Timely and Inspiring Prophetic Analysis so you can Prepare.

By Pastor Hal Mayer

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry once again. Today, we’re going to look at the rise of the second beast of Revelation 13, which, as you know represents the United States. There is no other power in the world capable of doing what America can do. There is no other power that can shake the nations and make them worry about things that the old-world order kept out of the conversation. There is no other power that will force its will on the rest of the world. So, let’s begin with prayer.

Our Father in heaven, we sense that Revelation 13 is being fulfilled right before our eyes. Please join us today as we study this important chapter in the Bible and help us understand the effect of American geopolitical reach on your people, and the outcome. Please help us to understand how this prophecy gives us certainty of the future. So, lead us today as we study, in Jesus name, amen.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 13:11-17.

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

The second beast of Revelation 13 exercises all the power of the first beast. This means that America is going to rise to greater power than ever before. And she will do incredible geopolitical things that have not been seen in history before. In the dark ages, Rome controlled the world, and she persecuted and slaughtered those who did not agree with her narrative. Many Sabbatarians and others were slain as martyrs. But Rome eventually was throttled by Napoleon’s general and sustained a deadly wound. One of the reasons was that God was going to shift geopolitical power to a land that was then unknown or nearly unknown. Some people wanted to be free of persecution and worship restrictions in England and wanted to worship God according to their consciences, so they came to the shores of America. Miraculously, the American colonies survived and formed the nation and built a powerhouse that cannot be stopped, unless God intervenes. Let’s read from Great Controversy, page 292.

“It was the desire for liberty of conscience that inspired the Pilgrims to brave the perils of the long journey across the sea, to endure the hardships and dangers of the wilderness, and with God’s blessing to lay, on the shores of America, the foundation of a mighty nation.”

The word superpower wasn’t used in the day when this was written. But notice the reference to the foundation of a mighty nation. We now have an idea of what that means. America is a superpower, and it is the last superpower on earth. It will never be defeated in spite of the saber rattling of China or Russia. Revelation 13 actually gives us a clue as to why this is. Verse 11 says, “I beheld another beast coming out of the earth.”

What is earth? Earth is land. And yes, it was relatively uninhabited when America started. But let’s take a closer look and consider the geography of the land.

There was a board game in the 70s and 80s that was very popular among college age male students who would play all night sessions of it. It was called Risk. Maybe some of you remember it. It was organized around a stylized playing board of the geography of the world. It used land or earth, if you will, and war to dominate. It has some uncanny and quite realistic elements considering todays reality.

Players start the game by taking turns choosing countries and placing armies of little plastic horses and cannons. When play begins, they start attacking each other, with the ultimate goal of taking over the entire map.

A well-known strategy among players who preferred to start their games in North America was that the key to winning lay in just three critical nations: Alaska, Greenland, and Venezuela. If you controlled just those three “countries,” then North America became an impregnable fortress, a base from which the subjugation of the entire world became easy and inevitable, and victory assured.

The explanation for this is access. Any other player trying to penetrate North America could only do so by moving through Venezuela, Greenland, or Alaska. If the North American player assembled large armies (lots of game pieces) in those three chokepoints, then North America was unbeatable. The other players would leave North America alone and fight amongst themselves, leaving the American player to simply wait around and clean up, once the dust settled.

Risk looks simple, but it was based on reams and reams of historical and military wisdom, which explains the game’s enduring popularity. (These days, of course, it’s all about videogames. But back in the day, Risk was an 800-pound gorilla of board games). In any case, President Trump is playing Risk, and everyone else is playing with the rest of the world.

Historically, empires rise and fall as explained by the prophet Daniel. Daniel 2 gives millennia of history in just a few short verses, as the Bible is so good at doing. Verses 36-42.

“And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.”

