This is why the United States has to disappear as world leader

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I was born in 1960. I grew up seeing the United States respond to President Kennedy's exhortation to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely to earth, which was accomplished in 1969. I saw rockets lift off and wondered at their power, and marveled at a country that could make it happen. I watched the ticker tape parade for the returning astronauts. I watched interstates be built and cars and more cars emerge from Detroit. I saw President Nixon resign, and while that was a sad moment four our country, I was filled with pride as Gerald Ford took the Oath of Office and loved how our nation was orderly in transition. I saw the space shuttle take off and set down, cradling space travelers inside. I saw The US Olympic Hockey team beat the Russians, a truly heroic athletic feat. The US was always by Israel's side. I was proud that we, as a nation, would stand by our friends and that they knew it and took strength in that fact. We were no France.

This was the food of my youth and early adulthood. My country was a shining city upon a hill. I mean it was literally a shining city, the full name of the statue is "Liberty Enlightening the World". Liberty's torch glowed out over New York Harbor and to the Atlantic Ocean, beckoning millions to our shores in search of a better life, including both my paternal great-grandparents and my maternal grandparents. America's might was known throughout the world. Our generosity in humanitarian aid was known too. It was a given that our diplomats would be at the table, no matter what the issue was. After 1991 when the old Soviet Union collapsed, the United States of America was the only remaining world superpower.

USS Nimitz, Wiki photo, public domain

A world without the United States continuing the same as it had been was incomprehensible.

That was why, in 2006 and 2007 and even 2008 as I studied prophecy, it was strange to read in Zechariah that in the last times, Israel would have no friends? WHAT?!?! No United States with arm around her side? Impossible, said many. America is an exceptional nation!

The last days prophecies show that multitudes are famished and lack even enough money for a loaf of bread on every border, including America's. WHAT?!?! Not the incredibly wealthy United States, many said. They pooh-poohed the notion that the US could be anything than it was- in the thick of things, even in prophecy.

How often in the last few years so we see on forums and Q&As the question. "Where is the US in prophecy?"

People forget that God is so powerful nations are as nothing to Him except a tool to bring about His will. Moab had Petra, the 'impregnable' rose red city. And yet He brought it down. Obadiah told them:

Petra, Commons photo by Bernard Gagnon

"The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?' Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord." (Obadiah 1:3-4)

As Warren W. Wiersbe says in his book Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament, the Prophets,

"The Moabites were a very proud people because they thought their nation was impregnable. (Isaiah 16:6). Moab was located in the high moutnains, with the Dead Sea to their west and the desert on the east. God told them He would bring invaders through their "inaccessible" northwest border, ('flank', Ezekiel 25:9 NIV) even though it was made up of sheer cliffs; and He did. It was the Assyrians who invaded and destroyed Moab. Today Moab is no longer remembered as a nation."

America was exceptional. So was Assyria. So was Moab. So was Egypt; all in their times, for a time. However, there is only one Exceptional nation (capital E)- Israel

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For many years the United States has acted as the world's police force. This is appropriate. The world needs a police force.

In John MacArthur's sermon War in the Gulf: A Biblical Perspective" he explained that there are three components to war. One is evil aggression. A second is protection. He explains Romans 13:3,

USAF aircraft of the 4th Fighter Wing
(F-16, F-15C and F-15E) fly over Kuwaiti oil fires, set by
the retreating Iraqi army during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
USAF photo

"And then in verse 3 he puts some leverage in the hand of authority, and some power, "For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil." In other words, the government exists to make people who do wrong afraid. And if government can't make them afraid, then they're going to continue to do wrong. Very simple."

In my opinion this is the role the US has taken over the last century. I believe it has been God-given. Dr MacArthur continues,

"Government is not symbolic. Government is not a pageant. Government has real power, and its power is in its sword. Now, what do you do with a sword? Rap people's knuckles? No. Spank them? No. You kill them. That's what you do with it. You take their life away. What restrains ultimately the evil aggressor is the power of the sword, the deadly force that government can bring against ultimate acts of evil. That's God-ordained. In fact, he says, "not only does it not bear the sword for nothing, it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."

BTW according to the sermon, the third component to war is Divine judgment.

 Now, the US has acted as world policeman for at least 100 years. Yet lately since 2009 we have seen a serious and sudden decline in the power and might of the United States. Financially, diplomatically, militarily and economically, we are failing. The Washington Examiner notes this in an article from this past Wednesday:

Poof: Public says America's world leadership has tumbled to 40-year low
"For the first time in nearly 40 years, a majority of Americans believe the United States is less important around the world and that it should mind its own business, a stunning rejection of President Obama’s foreign policy just four years after he received the Nobel Prize.  A new Pew Research Center poll found that 53 percent of people believe that the U.S. is playing a less important role as a world leader than a decade ago, the highest figure since 1974."

Note that 1974 is the year President Nixon resigned the United States Presidency in disgrace.

Photo National Park Service, public.

The United States HAS to disappear as world leader so that we will not protect the nations from evil aggressors when prophesied wars erupt. (Revelation 6:4). The United States HAS to crumble and leave a leadership vacuum so that the antichrist will emerge as the clear candidate for that role. The US should decline because ultimately all war is about divine judgment in some way, and we are no less judgment-worthy than any other nation, exceptional for a short time or not.

Ultimately, America must be made as nothing so that the true Exceptional Nation of all time will rise up in glory, Israel. (Zechariah 14:10). There can be no competition.

Therefore don't ask, 'where is the US in prophecy?' Exult that the US was used by God to protect the nations from evil aggressors. Exult that He is finished with us and will lay us low in our sins, for He is glory itself. Exult that this formerly wonderful and respected nation has done good work but that it's now over; we are being laid down in our sins. Prophecy is coming to pass. Do not cling to artificial borders of artificially created nations on earth, for our citizenship is in heaven.

The rapidity with which the LORD is removing the height from America is astonishing. It's stunning. Think of where we were before 2008, and where we are now. But not so astonishing when you think how quickly other nations suddenly collapsed. The going out of America leaves a leadership vacuum. It is my opinion that the next person to step into that vacuum will be the antichrist. Christians won't be on earth to witness that however. Our next stop on the prophetic timeline is rapture. Goodbye America, hello New Jerusalem. It's a good trade.