(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)

USA and Britain in Prophecy

By Herbert W Armstrong

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And greetings friends. This is Herbert W Armstrong with the Good News of the World Tomorrow.

What is prophesied, for tomorrow, for the United States?

My friends, ninety percent of the prophecies of the Bible - and one-third of the Bible is prophecy - and ninety percent of that pertains to our pulsating present and the next 20 or 30 years of our history. And the United States, together with the British Commonwealth, is the very focal center of those momentous prophecies.

The people of the United States would be dumbfounded if they knew what is prophesied to happen to the United States and to the British nations inside of the next 10, 20, 30 years.

The President and the State Department certainly would make drastic changes immediately in the foreign policies of the United States - if they knew. It's about time that this American nation knew the staggering events, the staggering turn of events prophesied to happen to us in the next 20 years.

We of the United States are involved as the very central powers in the soon to occur world-shaking events that will dwarf the first two World Wars into little "pop-gun" fights by comparison.

Our immediate destiny is laid bare in these momentous prophecies. If we knew, we could change our course and avert the most colossal disaster that has ever happened to any people or any nation in all the history of this earth. But our people do not know. Our statesmen and heads of government do not know and will not believe. If our people and their leaders have become too dull of hearing to comprehend, too stiff-necked to heed, the Eternal our God has decreed that this warning, nevertheless, shall be published as a witness that they be left without excuse.

What is prophesied for this American nation in the immediate future? Nothing like this so far as I know, has ever been published. And yet as I said, ninety percent of all prophecy pertains to this time and one-third of the Bible is prophecy and the focal center, the very center of the whole thing of world events that is to occur in these next 10, 20 and 30 years, is the United States of America.

It seems that the prophecies of the Bible have not been understood. Those who have not ignored them and have tried to expound them have been so woefully mixed up and contradicting themselves with their own interpretations that it has been rather a disgusting spectacle. But no wonder, my friends, because a vital key without which prophetic doors cannot be open to understanding had become lost. And that key is the definite knowledge of the true identity of the American and the British peoples in prophecy. If you don't know where we are mentioned in prophecy, you can't understand prophecy. And even the very few who in our time, have at last come to recognize our prophetic identity in the Bible and where the United States is mentioned in the Bible and in the Bible prophecies have somehow been totally blinded as to what is prophesied for our immediate future; that they refuse to accept or to believe. They blind their eyes willingly although they have the key. They won't accept the Truth.

Finding USA and Britain In Biblical Prophecy (PLAY from 03:45)

Where do we find the United States and the British mentioned in the biblical prophecies? Yes, where?

If you'll think this through, listen : We are the wealthiest of nations. We have been the most powerful. We and the British are the same family of peoples. Together we possess more than two-thirds of all the wealth and the developed resources of this whole world, of this whole round earth on which we live. All other nations combined have little more than a fourth of the developed wealth and resources of this world - out of this earth - between them to divide among them.

Now, amazing though it is, we have acquired nearly all of our national wealth and greatness since the year of 1800 AD. Never in history did anything like this occur. Never before in history did any nations that were little nations, as we were in the year of 1800, suddenly sprout forth and grow and develop in wealth, in riches, in power, in military power, in financial power and in political power and prestige among the nations of the world such as the British and the American nations have done.

But, my friends, already the British are on the way down. Since World War II, the British have lost a great deal of their power. They are losing their colonies, their foreign possessions which brought them their wealth. And the United States at this moment is having its great strength and its power sapped. It is being sapped and taken away from us and we don't seem to realize it or to know it and we don't know why. We are being led into foreign policies and things that we think is wonderful that is merely taking away our strength. And the Russians are so clever that they know that their policy now is bringing the United States down to weaken us to the place, where ultimately if they can keep us going the way we're headed now they feel that they will finally be able to take us over without any very great fight. It's about time we begin to face the situation and to wake up.

