EUROPE and AMERICA
in Prophecy
2001

Is the world's greatest nation ignored in Bible prophecy? If it is, how could prophecy be considered valid? How could prophecy be inspired, If the United States of America is nowhere mentioned?

by Garner Ted Armstrong

The breathtaking rise to power and national greatness of the United States is unparalleled in all history! The course of world history has been dramatically altered by the rise of the United States.

Today, we are a major superpower. American astronauts have walked, driven a vehicle about on the surface of the moon. In two world wars, Americans have lent decisive support to their brothers in England and France, as well as other nations, emerging victorious in global struggles which led directly to America's super power status.

Think of world history for the past one hundred years! How much influence has America exerted? How important has been England's contribution?

It is absurd to believe the prophecies of the Bible could be accurate; that they could be up-to-date, portraying events to occur in our times, NOW, if they OMIT mention of the United States and Britain! This would be an oversight, an error so gross as to challenge the very credulity of the Bible itself!

But the United States is mentioned in Bible prophecy—believe it or not, more often than any other nation!

Are Bible prophecies merely the literature of a bygone age—fireside tales of seers and sages of yesteryear; wrathful pronouncements of indignant prophets? Are they merely the dead, ancient fragments of literature from a forgotten race; histories, genealogies, myths?

Or is the one full third of the Bible which is prophecy actually relevant—meaningful to US; to our children and grandchildren in this modern nuclear age?

One Man's Family

In many ways, the Bible could be called the story of "one man's family." In only a few short chapters, one sixth of all the history of the world is covered; from creation until the flood of Noah, a period of approximately one thousand years.

Then follows the account of the overspreading of the earth by Noah's children; the attempt at racial amalgamation and the tower of Babel; the dividing of the nations and confusion of their languages—all within but a few chapters. By the twelfth chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we begin reading of a man named "Abram," who was called of God for a great mission in life. Turn to this vital twelfth chapter, and read it with your own eyes.

"Now the Eternal had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:

"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

What a promise!

This was a promise of recognition from God Almighty. It meant Abram would have a great name. Do not millions strive for recognition; for "fame" as well as fortune? Do not millions hope to make a "name for themselves"? Here was a promise of great wealth; of fame, and of a reputation so great that those who appreciated and "blessed" Abram would themselves be the recipient of great blessings!

What follows is an outstanding example of one man's obedience to God. Without argument, Abram did exactly as he was told. He obeyed God!

Later, in scriptures throughout the Bible, Abraham, as he will become known, is called the "father of the faithful." He is an example of unquestioning OBEDIENCE to God! Abraham came to understand that when God speaks, one instantly, without equivocation, doubt, or argument, OBEYS! This was a quality of character that endeared this great man to God—a quality of character almost totally lacking in mankind today!

"And the Eternal said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, NORTHWARD, AND SOUTHWARD, AND EASTWARD, AND WESTWARD: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.

"And I will make thy seed [your children—your progeny to follow] as the dust of the earth [numbering hundreds of millions]: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered" (Genesis 13:14-16).

God is not promising that Abram's children would become but a small, struggling nation in the Middle East! This is not a description of "Israel" of this modern time—a nation surrounded by hostile Arab nations, struggling for survival.

The Jews in modern Israel hardly comprise a nation so large; a people occupying all points of the compass who number "as the dust of the earth."

Later, God expanded on this marvelous promise to Abram! He promised Abraham's grandson, Jacob (whose name was changed to "Israel"), "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed!"

Obviously, this great promise clearly stated that Abraham's children would "spread ABROAD" from the ancient land of Palestine; that they would ultimately be found in all directions; north, east, south, west, from Palestine! They would be numbered in the countless MILLIONS—"as the dust of the earth" in number!

This promise transcended the narrow national boundaries of ancient Palestine! This promise was GLOBAL!

Fix firmly in your mind, and never forget, that Abraham and his children were promised multiple millions of progeny—time and time again! There are those who attempt to deceive and confuse, claiming the promise of the world being blessed by Abraham's seed meant only Christ! As we shall see, there is definite reference to "that ONE SEED," which was Christ; and it is true there is a duality to the promise "in thy seed shall the earth be blessed." But fix firmly in your mind how God made the promise, again and again, of countless seed, as the "dust of the earth" to Abraham and his son and grandson; that they were to overspread the earth in all points of the compass!

Abraham did exactly as God commanded. As a result, God reconfirmed His promise to Abraham many times. He said, "...look now toward heaven, and tell [count] the stars, if you be able to number them: and He said unto him, so shall thy seed be.

"And he believed in the Eternal; and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:5, 6).

This promise of multiple millions of progeny occurs two chapters prior to the final "covenant" between God and Abraham; prior to the change of name; from "Abram" to "Abraham," which meant, "father of many nations."

J. H. Allen has written perhaps one of the best-known of the many books attesting to the identity of modern-day Britain and America in Bible prophecy. In his forward of his well-known book, Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, Allen says, "Although it is not generally known, it is nevertheless true that God made two covenants with Abraham, or, rather, that He made one with Abram and another with that same man after his name was changed to Abraham. This change of name was made that it might harmonize with the new character and the new order of things as they pertain to the covenant man.

