American Requiem: USA’s Fate in the Last Days

By S. Douglas Woodward

The spring and summer of 2020 saw the United States fall into its greatest crisis since World War II.

During the progression of this crisis, I was completing two recent books, Rebooting the Bible, Part 2, and the second edition of Rebooting the Bible, Part 1. I had not written extensively on prophetic topics for the better part of four years. 

My previous prophetic book, The Revealing, co-authored with friend Gary Huffman, dealt with the hopeful aspects of our prophetic future—events that reach out beyond the Great Tribulation and address what happens at the Rapture of the Church—and beyond. 

Gary and I argued in The Revealing that our future in Christ is the most remarkable prophecy of all in the Bible, for it speaks to our extraordinary destiny—our new bodies, our future mission, and our incredible eternal relationships with our loved ones, friends, and most of all, our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and the Father.

Admittedly, I was somewhat burned out on what many term ‘doom and gloom.’ My marketing moniker, perhaps ill-chosen, has been Doomsday Doug for the past five years or so.

Ironically, I had avoided most of the negativity that surrounds the darkness of the last days. I believe that this disposition was what the Lord wished for me as it led me to address topics, especially the history of the Bible, that are not precisely at the heart of Bible prophecy. I think I needed a break. If you haven’t read these and are a student of the Bible, I do hope you will check them out. I meant them to be robust apologetics for the truthfulness of the Bible.

But the sting of what has been happening in the United States of America since March 2020 awakened my interest in writing about end-times’ details again. Indeed, what I offer in this book is perhaps the darkest exposé of anything that I’ve written on the subject of what will happen in the Last Days. There is hope. But only if we prepare for what is coming.

Some chapters in American Requiem revisit material I’ve composed in four earlier books. While the material repeats much of the prose of the past, it has been dramatically rewritten and intensely revised to zero-in on the meaning of what is happening today. 

The points I’ve made in the past are even more valid today than when I wrote them beginning in 2010 and continued in more recent books concluding with The Next Great War in The Middle East in 2015/early 2016.

Since many of my readers have never read the earlier books, I am not ashamed to bring them back into focus today. If you haven’t read these books for five years or so, they will be fresh. Given the backdrop of what is happening in our land today, no doubt, you will find the writing hard-hitting and pertinent like little else you’ve read regarding the subject matter. Some will think me radical left. Others will see me as radical right. I’m neither.

These chapters’ nature is somewhat like “editorializing” in that the number of footnotes is far below what I usually put in my books. Essentially, the chapters are treatises, although that highfalutin word might frighten away some. Please don’t be scared. In this book, I just dispense with a great deal of the everyday documenting-to-death style I typically employ to prove my points to the unbeliever. I trust that my readers by now know that I speak out of years of extensive research and keeping up with current events (God bless the Internet).

Consequently, offering a book chock full of opinion and polemics is not out of bounds nor undeserving of serious consideration. Indeed, in this book, I rely more on “striking a chord” with the reader by appealing to what he or she intrinsically knows is the truth. That is, what I have to say should ring true to what the reader feels but may not have yet articulated in their thinking. I hope that I help in this regard. If I raise your blood pressure, chances are my words are hitting the mark.

Underlying the presentation of what I believe awaits the United States in the months and years immediately ahead is the view that Douglas Krieger, Dene McGriff, and I espoused in The Final Babylon.  It was also the core premise of Power Quest, Volumes 1 and 2. 

That is, the United States plays a crucial role in the Last Days.

Unfortunately, it is not because the USA is “the good guy.” Quite the opposite. The view is that our country becomes the bad guy and wears the “black hat.”

Joel Richardson and I (who I count as a good brother) have debated his view, commonly known as the Islamic Antichrist; that is, whether America or Turkey comprises the power base of the Antichrist. I argue that it is much more likely the Antichrist is a U.S. President (occupying office or retired) than a Muslim, perhaps empowered by the U.N. Richardson’s Islamic Antichrist viewpoint sees Turkey and maybe its current President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as both the Beast and Gog from the land of Magog as these are the same for Richardson.

In this book, I address the reasons I disagree. But I concede that Islam is an antichrist-spirit for Christians and is not a neutral point of view with which Yahweh finds favor.

Will America be Destroyed Before the Tribulation?

How have I changed my point of view from five years ago? America is likely to be taken out of the end-times equation before the Tribulation period begins, or at the very start of the final seven years leading up to the Return of Jesus Christ.

