CHAPTER 4
The Rise and Fall of the USA
House of Cards (2013) Intro Credits Theme Extended - Jeff Beal
How the USA Colonized the USA, Mapped
The Tyranny of Bad Ideas | Andrew Klavan at the Fall College Retreat
The Rise of US Totalitarianism | Panel | EP 246
The Last 400 Years
For better or worse, the United States of America has been the loudest voice of freedom over the last few centuries. Alexander De Tocqueville was a French commentator in the 1700s who spent time in the new world. He wrote with powerful insight into both the potential good and potential evil that might emerge from the American experiment.
Over the past four centuries, the United States has been the loudest voice for freedom. French commentator Alexander De Tocqueville provided insight into the potential good and evil that could arise from the American experiment in 1700s. Even though I am an Australian, I have lived in the US for over 10 years, travelled to 44 of their states, and been education in and worked for both their private and public institutions. My current observation is that we are witnessing the final pages of the American empire.
Many Americans refer to its founding as 'exceptional'. In the sense that exceptional means 'unusual', they are right. In the sense that America is superior to other nations, that view is arrogant and has led to a blindspot which justified abuse and accelerated their decline. America became so enamoured withgot entangled with too many foreign wars largely because of the mis-guided belief that they were - like Israel - God's 'chosen nation'. However, recently the US fell to the Afghan Taliban and got mirred in too many debt fuelled proxy wars. So how did America get to this point?
Founding of America - 1620?
Unitl recently, the founding of the United States of America was widely regarded as 1620. In the early 1600’s the Protestant Reformation was in its late bloom in England. A groups of Christians known as Puritans emerged to rail against the state church. The Puritans saw the state church as unfaithful to Scripture and were conflicted by its imposition of its beliefs upon all citizens. Since the printing press and the release of the King James Version of the Bible (1611 Authorised Version), everyone could now develop their own God given convictions. So, three ships of Puritans fled England and made the the perilous journey across the Atlantic to a largely unknown world.. They became known as Pilgrims.
Once there, the Pilgrims overcame severe hardships including an initial ferocious winter. The First Thanksgiving was a community-wide celebration meal with the purpose of giving thanks to God for his provision in spite of half of their community (a full 50%) failing to survive the first year. Over the next few decades more religious minorities immigrated to the New World. They established 13 separate colonies to provide a refuge for the nuances of various practices of faith. Collectively these new communities became known as Colonies. The Colonialists valued freedom and they created training institutions like Harvard, Yale, Princeton as religious seminaries to train the next generation in the tenants of their faith. Religious liberty was at the heart of the formation of the first states and their institutions. Ironically now the head chaplain at Harvard is an atheist.
Even today, we see that America is the home of so many denominations that hold tightly to their belief and practice of ‘separation of church and state’. This belief fuelled the Revolutionary War and supports the view that the church is a separate institution ordained by God which does not derive its authority or approval from an earthly king. Os Guinness contrasts the 1776 American Revolution as a revolution towards God, while the 1789 French Revolution was a revolution towards the state. Today in America, the 1789 revolution is surpassing the 1776 ideology. But how did this change occur?
The Colonialists valued freedom and codified that belief in documents including a Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and a constitutional government system that was extremely democratic - down to the local sheriff, school board, dog catcher, and independent baptist church governance. All of these efforts were born out of the desire to preserve individual freedom for as many people for as long as possible. As colonialists grew in number, so did the need to expand into new frontiers and lands. Go West Young Man was a cultural mantra driving the entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit. This expansionist movement was accompanied by a great Christian missionary effort.