"The first, or Abram, covenant was made when the man was ninety years old; but the second, or Abraham, covenant was not made until this man was called upon to make the one great sacrifice of his life."

We shall see this great test required of Abraham a little later.

Now, notice this second, or "Abraham" covenant God made: "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly . . . as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be [become] a FATHER OF NATIONS!

"Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

"And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations [PLURAL! MORE THAN ONE NATION!] Of thee, and kings [PLURAL! MANY KINGS!] shall come out of thee.

"And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed [plural! multiple, national seed—like the dust of the earth and the stars of heaven for number!] after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed [millions of them] after thee.

"And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

"And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations" (Genesis 17:1-9).

Does this leave any doubt whatsoever in your mind about God's promises to Abraham of multiple MILLIONS of progeny? How many grains of dust are there? How many stars can you see? Scientists tell us there are something like two hundred BILLION stars just in the milky way. Though this is obvious metaphor, and not intended to predict a finite number, God is absolutely promising that Abraham's seed would eventually become many nations; that whole dynasties of kings would be among his descendants; that, eventually, MULTIPLE MILLIONS of human beings would have descended from Abraham!

Anyone who attempts to interpret these facts as applying only to "that one Seed," which was Christ, is wresting, violently, the sacred Word of God! Notice carefully; let this burn deeply into your mind, and never forget it!

(1) "Abraham," the new name for Abram, means "The father of MANY NATIONS."

(2) God promised: "...I will make NATIONS of thee..."

(3) God promised: "...KINGS [plural! More than one!] shall come out of thee."

(4) God promised: "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed [plural!] after thee in THEIR [plural!] generations!"

(5) God promised: "I will give unto thee and thy seed [plural!] the land..."

(6) God promised: "I will be THEIR [plural!] God!"

(7) God promised—over and over again, that Abraham was to become the progenitor of many nations; that whole dynasties of kings would come from him; that his progeny would eventually become "as the dust of the earth" and as "the stars of the heavens" in number.

Yet, as in many cases in the Bible, especially in prophecy, there is oftentimes DUALITY in God's Word. Later, as we shall see, the children of Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel) were given specific, prophetic declarations: Each one of Jacob's twelve sons (thirteen in all, for Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Jacob's favorite son, Joseph) were given a specific national prophecy—an outline of the future; showing the national characteristics; the ultimate inheritance of each.

An Unconditional Promise

At first, God told Abraham, "Walk thou before me, and be thou perfect, and I will be a God unto thee." He made the promises to Abraham conditional, based upon Abraham's obedience. But later, as we shall now see, God made those promises absolutely unconditional.

Read Genesis, the 22nd chapter. This is the account of how God instructed Abraham to do something which seemed utterly unthinkable—impossible!

Though Abraham and Sarah had been childless through all their adult life until they were very old, God repeatedly promised Abraham would become a father—that through his son, he would become the progenitor of many nations. "And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

"And I will bless her, and give thee a son of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

"Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

"And Abraham said unto God, 0 that Ishmael might live before thee! (Ishmael was Abraham's son through his handmaid, Hagar.)

"And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. . . my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee in this set time in the next year" (Genesis 17:15-21).

God repeated the promise in Genesis 18, where you read the account of God's messenger reconfirming the promise to Sarah and Abraham of parenthood; of Sarah laughing incredulously, believing herself to be much too old for childbearing.

Then follows the account of the rescue of Lot and his family from Sodom; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire (and powerful testimony as to God's attitude toward homosexuality!).

Genesis 21 contains the account of Isaac's birth. "And the Eternal visited Sarah as He had said, and the Eternal did unto Sarah as He had spoken.

"For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

"And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac" (Genesis 21:1-3).

Now Abraham knew God had kept his promise! At last he had a son of his own loins; a son of his own beloved wife, Sarah! More than one hundred years old at Isaac's birth, Abraham must have been greatly delighted with the lad; saw in him the fulfillment of God's many promises; realized that Isaac would become the progenitor of many kings, nations, hundreds of millions!

Then came a grueling test!

Abraham must have been nearly dumbfounded when God commanded him to sacrifice his own son—the very son God had promised. By this time, Abraham had sent Hagar and Ishmael away to settle family difficulty; jealousy and resentment between Sarah and Hagar. God had saved Sarah from Abimelech, a pact was made between them, and Abraham had the well at Beersheba dug and designated "the well of the oath of seven," to connote the agreement between Abraham and Abimelech.

Then, as if like a bolt out of the blue, God said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.''

Was this possible? Was it even thinkable? Here God had promised again and again Abraham was to have a son; that, through this son, he would become the progenitor of hundreds of millions; that lines of kings would come from him. Now, it seemed God was changing His mind! God now commanded him to sacrifice Isaac! To kill the son he loved above all else—loved more than his own life!

What follows is an example of faith and obedience virtually unparalleled in history! Centuries later, Paul was to write, "What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory [boast]; but not before God.

"For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness" (Romans 4:1-3).

In this chapter is one of the best Bible descriptions of faith coupled with and exemplified by OBEDIENCE! God said, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and BEING FULLY PERSUADED THAT, WHAT HE HAD PROMISED, HE WAS ABLE ALSO TO PERFORM!" (Romans 4:20, 21).

