Speaker Identification

Speaker 1 - Program Announcer / Promotional Voice: Opens the broadcast, presents the Hope for America offer, and closes with ministry donation information.

Speaker 2 - Jeff Kinley: Main teacher for this episode of The King Is Coming and the Hope for America series.

Speaker 1 - Program Announcer / Promotional Voice:
Today on The King Is Coming:

America has had a role in the end times: the role of blessing Israel and the role of extending the gospel message throughout the whole world. As long as she does those two things, she will be a player in the end-times narrative, though specifically not yet mentioned in Bible prophecy.

Is America in Bible prophecy? Are we mentioned in the end times? Find out next on The King Is Coming.

Speaker 1 - Program Announcer / Promotional Voice:
If you have been enjoying this series on Hope for America, I want to encourage you to get the DVD of all the teachings together with the book. You can find that on our website, TheKingIsComing.com.

For any donation of $80 or more today to World Prophetic Ministry, receive your copy of this amazing eight-part DVD series, Hope for America. Also, you will receive a copy of Jeff's book, The End of America. Call the number on your screen or go to TheKingIsComing.com now. Thank you for your support.

Speaker 1 - Program Announcer / Promotional Voice:
What happens when a country glories in its immorality and turns its faith from God? How did America get here? Is America in Bible prophecy? Will Christians in America face widespread persecution?

In Hope for America, our eight-part DVD series, Jeff Kinley will answer these questions and more as he powerfully challenges us as believers to understand how to put our faith in our only lasting hope, Jesus Christ.

For any donation of $65 or more today to World Prophetic Ministry, receive your copy of this amazing eight-part DVD series, Hope for America. Go to TheKingIsComing.com now or call the number on your screen. Thank you for your support.

Speaker 2 - Jeff Kinley:
We are talking about this series we call Hope for America. Is there any hope for our great nation? One of the questions that I get more often than any other question is, "Jeff, is America found anywhere in Bible prophecy? What is our role in the end times? Where can we find the greatest nation on the earth in the Holy Scriptures?"

Is America really mentioned in prophecy? We are going to talk about that today on the program.

I asked myself the question: why do so many people ask this? I get that question pretty much more than any other question today. I have come up with about four reasons why I think people ask me that question.

First, we simply want to know what happens to our country in the end times. I am an American. I love my country. I want to know what happens in the end times.

Second, it seems quite ironic to think that a force for Christianity like America has been would not play a major role in the last days, because certainly we have made a major impact.

Third, America is really the world's greatest superpower. In fact, we have been the world's greatest superpower for some time now. So how would America not be found in the end times if she is so prominent in the earth? Why would a little country like Turkey or something like that upstage America in the end times?

I love what the late, great prophecy expert Tim LaHaye wrote. He said, "One of the hardest things for American prophecy students to accept is that the United States is not clearly mentioned in Bible prophecy, yet our nation is the only superpower in the world today."

Was LaHaye right? Is America nowhere found in prophecy, or could we find her somewhere? I want to find out here in just a minute.

The fourth reason people ask that question is because, let's be honest, America is kind of a big deal. At least we think we are, right? We are America the Great. We have gone to the moon six times. Who has done that? We landed people on the moon. We invented so many different things. We have baseball, right? We think we are really a big deal.

So why would we not be mentioned in the end times? Maybe there is a little bit of pride that we have as Americans. Our footprint and our language are everywhere in the world. But why are we not there?

I think a common mistake that people make when it comes to Bible prophecy is to take not only events of the world and try to force-fit them into the Bible as end-time prophecies, but also to take our personal beliefs, opinions, preferences, and wishes and put those into the Bible as well. We say to God, "You can't leave us out of this thing, right?"

Does God do that? Does He leave us out of the end-times narrative? Let's talk about what the Bible actually does say.

When we study Scripture and the end times, keep in mind that the end-times narrative from God's perspective is focused on one nation. That nation is not America. It is Israel.

End-times prophecy in the Bible is very Israel-centric because it is the narrative of a story coming together. Israel is the main character in terms of nations in the whole Bible. If you take your Bible sometime and begin at Genesis chapter 12, put your finger there, then flip all the way over to Acts chapter 2 and put your finger there, and then hold up that amount of the Bible, you are going to have a vast, huge, thick portion of your Bible. You know what that portion of the Bible talks about? Israel. It is all about Israel.

When we come to end-times prophecy, there are many prophecies concerning the nation of Israel. As we saw in our previous programs, God has made promises to Abraham's descendants, which is Israel.

