THE SIXTH SEAL II: A Prewrath Commentary Redux on the Rise of Donald Trump and the Decline of the American Order, 2017-2021

By Cliff Kelly,

Today, we are witnessing the historically powerful American Order experiencing perhaps its greatest peril as it struggles against the tidal wave of new challenges from Covid-19, the rapid rise of Christian Nationalism, large-scale Apostasy, and an increasingly divided nation streaming toward increased violence and possibly even Civil War. Dr. Kelly takes on these growing trends by examining Scripture by Scripture, the Sixth Chapter of the Book of Revelation as a Template to help explain the reasons for the current Crisis, and where America is likely headed if we do not effectively and biblically confront it.

He argues that these events constitute the many "Birth Pangs" leading up to the stunning Return of Jesus Christ to rescue His true Church and judge the nations. But before that Day, Christians in America and around the world must prepare to move through those first tumultuous Seals, as God sifts and separates the true follower of Christ from the impostors. This is a riveting ride, and the reader is urged to have a Bible and a notepad close by, as we explore what Dr. Kelly termed in the first edition of this book, The End of History as We Know It.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 30, 2024
• ISBN: 9798885402576

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THE SIXTH SEAL II

A Prewrath Commentary Redux on the Rise of Donald Trump and the Decline of the American Order, 2017-2021

Cliff Kelly, PhD

ISBN 979-8-88540-256-9 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-258-3 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88540-257-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Cliff Kelly, PhD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

PRELUDE

Concluding Remarks

INTERLUDE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Epilogue

POSTLUDE

Introduction

First Seal

Second Seal

Third Seal

Fourth Seal

Fifth Seal

Sixth Seal

Reference List

About the Author

Acknowledgments

When I published the first edition of The Sixth Seal in April 2017, the United States and the world were in a very different place than they are today in 2023, which is frankly why I was compelled to write this second edition. In just four short years, from 2017 through 2021, the planet experienced a sea change due to a number of fierce, correlative forces that have left us all different, to understate it.

Of all of those forces, two stand out in retrospect as the most powerful and impactful: the presidency of Donald John Trump and the onset and proliferation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of these continue to have riptide-like ripple effects that ramify across entire continents. And that is also why I write this book: to grasp their origins, progressions, and their future effects upon an earth that appears today to reel to and fro like a drunkard (Isa. 24:20) under these unprecedented assaults on world order.

But I would be unforgivably remiss if I didn't make clear up front that this was hardly my own work. Without sounding predictably sanguine, I must thank my Sovereign, Jesus Christ, for leading me not only back to life on October 30, 1979, but to an entire new framework for comprehending all of reality and, more specifically, to more fully comprehend the catastrophic events that bombard us every single day in what feel like accelerated urgency.

Second would undeniably be my wife of over forty years, Suzette Cañete Kelly, an American-born Filipino with an extraordinary story of her own of suffocating poverty, sustained abuse, and racial discrimination. Yet through her stubborn resilience and especially God's gracious interventions, she is triumphant as a master's degree-recipient public school teacher in a Title I elementary with numerous recognitions as a superb educator and my closest and wisest adviser—my very best friend.

My two grown children also deserve special mention for their courageous struggles with a world they never asked for or built, but who are champions in their own right by taking it on every single day. Christina Juliana, our eldest, graduated from University of Colorado–Denver with a degree in psychology and is now working as a medical specialist at our city's largest hospital ER, thriving there and just launching a three-year RN degree program at University of Colorado–Colorado Springs on full scholarship. Significantly, she does all this while also battling lifelong Crohn's disease.

Our son, Christopher Cañete Rodriquez Kelly, is a Fulbright scholar completing his last year of his PhD in literature, specializing in Filipino studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has already mastered Tagalog and splits his research and writing time between Madison and a small suburb of Manila called Pasig City. He hopes to work and teach at a major university in the States while writing books and articles to support his lifelong passion for native peoples, including both the Filipino and Mexican cultures.

