Gun Violence, the Pandemic, the Nations of Israel and the US, and What the Bible Says About Them All
A Glimpse of the Future for Our Country in Biblical Prophecy
by Web Minister Paul J. Bern
Let me get straight to the point. These are perilous and traumatic times that we are living in. So much so that people are beginning to snap for what appears to be off-the-wall or just plain crazy reasons. This is truly disturbing to anyone who has a conscience, and I am no exception. I’m an older guy now, and I’ve seen a lot of bad stuff in my lifetime. So much so that I have often talked to God about America’s epidemics of Covid-19 and gun violence. We are the world’s #1 maker of firearms, and for the last couple of decades, that has begun to show in all the wrong ways. Mindless mass shootings. Unwarranted police violence. Active shooters and random acts of violence at every turn. I’ve had enough of this crap.
And then there’s the global pandemic that has killed over 500,000 Americans as I write this, with more sure to follow since (that’s twice as many people as there were in WW2). The global death toll is going to be well into the millions before the Corona-Virus has finally run its course. That’s pretty much what I’ve been praying about when I pray, which is fairly often — sometimes more than a dozen times, or even 25 times in a day. I don’t keep an active tally of any of that because it’s not necessary. My dear Savior Jesus Christ already has that taken care of. A lot of people, be they Christian or not, have been praying about these things too. For those of you who are, by all means continue to do so. The fate of the whole world could rest upon the fervor and effectiveness of all our prayers. Which is why it is essential that we all continue, whether we attend church or not. This includes a lot of people in the ministry who are my colleagues and co-workers who I know on line. One of them, who prefers to remain anonymous, has shared some verses from the Scriptures that the Lord has given them concerning America, and I am passing them on to you all.
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days” (2 Timothy 3, verse 1). Yeah, you may say, but are we really in the ‘last days’, or is that just a bunch of religious hype? We are not only in the ‘last days’, but I can prove it to you with scripture. “3) When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4) Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.” (Revelation 6: 3–4) Revelation chapters 6 and 7 have to do with the Seven Seals of Revelation, the second of which is quoted above. These verses describe world wars one and two, the last of which ended in 1945. That’s because the Great Tribulation period in the Bible is far longer than the seven-year period currently being taught in seminaries and churches globally, and particularly here in America.
Need still more proof? “10) The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water — 11) the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.” (Revelation 8: 10–11) The quotation above is the Third Trumpet out of the seven that I mentioned. Every Bible I have ever seen translates “Wormwood” as ‘bitter’ or ‘bitterness’. That is one way of translating the word according to my Biblical concordance in the back of my Bible, but this translation is actually one of several ways it can be translated. The modern meaning of this word from a Biblical standpoint didn’t come into focus until the 1980’s. You see, “Wormwood” in Russian is ‘Chernobyl’, as in the 1985 nuclear disaster in the Russian town of the same name. But there are Seven Trumpets in Revelation 8 and 9, so we obviously have a ways to go. However, that same time appears to many to be accelerating. So the end is not so far off after all.
Is the United States of America in end times Bible Prophecy?
As the United States continues to compel Israel to follow the Oslo peace accords highway, it should be pointed out to every Christian within our nation that the reason for the seeming absence of any mention of our beloved United States in Biblical Prophecy is suggestive of the possibility that the Judgment of God may already have been handed down. God’s decree of the promise of blessings or curses upon Israel, quoted in Genesis 12: 2–3, is also a direct statement to modern America. Particularly because the United States was founded upon the precepts that our rights, our happiness and our very liberties were granted by our Creator, as documented by our founding fathers when they acknowledged the God of Israel in our nation’s Declaration of Independence.
Just as the Creator can bestow rights and liberties upon any culture, so likewise he can remove those very same blessings. Israel was judged harshly by God for its national sin and disobedience by being uprooted from the land that God gave them. The prophet Jeremiah, who became known as the weeping prophet of Israel because of his intense realization of Israel’s sins, wept and lamented over the collective sins of his beloved country over 2,700 years ago (see the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament, which is right after the Book of Isaiah, for the full story).
Jeremiah’s words of warning for the Israeli people should ring loudly as an alarm of impending judgment to America today. America owes a great deal of its political, civil, and religious heritage to Israel, and to the God of Israel, since our basis for civil law and order stems from the commandments handed down from God through Moses, and through Jesus Christ up until today. So, why would not America be held to the same level and degree of cultural righteousness as was national Israel before? After all, if God would go so far as to punish even the entire nation of Israel, his own people, a people carrying his very own name, and permit them to be driven out of their promised land, leaving them at the absolute mercy of the Assyrians, why would he not hold America, Israel’s staunchest ally, just as accountable?
In Jeremiah 18: 7–8, God is speaking concerning his determination about when he judges or punishes a particular nation. Listen to what God says here: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.” Here in these verses, God intimates that there is a precise moment set against any nation where it must choose its course, either to follow God, or choose not to follow him. That particular point in time establishes his course of action either for or against that nation.
