The World Tomorrow

Prophecy and the USA

by Herbert W Armstrong


Continuing now, with vital, dynamic prophecy. What's prophesied to happen to the United States? It's the biggest subject of prophecy and one third of all your Bible is prophecy. This is the one most vital factor in the topsy-turvy world conditions of today. Yes, we're concerned about a lot of things, but the biggest thing that we ought to be concerned about is what is forming, what is happening right now, that is prophesied to directly effect and to happen to the United States. As I've been saying, you have to know where the United States is mentioned in the Bible prophecies to understand it. We're mentioned more often than all other nations put together in the Bible. But we're not mentioned under our on name - the United States - we weren't known by that name when the Bible was written.

And in the Bible you'll find modern nations mentioned by the names of their ancestors. For instance, the Turkish people are descended from Esau who is often called Edom in your Bible and where you find Edom or Esau that means the Turkish people today, if it's a prophecy pertaining to today. Now, in like manner, while some of the nations are mentioned in their present day names like Egypt and Syria and some of those. You'll find in Ezekiel, the thirty-eighth chapter, a prophecy that all Bible students - virtually all I think - recognize is speaking about Russia today. But it's speaking not about the name Russia, it doesn't use the word Kremlin, it doesn't use words like that.

It says; "Son of man, set thy face against Gog [G-O-G] in the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say... " (Ezekiel 38:2-3)

Who's it talking about? If you can't identify these nations you don't know who it's talking about, then you don't understand prophecy. Now you turn back into the tenth chapter of Genesis, and you begin to find the identity of some of these peoples and of some of these nations. And you begin to find that these are all descended from Japheth and they were of the yellow races and the Asiatic nations, even including over into Russia. And, we find by running it down and tracing it that that is speaking about Russia. Now, I think nearly all Bible students understand that, I'm just mentioning something that everybody does agree and understand. Cavalry have been the very symbol of the Russian armies and it speaks about 'all thine army, horses and horseman' here in verse four, and actually Meshech is merely a changed spelling of the modern name Moscow. Tubal is Talbosk, which has been the capital city of Russia in Asia. And it's generally known that's speaking of them.

But where are we mentioned in prophecy? Well, now, once again, let me just tell you if you don't understand you'd better get our booklet 'The United States in Prophecy' that will explain it. Whatever happen to God's people Israel? You think the Jewish people are all there is of Israel? Oh, no, they're not. I have explained that Israel was divided into two nations. The southern kingdom was called Judah and they became know as the Jews. And the first place the word Jews occurs in your Bible, II Kings 16:6, the Jews were at war against Israel. Israel was fighting against the Jews, different nations altogether.

The northern kingdom was called Israel. They were driven out in 721 BC. They were to be punished and the promises God had made to Abraham withheld from them for 2520 years from 721 BC - that's 1800 AD. And my friends, they migrated northwest from Assyria where they had been taken captive and there we lost sight of them. And we find - by prophecy and by connecting prophecy with history - we find that they migrated to northwestern Europe and the British Isles. And the people that are now in northwestern Europe and the British Isles - the first history, the first historic record we find of them - they were coming from the very spot where the so-called lost ten tribes of Israel were last lost sight of.

I've shown you that God gave His people Israel a sign that would identity them as His people. A sign, which was His Sabbath incidentally, that would reveal to them who God is - the God that sanctified them and made them His people. How they rejected that sign and how the first king that they set over them - when they rejected Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, the son of David - had set up the two golden calves and introduced idolatry into the kingdom and then had changed the annual Sabbath days, Holy Days, that God had given them from the seventh into the eighth month, and the seventh day of the week to the eighth day. And when we pick them up in history later, these same people were observing what we call the eighth day or, it's the day after the first day, or the day after the seventh day, I should say, of the week. It is therefore what we call the first day of the week. And they rejected God's sign by which they should know that He is God and by which they should be known as His people.

