The United States:
Raiser of Taxes
Then shall stand up in his estate [Rome's estate] a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within a few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle. Dan. 11.20
This is the last estate of the divided Roman Empire before the coming of the "vile person". This is the power that would take the place of Britain and act in behalf of the spirit of Rome. This military might of the world, this spiritual leader of the Roman Empire since World War II and the demise of British Empire, is the United States. Its greatest weapon and strongest hold on the world? Economic, thus the reference to taxes, or revenues. Center stage as this scene opens is a flashing neon dollar sign.
Map 11 shows the U.S. and its vast economic holdings. This brief empire has been built mainly in the twentieth century and primarily since W.W.II. The nations and regions of the world shaded in have either been out and out colonies or "subsidiaries" of U.S. business power. The phrase, "raiser of taxes", used to describe the character wedged in between the conqueror of the Holy Land (Britain) and the Antichrist himself, suggests an emphasis on taxes, revenues, economics, investment, business, or : money in general. President Coolidge once said, "The business of America is business!" Business and economics is at the core of U.S. world diplomacy; it runs deep into the fundamental doctrines of all its sacred writings: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and its general code of laws. One of its branches of government, the Legislative branch, has as its greatest power the control of expenditures. Economic freedom is the rock upon which the United States was founded.
As a result, a system of revenue raising has evolved so that the variety of taxes at home and with business "friends" around the world is without end. There are tariffs on imports, tolls on roads, taxes on selling things, taxes on luxuries, high interest rate taxes, capital gains taxes, and inheritance taxes. There is manipulated inflation, taxes on fuel, taxes on food, taxes to support the aged, taxes to support the indigent, state taxes, taxes on gambling, city and municipal taxes, taxes to do business, taxes disguised as fines, excise taxes, taxes on pets and livestock, property taxes, meal taxes, and on and on. Think of anything ‑ getting married, getting divorced, getting born ‑ even dying, and you pay a tax or fee. Its all a form of raising revenue through taxation.
The U.S. has long been the imaginative leader in what is really the age of economics and taxation for the Roman Empire. The U.S. has held the scepter of the Northern throne through the might of its wealth and its business acumen. Running its empire like a business for profit, and though it has been but a short time, America has done it very successfully.
Perfect Engineer of Modern Tower of Babel
Just as Britain was the natural successor to the Holy Roman Empire so the United States was the natural successor to Britain, the perfect preacher to prepare the way for the building of the modern spiritual Tower of Babel for the final days. Made up of peoples from Europe who mingled all the various cultures together, the U.S. is rightly identified as the "melting pot of the world", where God's divisions of language and culture have been melted down in a pot of humanism in hope of bringing about at long last, a unity of Man.
The men who were responsible for chiseling out the nations character, and creating its unique government, were heavily influenced by the spirit of Greece and Rome, and the ideas of the enlightenment in France, and by the spirit of motherland Britain. The Democratic‑Republic is a Greco‑Roman concoction; the humanistic twists to liberty, justice and equality are from French philosophers (by whom the founding fathers of the United States were greatly influenced since they were popular contemporary ideas) and the laws and legislative systems are taken from the Roman and British models.
The spirit of Rome pervades all educational and social institutions in the land. Love of the arts and drama, and the upholding of athletics as a testimony to the greatness of the human will and spirit are signs of the Greek influence. The grandiose scale of American architecture and the ideal of citizenship worship are distinctly Greek and Roman in origin. The United States epitomizes the hope of the world today, the hope to unite in the spirit and power of the Tower of Babel. All peoples, all nations, all languages, all cultures, are invited to come together to merge into a perfect world.
America: the land of opportunity, the light and hope of the world. Man working together can, by his own ingenuity, make a sublime existence for himself; it is the dream of Alexander and his "Brotherhood of Man"; it is the "Equality, Liberty, Fraternity" banner waved in front of the marching armies of Napoleon; it is Hitler's Thousand Year Reich. It is man's idea of peace and freedom disguised in a frock of good words and eloquent promises and the United States is the podium in this hour for the ancient gospel of the Antichrist.
