Chapter 5-- |
America & Britain in Prophecy:
What Is
Now Prophesied?
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hat does the future hold for
our American and British peoples? Despite the tremendous, incredible blessings
God has poured out on our peoples, not all is well with Britain and America. In
fact, something terribly wrong has happened.
Following World War II, the sun finally set
on the mighty British Empire as it quickly vanished from the global
scene--almost overnight! Today, Britain's foreign holdings continue to dwindle.
For example, Hong Kong reverts to China in 1997. The British
Commonwealth is no more. (There is still a "Commonwealth," but its 50
member nations are no longer subject to the British Crown and are predominantly
non-British in descent.)
The United States, once the greatest creditor
nation in earth's history-even forgiving many other nations many billions of
dollars of debt--has now become the greatest debtor nation the world has
ever seen! Our society is plagued by persistent unemployment, broken homes and
crime.
Instead of gleaming "alabaster
cities," many of our urban centers are like festering scabs-just
waiting to erupt in racial strife and uncontrollable violence. Our inner cities
are breeding grounds for rioting, gang violence, murder, substance abuse,
poverty, illiteracy, teenage pregnancy and increasing misery of every sort.
Tragically, Britain and America have mostly failed
in God's purpose for them of being a blessing and good example to other
nations. Moral debasement and a rejection of God by far too many have exacted a
huge toll. In this chapter, we will see how this has happened to the
English-speaking peoples and why God is going to have to violently SHAKE us out
of our evil ways.
"Too Privileged"?
The American author, John Steinbeck
(1902-1968), once said, "If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give
it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick."
Compared with the one billion impoverished human beings
lacking adequate food, many Americans, Britons, Canadians, Australians
and New Zealanders are overfed and overweight! Have we been so blessed that we
have taken these God-given blessings for granted? Have we been too blessed for
our own good?
Japan's late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka
once said, "I often wonder why you [Americans] worry so much about
domestic problems when you have such an abundance of resources. For example,
look at American agricultural productivity. It's easy for the U.S. to expand
its output whenever it chooses. We can't do that in Japan. When I compare the
situation here in Japan with the situation in your country, I think that as
a nation you are too privileged.... God has not been very fair in the
distribution of resources.... Americans have the most stable economy, they have
an abundance of resources available within their own country, and they have more
investments abroad than any other country" (U.S. News & World
Report, Nov. 26, 1973).
Have we, indeed, been "too
privileged"? As we read in the previous chapter, it is God's prerogative,
as the Creator and Possessor of Heaven and Earth, to distribute resources to
whomever He wills-to fulfill His supreme purpose. But we, the recipients of the
fabulous birthright blessings, need to always appreciate them, giving Almighty
God thanks for everything we have, remembering that "every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of
lights" (Jas. 1:17). Yet we Anglo-Americans have not always kept this
important fact in mind.
"We Have Forgotten
God"
President Abraham Lincoln eloquently
summarized our forgetful attitude as the American Civil War raged: "We
have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been
preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers,
wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten
God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and
multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly
imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were
produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
"Intoxicated with unbroken success, we
have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of [God's] redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"
(Proclamation, Mar. 30, 1863).
God even foresaw this mindset-and warned
Israel against it: "Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not
keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you
today, lest--when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses
and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your
silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied...
your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God.... Then you say in
your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this
wealth'" (Deut. 8:11-14, 17).
How does God answer this? "And you
shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get
wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers....
If you by any means forget the LORD your God... I testify against you this day
that you shall surely perish" (vv. 18-19). But, frighteningly, this is
exactly what most of our peoples HAVE done! Surely national destruction cannot
be far behind.
God's prophecies reveal a broken and devastated
Israel at the very end of this age--sorely punished for forgetting and
rebelling against God. "Indeed all the nations will wonder, 'Why has the
LORD done thus to this land? What caused this great display of anger?' They
will conclude, 'It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God
of their ancestors'" (Deut. 29:24-25 NRSV).
Frankly, then, we have only ourselves to
blame. In President Lincoln's solemn words, "If danger ever reaches us
it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our
lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher." He was right. It
is our grievous national sins that separate us from God (Is. 59:1-2)!
If Israel had continued to worship and
obey God, it would have become a model nation for all the other nations to
follow! Moses made this point clear:
"Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you
to observe, that you may live... for this is your wisdom and your understanding
in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely
this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' For what great nation is
there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us.... And what
great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in
all this law which I set before you this day?" (Deut. 4:1, 6-8).
Yet notice what would happen if the
Israelites betrayed their special relationship with God: "O
children of Israel... 'You only have I known of all the families of the
earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities'" (Amos
3:1-2). God believes in accountability! "But they [the Israelites]
rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; so He turned Himself against them as an
enemy, and He fought against them" (Is. 63:10). What a frightening thing
it is when we make God-the most powerful Being in the universe-our
enemy!
During the Korean War, on December 12, 1951,
General Douglas MacArthur alerted his fellow Americans: "In this day of
gathering storm, as the moral deterioration... spreads its infection... it is
essential that every spiritual force be mobilized to defend and preserve the
religious base upon which this nation was founded. For it is that base which
has been the motivating impulse to our moral and national growth.
