Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently stated that the U.S. economic crisis and internal problems have reduced its Middle East dominance. In speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Barak claimed that these issues have reduced the U.S. capability to project strength. Therefore, he claimed that there are cracks in its hegemony and dominance in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, this loss of dominance and influence needed to occur to the U.S.—for three reasons. First, the U.S. is not found in Bible prophecy. This is primarily because it will have moved away from Israel (which the White House has been doing over the past three years). But also, for the U.S. to be absent from end-times prophecy, it will need to lose influence in the Middle East by the time it is time for negotiations to begin on the end-times treaty.

As we focus on that latter point, we can see that, as a result of the Arab Spring (the uprisings in the Middle East over the past year), the U.S. is in a diminished position in the region. In fact, Washington has lost most of its regional influence over the past three years of the Obama administration. As a result, the U.S. has far less bargaining power than it did at one time.

For example, one of the things that makes Iran even more dangerous is that Iranian rulers view the U.S. as weak. They have seen the U.S. pull out of Iraq and abandon the war in Afghanistan. In addition, the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan is unraveling. Thus, they see that America has lost significant influence in the Middle East and does not appear to have the strength or the stomach for a protracted war.

Moreover, the Syrian regime is no longer afraid of the U.S.; for it sees the U.S. president ceding ground in the Middle East. As a result, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad no longer sees America as a threat to his sovereignty.

In addition, the beginning of a tough election year means that President Obama will likely not get into a regional peace initiative or into anything that smacks of pressuring Israel. Thus, the U.S. will remain on the sideline, which further reduces its influence in the international community.

An illustration of this latter point can be seen by the fact that the U.S. will not take center stage as Israelis and Palestinians meet this week to talk about negotiations. Though this is not a formal negotiation, yet it is significant that the U.S. is not directly involved and appears to be a foreboding that America will not be directly involved in a future regional treaty with Israel.

I have been predicting that the U.S. will not be involved in the end-times treaty with Israel. Though the Israel-Palestinian talks will not lead to an end-times treaty, still, the absence of the U.S. at these preliminary talks appears to be a prophetic preliminary and lends more credence to the absence of America from Bible prophecy.

These illustrations demonstrate that America has lost a significant amount of influence in the region. In fact, it has so little clout among both Arab states and European countries that it appears that America has already exited the prophetic picture.

So, as we have seen, the first reason why the U.S. had to forfeit dominance and influence is because it is absent from Bible prophecy. There is another reason why U.S. dominance needed to significantly shrink, which has to do with the Obama administration's treatment of Israel.

The White House's adversarial treatment of Israel over the past three years calls for consequences. In Genesis 12:3, God promised to bring trouble upon anyone who brings trouble upon Israel. It seems that one of the consequences for the Obama administration's trouble upon Israel is the loss of influence in the Middle East. This consequence has moved the U.S. right out of the prophetic picture.

A third reason why U.S. influence in the region needed to wane is that there is no place in Bible prophecy for a superpower. Instead, due to economic and political issues, the world will converge to a one-world government, which will operate in that way for the last three and a half years before the return of Christ. Therefore, the superpower status of the U.S. will need to be eliminated.

In regard to the U.S., we are seeing these realities form before our very eyes. The past few years have seen the United States lose significant influence, not only in the Middle East, but also on the international stage. In addition, to political loss, America is facing a challenging economic crisis, which could, also, take the nation downward.

It is easy to blame leaders for this downward spiral; however, we need to keep in mind that it is God who directs all of the movement in regard to nations. No one obtains any kind of authority or power without Him placing that individual there; and He does so according to His perfect, kingdom plan. Thus, the waning superpower status of the U.S. is part of God's plan to fulfill His prophetic program. Though it is difficult to watch the U.S. sink, we need to realize that we are privileged to live at a time when we can see God working so clearly to fulfill His end-times plan. In addition, we need to see the outworking of God's plan as an exhortation to get ready, because it appears that Christ could come for us soon!

[John Claeys serves with John Claeys Ministries through writing, speaking, and radio ministries and is the author of Apocalypse 2012: The Ticking of the End Time Clock—What Does the Bible Say?, a riveting look of the events leading up to the return of Christ. See http://johnclaeys.com/ for more information.]