A Prophetic Look at America

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Previous articles outlined two governance method’s differences and some implications. One approach from the pagan kingdoms and a second using Biblical principles. This article extends that discussion. Who are we? Why does it matter? Could the final battle be between champions for each of the two models? After all, the ideas and principles underlying each model cannot coexist, they are incompatible. Rev. F.E. Pitts addressed this subject in the Capital’s great hall in 1857. Pitt’s book[1] and the Bible provide our primary sources. The content is interesting in light of current events.

The Case for a Different View

One end-time event I’ve heard about since childhood is the battle at Armageddon. The Jewish people will gather again in the land of Israel. A final battle will be fought there, and God will prevail. But the land’s description for this event doesn’t match that of Israel’s historical homeland. Could this battle be about differences in governance ideas? Rev. Pitts lays out the case as follows.

“What subject could possibly enlist a world in arms, if, it be not the principle of civil and religious liberty? . . . [T]he principle of popular freedom is capable of universal diffusion, and must ultimately be commensurate with the nations of the earth. It lies at the foundation of our being, and forms the very texture and fabric of human nature: nay, the very law of our great Creator, and every specification growing out of that law, bear directly upon this twofold principle. To love God and our neighbor plainly indicates the foundation of all true order in the governmental codes of the earth.”[2]

Where government is unfriendly to the free worship of God, it is also contrary to the idea of self-governance. Such governments are the enemy of civil and religious liberty, until “annihilated from the nations of the earth. Both principles [governance models] are aggressive, and must continue to enlarge their bounds until a final collision must exterminate the one or the other.”[3] Sounds like the last several years. Is America the place for this conflict? Rev. Pitts thought so.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream …

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar of a dream the king had of a statue. (Daniel 2:31-5) Its head was of gold, the chest and arms silver, the belly and thighs brass. The legs were iron, and its feet part clay and part iron. The statue represented the four state religion kingdoms of; Babylon, Medio-Persia, Greece, and Rome. However, these kingdoms represented a single system; one based on Babylonian ideas, culture, and law. When Rome ended, the system continued and exists today. Roman civil law, its underlying ideas and culture, form its foundation.

A fifth kingdom, represented by a stone cut without hands from a mountain, smashes the statue’s feet, breaking them to pieces. The wind scatters the whole statue like chaff. This fifth kingdom will be a republic based upon Biblical governing principles. “For if Republicanism be a failure, it will be overthrown; and if Absolutism be offensive to God, and an outrage upon the people, its days are destined to be numbered.”[4]

… And Its Meaning

The clay and iron feet “symbolized the Union of Church and State under Constantine [in 325, with the First Council of Nicaea]; that the antagonism of the stone to the image smiting it on the feet, symbolized the genius of our great nation in its opposition to the union of Church and State; that while the stone-kingdom, or government, were not Christianity, the mountain out of which the stone was cut was Christianity.”[5] Although bound together, iron and clay do not mix, just like governance and religion within the State Religion model. The ten toes represent ten kingdoms developing from Rome’s fall. The stone becomes a mountain after destroying the statue, filling the whole earth and lasting forever.

This battle hasn’t yet happened. Only ancient Israel and America were founded on the Biblical model. Neither existed nor destroyed any of the four statue kingdoms. Does America fit the prophecy?

Stone Kingdom Characteristics

The books of Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel mention some of the fifth kingdom’s, or stone kingdom’s, characteristics.[6] This kingdom represents a restored Israel; one based upon God’s ideas and principles rather than a people. This is similar to the expectation of Elijah’s coming again before the Messiah. What occurred instead was the spirit of Elijah manifesting within John the Baptist. (Luke 1:17)

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Some characteristics mentioned by Rev. Pitts include;

Location

The land’s will be bounded on the east by a sea, and the west by a greater sea. (Ezek. 47:18, 20)
Its land will have ‘long laid waste’. (Ezek. 38:8) This phrase describes land that has been uncultivated, like America’s primeval prairies and virgin forests.
The nation will embrace all the land between the seas. (Psalm 72:8) The Americas—both North and South.
Foreigners will come from the North and West, the land of Sinim (China). (Isa. 49:12)
It lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (the Nile), sending ambassadors by sea. (Isa. 18:1-2) West of the rivers and North Africa desert lies America.

People

A people gathered out of the nations will inhabit the land. (Ezek. 38:8) Is there another nation that fits this description like America?
This nation will be open to all people. (Ezek. 47:22-3) Enough said.
Its people will enlarge their land’s boundaries. (Isa. 48:18-20) America stretched to the Mississippi at its founding, and to the Pacific within 100 years.

