Written and compiled by R. B. Thieme, Jr.; some material from Gary Kukis has been added

Preface:   The greatest flood disaster in the history of the United States occurred August 25–31, 2017. What was quite amazing about this disaster is, although the flooding and damage from rain was horrendous, about 95% or more of the people in the Houston area continued to have electricity. That was grace from God in a monumental disaster.

In watching the reports of Hurricane Harvey, and seeing the eye of this massive hurricane and the mighty storms which are spun off, it reminded me of the Doctrine of the Pivot, which R. B. Thieme, Jr. taught; the pivot of mature believers and the spinoff of the reversionist believers. This is where we are in this nation and where we are in the Houston area.

In the eye of the storm (which may be 10 or 20 miles across), it is calm, the sun is often shining and there is good weather (I have been in the eye of two hurricanes since I moved to the Houston area). However, all around the eye, there is chaos and destruction. This is a great description of the pivot of mature believers (who make up the eye) and the spinoff, who are the reversionistic believers. It has been a long time since I heard Bob teach this illustration; perhaps this is what he had in his mind’s eye when developing this illustrative doctrine.

Hurricane Harvey (a graphic); taken from Weather.com’s Weather in Motion page; accessed August 26, 2017

DOCTRINE OF THE PIVOT

Bible Study Notes | 2/10/84 | R. B. Thieme, Jr.

Posted on 2/1/2009, 5:03:06 AM by Cvengr

1.     Definition of the Pivot.

        1)     The pivot is defined as the accumulation of mature believers living in a client nation or under civil government in a specific geographical location.

        2)     While a pivot is composed primarily of mature believers, it may also include those positive believers whose momentum has carried them into spiritual adulthood.

        3)     Technically, the pivot may include all believers who have fulfilled the principle of virtue first as their first priority in the plan of God.

        4)     Believers in the pivot stand out in contrast to believers living in the cosmic system, whose arrogance from motivational arrogance results in self-righteous, crusader arrogance. (The cosmic system in the author's vocabulary, is the worldly system. KOSMOS meaning order, is opposite of CHAOS meaning disorder. The Scriptural use of the Greek word KOSMOS is used in 2 fashions in Scripture. One describes a system of order independent of faith in Christ, which we frequently call the worldly system. The other may be used in a system through faith in Christ, such as in John 3:16.)

                 (1)    These believers are apostate, recognized by their platitudes, their self-righteousness, their crusader arrogance, their distortion of doctrine and disorientation to reality, and they are potential revolutionists. A certain number of believers are even mentally ill from

                 (2)    You can also recognize the shrinking of the pivot by the social action and civil disobedience advocated and practiced by believers.

        5)     The true Christian influence in the national entity is spiritual. The believer's civil responsibility is defined under the laws of divine establishment, as in Rom 13:1-10.

        6)     Christianity must never be the state, though religion always tries to be the state, (e.g., Arab countries like Iran and Syria). The influence of Christianity is not produced by influencing with Christian principles, but by growing in grace and establishing a pivot that has invisible historical impact.

        7)     We believe in and advocate the separation of church and state for the true function of freedom and the fulfillment of human volition in the angelic conflict. We support the state and establishment, but we are not the establishment. The influence of the church must be

        8)     This does not imply that Christian should not serve in government. It does imply that believers in government service must abide by the laws of divine establishment, and must never seek to force Christianity on others. People must accept Christ by their own personal consent. Christianity must not be the state.

        9)     In a client nation, there must be enough freedom for evangelism, conversion, spiritual growth, evangelism, and missionary activity.

        10)   There has always been a pivot somewhere, though there has not always been a client nation. Four great pivots were formed in the eighteenth century in Holland, Britain, America, and North Germany. All these pivots had great missionary activity.

2.     The Pivot and the Client Nation.

        1)     The Gentile client nation to God is not a Christian nation, but a national entity in which civil government recognizes the establishment principles found in Codex #1 and #3.

                 (1)    There is no such thing as a Christian nation, which would mean that every person in the nation must be a Christian. This has never existed and never will.

                 (2)    But there is such a thing as a client nation to God. A client nation is simply a national entity in which the civil government recognizes establishment principles of freedom, including privacy and the sacredness of property and life.