In our book, The Final Babylon, Krieger, McGriff, and I argued that the USA continues deep into the Great Tribulation. However, as I believe the Rapture of the Church happens before God’s wrath falls on Babylon the Great, the Rapture precedes God’s wrath (i.e., the Bowls’ of Wrath described in The Seventh Seal). In contrast, Krieger and McGriff hold a view closer to experts call the ‘Post-Tribulation’ position. They believe the Church will continue earth during this time.

Nevertheless, I maintain that God’s wrath burns against the Daughter of Babylon. He directs His anger toward the nation that was once “a golden cup in the Lord’s hands” (Jeremiah 51:17, Psalm 47:2), something that Islam and Turkey never were. Thus, I believe it is necessary to distinguish the Daughter of Babylon, Mystery Babylon, and ultimately, the entire Kingdom of the Antichrist, which is Babylon the Great.

I discuss these distinctions in detail in this book. Suffice it to say; the United States is the Daughter of Babylon, not Mystery Babylon (which is the one-world religion), nor Babylon the Great (The Antichrist and his Ten Kings hate the whore and destroy Mystery Babylon by burning her with fire).

Thus, at the Second Coming, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, destroys the ‘final Babylon,’ constituting this last Babylon, Babylon the Great. In my scenario, these three “Babylons” are demolished at different points in time by various agents. Getting clear on their respective destruction clears up a great deal of confusion regarding the final decade of world history before Jesus comes to rule and reign. In part, this book attempts to clarify the Bible’s complete picture of what it means by Babylon.

Daughter of Babylon

Nevertheless, it is time to deal with the problematic and distressing matter—the Daughter of Babylon and its doomsday that knocks at the door. This outcome is our fate. Those of us who live in the U.S. in 2020 find the challenge much steeper than the Great Recession of 2008-2009. It was akin to the Great Depression of 1929-1930. This massive downturn snuffed out The American Dream for all but the very rich. The Middle Class dwindled to a slice of what it once was, leaving only two classes in our country: The super-rich and the impoverished serfs.

What is happening now in the United States is the beginning of “payback” from the biblical God who gave every blessing to Americans—for we disregarded Him in almost every way. 

This judgment isn’t just a matter of our immorality—it condemns our economy—financial systems that drive Wall Street higher, while Main Street turns into a dumpster fire. Our number is up. No matter how smart we think we are to fix the problems, our greed stands taller.

I remain a believer in the free market, but the markets aren’t truly free. Massive corporations dominate every meaningful playing field. Corporations unfairly lobby Congress and gain every advantage over small businesses. Politicians talk about how small business is the backbone of our economy. But the pandemic of 2020 has been unsympathetic to most small businesses.

Lost, permanently, were millions of jobs that resided in small companies. The government has bailed out the largest banks without distinction. It has bailed out large corporations like commercial airlines, while contracts keep the Military-Industrial Complex humming along.

But by making the pandemic a political issue—a weapon of power for mayors and governors—a majority of our leaders demanded the closure of small businesses, stamping them out of existence like annoying spiders racing across a kitchen floor.

I believe in capitalism, but most of U.S. capital has already left America, building wealth offshore in Asia and Europe. And America’s capitalists have less and less compassion for the poor and dispossessed.

Socialism or Unbridled Greed

True: Socialism is not the answer. But neither is unbridled greed. Striking a balance requires ethics, playing by the rules, respecting humanity’s dignity and its inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Nevertheless, the board of directors of virtually all multi-national U.S. corporations don’t evaluate their actions in light of these precepts. They follow one and only one prime directive: Build wealth for shareholders by pushing endlessly for greater and greater profits.

I believe in a representative democracy, but the federal government of the United States has ceased being democratic due to its rigged elections (Hillary’s defeat of Bernie in 2016 was one example while making a sham out of the Democratic primaries in 2020 so that an unpopular Joe Biden would be the nominee—and the least popular of all candidates, Kamala Harris, became his vice-presidential running mate. These were not the People’s choice.

Likewise, our government stopped being the citizen’s representative since the only votes counting in Congress are those purchased by corporate monies donated to congressional members.

The two-party system has failed not because it is only two parties—but because it is only one. It is the “Status-Quo Party”—with dividing lines based not on ideology but identity. What matters today in determining who gets elected isn’t campaigning on the best policies to solve the country’s problems, but which group of elites can muster support from “identities” they’ve staked out for themselves (i.e., races, genders, and religious constituencies) by putting the various affiliations at odds with one another.

