The United States in Bible Prophecy

Part 2

 by Steve Ashburn

In Part 1 of this series, we saw how the United States was described in Isaiah 18 as “the land of whirring wings” based on our aircraft industry, and also symbolically by the “wasp” pictured by the westernmost three Great Lakes. Strange as it may seem, the acronym “WASP” also seems to describe our ethnic majority, with the two minor Great Lakes—Lakes Erie and Ontario—symbolizing our two main minorities (blacks and Hispanics). Although this could be just a coincidence, the fact that Isaiah 18 refers to our country as “the land of whirring wings” lends scriptural weight to the theory that God designed the Great Lakes to reinforce this description and, further, somewhat ironically, to describe our ethnic origins as a nation in our native language of English. Amazing, isn’t it?!

Isaiah 18:3 then describes a strange event: All the inhabitants of the earth will “see” when the Lord lifts up “an ensign” (signal or banner) “on the mountains” (the nations), and they will “hear” when he blows a trumpet. This event, I believe, takes place in the lull in between the nuclear war which begins the end times and the next major war, which would be the Ezekiel 38–39 invasion of Israel which ends this period of complacency.

Verse 3 further describes the Lord as resting (“I will take my rest”) during this time of complacency and “will consider in my dwelling place” (lit. “look on my settled place”) like “a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

This last geographical description should be familiar to anyone who has lived in the Midwest. I went to graduate school in Urbana, Illinois, and the countryside for miles around consisted of corn and soybean fields. During the summer, the haze would get so thick that visibility would be less than three miles (for you pilots, the airport “went IFR”), even when the sky was clear. Much of the Upper Mississippi Valley is exactly like that—hot summers that cause haze to rise on the corn and soybean fields and which stay that way until harvest in the fall.

Therefore, verse 3 describes the Lord looking upon the US (“my settled place”) during this time of complacency. But then something happens: A “signal” is raised in every nation, and everyone on earth hears a trumpet. Now what could that possibly be? First Thessalonians 4 gives us the answer:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).

First Corinthians 15 also describes this event:

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51–52).

Indeed “the trumpet shall sound” when Christ returns for his church, and the events of Isaiah 18:3 seem to describe the rapture! This seems to be the trumpet that the entire earth hears, and the sudden disappearance of millions of saints from every nation seems to be the “signal” that is raised in every nation—that the rapture, at long last, has happened.

Why is this bad for the United States? According to a recent Barna poll, forty percent of Americans describe themselves as “born again” Christians; another forty percent identify themselves as nominal Christians. These numbers have not changed much over the years. Only God knows exactly how many Americans truly have been saved by grace through faith in his Son Jesus Christ, but if the poll numbers are anywhere near accurate, a loss of about half our population would deal a devastating blow to the United States.

Think of it: Half of all employees don’t show up for work; half of all mortgages go unpaid; half of all the country’s farmers, electricians, plumbers, police officers, soldiers, and pilots are no longer there.

In contrast, in twenty-two of Europe’s thirty-six countries, less than one percent are born-again Christians. In China and India, the number of Christians is at about two percent. When the rapture occurs, it will hardly impact most countries in the world—but it will be devastating to the United States.

Another factor is that when the end times actually begin, large numbers of Americans will see the unmistakable signs around them and will recognize this period for what it is—that Bible prophecies written long ago have come to pass just as predicted—and realize that Jesus, in fact, is returning in just a few years. That will cause many people to question the reality of their faith, and open many of them to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. This may lead to a national revival like never seen before in our history—and those forty percent of nominal Christians may not be just nominal anymore, but, in reality, become born again by the Holy Spirit upon his convicting them of their sins. Therefore, few may be left after the rapture to defend the country—or even keep the country running. The US may fall simply because of overwhelming odds, not due to any lack of bravery.

Think about that: If the vast majority of our country really is taken in the rapture, there won’t be enough people left to keep basic infrastructure running. That means (let’s assume that all eighty percent, in fact, are taken) there won’t be enough employees left to run electrical power plants, public water supply systems, natural gas pipelines, sewage treatment plants, garbage pickup, transportation of food and goods to market, bus, train, air or trucking transportation, or any kind of local or national defense or law enforcement, and the country would essentially shut down. The US would become “easy pickings” for several million Russian, Chinese, and other invaders.

Although our satellites and our intelligence apparatus (“swift messengers”) will pick up signs of an impending invasion, there will be little the US can do with much of its population gone. Therefore, Isaiah pronounces “woe” upon our country.

It seems unlikely that so many people would be taken—after all, Jesus himself said, “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14). However, this is what Isaiah 18 implies. Apparently, God, in his mercy, will extend the church age perhaps a couple of decades into the end-times period, in one last attempt to call people to repentance by grace, before the awful judgments of the tribulation begin. Isaiah suggests that many—including many Americans—will take advantage of this.

Isaiah 18:5 describes what will happen to the US after that: “he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.” This means that the fruitfulness and productivity of the US will be destroyed. This is consistent with basic infrastructure, agriculture, and manufacturing essentially shutting down due to lack of people to run them.

In addition, verse 6 implies that other nations will invade, conquer, and make a spoil of the US: “They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.”

After the rapture, what’s left of the United States will be left to “the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth” (other nations), and these nations shall “summer upon them, and . . . winter upon them,” meaning they will take our natural resources, agriculture, industries, and riches for themselves. This verse doesn’t imply much in the way of violent military conflict, but rather of other nations moving in to occupy the ghost town formerly known as the United States.

This situation apparently will continue until the Lord Jesus Christ returns to establish his thousand-year kingdom on the earth at the end of the tribulation, more than ten years later. At that time, the United States will be restored as a nation, and they shall—like other nations—regularly bring sacrifice and offering to present to the Lord in Jerusalem, as verse 7 indicates: “In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.”

The conquest of the United States also is seen in Daniel’s vision of the four beasts: “And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it” (Daniel 7:3–4). The timeline for this vision is the period just before and during the end times, and it describes the four major world powers which will dominate the Mediterranean area around Israel. In this vision, the US and Great Britain are pictured as a lion with eagle’s wings. Daniel “beheld till the wings thereof were plucked” (i.e., the US was conquered after the rapture) and the lion was “made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.” Great Britain is left by herself, with most of the military power of the US-British alliance stripped away.

Since the US and Great Britain are no longer the dominant military force in the Mediterranean, that leaves room for the next beast of Daniel to arise: the bear. Daniel 7:5 reads: “And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.” And that bear is: Russia.

Apparently, Russia and her allies will dominate the Middle East after the rapture and the conquest of the United States. This sets the stage for the Russian invasion of Israel as described in Ezekiel 38–39, which I describe in detail in my book, END TIMES DAWNING: Get Ready! (available from www.endtimesrecord.com). Please read it! Also if you would, please like my Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/endtimesrecord.

Yours in Christ,

Steve Ashburn

[This article was published on September 4, 2020]