Article for Anointing- April 2008
"Nations shall Rise & Nations shall Fall"
by Dr. John Williams
Introduction
As mentioned in the Bible, we can see in the world history, from the
beginnings of times (4000 B.C.) when God created this world, in which we live
now, people are very easily distracted by archaeological evidence such as bones
of dinosaurs and other fossils which are discovered now and then. According to
the scientific tests, probably dinosaurs existed some thousands or even millions
of years ago. However, it is important to note that the Bible talks about this
earth and covers events that took place on this planet from the time it was
created by God as described in the Bible in 4000 B.C., until 29 A.D.. What
happened before this period is not mentioned in the Bible and so also what has
been happening since 29 A.D. approximately, has not been covered in the Bible.
In the beginning, when God created this world, the Bible says that there was
utter darkness and chaos. What existed before that time on the planet earth,
whether the world was in the same or some other form, what happened to it, why
it collapsed, how it became chaotic, gloomy and utterly dark, is not recorded in
the Bible, and it is not important for us to know. Since we are living on this
planet earth now, at this time, only what has been happening since the creation
of this world in 4000 B.C., and what is going to happen to this world in the
future is more important and relevant to us.
1. Early History of the World
During the Biblical era, who ruled the world under the leading and guidance of
God, the names of Prophets, Kings and Judges who exercised authority over the
people and their life style, is clearly mentioned in the Bible from the
beginnings of times (from 4000 B.C.) until the death of Jesus Christ in
approximately 29 A.D. The names of the countries and their locations, as well as
their topography described in the Bible land, including the geography,
mentioning the names of the terrain of this world such as mountains, forests,
rivers, deserts etc. with their specific names that are mostly used to refer to
them until today, and various tribes of people that lived through the years and
the genealogy of some important servants of God, which also traces the lineage
of Abraham, David etc. until the birth of Jesus, is clearly mentioned in the
Bible with ample historical, geographical and archaeological proofs.
2. Early Trend of Powerful Nations
It is important to note particularly in the Old Testament times, how the nations
and tribes fought each other; and how several nations rose and were in power,
and even reached the zenith of its glory; how, because of the enormous wealth,
power and dominion they had, the pride that gripped and took hold of them and
caused them to be merciless and even brutal in dealing with people in general,
and particularly in smaller, weaker and less developed nations of the world. The
final result was that all these kingdoms and empires that rose from time to time
in power and wealth, gradually lost everything and just became quiet nations,
retreating from other countries they invaded, forcibly occupied and ruled.
3. History of Nations rising and falling during the recent few centuries
As per the title of this article the nations have been 'rising and falling' from
the beginnings of times, until very recently when in the continent of Western
Europe several countries like England, Holland, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy,
Portugal, Spain etc. started invading countries around the world to amass wealth
and to bring slaves to work in their countries, to develop and to build their
own countries. Just to cite a few examples concerning this, Holland which is
relatively a very small nation in Europe, part of which rests on spikes over the
sea, since the land area is so limited, using basically ships and canons, were
able to travel to other nations, taking their army, canons, guns and
ammunitions, and conquered even a nation like Indonesia, the largest Muslim
nation in the world, the world's 5th most populous nation, and a country that is
made up of 10,000 Islands, which is located in South East Asia, and ruled them
for a few centuries. What happened to the nation of Holland now? It was forced
to give independence to Indonesia when the nationals resisted, fought for
independence. How true is the statement in the Bible that "nations shall rise
and nations fall".
Through the history, and even in our times, we have witnessed several countries
like Russia and even a small country like Japan invading many nations and
occupied their lands, but the end was tragic, explosive, pathetic and sad,
because they had to retreat back to their own territory.
It is needless to give more details about the aggressive moves made by other
European nations, occupations of other countries, amassing of wealth and
eventually retrieving back to their respective countries, and confining
themselves, their activities and rulership within their limited land, and within
their own national boundaries. 'Nations rose and nations fell' all through the
history, as prophesied precisely and accurately in the Bible. After the fall and
the rise of most of the nations mentioned already, this historic pattern of
expansion of territories of one's own land, by aggressively invading the
territories of other countries, and forcibly occupying and ruling them.
4. What is happening in America now?
However, as we hear through the news report every day, the country that grew
in wealth at a rapid pace, during the last century, is none other than the
United States of America.
This nation which is in the limelight, has drawn the attention of the whole
world because of their forceful, aggressive and dynamic activities in the
political, economic and technological realms. Certainly, America appears to be
the number one nation in the world depending upon the set of criteria that we
choose to evaluate the greatness or the success of a country. The Bible is very
emphatic in stating prophetically as a warning signal that "nations will rise
and nations will fall", and this has been the case of every nation that rose in
power, wealth, technology etc.
What is happening now in America is really sad, unexpected and fast.
• The political turmoil
• Chaos and confusion that is prevalent in the United States
• Moral degradation
• Gradual economic collapse
• The pride of the nation
• Increasing numbers of a wide assortment of crimes
• Large number and percentage of persons violating the laws of the nation, and
• Indulging in shameful, criminal, immoral and dangerous activities which are
reported in the news almost daily.
But there doesn't seem to be an awareness, remorse or fear about the indulgence
or consequences of such acts which are resulting in moral, social, economic and
geographic degradation and decay of the land of America.
5. Global Warming
'Global Warming' is the subject that is addressed by many in the recent times,
because of the prevailing erratic climate in the United State that we have now,
which is changing so rapidly at short intervals of time, with sudden and
unexpected outbreak or eruption of:
• Tornadoes
• Storms
• Tsunamis
• Land slides
• Forest fires
· Breaking away of massive pieces of ice measuring several square miles from the
Antarctic and Artic regions
• Mass deaths of birds, fishes and animals
• Falling of asteroids in large chunks from time to time etc.
