Prophecy scholar: America at crossroads

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fifth story in a seven-part series by veteran journalist Troy Anderson about major evangelists who are turning their attention toward America to help ignite what Billy Graham describes as an end-times "great spiritual awakening." The first story featured Graham's warning for America and the second centered on another famed evangelist's testimony that God spoke to him in a dream last year saying, "America will be saved!" In the third story, Graham told of his fervent prayers for a "fresh awakening" in America. In the fourth, Graham sounded the alarm that the Second Coming is "near" and signs of the end of the age are "converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions."

By Troy Anderson

America faces two futures, says internationally-recognized prophecy expert and Fox News, CNN and History Channel commentator Paul McGuire in his new book, "A Prophecy of the Future of America."

In one scenario, the church and the nation turns back to God and experiences what world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham calls an end-times "great spiritual awakening."

In the other, America doesn't repent of its immorality and experiences a "crisis of unprecedented proportions" – a complete economic collapse, a surprise nuclear or terrorist attack or a wave of devastating earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, solar flares and other cataclysmic disasters.

"Billy Graham is the closest thing we have in America to a genuine prophet of God, and I believe God is using him to issue a prophetic warning and a prophetic message of hope to America," said McGuire, who hosted the nationally syndicated "Paul McGuire Show" for a decade.

On his show, he interviewed numerous world leaders and New York Times bestselling authors, including President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sen. John McCain, Rev. Rick Warren, author Joel Rosenberg and author Tim LaHaye.

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"It is one every one of us should heed, and I totally agree with him, I support what he's doing, and I urge everyone to get involved in the kind of repentance he's calling for," McGuire said. "I personally urge everyone to get involved because this is the only hope for America."

The release of McGuire's book comes as more than 25,000 churches and hundreds of thousands of people are preparing for the My Hope America with Billy Graham evangelistic outreach in early November.

End of the age

In an exclusive email interview with WND, Graham said the signs of the "end of the age" are "converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions." In his new book, "The Reason for My Hope: Salvation," the famed preacher wrote he believes the Second Coming is "near" and that America "can't go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming."

"The United States is going to have to turn from its evil ways as God said to the children of Israel," Graham told WND. "First, we need to repent of our sin and turn back to God; that's the biblical admonition through the Old and New Testament. Second, we need faith to believe. And then obedience. God gave us the Ten Commandments, which we need to take seriously."

Graham will give what could be his last message to the world the week of Nov. 7, his 95th birthday. The "My Hope" programs will be available for viewing online, including on YouTube. "The Cross," the primary program in the "My Hope" series, will be broadcast on the Fox News Channel, TBN, Christian networks and local television stations in a number of cities.

'Something big is about to happen'

In his new book, McGuire wrote that people sense something big is about to happen – "something that will change life as we know it forever."

He said the world is on the "very edge of World War III, through Syria or some other kind of conflict."

Paul McGuire interviews former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

A recent poll by the Ventura, Calif.-based Barna Group backs up McGuire's contention, finding 4 in 10 Americans – and 77 percent of evangelical Christians – believe the "world is now living in the biblical end times."

"There is an event coming to America, a crisis of unprecedented proportions that will happen suddenly and without apparent warning," wrote McGuire, an adjunct professor of eschatology at Jack Hayford's The King's University in Van Nuys, Calif., and the author of 22 prophecy books, including "The Day the Dollar Died."

"This event will strike fear in the hearts of Americans, and they will say over and over again, 'I cannot believe this is happening. … I cannot believe this is happening in America!'"

McGuire said the statement is not "some kind of prophetic announcement" but rather a "wake-up call before the final wake-up call."

"America has received numerous wake-up calls over the last two decades, and each time it has gone back to sleep. 9/11 was the biggest wake-up call in our nation's history, and Americans stayed awake for about three months and then they went back to sleep. None of our real problems have been fixed.

"Our economy is apparently (and temporarily) doing well because it is being pumped up by the Federal Reserve who is printing dollars backed by nothing. America is like a bunch of addicts living on crack cocaine, and when we are hit by the inevitable hyperinflation our standard of living is going to go way down."

What most people don't understand, McGuire wrote, is that the U.S. is just one crisis away from an economic meltdown, a transformation into an entirely new governmental and economic system or worse.

Where is America in the forecast?

In the book, McGuire outlines several scenarios that scientists, economists, political leaders and geopolitical analysts are concerned about. These include an economic collapse; a major terrorist attack; a nuclear, biological or electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack; massive earthquakes, tsunamis; hurricanes, solar flares and other natural catastrophes; a lethal pandemic; or a major cyber-warfare attack.

"Many historians, scholars, political scientists, economists and theologians believe that it is highly possible that America may not exist in the near future," McGuire wrote. "For example, there are political scientists that believe that America as an independent sovereign nation will cease to exist and that it will merge with some kind of global government."