        2)     The client nation to God contains a pivot of mature believers, who as invisible heroes provide the prosperity of that nation through the principle of blessing by association. That blessing is generally completely invisible to the general public.

        3)     The prosperity and blessing in a client nation does not occur through activism, but through those believers who execute the protocol plan of God.

        4)     The pivot of mature believers establishes the client nation and guarantees its perpetuation in every generation.

        5)     If the pivot declines, then the client nation declines and is eventually destroyed through the administration of the five cycles of discipline of Lev 26.

        6)     A client nation has enough freedom in that nation to provide for extensive evangelism without government interference or federal persecution. From this evangelism comes a cadre for the pivot. But not all believers enter this cadre and execute the plan of God. A good pivot is perhaps 20% of all believers.

        7)     One of the greatest enemies to spiritual influence in a nation are believers in the cosmic system. They become apostate through life in Satan's cosmic system. These apostate believers become potential revolutions through civil disobedience. They become fanatical crusaders, disrupting the freedom and rights of others through social action.

        8)     There are at least five general characteristics of the client nation.

                 (1)    There must be a civil government with a policy based on the laws of divine establishment. This is summarized in Rom 13:1-10 and codices #1 and #3 of the Mosaic Law. The very existence of a civil government precludes a Christian nation.

                 (2)    The function of evangelism occurs in several ways.

                         i       Through those with the spiritual gift of evangelism.

                         ii       Through the teaching of the pastor-teacher when he covers passages which teach the Gospel.

                         iii      Through believers as ambassadors for Christ who personally witness for Christ.

                         iv      Through reading some literature or Scripture with the Gospel message.

                         v      We who evangelize must recognize the freedom of others. Freedom means privacy. No one has the right to coerce any physical movement for salvation, which is a violation of privacy as well as being erroneous. Our job is to communicate the lucidity and perspicacity the Gospel, not to force, beg, or plead. We leave people with the information. They must then use their volition. It is wrong for Christians to pressure people. Also, there must not be any government pressure to disallow any practice of Christianity in public.

                 (3)    There is the establishment of the autonomous local church in which believers practice separation of church and state.

                         i       To the extent that local churches form into denominations, to that extent the client nation principle is being destroyed. Denominations are the enemy of the client

                         ii       Local churches should not connect with other churches to form denominations or spheres of influence. They should not become involved in any movement which seeks to unite church and state.

                 (4)    There is a vigorous and dynamic Bible teaching which emphasizes the mystery doctrine and the protocol plan. However, such vigor and dynamics does not imply that the pastor-teacher is scintillating and spectacular in the presentation of his message, as is true of the evangelist. The dynamics come from the Holy Spirit, not from the one communicating the Word of God.

                 (5)    There is vigorous missionary activity to other nations. Missionaries must function under the indigenous principle, and must avoid interfering in the political activities of foreign

3.     The History of the Geopolitical Advance of the Pivot.

        1)     The Dispensation of Israel.

                 (1)    The first client nation to God was Israel. The dispensation of Israel was built around four different client nations. Between B.C. 1440 and A.D. 70, God called out a new racial species in order to form the first in a series of Jewish client nations. Blessing was related to those nations. Many Old Testament books reveal Israel's impact on history.

                 (2)    The four different nations were:

                         i       The United Kingdom.

                         ii       The Northern Kingdom.

                         iii      The Southern Kingdom.

                 (3)    Judah.

        2)     The administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to each of the four client nations was as

                 (1)    Assyria administered the fifth cycle of discipline to the Northern Kingdom in B.C. 721.

                 (2)    The Chaldeans administered the fifth cycle of discipline to the Southern Kingdom in B.C.

                 (3)    The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and took over Palestine in 70 A.D. That was the end of all Jewish client nations, and the beginning of the times of the Gentiles.

        3)     The Times of the Gentiles.

                 (1)    During these times of the Gentiles, no Jewish nation can be a client nation to God, not until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the four unconditional covenants to Israel.

                 (2)    The first Gentile client nation to God was S.P.Q.R., i.e., the Senate and the People of Rome, which we call the Roman Empire. This was the first and in many ways the greatest Gentile client nation to God.

                         i       When the Roman Empire reached its peak with a large pivot, there was the golden age of the Antonine Caesars, 96 - 192 A.D. The historian Gibbon called this period the "golden age of humanity."