Avoid Idolatry and Sabbath Breaking (Play from 5:48)

Now the very two commandments that God had stressed when He said, 'keep my commandments and I'll make you prosperous and you can have the blessings that were promised unconditionally to Abraham' (Deuteronomy 28) were to avoid idolatry and Sabbath breaking. And those were the same identical commandments of God that Israel did rebel against. And I read it to you in the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel. That God had given them His Sabbaths to be a sign between Him and them. And that He gave them His statutes and His judgments. But what did they do? They walked after their fathers' idols and observed their ways. And then He said to their children, later, another generation;

"...I said unto the children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments nor defile yourselves with their idols [or their ways]: I am the [Eternal] your God; walk in my statutes [that is God's ways], ...keep my judgments and do them [that's God's ways]; ...hallow my sabbaths [that's God's ways, but they went after their father's ways, different days altogether, different things]; sabbaths; they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye shall know that I am the [Eternal] your God. Not withstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them...they polluted my sabbaths..." (Ezekiel 20:18-21)

And their eyes were after their fathers' idols - idolatry and Sabbath breaking. Therefore they were driven out and lost. And since they lost the sign by which they should be known, they thought they were Gentiles, they've always thought they were Gentiles! But I've shown you that the Jewish people after their captivity, realized that they had been driven out because of that very thing. And they had been punished with the greatest national punishment that God Almighty ever metered to a nation, and His own chosen people at that, because of those two great sins. And so, the Jewish people became very, very much set against idolatry and against Sabbath breaking And so they began to invent a lot of ideas of their own. Rules, regulations to make the Sabbath a hard straight-laced yoke of bondage and they had 65 rules and regulations. The traditions of men, that Jesus rebuked by the time of Jesus Christ (Mark 7).

Whole chapters in the New Testament are devoted to the message of Jesus Christ straightening them out on that and showing them how to observe the Sabbath. And He is the mediator of the New and not of the Old Covenant. Oh, how mixed up some people are, they try to say that He preached an Old Covenant message for three and a half years and spent that whole three and a half years preaching an Old Covenant message just so He could knock it in the head, immediately, after He got through. And that He nailed it all to His cross. Oh, what poppycock, and what ignorance and what nonsense some people do believe. God help us then to understand.

Well, that birthright promise of national greatness and power was withheld for 2520 years until 1800 AD And in 1800 AD, my friends, the British and the American people were as nothing. Just little insignificant nations. But by 1804, London dominated the world as a financial center. And we came into such great wealth and such great power as no nations or people had ever acquired before - because God promised it to Abraham. Now, I've covered that in previous broadcasts. Now what about us? We are Israel today, not Judah but Israel. And never, never are the Jewish people called by the name the 'House of Israel' or the 'Kingdom of Israel'. Never is that name applied to them. Jewish people are Israelites and they're called, 'Oh, ye men of Israel' and by names and words like that in the New Testament and in other places but never are the Jewish people called 'Kingdom of Israel' or 'House of Israel'. Those are things to remember. And the nation Israel had its capital anciently in Samaria; Judah, or the Jewish people in Jerusalem. And so Samaria stands for Israel, and then again Rachel, who was the mother of Joseph stands for Israel. You'll notice names like in the Bible. Those are a key to understanding the Bible, and that identifies us. Now with that in mind, let's go on.

A Great Tribulation Coming (Play from 10:13)

I've shown you, my friends, that a Great Tribulation is coming, the very next thing prophesied. First, the famine and the disease epidemic to be accompanied almost simultaneously or immediately afterwards by an invasion and of a power that's going to rise up in Europe that is going to get the jump on the Communists and will invade us, and is going to start war on us even before the Communists get around to doing it, because they're so slow moving. The Communists would do it otherwise, and they are are going to attack us later, but they are not going to attack us until this happens. Now, we do know that the Jewish people were to go back to Palestine, and by the time these final events happen that the men of Judah - which are the Jewish people - are to be in Palestine.

Now, then, this Great Tribulation is to follow and it is both national and individual, I've shown you that. Jesus said in Matthew twenty-four, and speaking in verse eight, of the pestilence, and of the famine that is to come. And we're getting a foretaste of the drought now, and there is a terrific national drought coming that'll be accompanied by such disease epidemics, that one third of our people are going to drop dead. And in spite of all polio vaccines and everything of the kind, my friends, things are coming that doctors will never know anything about, or be able to cope with. It is in your Bible. Now, that is the beginning of the tribulation, verse eight. And then in verse nine;

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted [and that's speaking of Christians, privately and individually], and shall kill you: and [then the latter half of this sentence is speaking nationally of a national invasion] you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." (Matthew 24:09)

Now, verse twenty-one;"...then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this same time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved...[alive]" (Matthew 24:21-22)

In other words, human life would be annihilated from off the face of the entire earth. And we, now for the first time in the history of mankind, have reached the time when scientists tell us that mankind can be wiped off the face of this earth. Einstein knew that, he knew that! The great scientists of the world have known that!