Empires usually fall because they are eaten out from within by corruption, weak leadership and debauchery among other things, and they become weak. Most empires last roughly 200-250 years. This year we will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary of its birthday. But it still has a way to go. Why? Well, it’s related to Bible prophecy, because America is destined to rise again to great power before it falls. America refuses to fade. People have been waiting for it to collapse for over 100 years. They said it would happen after Vietnam. They said it would happen after 9/11. They said it would happen after every war and after every crisis, whether it be the debt, politics, or chaos. And there have been globalist efforts to try to collapse it. They want to force it down and weaken it so the globalists can control it. But every time the smoke clears, the American flag is still standing. Why is that?

The story is not about politics, or luck, or even the dollar. History doesn’t care about drama; it cares about land. It’s the story about land that gives America power that is almost impossible to lose. Most people don’t think about America’s landmass in its relation to its geopolitical power. But Revelation 13 envisions that and suggests that its power is related to its land. Look at verse 11.

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.”

Also, note what it says in Revelation 12:16, “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.”

Notice what helped the woman, God’s church. It was the earth. America became the protection for God’s people and eventually the place where the three angels’ messages could be developed and proclaimed relatively unhindered. The earth, or land is also related to America’s transformation from the temper of a lamb into an aggressor that speaks like a dragon. And that power is growing now. Unless you understand prophecy, you won’t understand what happened in history or what will happen in the future. You can’t build land. You can’t copy land. Land is land. You either have it, or you don’t.

America is not just a superpower. It’s the final one. According to the Bible it is the great enforcer for the papacy (the first beast) and it will globally impact everyone. China cannot defeat America. It may roar, but it cannot rise to the level that it can conquer the world. It has influence, but it cannot ultimately control. Russia has influence, too. It has a military. And it is aggressive at least in its own orbit of influence. But it cannot control the world. There are significant reasons for this.

Every empire in history has had land on its side. The Roman Empire had the Mediterranean and all the land around it on its side. Britain was more advanced, and because it defeated Spain on the seas (remember the Spanish Armada) it became an empire that had global reach with land masses everywhere. And in case you are wondering, that was God’s doing. Britain controlled the land mass which would become the United States. And the English language, rooted in the protestant ideal and work ethic was very important to America’s development, and the way it would nurture and spread the three angels messages. Spanish was rooted in Catholicism. German was rooted in Protestantism and almost became America’s language, but it was also rooted in the old world and its mentality, so God arranged things so the language would be English.

But America’s land mass has got everything. It has two oceans to guard it. Britain tried to defend and exploit this new land and its rich resources for Britain. But I found out that the distance that it had to cross to do that was formidable, very difficult and time-consuming. That’s why it lost the Revolutionary War with a little help for the colonies from France.

But America had rich soil to feed it, and deep rivers to transport it. The Mississippi River, which connects 31 states with a river system that has more navigable miles than the rest of the world put together. It is so smooth that a barge can carry tons of raw materials and food up and down its waterways for almost nothing. And when the Mississippi River opens into the Gulf of America, as it is now famously called, it has access to the global trade routes and shipping lanes to Europe and Africa and other places. There are no mountains blocking it and there are no frozen ports to contend with. This has been a huge permanent advantage to building up America’s resources and its power on the global stage. Geography doesn’t retire. It doesn’t go bankrupt. It just keeps on working, giving generation after generation the advantages that it provides. Most people have no idea how the Mississippi River played a key role in forming America and its geopolitical influence and power.

Also, America has no real enemies next door. Canada and Mexico have been good friends, though there have been some minor issues between them at times. While other empires had to fight to survive, once the Revolutionary War was over, America basically lived in peace from its adversaries in other places for nearly 200 years. And it rose to greatness on its land, and because of its policy of republicanism, which protects the minority viewpoint, it became almost invincible. The people took ownership of the nation that was formed of the people, by the people and for the people, as President Lincoln famously said in his Gettysburg address. It has taken a lot of time and enormous energy and resources to bring America down to the place where it is today – divided and unsure of itself. But it is why it won’t stay down but will rise to greater heights of power that ever before.

