How to Map the Antagonistic Relationship to the Empires

"It's not designed to be two flags on Sunday morning, one American one, one of the Empire," he says. "I think they're all kingdoms of the world and come in better or worse forms." The term empire is used to describe really big, powerful political entities such as U.S., China; Russia was its own 'empire' He asks: How do we correlate this antagonistic relationship to the empires during in the Bible times?