Can an ancient collection of books really tell modern man what lies in the future? Do these ancient writings give us enough detail to know for sure when the events they predict start to occur? Can modern nations be found in the Bible? These questions and more are explored in this article.

The study of Bible prophecy has been one of my most intense areas of study - especially in recent years. Here is the outline for study of prophecy:

1. What is prophecy?
2. Does the Bible mention America or other modern nations?


What is Prophecy?
Prophecy in the secular world includes just about any kind of speculation about the future, but the Jewish/Christian definition is quite specific. A prophecy is a statement about a future event which is revealed by God (usually to a Prophet). Because God is incapable of making mistakes, all prophecies given by God will happen. By definition, any prophet whose prophecies do not come to pass with 100% accuracy is a false prophets who has not heard from God [Deuteronomy 18:21-22].



Does the Bible mention America or other modern nations?
This is a topic highly debated by students of prophecy. Lots of people will take even the most obscure possibilities and promote them as solid fact. For example, making out the USA or even New York, specifically, to be Babylon The Great [Revelation 14:8, 16:9, 18:2-21]. While I will not debate whether such a connection exists, it is not a clear and simple proof, and I prefer to find simpler connections that require much less 'logical' extrapolation.

The most clear possibility I have seen for America being mentioned in the Bible is found in Daniel 7. If you read the whole chapter you will see the following elements:

Four Creatures (verses 3-8)

Destruction of Fourth Creature (verses 8-12)

Establishment of Messiah's Kingdom (verses 13-14)

Three remaining creatures admitted into the Messianic Kingdom (verse 12)

Interpretation of the vision (verses 16-28)

Let's take a quick look at each element:

The Four Creatures --

A lion, a bear, a leopard with four heads, and an unidentifiable but 'terrifying' creature with ten horns on its head each appear in the vision.

Skip ahead to the interpretation of the vision and you will see that the creatures are referred to as both 'kings' and 'kingdoms.' Since the fourth creature has horns that are specifically called 'kings' we should probably take the other creatures to be both the nation and the leader of the nation at the time these events occur. So the vision is about four nations that exist right before the return of Messiah and the establishment of the Messianic kingdom.

If we look at modern nations, can you find any whose national symbols match these given in Daniel? Remember the book of Daniel is quite ancient, being around 2,700 years old. All of the recognizable symbols used in Daniel 7 are used in modern nations today. I can find no evidence between Daniel's time and now that that has ever been true before (though my limited research leaves a wide margin of error). England uses the Lion as its symbol, Russia is very frequently called 'The Bear,' And Germany has had the panther/leopard linked to it in news and history - for example, the German army tank of World War II was called the 'Panzer', and the modern German tank used by the U.N. and NATO in Europe is the 'Leopard' tank. This link between Germany and the leopard is the weakest of all, but there are more facts to consider.

There are additional details in the vision that should either reinforce or disprove these guesses:

The lion had wings like eagle wings that were plucked off. Can that be said of England? Yes - the United States, whose symbol is the Eagle, was initially a colonial branch of England which was 'plucked off' at the time of the Declaration of Independence and the following war for independence. This is the only part of scripture that I am currently willing to say contains reference to America - and note that the nation is not mentioned anywhere else in this prophecy. It seems intended only to help identify the lion.

The bear is told to devour flesh - communism is arguably one of the bloodiest systems of government - often spread by violent revolution and maintained by strict military control and suppression of dissent.

The leopard had four heads - Germany has had three 'reichs' or reigns as a nation, and with the reunification of East and West Germany at the fall of the Berlin Wall, we could argue the rise of a fourth 'reich.' If modern Germany represents the fourth head of this leopard, we are truly close to the coming of Messiah.



Destruction of Fourth Creature
This part of the prophecy clearly shows the structure of the coming world-wide government. A 10-nation union will oversee a governmental system that will eventually control most of the peoples of the world. Three of the ten original leaders will be overthrown in some way just as a charismatic leader emerges to fill the void. Many events in the world today point to a growing world government. The United Nations, the World Court, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, and other 'global governance' entities are already in place. They are already ignoring the sovereignty of nations and exercising control over many weaker nations. All that remains to be seen is the 10-nation group that will unify to administer this system. This near-future government is destined to only rule for a few short years - perhaps even less than a decade. Once the powerful leader emerges to head this government, he will make war against the people of God [Daniel 7:25] and then be destroyed along with his world government three and one half years later. The prophecy in Revelation has many of these details and a few others, but I'll save that for another time [Revelation 13].

Establishment of Messiah's Kingdom
Three remaining creatures admitted into the Messianic Kingdom
This forces me to conclude that the vision is about end-time nations, and not historic nations that no longer exist. The vision is about specific nations and leaders, and I don't think we can easily stretch it to refer to anything else. Also, since the nations are mentioned as entering the new governmental system administrated by Christ, and they no longer have their own governments, it leads me to conclude that the coming kingdom of God does have a real, earthly existence for at least one thousand years.

Interpretation of the vision
Having the interpretation of many of the symbols in this prophecy included right alongside the vision itself is truly spectacular. We can judge the prophecy based not on pure speculation, but instead we are given a frame of reference on which to base our understanding. I also feel that the symbology used here is consistent with that used elsewhere. Animals equal nations, horns equal specific kings or leaders, and so on. While a nation or event might have multiple symbols in different passages of scripture, we at least have a foundation to keep us from getting too far off track..





References:
1. Bible (for a free electronic version of the Bible, go to e-sword.net)

2. endtime.com - a prophecy teaching ministry led by Irvin Baxter