By W. D. Penfield. First published on Substack.
Updating previous articles, in terms of the Biblical prophetic timeline, we’re still in the middle of Jeremiah 51:46, in the period between two prophesied “rumours”—two astonishing announcements, or astonishing news stories.
Here’s the KJV reading of the verse:
And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
We can deduce that the two astonishing news stories are coup attempts. The first attempt, which in a way is still ongoing, won’t succeed. How do we know this? Because unlike the second one, it’s not followed by a civil war.
The second attempt, however, will succeed. It will be followed by a civil war, likely a short one, occurring “in” the same year as the second astonishing news story.
We’re getting a clearer picture as to how the conflict will develop—through a contested national election, with two candidates claiming legal wins and entitlement to the presidency.
One will claim the win under the traditional norms and rules of American elections. The other will claim the win through a judicial ruling and Electoral College maneuver.
It appears the Supreme Court is poised to set that up. The SCOTUS announced it will consider a case that could result in a decision to give state legislatures power to award electors to any candidate they choose, no matter who the majority of their state’s voters choose.
Here is an unrolled Twitter thread by Thom Hartmann with commentary on what that decision could mean. Constitutional law expert Lawrence Tribe comments that step 17 of Hartmann’s thread is legally wrong, but he doesn’t consider that assuring.
So things are setting up for a hotly contested election that will trigger a civil clash—American Civil War 2, with “violence in the land, ruler against ruler”.
Since the Bible foretells it in various places and ways, we can be sure American democracy will not survive the clash and will fall.
But we don’t know how soon these things are going to happen. The Bible simply says it will happen “in another year” after the year of the first “rumour”.
Could it happen in 2024? It’s possible.
I don’t want to peddle false hopes, but I think a few game pieces are not yet in place (though it’s already pretty much checkmate for democracy).
I still have some hope it could be a more few years, maybe even a decade or more before they succeed. Here’s why:
Our current age began with the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., which marked the suspension of God’s offer of the Kingdom to Israel. Our age is Biblically foretold to last a full 2,000 years (it won’t be shortened). This age isn’t due to wrap up until around 2070. For more on this, see my article, Three Offers of the Kingdom and the Duration of Our Current Age.
The destruction of “Babylon,” that is, America, will happen at the end of our current age. How do we know that? The Translation of remaining believers will occur nearly simultaneously.
Our current age does not end with the Rapture, or even a Rapture. It ends—and the next age begins—with a Translation of remaining believers. They’ll be delivered “out of the midst of the overthrow”, as was Lot, and will simply vanish, like Enoch. (More on that in the linked article.)
That will herald the return to Earth of openly observable Divine and supernatural activity. Open Divine and supernatural activity will be a characteristic of the Tribulation period, and it will start with the Translation that ends this age. That places it and the near-simultaneous destruction of Babylon at the end of this current age.
So a fascist America will be functioning up to or around 2070, give or take a few years. It will then meet its own sudden, violent end.
If democracy were to be overthrown in 2024 or 2028, fifty-or-so years would be a long time to keep a fascist autocracy stable and functional. So, again, I hope it’s a few more years before it happens. But it could happen with the next presidential election, or any presidential election after that. The right is moving with speed and enthusiasm now, energized by a rash of radical Supreme Court moves that imply it will support a state legislature and Electoral College coup.
To me, the most frustrating thing about knowing these things are coming is that my brain comes up with lots of ideas on how to fix things and keep it from happening (if only people would listen! If only they’d do the right thing!). (An example of what might be done to stop it is here.)
But I also know that none of those things will work, or, even if they would work, they won’t be done. Bible prophecy is going to fulfill. Nothing can keep that from happening. People in general are either going to facilitate a fascist takeover of America, or not do enough to stop it.
The rest of us will just have to roll with it.