'Freedom requires a place to be free'
Jeremy Boreing
Slavery and Conquest
To be sure, the Pilgrims did not arrive in a vacant land, and they did not arrive alone. In the 17th century, the elite ‘owned’ African slaves and brought them with them. Slavery was a common European practice, and because the new world was a vast virgin land which needed tilling, slaves were forced into back-breaking field work. Even America’s first president, George Washington, owned a slave plantation. Yet, because of New Testament teaching, many Christians were uncomfortable with slavery.. Eventually the nation fought a bloody Civil War to eradicate it. Beyond that, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 sought to enshrine full rights for the black community. Even though the Civil War ended 150+ years ago and full legal protection was established 60 years ago, a new movement is emerged to resurrect racial grievances.
The native Americans had been living on the American continent for centuries before 1620. They had a very different culture and value set to the arriving Europeans. Like the African slaves, the native Americans were badly treated and betrayed by both the colonialists and the British and French troops. Initially the colonialist states agreed to not settle across the Appalachian Mountains. The Natives Americans would live in lands to the West of that divide while the colonies would occupy the lands to the East of the divide. But, just like in Israel and the West Bank today, the settler movement broke agreements and seized land. Manifest Destiny was a quasi-religious belief in which individuals branched out into the ‘frontier’ until settlements became villages, towns and cities. In response, the Native Americans embarked on raids on settler communities. It is no wonder deadly skirmishes escalated.
To solve this violence ‘problem’ President Andrew Jackson, ordered a decree that Native Americans were to be forcibly relocated to ‘reservations’ in modern day Oklahoma. With the government’s superior weapons, the conflict was never a contest. Many native Americans were forcibly relocated. This mark is a stain on US history and is known as the Trail of Tears. But US expansion did not come only at the expense of the Native Americans. Using similar justifications to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US confiscated 55% of Mexico and all of Polynesian Hawaii, Guam, Pueto Rico, and many others. Like powerful empires before it, the USA had grown beyond its borders by adopting a foreign policy of warmongering.
"To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
Henry Kissinger
One Nation, Under God
In spite of racial injustices and inequalities, the nation of America continued to grow. Building on the principles in the Declaration of Independence, that human rights were inalienable and came directly from the Creator, they sought - even if imperfect in its implementation - to develop a nation where everyone would be treated equally and value life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If GDP is a measure of that goal, then the US succeeded for over a century. But success cannot be only measured in economics. It must be also be measured in freedom and social cohesion.
Truth be told, the idea of inalienable rights was not a new concept discovered by America’s founding fathers. Inalienable rights were God’s universal idea expressed when He established various institutions. Let’s refer to the Bible. Starting in Genesis, God establishes 4 institutions in successive chronological order.
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Firstly, God creates the individual in His image - Genesis 1:26 and communes directly with him.
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Secondly, God established marriage (the family) uniting Adam and Even in a covenant - Genesis 2:18-25.
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Thirdly, God establishes human government in Genesis 9:6 - to meet out punishment on evil doers (murderers).
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Finally God establishes the church in Acts 2 - when the Holy Spirit comes upon believers at Pentecost for the purpose of worshipping the Lord collectively.
All four institutions are established by God and are God-ordained with distinct realms of purpose, responsibility and authority. Conflict generally occurs in this world when two or more of these institutions intersect and collide by trying to take power and authority from another God ordained institution. The Colonialists had witnessed the English government usurping both the individual's authority and church’s authority. As such they revolted and documented their beliefs in a new declaration and constitution.
‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’
President John Adams
Benjamin Franklin said of the new American system, “A republic, if you can keep it”. So as the American experiment rolled on, its continuation was dependent on the populace maintaining a united religious belief in God’s established order and shared morals that flow from that order. There were times where the Republic was greatly tested. Yet, even in the Civil War, between fighting both sides would jointly sing hymns together signifying their shared faith in God. President Abraham Lincoln was a unifier bringing back both sides under the shared belief of freedom found in Almighty God. ‘In God We Trust’ kept America together.