America is sitting in the middle of the richest land on earth. That’s why no one has ever conquered it, and no one ever will. America has economic strength too. It is surrounded by natural deep-water ports both in the Atlantic and the Pacific. These give it a huge advantage. It makes international trade very easy and cheap. These ports did not have to be carved out and dredged and then maintained. They were a function of the land mass itself. The flood created deep chasms between nations across the Atlantic and Pacific. Did that happen by chance? I am certain that God organized this because He knew He would need a land where religious liberty could grow and flourish and where His last message to the world could be nurtured and proclaimed. It was not by chance. He was planning it almost 6000 years ago. That’s stunning.

Power doesn’t start with money. It starts with food. And America has very rich soil and food production capabilities. It doesn’t just feed itself. It feeds its allies in many parts of the world. This has brought wealth and money to American shores. But it has also sustained it in wartime as well as in peace time. America can outlast anyone. And if you add in the natural resources of gas, oil, coal and forests, you have a nation that can sustain itself independently and indefinitely. You can see why there is such an effort by some to throttle America by legal means or otherwise removing access to its natural resources, which again, date all the way back to the flood. That shows you the profound wisdom and future knowledge of God, whose hand has guided the nations in spite of themselves, for millennia.

While other nations depend on imports, America can close its borders and still survive if its resources are accessed. Self-sufficiency is the greatest hidden weapon in history. And America has it all. It wins wars before they start. America has something that other nations can only dream of. It has or can have total independence. And you can see why there have been those who have tried to take away America’s independence and make it subservient. There have arisen rival coalitions to compete with America. Think of the EU, the BRICs nations, Mercusor, Asean and other trade alliances. It takes a lot to compete with America on any front.

And you can also see why Rome has to be friendly to the United States. If America is going to be the enforcer of its Sunday law, it has to have power, and that power rests in the advantages of America’s geography. And Rome knows it.

China is boxed in by Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. 80% of China’s oil goes through the narrow straits of Malacca. Block that and China goes dark. Russia is too flat, too cold, and too far away from everything that matters. Invaders have marched to Moscow twice in history with nothing to stop them. Its ports freeze half the year, and its trade routes run through enemy territory. So, it tends to be hamstrung much of the time. It can’t wage and sustain a war for very long other than a small local one. Europe appears rich, but its patchwork of borders, languages, and egos prevent it from growing or fighting as one. Africa is huge, but its rivers drop too fast for them to be navigated by large ships, and it doesn’t have many natural deep-water ports. And though Australia has natural resources, it is too far away from the center of the action to be a major global player. Every power on earth fights the same problem. They don’t have the right geography for the modern world. God has given them some strong points to let them survive and some weak points to prevent them from rising too much. But America has no choke points. It has zero “fatal flaws.” Do you remember Acts 17:26?

“[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.”

God has set the limits on all of the nations, including America, so that His will can be fulfilled through them, or in spite of them, as the case may be.

America is rising again right now, right before our eyes. And President Trump is right in the middle of fulfilling prophecy. Look at his MAGA slogan, Make America Great Again. Doesn’t that sound like Revelation 13? He has taken clear-eyed and daring steps to achieve it too. He is making America as impregnable as possible by closing its borders and deporting those that he believes are a danger to America. He is dealing with the illegal immigration problem which weakens America. He is dealing with the drug problem which is also weakening America. He has put the NGOs that are perceived as undermining America on the run. He has defunded one third of US incorporated NGOs to where many of the remaining NGOs have pulled back from causes that don’t align with the administration’s agenda. Whatever side you may be on politically, I ask you to look at it prophetically. That’s far more important.

President Trump decapitated Venezuela, which sent shock waves through the international community. He made it clear that American power can reach almost anywhere. This really bothers Europe. But it also has Latin America on edge as he has threatened other countries, like Cuba, Columbia and Mexico. And maybe Cuba is next. We will have to wait and see. But President Trump has laid out a huge incentive for these nations to negotiate with America. And now he is talking about Greenland and its natural resources and global security like never before. Imagine the panic behind closed political doors as Europe tried to figure out how they were going to handle President Trump’s aggression with Greenland after what they saw him do to Venezuela. He knows that those Greenland resources are being eyed by Russia or China. And he doesn’t want either one of them as neighbors. Think back on what I said about the game of Risk. NATO came quickly to heel.