Today’s politics comprise a new game of “divide and conquer.” To win, you split up and pull apart. Politicians don’t attempt to calm and connect; they provoke and prick. Today, we are at one another’s throats. If Trump was right that Fake News is America’s Public Enemy Number One, politicians come in a close second. When they reach across the aisle, it’s not to extend a handshake—it’s to strangle the other guy.

And the worst of this method is how they do it. Politicians’ primary means to sew discord is through The Lie. Political speech consists of constant falsehoods. Party leaders have no shame—their consciences have become seared. No longer do they distinguish between truth and error. Instead, their guiding light is, “If it fans the flames, say it, even if it ‘ain’t necessarily so.’”

And this is where the Corporate News Establishment comes into the picture. The majority of the American public knows that mainstream news fabricates “reality”—what it reports is what media management permits.

The criteria guiding their decision: Advertising dollars. What is “news” amounts to nothing more than what enhances ratings, thereby creating more significant profit for that network. Management promotes propaganda to heighten division and intensify hatred between opposing identities.

For conservatives, we see 90 percent of the Mainstream Media as a shill for the Democratic Party. Of course, when we look just a bit deeper, we recognize it is a shill for the Establishment.

What made Donald Trump so antagonizing to the media? He wasn’t part of the Establishment, although he was rich. And yes, he was a well-to-do celebrity, but the Ruling Elite Club blackballed his membership request.

Conservatives should note that progressives, the traditional Democrats, are not thrilled with the choices made by the current ruling elite either.

Furthermore, the elite see Trump’s populism brand as dangerous because it exposes the ineffectiveness of “the System.” Trump is a problem because he does not sing the same ol’ song. Instead, his being a billionaire enables him to be a champion for the underdog. We, in the working class, saw how he annoyed the political partisans—and we cheered.

We recognized that he threw caution to the wind, chided political correctness, and mocked the media—and we roared approvingly. Likewise, we loved it when Trump shut down the White House press conferences for over a year and lept to Twitter to tweet his “drain the swamp” message to the people. Usually, this worked. To us, even his undiplomatic and sometimes ridiculous statements mattered not at all.

Trump put his finger on the pulse of what Middle America believed—the globalists betrayed us. Make no mistake: The Red States, aka Middle America, best represents the middle class. And “Fly-Over States” remain the persistent enemy of globalism. Middle-class Americans know the globalists continue to pursue utopia through their 2030 Agenda and their brainchild, the United Nations. Readers: Listen to their lectures, and you continue hearing the rant for social justice on a global basis while hearing no mention of the unemployed and dispossessed in our country.

Once upon a time, the American Dream was the goalpost for everyone. Now it’s not. That vision is the enemy of America’s elite. Many years ago, the elite in our country determined how to lift the Third World and make all nation-states “equal:” They planned to debase 99 percent of Americans by making us wards of the state. Time has passed, but globalism’s plan changes not. And now, two decades into the Twenty-first Century, we’ve heard enough and had enough.

The Lord is Coming Soon

That is the climate of our country as we begin the third decade of this century. Some believe we can “Make America Great Again.” I don’t. My hope is for much less. There is neither a quick fix nor a feasible long-term one. Our hope is the end game for humanity’s history. We can only make Americans understand where we are at the end of this age.

Yes, we should make things better when we can. We should attempt to preserve our remaining freedoms by electing the best candidates. And we should encourage a cultural makeover, inspiring our populace to be better people—to enhance our environment, neighborhoods, and cities. But my perspective remains that America’s greatness lies in its past.

The Day of the Lord knocks at our door now. It’s time to wake up and prepare. For those that don’t believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior of all those who put their trust in Him, your judgment looms. For Believers, our redemption “draweth nigh.”

Maranatha. The Lord is coming soon. Will you be numbered with the redeemed or trapped among the condemned?

S. Douglas Woodward, Th.M., MA in Finance, has served as an executive for Oracle, Microsoft, and as a Partner at Ernst & Young LLP. He was recently an Adjunct Professor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Oklahoma for five years. Doug has written eighteen books on the topics of eschatology, theology, and geopolitics. He frequently appears on radio and television programs, having been interviewed on over 100 different occasions on dozens of shows. He has two children, two grandchildren, and lives with wife Donna of 45 years in Oklahoma City. Learn more at www.faith-happens.com.