Never in history has there been any thing like it where nations grew to such colossal wealth, such great power. Never did any people or nation spread out and grow so rapidly and suddenly and never did any people or nation ever grow to such magnitude of wealth. Never on the face of the earth has there been a nation of such wealth and such great power as the United States and the British have had during this century.

Now, why? How did all that happen? No other people ever did anything like it.

And I want you consider one other thing. Our peoples constitute the home and the last defense of professing Christianity. It is our peoples who have sent missionaries into every land on earth. It is our nations who have printed and distributed Bibles by unbelievable millions of copies in the languages of all peoples.

We know that Bible prophecies refer definitely to little nations like Ethiopia, Libya, Egypt and Greece and through other terms of identification to even such great nations as Russia and Germany and they refer to Turkey, Italy and other nations. And Turkey was one of the great nations until not too long ago. Could these prophecies of twentieth century world disturbances then - that fill up a third of the Bible - could they ignore world dominant Christian professing powers like the United States and the British Commonwealth of Nations? Is it reasonable?

If the Bible prophesies are telling of the nations and the events of the world and of the world wars which they do of this time and these world wars are definitely prophesied in the Bible and if all of those things are in the Bible and if nations like Turkey and Russia and Ethiopia, Libya, Egypt and Greece are mentioned in the Bible prophecies, do you think it reasonable, my friends, that God Almighty can foretell the events of this world at this time and leave out the United States and the great British Commonwealth of Nations - the greatest nations that have ever existed in the history of the world, that have ever inhabited the face of this earth? Could the prophecies be the divinely inspired foretelling of events of God Almighty and ignore nations like ours? Do you think that's possible? Then where are we mentioned?

Do you know that nations in the Bible, generally speaking, except for a few like Ethiopia, Libya, Egypt and Greece, most of them are mentioned not according to their modern names like United States or Great Britain, but they are mentioned in the Bible and identified according to the ancient ancestor from which these nations grew and developed and you have to learn where you came from to know whether you're mentioned in the Bible prophecies.

Oh, the United States and the British Commonwealth are not ignored in biblical prophecy. The plain astounding truth is that we are mentioned more often than any other race or any other nation on the face of the earth and yet our true identity has been hidden from many and only revealed to the very few and that recently in the comparative modern present.

The plain and simple Bible story of our ancestry, of our modern prophetic identity is the most amazing, the most astounding and the most fascinating and interesting story that you ever read. Is that important to you or is it of no consequence whatsoever?

You know I feel like saying about this point, I forget the poem exactly. "Breathe there a man with soul so dead that he never in his heart has said, This is my own, my own beloved [what?] America, mine own country." I forget the exact words of that. I shouldn't have forgotten it. I think perhaps we need to get some of those things out and repeat them a little more often. {1}

But is there any one of us so dead and so lacking in concern about our people, about our own selves, about our destiny and what's going to happen to us that we're not concerned with things like that?

Example of Prophecy (PLAY from 10:08)

My friends, many of the prophecies of the Bible written 1900 years ago, 2500 years ago, 3500 years ago, many of those prophecies have been amazingly fulfilled in the most startling manner. Let me just give you one little example.

There is one prophecy concerning the Jewish people that they were to be invaded and that they were to be conquered and driven out of their own land and that they would be punished for a period of 2520 years. Now, with putting that together with other prophecies, exactly 2520 years from the time that they were invaded and that the land of Palestine was given over to King Nebuchadnezzar as it was in 604 BC. And 2520 years from then, the very nation to whom that land was deeded by God Almighty to Abraham and through Abraham - which was not the Jewish people - but that birthright, which means right of birth and which means the possession of the land - that is, it includes material resources and possessions and the possession of the land - that God promised to Abraham was handed on down to Isaac, Abraham's son, his first legitimate son, and then to Jacob. And then Jacob, just before he died and while he was - his eyes were so dim with age that he couldn't see, reached out and conferred that same birthright, including the possession of the land of Palestine, not upon Judah the father of the Jews but upon Ephraim and together with him his brother Manasseh, the sons of Joseph. Joseph was one of the 12 sons of ancient Israel.