But he has more in mind. He is rebuilding American geopolitical power. And he’s no longer just about making peace. He told Norway’s Prime Minister that he no longer feels the “obligation to think purely of peace.” He is making America the superpower that prophecy declares will force all nations to bend to its will. These are all steps to make the second beast of Revelation 13 have much power, much more power than ever before.

And domestically, it appears that President Trump has gotten the government working together across all departments and making a “whole-of-government” approach to the president’s priorities. This is something that has never happened before, and it is deeply troubling to leftists and liberals. It’s making the government very efficient. Such cooperation is profoundly unusual and very difficult to coordinate. Now you can see why President Trump fired all those career diplomats and government lawyers during the first year of his second term. It’s as if he cleaned out the swamp, as conservatives call it. President Trump’s is making America much more hospitable to conservatives than it has been in the last 40 years, or maybe ever. He understands that world politics and domestic policy go hand in hand. He wants empire again. And he aims to achieve it.

The second beast is fundamentally supported by the other important regime in this world, one that has been there a long, long time. The Roman Catholic Church. Oh yes, there are things that Rome doesn’t like about the president. But they are only temporary. Rome already has enormous influence on the office of the president, and other branches of government, like the judiciary and the legislative bodies. It has molded the country after its own image in many ways. And by the help of the Roman Catholic Heritage Foundation, which invented Project 2025 and now Project 2026, President Trump is transforming the judiciary and legislative bodies into something that Rome really likes and needs. And that too is prophetic. We’ll talk more about the Heritage Foundation later. Listen to this from Great Controversy, page 581.

“God’s word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men.”

Rome has been using intelligent, subtle tactics to transform the public mindset. For instance, instead of referring to America’s republican form of government, America’s leaders for years now have used the word democratic in referring to its form of government. This is a huge difference. A republican form of government protects the minority viewpoint, including religious viewpoints. On the other hand, a democratic form of government is the rule of the majority and doesn’t automatically protect the minority viewpoint. And that has played itself out noticeably in the last 20 years or so. Americans now think of their government as a democratic form of government instead of a republican form of government. This is not about political parties, mind you, but it is about the form of government that suits Rome. I’ll read it from Great Controversy page 581.

“She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.”

And this leads us to the second point that Rome has subtly and stealthily changed about America, and that is the concept of the common good. America was built on freedom of the individual. It recognizes the individual rights and freedoms as of higher priority than those of the group. Individual rights have generally not been permitted to be overcome by the rights of the community. But this has changed or is changing as Rome builds America in its own image. The common good is a Roman Catholic concept that limits the rights of individuals when they are at odds with the rights of the community. This is not how America was conceived. And this concept was played out during the recent pandemic. Individual rights were limited because it was claimed that we had to protect the community from each other. Anybody who did not wear a mask or who did not get vaccinated was criticized and even marginalized because it was claimed that they would endanger the rest of the community.

The common good is all about giving Rome more power, and it will enhance the power of the state too. When Sunday laws become an issue again, America will have enough power to enforce them globally. Revelation 13:12 tells us that it gets a special kind of power, the power of the first beast. That’s not military power, though “the enforcer” will have that. It is religious power.

“And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”

Notice that America requires everyone on earth to worship the first beast. And it enforces it on other land masses, or countries around the world. America was founded in liberty both of soul and body, but it will end in removing that very liberty and persecuting those who insist on an alternative narrative, the narrative of truth. But she can’t do that without a muscular evangelical Christianity.

Enter Charlie Kirk. Charlie was a global phenomenon. But Americans knew Kirk as a political figure—the right-wing prodigy who had co-founded the conservative youth group Turning Point USA at the age of 18 and became a close adviser to President Donald Trump. He was a Christian, and he wore his Christianity on his sleeve. But it was a very convincing Christianity to high school and college youth. He began to keep the 7th day Sabbath. And he wrote his last book on the subject, which was published posthumously and has cross-partisan appeal.

