Analysis: America, Inc. - How We're Watching the Soul of Our Nation Die in Real Time

"MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN." The mysterious words etched on the wall sent shockwaves through Babylon. The writing was on the wall - their empire was doomed.

Today, I see that same ominous handwriting scrawled across small-town America. The Dollar General rises, swallowing up Main Street like a sprawling corporate Babylon. Every town the same, every soul consumed by the faceless machine.

As an investigative journalist and biblical scholar, I can't help but see the parallels to end-times prophecy. The prophet Daniel foretold this very scenario over 2500 years ago. The great superpowers of his day - Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome - would all rise and fall. In their place, a global economic system would emerge, controlling the flow of goods and the souls of men.

"It will be a time of terror such as the world has never seen," Daniel wrote. The prophet Isaiah echoed the warning: "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people."

Big Box Babylon

I don't leave my house much anymore. After getting stabbed investigating a child trafficking ring out west, I developed severe PTSD and became something of a hermit. But every now and then, I need to brave the world outside. Today was one of those days.

The town is a few miles from where I'm staying, so I bundled up against the freezing winter temperatures, climbed on my e-scooter, and zipped down to the local Dollar General. That's when I saw it - the handwriting on the wall.

The fluorescent lights hit me first, that harsh institutional brightness that makes everything look slightly poisonous. Then the smell - plastic, cardboard, something vaguely chemical. This isn't the Main Street I grew up with. No family-owned hardware store. No local diner where the farmers gathered for breakfast. This is the end of civilization as we know it.

Prophecy Fulfilled

It's happening right before our eyes, friends. The prophet Daniel's vision is unfolding in real-time. The great superpowers may have fallen, but their economic systems live on. A global economic Babylon rises, devouring every last remnant of local community.

"A time is coming when everyone will be forced to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that they cannot buy or sell unless they have the mark," Daniel wrote. Some see this as a literal microchip. But what if the "mark of the beast" is simply the all-encompassing economic system that controls our very lives?

The technology exists right now. Brain chips go in your forehead. Digital currency tracks every transaction. Revelation 13 warned us 2000 years ago. Wake up, Church! The handwriting is on the wall.