                         ii       The period of the Antonine Caesars was a time of dictatorship, and yet a time of the most fantastic blessing. This proves that the issue is not the type of government, but the pivot of believers.

                 (3)    Other great Gentile client nations of the past include the Goths, the Franks, the Swiss under Calvin and Zwingli, Scotland under Patrick, Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus, parts of Germany under Luther, France under the Huguenots, Great Britain, Brandenberg Prussia under Frederick the Great.

4.     The Pivot Principle.

        1)     In essence, a small pivot means a declining Gentile client nation. An enlarged pivot means a wonderful, prosperous, and blessed client nation.

        2)     The pivot is a remnant of mature believers who live in a client nation. They have advanced through the three stages of spiritual adulthood.

        3)     The spinoff is made up of believers who have entered reversionism and are living in Satan's cosmic system. Negative volition to doctrine and resultant reversionism produces the spinoff.

        4)     When the pivot is too small in any generation, there are great disasters; some are economic, some military, some policy. When the spinoff of cosmic involvement becomes too great, that generation is destroyed. If there is no response to the four cycles of discipline, God eventually removes that client nation from history. Rev 17-18 teaches this under the principle of evil one destroying evil two.

        5)     When divine judgment falls on a nation, the pivot is secure. The pivot is always preserved, even though it also shares in the difficulties of the disaster. However, unbelievers and reversionists are wiped out.

        6)     While the pivot is secure, the spinoff is always destroyed by historical catastrophe. This is how God administers the sin unto death to reversionists. Historical disaster separates the pivot from the spinoff.

        7)     If the pivot is too small and the spinoff is too large, then the nation is destroyed. But if the nation is destroyed, the pivot is preserved through the disaster, Isa 28:5-6.

        8)     By destroying the great spinoff of reversionists, the Lord protects future generations of history from evil, reversionism, apostasy, and tyranny. The spinoff is destroyed so that the nation will have breathing room for future generations.

        9)     Historical crisis and disaster is the means of cleansing a nation from the spinoff of evil. A great spinoff will destroy a nation unless God intervenes with historical disaster to eliminate that cancer. Either the spinoff must go or the nation must go.

        10)   The divine destruction of the spinoff is therefore comparable to a national rebound. With the infection of reversionism destroyed, the nation takes on new life and continues.

        11)   If large enough, the pivot is the means of delivering a nation under discipline, either from or through the historical disaster. The example is Judah in 701 B.C. during the Sennacherib invasion. The consistent ministry of Isaiah turned the tide in Judah. When all the establishment means of deliverance fail, response to Bible teaching is the last hope.

        12)   If the pivot is large enough, not only is the client nation delivered from historical disaster, but a large pivot of mature believers means great blessing by association to the client nation and to all nations around it.

5.     Why is a client nation destroyed? Hos 4:1-6 is perhaps the most lucid of all the passages on the fifth cycle of discipline (to the Northern Kingdom) and how a client nation is

        1)     Verse 1, "Hear the doctrine of the Lord, you citizens of Israel, because the Lord has a court case against the citizens of the nation; because there is nothing of doctrine being taught, there is nothing of grace being applied, and there is no knowledge of God in the nation." This is a call for positive volition toward doctrine as taught by prophet and priest.

        2)     Verse 2, "Instead, there is lying and deceiving [lack of virtue], there is both murder and stealing and rape [criminality], plus unrestrained violence."

                 (1)    The rise in criminality comes from two sources: moral and immoral degeneration.

                 (2)    The Hebrew idiom "blood reaches out and touches blood" means unrestrained violence.

        3)     Verse 3, "For this cause, the land shall mourn; consequently, everyone who lives in it shall lose strength along with the animals of the field; both the birds of the sky and the fish of the lakes are taken away." One of the signs of degeneration is cruelty to animals.

        4)     Verse 4, "Yet let no one contend [blame others for the judgment] and let no one impugn God, for you people are like those who contend with the priest [communicator of doctrine]."

        5)     Verse 5, "Therefore, you have stumbled by day [failure to apply doctrine in the daily life]; furthermore, the prophet will stumble with you by night [apostate teaching in night classes]. Then I will destroy your mother [nation]."