"History fails to record a single
precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into
political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual reawakening
to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate
national disaster" (A
Soldier Speaks, pp. 285-286). As horrible as it is to contemplate, this is
exactly where America and Britain are heading!
"I Will Break the
Pride of Your Power!"
Remember from chapter two that Leviticus 26
and Deuteronomy 28 outline blessings for Israel's obedience to God and curses
for disobedience. These were not for Old Testament times only!
Some believe that, because God divorced
ancient Israel (Jer. 3:8) and because the Old Covenant marriage ended with
Christ's death, God no longer deals with His physical people based on these
principles. While the Husband/wife relationship based on the Sinai covenant HAS
ended between God and physical Israel, the God/people relationship based on
much earlier promises to Abraham
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U.S. President Abraham
Lincoln |
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"We have been the
recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven...we have grown in numbers,
wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten
God." |
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has certainly NOT ended! The conditional prophecies
of blessings and curses was not the Old Covenant itself. Leviticus 26 and
Deuteronomy 28 simply express how God would deal with His physical people-even
today!
Through Moses, God solemnly promised the
Israelites that if they obeyed Him, He would bless them and their
descendants in their cities and countryside. They would be given peace,
prosperity, overflowing happiness and every blessing imaginable! This included
unquestioned military supremacy: "You will chase your enemies, and they
shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, a
hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight" (Lev. 26:7-8).
But if they flagrantly broke God's
covenant, His laws and statutes, then God Almighty said He would remove those
blessings and punish them for their unfaithfulness. They would have
drought, crop failures, famine and pestilence. The aliens in their land
would rise up very high above them until they were destroyed as a nation (cf.
Deut. 28:43).
Moreover, God warns: "But if you do not
obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments... but break
my covenant, I will do this to you: I will even appoint terror over you,
wasting disease and fever.... I will set my face against you, and you shall be
defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you
shall flee when no one pursues you. And after all this, if you do not obey Me,
then.... I will break the pride of your power" (Lev. 26:14-19)! Not
only did this apply to ancient Israel-it also applies to modern
Israel-the Anglo-Saxon-Celts!
Have we witnessed warning signals that our
power is already being broken? Many claim that Britain has been reduced to a
"fourth-rate power." The U.S. has been called a "paper
tiger" or described as "all bark and no bite." Has America lost
the will to win? When we fought North Korea, along with our U.N. allies, we
reached a stalemate. When we fought the Vietnamese, our soldiers never
lost a major military engagement. But politics and public scorn forced us to
shamefully crawl out of that war-torn country on our bellies. Of course, we
Anglo-Americans have won a few police actions against such tiny
countries as Grenada, the Falkland Islands and Panama.
More recently, we and our allies fought Iraq
in the Persian Gulf War. Early in the conflict, U.S. President George Bush
called on all Americans to pray to God for divine help and the safety of our
men. It is striking that there were remarkably few losses! President Bush
responded admirably to this outcome by again calling on Americans to pray-this
time to thank God for answering the nation's prayers.
However, in general, our people have not
truly turned to God in heartfelt repentance-rejecting their sinful ways and
embracing God's commandments. Thus, the pride we had in our military power remains
broken. In fact, even though we could have vanquished Iraq, totally
eliminating the threat it posed to our national interests, we stopped short of
marching in and deposing the "Butcher of Baghdad."
The Coming "Great
Tribulation"
One of the most detailed prophecies in the
Bible is found in Jeremiah 31-32. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote about 130 years after
the northern Ten Tribes of Israel were taken captive in 721 B.C. Therefore his
prophecies couldn't possibly refer to ancient Israel prior to
that time. (That would be like a prophet today "foretelling" the
American Civil War.) Jeremiah's prophecies can only refer to the end time-our
day! They are addressed to both "Israel and Judah" (Jer.
30:4), meaning both the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples and our
kinsmen, the Jews.
Jeremiah writes, "For thus says the
LORD: 'We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now,
and see, whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man
with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale? Alas!
For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of
JACOB'S trouble, but [after going through it] he shall be saved out of
it'" (vv. 5-7)!
The Prophet Daniel, who wrote his prophecies
even later than Jeremiah-nearly 200 years after the ancient
captivity of the Ten Tribes-also mentions a time of trouble for Israel "at
the time of the end" (Dan. 11:40). "At that time Michael shall stand
up, the great prince ["the archangel" Moffatt] who stands watch over
the sons of your people [Jacob's descendants]; and there shall be a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And
at that time [after enduring this horrible "trouble"], your people
shall be delivered" (12:1).
In Matthew 24, Jesus Christ spoke of what
could only be the same traumatic time of unprecedented worldwide human
suffering: "For then there will be great tribulation [Gk. thlipsis
megale, "mega-misery"], such as has not been since the
beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless
those days were shortened [by God], no flesh would be saved ["alive"
Moffatt]; but for the elect's sake [i.e. the sake of those who genuinely turn
to God in repentant obedience and faith] those days will be
shortened" (vv. 21-22; cf. Mark 13:19-20). Only in our modern age-with the
proliferation of nuclear weaponry-has it been possible that if a great conflict
were not halted, "no flesh would be saved alive."
