On July 13, the chief of Russia’s space corporation told Komsomolskaya Pravda that Russia was not interested in partnering with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Instead, Russia was speaking with China about establishing a joint-base on the moon.

When asked about Russia’s interest in partnering with nasa to send people to the moon, Dmitry Rogozin dismissed the possibility. “For the United States, this is now more of a political project,” he said. “With the lunar project, we are observing the departure of our American partners from the principles of cooperation and mutual support that have developed during the cooperation on the iss [International Space Station]. They see their program not as international, but as similar to nato. There is America; everyone else must help and pay. Honestly, we are not interested in participating in such a project.”

Rogozin then elaborated on his plans with China: “But there are other projects in which we are interested in participating. This morning we held a teleconference with my colleague, the head of the China National Space Administration, Zhang Kejian, a very influential person, and my good friend. We agreed to begin the first steps towards each other precisely by defining the contours and significance of the lunar scientific base.”

Rogozin noted that he was not opposed to American involvement with this new “lunar scientific base,” as long as Russia and China lead the project. So whether he admits it or not, this “lunar scientific base” is part of a new space race: Russia and China against America. Each power bloc wants to establish its own moon-base.

American politician Newt Gingrich is warning that no issue is more important to America than the “great space race.” In a July 5 Fox News editorial, he wrote: “It’s the United States versus China, in competition to be first to create systems for commercial space travel, to establish outposts on the moon, and ultimately to colonize other planets. … It’s vital for Americans to understand that, in the long run, no issue is more important than U.S. leadership in space. As [Charles Miller, president of NexGen Space llc] told me, in the future, whoever dominates space is going to be able to control Earth and dictate the planet’s culture and values.”

Gingrich has a good grasp of what is at stake in the race for supremacy in outer space. If the Russians or the Chinese gain supremacy over the U.S. in outer space, they will be able to use space-based weapons to force their culture and values on the world. Americans cannot afford to be complacent.

President Donald Trump is taking the space race seriously and has established a sixth branch of the U.S. military—called Space Force—to protect the nation. However, pouring more resources into the space race has not stopped foreign spies from stealing America’s technological secrets. In fact, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray has warned that the biggest law enforcement threat to the nation is Chinese theft of U.S. technology. Much of America’s strength is actually being spent in vain.

During the Cold War, the late theologian Herbert W. Armstrong wrote a booklet titled Who Will Rule Space? in which he explained that the U.S. was making a colossal error in the space race. “We are looking exclusively to material science to rescue us from the threat of communism,” he wrote. “We are in a frenzy over methods of training future scientists who can develop even greater weapons of destruction and death! Have we gone utterly mad? For the past few years, the United States educational system has been on a crash program to accelerate the influx of science students in American colleges, universities and institutes of technology. And this very thing—looking to the physical, material, science—is our colossal error!”

America is making the same error today. Developing new and better space-based weapons may act as a temporary deterrent to nations like China, which would like to take over the world. But ultimately, these weapons will only make conflict more devastating when it comes. The only lasting solutions are spiritual.

Psalm 115:16 says, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” So Newt Gingrich is right that “whoever dominates space is going to be able to control Earth and dictate the planet’s culture and values.” But no human being can rule in outer space. The jurisdiction of man’s various forms of government stop at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

Most politicians scoff at the idea that there is a God who rules the heavens and gives power to human leaders on Earth. Yet the Bible states: “[T]he most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men” (Daniel 4:17).

This same God states that He will break America’s military power, not because it refused to spend more on weapons research, but because its people have turned away from His law. “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots: And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds: And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers: Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands” (Micah 5:10-13).

This is a literal, direct prophecy about this generation. (For detailed proof, please request The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Herbert W. Armstrong.)

Today, Americans worship the work of their hands. Because of this, God says that as America reaches the zenith of its military power, He will cut off its weapons systems, including its satellites and space-based weapons systems. When these systems are gone, people will have little choice but to put their faith in the Creator of the universe, who holds supreme power in the heavens.