A Prophetic History of the United States--1917 Captivity Supplement

In the prophecies of Daniel 2, we see that Rome was described in terms of IRON. Thus, we call this fourth beast (Dan. 7) "the iron kingdom."

When Constantine (and Licinius) conquered Rome in the early fourth century, it was not long before Constantine became the sole ruler. One of the first things he did was to build a new capital city in the ast, which he called Constantinople. Today it is known as Istanbul. Thus, Constantinople became known as "New Rome." The Emperor never saw the city of Rome again.

Not long afterward, the empire was divided into two parts in order to rule it more efficiently. The East and West became the two "legs" of iron as Daniel 2:33 portrays it. When the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D., the Eastern Empire continued to function with "New Rome" as its capital. Over the centuries its territory was eroded, but it lasted until 1453 when the city was finally taken by the Ottoman Turks.

Thousands of Greek-speaking scholars from the city flooded Europe, bringing with them Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and a new appreciation for Greek culture. But the Eastern Orthodox cultural and religious center had been broken, and it now moved to a new ciity--Moscow in Russia. Moscow--and Russia itself--became the inheritor of Roman culture and Orthodox religion from Constantinople. The Roman Empire thus moved North.

It remained there until 1917 when the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew the existing order and put the Russian Orthodox Church under its control. Once again, the cultural and religious center was disrupted, and it moved South to Kosovo in the Balkans. Thus, Kosovo became the latest "New Rome." Greek Orthodoxy was then disrupted again in the 1990's in the war in Kosovo. It was really the tail end of a centuries-old war upon the iron empire of Rome, which even today has not quite fully ceased to exist.

To really understand the events of the 20th century, we must also understand the law of tribulation and the laws of captivity. These are found primarily in Lev. 26 and Deut. 28. We have covered this is in earlier web logs and quite thoroughly in my book, The Struggle for the Birthright, chapter 4.

The primary concept to grasp is that of the iron yoke and the wooden yoke. The iron yoke is mentioned in Deut. 28:48 and described in the context of that passage. If Israel were to receive a iron yoke, it would mean that a foreign nation would come and war against them, destroy their nation, and displace them from their land.

The law itself, however, does not describe the alternative judgment--the wooden yoke. This is left to the prophet Jeremiah, who speaks of it in Jer. 27 and 28. The context shows us that the wooden yoke was where God would put the nation under the authority of a foreign nation, but there would be no destructive war. Instead, the people would recognize the judgment as coming from God's hand and would thus submit to it, recognizing that God was just in His judgment. The wooden yoke, then, would place the nation into "tribute." They would simply pay the "tax" while living in their own land.

The wooden yoke was a merciful judgment, but it required faith in God. It required acceptance of that judgment. It was Jeremiah's primary mission to get Jerusalem in his day to accept the fact that God had given Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (Jer. 27:6-12). Of course, they threw him into prison for treason! The Babylonians finally set him free.

Taking this principle to the 20th century, we have already shown that the United States was conquered by Babylon in 1914 on a 2,520-year cycle from the original captivity. The question is this: Did the U.S. come under a wooden yoke, or an iron yoke?

Obviously, since we were not deported or deprived from the right to own land, we can see that we are under a wooden yoke. In 1916 the sixteenth Ammendment was passed, which was ultimately interpreted by the IRS to mean that all of us must pay "income tax." So it is plain to see that we are now paying "tribute" in a wooden yoke.

This whole captivity to Babylon began with a covert action on Dec. 23, 1913, when just five Senators passed the Federal Reserve Act, while the rest were home for the Christmas holiday. It was signed by President Woodrow Wilson, who did not even read this "routine banking bill," and later admitted that it was the greatest mistake of his career. But was it? Not from God's perspective, for He was bringing judgment upon us for our sin.

The conspirators, led by Paul Warburg, had drawn up this bill on Jekyll Island a few years earlier, as later reported in the media. They thought they were pretty smart, not knowing that God was behind it all along. God blinded most Americans from seeing what was going on in this, because if we had known the facts, the American people would have taken up arms and driven the money changers from the temple. But God blinded us in order to ensure that we would accept His wooden yoke. Otherwise, we would have fallen into the same trap of patriotic rebellion that Jeremiah faced in his day. God would then have imposed an iron yoke upon us.

God did, however, give us a sign so that the wise would understand. The bill was signed by WOODrow Wilson. He gave us the WOODEN yoke.

But other parts of the world were not so fortunate. New Rome (Moscow) and its Eastern European satellite nations received the iron yoke, which historians came to call the IRON CURTAIN. Many of the people were displaced, driven off their land on to collective farms. Millions were killed over the first two decades.

Thus, the inheritor of Roman civilization (Russia) received an iron yoke itself. This lasted precisely 70 years, just like the old Babylonian empire. On the 70th anniversary of the so-called "Russian Revolution," (1917-1987), President Gorbachev made his famous anniversary speech before the Supreme Soviet that broke the back of Communism itself. The old Soviet Union began to implode, and it soon broke up into pieces. The iron yoke captivity began to end in 1987, precisely 2,520 years after Babylon fell to Medo-Persia in 537 B.C.

The Persian King Cyrus allowed the Babylonian captives to return to their own land, but this event, though good, did not actually set the Judahites free. It simply ended their iron yoke and put them under the wooden yoke. So it is with Russia today, though they are still reeling from the effects of the iron yoke.

When will this wooden yoke finally end? I do not know for sure. But it is helpful to know how we got to where we are today and to understand our current position under the wooden yoke. I do know this, however: The wooden yoke will not end until God sets us free. And God will not do that until the poeple repent. And it is doubtful if the people will repent until they see the manifestation of the sons of God.

Why? Because Daniel 7 makes it clear that the saints of the Most High will inherit the Kingdom after the fourth beast and its extension (the "little horn") has run its full course. I believe that this is a reference to the manifestation of the sons of God, for this is the event that will qualify people to rule creation justly, peaceably, and with perfect love.