6. Why do we have global warming
What is described as global warming is, probably because of:
• Tampering with the nature created by God, and
• Irregular and massive disposal of a wide variety of industrial waste and other
trash materials (which are dumped in large quantities recklessly in water, land
and forest to such a degree, that it not only pollutes and contaminates the
environment but also causes unprecedented changes in the atmosphere surrounding
the earth and in the land and the seas surrounding the land.
7. America is worried
People are afraid and worried how this cyclical event is going to end and
normalcy, order and cleansing process will be restored to rejuvenate, refresh
and restore the nature back to the state in which the world was, when it was
created by God.
Through it all, there runs a common thread which is nothing but
• Craze for materialism
• Greed
• Pride
• Desire to enhance the standard of life
• Increased technological inventions (to increase the comforts of life) and
• Protection of America from its enemies (by developing and creating a large
amount of dangerous and powerful weapons of warfare and building a massive army,
navy and air force trained to use such weapons in a very scientific, orderly and
precise manner in order to defend and protect itself from other nations which
may strike USA with Nuclear weapons, if USA continues to send their troops to
the middle eastern countries to restore peace in a country like Iraq and impose
restrictions on building nuclear weapons of mass destruction by the neighboring
countries.
The 'nations shall rise and the nations shall fall' is the prophecy of the
Bible.
8.. America is slipping as God's Natural Laws are
brushed aside or ignored
But as we can see clearly there is a great risk and danger to America being
the country that is going to have a fall ultimately and very soon, because of:
• Economic collapse
• Geographic/natural disaster, because of global warming
• Political turmoil
• Moral degradation
• Ignoring and discarding the ten commandments
• Increasing crime rates
• Abounding social evils
• Technological developments
• Tampering with the natural surroundings
• Building high rise buildings as symbols of pride
• Totally ignoring God and God's commandments
• Violating God's laws
• Committing sins like drinking water
• Growing factions, divisions, and view points
• Moral and spiritual degradation (because of the failure to instill moral and spiritual values into the minds of the people in the American
societies, but instead exposing the people and children to a wide variety of
movies and video games which has a serious negative and dangerous influence in
the minds of the viewers)
• Removing "Ten Commandments" from all public places, denying and defying the
importance of them as important for mortaing and enforcing them as required
moral, legal and expected standards of behavior.
• Declaring it unlawful to pray in public schools
• Drifting away from the Bible and Christian Values, upon which this nation was
founded)
• Continuing their pursuits to amass wealth
• Printing on the coins "In God we trust" but actually trusting in 'money'
• Increasing the standard of life and being materialistic not realizing the
seriousness and dire consequence of pursuit of wealth and safety at any cost.
9. The Beginning of America's Fall
When the twin towers were hit in New York, which were the tallest
towers/buildings in the world, which reminds us of the tower of Babel that was
built in the biblical times, with the sense of pride to rise even higher than
the heavens, when God confused and confounded the language of the people and
foiled their plan and the attempt of the sinful people that lived at that time,
so that they could not pursue their own plans and live a sinful life, ignoring,
competing with God and even trying to excel God.
If any nation can be specifically considered as a nation that has been rising in
all spheres of activities during the last several decades, it has been the
United States of America.
10. There is a very slim line between Surpassing and
Collapsing or being a Super Power or Powerless
· According to the Bible prophecy which was always fulfilled very
accurately, America is at the brim of a great destruction, because of the gross
neglect of:
God
• the Bible,
• Bible Prophecies,
• Bible warnings,
• Moral degradation and abounding in Sinful Life
Giving lesser importance to Spiritual Things and more importance to Material
Things etc
The word 'sin' is not even recognized, while the Bible says that the "wages of
sin is death", and this word 'sin' is neither used in the vocabulary of the
common people, legal system, courts of law, government and news reporters.
Further, we should note that according to the Bible calendar, at the close of
6000 years from the time of creation of this world, the world will come to an
end. According to the Bible, the people of God who are born-again will repent of
their sins, accept Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, as the Lord and
Savior of this world and the only true God who died on the cross of Calvary and
shed his blood for the remission of sins; for the salvation of the people; and
to rapture when Jesus Christ returns back to this earth. As prophesied in the
Bible the Anti-Christ will emerge and rule this world for three and a half years
successfully, and then begin to persecute the people and forcibly and
mercilessly kill them if they do not deny Christ and worship him. Then Jesus
will return back to this earth with the saints of God that were dead and the
true Christians that are alive will rapture, to rule the world for one thousand
years, after which the world will come to an end, and the sinners will be judged
and cast into hell with Satan and the devils, which will be burning with fire
and brimstone. Then the saints the saints of God will be with the Lord in heaven
forever and ever.
Conclusion
Interestingly, the word 'Global Warming' is used by the scientists to
describe a new and fast changes that are taking place in the world and its
environment now, which they predict is going to bring the world to an end
naturally through a series of changes in the world, described as "global
warming". It has just been published, that in addition to all catastrophic
changes and natural disasters taking place, before 2020 there is going to be a
food shortage that will affect about 200 million people on earth, because of
water shortage in some regions and flooding in other regions which will affect
the cultivation and substantially curtail the harvest of crops. The pollution of
air and water, lakes and sea; and atmosphere through industrial emission of
toxic gas in the atmosphere; and careless and haphazard disposal of waste are
causing them, as we know.
We cannot take water and air lightly since they are the life-lines of people, provided by God. People tend to think that through inventions and technological developments they can create a better world to live as they please, in sin and immorality, totally ignoring God's laws of righteousness and morality!
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