But usually you don't hear of any tribe of Joseph because Joseph was given a double portion and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh each became a tribe; and so, rather, you usually read of the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh although the name Joseph is occasionally used but there it includes the two tribes.

Now, Ephraim was made the chief birthright holder, at least was given that title. And 2520 years from 604 BC, Ephraim was supposed to go in and take Palestine again from the Gentiles. And it was going to be held and trodden down by the Gentiles for all that time, 2520 years from 604 BC and that bring us to 1917 AD.

Now, when it comes to translating time and getting down to an exact day, an exact day of the year, when we know the exact day of the year in which Nebuchadnezzar came down to Jerusalem and when Jerusalem and Palestine was surrendered to him but that is given to us in the terms of the Hebrew calendar which is set up according to the new moons - every twenty-nine and half days approximately is another month. And today we're living under what we call the Roman calendar or as it was slightly altered by Pope Gregory, it's called today the Gregorian calendar. Actually, it is a pagan Roman calendar and that's all most of us know because we've been born into a world that uses that calendar and no other.

Now, then, a certain date according to the Hebrew calendar is not going to come out - it will coincide with a certain date on the Roman calendar one year but the next year they're going to be maybe 5 or 10 or maybe even 20 or 28 days apart because the Hebrew calendar sometimes called the Sacred calendar which came from God going according to the moon comes around in conjunction once in 19 years and it runs in 19 year cycles, whereas the Roman calendar was concocted by men who tried to make it come out right every year and they've never been able to make it do that.

So, when it comes to translating a certain date in the Hebrew calendar back in 604 BC to a date in 1917 according to the Roman calendar, that takes a lot of figuring. I spent quite a lot of time figuring it and I came out on the date of December the 9th, 1917 which is the exact date to the very day from the time that Nebuchadnezzar accepted the surrender of the Jews in 604 BC.

Now, I looked and I found that the Turks who are Gentiles even though they too are descended from Abraham, nevertheless they're not descended through Isaac and through Jacob and therefore they are Gentiles. They are descended from Esau. And even though Esau should have had the birthright, he sold it for a bowl of red soup when he was hungry. That mess of pottage - that was red soup. His descendants are called Gentiles and they are the Turkish people of today and they possessed Palestine in 1917. But they surrendered it on, what date? I had heard and it had been published that the date was December the 11th, 1917.

December the 11th, 1917 I found on further investigation was merely the date on which General Allenby and his army made their triumphal march into the city of Jerusalem but it was two days before that on December the 9th that the Turks made the surrender.

My friends, that prophecy was fulfilled down to the very day - December the 9th. And it was on the equivalent date which would have been December the 9th in 604 BC, 2520 years before, six centuries before Christ, that the Jews surrendered Jerusalem and Palestine to the Gentiles from up at Babylon. God Almighty has been able to keep His prophecies.

Longest Prophecy In The Bible (PLAY from 16:09)

You turn to the eleventh chapter of the Book of Daniel. There is the longest and the most amazing prophecy in some respects in all the Bible. It takes a long time to go through that and expound it all. There is only one history that I know of that shows the events of that time in detail, that's Rawlinson's Ancient History. It's rather hard to obtain a copy of it today. We have managed to obtain enough copies to be adequate for our library here in Ambassador College.

Let me just read you a little of it, I'm not going to go into it, but this is most interesting, let me just read you a little of it.

The tenth, eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel are one long prophecy, the longest prophecy in the Bible. And actually the stage setting, the introduction of it is in the tenth chapter. And it is Gabriel, the archangel, speaking to Daniel and the thought is continued from the tenth into the eleventh chapter. Men divided these chapters, God didn't.

So, here it is, he is saying that "I in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him. And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia;" (Daniel 11:1-2)

Now, there were three outstanding kings. Actually there were - history records more kings than that in Persia - but there were only three that were outstanding and in this prophecy they take note only of the great kings or the outstanding ones.