        6)     Verse 6, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge of doctrine. Because you have rejected doctrine, I will reject you from being a priest nation [client nation]; since you have neglected the doctrine of your God, I will neglect your children [next generation was enslaved]."

        7)     The same subject is found in Isa 28:1-13.

        8)     When the believer fails, the nation fails.

        9)     When the believer advances to maturity and joins the pivot in any generation, though that pivot will not be recorded in the pages of history, it will be recorded forever in heaven.

        10)   Part of escrow blessings to a mature believer is personal, national, and international impact. Rev 3:12, "The winner, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God [permanent historical record in heaven of all mature believers who had an impact on history as a part of the pivot]; furthermore, he will never vanish from history, in fact, I will emblazon on him the title of my God, the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem [coat of arms of winner] which will descend from heaven [satellite city], also from God a new title [new aristocracy for eternity]."

6.     The United States of America, a Client Nation.

        1)     Before it became a nation, the United States of America was already under client nation status as a part of the Anglo-Saxon pivot. As a colony, the United States was already in client nation status.

        2)     On 4 July 1776, a document was written: The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America.

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that to secure these rights, governments are institutions among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . .

"But when a long train of abuses, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce us to absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such a government and to provide new guards for their future security . . .

"We therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind: enemies in war, and in peace, friends.

"We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for rectitude of our intention, do, in the name of and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved of all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved, and that as free and independent states they have the full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may have a right to do.

"And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

        3)     From that day on we have been a nation; but before 1776 we were already under client nation status with a 200-year old Anglo-Saxon pivot.

7.     History of the Pivot and Client Nations from the Eighteenth Century to the Present.

        1)     In modern history, the eighteenth century was one of the greatest periods of radical change. It began with the death of Louis XIV in 1715, and terminated with the Congress of Vienna in

        2)     This century cannot be understood from the standpoint of the pivot apart from Louis XIV, whose reign and policy in the seventeenth century shaped the course of Europe for over 100 years, and the course of everything, including the industrial revolution down to this moment.

                 (1)    Louis XIV was called the Sun King. He was a very arrogant person. He ruled France under the concept: "I am the State."

                 (2)    Louis XIV was a rabid advocate of the divine right of kings. It was he who first wrote, "kings are absolute lords. To them belong, naturally, the full and free disposal of all property of their subjects, whether they be churchmen or laymen." He also said, "God has given kings to men and He has willed that they alone should review their conduct."

                 (3)    Louis XIV ruled for half a century, from 1643 to 1715. He started out under the brilliant administration of Cardinal Mazarin, who died in 1661 (Richelieu died in 1642), after which Louis took over the reign of the government. He not only impoverished France through many arrogant, useless wars, but in 1685 he did one thing that changed the course of history and brought in the Anglo-Saxon pivot.

                 (4)    In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes. Up to that point, France had been a client nation due to the presence of the Huguenots, the French Calvinists who, as the middle class, had brought the most phenomenal prosperity to France.

                 (5)    But in his terrible arrogance, Louis renounced the Edict of Nantes and began a persecution. Those Huguenots who were not killed left France for several places: Prussia, which became a client nation; Holland, for the Dutch Republic was a client nation; England; and the United States. Charleston, South Carolina was the home of the Huguenots in America; from there they branched out through the Carolinas.

        3)     The Reformation was another major factor in the development of the eighteenth century pivot. In effect, it began in 1517 when Martin Luther published 95 theses and nailed them to the door of the castle church at Wittenberg. That was the beginning of the Reformation, out of which came new pivots and new client nations: the pivot in the Netherlands resulted in the rise of the Dutch Republic, the pivot in France was made up of the Huguenots, the pivot in Sweden thrived under Gustavus Adolphus, the pivot in northern Germany under Frederick William the Great Elector, and the pivot in England under Cromwell and the wonderful protectorate he provided which was continued under the rule of William and Mary of Orange.

        4)     The English colonies saw the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon pivot in this hemisphere. To this day, the pivot has only existed in our northern hemisphere; it has never existed south of the Rio Grande.

        5)     So the eighteenth century was a cauldron, a time of great wars, the rise of great generals, great battles, and it was all terminated by the Treaty of Utrecht.

                 (1)    In America, the War of Spanish Succession was called Queen Anne's War; it made a definite contribution to the beginning of our fantastic client nation.

