Some additional warnings about the future of America and the world

Warnings About America's Future: a

Supplemental to Last Week's Message

by Web pastor Paul J. Bern

To view this on my website, click here :-)

I have decided to write this week's commentary as a kind of addendum to my message from last week after getting an even stronger than usual response from my readers, and I humbly thank you all for that. For anyone who missed the posting, you can see it on Wordpress.com here or Google Blogger here. Hundreds of views, not counting hits of course, plus dozens of comments have compelled me to do a follow-up piece for this week in that same vein. One of the comments came from an acquaintance of mine who is also a Web pastor and street preacher. This gentleman referred me to a certain book in the Old Testament, but when I read it a while ago and contemplated it as I prayed about its suitability for God's purposes, I found myself turning just two pages further to the quote I'm going to use this week to give ample warning that the USA is in far more serious trouble than it collectively realizes, regardless of who is currently president.

There is one other thing that bears mentioning here before I get into the meat and potatoes of this week's commentary. Although the reaction to last week's post was positive by far, the negative responses fell into two categories – religious and patriotic. Some “Christian” responses were deeply critical of my alleged quoting of the Book of Revelation, calling it “out of context”, among other things. It never ceases to amaze me how well-meaning yet misguided religious people can be. Unfortunately, many of them are also mean and ill-tempered, which makes me wonder why they bother going to church to begin with. They sure as hell don't practice what they preach! A few other responses accused me of being unpatriotic at best and treasonous at worst, along with other things I can't print here. If you don't love America with no questions asked like they do, then they maintain there is something morally lacking about that individual. I, on the other hand, maintain it's the other way around.

So for this week, having put on my Armor of God (see Ephesians 6, verses 10-18) to shield me from the flaming arrows and words of those who are hostile to the authentic cause of Christ, allow me to present a few verses from the prophet Zephaniah. In Zephaniah 1:1, the author introduces himself as “Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah.” Among the prophets, this is a unique introduction with its long list of fathers back to Zephaniah’s great-great grandfather, Hezekiah. So why stop with Hezekiah? Most likely, the prophet wanted to highlight his royal lineage as a descendant of one of Judah’s good kings. We can begin to pinpoint exactly when Zephaniah prophesied by accounting for a few details in the text. First, in 2:13 the prophet predicted the fall of Nineveh, an event which occurred in 612 BC. Further, Zephaniah made frequent quotations from the Law (for example, compare 1:13 to Deuteronomy 28:30, 39), a document that remained lost in Judah for much of Josiah’s reign. Therefore, Zephaniah more than likely prophesied in the latter part of Josiah’s rule, after the king discovered the scrolls of the Law in 622 BC (2 Chronicles 34:3–7). The first part of chapter 1 deals with the apostasy of and impending destruction of Judah, which is part of the nation of Israel today. But the following section of this small Old Testament book – it's just 3 chapters, about a 5 or 6 minute read – is the one that prophesy's about what it calls, “The Great Day of the Lord”. We can take this to mean something far off into the distant future, which would be our modern times since this prophecy has yet to be fulfilled.

The text I'm going to use for this week's commentary begins in chapter 1 and verse 14, and I quote: “The great day of the Lord is near – near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers. I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth. Gather together, gather together, oh shameful nation, before the appointed time arrives and that day sweeps on like chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you, before the day of our Lord's wrath comes upon you. Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger.” (Zephaniah 1, verses 14-18; chapter 2, verses 1-3)

The first thing that needs to be pointed out here is that this passage is not directed only at individuals. God is not up in anybody's face accusing them because that's not how God works, although there are multitudes of 'religious' people who would love to have an opportunity to sway your opinions about that. One of the names that Satan goes by in the Bible is “the accuser of the brethren”, so it is for that reason that I do not believe this is directed at individual people, nor necessarily at groups of people. This is not directed at nationalities or ethnic groups either. This is directed at countries, or more accurately one particular country, the United States. Why do I think this? Hey, there are clues all over the place as to why this is so, so let me address these one at a time. But first comes a dire warning starting in verse 14. “The great day of the Lord is near – near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there.” 'The shouting of the warrior' tells us that this “Great Day of the Lord” in the above passage has to do with a great military conquest, causing a bitter cry to come up out of the land that is conquered. This also tells us that only a portion of the populace will be wiped out by this calamity to make sure there are enough people for that bitter cry that is prophesied in this passage.

