March 6/09.  From January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008, Americans lost $6.9 trillion in wealth in the stock markets.

Just since Barack Obama was elected, Americans have lost some $3 trillion in wealth, reports Investors' Business Daily, as the markets have plummeted some 30%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for example, has collapsed from 9,625.28 on November 4, 2008 to 6,647.49 on March 4, 2009.

Since the market's highs in October 2007, the DJIA is down some 50%. That means over the last 18 months, we have seen half the nation's wealth vanish into thin air.

In the midst of all this, millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Small businesses are dying. Big businesses are dying. Credit is tight. Confidence is low. And people are anxious.

Last weekend, I met with some evangelical Christian business leaders in Naples, Florida.  They asked me what I thought the future held, and, "Where is the United States in End Times Bible prophecy?"

When I replied, "The Bible makes no indication that the U.S. is a significant player in End Times prophecy," they responded, "Why? What happens to us?"

I was honest with them, saying I don't know. I do believe we are living through the events Jesus talked about in Matthew 24 as signs of the "last days" before His return. That said, I don't know why the United States - the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth in the history of mankind - is not ever clearly mentioned in or clearly alluded to in Bible prophecy concerning the last days. I don't know because the Bible doesn't tell us.

For the last several years, I have been explaining that we could be devastated by a nuclear war. We could be hit by a series of decapitating terrorist attacks. We could be hit by massive natural disasters. And/or we could face a series of economic disasters. Consider just two potential scenarios that could render the U.S. a non-factor in the last days:

Scenario #1: the U.S. could implode economically after the rapture.

The rapture is an event described in I Thessalonians 4-5 when true followers of Jesus Christ are snatched away from the earth and meet Jesus Christ in the air at a time when the rest of the world has been saying there is "peace and safety." How many Christ-followers in the U.S. would disappear in the "twinkle of an eye," according to the Scriptures?

We don't know for certain. It could be 10 million. It could be 25 million. It could be 50 million, 75 million, or more. The point is the rapture will have a devastating and irrecoverable impact on the U.S. in many ways.

Consider, for example, how hard the American economy was hit when nearly 3,000 Americans were lost on 9/11/01. Now imagine the impact the loss of millions of Americans due to the rapture would have on the U.S. economy. You think we have a sub-prime mortgage crisis now? Imagine what the U.S. banking and real estate system will look like when millions of Christians disappear and are no longer here to pay their mortgages, or their credit card bills, or buy other goods and services. Our economy would implode, and suddenly America would no longer be the economic superpower it has been for a century.

Scenario #2: the U.S. economy could melt down in a Great Depression before the rapture.

Such a melt down would emasculate our economic and military power and thus radically reduce our influence in the world. On October 16, 2008, I wrote about "the implications of this financial apocalypse." Things have only worsened since then. I am praying that the Lord will have mercy on us. But we cannot rule out the possibility that the Lord will remove His favour from our nation and allow us to be rocked to our core economically. Decisive action should be taken to strengthen our economy and help American businesses small and large grow and create more jobs. But the President's hastily-crafted multi-trillion dollar spending plan will not save the day and revive our moribund economy.

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