ANG AKLATAN - SURAN 11 - AMERICAN FUTURE

Suran 11 comprises a vision of the future of the United States, "the nation of the eagle." Again, the interpretation of the various segments of the vision seems pretty self-evident, but there hasn't been any confirmation from Elisha regarding it, aside from a quick explanation of "the great abomination". What is written here are my opinion and conclusions.

Suran begins by seeing America centuries in the future ("a great nation in a distant land") and the American Revolution against Great Britain ("children rebell[ing] against the mother") whereby the United States gains its independence ("gain[ed] much liberty from their fight") and becomes "the nation of the eagle." (The bald eagle was adopted as the national bird and symbol of the US toward the end of the Revolutionary War.)

He then sees "three great wars" during the lifetime of the US. The first is the Civil War, which divides the nation and pits "brother... against brother." Following this war, "a great abomination rise[s] up" and "take[s] power away from the people." We'll talk more about this "great abomination" in the next post, but in Book of Mormon speak, it's a large, worldwide secret combination and the equivalent of Nephi's "great and abominable church".

The second great war is World War I, in which the US fights in and aids Europe ("a distant land"). This flows right into the third great war, World War II, when Hitler ("the son of the second great war") rises up to "do great evils." But it's the abomination which is pulling the strings and pushes the US into the war (e.g., Pearl Harbor, etc.) because it doesn't want "to lose power in that nation" (whether Germany or the US or both).

Skipping forward a few decades, Suran now sees the abomination "caus[ing] much evil to come against the [American] people," beginning with the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. He sees planes ("great and lesser birds") crashing into ("attacking") the Twin Towers ("mountains") of New York City's World Trade Center, the Pentagon ("large house") in Washington, DC, and the ground in southern Pennsylvania. It's interesting to note, too, that Suran correctly observes the seemingly insignificant detail of only two towers being attacked directly but three falling (Towers 1, 2, & 7).

Now, the great abomination does this to subjugate and gain more power over the American people by taking liberties away from them and putting new laws into place (e.g., Patriot Act) that give greater freedom to the abomination. A major catalyst in this process is George W. Bush ("leader of the nation of the eagle") and his administration declaring war on Iraq ("another nation") due to its alleged store of "weapons of mass destruction", which then causes the American people to believe that the people of Iraq (and Muslims at large), are their enemy and should be killed. But the abomination causes these things to be believed so they can gain power over the US. And in the end, the US falls because of the abomination, which had sought power over it only to destroy it. Sobering thoughts for anyone, not just Americans.