Then there are innumerable individuals who have played monumental roles in shaping who I have become today—my mother and father at the very top of that long list. My father, Clarence CW Kelly Jr., is best described by the fictional character from the movie It's a Wonderful Life (1946): George Bailey. Dad fought bravely in the South Pacific as a WWII Navy submariner and later owned a small mortgage and loan in San Bernardino, California, who had a real hard time foreclosing on the down and out but who would never suffer a liar, a brute, or a thief. Hands down, best man I have ever known.

My mom, Daris Elizabeth (Rodriguez) Kelly, taught a thousand lessons and more about both faith and fury as a five-foot Spanish redhead and one-woman evangelist to anyone who ever sat in her stylist's chair or across from her at coffee. She was singularly responsible for naming, claiming, praying, and winning virtually her entire Hispanic family to Christ and literally prayed me into the kingdom from a long and dark road of addiction, debauchery, and a near suicidal death in my midthirties. Yeah, I'd say she deserves special mention right about here.

Lastly, I want to profoundly thank my precious, intrepid, and mighty little band of true Christian servants from our online Peloton Fellowship. They are, every single one, heroes to the faith, having bucked this present darkness with love, with courage, with wisdom, with unfailing fealty to our mighty King, and with relentless endurance steadied by spiritual spines of steel. I owe them my very ability to continue in this work as digital circuit rider to the American Church. Without them, it all folds for lack of an army.

There is one more thank-you that may shock some but will likely provoke a wry smile on the faces of others. I am profoundly grateful to one Donald John Trump, whose arrival on the American scene served as the necessary divine slap across a slumbering Christian face and heart that would otherwise have withered away in the deadness of the pernicious American gospel as surely as the majority of the church is doing to this very day.

Ultimately, this book is therefore dedicated to the Commission of Jude, brother of James the Just, and Jesus Christ Himself. He is referred to as the penultimate writer of the New Testament, having been bestowed with the honor of penning the next to the last book of the Canon. So permit me to quote the respected Bible scholar William MacDonald, whose introduction tells you not only about Jude but about this writer, who stands in his long and honored shadow.

Just as Luke begins Christian history with the Acts of the Apostles, Jude is chosen to write the next to the last book of the NT, which has been appropriately called the Acts of the Apostates. Jude would have preferred to write about the common Christian Faith shared with his readers, but false teachings were becoming so prevalent that he was constrained to pen a plea to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Jude does not mince words! He pulls out all the stops, as it were, to unmask these notorious heretics, drawing illustrations from nature, the OT, and Jewish tradition (Enoch) to stir up the faithful. In spite of its harsh language, the Epistle is a masterpiece of construction, studded with triads (e.g., the three evils in v. 11). The descriptions of the apostates are vivid and unforgettable. (Believer's Bible Commentary 1995, 2337).

Jude does not mince words, and neither do I. The hour is far too late, the insidious sins of the Church far too dark, and the stakes far too high for parlor talk. It is time for still another voice crying in the wilderness, pulling out all the stops to on some, have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. (Jude 1:22–23)

In the final analysis, beloved, it's all about the Messiah's Prime Directive: Rescue! May this little book serve as kindling for a desperately needed, much larger Fire of God's Spirit to do just that: Seize as many as we can from that other, strange fire that destroys the soul forever. And to God be all the glory for whenever that happens. Selah.

Dr. Cliff DK Kelly

Colorado Springs, Colorado

March 16, 2023

I

PRELUDE

Now it happened, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and desirable; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose and desired. Then the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive and remain with man forever, because he is indeed flesh [sinful, corrupt—given over to sensual appetites]; nevertheless his days shall yet be a hundred and twenty years."

—Gen. 6:1–3, Amplified

Once upon a time in a place far, far away, there was a great nation whose name was the United States of America. She was regaled worldwide as the most powerful and blessed country in the entire world, and millions came teeming to her shores to find a better way of life that soon came to be called:

The American Dream.

But beginning around the year 1900 AD, at the turning of what automobile magnate Henry Ford would come to call The American Century, things started going wrong. At first, very gradually, but as the years progressed, more rapidly, but out of the line of sight of most Americans.