Then the prophecy gets very specific about what will happen on this 'day of the Lord': “That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers.” It is conceivable that this could be a prophecy for some type of terrorist activity, but from the wording of Zephaniah's narrative the 'day of the Lord' appears to be a widespread event. Although the prophecy doesn't specify anything, it is evident when we read in between the words. A 'day of wrath' would be a day when Mother Nature, and God by extension, goes completely haywire. A mega-storm or typhoon, an exceptional tornado outbreak, an enormous earthquake or some other kind of natural disaster all come to mind. A killer impact from a comet or asteroid is another distinct possibility, and such things are predicted to occur in the second and fifth Trumpets in Revelation chapter 8. Moving along in Zephaniah verse 16, the “battle cry against the fortified cities” signifies an attack on a major military power. Since this prediction occurs in our time frame (I will finish proving this as I go along, so please stay with me), the “corner towers”, which once signified the outer fortifications of a city, could be roughly translated as 'tall towers', or today's skyscrapers.

“Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath.” Blood turning into dust is a reference to the book of Genesis. To find out more about the mention of human blood being “poured out like dust” please click here. For now, let's move on to the next phrase, “entrails...poured out like filth”. On the surface, this seems to be a metaphor for people being turned inside out, but it could also mean people being cooked from the inside out. In that event, their insides would be liquefied; not a pleasant thought, to say the least. There are only two things in existence that will do such a horrible thing – a thermonuclear explosion or microwave weapons. Nothing else I'm aware of would fill the bill, not in this case. The silver and gold hoarded by all these people will be worthless, since it will be melted in the nuclear blast or microwave attack along with everything and everybody else. So you can all forget about investing in gold or silver, and don't believe the sales pitches of the ubiquitous precious metals dealers either! They're all trying to milk you for a fast buck, which in itself is shortsighted since the US dollar is going to be devalued soon as well!

“In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth.” The “fire of his jealousy” will consume the whole world! The “fire of his jealousy” will make manifest a “sudden end of all who live on the earth.” One of the names the Bible has for God is “a consuming fire”, something that dates back to the Book of Exodus, when the Israelite's followed a pillar of fire out of Egypt. But we're not wandering in the desert anymore, nor are we on our way out of Egypt. Moreover, of all the descendants of those ancient Israelis, over half of them live in the United States. So, although the “fire of His jealousy” will consume Israel, it will consume America as well since Israel's #1 ally is the USA. “....gather together, oh shameful nation, before the appointed time arrives and that day sweeps on like chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you....” “Shameful nation” is another major clue, since it alludes to a world power or super-power that wages war continuously and oppresses its people. Any American who does not think Americans are not oppressed by their government – constant surveillance, systemic corruption, economic inequality, abuse of authority at all levels, the abuse of our own children by brainwashing them with materialism – where have you all been? Wake up! Is it any wonder that God has such “fierce anger”?

“Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger.” Seek the Lord, and him personally! This means we are charged with the responsibility of forming and maintaining a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We can't have a personal relationship with God, I don't think, but we can approach him through his Son. Do what Jesus commands; seek righteousness and humility. Wear them on your shirt sleeves right next to your heart. If we do all these things, loving the Lord our God “with all our mind and all our heart and all our strength” and “loving our neighbors as ourselves”, we just might stand a decent chance to escape the calamity to come. Will this calamity be a series of natural disasters and devastating wars? Yes, it will be both. Do I know when these things will occur? Absolutely not! But I'm certain that it will, and that's why I'm getting ready. Are you?