Christ said, concerning this Great
Tribulation, "For it will come as a SNARE on all those who dwell on the
face of the WHOLE EARTH" (Luke 21:35). Yet Jesus has promised those who
remain faithful to Him, "Because you have kept my word of patient
endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial [Tribulation] which is
coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth" (Rev.
3:10 NRSV)!
When we put these verses together, we see
that ALL of them refer unmistakably to the SAME TIME. There cannot be
more than one worst time ever! These passages describe a unique time in
man's history-a time of great trouble so traumatic that no other period in the
entire history of the earth will have ever been so bad. In all the
bloodstained, awful history of humanity, never has any people
experienced the intensity of horrors prophesied to come on a global scale.
The Prophet Ezekiel, writing between the
times of Jeremiah and Daniel-about 150 years after the Ten Tribes went
into Assyrian captivity-also mentioned this unparalleled time of Jacob's
trouble. God, in Ezekiel 5, tells modern Israel, "Because you have
multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, and have
not walked in My statutes, nor kept My judgments... I, even I, am against you
and will execute judgments in your midst.... And I will do among you what I
have never done, and the like of which I will never do again" (vv.
7-9).
But why would a loving God allow such
a terrible calamity to befall His people? "A disaster, a singular
disaster; behold, it has come!... Doom has come to you, you who
dwell in the land; the time has come, a day of trouble [the Great
Tribulation] is near, and not of rejoicing.... Now upon you I will soon pour
out My fury, and spend My anger upon you; I will judge you according to your
ways, and I will repay you for all your abominations.
"My eye will not spare, nor will I have
pity; I will repay you according to your ways, and your abominations will be in
your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD who strikes" (7:5, 7-9).
Idolatry, sorcery, murder, rape, adultery, incest and homosexuality and
numerous other loathsome acts are all "abominations" in the eyes of
God (Lev. 20:1-27).
But in the eyes of our society,
homosexuality is accepted as a "lifestyle choice"-even with signs
held aloft at parades for "gay pride" with blasphemous slogans such
as, "God is gay!" God will not let such wickedness go unpunished (cf.
Gen. 19; 1 Cor. 6:9-10). Also, the murder of countless millions of innocent
unborn children (i.e. "legalized" abortion) is a terrible blot on the
Anglo-American national conscience (Num. 35:33; Ezek. 7:23; Is. 59:3). Rest
assured--God is going to repay our peoples for such great evil!
Shamefully, the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples
are flagrantly breaking God's laws--committing not only religious crimes such
as idolatry and Sabbath breaking (cf. Ezek. 20:12-24; Is.
59:1-15), but also many heinous sins and perversions.
Horrifying World War III!
In Ezekiel 5, the Almighty describes future
pestilence, famine and warfare on an almost unimaginable scale: "ONE-THIRD
of you shall die of the pestilence [disease epidemics, such as cancer,
AIDS, Ebola, etc.], and be consumed with famine in your midst; and
ONE-THIRD shall fall by the sword [warfare] all around you; and I will
scatter ANOTHER THIRD to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I
will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My
zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them" (vv. 12-13)!
What a staggering death toll! If
one-third of our people die of disease and famine, and one-third die by war,
this would mean the deaths of approximately 200 million modern Israelites-since
there are now about 300 million Anglo-Saxon-Celtic descendants of the ancient
Patriarch Jacob living in Northwest Europe, North America and Australasia.
Also, ONE-THIRD of all mankind in general will die during the terrible
coming crises at the close of this age (Rev. 9:12-21)! Such awful, ni.htmlarish
destruction could happen only by a horrifying World War III!
At the time when the Anglo-Americans have
become, among other nations, "like a lion among the beasts of the
forest" with all our enemies "cut off" (Mic. 5:8-9), God says
that, because of our skyrocketing sins and crimes, He will bring sudden
destruction upon us-giving us over to crushing defeat at the hands of a
cruel enemy! The very next verses in Micah make this quite clear: "And it
shall be in that day... that I will cut off your horses from your midst
and destroy your chariots [tanks, artillery, armored cars].
"I will cut off the cities of your
land and throw down all your strongholds [military installations]. I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and
you shall have no soothsayers [no more psychic phone hotlines!]. Your carved
images [which fill our churches and religious shrines] I will also cut off....
You shall no more worship the work of your hands.... Thus I will destroy
your cities" (vv. 10-14)!
How will this happen? Ezekiel 6:6-7 makes it
even more plain: "In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid
waste.... The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am
the LORD." This never happened in the destruction of ancient
Israel-it must refer to a time soon coming! What, then, is meant here?
Think about it: cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal,
London, Glasgow, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland-ALL LAID WASTE!
Coupled with Christ's remark that "no
flesh would be saved alive" if God didn't intervene (Matt. 24:22), this
almost certainly indicates horrific nuclear warfare or some other advanced
method of mass destruction. It is a terrifying fact that man has never invented
a weapon he has not later used. Missiles packing multiple nuclear warheads
will, more than likely, prove to be no exception.