It’s up to us to not fret over that, or over the timing—over exactly when those things will happen. I believe that in whatever time remains for American democracy, we should resist fascism in whatever ways we can for as long as we can—up to the point of bloodshed, but not beyond that. And we should recognize when it’s time to accept the inevitable outcome. Then it’s up to us to turn our attention to our own business, and to helping others. Under an abusive regime in an abusive culture, lots of people will be needing support and help.
Sadly—and this is frustrating, even infuriating—many Christians are participating in the dismantling of democracy, supporting it and cheering it on. As Katherine Stewart wrote in a New York Times opinion piece, “Breaking American democracy isn’t an unintended side effect of Christian nationalism. It is the point of the project.”
They know what they’re doing and where this is all headed. And many of them are excited about it. At the same time, they’ve been seduced through several unscriptural and extra-scriptural doctrines, disinformation and outright lies, appeals to resentment, bigotry, and sanctimony, falsified grievances and indignation, and pious-seeming but errant causes—an addictive roller coaster of powerful, seductive emotions, and the illusion of entitlement to vengeance and righting supposed wrongs—what author Phillip Roth called the ecstasy of sanctimony. They’ve been radicalized into feeling entitled to commit injustices and atrocities to stop or avenge imagined injustices and atrocities—or at least approving when such things are done.
They’ve shifted to an “end justifies the means” moral code. “Let us do evil, that good may come”, an approach that Paul, when accused of it, called slanderous.
Those things are just excuses. Excuses to seize power and “sit in the gate,” a position of political authority, to subjugate others and rule over them, persecute and afflict and bully and abuse and oppress them, impoverish them, and even kill them. And of course they feel righteously entitled to make war, even against fellow Americans and fellow Christians who don’t share their dominionist, hard-right, extremist, racist, misogynist, and unscriptural views.
When democracy does fall, such Christians may even celebrate and interpret the fascists’ “win” as evidence that God approves of the fascist movement and their support of it.
They will come to regret that when that cruel, vindictive, and violent movement turns openly antisemitic, and it becomes clear to them that God is going to step in and judge. They’ll finally come to their senses and speak out against the fascists, who will then turn against them too. (See Genesis 19:1–16.)
Antisemitism is not the only grievance God will have against America. The sin of Sodom wasn’t a statistically occurring gay community. It was a system-wide culture of violence, a system of the strong sticking it to the weak.
It was a system participated in by “all the people of the city, young and old, from every quarter” (Genesis 19:4)—men, women, young, old, all the people, from every point on the political compass.
The Bible defines the real sin of Sodom as follows:
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
– Ezekiel 16:49, ESV)
So, what about a nation that not only does not aid the poor and needy, but also makes people poor, a nation that puts the costs of basic needs out of reach, and drives people into unpayable lifelong debt?
And what about a nation that singles out one group after another for persecution and abuse?
This is the nation America is fast becoming, and in many ways already is.
Many forms of violence are pictured by the behavior of the people of Sodom—it’s not limited to physical violence. Ezekiel 16:49 specifically called out economic violence against the poor. Again, all the people of the city participated in it.
There’s not a single mention of homosexuals in that explanatory verse. It’s not about gay sex among consenting adults in a gay community. They won’t be the cause of God’s judgment. In fact, when a nation’s whole culture is about abuse and violence, gay communities are not the problem. They’re targets and victims too.
They’re among the first in a long line of targets. Bullies and abusers always start with the easy targets, the most vulnerable, the people who will be least defended and advocated for and protected. Then they work their way up the ladder.
Women and their children are targets too, as well as people of color, people of differing religions and politics, immigrants and foreigners, and of course poor people.
All eventually become targets under fascism. The fascist appetite to dominate, bully, oppress, abuse, persecute, and afflict people is insatiable. (All while they claim they are the victims.)
Eventually, Jews will be targets.
The movement’s turn to open antisemitism will finally, finally be the deal breaker for evangelical Christians who supported the movement. They’ll come to their senses. (More or less. They’ll still be misogynists, pictured by Lot offering his own daughters to the mob to abuse.)
And note what happens. When the Christian right speaks out against antisemitism, the fascist movement will drop its own Christian charade.
