Though times are tough for America in a lot of ways, the country still tops the world at one thing, hands down: selling smut.

In movies, television and pop music, the U.S. remains the world’s behemoth. Exports of American tv are more than triple those of the next three international competitors combined. American films make twice as much money from foreign audiences as from those at home.

What happens, though, when foreigners base their opinions of America on The Dark Knight and Desperate Housewives? They “can’t help but believe that we are a nation in which we have sex with strangers regularly, where we wander the streets well armed and prepared to shoot our neighbors at any provocation, and where the lifestyle to which we aspire is one of rich, cocaine-snorting, decadent sybarites.” Thus wrote Jerrold Keilson in a State Department study of international visitors. (In case you, like me, didn’t know, sybarites are people glutted on luxury and pleasure.)

America’s global influence is plummeting—the dollar is losing its popularity, American interests are being ignored at international summits, allies are peeling away from U.S.-led war efforts. The simultaneous growth of America’s noise and filth industry is not a contradiction. It is actually the mirror image of the same trend: a former superpower in the throes of decline.

The America increasingly on mass-communicated, high-def display to the rest of the world is one feverishly stricken with moral and spiritual sickness. Even as America’s economy shrinks, its corruption grows. As its problems increase and the need for true statesmanship expands, its politics becomes more divided and riotous.

Where the U.S. once led the world in producing oil, coal, steel and iron, it now leads in producing pornography. Where it once dominated the world in automobile manufacturing, it now dominates in celebrity scandal.

Americans have less to be proud of, and more to be ashamed of, than ever. Yet somehow we seem only to get ever louder, brassier, more immodest. The very concept of shame has become antique. In fact, shame is equated with repression—now apparently one of the worst sins someone can commit. Self-control is a psychological hang-up. Condemnation of immorality is, at best, prudishness; at worst, a hate crime.

In the age of FaceBook, YouTube and reality tv, the line between public and private has been erased. What was even recently a cause for humiliation is now texted, posted, tweeted, shared, uploaded and broadcast. In an “anything goes” world, many remain convinced that the boundaries can never be pushed far enough. Nothing is shameful. And nothing is sacred.

A uniquely flamboyant symbol of the trend is “gay pride.” Supposedly seeking acceptance, homosexuals and transsexuals trumpet their moral superiority. As the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is being debated, the Army’s deputy chief of staff in charge of personnel matters, Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, said, “Unfortunately, we have a minority of service members who are still racists and bigoted and you will never be able to get rid of all of them. But these people opposing this new policy will need to get with the program, and if they can’t, they need to get out.” And while officials and policymakers publicly lump Bible-believers in with Neanderthals, Nazis and flat-earthers, homosexuals and transsexuals publicly parade their swagger and self-adoration. What other group holds “pride” marches? We never hear of heterosexual pride, or intact traditional family pride.

America is the greatest, most powerful single nation in human history. Recent decline notwithstanding, it retains enormous influence. It still captivates the world’s attention.

That is what makes its current conduct especially disgraceful.

John Winthrop said in 1630 that if America would conduct itself righteously, “the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations: The Lord make it like that of New England. For we must consider that we will be as a city upon a hill.”

“The eyes of all people are upon us,” he continued, “so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.”

How prophetic his biblically based words are proving to be. America has become a story and a byword throughout the world—a story filled with far more indecency and debauchery than Governor Winthrop could have even begun to imagine—a byword of greater scorn and contempt than his sensibilities could have tolerated.

But according to biblical prophecy, it is going to get a whole lot worse. As America today is a model of depravity, Scripture shows it is about to become a model of devastation.

In Ezekiel 24, God has some scathing condemnation for America. “Utter a parable unto the rebellious house,” He told the prophet. He is speaking about the modern nations descended from ancient Israel, which include, most prominently, America. He gave instructions to take a pot filled with water and pieces of choice meat, and let it burn up on a raging hot fire. He compared the people of Israel to a pot pitted with rust, completely corroded with wickedness. “If you want to know how God feels about the sin of Israel, listen to what He says in this parable!” writes Gerald Flurry in Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet. “He says our sin is like rust or green corrosion—it clings to our people, and it seems you can’t get it off unless you burn it off!”

Notice verse 7: The Living Bible paraphrases it, “For her wickedness is evident to all—she boldly murders, leaving blood upon the rocks in open view for all to see; she does not even try to cover it.” This is talking about bold, unrestrained sin, put out on top of a rock—unabashedly publicized using modern technologies—broadcast for the whole world to see!

This precisely describes the exhibitionist effrontery and shamelessness we see in America today.

And how will God respond? “Israel takes the greatest imaginable evils and spews them into the mind and psyche of the world! God will punish them in the same way,” Mr. Flurry writes. “God prophesies, You like to publicize your evil? Then I’ll publicize your bloody punishment! I’ll put it out where the whole world can see it!”

The verses that follow prophesy of how God will fulfill that promise. “Heap on the logs, kindle the fire, boil well the flesh, and empty out the broth, and let the bones be burned up. Then set it empty upon the coals, that it may become hot, and its copper may burn, that its filthiness may be melted in it, its rust consumed” (verses 10-12, Revised Standard Version).

These words should strike fear in us. God is going to empty Israel of its inhabitants—and then burn the pot. Many other prophecies describe America and the other nations of Israel being engulfed in nuclear warfare. (Some of these are described in our booklet We Have Had Our Last Chance.)

As John Winthrop suggested, God actually intended America to be a model of righteousness—and the recipient of untold blessings. This is a deep and inspiring truth, rooted in God’s wonderful purpose for calling the nation of Israel in the first place. Studying Israel’s history, and understanding its connection to the United States today, gives you profound insight into God’s thinking—and His masterful plan to reach all humanity. You can grasp this exciting truth by studying Herbert Armstrong’s book Mystery of the Ages, particularly Chapter 5, “The Mystery of Israel.”

And though prophecy foretells the downfall of the modern nations of Israel, it also foretells the subsequent restoration of their honor—and ultimate fulfillment of their exalted calling: as a positive example to the rest of the world.