In the aftermath of the coming
conflagration, a lack of sustenance will produce ghastly consequences: "I
will let loose the sword of war on you, in punishment for your breach
of compact, and you shall huddle inside your towns; I will send pestilence
among you, and you shall fall into the hands of an enemy. When I deprive you
of the bread that sustains you, ten of your women will need but one oven for
their baking, and your bread shall be doled out in rations, till you never have
enough to eat. If all this will not make you listen to me, if you continue
to defy me, then I will defy you in my fury.... You shall be forced to eat
the flesh of your sons and of your daughters" (Lev. 26:25-29 Moffatt).
The starving, emaciated descendants of
modern Israel (our Anglo-American people) will even stoop to CANNIBALISM!
Ezekiel also prophesied this tragic condition: "Therefore fathers shall
eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers" (Ezek.
5:10). The Word of God relates the gory details of this vile episode in
Deuteronomy 28:53-57 (cf. 2 Kings 6:25-29).
National Captivity Again?
Correction from God is absolutely necessary.
Just as any loving parent will sometimes discipline his or her children for
their ultimate good, so it is with God (Heb. 12:5-11). Our merciful God
promises, "Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered
you [Israel's countries today], yet I will not make a complete end of you. But
I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether
unpunished" (Jer. 30:11). The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand-all of these political entities will disappear from
history. But, as with the ancient Kingdom of Israel, the citizenry of these
countries will not be completely wiped out (Amos 9:8-9). What will happen to
those who are not destroyed?
As we saw in Ezekiel, though two-thirds
of modern Israelites will die by war, disease and famine, another third
(about 100 million people) will be scattered. How will this be
accomplished? God says, "Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you
may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered
through the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember Me among
the nations where they are CARRIED CAPTIVE" (Ezek. 6:8-9).
"Carried captive"? Many contend
that Ezekiel, himself a Jewish exile in Babylonian captivity, was writing here
about the Jews. That is simply not so. God told him to direct his words
to the "mountains [prophetic symbol for nations] of ISRAEL"
(v. 3). When shown this, many then conclude that these words refer to ancient
Israel's Assyrian captivity. But could that be so? No-for, as mentioned
previously, Ezekiel wrote his prophecies a century and a half after that
captivity. Thus God, through Ezekiel, was here referring to a yet future
captivity and deportation IN OUR DAY!
The Almighty tells our peoples, "I will
scatter you [as He did the Ten Tribes in the 700s B.C.] among the nations and
draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities
waste.... You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies
shall eat you up. And those of you who are left shall waste away in their
iniquity in your enemies' lands" (Lev. 26:33, 38-39). How very similar
to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany!
In Jeremiah's prophecy, God explains the
nature of the coming captivity which Israel and Judah will yet be led
out of (something that has NEVER happened before): "For behold, the days
are coming... that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and
Judah" (30:3). In ancient times, Israel's captivity (721 B.C.)
occurred 135 years before Judah's captivity (586 B.C.). But, during
"Jacob's Trouble," the captivity of Israel and Judah will occur simultaneously.
What will God be delivering them from?
"For it shall come to pass in that day... that I will break his YOKE
from your neck, and will burst your BONDS; foreigners shall no more enslave them'"
(v. 8). When Britons sing "Rule Britannia," they boast that
"Britons never will be slaves!" But, despite those lyrics, modern
Britons, and Americans too, will be herded into slavery-scattered over
the globe to work in their captors' mines, factories, fields, etc.
Prophecy reveals that, during the coming,
horrendous World War III, both the Anglo-Americans and the Jews will
suffer together at the hands of the coming "Beast" mentioned
in Revelation 13, 17 and 19-a revival of sorts of the Holy Roman Empire of the
Middle Ages in a ten-nation European power bloc. This system is also referred
to as "Babylon" (Is. 47; Rev. 18). Even as you read these words, this
coming political, economic and religious superpower is forming in Europe under
the auspices of the European Union. Other prophecies show that Germany
will provide its dynamic heart (see box: "Portrait of a Cruel
Conqueror").
Israel's captivity will be a horrific time
of unparalleled suffering, during which the vast majority of modern Israel will
die. Isaiah wrote: "Then I said, 'Lord, how long will it be before they
are ready to listen?' And he replied, 'Not until their cities are
destroyed-without a person left-and the whole country is an utter wasteland,
and they are all taken away as slaves to other countries far away, and all the
land of Israel lies deserted! Yet a TENTH--a remnant--will survive; and
though Israel is invaded again and again and destroyed, yet Israel will be like
a tree cut down, whose stump still lives to grow again'" (Is. 6:11-13
Living Bible).
Think of it! Of the 100 million scattered
Israelites taken into captivity, only a mere fraction will survive! How might
this happen? Are you, the reader, aware that the Nazi gas chambers and ovens of
Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Treblinka, etc.-by which millions of Jews,
Slavs and others were slaughtered during the Second World War--have not been
dismantled? They stand right now as monuments of great human atrocities. Yet they
could be put back into macabre service almost overnight! All of this should shake
us out of lethargy!