We also know that right now Israel is going through what Romans chapter 11, verses 25 and 26, calls a partial hardening. God has allowed a partial hardening of Israel at the moment. That is why you do not see massive numbers of Jews coming to know Jesus the Messiah right now. We are in a stage called the times of the Gentiles. During this time, we are in the church age as well, where both Gentiles and individual Jews are coming to know Jesus. But as far as the nation of Israel, she is under a hardening right now.

Once the rapture gets out of the way, there is going to be a turn back to the Jewish people. God is going to work on the Jewish people one more time in the end times.

When we speak about geography and what the Bible says about nations in the end times, we again see Israel at the center of the prophetic narrative. In concentric circles from Israel, there are nations mentioned in the last days.

I want to give you some of them here. There is the nation of Rosh, which we interpret to mean Russia. There is Magog, which, if you do the geography of Magog, turns into Central Asia and the Islamic southern republics of the former Soviet Union. We have Meshech and Tubal, which is modern-day Turkey. We have Persia, which is Iran. We have Ethiopia, or Cush, which is modern-day Sudan. We have Libya, or Put, which is modern-day Libya. We have Gomer, which is modern-day Turkey. And finally, Beth Togarmah, which is also modern-day Turkey.

These end-times nations that are mentioned in Bible prophecy comprise what we call the Gog coalition. In Ezekiel 38 and 39, there is going to be a coalition of these nations - these very nations I just mentioned. All of them, by the way, are Islamic nations with the exception of Russia. They are going to come against Israel in what some have called the War of Gog and Magog. They are specifically mentioned in the end-times narrative.

What is very interesting about this last-days war is that we do not know exactly when it is going to take place. In my view, I tend to see the War of Gog and Magog happening somewhere after the rapture and leading up to the signing of a peace covenant between Antichrist and Israel. At the beginning of that peace covenant, or just before it, I believe that time of war is going to happen.

There are going to be many ripple effects and ramifications that come from this war and also from the peace covenant, which I believe will enable the Jews to rebuild their third temple.

The Bible tells us in Ezekiel 38 and 39 that these nations are going to come against Israel, but God Himself - not the Israeli army - is going to divinely intervene. He is going to bring supernatural deliverance to the little nation of Israel, surrounded by these mighty nations, and God is going to come in and completely decimate and wipe out all the armies of these nations.

In essence, there will not be any Russia anymore to invade another country. There will not be any Turkey anymore, any Iran, or any Sudan in terms of their military might. What does that tell us? It tells us there will not be anybody to fight Israel anymore in terms of those Islamic nations, which, I think, could be the catalyst that enables the Jews to rebuild their temple there on what is called the Mosque of Omar, right there on the Temple Mount. I have been there. I have touched the wall on that edifice. That edifice is going to be gone, and the new temple, the third temple, is going to be there.

So those are some of the nations that are mentioned. You say, "What about America then?"

We are living in a day right now where almost a week does not go by without someone claiming to have seen a UFO. Some people claim to have pictures and photographs of spacecraft flying by, and some of those have been proven to be doctored.

So there is usually a UFO sighting every week. Let's ask this question: are there any USA sightings in the Bible? People say they see America in there. How do they do that? How do they come to that interpretation?

I want to give you six examples, or six supposed sightings, of America in the Bible and let you make your own decision. I will give you my opinion, but I will let you make your own decision.

View number one, or sighting number one: some say America is Babylon the Great of Revelation chapter 18.

When you turn over to Revelation chapter 18, there is a description of what is called Babylon the Great. The Bible says it is going to be Antichrist's headquarters in the last days. When you look at the description and the way the Holy Spirit describes it, here is what you find.

It is described in verse 3 as being full of immorality. We saw from our last show that certainly fits America. It is a world superpower. That seems to fit. It is proud. That seems like us. Verse 7 describes a place of wealth and affluence. Verses 12 and 13 describe it as selling its goods and gold to the world. That would seem to fit this view. It helps other nations become rich. That fits. It was once a light to the nations. Then it is suddenly destroyed in an hour, and the whole earth watches the smoke of her burning, verses 9 through 10.

If you just looked at those parallels and looked at America, you could conceivably make a case for America being in Bible prophecy - in fact, America being Babylon of chapter 18. I know there are authors, theologians, speakers, and pastors who take that view. Some say that verses 9 and 10, with the whole world watching the smoke of her burning, are a reference to 9/11 and the smoke of the burning that went up while the whole world watched, or perhaps to a post-rapture implosion, attack, or invasion.

One of the rules of Bible interpretation is this. When you train someone to use a weapon, you need to train them well. You do not just put a weapon in someone's hands and say, "All you need to do is pull the trigger." That is not all you need to do. There is a lot more you need to know about a dangerous weapon before you put it in someone's hands.

