Memories of Things to Come
Memories of Things to Come
By Pete Garcia
“Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure” – Isaiah 46:9-10
There used to be a time when you could leave your front door unlocked at night. There used to be a time when folk generally aimed to be nice to each other. When a dollar was worth a dollar. When schools not only taught the three “R’s”, but the civic duties that afforded us the privilege of being American. When schools allowed prayers and the Ten Commandments hung ever mindful on the walls. There was actually a time, when politicians could generally be trusted to do what was in the best interest of our nation. We used to be like that, not many decades ago, but now, those days seem like some mythical, innocent age in a faraway land.
I pray you will afford me the opportunity to lament a moment on the current state of affairs for our nation. The USS America struck an iceberg a few decades ago, and has been in an incremental state of sinking. Unfortunately, it was happening at such a slow pace that most people either have forgotten, or were willingly ignorant that it was happening at all. However, as time progressed, the ship has started to list more noticeably to one side, albeit, due to our size, most American’s ignored the lean in their drinks and simply attributed it to the tossing of the ocean.
Within the realm of American Christendom, overwhelmingly, the idea that Christ will soon return has been all but ignored. The reality of Christ’s soon return has not been preached. The message of Christ’s soon return has been labeled “sensational” and thus dismissed. The popular rebuttal of “every generation has thought that” is repeated often, usually by well-meaning, soft-spoken, seminary-trained, clergy.
And yet, the furniture is now starting to slide across the deck.
The question then is whether there is any prophetic significance to our national demise.
Assessment
“Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continuefor forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” – Revelation 13:1-8
In the context of Revelation 13, we know that there is coming a system and a leader, who will wield his total authority over the entire earth.
The entire earth also includes, the United States. Or what’s left of it.
This system (personal speculation here), will come in the form of an Artificial Intelligence system that is created in Europe, through CERN or perhaps some other European entity, which cracks the code on bringing this system online, and quickly gains control over all the other information, military, and economic digital systems connected to the grid. All other electronic systems will become controlled by it, and since we live in a day and age, in which the World Wide Web wires the world (and the US in particular) together, the prospect of the power of this Artificial Intelligent system, is frightening.
We also know this power cannot be American in nature, because Daniel 9:26-27 states that the same man who heads the Beast system as mentioned above, is someone who comes from within the boundaries of the old Roman Empire. Although America could claim some familial linkage back to Rome via European colonialism (Spain, France, and England), I think many nations could equally make that claim…at which point, makes the claim moot.
In regards to our nationalistic decline and its prophetic implications, there are too many factors that I do not have the space to go into, but will summarize my understanding into a few bullet points; the bottom line is we as a nation, have turned our back on God, and are now, reaping the consequences of these decisions. (See Romans 1:18-32)
- The mainline denominational churches departure from preaching and teaching the literal and inerrant word of God
- The Supreme Court decisions have legalized and legitimatized evil at the national level
- The acceleration of the moral decay of our society is in large part due to the glorification of wickedness and violence by the music, print, television, and movie industries
- The persistent, leftist educational-propaganda, have brainwashed generations of kindergarten through university students, into secular, humanistic reasoning
- Our political attempts at dividing Israel and more importantly, Jerusalem
- Maybe it is all of these
In reaping the consequences of our actions, we are electing men and women to rule over us, who do not have our, or their, best interests of the United States in mind. These people, both Democrat and Republican, are being influenced either knowingly or unknowingly, by demonic principalities and powers to abandon our constitution and nationalism, for globalism. They are being influenced to believe that the only solution to all the world’s problems is to set aside our laws and borders, and come together on a global scale. This is why our leaders today, are doing things that seem so antithetical to the well-being of the preservation of the US as a singular, sovereign nation.
At present, we have another 15 months to go until the next US president can take over, and between now and then, conservatives bemoan the prospect at the acceleration in which our current administration is feverishly working to undermine America’s greatness. Even if we make it to the next election, the damage being done now by those currently in power will make our recovery virtually impossible.
Many still have hopes that a national recovery is in our immediate future, and that a return to our former greatness comes by way of electing another Ronald Reagan-type leader. It would be nice to have a leader who cared for the well-being of this nation, but economically and mathematically speaking, the game is up. At $18 trillion dollars in debt, and upwards of $100T in unfunded liabilities, we do not have enough taxpayers paying into the system, to ever pay back the money we have borrowed. Aside from the debt’s we’ve accrued from other nations, the most devastating one is the debt to ourselves, because we’ve borrowed against our children and grandchildren’s future, so we can live comfortably today.
Moreover, because the world uses our currency as its Global Reserve currency, our economic demise will absolutely force a restructuring of all the world’s economic and currency markets. I believe it is in this vacuum, that this final “beast” system will rise to fill the void that the American experiment left vacant.
Conclusion
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” – 1 John 2:15-17
The average American Christian does not know why their nation is falling apart and increasingly becoming hostile to their faith. On the other hand, the watchful Christian, may be dismayed, but at least is not surprised by this, because they know God’s word has already told us that the in the last days, the world would wax worse and worse. Watching the ‘hand of God’ being removed from your nation, and living through its incremental and impending collapse, is not a pleasant experience. Were it not for the promise of our Lord’s return, many would have given up hope long ago and regressed back to their former lives. That is why holding on to the “Blessed Hope” is so crucial in these dark days. And because most of the American churches today are not teaching the Lord’s soon return, we are in fact seeing many depart from the faith in record numbers.
“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” – Philippians 3:18-21
While this appears all ‘doom and gloom’ as we so often we are accused of being, we know that there is an eternal, golden age coming. There is coming a Kingdom who will have no end and there will be an end to all corruption, greed, murder, perversion, violence, and every other deviant form of sin Satan ever devised.
At the head of this Eternal Kingdom, is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who will rule and reign forever, and we as His Bride, with Him. So even though we are witnesses to the increasing signs that this world is in its death throes (1 John 2:17), we should live each day with the understanding that we are simply pilgrims passing through. One day soon, Christ, our Ark of Safety, will return to take us to be where He is, before the world enters the time in which Christ stated would be the worst period in all of human history. (Matt. 24:21, John 14:1-3, Rev. 3:10) At the end of those seven years…
“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.” – Daniel 2:44-45
Maranatha!