"And the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up the realm of Greece [or Grecia as it is mentioned here]." (Daniel 11:2)

Now, here's what I want you to realize, my friends: this was written back about 580 BC or thereabouts. It was written almost 600 years before Christ. There is no doubt whatsoever about that and the Jewish race have preserved this book of Daniel from that time down till now. Now, this is foretelling events that were to happen in the immediate future beginning from there, the next few kings and carrying on. And the most amazing thing is the way these things happened. Let me just read you a little more.

"And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will." (Daniel 11:3)

That happened. Now, if I had the Rawlinson history here, I would show you just what king that is and it happened exactly as this prophecy said before it happened it would happen. No one but God Almighty can foretell what is going to happen in the future.

"And when he shall stand up [this king], his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven;..." (Daniel 11:4)

It was Alexander the Great. And his kingdom was - he was broken as a young man. He died in a drunken debauchery and his kingdom 10 years later was divided by his four generals.

"Not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled:..." (Daniel 11:4)

In other words, his dynasty would not continue. He had an illegitimate son but he had no legitimate sons and no heir of Alexander's - called Alexander the Great - no heir of his ever took over the throne.

And for 10 years it was in a turmoil and then his four generals divided the kingdom up among themselves.

"For his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those [that is beside his sons. [Now verse 5]: And the king of the south..." (Daniel 11:4-5)

Now, you have to know what the king of the North and the king of the South is and it's speaking from the point of view of Jerusalem. Listen, the Bible is the book of Israel, it's about Israel and it concerns other nations only as they come in contact with Israel or with Jerusalem or Palestine. It concerns Jerusalem and Palestine geographically. It concerns Israel racially and nationally and other nations only as they come into contact with it.

Now, the king of the South will be the king south of Jerusalem and the king of the north is the one north of Jerusalem or Syria which was at that time possessing Jerusalem.

[Now], "the king of the south [that is Egypt] shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him [that is the prince strong above this king of Egypt and that happened, years later, that actually happened] and shall have dominion and his dominion shall be a great dominion. And in the end of years [now, the end of so many years] they shall join themselves together; for the king's daughter of the south..." (Daniel 11:5-6)

That is the daughter of the king of Egypt who was to be this one that was stronger, the prince that was stronger than the former king and his daughter now and this actually happened and it was exactly 50 years after this other event and a good many years after Daniel wrote it.

"For the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north [that was the king of Syria who possessed Palestine] to make an agreement [it was a marriage agreement and the original Hebrew words signify marriage agreement]: and she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm [that's the king of Syria]: but she shall be given up, and they that brought her [that is her escort and the military escort that came to protect her], and he that begat her [that's the king of Egypt], and he that strengthened her in these times." (Daniel 11:6)

And, my friends, every bit of that down to the finest detail actually happened. And in Rawlinson's history you'll find how her police or her military escort that brought this Egyptian princess up for this marriage, how they were besieged and how they were killed and the things that happened.

[Now] "...out of a branch of her roots [now, her roots would be her father and a branch would be a son of her father.] shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail:" (Daniel 11:7)

And that happened afterward. And you can go on and on, detail after detail and it happened.

When you find anything prophesied in the Bible all you have to do is come to understand it. It either did happen or if it's yet future, it is going to happen. It's as certain as the rising and the setting of the sun.

What Is Going To Happen To The USA? (PLAY from 22:10)

Now, is it important that we know what's going to happen to the United States 10 years, 20, 30 years from now? I tell you my friends it's the most important thing in the world.

Very few understand prophecy. I think that most people that pretend to understand prophecy will tell you that's never going to happen. You wait and see who understands prophecy and who doesn't. You wait and see who the real false prophets are and who is faithfully speaking the word of God and preaching the same Good News, the same Gospel, that Jesus preached, even though it is so unpopular today that it'll bring the same persecution against the one who will dare to preach it that it did against Jesus 1900 years ago.

My friends, from this program our listeners have been hearing what is going to happen and it's been happening exactly that way even though you have heard it before it happened. And many of these things have happened.