                 (2)    From the War of Austrian Succession, great leaders emerged, like Frederick the Great; in America it was called the King George's War.

                 (3)    The Seven Years War was here called the French and Indian War.

                 (4)    The French Revolution terminated with the rise of Napoleon.

                 (5)    All these wars made fantastic contributions to history, not only militarily, but also to the rise of the Renaissance and the beginning of the industrial revolution.

        6)     The eighteenth century saw the beginning of inventions which effected the rise of the industrial revolution. Hargraves invented the spinning jenny, Cartwright the power loom, James Watt the steam engine.

        7)     In 1730, at Oxford University, three men held a prayer meeting: John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield, from which grew a fantastic pivot. As a result, the eighteenth century was the beginning of client nations from a great pivot of mature believers in England, the United States, northern Germany, and Holland.

        8)     The eighteenth century ended dramatically with the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and a new map of Europe emerged under Metternich. Russia received Poland, Finland, and Bessarabia; Sweden got Norway; Belgium and the Dutch provinces tried to unite into one kingdom (which didn't work) called the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Prussia received half of Saxony, part of the Rhineland; Austria was given the eastern side of the Adriatic: Lombardy, Venetia, and upper Italy. Russia, Prussia and Austria formed the "Holy Alliance," one of the greatest threats ever. For under the command of Alexander of Russia, this Holy Alliance planned to invade the United States, which would have been disastrous!

        9)     Out of this great eighteenth century pivot came the beginning of the greatest missionary activity of all time, with such missionaries as William Carey, Henry Martin, Reginald Hebert, Adoniram Judson, John Scutter in India, Robert Morrison, Dr. Nevius, Hudson Taylor, Peter Parket in China, Dr. James Hepburn, Samuel Brown, Gido Werbecht, Capt L.L. James in Japan, Dr. H.G. Underwood and John Ross in Korea, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, Dr. C.W. Van Dyke and Eli Smith in Beirut; Keith Falconder and Samuel Zweemer in Arabia; Robert Moffat, John Crop, John Redman, Alexander McKay, Thomas McComer, George Grenville, Henry Rich, Adolphus Good, Mary Schlesser and Samuel Crowthar and Livingston all in Africa, Capt Allen Gardner in Tierra Del Fuego, David Trumball and H.B. Pratt in Columbia, and L.L. Legters in Mexico.

        10)   First came the wars, then the pivots, then the missionaries. The wars readjusted history, setting the stage for missionary thrusts. The French lost India to the British. With British rule came the missionaries. The same occurred in Africa. Those nations who succeeded in controlling parts of Africa sent some of the greatest missionaries in history.

        11)   This same eighteenth century saw great changes in culture and the arts. In the field of music came Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart. Great artists included Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainesborough, Goya, and Hogarth. Great writers included Alexander Pope, who became the exponent of neoclassicism in English literature, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, John Boswell, and Oliver Goldsmith.

        12)   All the eighteenth century's cultural, spiritual, and historical changes pointed to one great pivot. The so-called "holy club of Oxford" started it all.

                 (1)    From George Whitfield came Selenas Countess Huntington; the Moravian Brethren were under Count Zinzendorf; Spangenberg went to Pennsylvania; Dober and Nichemann went to St. Thomas, and Christian David went to Greenland. Augustus Montague Toplady became one of the great men involved in that pivot of 1740-1778.

                 (2)    Others included John Newton, William Calper, John and Isaac Milner, Henry Venn, Hannah Moore, Robert Rakes, John Howard, William Wilburforce, Grenville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, William Carey, Henry Martin, and Robert Morrison.

                 (3)    Though these are all just names to you, in God's books, these are the great men of history! Some came close but missed the boat, e.g., Immanuel Kant. He was so close, yet he failed.

        13)   The Holy Alliance and the Monroe doctrine.

                 (1)    During the Congress of Vienna, Metternich authored a League of Nations in Europe. It was led by Czar Alexander of Russia, Emperor Francis I of Austria, King Frederick William III of Prussia, and later Ferdinand VII of Spain was added, making it a quadruple alliance. It formed one of the greatest attacks this hemisphere has ever sustained.

                 (2)    The objective of this League was the maintenance of the Catholic religion plus peace and order in Europe. However, this occurred during the time of absolute monarchies and the suppression of all political freedoms.

