Peter’s first epistle was written to Christians suffering persecution. It was a circular epistle meant to be circulated among churches in five Roman provinces, all of which were located in Asia Minor, which is northern Turkey today. These churches were being persecuted by the Roman Empire, which was the “Babylon”—Gentile world power or superpower—of that time. Peter, who wrote this epistle from Rome, where the last decade of his life was spent and where he was martyred around 64 AD, actually calls Rome “Babylon” in 1 Peter 5:13.

The Bible predicts that the superpower of an end-time world will unleash unprecedented persecution against the church during the perilous times of the last days. The book of Revelation, the Bible’s most important prophetic book, calls this end-time superpower: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF ALL HARLOTS (Revelation 17:5). This world’s final “Babylon,” which was an unheard of mystery in Biblical times, was foreseen by John the Revelator as both the consummate world power and cruelest of all persecutors of the church.

Much to the chagrin of American evangelicals, the only power in the world today poised to play this Biblically predicted end-time role is America. Equally startling to today’s evangelicals is our country’s growing hostility toward the church and all things Christian. That America is becoming increasingly antichrist is absolutely irrefutable. Lady Liberty is conspicuously slipping into her Biblically predicted end-time role as the “MOTHER OF ALL HARLOTS.” 

Like the recipients of Peter’s first epistle, you and I are about to suffer persecution at the hands of the “Babylon” of our time. In the case of the recipients of 1 Peter, it was Rome; in our case, it is end-time Rome, America. Therefore, the study of this divinely inspired Christian handbook on persecution should be seen as imperative for every Christian in today’s America, a country poised to become the greatest persecutor of the Christian church in all of human history.