God had promised Abraham would become the father of many nations; that he would become the progenitor of hundreds of millions; kings! Then, He gave him Isaac. Now, he commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac! Then what was God now planning to do?

The carnal mind; a mind influenced by Satan, would begin to DOUBT God at this point! It would be filled with self-pity; with the seeming illogicality of it all! It would be filled with resentment! "What is God doing?" The carnal mind would think, in self-pity and doubt, "But this isn't fair, God gives, and then He snatches away!"

The carnal mind would think, "Why, that would be murder! Does not God say, in His own law, `Thou shalt not kill?' Now, here He is, telling me to kill my own son"! A torrent of outrage, self-pity, anger, hostility, resentment, incredulity and doubt, would rage through the carnal mind—a mind that had never become "fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform!"

But Abraham? What did HE think?

We cannot know perfectly, but here is a very logical, fair assumption! He must have thought:

(1) Then God is going to immediately resurrect Isaac! He will not allow His word to fail! He has promised, and, since He is God, and cannot lie, He will not go back on His word. Therefore, He intends resurrecting Isaac; bringing him back to life!

(2) Or, if not, then God will give me another son! Perhaps two, or three, or five, or ten! But God will surely perform His word unto me, as He has promised!

(3) Besides, what do I owe God? I owe Him my life; all that I have. I owe Him Sarah's freedom; my wife could have been taken away from me—I would never have seen her again had she been made a part of Abimelech's harem! But God helped me; He spared Sarah, who gave me Isaac. She can give me yet other sons!

Whatever Abraham's thoughts, the Bible says, "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claved the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him."

What an example of faith and obedience! When God originally called Abraham in his own country, the Bible simply says, "So Abraham departed." Simple. God commands. Abraham obeys. At the very last moment, as Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac, God called out! "Abraham! Abraham!" He answered, "Here I am."

"And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

"And Abraham lifted up his eye, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took up the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son" (Genesis 22:1-14).

Here is a shadowy type of God, the Father, being willing to offer His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world (John 3:16).

Before, God had told Abraham, "Walk thou before me, and be thou PERFECT, and I will make thee a father of many nations..." Now, Abraham had passed the utmost and final test! God knew, now, that Abraham would obey Him unquestioningly! He knew Abraham BELIEVED GOD! Today, millions "believe on" Christ. They "believe" He was the Son of God; they "believe in Him." But they DO NOT BELIEVE HIM! They refuse to believe WHAT HE SAID! Christ said, "Think NOT that I am come to destroy the law..." Millions believe He DID come to destroy it! Christ said He would be three days and three nights in the tomb (Matthew 12:40), and millions believe He was in the tomb only from Friday sunset until Sunday morning at sunrise, two nights, and one day! He said, "If you will enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS!" (Matthew 19:17) and millions believe He did away with His Father's law!

Millions believe "on" Christ! But they do not believe His gospel message; a message about the soon-coming Kingdom of God; the world-ruling, 1,000 year reign of Christ ON THIS EARTH! (Revelation 20:4; 2:26; 3:21).

Abraham did not merely have a "belief," like millions of professing Christians today. He KNEW! There is a difference!

Therefore, God said to him, "By Myself have I sworn, saith the Eternal, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice!" (Genesis 22:15-18).

Once again, note well that Abraham's seed were to become in-numerable! They were to possess the strategic land and sea "gates" that would ensure their prosperity, protection from their enemies!

These fabulous promises were reconfirmed to Isaac; and then to Jacob. Later, the birthright promises were passed on to Jacob's sons; his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, by aged Isaac, as he lay dying.

But, as we shall see, God said, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah!" Though God allowed human nature and human reasoning to fulfill His great purpose; allowed Rebekah and Jacob to deceive Isaac in the matter of passing on the birthright blessing to Jacob, instead of Esau, He nevertheless determined that the "sceptre"; the promise of that "one seed" which was Christ, would not depart from JUDAH, who was yet to be born; one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and the progenitor of the "Jews," which is merely a "nickname" for "Judah." As we shall see, there became a necessary breakdown in the dual covenant; one of RACE and one of GRACE. Much later in history, after centuries had gone by; after two whole nations, embodying thirteen tribes in all had emerged; after the northern ten tribes had been removed from their land and disappeared from history, one of God's chosen apostles was illustrating to disbelieving gentiles the validity of Christ's credentials as the promised "seed" of Abraham; the GRACE promise; the fulfillment of God's prediction that "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah!"

Many, seizing on this scripture, attempt to set aside and negate all you have read; all the repetitious promises of God Almighty to Abraham concerning MULTIPLE SEED; NATIONS, KINGS, POPULATIONS AS THE DUST OF THE EARTH AND THE STARS OF HEAVEN!

Now notice! When the apostle Paul was arguing concerning the promise of GRACE (not RACE) with the gentile Galatians, he said, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ" (Galatians 3:16).

But notice the difference between the promises of national, racial, inheritance, and the promise of the inheritance of grace.

"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah..." (Genesis 49:10). God prophesied, "For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him comes the chief ruler [prince]; but the birthright is Joseph's!" (I Chronicles 5:2).

