I say this as an optimist, as a political scientist, as a lover of (and an advocate for) liberty, and as a student of Bible prophecy.
America. Is. Doomed. And as far as eternal considerations go, I’m not worried about who becomes president.
I know folks are used to my tone about America being a bit more celebratory. Nothing has changed in my worldview or eschatology. It’s just a contemporary fact needing to be faced in 2023: the American experiment appears to be over.
Civilizational/cultural collapse, ignorance of (or outright rejection of) the principles of civil and religious liberty, a digital dark age of short attention spans and mass hypnosis, an imminent global sovereign debt crisis contagion, probably World War III, and an engineered food and energy crisis - all these seem to be already baked into the cake.
And that’s just looking through social science lenses at a dam about to crack (much of which is explored in greater depth in the recent release, Technocracy: What Comes Next?)
How much more, then, can we see the end approaching when all of the prophetic indicators of the Bible line up, as well?
E PLURIBUS CHAOS
There were once common values in America. In a word, freedom. Or if you prefer, tolerance.
We were once a liberal free and open society - diverse and intentionally pluralistic.
But while we were e pluribus (out of many), we were also unum - one. We were united in agreement on the basics of self-government and constitutional principles out of your grade-school civics class: free speech, federalism, free markets, blind justice, equal protection, life/liberty/property, separation of powers, etc.
Today you can't find common ideals held in common across the spectrum. From one entire side of our hideous political landscape you don’t even hear the word freedom mentioned any longer.
Over the years, we’ve gotten lured into a false left-right paradigm with national socialism on the right and international socialism on the left. But whether Nazi (national) or Communist (international), both expressions of authoritarianism belong in the same bundle of evil socialist totalitarian rule, with those basic American principles providing the best alternative this side of heaven.
Instead, the proper dichotomy is between a) Satan's oppressive rule by church and/or state versus b) the God-ordained American model of freedom from kings, popes, slave traders, and lords.
This revision of the political spectrum was the theme of my history classes beginning 20 years ago, and is still a helpful way to understand ideological frameworks in these last days.
Yet the false left-right paradigm provides a perfect avenue for sowing division, rather than commonly embracing values of liberty and tolerance that can help us live at peace.
Instead, the French Revolution spirit of tear-it-all-down does its appointed work from below; and meanwhile a stealthy global technocracy is enveloping the globe from above.
BIO-TECHNO-NEO-FEUDALIST GLOBAL ORDER
What is this technocracy?
It is a synthesis of the evils that came before. It could be bundled up as a neo-liberal techno-Fabian socialism combined with a neo-conservative military industrial complex and a well-established bio-pharmaceutical medical complex.
If you opt for God's ways and object to it, it doesn’t exist, conspiracy theorist.
If you promote it, then you’re virtuous, as this tyranny is wrapped not in the flag, but in the virtue of The Current Thing... while the flag burns.
It's a moving target, a valueless values system, which occupies the religious void in a secular culture with a bouncing ball of mass formation groupthink akin to a religious cult writ large.
For our purposes, this globalist ideology most definitely has prophetic implications.
Presently the Anglosphere and the Vatican-tied interests of the World Economic Forum move forward with a cashless corporatist neo-feudalism with elements of monopoly capitalism, elements of fascism, elements of Marxism, and elements of Chinese social credit control grid soon to be superpowered by AI - all toward the end of enriching and empowering the corporatist state at the expense of individual freedom.
And of course, the end is no-buy-no sell and a death decree for those who object to the final Current Thing - the mark of the beast.
COULD IT HAPPEN NOW?
You can imagine a likely scenario. If we were to accelerate into the final events of Bible prophecy right now, it would be the current ruling elite in the death throes of an unsustainable financial system ripe for collapse (as more people believe in Martians than governments paying off their debts), a collapse which is catalyzed in the context of engineered crisis to provide a cover for that collapse, where simultaneously natural disasters supposedly caused by carbon dioxide are blamed on those who don’t participate in the Sunday emissions-free sabbath. Carbon allotments tracked digitally and central bank digital currencies are the primary control mechanism, with Sunday enforcement tucked in as a part of the universal virtue popularized through mass entertainment culture.
Sounds crazy, I know. But crazy is the new normal.
Just a couple years ago, it would’ve sounded impossible to imagine universal lockdowns for humans deemed non-essential. Or church closures. Or dysphoria-affirming interventions for children without parental consent.
So all of this is simply to say that freedom and prosperity - not to mention reason and conscience - this side of heaven are simply history.
We truly live in the final madhouse of Satan's great controversy. Cling to Jesus. We're almost home. While men’s hearts fail them for fear and anxiety from the madness, we have the peace, privilege, and joy to simply lift up our heads for our redemption draweth nigh.
CONCLUSION
This isn’t a call to be complacent about contemporary issues. For the Christian, there has always been, and will continue to be, a humanitarian call to labor in defense of liberty, unborn life, trafficked children, health freedom, and the general well-being and human rights of our fellow man. It's part of 'love thy neighbor.'
And there’s no reason to stop that advocacy, so long as it doesn’t unequally yoke us up with the political entanglements of this unprincipled, corrupt, and confused generation.
But what’s the purpose of all of that advocacy, anyway? Is our hope set upon temporal reforms of the institutions of this world that will certainly and shortly descend into the abyss?
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (1 Cor. 15:19).
The reason we speak up on social issues is simply to show the love of God, to reveal His character as a God of freedom, and to thus win souls to everlasting life.
If speech and action in addressing contemporary issues is anything short of a soul-winning endeavor, then it’s just some variety of the neutered social “gospel” - maybe with a demonic cultural marxist flavor borrowed from Catholic liberation theology, maybe with a more rational and conscientious flavor; but in the end, if it lacks personal soul-winning, it’s eternally vacuous - a clanging gong and a resounding cymbal.
It's worth repeating that Jesus’ mission was seeking the lost, not seeking civil reforms.
So on the latest cast of characters vying for the Oval Office, silence is golden. Bury it. Sorry; America is doomed. But praise Him: Jesus is risen.
There are many seeking a re-awakening to principles that can unite rather than divide. What a great impulse.
Use the dissatisfaction with the status quo among our fellow reasonable people to point to the beautiful founding principles of this nation, which are an echo of God’s government in the great controversy.
But rather than get the idea that our mission is to restore America, turn once again to the ultimate work of the restoration of the image of God in man - redemption.
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Scott Ritsema is the founder and director of Belt of Truth Ministries and Media on the Brain. He lives in Lakeview Michigan with his wife Cami and three amazing children!
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