An Ancient Prophecy’s Unsettling Mirror

 

5 Shocking Parallels Between Ezekiel’s Jerusalem and the United States

Introduction: A Nation’s Story, Foretold?

There is a sentiment coursing through modern America that the nation has not merely lost its way but forgotten its very origins. We search for answers in political failures and economic cycles, but the diagnoses often feel superficial, unable to account for the depth of the dislocation. It is a story of a nation that seems to have forgotten it was God, and God alone, who raised it from the dead.

What if a coherent, if deeply unsettling, narrative for the American journey already exists, written down not in the 18th century but over two and a half millennia ago? This is the provocative thesis drawn from a close reading of the 16th chapter of the biblical book of Ezekiel. In this text, the prophet delivers a detailed oracle concerning the birth, blessing, betrayal, and judgment of ancient Jerusalem. Yet, to some interpreters, Ezekiel’s words describe the trajectory of the United States with such startling accuracy that it demands a second look.

This post will explore five of the most striking and counter-intuitive parallels drawn from this ancient text. It is an exercise not in prediction, but in reflection—an attempt to see if an ancient prophecy holds an unsettling mirror up to the American story, prompting a radical re-evaluation of its past, present, and future.

 

1. A Nation Born in Blood, Saved by a Word

The prophecy begins with Jerusalem’s origins, describing it as a foundling born in the “heathen” land of Canaan, its father an Amorite and its mother a Hittite. The parallel is immediately drawn to the United States, a nation founded by Anglo-Saxons not in a native Saxon land, but on a continent occupied by peoples they considered “heathen.”

This new nation’s birth was anything but assured. It was ignored, isolated, and at times opposed by great military powers, such as the French during the French and Indian Wars who sought to prevent Saxon expansion. Ezekiel describes Jerusalem as being “cast out in the open field” and “polluted in thine own blood,” an infant abandoned and left for dead. This imagery finds a disturbing echo in the perilous beginnings of the American colonies. We remember the “lost colony” that vanished without a trace. The Jamestown colony was nearly abandoned on three separate occasions; in its fifth year, a brutal winter saw 500 of its 550 residents die of starvation. The Plymouth colony faced similar struggles, repeatedly on the verge of collapse. It was a nation on the brink of dying at birth.

It is at this moment of extreme vulnerability that the text records a divine intervention, a declaration that turns the tide from death to life:

“And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood. I said unto thee, when thou wasst in thy blood, live. Ya, I said unto thee, when thou was in thy blood, live.”

This perspective reframes the American founding story. It suggests that the nation’s survival was not a product of inevitable destiny or human resilience alone, but the result of a miraculous reprieve from the brink of total collapse, a life granted by a divine word.

 

2. The True Foundation: A Divine Covenant, not a Human Constitution

From where did America’s early greatness and global renown stem? The common answer points to the brilliance of its Constitution and the ingenuity of its founders. However, this interpretation of Ezekiel argues that the true foundation was something deeper: a covenant with God, established and honored by its devout, Bible-focused settlers.

This view holds that America’s fame spread because its foundation was the Bible, not a political document. Evidence for this is found in the fact that dozens of nations copied the U.S. Constitution but failed to replicate its success because they missed the true spiritual source. This divine covenant was not an abstract idea but was put into concrete practice:

• Higher Education: The first ten colleges established in America—including Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, and Princeton—were nearly all founded by religious denominations. Their primary purpose was not secular education, but the training of ministers to preach the gospel.
• Primary Education: For 150 years, the primary schoolbook for the masses was the “New England Primer,” often called the “little Bible of New England.” An estimated 3 million copies were sold when the population was sparse, ensuring that generations of children were raised on Bible doctrines.

The renown of the nation, according to the prophecy, was a direct result of this divine relationship, a beauty bestowed upon it from an external source:

“And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my cleanliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.”

This perspective is profoundly challenging to modern sensibilities, which tend to draw a sharp line between America’s religious heritage and its political and social development. It posits that the two were not just intertwined, but that the nation’s very essence and success were a direct outgrowth of its spiritual commitments.

3. National Wealth: A Divine Blessing, Not an Economic System

Within a few generations, America grew from a fragile collection of colonies into the wealthiest nation in the world. This interpretation argues that this explosion of prosperity was a direct fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy, where God decks Jerusalem with ornaments, jewels, fine linen, and silk.