                 (3)    One of the agenda items of the Holy Alliance was to retrieve the colonies Spain had lost, and therefore to invade this hemisphere. At that time, James Monroe was our President. His Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, was one of the best in our history.

                 (4)    On behalf of President Monroe, Adams wrote an answer to that invasion before it began: "If the Holy Alliance subdues Spanish America, the ultimate result of the undertaking will be not to set up a standard of Spain, but to portion out this continent for

                 (5)    So Adams recognized immediately the evil that would come out of this. For example, Russia might have taken California, Peru, and Chile, and the Pacific Ocean would have become a Russian lake.

                 (6)    This crisis resulted in a speech given to Congress by President Monroe on 2 December 1823, written by John Quincy Adams. "We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to amicable relationships existing between the United States and European powers, to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety." In other words, "we'll fight!" As a result, they never invaded.

                 (7)    The result was that, in this hemisphere, there were fifteen independent republics involving fifteen million people which emerged from the ruins of the Spanish Empire, to include: Colombia, Venezuela, Equador, Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, etc. h. Prior to this Monroe doctrine, in September 1821, Czar Alexander of Russia had claimed the entire Pacific coast for the Russians, for he planned to take over this hemisphere.

                         i       The Monroe doctrine is the last time the United States has had a clear foreign policy. That policy made it possible for this hemisphere to remain in a state of semi-isolation, so that not only could a pivot be formed, but also so that millions of people throughout the world could find eternal salvation through faith in Christ. For we sent out more missionaries than anyone in the world, with the exception of England. And we developed a fantastic pivot in this country! So that the Anglo-Saxon pivot eventually received its strength from the United States of

        14)   What's the status of the pivot today? How stands the United States of America now?

                 (1)    We see the same historical trends occurring as in the eighteenth century. Again, Russia has plans to take over the United States and make the Pacific Ocean a Russian lake.

                 (2)    Popular among fundamentalist Christians today is Christian activism and civil disobedience. We see a decline in interest in Bible doctrine. Therefore, we see a failure to send out the right kind of missionaries, a failure to form a large enough pivot, and disaster will inevitably result.

        15)   Application to the Believer.

                 (1)    There are two things the believer must never do when he is depressed by history. 1. Feel sorry for himself. 2. Justify his nation when its on its way down under divine

                 (2)    The believer takes responsibility for his own decisions. If he makes bad decisions, that contributes to the overall failure of the client nation.

8.     History of the Pivots.

        1)     Paul's prayer of Eph 1:15ff anticipated that Rome would become the first Gentile client nation. As he traveled, he was always looking for a pivot. Finally, he found it in the Roman Province of Asia, with Ephesus as its capital, the "holy city" for the next few centuries. This motivated his prayer in Eph 1:15ff. Rev 2-3 mentions seven of those churches in Asia.

                 (1)    However, Paul's prayer is effectual for the pivot as it spreads around the globe throughout the Church Age.

                 (2)    This first pivot, headquartered in Ephesus, can be called the Aegean pivot as it spread to Greece, Cyprus, Crete, Northern Africa, and Rome.

        2)     The second pivot was the pivot around the Roman Sea, under the one hundred year reign of the Antonine Caesars. The Mediterranean Sea became a Roman lake.

        3)     The third great pivot was eighteenth century Western European civilization, as evidenced in the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the four great pivots in Germany, France, Holland, and England.

        4)     The fourth was the Atlantic pivot of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

                 (1)    It began with the Age of Discovery and Columbus. Then came the colonization of the western hemisphere, South Africa, other parts of Africa, and India. This was the great period of the British Empire, whose influence caused stability throughout the world.

                 (2)    The core of it all was the Anglo-Saxon pivot, mainly found in England and the United States. But today the Anglo-Saxon pivot has run out of gas! It is dying here, and is practically non-existent in England.

        5)     In the twenty-first century, if the Rapture doesn't occur, the pivot will move to the Pacific basin.

                 (1)    The Pacific was already great at the beginning of this twentieth century. It saw one of the greatest revivals ever in Korea in 1905 under Presbyterian missionaries.

                 (2)    Today we see many signs that point to the Pacific Basin as the next pivot center.