America's Zenith
I admire what the US did for the world in the 1940s. Prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the dominate feeling and policy in the US was that its defence force was for the defence of Americans and not to police the world. That position was not born out of indifference towards Nazism. By enlarge, Americans hated the Nazi's anti-god ideology. So their hands-off stance reflected the idea that each nation state should be responsible for itself. Recognising the depravity of humanity and his proclivity towards sin, the US was set-up as a republic of states. It was deliberately designed this way to be slow moving and localised with a system of checks and balances in its institutions.
However, Japan's attack on America changed all that. The US was brought into the war and forced to respond quickly at a national level. At the cost of the blood of their own soldiers, the US sent their men across the oceans and that turned the tide. Without their intervention, it is likely that most of the world would have been conquered by the evil Nazi ideology. Australians owe that US generation a great debt of gratitude for their sacrifice. In order to hasten the conclusion of WW2, the US split the atom and created the world’s first nuclear weapon. They dropped two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This moment did indeed end WW2, but it also opened a new and dark chapter in the history of American and the world.
After the defeat of the Nazi's in WW2, there was a void of leadership in the world and naturally the world looked to the strongest remaining power to set the new global rules. In 1946, Winston Churchill went to Missouri to deliver his Iron Curtain speech. He encouraged the US to not retreat back into their pre-WW2 mindset, but rather to become the world's policeman against all manner of evil ideologies. Communism was on the march across the world, and like Nazism, it needed to be actively and physically opposed. America took up that challenge.
"The next empires will be the empires of the mind"
Winston Churchill
To do this, the US established a world order that would entrench its global domination. America started the United Nations to create institutions to protect the global world order. Without apology, the new system was designed to ensure America remained the world's pre-eminent economic and by extension military power. This period was America's zenith on the global stage. In the decade following WW2's victory, the zeitgeist pervading the USA still looked to a moral compass derived from its Christian heritage. However most Americans were not aware that when they split the atom and dropped the bomb, that a major spiritual shift occurred in their nation. New forces of power and control began to take root. Civilisation is far more fragile than most think and America's facade of good motives began to slip.
Individual Freedom and Inequalities Grow
The spirit of individual freedom gave rise to the most significant innovations in human history. I enjoy watching quality documentaries like The Men Who Built America and The Machines that Built America. Many of those innovations improved the living standards for Americans and people around the world in unprecedented proportions. The enterprises and capital they created not only built individual wealth but became a social good improving the lives of billions of people around the world for decades to come.
However the same soil of individual freedom allowed charlatans and snake oil salesmen to flourish. Sin nature is universal regardless of generation or political affiliation. From the con -artist, to the two-timing celebrity pastor, to the reality-TV presidency, truth and integrity became rare commodities. Being caught cheating or lying lost its shame. Greed became good and then became God. Biblical principles of forgiveness and jubilee became foreign.
America had built its nation on industry and after WW2 it realised that war was the biggest industry of all. Free Enterprise in America morphed into ‘Capitalism’. Those with the capital - generational capital - increasingly hoarded the wealth and put barriers to entry to others who sought to engage in the economic marketplace. At this point, free enterprise was no longer ‘free’. It had morphed in crony capitalism. The rich got richer, while the poor became poorer. Asset prices increased to the point where home ownership became a pipe dream for millennials. This level of greed can only be temporary as it has sown seeds that will bloom into a revolution. This revolution might be packaged as A Green New Deal or Great Reset - but it will be a power grab and won't restore fairness.
We can see revolutionary seeds in the 'Cancel Rent' mantra. The US government is increasingly implementing eviction moratoriums and student debt forgiveness programs - directly defying the rulings of the Supreme Court. While I have great sympathy for those who cannot afford rent, moratoriums are a signal of the end of private property. Bank bail outs and deposit bail ins are further examples of a decomposing system and signals of The Great Reset.
Spiritual Decline
As Andrew Brietbart said, ‘Politics is downstream of culture’. As true as that statement is, culture is also downstream of religion. As America drifted from its belief in the Creator, so did its culture begin to decline. As culture declined, so did civility and confidence in church and political life.
