BABYLON AND THE TEN CONFEDERATED KINGDOMS
Evangelicals have in the past contended that Antichrist would secure world dominion as king of the Ten Confederated Kingdoms (evidently a group of Western European states - though it's anyone's guess as to which states these might be, and it's probably not all that important to single the specific states out - after all, what the Bible has in mind here is Western Europe taken as a whole). But the Scripture in no place identifies the Antichrist as the king of these nations. While the Bible does indicate that he will dominate them, it does not say that he will rule directly over them, but that he will be an ELEVENTH KING OF AN ELEVENTH NATION (see Daniel 7:24). [In this connection it is interesting to note that the number "eleven" is the number of apostasy.]
Moreover, in Daniel chapter seven, concerning the Ten Confederated Kingdoms [the ten horns of the fourth wild beast - verses 7 and 8], the Antichrist is described not as one of the "ten kings," but as an eleventh king of an eleventh nation, a nation independent of, and different from the original ten, a nation, however, which evidently derives its heritage from the original ten nations. Is there any doubt that the United States has derived its heritage, its culture, and over 80% of its people from Europe? Can there really be any doubt as to the identity of this great latter-day nation? - are we not speaking here of the United States of America?
A GRAVE OVERSIGHT
In the light of all this, is it not ridiculous for evangelicals to ascribe such little attention to the relevance of the United States in the Last Days? Is it not a grave oversight? This "barbarian-style-mentality" is void of contemporary realities that are so evident that it is akin to talking about daisies as the prominent subject of interest in a photograph in which there appears a huge elephant which occupies 85% of the picture.
The United States alone produces almost one-fourth (22%) of the world's total gross product. But the importance of the U.S. economy to the world cannot be measured simply by means of comparing its gross national product with that of the other nations; its importance - indeed, its centrality - lies in the fact that it is the engine that makes the other economies of the world work, and this is especially true of the economies of Western Europe and Japan [including the nations of the so-called "Pacific Basin" - Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc.]; the American economy has become the "market place" for the products of these economies. Without access to the American "market," the economies of Western Europe and Japan would collapse overnight.
Moreover, figures which have shown that the economies of the E.C. and Japan have caught up with that of the United States are exceedingly misleading. In terms of real growth, these figures are vastly inflated. Since 1969 (a time wherein the gross national product of the E.C. and Japan were shown by the mass media as being only one-half that of the U.S.), the real growth of the E.C. and Japan has increased only slightly against the United States by less than two percent a year. This trend is now reversing itself, with the United States actually leading the E.C. and Japan in its rate of real growth.
Why then do mass media figures show that the gross national products of the E.C. and Japan have increased almost one hundred percent against the United States? The reason is this: the Federal Reserve has embarked on a calculated policy of deflating the American dollar against the German Mark and the Japanese Yen to mitigate the ravages of free trade on American workers and industry - which has had the side effect of making the economies of Europe and Japan appear to be growing rapidly against the American economy. But this growth has very little to do with real growth in industrial capacity, etc. and is to a large extent merely an illusion - which brings us finally to a discussion of free trade and globalization.
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