The link below is an article from the periodical, Foreign Affairs, the bi-monthly publication of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR is often perceived as being part of the “shadow government” that exercises much influence on the governments of the nations. At the very least, the CFR includes virtually all the members of the major governmental, academic and social elites. For that reason alone, it is worth monitoring what their publication espouses.
The link below is entitled “Complexity and Collapse: Empires on the Edge of Chaos.” The cover language makes it clear which empire the CFR thinks is about to collapse. The cover language states: “When the American Empire Goes, It Is Likely to Go Quickly.” Is the CFR giving us a hint re: what is planned for our future?
The article is a bit on the academically ponderous side (especially in the early part of the article), but it makes a good point that historically, empires often do collapse quite suddenly. It cites the rapid fall of the Western Roman Empire, the rapid collapse of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires at the end of World War I, and the rapid collapse of the British Empire after World War II. It states the collapse of the Roman Empire “came within the span of a single generation,” “the transition from Confucian equipoise to anarchy took little more than a decade,” and “The Bourbon monarchy in France passed from triumph to terror with astonishing rapidity.” The Soviet Union also disintegrated within mere months and years. A biblical example not mentioned in the article is the collapse of the Babylonian Empire which was overthrown in one night by the invading Persian army (Daniel 5).
Wars and overwhelming debts were a large part of the collapse of the 20th century empires at the end of World Wars 1 and 2, and it is an unquestioned fact that the USA is now burdened by endless Asian wars and overwhelming debts. The “American Empire” is exhibiting the same symptoms which doomed previous empires. The CFR article also is setting up some American institutions for blame when the “collapse” comes. It wonders if “a single member of Congress…is willing to cut entitlements or increase taxes?”, and it states flatly: “the financial crisis [of the 1990s] was principally due to errors in monetary policy by the Federal Reserve Board.” It also warns that “A very small trigger” can lead to very major consequences for empires and nations.
In reading the article, it occurred to me that the CFR represents the views of the modern global financial/political system called “Babylon the Great” in Revelation 17-18. Was it Ernest Hemingway who penned the words “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee?” The CFR may not realize it, but the empire whose collapse is truly imminent is the one now ruled by Babylon the Great. Revelation 17-18 prophesy that, when God’s timetable calls for it, a group of nations or global entities called the “seven heads and ten horns” will overthrow the current global world system which is also likened to a “great whore” which has ridden the “seven heads and ten horns” for a long time. These nations will overthrow the current system of Babylon the Great, which is described in Revelation 18 as being a global commercial, economic, financial, political,and monetary system. Revelation 17:16 infers it will happen (as the CFR article warns) rather suddenly and that they will “make her [Babylon the Great] desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.” That sounds like an awfully hard fall to me.
The global system of Babylon the Great came within hours of worldwide collapse in September, 2008 so it has already had a “major heart attack” and the next one could kill it. We do not know what the “trigger” will be that will destroy the dominance of the current global financial/political system and we do not know the date it will occur, but the CFR article may have already unintentionally written the epitaph re: the fall of Babylon the Great’s own global “empire.” The fate of the USA is unclear in terms of how the fall of Babylon the Great’s system will impact the nations, but I would definitely not want to be in the shoes of the world’s global elites when Revelation 17:16 gets fulfilled.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65987/niall-ferguson/complexity-and-collapse