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Portrait of a Cruel
Conqueror |
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Who will Israel's main enemy in the end time be? Moses
predicted, "The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from
the end of the earth, as swift as the EAGLE flies, a nation whose language
you will not understand" (Deut. 28:49). To fulfill this prophecy to
Israel in ancient times, God used the Assyrians-with their symbol of
the eagle. A number of prophecies show that, in the last days, God will use
these same people to lead a ten-nation United States of Europe to capture and
enslave modern Israel. In fact, modern Assyria will be the main land
of our peoples' future captivity (Is. 11:16; 27:13; Zech. 10:10). Just who were
the Assyrians-and who are they today? Smith's Bible Dictionary says,
"Assyria... derived its name apparently from Asshur, the son of Shem,
Gen. 10:22, who in later times was worshipped by the Assyrians as their chief
god" ("Assyria, Asshur--). What happened to these people when their
empire fell at the destruction of their capital city of Nineveh in 612 B.C.? Pliny
the Elder (23-79 A.D.) located the "Assyriani" of his day NORTH of
the Crimea in Russia (Historia Naturalis, bk. 4, sec. 12). So the
Assyrians must have migrated north through the Caucasus Mountains just as the
Cimmerians and some Scythians did! This would make them "Caucasian"
too--which makes sense, considering their Shemite (white) ancestry. Where did
they go from the Crimea? Jerome (Latin scholar, c. 340-420) later wrote, "Asshur
also is joined with the tribes invading Western Europe ALONG THE RHINE"
(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ltr. 123, sec. 16). So their
migratory route was similar to the Israelites-except the Assyrians stopped
in Central Europe and settled "along the Rhine." The names of
some of Asshur's descendants also give some striking clues about the identity
of the modern Assyrians. Though not listed in the Bible, they can be found in
numerous ancient histories and Bible encyclopedias. They include: Khatti;
Akkadians; Kassites (or Cossaei); and Almani (or Halmani). Now notice the
names of early German tribes in Europe: Hessians (anciently named
Khatti-"Germany," Encyclopaedia Britannica); Quadians (Latin
for Akkadians); the Chauci (same as the Cossaei); and the Allemani (Latin for
Almani). The French name for Germany is still Allemagne!
Certainly we have identified the modern descendants of Asshur. They are the
German-speaking peoples of Central Europe! Now it is
much easier to see how some of the Germans have been looked upon as
Scythian-related by modern historians. They migrated from the same areas!
Also we can better see how the language of the modern Scythians (Israelites)
is Germanic (Assyrian)-they adopted the language of their captors! But wasn't
Assyrian a Semitic language like Hebrew-totally different from modern German?
The Oxford Companion to the Bible says that Assyrian Emperor
"Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 B.C.E.)... brought large numbers of Arameans
[descendants of Shem's son Aram-Syrians] into the heartland of Assyria,
swelling the ranks of the court... and, by the early seventh century, replacing
the Assyrian language with Aramaic [Semitic language like Hebrew] as the
vernacular"-i.e. at court and as the language of writing (1993, p. 63).
The unwritten language of the Assyrian people was undoubtedly the one
from which the Germanic languages descend. Notice what
God says about the sons of Asshur: "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My
anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation. I will send him
against an ungodly nation [Israel], and against the people of My wrath I will
give him charge, to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down
like the mire of the streets. Yet he does not mean so, nor does his heart
think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and cut off not a few
nations" (Is. 10:5-7). God is saying that he uses Assyria as His
instrument of punishment upon Israel, but the Assyrians have other motives.
Their only concern is destroying other peoples in a continual rage of
imperial conquest. Haven't we seen that in modern times too? World Wars I
and II were both primarily due to German imperialism! When Adolph
Hitler stood before the great German eagle and cried for lebensraum ("living
space"), was that so very different from the ways of ancient Assyria? "Its
imperialistic ethic was embodied in the Middle Assyrian coronation ritual, in
which the officiating priest solemnly charged the king: 'Expand your
land!'" (p. 63). There are many such parallels. The worship of their
father Asshur is quite interesting. Perhaps it could explain why, instead of
a "Mother Country," the Germans exalt the "Fatherland." What kind of
people were the ancient Assyrians? Their cruelty was renowned among the
ancient conquering empires: "They were a proud, warlike, and cruel
race. Although possessing genuine religious feeling, still the Assyrian
monarchs often displayed in their treatment of prisoners the disposition
of savages. The sculptured marbles taken from the palaces exhibit the cruel
tortures inflicted upon prisoners; kings are being led before their
conqueror with hooks thrust through their lips; other prisoners are being
flayed alive; the eyes of some are being bored out with the point of a spear;
and still others are having their tongues torn out" (Philip Meyers, Eastern
Nations and Greece, 1904, pp. 69-70). These are the conquerors whom God
gave the Israelites over to! Historian
Will Durant writes, "Most often the prisoners [the Assyrians took in
war]... were dispatched after the battle; they knelt with their backs to
their captors, who beat their heads in with clubs, or cut them off with
cutlasses.... The king, if time permitted, presided at the slaughter.