Just over ten years ago, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of history Alfred W. McCoy predicted the End of the American Century, written long before the Advent of Trump Nationalism was even a whisper on the political landscape, McCoy offered this chilling prognostication.

A soft landing for America 40 years from now? Don't bet on it. The Demise of the United States as the global superpower could come far more quickly than anyone imagines. If Washington is dreaming of 2040 or 2050 as the end of the American Century, a more realistic assessment of domestic and global trends suggests that in 2025, just 15 years from now, it could all be over except for the shouting. (The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, The Nation, December 6, 2010; edited)

Admittedly, this is only one of literally hundreds, if not thousands of scholarly prognostications of what British historian Paul Johnson in 1983 called part of the West's great Dégringolade, or, rapid deterioration in condition, in his landmark book, Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Turning Points

What follows as a vital contextual definition is a Brief Chronology of American History from 1900 to 2020 (120 Years)—in my view the Period of Last Warnings for our nation, based on Genesis 6 cited earlier. Adapted from US Historical Events from 1900 to the Present, Baylor University Online, with occasional assistance from Wikipedia's Timelines of American History.

1900. Galveston hurricane leaves an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 dead (Sept. 8).

1906. The Los Angeles Azusa Street Revival (April 9); the San Francisco earthquake (April 18).

1914–1918. World War I: US enters World War I, declaring war on Germany (April 6, 1917) and Austria-Hungary (Dec. 7, 1917) three years after the conflict began in 1914. Armistice ending World War I is signed (Nov. 11, 1918).

1929. Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the thirty-first president (March 4). Stock market crash precipitates the Great Depression (Oct. 29).

1939–1945. World War II: US declares its neutrality in European conflict (Sept. 5, 1939). F. Roosevelt's third inauguration (Jan. 20, 1941). He is the first and only president elected to a third term. Japan attacks Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines (Dec. 7, 1941). US declares war on Japan (Dec. 8). Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; US reciprocates by declaring war on both countries (Dec. 11). Allies invade North Africa (Oct.–Dec. 1942) and Italy (Sept.–Dec. 1943). Allies invade France on D-Day (June 6, 1944). Germany surrenders unconditionally (May 7, 1945). US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (Aug. 6). US drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan (Aug. 9). Japanese envoys sign surrender terms aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo harbor (Sept. 2).

1945. United Nations is established (Oct. 24). The Israeli Declaration of Independence, formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, was proclaimed on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar 5708) by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization.

1950–1953. Korean War: Cold War conflict between Communist and non-Communist forces on Korean Peninsula. North Korean communists invaded South Korea (June 25, 1950). President Truman, without the approval of Congress, commits American troops to battle (June 27). President Truman removes Gen. Douglas MacArthur as head of US Far East Command (April 11, 1951). Armistice agreement is signed (July 27, 1953).

1952. In the United States presidential election, Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, and Richard Nixon was elected vice president.

1961. John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th president, Johnson, vice president.

1962. Engel v. Vitalein a landmark US Supreme Court decision ruled that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and recite it in public as a violation of the First Amendment (July 25).

1962. Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest nuclear confrontation involving the United States and USSR.

1963. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his I Have a Dream speech before a crowd of 200,000 during the civil rights march on Washington, DC (Aug. 28). President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas (Nov. 22). He is succeeded in office by his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson.

1950–1975. Vietnam War: Prolonged conflict between Communist forces of North Vietnam, backed by China and the USSR, and non-Communist forces of South Vietnam, backed by the United States. President Truman authorizes $15 million in economic and military aid to the French, who are fighting to retain control of French Indochina, including Vietnam. As part of the aid package, Truman also sends thirty-five military advisers (May 1950). North Vietnamese torpedo boats allegedly attack US destroyer in Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam (Aug. 2, 1964). Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson to take any measures necessary to defend U.S. forces and prevent further aggression (Aug. 7). US planes begin bombing raids of North Vietnam (Feb. 1965). First US combat troops arrive in South Vietnam (March 8–9). North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive, attacking Saigon and other key cities in South Vietnam (Jan.–Feb. 1968). American soldiers killed 300 Vietnamese villagers in My Lai massacre (March 16). US troops invade Cambodia (May 1, 1970). Representatives of North and South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and the US sign a cease-fire agreement in Paris (Jan. 27, 1973). Last US troops leave Vietnam (March 29). South Vietnamese government surrenders to North Vietnam; US embassy Marine guards and last US civilians are evacuated (April 30, 1975).