I've said all along Russia was not going to attack the United States. Not because Communism is so altruistic that they wouldn't want to but because God Almighty has restrained them and because they have seen that they couldn't win and it's about time that we wake up.

Because if you know what's going to happen along with the warning of what's going to happen, God Almighty gives us the way of protection. God Almighty gives us the way of escape. He shows us the way that we can be protected so that no plague and not one of these things will come nigh our dwelling. I tell you, you are in mortal danger this minute if you don't listen. But if you listen to God Almighty, if you'll blow the dust off your Bible and see what it says, you need be in no danger. But the only security, the only protection, the only guarantee of any insurance against a thing happening to you and yours and to your children and your family is that which you'll find in the promises of God in your Bible.

And people have never understood the Bible. And people have never understood the Bible prophecies. A third of all the Bible is prophecy. Ninety percent of it is talking about our time now and most of that about our people the United States. Isn't it about time that we began to realize we're not ignored in the Bible prophecy and that we wake up to realize the astounding truth that we of the United States are mentioned more often than other race or nation in all the Bible and yet our true identity has been hidden, revealed only to a few and they have not actually recognized what the Bible says about us and what is going to happen.

Now, the plain simple story of our ancestry, the Bible story and our modern prophetic identity today in this twentieth century is the most amazing, the most astounding, the most fascinating and interesting story that you ever read. It is really the story thread of the Bible itself and it's true, every word is true. And yet no story of fiction ever was so strange, so absorbing, so packed with suspense and interest as this gripping story of the Bible that is absolutely true.

Now, many millenniums ago, this same national greatness, wealth and power that we possess today, the greatest that has ever been possessed by any peoples or nation on the face of the earth, every bit of that was promised to the prophet Abraham, way back there hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and yet very few have ever noticed that astonishing fact recorded in scripture.

Now, we must realize if we would understand the Bible its prophecies or national identity is a very peculiar fact.

Listen. The Holy Bible is the particular book of definite nationality, the children of Israel; that is undeniable. The Bible's history from Genesis to Revelation is primarily the history of one nation and people, the Israelites. Other nations are mentioned only in so far as they come in contact with Israel. It's concerned with Israel and with Palestine. All Bible prophecy, too, pertains primarily to this people Israel and to other nations only when they come in contact with Israel. The Bible tells of these Israelites and their God. It was inspired by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was committed to writing through Israelites exclusively and no prophet was ever chosen of God who was not an Israelite and it was preserved until after the New Testament was written by those Israelites themselves. In its sacred passages, we read that all the promises and the covenants of God, all the sonship and all the glory belong solely to Israel and not to any Gentile nation. You read that in Romans 9:4. The Bible is an Israelitish book preeminently of, by and for the Israelitish nationality inspired by their God through their prophets.

Now, isn't is a very strange thing indeed then that we English speaking peoples today together with those of the other democratic northwestern European nations are today the greatest believers and exponents in this book of the Hebrew people? That we are the chief worshippers of Israel's God and of Israel's Messiah - how did that come about, my friends?

Some of these things ought to wake us up and start to make us think. The more these facts are realized, the more apparent it becomes that a full knowledge of those Israelites is necessary to a right understanding of the Bible which is chiefly concerned with them and to all prophecy. Ninety percent of all prophecy pertains to this time and one-third of the Bible is prophecy and the focal center, the very center of the whole thing of world events that is to occur in these next 10, 20 and 30 years is the United States of America.

Now, listen, you can have the entire amazing, thrilling story revealing to you the most astounding truth of your life, giving you dramatically and breathless interest the almost unbelievable truth of where the United States is mentioned in the Bible prophecies. It's all opened before your astonished eyes in brief and condensed form in our booklet 'The United States in Prophecy.' It will open up your Bible and make it a new book. You'll be literally amazed. Yes, I mean that, literally - you'll be amazed.

Now, there's no price, no charge. Just ask for the booklet ' United States in Prophecy.'

And so now, this is Herbert W Armstrong saying, "Goodbye friends."

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