Notice in verse 10 of Jeremiah 18, God says that if that nation does evil in his sight and disobeys his voice, then God would repent of the good, or the Blessing, which he would have bestowed to them. God has untold blessings to bestow upon nations, and it is his desire to bless the nations and peoples of the whole world. But each nation must make the choice to follow in the paths of righteousness. God wants to plant and grow nations in this world and will indeed do so, if only those nations would simply acknowledge him and keep his ways.
America has long enjoyed the bountiful blessings of God because of its historic heritage of following the laws of God. That blessed status can end at any instant, when in its course of rebellion against God; it steadfastly refuses to repent of its evil ways. Psalm.19 says, “All nations will be fated for hell, should they forget God and His word. It is only a nation which has known God, and been introduced to him; that can actually be guilty of forgetting Him.” The implication is that those nations which have not been so blessed as to have the wonderful heritage of knowing God, having not been exposed to his Law, will have much less accountability to God than a nation which has been raised up in the blessed state of the knowledge of God, only to abandon it. When judgment is required, it will be better to have never known God. Unto whom much is given, much shall be required. The United States stands today as having been the beneficiary of more blessing than any civilization in all of human history. How can the United States ever explain to a righteous and just God the reasons for abandoning the great Biblical ideals handed down to us by our forefathers?
God says that he will first take away the blessings that he has showered on his people before enacting out judgment. God cannot condone the unrighteousness of his own people, and once those blessings begin to cease, warnings, or birth-pangs of judgment always commence. This is a fact of history. There are always signs of a decay within a declining society. The question should forthrightly be asked of American culture today. Is America a recipient of God’s continuous overflowing blessing today? Maybe, or maybe not. In Jeremiah chapter 18 and verse 11 God says; “I will frame evil against you (a rebellious nation) and also devise a trap against you.” In Jeremiah 19:15, God said to the nation of Israel; “Behold, I will bring upon this city, (Jerusalem) all the evil I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.”
Jerusalem was the ‘apple of God’s eye’. If God would deal so sternly with Jerusalem for being a stiff-necked and rebellious people, you can readily imagine the great taskmaster taking a hard line with the United States. For instance, does the United States today regard the words of God with any more esteem than did ancient Israel? The old enemies of Israel could never have destroyed Israel unless God Almighty had permitted it. Likewise today, the enemies of the United States cannot prevail unless the United States infuriates God to the moment that demands Judgment. Make no mistake about it, there are demonic forces at work in the international arena right now These are evil forces that are intent upon removing the United States as an effective protector of Israel; either diplomatically, militarily, or through world politics.
Zechariah 14:2 informs us that all the nations of the last world empire will be gathered together to oppose God and to preempt his plan to send his son Jesus to reign in the city of Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:2 “For Behold, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken.” Focus on the words ALL NATIONS again. No nation that exists at this particular instant in time will be left outside the universal attack upon Israel and the city of Jerusalem. If the United States still exists as an identifiable nation at this particular instant, then our nation will certainly be in that group of nations aligned against Israel when the Lord comes to fight against the nations of the world. Why does God insist on Israel being left alone, absolutely without any help in the world?
In Zechariah 12:9–10, God says: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and mourn for me, as one mourns for his only son.”
Israel will be miraculously saved from certain and eternal annihilation by Jesus when he comes back at the precise moment, or instant; that the Antichrist has finally cornered Israel into a hopeless situation. Israel will have no place to turn for help. She will have exhausted all possible assistance from any potential ally. Israel will have no hope other than Jesus Christ. Finally, at long last, Israel will realize that their Messiah is the one whom they pierced and put to death 2,000 years ago. Then, and only then will Israel finally be saved. Today, the United States is currently leading the world’s efforts to corner, or isolate Israel into this tragic affiliation with the last great world leader that we call the Antichrist.
Zechariah 12:2–3 reveals that the United States has already fallen into the entrapment situation of being burdened with the diplomatic problem of ownership of the city of Jerusalem. The great controversy of Jerusalem is a burdensome stone which will crush the heads of all the powers that seek to compromise the destiny of God’s holy city. This is where the United States can be presently found in Bible prophecy. God gives warning to those nations that coerce Israel to give away its God-given sovereignty over the promised land: Those nations that deny Israel’s right to the Land that God gave to them shall be cut to pieces. Sadly, the great United States stands in direct opposition to GOD’S WILL concerning Jerusalem. This will turn out to be a grave mistake.
Genesis 12: 1–3 states that all nations and peoples are viewed with favor or impending judgment with regard to how each treats the small select nation of Israel. Israel was eternally tied into an international testimony of God’s providence and omnipotence when Abraham entered into an eternal and unconditional covenant with God. “1) The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2) I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” All nations and peoples that remember that special Covenant relationship that Israel has with the Creator, can expect to be blessed by the God of Israel. On the other hand, those nations and people that disregard God’s covenant promise to Israel, will find themselves in disfavor with the God of Israel.
In closing, I offer this prophecy, which has yet to be fulfilled. Zechariah12: 1–6: “The word of the Lord concerning Israel. 1) The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2) ‘I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3) On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4) On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5) Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’ 6) “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a fire-pot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.…’”
This implies, of course, that the USA will not be allowed to have the same fate. Until next week, then, everyone stay in prayer and stay safe.
