There is a strange silence at the center of biblical prophecy, and once you notice it you cannot un-notice it. The most powerful nation in human history — the United States, with its carrier fleets and reserve currency and unrivaled reach — is nowhere to be found in the Bible’s account of the last days.

The prophets name Persia, which is Iran. They name Cush and Put, which are Sudan and Libya. Students of the text make reasonable cases for Russia, for Turkey, for the gathered armies of the north. And above them all, named hundreds of times, stands Israel — the immovable center around which every end-times prophecy turns. But America? The superpower that has shielded Israel at the United Nations, armed her, and bankrolled her for three generations is simply not in the script.

American Christians find this unsettling, and they have spent a great deal of energy trying to write their nation back into the text — as the eagle’s wings, as the merchants of........

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