"...except for these days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [alive]; but... [Oh, listen to this] for the elect's sake [you'd better be glad those elect are here] For the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (Matthew. 24:22)

God Almighty is going to intervene, God will step in and interfere. Now, just before that happens, something terrible is going to happen to the United States. I want you to notice: This Great Tribulation, my friends, is the time of our national trouble, it's the very time of our national trouble!

I want to show you that. Will you turn real quickly with me, now, to Jeremiah, the thirtieth chapter. I've given this to you before - now real quickly let's go through some of these prophecies. Here is what is foretold in your Bible, one third of your Bible is prophecy. Listen, the Bible is the book of Israel, it pertains to Israel, it concerns other nations only as they come in contact with Israel. Because, God's whole plan, God's whole purpose being worked out here below, is centered around the people He chose - Israel. They are not His favorite people, they are not His pet people. He doesn't love us more than He loves the Chinese, the Japanese, the Arabs, the people of Africa or any other part of the world. It is merely a matter that He chose us and do you know why? Because our forefather Abraham obeyed God, kept His commandments. God is supreme ruler as well as Creator. That's the thing the world has forgotten. That's the all important thing. That God set the laws in motion and God only can reveal the way to live and everything that we need.

Prophecy for our People (Play from 14:18)

Now look, here's this prophecy for our people. All prophecy is concerned with Israel. It centers around Israel and we are Israel. And if you don't know that, get that booklet 'The United States in Prophecy'. My friends, you can't understand Bible prophecy unless you have that key. That is a veritable key to an understanding of the prophecies. Why the prophecies of the Bible have been grievously misunderstood and no wonder! Because this vital key that is needed to unlock prophetic doors to understanding had become lost. That key is a definite knowledge of the true identity of the American and the British peoples in biblical prophecy. Where is the United States mentioned? Where are we in the prophecies? Write in for that booklet 'The United States in Prophecy' There's no charge. You can't understand your Bible without it.

That's a challenge. I say that you are ignorant of your Bible, you're actually ignorant, you don't understand it until you get this. Now I hope that really stuns you enough to study and see whether this is true because I want to tell you there was a minister down in Florida that wrote me a letter about fifty years ago. But he told me just what I now told you He said, 'Mr. Armstrong, if you don't know that, you're just ignorant.' You know, that stung me to the quick. I said, 'Would anyone call me ignorant?' Why that was - well, I didn't take it as an insult and I certainly don't mean it as an insult to any of you listeners either. I mean it just the way he meant it to me.

But, I want to tell you one thing, I went to the public libraries and I had to dig this thing out and I had to spend years getting it. Well, you don't have to do that, this booklet here will give it to you so that you can study it with your Bible in just a matter of hours, you can get it. All boiled down and condensed. And I've had to sort a lot of chaff out from the wheat. Because there's a lot of teaching on that subject that is not true. And because there is some error being taught on that subject, a lot of people seize on a few points of error then they ridicule and sneer at the whole truth. My friends, it is a truth. You better study it and understand your Bible.

It's vital we are coming down to these times. The only thing that counts now, is the conditions in this world and where we're headed and where we're going! We're in the last days! If you want to know what the end of the world is you'd better know about these things. It doesn't mean about the earth's existence.

Well, here is this prophecy, the thirtieth chapter of Jeremiah; "...lo, the days come, saith the [Eternal], that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the [Eternal]..." (Jeremiah 30:3)

That is speaking of the second coming of Christ and the deliverance of His people from a captivity. And it shows right there, that at the time of the second coming of Christ, God's people Israel, whoever they are, are going to be in a state of captivity. The Jewish people are scattered in all nations all over. But this is Israel! Well of course, the Jewish people have their own nation in Palestine now. And even there they are going to be in a state of captivity too, and we're going to be in a state of captivity if we do not wake up and return to our God.