Governance

The kingdom will be a republic (Jer. 30:21, Hos. 1:11, and Isa. 1:26)

Development

Ships from Tarshish shall bring my sons from afar and gold with them. (Isa. 60:9) Tarshish is the site of Cadiz in Spain, one of the first countries to explore the new world.
In the land’s infancy, it will receive royal attention. (Isa. 49:23) Think of the names of the original 13 colonies and many of their towns and counties.
The kingdom shall have 13 parts. (Ezek. 47:13) These represent the twelve tribes, with Joseph’s double portion.
The land will be restored from its desolation, its people living prosperously in unwalled towns. (Ezek. 38: 8-12)

Traits

This land will be remarkable for its majestic rivers. (Isa. 33:21)
The kingdom will be elevated above the rest of the world. (Isa. 2:2, Ezek. 38:11)
The people shall be peaceful and easily understood. (Isa. 33:19)
Their children shall learn the Lord’s way, and their knowledge increase. (Isa. 54:13 and Dan. 12:4)

Dates Related to Cyrus’s Decree

There are two sets of dates, each with a different start date.[7] The first start date is Cyrus’s decree for the Jews return to Jerusalem in 537 BC. An eclipse of the sun puts the date at about 12/6 of that year. There are two end dates for this first measure. The first end date is the crucifixion (29 AD), and the second the end of the daily sacrifice coming with the second temple’s destruction (68 AD). An eclipse of the moon confirms the crucifixion date to be about 3/25 of that year. The second temple was destroyed on the 21^st of Nisan in 68 AD. The time from the decree to the crucifixion is about 564 years and 109 days. Rev. Pitts puts the number of days to the temple’s destruction as 603 years and 129 days.

Seventy weeks (Dan. 9:24-7) were decreed for Israel’s transgressions. But these are Hebrew weeks of years, or 490 years. This figure does not include the sabbatic days. Their addition brings the total years to 560. These years are symbolic years of 360 parts each. Adjusting to our 365 day calendar yields 564 years and 109 days. The 39 year difference between the crucifixion and temple destruction are accounted for “by adding the proper sabbatic time of days, weeks, and years, as authorized by the Jewish calendar; for the weeks themselves are ‘determined,’ nectag, cut short or abbreviated weeks. So that both lengths are accurately fulfilled, and are correctly termed ‘70 weeks.’”[8]

Dates Related to the Fifth Kingdoms Founding

The second start date is the end of the daily sacrifice at the temple’s destruction. The length of time is 3 ½ times. (Dan. 12:5-7) This length is calculated using the standard 360 day year, (3 x 360) + (.5 x 360), or 1,260 symbolic years. Adding the sabbatic days brings this total to 1,440 years. Adjusting for the number of days in our current calendar yields 1,708 years or 326,833 days. The day of the last temple sacrifice was the 189^th day of 68 AD. Adding 326,833 days to that date brings us to July 4, 1776.

There is more, but this suffices. I’ll close with a few remarks about the final battle itself.

The Monarchies vs. The Republic

Rev. Pitts believed America represents a restored Israel. Monarchies embracing State Religion governance will at some point invade this republic. These monarchies will rise out of ten kingdoms coming from the Western Roman Empire. Their source was the Germanic tribes displaced by the Hun invasion, and the Huns themselves. Pitts believed these monarchies would be led by Russia, while France alone would side with America. The battlefield would be the Mississippi River valley.

If true, we’ve not reached the final battle. More recent history suggests Russia might side with America and France with the monarchies. During the War Between the States, France invaded Mexico and set up Maximillian as emperor. Britain sent troops to Canada along its American border. Both were ready to enter the war on the southern state’s side. However, Russia sent part of its Atlantic fleet to Norfolk, and its Pacific fleet to San Francisco. These ships assisted the north in blockading the southern ports.

Neither France nor Britain wanted an open war with both America and Russia, and therefore neither entered the war. Why did Russia act? Perhaps because it never had a central bank, and President Jackson had just rid America of the third attempt to create one here. Aiding America was in Russia’s self-interest.

Final Thoughts

Rev. Pitts concluded “the union of Church and State will never be happy in its combination—never a harmonious and peaceful union—but an illegitimate commerce, unsanctioned by the will of God, and ruinous to the best interests of the human family. . . . That is, a superior order of men will join an inferior order; or the Church shall be joined to the State, and, consequently, such a government must always be partly strong and partly broken—a politico-ecclesiastical concubinage that would curse the nations of the earth.”[9]

Rev. Pitts believed America was Israel restored, and he issued a warning if we became complacent.

“We have the one living and true God, one Saviour, and one religion—one Constitution, one Confederacy, one Republic, one nationality; therefore, a true religion and a true civil government is the Israel that was to come, the ‘nation born at once’—born on the 4^th of July, 1776.

‘But let us not be misled by the consecrated name of Israel. For ‘all are not Israel who are called Israel.’ A nation possessing the true religion, and enjoying an enlightened and liberal civil government, may have many unbelieving and rebellious people in its midst; and, doubtless, millennial glory, and the day of judgment also, will find both the righteous and the wicked, the just and the unjust, the wise and the foolish virgins, for the wheat and tares will grow together until the general harvest, ‘which is the end of the world.’ Even Israel restored to nationality will not be the Eden of bliss.”[10]

Ideas not only shape our governance, but our culture. Let us not forget, and continue holding and striving for what is true.