The nobles among the defeated were given more special treatment: their ears,
noses, hands and feet were sliced off, or they were thrown from high towers,
or they and their children were beheaded, or flayed alive, or roasted over a
slow fire. No compunction seems to have been felt at this waste of human
life" (Story of Civilization, vol. 1, p. 271). Assyrian
annals even boast of such cruelties. Perhaps this
conjures up images of the horrible torture experienced by the Jews and others
in the Nazi Holocaust. It should! These national character traits have
not disappeared-and they won't until after Christ returns to earth and
sets up His Kingdom over all nations. Then things WILL change: "In
that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing
in the midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying,
'Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My
inheritance'" (Is. 19:24). Then Assyrian nature will be changed
through receiving God's Spirit and His government! That time,
however, has not yet come. Many Britons still remember the Nazi-led horrors
of World War II. Many still shudder at the thought of a revived, dynamic,
militaristic Germany. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher recently
expressed this fear at the October 1995 Forum for International Policies in
Colorado Springs. Speaking of Germany, she said, "Her national
character is to dominate. There is something in the character of the
German people that led to things that never should have happened. Why was it
that the German people let Hitler do the things he did? This is something I
still fear, even to this day"! Yes, under
the right circumstances, the cruel, warlike tendencies of these modern
Assyrians can be coaxed to the surface again. And, you can be certain,
they assuredly WILL BE! A "Fourth Reich" will soon appear on the
world scene under a new Hitler-type dictator. This German-led European
power bloc will conquer the Anglo-American descendants of Israel and make
them slaves! Please
understand! The Nazi Holocaust of World War II was merely a forerunner-a
small "foretaste"-of a much worse fate yet to befall the
Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples and, again, our fellow kinsmen, the Jews! Bear in
mind, too, that as the Great Tribulation will be the worst time our peoples
have ever experienced, the soon-coming Assyrian-led captivity will
make Israel's ancient Assyrian captivity seem like a walk in the park.
Who will heed this warning? Will YOU? |
After Calamity--the
"Good News"!
Will the Israelites finally heed God after
suffering the Great Tribulation? God says, "If they confess their iniquity
and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were
unfaithful to Me... and that I also have... brought them into the land of their
enemies... if [they]... are humbled, and they accept their guilt-then I will
remember my covenant with Jacob... with Isaac and... with Abraham.... [The
Israelites] will accept their guilt, because they despised My judgments and
because their soul abhorred My statutes.
"Yet for all that, when they are in the
land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor
them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the
LORD their God. But for their sake I will remember the covenant of their
ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the
nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD" (Lev. 26:40-45).
This will indeed happen! Our Anglo-American
peoples will eventually come to their senses and bitterly cry out to God when
He allows our plight to become desperate! Jeremiah quotes God as saying,
"In those days and in that time... the children of ISRAEL shall come, they
and the children of JUDAH together; with continual weeping they shall
come, and seek the LORD their God. They shall ask the way to Zion... saying,
'Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that
will not be forgotten'" (Jer. 50:4-5).
Our peoples will say, "Come, and let us
return to the LORD; for He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has
stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days [speaking prophetically,
each day equals one year-Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6] He will revive us; on the third
day [year] He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight" (Hos.
6:1-2)! Ancient Israel's bondage lasted many years, but modern
Israel's enslavement will apparently only last about two and a half
years (yet, as we've seen, it will be far worse).
Following this, repentant Israelites will be
spared the next year-"the day of the LORD," mentioned
over and over in Scripture-in which God will discipline all nations! At
the end of that year, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will at last return to earth
in all power and glory to establish His peaceful Kingdom over all nations for
1,000 years (Rev. 20:1-4; Dan. 2:44). At that same time, Christ will destroy
the "Beast" and "the false prophet" (Zech. 14; Rev. 19),
who will have put a "yoke of bondage" on the neck of modern Israel
(Is. 47:1-6).
Notice what Isaiah prophesied: "It
shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall set His hand again the second
time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria
[Greater Germany] and Egypt... and the islands of the sea
[British Isles, New Zealand, etc.] He will set up a banner for the nations, and
will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Is. 11:11-12).
Isaiah is describing a SECOND EXODUS! Also note that, at the time of the end,
Israel and Judah will still be two separately identifiable peoples. The
prophet continues, "For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still
choose Israel, and settle them in their own land [the
Promised Land]" (14:1).
Who will lead this return and restore the
Twelve Tribes to God's favor? Through Isaiah, the Messiah states, "And now
the LORD says, who formed Me [Christ] from the womb to be His Servant, to bring
Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him.... 'It is too small a
thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and
to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the
Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth'"
(49:5-7).
Israel's Family Reunion
In the wonderful World Ahead, when the Jews
and continental Northwest Europeans have finally learned their own true
identities, they will at last recognize the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples of
America and Britain as their long lost brother Joseph. With great tears of joy,
they will again shout, "Joseph is alive!"-just as the sons of Israel
did almost 3,700 years ago. What a great and marvelous family reunion that will
be!
Then, God Almighty will again unite the
Anglo-Saxon-Celts with the Jews as one people (Ezek. 37:15-17). He says, "Surely
I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the
tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick
of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand....