This is something evangelicals do not realize about the movement. It’s pseudo-Christian. It only pretends to be Christian to draw in their support. And it will grow tired of the charade, and grow tired of Christians and their moralizing to them over antisemitism (and maybe a few other things).
Having consolidated and locked down power, the movement will have no more need for political support from the Christian right, and no need to pretend to be Christian itself. It will suddenly remind Christians that this nation really wasn’t founded as a specifically Christian nation. Christians, like people of all faiths, were but guests—sojourners—here.
The movement will then threaten to persecute Christians even worse than the Jews. What a stunning turn of events that will be for the evangelical Christian right!
Here are the verses from Genesis 19 that foretell this. Note at first Lot calls them “brethren”! He has been totally aligned with them. And he thinks he’s been socializing with fellow Christians!
4 ¶ But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.
By that time, evangelicals will have no ability to reverse things, having no more effective influence in the fascist movement. Having surrendered their own power to vote in their zeal to take that same right away from others, they will no longer have the power to undo what has been done.
When they become targets for persecution too, the angels will draw them back into their own houses, out of the public discourse, and will shut the door. People shut outside will then weary themselves to find the door (verse 11). Jesus is the Door, the Way of salvation.
10 But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.
11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
An interesting detail: When Lot goes to warn his “sons in law”, which indicates they were not saved, but unbelievers still under law, they thought Lot was making a joke. It was a jolting turn of position. Up until then Lot had been an enthusiastic supporter and participant in the fascist movement. Suddenly he’s saying God’s going to destroy this place, after all the years of acting like God blessed the whole thing they did?
12 ¶ And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:
13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.
14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.
And that’s when God will step in to bring this current age—and America—to an end. Verse 15 says Lot was delivered and the destruction occurred “when the morning arose”, foreshadowing the dawn of the next prophetic age, which will be the Tribulation, and the return of the “light” of open Divine and supernatural evidences to the Earth.
You can read about the destruction and how this age ends in Jeremiah 50-51, Revelation 18, and Genesis 19:1-16. I recommend reading the King James version of the passages. Other versions might nerf some of the details. For example, one alternate version of Jeremiah 51:46 suggests that only the threat of violence will occur “in another year,” not actual violence.
A couple of side notes here: That verse in Ezekiel, along with the description in Revelation 18 of merchants of the Earth weeping over the destruction of Babylon, suggests that America will have a robust economy and remain a big consumer nation even under fascism, right up to the last. But that prosperity won’t be shared with America’s poor classes.
Secondly, the alt-right needed a constituency big enough to keep them in the running, and control of enough state legislatures to pull off the steal. Politicians and manipulators radicalized the conservative side of American politics and consolidated a base of support by pandering to the worst impulses in humanity. They could not have succeeded if a sizable part of the populace hadn’t somehow become “panderable.”
A few decades ago, such politicians would be nothing more than fringe third-party candidates capable of mustering only a tiny fraction of the popular vote. Now they are mainstream, with control of the Supreme Court and enough support to keep vote counts close enough to steal an election and end democracy.
When they succeed, they’ll enact a few popular policies (“See? Things are so much better now! Well, for some people anyway. Just ignore the rest. They deserve it”), and implement threats and force against critics and dissidents, and the “middle third” of political undecideds will switch over and support the new regime. We may be surprised at who eventually comes out openly in support of it. Others will just keep their heads down and mouths shut, intimidated into silence.
So the figure of speech in Genesis 19 will ring true. With few exceptions, “all the people of the city, young and old, from every quarter” will participate in it. And America is the world’s most influential nation, a trendsetter. Many nations of the world will follow America’s lead and drink of the wine of fascism too. (Revelation 18:3)
Here’s my point: As this age comes to a close, God won’t be judging only the leaders of America. He will judge all of America.
Because those three Bible passages do prophesy the fall and end of America, we might feel it is distressing and upsetting information. But God has told us why He informs us: not to upset us or cause us distress, but so we won’t “faint” at the news and sink into despair or fear, or be caught off guard and feel shocked and gut punched when it happens.