        6)     Just as the barbarians invaded the Roman Empire in its decline and were often evangelized, with many becoming strong believers; so today we see the invasion of the peoples of the East, as it were, coming to the United States to be evangelized.

        7)     We are on our way out today. We are constantly leaning toward decadent Europe, which is gone. Our missionary thrust should be toward the Pacific.

9.     The Need for a Pivot.

        1)     The demand for power always exceeds the need for power in human history.

                 (1)    In any organization, there's always legitimate power and authority. But the demand always exceeds the need.

                 (2)    The slots for legitimate authority requires relatively few people. But outside of legitimate authority is always the arrogant who demand power, who demand to be recognized.

                 (3)    Many manifestations of arrogance today point to this demand for impact syndrome. When you add arrogance to demand for power, the result is violence.

        2)     Excess of power beyond the demand results in conflict for power.

        3)     The conflict for power results in two destructive categories in history.

                 (1)    The self-destruction of a nation from enemies within.

                 (2)    The overt destruction of a nation from enemies without, i.e., warfare and conquest.

        4)     The self-destruction of a nation results from a maximum number of wrong decisions from a position of weakness, plus the arrogance involved in the struggle for power.

        5)     The overt destruction of a nation results from failure to see the necessity for and the proper support for both the military establishment and law enforcement. Law enforcement is our only protection from enemies within (criminals), and the military is our only protection from enemies without.

        6)     Inevitably, both overt and self-destructive concepts in a nation can be averted by only one thing, and that is a large pivot of mature believers.

        7)     As goes the believer, so goes the client nation. A large pivot means blessing for the United States; a small pivot means discipline and eventual destruction. We are at the crossroads now, at that point where the survival of this client nation depends on your attitude toward

        8)     There are no tragedies in history. People and nations are the products of their own decisions, good or bad. A good decision as defined by the Scripture is:

                 (1)    Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

                 (2)    Post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation, i.e., perception, metabolization, and application of the mystery doctrine for the Church Age.

(c) 1989, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.

Taken from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2176118/posts and reformatted.

The Spiritual Fall of Great Britain:

 

Right now, God has blessed us in the United States like He has never blessed a country before; but, this could go away virtually overnight. If you don’t believe this, look at Great Britain. At one time, Great Britain ruled the world. They were the dominant power all over the globe. It was said that the sun never set on the Union Jack (= the Union Flag, the flag of the United Kingdom). The union jack was the flag of Great Britain, which flew in dozens

of countries around the world. As the sun’s rays went from place to place, in that light, somewhere below, would be large populations who were blessed by their association with Great Britain, and the Union Jack proudly flew in that land.

 

The Union Jack Flag (a graphic); from Walmart; accessed October 21, 2019. This is also know as the flag of Great Britain.

 

But, in less than a century, Great Britain went from being the premier power in the world—the greatest nation in the world up to that time—to being the tiny country of England that it is today, beset by economic woes and terrorism. They are certainly a great ally of the United States, but they are clearly a 2^nd rate power as well.

 

The British Empire Map (by Duke-Nidhoggr); from Deviant Art; accessed March 11, 2022. The regions in red were those controlled by the British Empire, which was one of the greatest entities in human history. However, as evangelism and Christian teaching in England decreased in Great Britain, so did her great empire.

 

What changed? Great Britain went from being the world’s center of Christian teaching and doctrine to a nation which rejected God’s Word.

 

Here is a little test: there are new translations of the Bible coming out each year. Now, easily, the most important and transformative translation of the Bible to date is the King James’ Version, produced in England at the request of King James. For many people today, that translation is nearly unreadable; so what is the new transformative translation? The New International Version (the NIV) translated here in the US (as well as the New American Standard Version and the New King James Version). These are the foremost translations of the Bible today, and they were produced in the United States. Furthermore, there are many translations into English, the largest majority of them being done in the United States.

 

This does not mean that no work is being done on translating the Bible in England and this does not mean that they do not send out missionaries. There is real spiritual activity in Great Britain today, but not like it was before. As a result, they are blessed, but not like they were before.

 

Today, this blessing from God that was upon Great Britain is now on the United States. But this could change; and the key is Bible doctrine. There are perhaps 350 million souls living in the United States. How many of those souls have their thinking saturated with Bible doctrine? It is that saturation level which will determine the future of our nation.

Addendum