Does America Appear In Bible Prophecy?

To those who study scripture with an eye on current events, there are references that have been interpreted as referring to America. Though I personally don't interpret the following scripture as anything that points to the United States, its worth bringing up.

In the tiny Biblical book of Obadiah there is this prophecy in verses 4 -

Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD." (KJV)

The New Century Version of the Bible renders verses 1-6: "Soon I will make you the smallest of nations. You will be greatly hated by everyone. Your pride has fooled you, you who live in the hollow places of the cliff. Your home is up high, you who say to yourself, 'No one can bring me down to the ground.' Even if you fly high like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there," says the Lord. "You will really be ruined! If thieves came to you, if robbers came by night, they would steal only enough for themselves. If workers came and picked the grapes from your vines, they would leave a few behind. But you, Edom, will really lose everything! People will find all your hidden treasures! All the people who are your friends will force you out of the land. The people who are at peace with you will trick you and defeat you. Those who eat your bread with you now are planning a trap for you, and you will not notice it."

The context of the reference is to Edom (actually the descendants of Esau) but because of the reference to the eagle, and the nest among the stars some have by interpretation equated Edom to America. That's a big stretch, in my humble opinion but the symbolism is further enhanced by the parallel of "Edom's" inaccessability as cliff dwellers to America's as flanked by great oceans.

The reference to pride is another parallel some see to America whose national symbol is the Bald Eagle. In this scenario the International Space Station (ISS) is viewed as perhaps being a literal nest among the stars which God will bring down. The problem with this interpretation is that it's an International Space Station, not exclusively American.

Rabbi Nosson Slifkin equates the fulfillment of this verse on the Challenger disaster of 1986.

Most Bible scholars espouse no such interpretations but regard Obadiah's prophecy as having been fulfilled within it's historical context.

So why do I put stuff like this on my blog?

Simply - its interesting!

Some of my friends have asked me about the predictions I referred to in my May 29th blog; (doomsday - December 21, 2012) whether or not I thought that Jesus would return on that date. My answer is this: Since that date is one where many will be expecting something to happen, I will state with authority that Jesus will not return on 12/21/12. He's coming when people are not expecting him (Matthew 24:44) and nobody knows that day (Matthew 25:13). I merely posted it because the secular world is now making it's own doomsday predictions, complete with dates. It seems there is a universal 'feeling' that something huge is soon going to happen that will forever change life on planet earth--that history itself is winding down to an inescapable climax. Whether it's an eruption of a Super Volcano, an asteroid strike, Armageddon or other ELE, it seems we are consumed with earth's end as we know it.