God wants us to know that justice is coming. God will bring justice for all the injustices inflicted and atrocities committed by ruthless fascist bullies and ghouls. They are deluding themselves that there will never be a reckoning. Perhaps they rationalize that an eventual reckoning is a price they are willing to pay in exchange for some temporary power and primal gratification of their imagined grievances and resentments. As long as they can afflict people now, they reason, as long as they can get even for whatever wrongs they imagine they’ve suffered, they don’t care what the eternal consequences might be.
They think they don’t care. They will care when the day of reckoning comes.
There’s another good reason to inform people about these things to come: To encourage them to not participate in the movement and its cruelty, abuse, and violence. And in case it isn’t already obvious: that’s what the movement is all about.
There are larger purposes at work in God’s plan in these things too, things to consider.
God does not operate a department of pre-crime. He doesn’t judge people or nations based on what they might do or would do if allowed to do it. They are judged for what they do, or have done. God is dividing wheat from chaff, sheep from goats. He is allowing people to manifest which group they belong to.
God says He is laying a snare for Babylon. He knows the latent evil concealed and lurking just below the surface in America.
He’s going to draw the evil out into full view, put it on display, and expose the charade—the false appearance of moral integrity, character, and exceptionalism. He will lay bare America’s pride, its hubris, its arrogance, its cruelty and violence.
America’s arrogance and moral descent will be most evident when America militarily attacks Israel (probably a missile attack, and possibly utilizing low-yield tactical nukes). That’s foretold in Jeremiah 50–51. That military action will seal America’s fate.
As God has done in the past, He will bring His own greater purposes and greater good out of the evil things men plan and do.
His purposes include the redemption of individuals. Troubled times and the fulfilling of Bible prophecy may draw many to believe on Him—this despite evangelical Christian fascists driving people away from Him.
His purposes also include preparing the way for the end times, which are only a few decades away. America will be removed from the world stage first.
His greater purpose in allowing antisemitism to flourish in America will be to motivate Jews to flee the country. I think we all can agree it would take something big like war or persecution to get any of us to just up and leave our homes and homeland. And America is the homeland of many Jews who were born and raised here. God will be moving as many as possible out so they not only escape the ultimate destruction of this country, but also so they survive into the end times to have another opportunity at redemption.
Don’t dare presume that it would be God’s will to participate in antisemitism and persecution of Jews, in the idea that you’re helping Him accomplish His purposes! God allowing something, and bringing good out of it despite the evil people intend in it, does not mean God approves of it. God always judges those who do such things!
As I mentioned, our current age does not end with a Rapture. It ends with a Translation of remaining believers—they’ll simply vanish, as Enoch did (Genesis 5:24). Like Lot, they’ll be delivered “out of the midst of the overthrow” when the day and hour of America’s end comes (Genesis 19:29).
That last verse has dual (even triple) application. It also applies to as-yet unsaved Jews who will escape by physically leaving, “sent” out by God. God will then resume His direct dealings with Israel and the Jews, the intent being to save the remnant and restore all of Israel.
And that is God’s great purpose in the end times (the next prophetic period that follows our own age)—to redeem and restore the nation of Israel. Through Israel, blessing and redemption will be spread throughout the world in a glorious Kingdom Age, with Jesus Himself reigning in Jerusalem.
(Note to evangelicals: God Himself will establish that Kingdom with Jesus’ return, not people by violence and war! Jesus will return to end the violence and atrocities.)
So keep your head up, looking for God’s greater good and our own deliverance. Help whoever you can whenever you can. If you’re in business, be decent and fair in what you charge people for goods or services (don’t participate in sticking it to others). Be generous in giving. And never stop standing in your own integrity and character, extending compassion for others, shining as a beacon of what’s right and what’s truth. Reprove the cruelty and evil in this world by refusing to participate in it, and by showing compassion and generosity toward others.
I included a few more details about America in Bible prophecy in a previous article here.