McGuire, host of an upcoming international prophecy show on GOD TV, wrote the book is the product of 35 years of "intensive and documented research."

"I have had the opportunity to meet privately with some of the world's most influential leaders – presidents, prime ministers, scientists and celebrities who have shared with me all kinds of information," McGuire wrote. "In addition, the highest-ranking military generals and heads of the largest intelligence agencies in the U.S. have contacted me about my research into the future."

In an interview with WND, McGuire said wealthy globalists and their network of secret societies, think tanks and quasi-government organizations such as the Bilderberg Group, Council on Foreign Relations and United Nations, are working to create a global government and economic system as predicted by the biblical prophets thousands of years ago.

"You'll have a very tiny upper class, or as they like to say the 1 percent, and you'll have a massive underclass, which will be unemployed or the working class," said McGuire, who appeared on two highly-rated History Channel specials – "7 Signs of the Apocalypse" and "Countdown to Armageddon: Four Horsemen."

Whenever people look to government as their savior, totalitarianism always rears its head and people lose their freedoms, McGuire said.

"There is, historically, a seduction that occurs," McGuire said. "Hitler used it. The communist revolutionaries used it. Basically, the seduction goes like this: We'll completely take care of you, we'll protect you and provide for all your needs, but you'll have to give up your freedoms."

McGuire said it happens with "mathematical precision," noting the nation is quickly transitioning into a socialistic system. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows nearly half of all Americans now receive benefits from one or more government programs.

"If you give up your rights and freedoms to a government the outcome will be concentration camps, mass deaths and a level of brutality and cruelty we've never seen before in America," McGuire said. "It happened in Nazi Germany and in communist Russia and China. People who haven't studied history always react to that by saying, 'Well, that sounds extreme,' but it's not extreme. That's the historical precedent."

McGuire said a "secretive elite" – a group of super-wealthy globalists and multi-national corporations – are "really in control of our nation."

"With few exceptions, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are essentially controlled by the same people, and they create the illusion of democracy, but it's an illusion," McGuire said. "These elite want to consolidate their power and control the world for economic and other reasons. They have no allegiance to any one nation. And they are currently moving the world forward at high speed into what H. G. Wells (author of "The New World Order") and Bertrand Russell, the famous Fabian socialists, called a world socialist government."

To back up this claims, McGuire cited numerous sources in his book, including Georgetown University Professor Carroll Quigley, who claimed secret societies played a significant role in world history. Former President Bill Clinton cited Quigley as an important influence.

"The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences," Quigley wrote in his book "Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time."

Behind the scenes

Charlie Daniels, the country music legend and host of the recent documentary "Behold a Pale Horse: America's Last Chance," told WND that people need to know what is really going on behind the scenes.

Charlie Daniels

The film about a "looming world government" features interviews with retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin; trends forecaster Gerald Celente; Stan Monteith, author of Brotherhood of Darkness; and former Fort Worth Star-Telegram investigative reporter and New York Times bestselling author Jim Marrs, author of "The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America" and "Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids."

"It's like the Bible says, 'People perish for the lack of knowledge,'" said Daniels, who is best known for his No. 1 country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." "People don't know what is really going on. People are so brainwashed. A lot of this stuff is by design. There are devious forces out there that are interested in controlling the world. That's what got the devil in trouble; that's why he lost his place in heaven.

"That's the age-old thing; that people want control and they want power. It's happening faster and faster now. I don't know how it's going to manifest itself, but I do know it's going to happen. I don't think we are going to sit here and take it, though. I think above all else that people need to be informed and need to know what is going on."

This "secret shadow government" also wants to control Eurasia and the Middle East, and specifically the oil fields of the Middle East, McGuire said.

"The conflict in Syria is really over massive oil deposits, the fact that Russia and Syria are partnering together through a pipeline and that Russia is selling oil all over Europe and China," McGuire wrote. "So, if the U.S. goes in there, there is a very high likelihood of a regional, thermonuclear war involving Iran and possibly Israel, which could escalate into World War III. It could ignite the fuse, and that's why it's very, very dangerous."

Cradle of civilization

In his book, McGuire wrote that the biblical book of Revelation predicts the emergence of an end-times "one-world government ruled by 10 kings under the Antichrist in the New World Order."

"The end game is to destroy America as an independent sovereign nation and merge it into a globalist state ruled by a United Nations Constitution," McGuire wrote. "Currently, the world is being divided into 10 separate unions or regions like the European Union, African Union, Asian Union, North American Union, and so on. In the future, all the nations of the world may join into one big global government that the prophet Daniel called the 'Fourth Beast.' "

The Bible contains a code – beginning at the Tower of Babel in ancient Babylon in the book of Genesis and concluding with "Mystery, Babylon" in the book of Revelation – that predicts the "coming commercial Babylon and religious Babylon," McGuire said.