The American church is not healthy. Many church leaders have exchanged the gospel of grace and forgiveness through Jesus alone, for advocating for 'social justice' through a political lens or the 'prosperity gospel' through a financial lens. Nearly every 'celebrity pastor' has been exposed as either a financial or sexual fraud. The message of ''The Bible says', has been replaced with 'Speak Your Truth'. When the church fails to stand for truth, it is not surprising that people in the pew have stopped listening or even going to church altogether. Similar religious declining statistics are reflected across the West. This perversion happens on both the left and the right.
Churches that lean to the left side of politics conflated 'love' with tolerance of sin. Over the past few decades, God's clear teaching was replaced with 'seeker sensitive' messages. During the pandemic many of these churches ceded their authority to the state without question. They elevated 'health orders' as supreme over God’s command to gather.
“Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing,
but encourage one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching”
Hebrews 10:25
I don’t know of a single church that did not close for 2 weeks during the ‘15 days to flatten’ the curve'. But when that agreement was broken and the lockdown goalposts shifted multiple times, very few churches stood up to reclaim their God given authority and practice obedience by gathering as His people. John MacArthur's Grace Community Church was one of the few churches that honoured God and defied the state of California. While they were legally successful, ultimately, the authority to gathering free of restrictions comes from God not the state.
Churches that lean to the right side of politics mixed American Patriotism with the Scriptures. Like the British Israelites on the other side of the Atlantic, they were often blinded by their country's own significance. They flew the American flag in their pulpits, sang patriotic ballads from their hymnals and justified invading other nations as spiritual advancement. They saw America as the 'blessed protector of revived Israel' and believed that God would rapture them to heaven before hardship. This grandiose vision often distracted them from their personal and national failings. Furthermore, it whitewashed that contemporary Israel echoes the same depraved policies and culture as the US.
Often the 'America' honoured in the mind of the American church was a wishful construct and not reflective of reality. But reality is finally catching up. The 'pride' and 'superior moral' mask has fallen off. Some are still in the denial stage of grief. Others are resigning to a future of exile and persecution. Still others now see their world as increasingly smaller and using their influence in local spheres. Accepting the fall of America is a hard pill to swallow.
Cultural Decline
The medium of art and music is strong. Beauty and visual movement enthral us. Hollywood has capture this and exported it to the world. As such, beyond any political influence, culturally America influences the world through its broadcast technology. In the words of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, society has succumb to 'Californication'.
Sam Smith and Kim Petras' performance of Unholy took out the top gong at the 2023 Pfizer sponsored Grammy Awards. On prime time TV, the CBS presenters declared 'We are ready to worship' as the explicitly Satan performance got underway. The Unholy song featured Sam dressed as Satan, BDSM imagery, praise for Balenciaga, and LGBTQI+ stripping. America's First Lady, Dr Jill Biden was there to support the transgendered Kim Petras speak of her religious departure. The land of the free and home of the brave has become the headquarters of Satan. If Lot fled Sodom with only seconds left, how close is American to similar judgement?
Consider the hit music video, Wet Ass Pussy which broadcasts close ups of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion gyrating their genitals on each other. Explicit dance moves are also performed by transvestite drag queens at 'kids story hour' in libraries in America. Hospitals across the nation are performing 'gender affirming care' for minors, which is code for chopping on the genitals of prepubescent children. We don't have to imagine what the pagan Canaanites were like. Today, Ashteroth (sex-god) and Molech (child-sacrifice) are worshipped more than ever in the USA. Baal is back in the public eye. It is no wonder so many elites 'flew' on Jeffrey Epstein's plane?
When Satan captures the culture, Capitalism, the constitution and even cash are not worth the paper they're written on. In the US, Hollywood and California are the epicentres of cultural decay. But the cultural revolution is not confined to the USA. America exports its celebrities like modern woke missionaries as part of a new cultural colonialism and conquest. America is still colonising, but its religion is now gender ideology, feminism, and critical race theory. They even hoist a new flag and institute Pride days, months and seasons to signify their conquered territory.