The birthright is something which was to be Joseph's (Ephraim and Manasseh were Joseph's two sons, upon whose heads the dying Jacob [Israel], said, "Let my name be named upon them") BY RIGHT OF BIRTH! It had nothing to do with "grace." It was not something to be earned, or deserved—it was the BIRTHRIGHT of Joseph. The Word of God makes it clear that, while the lineage which was to culminate in Christ would come through JUDAH, the promise of multiple seed; kings, nations, millions of progeny, would be continued down through JOSEPH!

A sceptre is the official baton, or staff, of a king. It connotes kingly office. Christ was to come through JUDAH! Notice, "For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood" (Hebrews 7:14).

Think, for a moment of the dual meaning inherent in the expres- sion, "In thee shall all nations be blessed." As you will come to understand as you read; as you will come to know, if you have studied recent world history, the entire world has been mightily blessed because of the two nations of Great Britain and the United States of America! The statement is so obvious that it needs no magnification.

But think of the global community of nations; of the colonizing British—of the development of underdeveloped, backward, impoverished nations through trade and commerce. Think of what the world might have been like if there had never been a Britain or a United States! Hundreds of nations have been blessed, materially, as well as spiritually, by those two great nations!

And what is the meaning of the word, "nation"? Usually, you think of a nation as a political entity; a country on the map, having a name. But today, the use of the word has changed from its original intent. Originally, the term meant a family of people gathered together into one political entity, or country.

It comes from the same root as "birth," or "nativity," "natal," and "native." Its meaning pertains to birth, or family.

However, in modern times, any number of racial strains; "families" of people having common genealogical origins, may be incorporated inside a given national boundary. Modern-day Belgium, for example, is one political entity referred to as a "nation." Yet, there are two distinct racial stocks within Belgium; the Flemish and the Walloons. As in many other nations today, those two racial strains do not always get along. The same thing applies to Yugoslavia; to former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), and to the former Soviet Union, which is made up of more than a dozen different racial stocks; Mongols, Georgians, Ukrainians, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Russians, and many more. Switzerland is made up of three distinct cultures; German, French, and Italian.

Knowing that many modern nations have become racially mixed does not set aside the promises of God concerning the many "nations" that were to come out of Abraham. Even though the political borders have become confused; even though many nations have become of mixed racial stocks, a virtual "melting pot" of racial strains, God's promises have not been thwarted! His word still stands!

The Birthright; Sold and Transferred

Now, let's understand the vast difference between the birthright promises and those of the kingly sceptre which was to be fulfilled in the coming of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

The fascinating story of how the birthright blessing was transferred from Joseph to his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, is found in Genesis 48.

"And Israel [Jacob] beheld Joseph's sons and said, Who are these? And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.

"Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he [Joseph] brought them near unto him [Israel]; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

"And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed.

"And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

"And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.

"And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly ["making his hands wise"; margin]; for Manasseh was the firstborn.

"And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my lifelong unto this day, the Angel ["messenger"; Hebrew] which redeemed them from all evil, bless the lad; and LET MY NAME BE NAMED UPON THEM and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

"And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.

"And Joseph said unto his father, not so my father, for this is the first born; put thy right hand upon his head.

"And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become A MULTITUDE OF NATIONS!"

WHAT A PROMISE!

These two sons of Joseph were to become two great peoples—the elder, Manasseh, a single, GREAT NATION, and the younger, Ephraim, a GREAT GROUP OF NATIONS—a "multitude of nations."

And WHO, down through history, was to bear the name of ISRAEL? You read it plainly! Aging Israel (Jacob) said, "LET MY NAME BE NAMED ON THEM" and he also said the names of Abraham and Isaac would be upon them.

Millions of Americans and Britons are blissfully unaware of their ancient roots. They have not the faintest conception that the great community of nations called the British Commonwealth; including Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, comprise the peoples of Ephraim. Nor do countless millions in the United States understand that they are the Manasseh of Bible history—and Bible prophecy!

Instead, millions believe, erroneously, that the names "Israel" and "Jewish" are synonymous. This is a gross error; a complete false assumption, yet millions are completely ignorant of it. More on this later. But for now, let it be firmly fixed in your mind that dying Jacob, whose name was changed to ISRAEL, plainly said that name was to be indelibly affixed to EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH!

The only two tribes of which much of the world is aware are those of Judah and Levi. One finds many, many names among those commonly called "Jewish," which in fact are "Levite." In Hebrew, the name "Cohen" means "priest," or "Levite." The names Levi, Levine, Levinson, Levy, Kahn, Kuhn, Cohan, Kohane, Cohen, Kohn, Levitz, Lewitz, Lewis, Lewison, Liebov, Leibowitz, and many, many others are derivations of "Levi" and "Cohen," or "priest."

And how many know, even among the Jewish people, where the tribes of Issachar, Dan, Zebulon, Naphtali, Reuben, and others are located? Most have not the slightest clue! Millions believe the terms "Jewish" and "Israelite" are synonymous! What gross error! What ignorance!

