The date was Sept. 2, 1945. It was a scene that might well capture the moment the United States assumed leadership of the free world. The USS Missouri, flagship of the Unites States Pacific fleet, was anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan. She awaited the Japanese delegation that would sign the formal terms of Japan’s surrender, thus officially ending World War II. More than 250 Allied warships were anchored with her.

With America in the vanguard, Allied military forces utterly vanquished the Empire of Japan, bringing it to its knees. Japan had really no other choice but to surrender or die.

By virtue of unprecedented capacity to wage war, the United States vaulted into the dominant position in world affairs. Her military power and reach culminated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The United States’ military forces had grown to a strength nearly inconceivable since entering the conflict in December 1941. Characteristic of this strength was the battleship itself on which the surrender ceremony was to take place.

The USS Missouri, the “Mighty Mo,” had nine 16-inch diameter bore guns. Each gun’s barrel was 65 feet long and weighed 116 tons. Each was capable of hitting a target with a 2,700-pound shell from 23 miles away. The Mighty Mo standing on end next to the Washington Monument would tower over the famous 555 foot tall obelisk by 332 feet.

Where did this great national strength come from? The Bible teaches us that power comes from God alone. No nation has any strength or power unless it is given by God Himself. The Creator of mankind came in the weakness of our own flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. On trial for His life, He faced the Roman ruler Pilate. Christ said to him, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).

On the Missouri’s deck, representatives of the United States and of the nations allied with her against Japan gathered. The Japanese delegation boarded shortly after 9 a.m. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Pacific theater of war stepped to a microphone. He opened the simple and brief surrender ceremony with these eloquent words.

“We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored. The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battlefields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate. Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the people of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice or hatred. But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purposes we are about to serve.”

The delegation of the vanquished Empire of Japan stepped forward to sign first. Then with Japan’s surrender now formally in writing, the victors came forward to sign nation by nation, with MacArthur signing first for America. It was a profound moment in the history of the world.

America and the blessings of Abraham

America has experienced a strength of arms like no other nation in history.  If we are to believe Christ’s words to Pilate, this strength was given by God Himself. In fact, God’s blessings on America fulfill His promise to bless the entire world through Abraham’s descendants.

Abraham received these promises by direct revelation from God. He passed these promises of future national greatness to his son Isaac. Then, Isaac passed them on to his son Jacob, also known as Israel.

From his deathbed, Jacob called his 12 sons to him. “Gather together,” he told them, “that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days.” One by one Jacob gave prophecies that would characterize the descendants of his sons in mankind’s last days.

Of his son Joseph he said, “Joseph is a fruitful bough…the archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him, but his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob,” (Genesis 49:22-24).

There is not a nation more fitting of this description of prophesied national strength than the United States of America. Though shot at and hated by Japan on Dec. 7, 1941, America’s bow—a biblical symbol of military strength—remained strong.

To propagate World War II, the U.S. economy geared up to become one massive, military war-making machine. The scene in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, demonstrated that America had become the strongest country in the world.

On the decks of the USS Missouri, after all the representatives had finished signing, MacArthur spoke again. "Let us pray,” he said, “that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed.” With those words, World War II, the greatest conflict the world had ever known, was officially over.  

The meaning of Christ’s words to Pilate is that national power and greatness are given by God. Therefore we must acknowledge that it is God who made it possible for America to defend herself in time of war.

We realize that America has taken its eyes off the source of its true strength. We continue to witness that a time of judgment on her is coming. Will America wake up and realize the real giver of her national power and greatness?