When someone is interpreting the Bible, you cannot just say, "Here is the Bible. Interpret it any way you want to. Point it in any direction you want to." That is also dangerous. Why? Because a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

One of the principles of Bible interpretation is that when you see similarities between certain things in Scripture and things that are happening today, that does not necessarily mean they are related or the same thing.

For example, people say that the numerical equivalents of certain political leaders' names add up to 666, and some do. Ronald Wilson Reagan, William Jefferson Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama, Henry Kissinger - people have said all those names line up with 666. Well, guess what? They all cannot be the Antichrist. In fact, none of them are the Antichrist.

If you only see a similarity, you will usually come to a faulty conclusion. A better principle of interpretation is not just to look for similarities, but to look for what the text actually says.

When you keep reading the text in Revelation 18, what you find is that Babylon is not America at all. In fact, chapter 16, verse 19, and chapter 17, verse 18, tell us that Babylon here is not a nation at all. It is a city.

Second, Babylon is mentioned some 300 times in the Bible - 300 different kinds of references to Babylon. Every single one of those references, with perhaps the exception of one, is always a literal city. So America cannot be Babylon. If God has used Babylon this way 300 times, He would not change the meaning of Babylon in the book of Revelation.

If America is truly Babylon, then she would not just be mentioned in Bible prophecy; she would be almost the point of Bible prophecy, because 11 percent of Revelation's 404 verses - 44 out of 404 - are about Babylon in some capacity. In other words, if America really is Babylon, she would be a major focus of the book. Not just mentioned in prophecy, she would be a key player in prophecy. But as you do your Bible study, you find that even though there are similarities between them, Babylon is a city - a city that I believe is going to be rebuilt in the last days.

That is view number one.

View number two goes all the way back to the book of Daniel, where Daniel has a vision of four terrible creatures that represent four world empires. They are pictured as a lion with eagle's wings, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth beast with large iron teeth. He says out of the fourth kingdom arise ten horns, explained in Daniel 7:24 as ten kings. These ten kingdoms are accompanied by what is called the little horn, which is the Antichrist, who rises out of those ten kingdoms and becomes their leader.

Where in the world do people see America in that? They say the lion represents England, because the lion is often seen in the crest of England. They say that obviously refers to the nation of England. The eagle's wings that come out of the lion, they say, are the United States of America. Why? Because these eagle's wings are plucked from the lion, and they say that represents us separating ourselves from England and the British Empire in the American Revolution in 1776.

My friends, that is what we call a stretch, because there is no historical proof, linguistic proof, or biblical proof that this is exactly what Daniel is talking about.

As we look at the text, we know what all of these kingdoms represent. There is Babylon, Assyria, Medo-Persia, Greece, and then finally the Roman Empire. I do agree with the majority of prophecy experts that the lion of Daniel 7 refers to Babylon. When you look at the whole context of Daniel, that is also reinforced.

When you look at what these countries did historically and chronologically, that would put England at the very beginning of history with Babylon, Medo-Persia, Rome, and Greece. Obviously, England did not exist back then. You cannot retrofit modern-day nations into the Old Testament. So I think that is one we have to reject.

Plus, in Revelation chapter 17, there are seven heads, or seven nations, that are identified and match up to these beasts and the things that came after them. He says in Revelation 17 that five of these nations have fallen. That is past tense. That would be Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Medo-Persia, and Greece. One of these nations is present in John's day, and that would be Rome. Finally, he says one is yet to come. That would be Antichrist's future nation, comprised of ten different nations or a ten-nation confederation.

If that is true, then obviously the United States cannot be one of the seven heads mentioned in Revelation as well. It cannot be the eagle's wings and it cannot be one of those seven heads.

That leads to the third view. We find this in Revelation chapter 13. In Revelation 13, there are seven kingdoms mentioned there. The problem with Revelation 13 is that it is talking about future kingdoms and future alliances that are going to be part of this ten-nation confederacy.

When you try to force-fit a country from the West into this Roman Empire or Middle Eastern area and put that into the end times, it is like a square peg into a round hole. It just does not really fit.

This ten-nation alliance, the Bible says, is going to have over it this beast, which is the Antichrist. What is interesting in verse 2 is that he says, "The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion." He reverses the order of what Daniel says because Daniel is looking at it from one perspective in the future, and John is looking from the perspective of history to the past. That is why he reverses the order.

America cannot be one of these seven heads because, like I said, all of these seven nations mentioned in this passage are identified in Revelation 17 as nations that historically were back in the Old Testament, then the Roman Empire that currently was, and then the future empire of Antichrist. You cannot find America anywhere in that. So I would reject the view that America is one of the seven heads here.