Weaponised Institutions
Collectively, America’s institutions are crumbling and being reset as tools and weapons of the state. The FBI targets US citizens while the CIA terrorises foreign citizens. Here are some examples I have observed:
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Tax: The (IRS) Internal Revenue Service is full to broken systems, Yet, they are targeting inidivuals based on political ideology. They are digitally re-inventing themselves, expanding and fightingly will track everyone’s geolocation and private data. The IRS will even arm 70,000 new agents with weapons to raid and enforce and woke ideology.
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Religion: The USA is passing the misnomered ‘Respect for Marriage’ Act. The Act is about using the tax code to penalise those who do not uplift LGBT+ lifestyles. Non-compliant entities and individuals with be made bankrupt.
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Communication: The US Postal Service officially stopped delivering mail to Australia for nearly a year. I foresee the formal end of physically posted letters to replaced by only digitally monitored electronic communications.
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Democracy: Both parties believe the last two elections were rigged. The Democrats believe Russian rigged 2016 and the Republicans believe fraud occurred in several counties in 2020. Ultimately neither side trusts the US system.. Many elected US politicians are now marxist revolutionaries and American democracy is an illusion.
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Economy: The USD is toast. It sanctions and seizes individuals and countries assets. Its debt is a fractional reserve ponzi scheme. So the US wants to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency and social credit system.
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Military: US Foreign Policy is military adventurism and killed millions. President Biden ordered the raising of the LGBTQI+ Pride flag at all embassies. The US state department funds drag queen shows in foreign nations. What a symbol of the take-over of the USA by woke ideology! No wonder the Taliban fought to defeat the Great Satan.
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Justice: US political parties operate more like criminal cartels in a banana republic. The FBI, CIA, and DoJ are armed wings of political parties. They cover up crimes for certain politicians while imprisoning opposition.
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Language: At is root, nations are defined by their language. Words have shared meaning. Destroying the meaning of words destroys the basis for community and relationships. The US is redefining the English language, are redefining God's Word on marriage and gender, sin and redemption. It's the ultimate destruction.
America is a failed state run by psychopaths
Systemic Change
The drumbeat is that systemic prejudice requires systemic change. Nicole Hannah Jones and the New York Times released a project called the 1619 Project. The theme is that America was not founded in 1620 when the pilgrims arrived, but instead was a pre-existing nation invaded by racist white settlers whose offspring 400 years later are still equally racist. Therefore reparations and equity policies must be implemented to right past wrongs. Mixing history with ideology, the 1619 Project is a flagship project for implementing Critical Race Theory (CRT) into schools.
CRTs spread is gaining pace particularly manifesting itself in the Black Lives Matter Movement of the mid 2010’s and the George Floyd death riots of 2020. The Kyle Rittenhouse trial, which was an open and shut case of self-defence, was turned into a ‘white supremisits’ narrative when even no blacks were involved. In South Africa the BLM movement is forcibly acquiring land based on race without compensation to the owners and people are losing their jobs if they won’t bow the knee to the BLM quasi-religious movement.
The phrase Black Lives Matter is brilliant. What rational person could say that Black Lives Don’t Matter? I certainly believe that Black Lives Matter. I believe Jesus cares for and died for black lives just as much as any other life. It's tragic that aborted babies are disproportionately black. I want justice for those unequally treated by the law. I want fair pay for equal work, which is why I support replacing the tipping culture (which falls predominately on the black community) with a genuinely fair living minimum wage. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, 'I have a dream that men will be judged by the content of their character, and not the colour of their skin'. But good sounding words can be deceptive.
The phrase Black Lives Matter is very different to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Organisation. Consider the subsequent censorship of the phrase ‘All Lives Matter’ which was deemed a racist slogan. Reflect on MLKs statement and let that sink in. BLM advocates for 'anti-racism, which is reverse racism, which is just plain racism. And there really is only one race - the human race.
