There are a number of biblical prophecies that seem to speak of America. One is Revelation 12:1-18 (some of this passage is omitted for the sake of brevity): 

         A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 

         and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth…  

        And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. 

        Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. 

        And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon…. 

        When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.  

        But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 

        And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. 

        But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened and swallowed the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. 

         The woman is understood to be those who have carried the seed of Christ, which is biblical Israel and spiritual Israel (true believers). Christ is the male child who was to rule the nations. The flood that poured out of the mouth of the dragon to devour these is considered to have been The Inquisition, the worst persecution in history against both the Jews and Protestant Christians. At the peak of The Inquisition, the earth did open when Columbus discovered America. So much attention was then given to “the new world” that the flood was swallowed up by it, and The Inquisition soon ended.

         Most of the early colonists that came to America were Christians and Jews fleeing persecution. The woman in this text was carried away by the wings of a great eagle. She was nourished in a wilderness. America was a wilderness at the time, and the symbol of America became the eagle. 

         This is also an illumination of one of America’s basic purposes, which is to be a haven for persecuted Christians and Jews as those who carry the seed of Christ. Those fleeing to America to escape the religious persecution were keen to establish a place where something like The Inquisition could not happen again. This is why the colonies all had a deep devotion to religious liberty. 

         In Genesis, the biblical narrative of creation, God establishes that He made mankind to be free. He did this by putting two unique trees in the Garden, The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and The Tree of Life. The man was then told that he was free to eat from any tree in the Garden except for The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Why would God put such a tree in the Garden, allowing such a temptation? Because there could be no obedience unless there was the freedom to disobey.

         The Lord did not say that if man ate from the forbidden tree that He would kill him, but simply that man would die. The Lord did not kill Adam, but the fruit from that tree was poison, and the man killed himself with his disobedience. God did not release death into the world; Adam did. 

         We see in Scripture that God knew that this would happen because He knows the end from the beginning. However, knowing something will happen is not the same as making it happen. Knowing that it would happen, God had already planned to restore mankind and all that was under man’s dominion from the consequences of the Fall. The Apostle Peter called this “the restoration of all things.”

We can take the first three chapters of The Bible and the last three, read them together, and they make a complete story. Everything between those six chapters is about one essential subject—restoration—restoring both mankind and the earth from all of the devastation brought about by the disobedience of man. 

         At the end of The Bible this restoration has been fully accomplished. There are numerous biblical prophecies about the whole earth once again becoming the paradise that it was originally created to be. This is “The Gospel of the Kingdom,” or as it could have been translated, “the good news of the coming kingdom of God.” It is good news, not bad news. The end of this age is not the end of the world, but rather a whole new beginning for it. 

         Fundamental to God’s ways is His commitment to liberty. As we see in the Garden right after the Fall, God made provision to cover Adam and Eve. He began right away to implement His plan of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration that has unfolded throughout history to this day. The Lord was not just redeeming and reconciling us back to Himself, but also working in mankind the ability to handle the liberty that would always be included in His creation. 

         Liberty requires self-control, or self-government. The American Republic is a step in this greatest of all plans for the restoration of this fallen world by learning to handle freedom with responsibility. Of course, we have not done this perfectly, or even well at times, but we must never give up on this high calling.

         No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. — George Washington

         I beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. 

— Benjamin Franklin [prayers have opened sessions of Congress since Franklin’s request on June 28, 1787]

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© 2020 by Rick Joyner. All rights reserved.