and communication will all collapse.
Not to mention the terrible disasters that will occur. Cars, planes, trains, and boats will crash. It will be chaos. America will be devastated.
America will be forced to partner with its North American neighbors and its European allies in order to survive.
The future of our great nation must remain speculation. But the return of Jesus is not! It is prophecy – Bible prophecy – which will be fulfilled exactly as written.
Jesus is coming to resurrect the dead and rapture His church home to Heaven.
The real question isn’t what will happen to America. It is what will happen to you.
Are you ready to be raptured?
Ready or not, Jesus is coming!