"Surely I will take the children of
Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone [into captivity], and
will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will
make them one nation in the land.... They shall no longer be two
nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again" (vv.
19, 21-22).
Ezekiel 48 reveals that all the Twelve
Tribes will then be reassigned their own tribal allotments in the Promised
Land-which will be much bigger in area than in biblical days. This will, at
first, accommodate the millions of Israelites returning from captivity.
But remember what God told Israel would soon
happen at that time: "The children you will have, after you have lost the
others [in the Great Tribulation], will say again in your ears [as they did in
Great Britain before], 'The place is too small for me; give me a place
where I may dwell'" (Is. 49:20). So what will God do? "Those who come
He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill
the face of the world with fruit" (Is. 27:6).
At the time when God gathers the remnant of
Jacob, He will make a "perpetual covenant" with both Israel and
Judah: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a
new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah.... I
will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be
their God, and they shall be My people.... For I will forgive their iniquity,
and their sin I will remember no more" (Jer. 31:31, 33-34). After being
converted by God's Spirit, Israel will finally stop rebelling against Him!
Some people think that God has abandoned His
purpose for the physical descendants of Israel. That is totally false! God
promises, "If those ordinances [of the sun and moon] depart from
before Me... then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being
a nation before Me forever" (v. 36). He also adds, "If heaven above
can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will
also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the
LORD" (v. 37)!
Through Jeremiah, God clearly prophesied,
"If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the
ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of
Jacob.... For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on
them" (33:25-26).
Look at what the Apostle Paul stated in the New
Testament: "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!
For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
God has NOT cast away His people whom He foreknew" (Rom. 11:1-2). Paul
shows that God will yet save Israel's physical descendants. "And so all
Israel shall be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with
them, when I take away their sins'" (vv. 26-27).
This is a prophecy for the future.
Presently, God has ordained that He will call both physical Israelites
as well as Gentiles into His Church: "I say then, have they [the
Israelites] stumbled that they should fall ["beyond recovery" NIV]?
Certainly not! But through their fall ["transgression" NIV], to provoke
them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is
riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more
their fullness!" (vv. 11-12).
This is profound! Spiritual salvation has
been opened to some Gentiles now to prod Israel to look at her own condition
and start obeying God. In this way, Israel's failure has been a blessing to
many Gentiles. Yet how much GREATER will the blessing for the Gentile nations
be when Israel learns to finally set the example God intended from the
beginning? Israel will yet be the wonderful model nation God meant her to be
all along. This is truly incredible!
For Gentiles Too!
But God loves all peoples (John
3:16)not just Israelites! He is "no respecter of persons"--or nations
(Acts 10:34-35). How, then, do the Gentiles co-inherit the vast riches and
wealth, both physical and spiritual, which was promised to the
ISRAELITES? Paul reveals more of this "mystery" by saying,
"Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed [of Abraham]"
(Rom. 9:8).
Clearly, all of God's covenants and promises
were given to Israel, and the only way Gentiles can partake of those
promises is by them being grafted spiritually "into a good olive
tree" (Israel), thereby becoming partakers of the fabulous riches which
Almighty God promised the Israelites (Rom. 11:15, 17-21).
Paul also explained this mystery to the
Christians at Ephesus, who were Gentiles: "Therefore remember that you,
once Gentiles in the flesh-who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the
Circumcision made in the flesh by hands--that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph.
2:11-12)! But the apostle does not stop there. "Now, therefore, you are
no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God" (v. 19).
He told the Gentile converts of Galatia,
"For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus....
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise" (Gal. 3:26, 28-29).
God's Old Testament "Church" was a
nation of physical, carnal-minded people who, as a group, never had God's Holy
Spirit within them to empower them to do His will. But God's
|
|
"The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn
away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take
away their sins." |
|
|
--Romans 11:26-27 |
New Testament Church--the "Israel of God"
(Gal. 6:16)is composed of only those who repent of their sins, receive
His Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) and "keep the commandments of God and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17).
The New Testament "Church of
God" includes people of all races! But it is a serious mistake to assume that true Christianity is
a "Gentile" religion. Paul explained that this was not so (Rom.
9:3-4; 11:16-24). He told the Gentile saints at Rome, "For he is not a Jew
who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the
flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly" (Rom. 2:28-29).
Everyone must become a spiritual Jew.
Paul told the Ephesians, "But now in
Christ Jesus you [Gentiles] who once were far off have been made near by the
blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:13). "For through Him we both [Jews
and Gentiles] have access by one Spirit to the Father" (v. 18). With God's
Spirit in us, we, as spiritual Israel can succeed where physical
Israel has not.
The main lesson of Israel is one of utter
failure without God's Holy Spirit! God gave the Israelites everything. Yet they just could not keep
His law. By the New Covenant, Israel will finally be given the spiritual
POWER to actually obey God and His law "in spirit and truth" (John
4:24). But if you, the reader, have begun to understand the importance of
submitting your life to God and obeying Him totally, you don't have to wait
until then! You can partake of the New Covenant's terms right now (Heb.
8:1-13).