"Archaeologists tell us that Babylon is the cradle of all human civilization," McGuire wrote. "Located on the shores of the Euphrates River, this city was the world's first attempt at a one-world government, a one-world economic system and a one-world religion, which God prevented by confusing their language. It is not an accident that the Book of Genesis contains this important account of the first New World Order. Babylon gives us powerful clues on what to expect in the future and that is why in the Book of Revelation Babylon reappears."

While many Bible scholars point to the fact that America is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, McGuire said some experts believe "American can be found in the Bible, just under another name, such as Babylon."

"Is America Babylon?" McGuire asked. "Is America named in Bible prophecy and is it possible to know what is going to happen to America and the world in the near future?"

Peering into the nation's future, McGuire told WND the biggest problem America faces is the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program – "a fancy word for printing money from nothing."

"It's printing money to create an artificial economic bubble and every nation in the past that has done that has always gone into a hyperinflationary mode like Germany," McGuire said. "So this is a highly dangerous situation for America because right now, whether we're talking about Republicans or Democrats, they're all part of this masquerade ball and are wearing masks for the American public.

"Most of them are basically playing the game and not telling the American people that our economy has absolutely no chance of recovery unless we begin radical steps to stimulate business growth and create high-paying jobs."

But instead of doing this, McGuire said just about every official action in Washington, D.C., seems designed to stifle economic growth.

"The prognostication now is that we're going over the cliff," McGuire said. "There is no way we can't. We haven't addressed anything. We have done absolutely nothing but print money. And what compounds all this is that America has now become an Orwellian state where we have a media that is primarily owned by six corporations that control all the information. The American people basically just hear propaganda. They are not being told the truth."

Concerns about growing government surveillance have captured the public's attention in recent months. Last week, Hollywood director Oliver Stone, who has praised McGuire's work, appeared with actor John Cusack in a public service announcement decrying the National Security Agency's surveillance tactics on Americans and world leaders.

In the book, McGuire wrote the Bible predicts a charismatic global dictator, the Antichrist, will force the "mark of the beast on all those who have not acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord."

"This microchip, Nano-chip, and biochip implant will allow the individual receiving it to participate in the economic system through buying and selling," McGuire wrote. "The 'chip' will be the ultimate Big Brother surveillance device that can monitor your physical location and transmit your ideas, thoughts, beliefs and perceptions to some kind of 'cloud system.'"

McGuire wrote the current devaluation of the dollar and the recent global economic crisis are "planned events."

"The threat of World War III involving North Korea, China, Japan, America, Iran and Russia is a reflection of the fact that many of these nations are rejecting the U.S. dollar as a world currency and using the Chinese Yuan and other currencies to trade with each other," McGuire wrote. "The goal is to create a one-world currency called the Phoenix by 2018."

In his book, McGuire, who speaks to thousands of people at prophecy conferences and other events nationwide, said the most common question he's asked is "Where is America in prophecy?"

"I believe America has a future in prophecy and that we are literally at the crossroads of either death or destruction or a legitimate end-times revival," McGuire wrote.

McGuire said he believes the world is now experiencing the early "birth pangs" the Bible predicts will precede the seven-year Great Tribulation.

"We are now living in a time period when there is an unprecedented acceleration of prophetic events and a convergence of scientific, economic and social events that has never happened in all of human history," McGuire wrote. "Biblical scholars disagree as to the exact timing of the most cataclysmic time period in the history of the world, known as the Tribulation Period. I believe that we are close … very close."

Throughout the Bible, though, McGuire wrote biblical authors gave account after account of how God would respond if people prayed and asked for forgiveness.

"America like many other nations throughout history is literally hanging in the balance at this very moment," McGuire wrote. "If God's people will truly seek his face and repent of their sins, it may be that God will protect our nation, restore it in a temporal sense and grant us one more time to fulfill his purpose for our nation."

As evidence, McGuire cited 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
"So, if the American church will fast and pray and cry out to God for revival – in the manner that Billy Graham and these other men of God and notable Christian leaders have said – then I believe there can still be tremendous hope for America," McGuire told WND.

"Even though it appears to be the final hour, God has a brief window of opportunity that is still open for our nation, and I believe God is using Billy Graham as a prophet to our nation to call us to repentance so revival can occur."

An award-winning journalist at the Los Angeles Daily News, the Press-Enterprise and other newspapers for two decades, Troy Anderson writes for Reuters, WND, Charisma and many other media outlets. He's also the president and editor-in-chief of the World Prophecy Network– An Online Newsmagazine and Community Spreading the Hope of Jesus in the End Times. He lives in Irvine, Calif.