Joseph's two sons were brothers. These two brother nations were to eventually become a great, single nation, and a "company of nations." Where, in the world today, does one look to find nations matching these descriptions—brothers enjoying a long, enduring relationship (even though brothers sometimes fight, and do not always agree)—two great peoples possessing between them much of the wealth of the world?

You may search history; study ethnology, geography, geopolitics—and you will find that the ONLY peoples who suit this biblical description are the peoples of the United States of America and the British Commonwealth!

"The Gates of Enemies"

The British colonized, developed, expanded around the globe, finally reaching the status of EMPIRE. Study any pre-World War II map of the world. Maps and globes of that period usually colored the British Commonwealth red; her territories and protectorates pink.

One could look anywhere on earth, and find British possessions; dominance and influence.

First, one would see the British Isles, lying like a dominating lion offshore Europe; secure behind the famous English channel, yet guarding the gateways to Europe; the Kategat and Skagerrak; the ports of Holland and France. The position of the British Isles has been absolutely decisive in the course of history—has influenced dramatically the outcome of many, many wars, including the first and second World Wars!

Then, one thinks of the vast territory, natural resources and physical wealth of Canada; the continent "down under," Australia; the island nation of New Zealand. There is South Africa, with some of the richest deposits of minerals and natural wealth on earth.

During the last of the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth, Britain controlled many, many other nations, including India, Egypt; the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, as it used to be called; many of the nations of East Africa, including those lost by Germany following the Treaty of Versailles. Britain had possessions all over the globe! Here are some of them:

Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Gibraltar, Malta, Crete, the Suez Canal, The Khyber Pass, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ceylon, Rhodesia, Kenya, and Tanganyika; Singapore and the Straits of Malacca; Hong Kong, Brunei, the Gilberts and Solomons, New Georgia and New Guinea; Santa Cruz. In the Atlantic, Britain controlled the Hebrides, the Falklands, Bermuda, Bahamas, Barbuda, Antigua, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, and British Honduras, as well as British Guiana.

The major sea and land gates of the world were possessed almost entirely by the British and the United States.

For our own part, the strategic location of the United States itself, protected from Europe's wars by the vast Atlantic and Pacific oceans, has played a vital role in the preservation of freedom in America. We possessed vitally important sea gates and strategic island defenses in the Panama Canal; Guantanamo on Cuba, the Hawaiian Islands; Midway, Guam, and Wake. We possessed the frigid island chain of the Aleutians with Dutch Harbor. Only a cursory knowledge of history would serve to impress upon anyone the vital, all-important strategic value of these areas.

Britain possessed Gibraltar and Suez, thereby bottling up the Mediterranean, and with Malta, Crete and Cyprus available as naval bases, not to mention Alexandria, in Egypt, as well as the Bosporus-Dardanelles between European Turkey and the Anatolian Peninsula, bottling up the Black Sea. Britain stood astride the most vital sea lanes in the world.

Add to this the huge naval base at Singapore and the Straits of Malacca, Hong Kong on the Chinese littoral, together with Brunei, and one gets a picture of how and why Britain was able, together with the Dutch (who are the descendants of Zebulon, another of the so-called "lost ten tribes") who possessed the East Indies, to maintain a powerful naval and military presence in the Far East.

This is the fulfillment of a prophecy uttered by the parents and brethren of Rebekah, wife of Isaac. It is another reconfirmation of, and enlargement upon, the promises God gave Abraham, which were passed on through Isaac and Jacob. The story of the search for Isaac's wife is often given romantic emphasis in Bible literature; is a favorite subject for children's classes. But the point is hardly romantic. Let's notice it:

"And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the Eternal had blessed Abraham in all things.

"And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

"And I will make thee swear by the Eternal, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:

"But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

"And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest?

"And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.

"The Eternal God of heaven which took me from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence.

"And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again" (Genesis 24:1-8).

Abraham was seriously intent that his servant not allow Isaac to leave the land of Palestine; not return to the land of Abraham's ancestors, lest it negate God's promises. Further, he was determined Isaac would marry among his own race; from his own kind, even among distant kin.

The story continues throughout the 24th chapter of Genesis.

The servant arrived in Mesopotamia, was in need of water; Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, who was Nahor's son, who was Abraham's brother—meaning Rebekah was Isaac's third cousin, came to the well with a pitcher on her shoulder; gave a drink to the servant of Abraham; drew water for his camels.

The servant knew the meeting was providential; gave her expensive gifts: possibly tokens of betrothal, and went to lodge with her parents. In the ensuing account, he identified himself, spoke to her parents. She agreed to go with him to become married to Isaac. Now, notice the strange prophecy God caused her own parents to utter!

"And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them" (Genesis 24:60).

Rebekah became the mother of Jacob and Esau, and was instrumental in ensuring the birthright promise was passed on to Jacob. Though God allowed human nature to fulfill His purpose, and the selling of Esau's birthright for a pottage of lentils has oft been told as an example of contemptuous disregard, on Esau's part, for something of inestimable value, God nevertheless intended that Jacob become the rightful heir.

Aged Isaac, deceived by both Jacob and Rebekah, blessed Jacob, assuming it was Esau. He said, "Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven [rains in due season], and the fatness of the earth [bounteous harvests] and plenty of corn and wine: let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee" (Genesis 27:28, 29).