But you need to realize that you can't
do it alone. To truly obey God with all your being, it takes Jesus Christ, as
your personal Savior, living in you through the power of the Spirit of
God (Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20). How do you receive that blessing? By deeply
REPENTING before God of breaking His spiritual laws, accepting in FAITH the
tremendous sacrifice of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins, being BAPTIZED
and then receiving the priceless gift of God's HOLY SPIRIT (Acts 2:38-39).
This is how to
become a spiritual Israelite (Gal. 6:16) and partake of the New
Covenant's terms right now. It doesn't matter whether you are a physical
Israelite or not. All humanity desperately NEEDS God's Holy Spirit-to obey
Him and, thus, truly worship Him. This is what God desires from
you-and, more importantly, FOR you!
|
I |
t is easy to dismiss truth out of hand or even ridicule it. But,
as has often been noted, "Facts are stubborn things!" The "Man
of the Century," Winston Churchill, wisely observed that "TRUTH is
incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice
may distort it; but THERE IT IS!"
He later
said, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened" (International
Encyclopedia of Quotations). YOU have somehow stumbled across the irrefutable
truth concerning what happened to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Will you,
like many, simply ignore it?
As we've
seen, our peoples will learn to live righteously after Jesus Christ
returns. But, as we've also seen, a lot of horrible agony must precede
that joyous time. Why? Because of the awful spiritual condition of our peoples.
God told
Ezekiel to make an announcement to Israel--which must refer to the modern
peoples of Israel since Ezekiel wrote long after Israel's ancient
destruction. Here, then, by the authority of God Almighty, we announce His
message to YOU. The wording in the Living Bible makes it easy to follow:
"Tell Israel, Wherever you look--east, west, north or south--your land is
finished. No hope remains, for I will loose my anger on you.... With one blow
after another I will finish you. The end has come; your final doom is waiting.
"O
Israel... the day of trouble nears. It is a day of shouts of anguish, not
shouts of joy! Soon I will pour out my fury and let it finish its work of
punishing you for all your evil deeds. I will not spare nor pity you, and you
will know that I, the Lord, am doing it. The day of judgment has come... for
your wickedness and pride have reached their climax.... All your boasting will
die away, and no one will be left to bewail your fate" (Ezek. 7:2-11).
Whatever your
ethnic origin, if you have lived among the descendants of modern Israel, enjoying
with them their God-given material and spiritual blessings, then--barring
repentance--you will also suffer with them when their punishment for
disobedience comes! God is NOT a respecter of persons.
Of course, if
our nations would change their ways, God always stands ready to forgive:
"The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to
pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I
have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought
to bring upon it" (Jer. 18:6-8)!
Which way
will our people go? Will they continue in unspeakable sins and rampant crimes,
plunging headlong into the impending abyss? Or will they repent of their
waywardness, by turning back to our God and His way? He tells our peoples what
to do to get straightened out: "Yet the Lord pleads with you still: Ask
where the good road is, the godly paths you used to walk in, in
the days of long ago. Travel there, and you will find rest for your souls"
(6:16 Living Bible).
However, God
knows what to expect from our peoples, as He relates immediately following:
"But you reply, 'No, that is not the road we want!' I set watchmen over
you who warned you: 'Listen for the sound of the trumpet! It will let you
know when trouble comes.' But you said, 'No! We won't pay any
attention!'" (vv. 16-17 Living Bible). Will this, dear reader, be YOUR
response?
The
publishers of this material you are now reading have been set as
"watchmen--! Knowing what we do, according to the Word of God, we are
obeying God's command to sound this "trumpet" warning--through this
brochure, our other free literature, and the World Ahead magazine and
television program. God tells us in Isaiah 58:1, "Cry aloud, spare not; lift
up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression, and the
house of Jacob their sins." You have now been warned!
Though our
nations as a whole are not likely to repent of their evil ways until
they are greatly humbled by the awful events ahead, Jesus Christ promises to
provide a shelter from the coming storm of violence for individuals who believe,
and live by, the Word of God-whether Israelite or Gentile! This
protection for God's faithful children is promised in Revelation 3:10 and
12:13-17. Jesus also warns us, "Watch... and pray always that you may be
counted worthy to escape all these things" (Luke 21:36)!
President
Calvin Coolidge once said, "We [Americans] do not need more material
development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual
power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge,
we need more character... we need more [true] religion... more of
the things that are unseen."
And former
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, hit the nail on the head when
he stated, "The greatest work in all the world is the building of men and
women of character. Without character there is not much that's worthwhile,
because character is the one thing we take with us from this world into the
next" (An Enemy Hath Done This, p. 299).
These men may
not have truly understood God's plan, but they certainly got an important key
correct-the need to build godly character. By your seeking God now,
individually, He can begin developing His holy righteous character within you
immediately-averting the need, if you remain faithful, for you to be
SHAKEN out of your wrong ways through the horrible day of "Jacob's
trouble" (Jer. 30:7)!
The Jefferson Memorial stands on the south banks of
the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. Inscribed on its wall are these poignant
words of Thomas Jefferson that still serve as a solemn warning to our American
and British peoples: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the
liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these
liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect
that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever!"
THE END