But the main thing that I want to say about Charlie Kirk, is that his assassination has galvanized the religious world and has influenced politics in the United States. His funeral was attended by most of the Trump administration’s main officials, as well as pastors and religious leaders from a wide range of evangelical, Catholic, and other churches or denominations. This gave the impression that leaders of church and state are working together. And sure enough, that is exactly what the Bible and Great Controversy predict. Let’s first look at Revelation 17:1, 2.

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

Revelation 18:9, 10 echoes this, “And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”

There has been a very close and illicit relationship between the kingdoms of the world and their political leaders and the Roman Catholic Church. This close relationship has facilitated persecution in the past and will facilitate the persecution of those that don’t go along with Rome’s Sunday law in the future. And this is echoed in more detail in Great Controversy, page 592.

“The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17.

President Trump himself said, with his usual hyperbole, that his administration is bringing religion back to America “like never before.” I don’t think he understood what he said. But it is nevertheless very true. Religion is coming to America like never before. In fact, it will cause all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to worship the first beast, which means that essentially the whole world will be required to worship on Sunday, which is the symbol of Rome’s supremacy. Keeping Sunday when it is the law again will be an acknowledgement of that supremacy, but will be seen by heaven as disloyalty to God.

At the funeral, one of the pastors said that the Trump administration is appointed by God to rule righteously and to fight the evil in the world. And President Trump is doing just that, at least from an evangelical perspective, although there is some expected collateral damage. Another pastor said, speaking to the political left, “You have no idea the dragon you have awakened.” The great dragon in scripture is none other than the Devil using Rome to accomplish his purposes. Listen to Revelation 17:3.

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”

Coupled with Revelation 13:1-4, this gives us a picture of the blasphemous worship that will be required of all people.

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

Charlie Kirk’s book on the Sabbath has restarted the process of a discussion and debate about the Sabbath. And it will inherently raise the debate on which day God requires. Kirk calls the Sabbath a “weekly embodied confession that we are created, not accidental,” and describes it as something that interrupts dopamine driven habits and “rehumanizes us in a dehumanizing world.” In his view, Sabbath tells people that they are more than what they produce and more than what their (digital) feeds demand from them.

Kirk’s Sabbath is a weekly spiritual, social and physical reset, but with a political edge to it. The book contains clear political themes. Kirk says that keeping the Sabbath [itself] is “a political act,” a weekly declaration that his loyalty does not belong to “empire” or “the machine,” and speaks warmly of historic Sunday blue laws in the United States. He invites readers to imagine what would happen to America if commerce slowed every seventh day, screens dimmed, and attention shifted from consumption to presence and prayer.

Kirk remains hesitant to say the Sabbath is binding in a strict way. He lays out reasons why Christians should honor a seventh day Sabbath, then follows with reasons that the Sabbath does not bind New Testament believers in the same way as it did ancient Israel. He writes that the specific day may not be the main issue. His Sabbath is serious, but still framed as a conviction and an invitation rather than a Biblical demand that marks who is inside or outside the faith. He doesn’t see it as an end-time test of loyalty to God and can’t be expected to.

Charlie Kirk very clearly did not want to be aligned with religious Jews in his book because he did not want to be arguing for the Jewish practice of Shabbat. So, he recommended keeping a Sabbath instead of the Sabbath, even though he kept the Bible Sabbath himself from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. And he didn’t keep it like a true Sabbath keeper would keep the Sabbath. For example, he didn’t see it as a time for corporate worship. Yes, he turned off his cell phone and spent time with his family on that day. But he did not see it as responding to God’s immutable ten commandment law.

But many are starting to see the “Sabbath” (meaning Sunday) as the cornerstone of Western civilization going back thousands of years. Rome has been promoting the rhythm in which six days of work were followed by one day of rest, and universal equality. After all, when the Bible declares that everyone has a right not to work one day a week, it is contending that all human beings have worth beyond their social status and productive function. And all this and more is true, accept that those who promote these concepts are promoting the wrong day, the day God has not sanctified and set aside as the Sabbath. Sunday advocates promote all the reasons and benefits of the Sabbath that God intended but apply them to Sunday.