Now, even though God allowed this to occur through human subterfuge, Jacob was possessor of both the birthright and the blessing.

The next several chapters are concerned with Jacob's life; his work for Laban; Laban's deception, and Jacob's wives and children. Notice how God reconfirmed the promises He had made unconditionally to Abraham—showing Jacob was now the rightful heir: "And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and He called his name Israel.

"And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a NATION and a COMPANY OF NATIONS shall be of thee, and KINGS [plural! More than one! A dynasty of KINGS over MANY NATIONS! This is not referring to that "one seed, which is Christ"; not referring to the sceptre part of the two-fold promise of race and grace; it is referring to the birthright portion; the promise of national greatness!] shall come out of thy loins;

"And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land" (Genesis 35: 10-12).

Jacob set up the famous "pillar stone" there, anointed it with oil, and named the place "Bethel," meaning "God's house." It later became an important city in ancient Palestine.

Jacob's Pillar Stone

Isaac, following the pattern set by his father Abraham, forbad his son, Jacob, to marry among the Canaanites. He "...called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

"Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother.

"And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave to Abraham" (Genesis 28:14).

Esau also disdained marrying among the Canaanites, knowing it would displease his father (Genesis 28:6-9).

"And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

"And, behold, the Eternal stood above it, and said, I am the Eternal God of Abraham thy father and of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed" (Genesis 28:10-13).

There are those who attempt forcing the interpretation that God was promising only the land of Palestine to Jacob; that He meant "the land on which you lie—ONLY," and did not mean to grant to Jacob the promise of seed which would overspread the earth!

But how ridiculous! Was God promising merely a patch of rocky ground about six feet by two and a half feet? The "land whereon thou liest" was only the patch of rocky ground actually touched by the body of Jacob! Such an assumption would be sheer nonsense! Do those who quote this verse only, attempting to negate the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and here reconfirmed to Jacob, have a case of terrible "tunnel vision"? For, note carefully the very next verse!

"And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt SPREAD ABROAD TO THE WEST, AND TO THE EAST, AND TO THE NORTH, AND TO THE SOUTH: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed!" (Genesis 28:14).

The families of the earth would be blessed because the seed of Jacob would ultimately be living everywhere among them—scattered AROUND THE EARTH!

Again, it is absolutely proved that God promised Abraham's seed would ultimately be hundreds of millions; that they would spread abroad FROM the land of Palestine; that they would be found in all directions of the compass from Palestine!

Jacob awoke from his vivid dream and said, "Surely the Eternal is in this place, and I knew it not...How dreadful [awesome; overwhelming, not terrible] is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar [stood it on end, like a monument, or marker], and poured oil on the top of it.

"And he called the name of that place `Bethel' [the house of God]: but the name of that city [which it later became] was called Luz at first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Eternal be my God:

"And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee!" (Genesis 28:16-22).

Like his grandfather Abraham, who had tithed to Melchizedek, the Priest of the most high God, Jacob understood the law of tithing. He knew God has a prior claim on the first tenth of the income He freely gives to those who obey Him! Note well that these references to God's law of tithing occur in the Bible LONG BEFORE any Levitical priesthood; long before the birth of Moses; long before any laws given at Sinai.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob OBEYED God. They did not merely think "nice thoughts" about God; they did not offer Him lip service. Their quality of character was not merely a "good attitude"; they PROVED their love and obedience to God BY THEIR WORKS! James wrote, "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith BY MY WORKS. Thou believest that there is one God? [or, "that God is one"]; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and tremble!" (James 2:17-19).

The devil is a great BELIEVER! He KNOWS God exists, for he has SEEN GOD! His fallen angels, called "demons," also "believe"! Like millions of professing Christians, they "believe on" Christ! Oh, don't doubt for a moment that the demons KNOW JESUS IS THE CHRIST! They KNOW He died for the sins of the world; that He is the Saviour of mankind! Was not Satan the devil personally inside of Judas Iscariot at Christ's betrayal?

But "belief" is NOT ENOUGH!

Notice! "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

"Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works [deeds-action!] was faith made perfect?

"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham BELIEVED GOD [he didn't merely "believe on" God—HE BELIEVED GOD] and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God" (James 2:17-23).

As a result of Jacob's vow of obedience, God continued to bless him throughout his long life. More on his famous "pillar" stone later.

Now we come to a Bible truth so simple, and yet so profound, that it is surprising that millions of churchgoing, professing Christians do not understand it! That has to do with the identity of "the House of Israel," and "the House of Judah."

Few seem to understand that not all Israelites are Jews!

Just as all Americans are not Texans, yet all Texans (legal residents) are Americans, so it is true that all Jews are Israelites! But all Israelites are not Jews!

The term "Jew" is a nickname for the progenitor of the Jewish race, "Judah." Judah is one of the children of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.

With the division of the tribes following the death of Solomon, Rehoboam, Solomon's son, controlled the southern portion of the land with its capital, Jerusalem. Levi was scattered throughout the other tribes and had no inheritance in the land. The "House of Judah" included, primarily, the tribe of Judah, with portions of Levi and Simeon, and perhaps a small portion of Benjamin, with which Judah shared a common border to the north of Jerusalem.

