America is not in Bible prophecy. Many people twist and turn to find it but in my opinion it is not there. Therefore, it has been removed or downgraded to such an extent it ceases to matter on the world stage. I write this as a friend of the USA and an observer of its fast decline since my first visit in 1974, near the end of its golden age. As Christianity has been removed as a major influence on the young and society at large, so the troubles have mounted.

America is hurtling towards the brick wall of bankruptcy. You can access the debt clock via this website. The figures are too great for people to comprehend but by now everyone knows the nation- like Britain and much of the west- has been living way beyond its means. The party is over- or should be. You can live on credit for just so long but at some stage bills have to be paid. This results from a wrong set of values being adopted and materialism replacing Biblical values. The "I want it now" generation are going to reap the whirlwind on all fronts.

America owes its money to nations that are hardly friends: China is top of the creditor list but other countries are there as well, like Russia and the Arab nations. They held Dollars simply because the Dollar has for decades been the effective world reserve currency. This is ceasing to be the case, with Russia and other countries trading in their own currencies. Iran will take payments for its vast oil reserves in currencies other than the Dollar. 

Gold will one day be  rocketing in value because it is a worldwide accepted form of value. It is in limited supply: over at the Fed they are making funny money by adding digits to their electronic money creation. The joke is almost over and ordinary Americans won’t be laughing. Coupled with currency collapse could well come a sudden, deadly attack. Nations like Iran, North Korea and yes, even China, truly hate America and would not flinch from unleashing missiles. Russian submarines have already been prowling off America’s coastline- all this can be checked out elsewhere.

Look at the Chinese school textbooks, for example, to see what they say about America and the west. It’s not unlike what the “Palestinian” children are taught about Israel: conveniently rewritten history which omits their own numerous faults and assaults on other nations, like India, Vietnam and Tibet in recent decades. 

America, which cannot afford its huge military let alone its health and pensions liabilities, has financial and physical faultlines running through the nation. Geologically, major faultlines run for thousands of miles and not just down the west coast. So a natural disaster could join with the financial meltdown and, perhaps, an attack as well. When you’re at the top you are vulnerable and seldom popular: people usually queue to have a crack at you and the world perceives America as weakened and defensive, with inept leadership -downright evil leadership under the Obamanation, perhaps to be followed by Jezabel! 

The article I am introducing has the theme of China taking over world leadership, but I don’t agree with this either. It is a simplistic, short term view, based on what seems to be the case if you take a snapshot in time. Overall, China has terrible weaknesses and problems: a fragmented country and diverse population, elderly, overly centralized leadership, no freedom, serious water and food production problems, massive pollution and the scope for much unrest.

Don’t bet on China! No, the nation that will take over world leadership in the not-too-distant future is the united nation of Europe- the revived Roman empire. This is what the Bible predicts and I believe it and talk about it to anyone who invites me. Scripture is clear: Rome will rule again. The vast complex of centralized power that is the European Union is far more formidable than the rest of the world perceives. I know: I have watched it in action as a writer and editor. Now here is the article that caused me to pause for a few minutes to key in these thoughts  

According to the one IMF official forecasts, China’s economy could surpass that of America in real terms in 2016. 
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It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington, D.C., right now. It raises enormous questions about what the international security system is going to look like in just a handful of years. And it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant Treasury market, which have been propped up for decades by their privileged status as the liabilities of the world’s hegemonic power. 

According to the IMF forecast, whomever is elected U.S. president next year couldl be the last to preside over the world’s largest economy. 

Most people aren’t prepared for this. They aren’t even aware it’s that close. Listen to experts of various stripes, and they will tell you this moment is decades away. The most bearish will put the figure in the mid-2020s. 

The IMF in its analysis looks beyond exchange rates to the true, real terms picture of the economies using “purchasing power parities.” That compares what people earn and spend in real terms in their domestic economies. 

Under PPP, the Chinese economy will expand to $19 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile the size of the U.S. economy will rise  to $18.8 trillion. That would take America’s share of the world output down to 17.7%, the lowest in modern times. China’s would reach 18%, and rising. 

Until under two decades ago, the U.S. economy was three times the size of China’s.