There is also the view of America being the great eagle of Revelation 12. In Revelation 12:13-14, it says, "The two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time." That is three and a half years from the presence of the serpent, Satan. The serpent poured out water like a river from his mouth after the woman so that he might cause her to be swept away by the flood.

Here is what is going on. At the midpoint of the Tribulation, there is going to be an event that marks the pivotal point, turning the Tribulation into what Jesus called the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24. That event is going to be Antichrist suffering a fatal head wound and coming back from the dead. Somewhere right around that time, Satan is going to appear one final time in heaven, and God is going to boot him out of heaven.

The Bible says in Revelation 12:12 that when he is booted out of heaven, "Rejoice, O heavens and those who dwell in them, but woe to you on the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing he only has a short time."

So here is what is happening. The devil is kicked out of heaven. He goes into a fiery rampage of wrath and says, "I have got to kill the Jews." Why? Because the Bible says the Jews have to call upon the name of the Lord in order for Messiah to come back again. If there are no Jews on the earth to bring back Messiah, guess who gets to reign forever? Antichrist, and Satan through him.

So he goes after the Jews in one final attempted holocaust on planet Earth. The Bible says a great eagle and her two wings are given to the woman that she might fly into the wilderness, to this place we have identified most likely as Bozrah.

Is America this great eagle, these two wings? This is how the interpretation goes. What is America's symbol? It is the great eagle. So we have to be the eagle because that is our symbol. It says we fly in to help the Israelis, and that probably refers to a massive airlift operation. That is the wings of the eagle.

The reason I reject this is, number one, there is no airlift mentioned. It does not even say they leave this area of the wilderness where they are hiding at the time. When we look at America and try to force-fit America in there, it is difficult to make that interpretation.

So who is the great eagle? How is the great eagle going to help Israel? I believe the great eagle is Yahweh Himself. It is God Himself. How do we know that? God uses this same description to describe Himself all the way back in Exodus chapter 19 and verse 4. Who is going to be closer to Israel? Who is going to be able to help Israel during that time but God? America pretty much has lost her sovereignty during that time.

So that is view number four. We reject that view.

View number five is that America is the tall, smooth-skinned people of Isaiah chapter 18. In this passage, Israel is cautioned not to make an alliance with the tall, smooth-skinned people whose powerful land is divided by rivers. It is characterized by whirring or buzzing wings.

Some say that is the Mississippi River, the river that divides the country, and that Americans are tall people and known as smooth-skinned people. The whirring wings, they say, refer to our strong air force.

Before the air-force interpretation, this view actually had some merit back in the nineteenth century and in a lot of commentaries. But since then, we have identified this area as the country of Ethiopia or Cush, which is modern-day Sudan. Serious prophecy scholars do not really put much credence in this view. The river that divides it is the Nile River. The whirring wings likely refer to insects that gather along the banks of that river. At the time of Isaiah's writing, Ethiopia was a powerful nation, and the region included people called the Nubians, who shaved their entire bodies. They are obviously the tall, smooth-skinned people there.

One final view asks whether America is in Bible prophecy as the young lions of Tarshish. Ezekiel chapter 38 talks about the young lions of Tarshish. The young lions of Tarshish are part of nations that basically protest this invasion of Israel we talked about earlier. They are listed as Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all of its villages. A variant reading of this "villages" phrase is "young lions."

They say the young lions are an offshoot of Britain, and so we are the young lions of Tarshish. Tarshish was a shipping and trading port in Spain that eventually grew into merchants in England, and then we came over to America. They try to connect these dots - really more dashes than dots - and they do not really connect.

Knowing is better than guessing. I think you can see from these six views that America is certainly not specifically mentioned in Bible prophecy.

I will say this in closing. America has had a role in the end times: the role of blessing Israel and the role of extending the gospel message throughout the whole world. As long as she does those two things, she will be a player in the end-times narrative, though specifically not yet mentioned in Bible prophecy.

We should focus not on America's future in prophecy, but on America's present. What America needs right now is new life in Jesus Christ.

That is all for The King Is Coming. I will see you next time.

Speaker 1 - Program Announcer / Promotional Voice:
America today is in a state of spiritual emergency. In his challenging and insightful four-part series America in Crisis, Dr. Hindson examines the political, social, moral, and spiritual unrest in America. He exposes the causes of the current crisis and issues a passionate call for repentance and revival, which is America's only hope for the future.

Do not miss this powerful series. For any gift of $35 or more today, ask for your copy of America in Crisis. Call the number on your screen or go to TheKingIsComing.com. Order now and receive a copy of Dr. Hindson's digital series, War Against America, and the God Bless America booklet absolutely free. Call today.

Speaker 1 - Program Announcer / Promotional Voice:
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