Preaching in the United Nations, and from every possible mountain top, the United States is the most powerful voice for Man's notions of peace and unity in today's world. All are invited to share in this peace, the unrighteous, liars, haters of God and his people, dictators, tyrants, kings, emperors, presidents, generals and sheiks, all are accepted without concern for truth. Despite its loving veneer, in God's eyes this gospel is an unrighteous call for an unrighteous unity. The call is to freedom, liberty, democracy and human dignity. But the freedom is the freedom to be selfish, to do what one wants as long as one does not buck the Empire. The liberty is liberty from God's word and commands. The democracy is the enjoyed security of being a part of the sinful collective. The human dignity is the honor and worship of man and oneself. The United States today is striving to unite the Empire under this banner of freedom, liberty, democracy, and human dignity. The voice of the Empire has even befriended the Jews (much as the British did and in preparation for the false friendship of the Antichrist) but its recent policies are showing its friendship to be fickle as the others. It is apparent now that U.S.‑Jewish ties will remain strong only as long as Israel does not interfere with U.S. plans to bring unity and peace to the world and as long as their relationship does not jeopardize American business interests.
Economy is the Ultimate Trump Card
The British Empire was used to extend the Empire around the globe and the "Raiser of Taxes" has been used to tie the world's economies together. This "Raiser of Taxes" is being used to set up a world economic system that will serve as the basis for the Antichrist's ultimate hold on the people: in the end no one will be able to buy or sell anything, not food, not fuel, not clothing, no cars, vacations, homes, not even a hair cut, unless they can display the tattoo of the mark of the Beast either on their forehead or right hand. That mark will allow them to live and function in this world and it will signify that they have worshipped the Beast.
The Antichrist's ultimate card to play will be economic; as the Persian Empire taught the Beast, he will have a strangle hold on the meat and potatoes of life. The Antichrist will have the believers in this world where he wants them because their true hope and faith, he knows, is in the substance of the bodily and earthly goods that they possess. The system, the entire network, for such a vast operation of control is being arranged right now under our noses. International systems of banking and lending, and U.S. encouragement in international institutions like the World Bank, the World Court, and the United Nations are setting the stage for unified currencies and a unified Empire. Rapid advance in computer technology is making the heretofore impossible task of such world control as simple as one‑two‑three.
The United states has led the way in all these areas of unification, not only in getting its gospel out, but in computer technologies, in world economics and in world-wide institutions. The very notion for a U.N. was conceived by an American President, Woodrow Wilson. When the United Nations was finally created after World War II as a show of U.S. dedication to world peace and unity it was seated in New York, the largest city of the United States.
But the "Raiser of Taxes" will not be the one to unite the Empire. In spite of U.S. wealth and initiative aimed at creating a Pax Americana, and in spite of its righteous sounding gospel and belief that the U.S. is God's gift to the world, the U.S. will not be the one to make the Beast whole again.
Prophecy has cast Americas fate: declaring that "within a few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle." To those who live in the United States it may be comforting to know that U.S. power will not be destroyed in anger or in battle, even though its power to lead the Empire will be somehow undermined. It does not necessarily mean the nation will be destroyed, but it does mean its position as master of the Empire will erode. Just how that power will fade or decline or swiftly dissolve we can only speculate. Remember the fate of Britain; after winning a war it still lost its prestige and power and its vast empire in little more than a decade; the same will surely happen to the U.S.
One thing is certain: the 10 Kings of a united federation will set up a government and agree to give their power to one man, the Antichrist. The U.S. will give way to the stronger power of the confederated European Community to be instituted in 1992. Perhaps the U.S. will eventually be just a part of the larger Antichrist whole? Or since the gospel of the United States has been money, business, and economy, it may be God will judge it with economic disaster or internal economic confusions and hardships which will cause her to have to concede to a greater world economic and political order? Maybe natural disasters, or draughts, or plagues will bring the United States to its knees and force it into a more subservient role?
We cannot tell for sure how or why it will happen, but in a few short days, the United States, the "Raiser of Taxes" will give way to the United Empire and the further building of the end‑time Tower of Babel. This tower, with its persistent vision of a "Brotherhood of Man", started by the leading nation of the "New World" will be finished off by Europe and her allies. It will be constructed with bricks made from the clay of Man's unity and glued together by the slime of the Antichrist gospel.
> ACT 5; SCENE 1: Signs of Times