I've shown you the two great sins for which our forefathers were punished. We are guilty of those same two sins now today, only we don't know what an idol is anymore. An idol isn't just a statue that supposed to be an image of Christ, or something or some other god of some kind. Your automobile might be your idol or your television set could be your idol if you put it to a wrong use. A whole lot of things can become an idol, and I want to tell you that our land is full of idols. It's full of churches, but it's also full of idols and we don't seem to know what our idols are.

I had an idol and it wasn't anything like that at all. God took it away from me and I had to give it up. And it had to be torn out and it was a lot harder than tearing a tooth out of my mouth. It was very painful to give up. But it was the one thing that my whole heart was set on. The thing I hoped to be and to make of myself - my whole life's ambition. God tore it out root and branch and I had to give it up and I had to suffer. And I had to make a surrender and give myself over to God instead before I could ever become His child. And before He could ever use me. My friends, you'll have to find what is your idol. Your idol won't be the same as I had, you've got a different idol maybe. But, most of us have had a lot of idols. One man's idol is his own intellectual capacity. He thinks he's pretty smart and pretty bright. Maybe you have to be brought down and find out that other people are smarter than you are. I know a man whose idol is his wealth. Maybe he will have to lose it, or else he will never gain the Kingdom of God. What ever your idol is, my friends, you've got to give it up. You can't worship an idol and God too. Now, what is your idol?

Listen, He's going to; "...bring again the captivity of [His] people Israel and Judah saith the [Eternal] and I will cause them to return [where?] to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." (Jeremiah 30:3)

Now that means that wherever they are, they are going to be away from that time. Now the Jewish people, the only Jewish people that are in a nation are in that land now. And you see the people that this is speaking of are a nation that are away from that land, and they are going to be taken captive away from that land and brought to that land. It isn't speaking of the nation you call Israel over there now. I want you to notice that point.

Alright, verse four: "And these are the words that the [Eternal] spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah [that concerns our people and also the Jewish people]. For thus saith the [Eternal]; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace [this is a time of war, listen]. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great so that none is like it... " (Jeremiah 30:4-7)

Whatever it is, it's the greatest of it's kind. What is it? It's a time of trouble, the greatest time of trouble the world has ever known. What is it? The Great Tribulation - so great there's never been anything like it since there was a nation.

Here it is. "...that day is great so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." (Jeremiah 30:7)

Not that he won't get into it. He will get into it and then be saved out of it after he gets into it. He is going to get into the greatest time of trouble that ever happened to any nation. Now what was it that I read to you back here about the greatest time of trouble that ever happened to a nation;

"...then shall be great tribulation [that's trouble], such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor every shall be. And except those days should be flesh should be saved [alive]..." (Matthew 24:21-22)

What did I read to you, my friends, about Daniel and what Daniel says about it, Daniel twelve. Here it is just before the return of Christ and the resurrection of the dead;

"And at that time Michael [the archangel] shall stand up, the great prince that standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [it's speaking of nations and national trouble - since there was a nation] even at that same time [same trouble]: and at that time shall thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life..." (Daniel 12:1-2)

The second coming of Christ - now that shows the resurrection at the second coming of Christ.

A Time of Trouble (Play from 21:57)

Here in Jeremiah's prophecy, he shows taking the remnant of Israel that was in a captivity, back to Palestine. They had been in captivity away from Palestine. They've been living away from Palestine. Now, at last, after all these years, they are going back to Palestine. It isn't speaking of the Jewish nation that's over there now. Not at all, it's speaking of Israel as well as Jews, and there are plenty of Jews that are not there now, incidentally too.

"Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of..." (Jeremiah 30:7). Whose trouble? Here's that Great Tribulation, that Great Tribulation is time of whose trouble, my friends? Jacob!

Now who is Jacob? Where is Jacob today? It isn't just the time of Jewish trouble. Do you think that there are enough Jews in the world - about fifteen or seventeen million Jewish people. Do you think there are enough of them with the few that are in Palestine, the rest scattered in all the nations over the earth, that just a trouble on them will be the greatest time of trouble that has ever happened in the world? I should say not! No, but when it involves the British Commonwealth of Nations. When it involves the whole United States as well as all the Jewish people. When it involves all of the democratic nations of northwestern Europe. Then I tell you, my friends, we're getting into the worst time of trouble that this world has ever known and that's exactly what your Bible is talking about.

