United States in Decline

It is hard to deny that the United States does not have as much influence in the world as we once had. There was a day not too long ago when the U.S. threat of intervention in a nation's affairs had sufficient teeth that a rouge nation like Libya gave up their pursuit of nuclear weapons. Now, we negotiate with pariah nations to get the best deal we can to extend the peace for just a little longer. Appeasement has such an attractive track-record especially to people who think they are smarter than all who have tried it before them. This blatant display of weakness has only served to encourage other bad actors like the Islamic State to pursue their dream of a worldwide theocracy.  

No doubt this sounds like I'm advocating war without doing everything we can to make peace.  War is a terrible business and I share the vision for peace. But I am a realist and know there will be worse consequences for allowing nuclear proliferation to metastasize, particularly by enemies of Western Civilization. Our allowing Iran to proceed with their nuclear weapon development only causes other regional powers like Saudi Arabia to get their own weapons to counter the threat.

Humanists believe just talking about peace will bring peace. But for peace talks to be effective, you have to back it up with a credible threat of action. Trying to appease tyrants in the pursuit of peace always fails because the concept of sin is not understood. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Humanists believe they are smart enough that they can convince people to agree with them on the power of their logic alone. They are willing to make compromises as part of quid pro quo but do not realize that yielding to evil causes the whole bargain to be fouled (Galatians 5:9).

There is more to the decline of the U.S. than in just foreign affairs. The dollar maintains its strength but that is because the economy of the world is in such sad shape. Many will say a strong dollar is good for the U.S. but this forgets that our fiat money system is still a house of cards that is only standing up by the grace of God. There are increasing efforts on the part of the emerging Chinese economic powerhouse to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. It would not take much of a crisis to bring our economy crashing down. The Bible tells us that there will a crisis sufficient to cause a worldwide leader to emerge and institute a new global economic system requiring users to swear allegiance to him (Revelation 13:16-18). The economy of the U.S. has to fail for that to happen. 

I could go on and on with the various categories the U.S. has declined in but that would be more practical for a book than a single blog post. And our move away from constitutional rule of law as a symptom of decline was well summarized in an excellent article by Dr. Robert R. Owens here. Most humanists will deny the U.S. is in decline because they believe we have been in tough fixes before and have been able to deliver ourselves through the human ingenuity which has gotten us this far. But the Bible tells us that the day will come when mankind's idol of self-sufficiency will come crashing down.

There is also a growing number of people even in this country who will say the U.S. loss of power is a good thing. But this is because they identify with the Globalist ideology that is systematically orchestrating the decline. The rationale for pursuing the new global order is the quest for peace... if the world can truly work together then we shouldn't have any wars. But again this neglects to comprehend the human sin nature and is as if the U.S. loss of security can bring more security to the world. There will not be peace between the nations until the Prince of Peace returns.

The growing vision for a new global order tells me we are very close to the end of the Church Age. The U.S. used to be a shining beacon of freedom and hope for the world. But as that light becomes dimmer, the only thing replacing it is the desire for a utopian global order which the Bible says will happen after the Church is removed from the planet.

The Bible also says that the utopian global order envisioned by the humanists will be a colossal failure. Mankind will get it's shot at running things their way but this only serves to make way for the Kingdom of God on earth. I don't look forward to any self-fulfilling prophecy of a theocracy as the Islamists do but to the supernatural intervention of God in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ. This world sorely needs Jesus to return.  Be ready, He is coming soon.