This view directly counters the conventional wisdom that America’s wealth was the product of American ingenuity or economic systems like “free enterprise.” It asserts that this was a divine blessing, a gift given to establish the covenant. The source specifically targets “our so-called anti-communist conservatives” for perpetuating the myth that “great men” and the “free enterprise system” built America, when in fact it was God. America, in this view, forgot the divine origin of its wealth, leading to a new religion where it began to worship men and money. This shift transformed a divine blessing into a corrupting form of capitalism that the source bluntly calls “the destroyer of mankind.” The text presents a stark warning against the nation claiming credit for its own success, quoting a similar caution from Deuteronomy:

“But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto the fathers, as it is this day.”

This argument recasts the American dream from a national virtue into a potential act of spiritual amnesia. The pursuit of wealth, detached from its divine source, becomes not a sign of success but a source of profound moral and spiritual decay.

 

4. A Tragic Betrayal: Sacrificing Children for Corporate Greed

The prophecy’s indictment grows severe, accusing Jerusalem of a horrific betrayal: taking the children God had given it and sacrificing them to idols. This interpretation applies that accusation directly to the United States, clarifying the theological stakes with devastating force. The charge is that America took the sons and daughters “borne unto me”—to God—and sacrificed them.

This is not a metaphor. The source makes the shocking claim that America’s involvement in foreign wars, specifically World War I and World War II, was not to protect the nation’s freedom. Instead, it argues these wars were fought to make the world “safe for Standard Oil and for Exxon and General Motors”—to secure the power and profits of global capitalists. This, it claims, is the modern fulfillment of Ezekiel’s terrible charge:

“Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter? … Thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them.”

The source alleges that the nation’s ministers, rather than warning against this idolatry, became a “propaganda arm for the world capitalists.” While World War II resulted in the death of a “minimum of 20 million of our Saxon brethren,” ministers at home were reportedly “Urging us on to kill those dirty Germans.” This indictment is supported with shocking specifics, such as the firebombing of Japan that burned “over 32 of their major cities” to the ground—killing an estimated 500,000 civilians in Tokyo and Yokohama alone—before the atomic bombs were dropped, all while the American government allegedly ignored peace overtures from Japan.

This interpretation is perhaps the most unsettling of all. It transforms the revered concept of patriotic sacrifice into a form of idolatrous offering, where the nation’s youth are given up not for God or country, but for the worship of men and money.

 

5. The Present Judgment: A Prophecy Fulfilled

The final parallel brings the prophecy crashing into the present day. The source claims that America, having committed these “abominations,” is now living under a state of divine judgment. This judgment is not a future event but a current reality, evidenced by two key signs laid out in Ezekiel 16:27:

1. Diminished Food: The prophecy states, “I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food…” The source applies this literally, claiming this is happening now as food is “rapidly being taken out of the country or destroyed.”
2. Rule by Enemies: The text continues, “…and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee…” The source asserts this has already happened. Its indictment becomes its most specific at this point, identifying the “enemies” who rule the nation not as a vague force, but as six specific men in positions of power at the time, noting of each that they are Jewish: Henry Kissinger, Arthur Burns, James Schlesinger, Herbert Stein, Casper Weinberger, and William Simon.

This judgment is presented not as a capricious act, but as the unavoidable consequence of breaking a covenant. The source points to a passage in Leviticus to show that God is bound by His own law to enact this punishment:

“And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you…”

Yet the source makes a final, paradoxical turn. It argues that this terrible state of judgment is the ultimate proof of America’s divine identity. As the source states, “one of the simplest ways to prove to the unknowing Christian that we’re Israel is to show them what’s happening to us.” Contemporary political, economic, and social crises are reframed. They are not merely policy failures or social trends, but the grim and active confirmation of an ancient, divine script.

 

Conclusion: A Mirror and a Choice

To view American history through the lens of Ezekiel 16 is to see a story that is at once familiar and utterly alien. It offers a powerful, coherent, and deeply challenging alternative to the standard narratives we tell ourselves. It charts a course from a miraculous birth and a blessed youth to a tragic fall into the worship of wealth, power, and human glory, culminating in a period of divine judgment.

This interpretation does not offer easy answers or partisan talking points. It provides a theological framework for understanding a nation’s journey from a divinely favored beginning to a profoundly troubled present. It presents a mirror reflecting a history that is far more spiritual, and far more consequential, than we might ever have imagined.

If this ancient text truly holds up a mirror to the nation, what does the reflection demand from its people today?