Some people say, which Bible do you use? I'm talking about your Bible, I don't know whether you have a Roman Catholic Douay Bible, I don't know whether you have a King James Protestant Bible, I don't know whether you have one of these more modern Bibles, in more modern English, the modern Revised Standard, whichever you have, it is in your Bible. There are some differences in translations, there are some errors in translations, but they are just slight enough that when I talk about what is in your Bible, I tell you my friends, which ever one you have, you are going to get it. You can get the truth, if you want it. I don't mean that every one is a hundred percent correct, either. But, they are near enough, you can get to enough of the truth, if you are willing The main thing is where your heart is? Are you self-willed, do you want your own way, or are you willing to surrender to God now.

Look, verse eight; " shall come to pass in that day, saith the [Eternal] of hosts [here is thus saith the LORD], that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers [that's Gentile nations] shall no more serve themselves of him:" (Jeremiah 30:8)

Let me catch that in the Revised Standard here, let's turn to this real quickly, here if I can get it real quickly. Jeremiah the thirtieth chapter, and here I have it and that was in verse eight. Verse eight, let me read it to you here, "And it shall come to pass in that day, says the [Eternal] of hosts, that I will break the yoke from off their neck, and I will burst their bonds [it's speaking of Israel], and strangers [or Gentile nations] shall no more make servants of them [of Israel]. But they shall serve the [Eternal] their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them." (Jeremiah 30:8-9 RSV)

It's speaking of a time of the resurrection of the dead. David, King David of ancient Israel, shall be resurrected and he will be raised up from the dead and be king over Israel and Jesus Christ will come at His second coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16) over every nation on the face of the earth. And at the time He comes, there will be a yoke on Israel's neck. He says, I will break that yoke from off their neck. Who's going to put that yoke on our neck?

Will you turn real quickly back to Isaiah forty seven, I only have a few moments, Isaiah forty seven, verse one; "Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon..." (Isaiah 47:1)

Now, this isn't ancient Babylon 600 years before Christ - it's the daughter of that Babylon, a virgin daughter of Babylon. This is a prophecy for the far, far future, not a history of that day.

"...O daughter of the Chaldeans..." (Isaiah 47:1)

That Babylon was always called in the male gender as a he, here is one that is a daughter. And my friends, the feminine gender is always spoken of as a church and the male gender as a civil government. And here it's speaking of a religious element here that is going to get into politics and rule over the political power it's speaking of. It's a modern thing, this is not the ancient Babylon.

Listen; "...thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate." (Isaiah 47:1) Just compare that to Revelation seventeen and Revelation eighteen, you'll see the same thing speaking of the same power exactly.

Now, the fifth verse; "Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans...thou shalt no more be called [what?], The lady of Kingdoms." (Isaiah 47:5)

Lady means a religious organization or church that entered into politics and ruled over nations. That's exactly what it is speaking of and you turn to Revelation seventeen and there you'll find it described.

"I [says God] was wroth with my people [that's Israel, and] I have polluted mine inheritance..." (Isaiah 47:5). That's Israel, why? because of their sins and He is going to punish us to straighten us out - less we destroy our own selves. God loves us, and He is going to let us be punished for our own good if we won't heed His warnings without the punishment.

Listen; "...I have...given them [that's Israel, his] inheritance,...into thine hand [this daughter of Babylon]: and thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient [or Israel] hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." (Isaiah 47:6)

There is the power that had the yoke on us. There it is and it is the very power that you find in Revelation seventeen. And there you find that the civil governments under that power are to rise up and to resurrect the ancient Roman Empire, and it's coming right now in Europe! And that very thing, my friends, is going to get the jump on the Communist powers and is going to invade us. Oh, there is so many more prophecies on it. I wanted to get over here to Micah five, and so many other prophecies, I'll come to them tomorrow. I'm am going to give you more and more and more prophecies that shows you what is prophesied to happen to our nation. One third of our people are to die in the famine and the pestilence, another third by the invasion that's coming if we don't wake up and return to our God.