BLM, the organisation, is part of a broader ‘woke movement’ which coincides with a Marxist desire for systemic change to generational patterns. The woke movement builds on identity politics (such as but not limited to race and grievances from past generations). This mindset herds people into groups and tribes for the purpose of class warfare. Their notion of justice is to move beyond equality and seek ‘revenge’. Their idea of justice is to make others suffer the way they perceive that their ancestors suffered. If in doubt, notice how BLM has endorsed terrorism.
"Injustices of the past can only be replaced by injustices of the future"
This is the re-heated ideology of the Bolsheviks which brought communism to the Soviet states. Only this time that ideology has the power of mass promotion and enforcement enabled by modern technology.
Gender Wars and Satanic Conquest
The move for systemic change is not just about race. Beyond critical race theory is ‘gender theory’. Gender theory says that binary gender (boys and girls) are social constructs. Thus if someone wants to identify as a 3rd, 4th or 55th gender, then if they think it, it can be true. Someone may politely disagree and share compassion for those who are confused about their gender. But that is not enough. Unless they will affirm and support their new gender identity, they must be cast as hateful and removed from social media. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda is real and challenges gender.. The trans-agenda is not a political movement, it is a theological construct. Yet most church leaders are passive enablers of this ideology by failing even to mention the elephant in the room.
Sexual destruction must go beyond the individual and to the ’social construct’ that caused them to think there are only 2 genders. Old thinking must be dismantled. The Oscars have now introduced crazy 30% diversity quotas before movies can even be considered for awards.
I don’t hate Americans. I married one. Many individual Americans that I have met are lovely people. But their government's wicked policies have become a clear and present danger themselves and to the world. The trans-evangelism promoted by the USA is the reason that much of the world rightly see them as an LGBTQI empire. America condemns other nations as undemocratic for electing politicians that defend traditional family values. The US armed forces are the muscle in this perverted crusade. Meanwhile in their own nation, they pass the [Dis]Respect for Marriage Act which effectively gives the middle finger to the King of Kings as their population collapses..
Stateside, some American citizens are also beginning to realise this - all be it too late. March 31st 2023 was declared as the Transgender Day of Visibility and it coincided with the transgender mass shooting of a Christian school in Nashville. In response to the shooting, President Biden made jokes and the media laughed. Biden declared Easter Sunday 2024 as The Transgender Day of Visibility. This is not isolated but is part of a growing campaign to target and replace Christians and Christian holidays.. Americans are not God's chosen people and like Rome, their republic is falling. Like Rome, America is increasingly drunk on the blood of the saints. Just like Babylon's before them, the USA has embraced demonic nihilism, mass abortion and its foreign policy creates war around the globe.
It is not just the Democrats. Even when Republicans are in power, the USA continues to lecture, invade, spend and degenerate. You can change the parties, but you get the same policies. The elites - also knowns as the deep state bureaucracy - are truly in charge and their hearts are evil. As much as it may be hard to admit, the USA has rejected God and sold its soul to Satan. It has become an enemy of God and is under His judgement. At a policy level, Victor Davis Hanson reflects on the revolutionary change that has swept the USA in his article:
If you really want to destroy America, then ...
Even so, the answer to America’s problems is not to elect more conservative politicians, but rather a return to God. The gospel of repentance towards Jesus Christ is the only hope. As such reform must first start in the churches with fidelity to the supremacy of God’s Word. But until churches take the first chapters of the first book of the Bible seriously, then they are not taking God's Word seriously. Until Christians unashamedly rise up and declare 'Christ is King', there will not be any mercy. God has removed his candlestick from America. So with sorrow, my sober assessment is that the American light that was a City on a Hill has been extinguished; or maybe more accurately it has turned into a flaming hell-like fire.