Rest from technology will resonate with many both on the political left and on the political right. Technology exercises a tyrannical control over us, and you don’t have to be religious or even a Sabbath keeper to understand the discomfort or allure of spending a day a week without a cell phone. So, a “tech Sabbath” has gained cultural currency over the last decade or so. It can promote physical as well as a sort of “spiritual healing.” It interrupts the cycle of social media addiction.

The day of rest Kirk proposes is optional. Kirk’s motive for insisting on a voluntary Sabbath, rather than one mandated by divine law is that he didn’t want to be perceived as advocating for a Jewish practice. In the Gospels, Jesus faults the Pharisees for insisting on a legalistic Sabbath. Yet the Sabbath “is not legalism—it is liberation,” writes Kirk. And this is true. But evangelicals will always define this as Sunday observance. Great Controversy puts it this way on page 592.

“The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected.”

Now the Heritage Foundation has released its document on the family arguing in a short paragraph that the family and society need a synchronized day of rest. What does synchronize mean? It means that everyone does the same activity at the same time. A Sunday law will one day impose a synchronized day of rest.

This is one reason true Sabbath keepers are very opposed to a Sabbath that becomes part of a project to “save America.” SDAs and a few others have a long record of opposing Sunday laws and other attempts to use state power to enforce religious timekeeping. When a book speaks warmly of blue laws and presents Sabbath as part of a national restoration plan, they hear echoes of past efforts to write a particular religious rhythm into civil law. Their concern is not that others are talking about Sabbath, but that civil regulation will likely follow.

The Trump administration is showing the world that it is going to be more aggressive in promoting its agenda. For starters it changed the name of Department of Defense to the Department of War. While this seems to be a small issue, this represents a significant change in mentality. America is no longer focused on merely protecting itself from other aggressors, like in World War II. It is taking an active stance in war-making for other reasons. In other words, the nation is no longer taking a stance of neutrality and defense, but is aggressively taking military action where it thinks it will benefit America. This change of stance took place a long time ago during the younger Bush administration, which most people have largely forgotten about. The name change is honestly defining the department for what it really is. And speaking of Project 2025, one administration official said, “2025 was the preparation, 2026 is the banquet.”

Likewise, America is beginning to show itself as a full-throttled Christian nation. For example, while this is a seemingly small issue, the 2025 Christmas season was punctuated by the gospel in the Christmas greetings of the various departments of the federal government. It even seems like it was coordinated. For example, War Secretary Pete Hegseth tweeted, “Merry Christmas to all. Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya quoted John Chapter 1: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Assistant US Attorney Harmeet Dhillon —who isn’t even a Christian— tweeted, “Wishing Christians nationwide a wonderful day filled with joy and peace, celebrating the birth of Jesus!” and Secretary Rubio said, “The joyous message of Christmas is the hope of Eternal Life through Christ.”

Will the increased emphasis on war making result in the use of the military within the borders of America, such and President Trump threatened to do in Minneapolis, to root out and persecute Sabbath keepers? Only time will tell. Let’s read from the Testimonies for the Church, page 451.

“By the decree of enforcing the institution of the Papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.”

We are very near the end of time. We can see prophecy being fulfilled right before our eyes. And we know the end of this all will lead to the persecution and suppression of God’s people and their freedom to worship as they are bound by conscience to do. But we also know the end of the story as far as God’s power and His protection of His people. But we have a serious time to go through before He comes again. May the Lord be merciful and gracious to us so that we can understand these issues and be loyal to Him no matter what happens to us. Let us pray.

Dear Father in heaven, we are sensible of the precarious an important time just before us. And while we don’t relish the idea of persecution, we recognize that we cannot perfect Christian character and be ready for heaven without going through that period of time. We also recognize that it’s for our own good. It will separate the affections in our hearts from the world and place them on eternal realities and on heaven. So please help us to be making our calling and election sure. Deepen our convictions about loyalty to heaven. And give us your Holy Spirit to empower us to be overcomers and live righteously. Please God have mercy on us and forgive us of our sins and iniquities. Your presence is coveted in our lives. Please stand with us like you stood with the three Hebrew worthies. In Jesus name, amen.