The northern kingdom, with its capital at Samaria, embodied the remainder of all the tribes of Israel, numbering ten in all, under a completely separate dynasty of kings!

Why is it that few churchgoing professing "Christians" know and understand that there were two separate nations, two separate capital cities, two separate dynasties of kings, and that there are four whole books of the Bible devoted to the separate national histories of these peoples; that one of them was called "the House of Israel," and the other "the House of Judah"?

Jacob had twelve children.

The story of Jacob's two wives, Leah and Rachel, is found in chapter 28 through chapter 31 of the book of Genesis.

Leah was the mother of the following children: Dinah, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.

Rachel's maid, Bilhah, bore Jacob two sons, Dan and Naphtali.

Zilpah, Leah's maid, bore Gad and Asher.

Finally, Rachel, Jacob's choice for a wife and the one for whom he had labored so long, bore Jacob two sons, Joseph, and Benjamin.

After the saga of Jacob and Laban, his marriage to the two sisters, the births of their many children and the expiration of many years, the Bible shows how greatly Jacob was enlarged and blessed, materially.

In his prayer, because of fear of his brother Esau, Jacob said, "Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.

"And thou said, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude" (Genesis 32:11, 12).

How Jacob Became "Israel"

Then follows one of the strangest accounts in all the Bible.

"And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with Him until the breaking of the day.

"And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched [struck, Hebrew] the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with Him.

"And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

"And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. "And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel [he who strives, perseveres, or overcomes with God] for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hath prevailed.

"And Jacob asked him, and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.

"And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

"And as he passed Peniel [the face of God] the sun rose upon him, and he halted [limped] upon his thigh."

This mysterious account shows that Jacob wrestled most of the night with a person whom he later referred to as God.

Perhaps in some strange way Jacob realized the challenge of this person had to do with the birthright. To Jacob, he may have understood that if he could just persevere, prevail, hang on and overcome in this personal test of rugged endurance, physical strength and prowess, he would win great rewards.

To Jacob, it might have been as if he had an opportunity to find Aladdin's lamp, possess the goose that laid the golden egg, storm the castle wherein all the king's treasures were stored, and gain a great prize if he prevailed and persevered with this personality who challenged him to a contest of physical strength!

One sees the struggle as if lasting for hours, and, because the personality Jacob referred to as "God" had manifested himself as a physical human being, Jacob's tenacity was such that the only way this Person could overcome him was by striking a blow not unlike that of a karate champion which partially disabled Jacob and resulted in a pronounced limp!

In any event, it was following this strange occurrence that God changed the name of Jacob to ISRAEL!

later, God appeared unto Jacob, "And God said unto him, thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but ISRAEL shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

"And God said unto him, I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a nation [singular] and a company of nations [multiple nations!] shall be of thee, and kings [plural] shall come out of thy loins!

"And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac to thee I will give it, and to thy seed [multiple seed—millions!] after thee will I give the land" (Genesis 35:10).

The promises which had been made unconditional to Abraham now passed on to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel! Much of the remainder of the book of Genesis is taken up with the story of how the jealous brothers sold Joseph, Israel's favorite son, into Egypt; how God allowed this to happen in order to provide a place for the family to endure the searing drought which would take thousands of lives in Palestine, and how the result was the birth of a new nation in captivity.

Toward the end of the book of Genesis is a fascinating chapter (chapter 49) giving strong clues as to the modem identity of the many tribes of the "House of Israel."

In the preceding chapter (Genesis 48) is the vitally important account of how the name of Israel passed upon Ephraim and Manassseh, Joseph's two sons!

But the most important verse is verse 16. Read it again!

"The angel [messenger] which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lad; and LET MY NAME BE NAMED ON THEM, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

Which tribes, then, according to your Bible, should wear the name of Israel? Judah? No. Simeon or Levi? No.

The name of the House of ISRAEL was very clearly passed down to the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, in that order!

Ephraim was prophesied to become a company of nations, and his brother, Manasseh, a great single nation!

These two brothers were to possess the names of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or ISRAEL!

They, uniquely among the other children of Jacob, were to have the name of "ISRAEL" upon them!

Yet millions of professing Christians remain blissfully ignorant of these vitally important scriptures which clearly identify the "lost ten tribes," or the "covenant people," prophesied to inherit the national greatness promised the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

How Could the Jews Go to War Against Israel?

As mentioned previously, the term "Jew" is merely a nickname for a person of the House of Judah. The term never appears in the Bible until II Kings 16:6.

Turn to and read this important scripture: "At that time, Rezin King of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day." Read the whole chapter in its correct context.

Ahaz, who was 20 when he began to reign (verse 2), was accused of causing the southern kingdom of the House of Judah to sin in the same way as did the kings of Israel (verse 3), causing his own son to "pass through the fire," and descending into idolatry.

Pekah, the son of Remaliah, was the king of Israel.

As a result of Judah's idolatry, God used Israel, together with its ally, Syria, to attack Judah, the Jews.

Note verse 5, "Then Rezin King of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him."

In this account. the 10-tribed nation of Israel, allied with the Syrians, is waging war against the "House of Judah" under King Ahaz in Jerusalem.

