In the latter part of the twentieth century, the Chinese government conducted a twenty-year research project seeking to understand why the United States of America (USA) was the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth. By their own admission, their conclusion was clear: the USA was the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth because of its heritage of Christian values.[i] The Chinese vowed to upend the USA. Their strategy has been to embrace Christian values but deny Christ, Christianity, and the Bible.
Can the Chinese bifurcate Christian values from its Christian roots? Whether or not the Chinese experiment will succeed is questionable. Nevertheless, China has enjoyed some economic success as measured by its annual GDP growth rate. In the latter part of the twentieth century, China’s growth rate surged[ii] but since 2010, it has been declining and is projected to continue to decline. In 2010, the growth rate was 10.8 percent. By 2026, the growth rate is forecasted to be 4.9 percent.[iii]
Currently, the USA continues to have the world’s largest economy with a GDP of $20.5T. China is second at $13.4T.[iv] For more than a century, the USA has had the largest economy in the world, but China could surpass it by 2031 according to one estimate.[v] And the Chinese may be receiving help from an expected source—the USA. There are spiritual forces at work through the political and social turmoil in the USA that could accelerate China’s quest. Consider the following.
Since WWII, the USA has, with few exceptions, lost every major war—Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. The latter was the longest war. In the twenty years since the attack on USA soil by al-Qaeda supported by the Taliban on September 11, 2001, the major strategic battle in the war on terror against Islamic extremists was conducted in Afghanistan. In August 2021, the USA exited Afghanistan asserting that their mission was over and that the Afghanistan military was trained and equipped to manage the Taliban. This assumption proved to be false. Before the USA military could totally withdraw, the president of Afghanistan fled the country, and the Taliban took power. The Taliban viewed this as a victory over the USA, which will, undoubtedly, embolden them to resume terrorist strikes against the USA. With the open border policy of the current US government, the opportunity for the Taliban to attack on US soil is easier than ever. Though no major terrorist attacks have occurred in the USA during the past twenty years, this could change quickly.
From a tangible perspective, this could mean more terrorist attacks in the USA that could produce societal chaos, death, personal injury, property damage, and economic disruption. But to properly analyze this situation, we must also consider the spiritual dynamics at work. From a spiritual perspective, could the current risk to the USA be a sign of divine forbearance being lifted?
Since the fall of mankind, God’s forbearance has mercifully delayed the ultimate judgment on mankind for the sin of humanity. God’s forbearance also includes the restraint of sin so that mankind is not utterly depraved—that mankind is not as bad as possible. Instead, mankind is totally depraved, meaning that mankind can never do enough good works to merit righteous standing with God, but mankind can, through common grace, obey some of God’s commandments on a rudimentary level. This is the only way that fallen mankind can survive in a universe governed by a sovereign holy God.
Notwithstanding the mercy of God demonstrated through divine forbearance in executing the final judgment and the restraint of sin, God can sovereignly lift his forbearance at any time. When he lifts it, horrific events happen such as the holocaust in World War II and the frequent mass shootings of today. A scriptural example is the judgment of Herod Agrippa, king of Judea from AD 41–44, who, on one occasion, was venerated by his subjects as speaking with the “voice of a god and not a man.” Though the people were attributing deity to the king in the sense of the Roman worldview, he was still accountable to the one true God who, at his pleasure, lifted his forbearance and executed judgment. Scripture recorded the judgment in these words:
At once an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. (Acts 12:23 CSB)
Note that the people who praised him did not die, forbearance was lifted for only Herod because he did not humble himself and give glory to God.
Could God be lifting his forbearance on the USA because its people are proudly rejecting God but seeking to separate everything—public policy, social norms, education, and even economics—from God and his value system? The country that the Chinese discovered was the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth because of its Christian heritage is abandoning that very heritage.
The people of the USA presume the right to disconnect from this heritage rooted in the authority of Scripture. Accordingly, the people of the USA are abandoning a Christian worldview and embracing atheism. As with Herod, embracing a wrong worldview does not exempt the USA from divine accountability. Consequently, the USA seems ripe to lose its status as the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth.
The instruments of the demise of the USA may not be worms, but external and internal factors. Externally, Islamic terrorist have easy access through the open borders policy to launch attacks. Internally, the societal rejection of Christian norms expands unabated. The biblical definitions of sexual morality, marriage, beginning of life, gender identity, and so forth, are being replaced by humanly concocted definitions contrary to Scripture. The net impact of terrorist attacks and moral decay could easily reduce the USA down to third-world status of economic poverty and political bondage. As Solomon said:
The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. (Proverbs 28:19 CSB)
The people of the USA are chasing fantasies by seeking to redefine reality contrary to the Creator’s definitions. This rejection of God and his Son Jesus will lead to poverty.
According to the apostle John, the spirit of antichrist denies God and his Son Jesus. Furthermore, even in the first century, John noted there were many antichrists who have already come (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7). Behind every act is a person and behind every person is a spirit. Those who know the Lord, have the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Jesus, Acts 16:7; Philippians 1:19) and those who don’t know the Lord have the spirit of antichrist.
The spirit of antichrist appears to be the driving force behind the Islamic terrorists and the cultural rejection of Christianity by the people of the USA. Perhaps the antichrist is even the driving force behind the current US government. If this is true, these factors can work synergistically to produce unmitigated chaos and economic upheaval in the USA. This could be an example of the removal of divine forbearance because of the rejection of God that has become ubiquitous in the USA. If God’s forbearance in the restraint of evil is lifted, divine judgment on the USA will become evident. And China might have its day in the sun as the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth for a time, but they, too, will experience the lifting of divine forbearance if they do not repent.
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[i] The Victory of Reason by Rodney Stark, 235; God is at Work by Ken Eldred, 73.
[ii] https://tradingeconomics.com/china/gdp-growth-annual.
[iii] https://www.statista.com/statistics/263616/gross-domestic-product-gdp-growth-rate-in-china/.
[iv] https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-gdp.
[v] Eric Zhu and Tom Orlik, “When Will China Rule the World? Maybe Never,” July 5, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-07-05/when-will-china-s-economy-beat-the-u-s-to-become-no-1-why-it-may-never-happen.
