Bring In The Candles: Living In An America That Is Collapsing All Around Us

Bring In The Candles: Living In An America That Is Collapsing All Around Us

Mark Hitchcock

I don’t believe America is mentioned in Bible prophecy—certainly not directly.

A lot of people think America is mentioned indirectly. For example, they will look at passages like Isaiah 18, pointing to the unnamed nation in the chapter. They may suggest that America is the ten lost tribes of Israel, the young lines of Tarshish in Ezekiel 38, or Babylon from Revelation 17-18

However, I don’t think any of those places are America in prophecy. It is Scripture’s silence about America which I find significant. If, in the future, we stay the great superpower we are today, then I think the Bible certainly would mention us. For example, the Bible mentions nations like Rosh (Russia), Persia (Iran), and the kings of the East (which likely include India and China).

Something has to happen to America to reduce us from our superpower status, and I think that event is going to be the rapture of the church. All of the salt and light will be extracted out in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and when that takes place, America will be reduced to being a second or third-rate nation overnight. 

When we think about God’s judgment on America in the future, we need to consider how we live today in a culture that is collapsing all around us.

In one of his books, Erwin Lutzer writes that there are three things we can do in America: we can be complicit, we can be complacent, or we can be courageous. To be complicit means giving up and giving into the culture, becoming part of it. Being courageous means giving everything to the Lord, serving Him, and standing for Him in these times in which we live.

Lutzer further wrote, “The day of the casual Christian is over? No longer is it possible to drift along, hoping that no tough choices will have to be made. At this point in American history, any moral and spiritual progress will have to be one at a great cost. The darker the night, the more important every candle becomes.”

We don’t want to be people that just curse the darkness around us. We want to shine as lights. Jesus said that we “are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-16), and we certainly want to do that in our culture.

There’s a quote I read years ago which says, “The world at its worst needs the church at its best.” Our world today is at its worst, and the church today needs to be at our best. We need to be seizing the opportunities that God has given to us and living lives that are pleasing in God’s sight.

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