Where is America in Biblical Prophecy?

USA......”apparently very weak and very unimportant. The Rapture has occurred by the time of this invasion and America has been emptied of all born again Christians. Many leaders of business, society and our military are gone”........

Of all the responses here I think yours draws closest in saying that our nation will be weak and unimportant by that time. At most it will play a weak supporting role only, but nothing as we have known in the past.

BO is doing his part to weaken us....though we hate what he is doing, in light of the scripture God may very well be using BO to neutralize our nation further. Historically it's been our footprint in the heart of the Middle East which has actually kept them from blowing each other up, Iran and Syria would have made a huge dash into the region were it not for Saddam prior to our being there. .....I think God has used us since then so that the speed of change, and how the nations line up, cannot occur ahead of schedual.

When it does erupt there, keep in mind all the activity going on with Russia, Iran and chavaz arming up Venezuela at this time...and Cuba on board with them....They have been busy down there since BO took office...One could say they are staging that area, at this time,... for such a day in the future. A threat from there would certainly quell whatever leadership there is left in our country who may think of interfering in the Middle East when things get underway then.

Certainly we'll be too broke as well....you can't move an army without money, and you sure can't move one without oil...they have their hands on that spigot. So once BO moves out the bulk of our troops that too will weaken any chance of a response.

" Looks like a close match to me."

Indeed, me too.

Different translations are revealing as well. Is "whirring wings" a reference to aviation? It did originate here.

The "tall and smooth" has also been translated "tall and smooth-skinned" in several translations as well, and I have since read that "smooth-skinned" could also be interpreted as "fair-skinned." Dunno.

Whatever He does, it seems it will be in summer. This is the ESV:

"5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,"

I'm confident that "birds of prey," and "beasts of the earth" are metaphor for demons. Imagine for a moment twenty-five million people not only VERY hungry, but suddenly unable to get their antidepressants. Posessed/out of control? You betcha.... Murder/crime wave from hell, literally.

Looks like we ultimately repent though, perhaps after only a few months to a year (some translations say a summer and a harvest, others a summer and a winter). This is the RSV:

Isaiah 18

1 Alas, oh land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,
2 Which sends envoys by the sea, Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters
Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth,
To a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,
As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.
4 For thus the LORD has told me,
"I will look from My dwelling place quietly Like dazzling heat in the sunshine, Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."
5 For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms And the flower becomes a ripening grape, Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives And remove and cut away the spreading branches.
6 They will be left together for mountain birds of prey, And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
7 At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts
From a people tall and smooth,
Even from a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide--
To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, even Mount Zion.

Much of the world is destroyed just in the first half of the 7 year tribulation period (Rev 6). We have just put together a post on that subject that will be released in a couple of days that gets in to detail of this period and deals more with the conditions and mood of America and the world at that time. America will not be the only nation that is not affected. Any true believers will have been Raptured out(1 Cor. 15:51-58,1 Thess. 4:15-17, 1 John 3:2) and thus the true Gospel message will be removed. All that will be left in the beginning of the period will be the apostate Laodicean church of (Matt 13:32,33; Rev 3:14-22).

Actually Tarshish is Spain or Western Europe of that day. Jonah sought to go there.. a 180 degrees from Israel as he was running from the Lord. The Young lions there of many state as its American allies with Britain France etc... One is not sure. But Tarshish is Spain or i.e., Western Europe.

I did a study on EZ 38, 39 just a little bit ago, And found this simple truth quite neat.. did you know that all the nations that go against Israel during this invasion are all the names the first and second generations of Shem, Japheth, and Ham’s their children and grandchildren. (Gen 10).

It is as if Almighty God says that your hatred for My will, My vehicle and My plan for salvation for the world you have hated, against and have been envious of… has come to a head 4200 years later and in your invasion you have fulfilled by your deeds of your godless decedents going after my people. . Also… all these individuals (Gomer. Magog, Cush, Meshech and Tubal, etc... Were part of the Babel rebellion of Gen 11 under Nimrod 4200 years ago.

Israel (God’s vehicle of salvation during the tribulation period which this Godless confederacy will seek to destroy) is (Jacob) is 12th in the line of Noah. http://www.theignorantfishermen.com/2008/07/sets-in-west-and-rises-in-east.html

you lost me at that part about the rapture.

With the millions of Christians who died for Christ in the last century, I find it absurd to think that affluent self styled “Born again” christians in the US will get a “deus ex machina” and escape pain, while the rest of us semi pious Christians will be stuck here to suffer.

If Christ suffered and died before he rose again, why should we, who are called by his name, expect to escape suffering?

And this interpretation of scripture ignores the millions of Christians living in Africa and Asia...

are you aware that there is a world wide revival of Christianity here? That ten percent of China is now Christian? That even in Saudi and the Middle East, Koreans are preaching about Jesus, and Filipinos are holding underground church services?

And in Africa, millions are converting to Christianity, which is no longer “tainted” by the colonialist past (i.e. where conversion might get you a job)...now Africans are converting out of love of Jesus, because he makes a difference in their lives...

Besides, the rapture was not a traditional reading of those verses of the Bible until 200 years ago...

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