1964–1965. President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act (July 2). In his annual State of the Union address, President Johnson proposes his Great Society program (Jan. 4). L. Johnson's second inauguration (Jan. 20). State troopers attack peaceful demonstrators led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as they try to cross the bridge in Selma, Ala. (March 7). President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory voting practices (Aug. 6). In six days of rioting in Watts, a black section of Los Angeles, 35 people are killed and 883 injured (Aug. 11–16).

1968. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee (April 4). Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles, California (June 5–6).

1968. The 1968 US presidential election: Richard Nixon was elected president, Spiro T. Agnew was elected vice president, and Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman elected to the US Congress.

1969. Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the thirty-seventh president (Jan. 20). Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr. become the first men to land on the moon (July 20).

1972. Watergate scandal: Five men were arrested for the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC.

1973. Nixon's second inauguration (Jan. 20). Roe v. Wade: Landmark Supreme Court decision legalizes abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy (Jan. 22). Senate Select Committee begins televised hearings to investigate Watergate cover-up (May 17–Aug. 7). Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigns over charges of corruption and income tax evasion (Oct. 10). President Nixon nominates Gerald R. Ford as vice president (Oct. 12). Ford is confirmed by Congress and sworn in (Dec. 6). He is the first vice president to succeed in the office under the terms laid out by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.

1974. President Nixon resigns, becoming the first and only U.S. president to step down. Vice President Ford becomes the 38th president. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York becomes the second person to be appointed vice president under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

1979. The Moral Majority was launched as a prominent American political organization associated with the Christian right and Republican Party. It was founded in June 1979 by Baptist minister Jerry Falwell Sr. and associates and dissolved in the late 1980s. It played a key role in the mobilization of conservative Christians as a political force and particularly in Republican presidential victories throughout the 1980s.

1981. Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the fortieth president (Jan. 20). US hostages held in Iran are released after 444 days in captivity (Jan. 20). President Reagan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley Jr. (March 30). Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in as the first woman Supreme Court justice (Sept. 25).

1986. Space shuttle Challenger explodes seventy-three seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members (Jan. 28). It is the worst accident in the history of the US space program. US bombs military bases in Libya in an effort to deter terrorist strikes on American targets (April 14). Iran-Contra scandal breaks when White House is forced to reveal secret arms-for-hostages deals (Nov.).

1991. Persian Gulf War: US leads international coalition in military operation (code named Desert Storm) to drive Iraqis out of Kuwait (Jan. 16–Feb. 28). Iraq accepts terms of UN ceasefire, marking an end of the war (April 6).

1993–1998. Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the forty-second president (Jan. 20). Bomb explodes in the basement garage of World Trade Center, killing 6, injuring 1,000, and causing more than $500 million in damage (Feb. 26). Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, files a federal lawsuit against President Clinton for sexual harassment (May 6, 1994). President Clinton denies having had a sexual relationship with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky (Jan. 17, 1988). Senate acquits Clinton of impeachment charges (Feb. 12).

2001. George W. Bush is inaugurated as the forty-third president (Jan. 20). Two hijacked jetliners ram Twin Towers of World Trade Center in the worst terrorist attack against US; a third hijacked plane flies into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in rural Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people die in the attacks (Sept. 11). US and Britain launch air attacks against targets in Afghanistan after Taliban government fails to hand over Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks (Oct. 7).

2005. The US engagement in Iraq continues amid that country's escalating violence and fragile political stability. Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on Mississippi and Louisiana; 80 percent of New Orleans is flooded (Aug. 29–30).

2008. Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected president, with 52.8 percent of the vote. In Congress, Democrats retain majorities in both