Here, then, is a clear account of war between Israel and the Jews!

This is sure biblical proof that the term "Jew" and the term "Israelite" are absolutely not synonymous.

Any reading of the four historical books of I and II Kings and I and II Chronicles will convince even a casual student of the Bible that these four books of the Old Testament are devoted to the separate national histories of the 10-tribed "House of Israel" to the north, and the "House of Judah" (the Jews) to the south.

For generations this situation prevailed.

God's Covenant With David

A vitally important thread of the story of the national identity of the American and British peoples is found in God's promise to David.

Why? Remember! God promised "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah." David, as the grandfather of Rehoboam, the first king in a long line of rulers over the southern kingdom, was given an unconditional promise from God.

The covenant with David had nothing to do with the birthright promise; the promise of RACE. Instead, it concerned the sceptre promise, the promise of GRACE; the lineage through which Christ would be born.

For a full understanding of the covenant God made with David, turn to and read all of II Samuel the seventh chapter.

Notice particularly verses 12 through 17: "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

"He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

"I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity. I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

"But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.

"And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.

"According to all these words, and according to this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David."

The genealogy of Jesus Christ proves how God kept this promise to David. Read Luke 3:23 to the end of the chapter and you will read of Jesus' "legal" genealogy through His foster father, Joseph, back to Adam. Verses 31 and 32 include Jesse, David's father, and David himself.

Each year, at "Christmas" time, little children are schooled in repeating the angelic enunciation of the birth of Jesus Christ. Millions hear these words repeated each year, yet none seem to understand what they mean.

The angel said to Mary, "Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.

"And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name JESUS.

"He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the House of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:30-33).

What does this scripture tell you?

It tells you, in incontrovertible and plain language from the inspired Word of God, that the throne of David will still remain as a viable throne—meaning a position of rulership over a nation—right up until the second coming of Christ!

Notice! "Behold the days come, saith the Eternal, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

"In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel [a different nation] shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE ETERNAL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jeremiah 23:5, 6).

Jeremiah's prophecy depicts the second coming of Jesus Christ to rule for 1,000 years over the earth. The language is unmistakably concerned with Jesus inheriting the throne of His father David. It emphasizes the lineage from David until Jesus Christ, and speaks of the fulfillment of Paul's prophecies concerning the salvation of the Jews (Romans 11), which will only occur after the second coming of Christ!

Read Jeremiah 30, verse 7 through 11!

Here you see God promising to "break the yoke" of Israel's captors from Israel's neck, and a prophecy of the resurrection.

"I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:

"But they shalt serve the Eternal their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.

"Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Eternal; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob [Israel] shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.

"For I am with thee, saith the Eternal, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee..."

David's throne will still be extant at the time of the second coming of Christ. David himself will be resurrected at that time, and sit on a throne over the 12 tribes of Israel, yet under authority of the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is prophesied to come to "inherit the throne of His father David," proving that throne still exists.

The Ten Tribes of Israel Removed

For generations, God pled with stiff-necked, rebellious ten-tribed Israel. God had given them His weekly Sabbath day as a perpetual sign between Himself and His people (Exodus 31). He had revealed His annual Sabbaths (Leviticus 23) to them, commencing with the solemn Passover, which was instituted at the time Israel was constituted as a nation; brought out of Egyptian slavery, sent into their own land.

God shows the Sabbath was made for MAN, not "the Jews" (Mark 2:26, 27). The Sabbath was created when God rested on the seventh day, and hallowed (sanctified, set apart for holy use and purpose) it (Genesis 2:1-3). It was the great TEST commandment (Exodus 16:28), revealed, enforced upon the Israelites long before the giving of the decalogue at Sinai!

That's why God said, "REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to KEEP it holy..." (Exodus 20:8-11). The Sabbath was holy time. God MADE it holy when He rested upon that day; gave it to Israel as a great blessing; a day of complete REST out of every seven; a day of rejoicing, prayer, study, worship of God, relaxing, rejuvenation—a day where one ceased from his workaday job; acknowledged God as Creator!

God shows the Sabbath day looks back at Creation, and looks forward, to the millennial reign of Christ. It is a picture of the seven-thousand year plan of God, wherein six thousand years are given to man, to write the lesson in human suffering, sickness, squalor, poverty, disease and war; to etch the indelible lesson in human blood that man is utterly incapable of governing himself apart from his God! God will show sinning mankind how God will rule and govern in the seventh one-thousand year period, a type of the Sabbath rest; the millennial rule of Christ! (Revelation 20:4).

Typically, the first thing evil rulers did was to reject God's Sabbath; to ignore His annual holy days—the annual Sabbaths, numbering seven in all, which portray the great PLAN of God; the great PURPOSE He is working out here below!

When God revealed the Passover to Israel, He did so amid great plagues upon Egypt! He broke the back of the greatest nation on earth financially and militarily—Egypt has never been a great nation since those days in antiquity—to demonstrate what happens to any nation who turns to idolatry; away from God toward Satan and his evil hosts; drifts into infant sacrifice, every form of perversion.

God's laws, if obeyed, would guarantee His people remained free from disease; free from debt! They would have successful businesses; good jobs, healthy, happy marriages, good crops, rain in due season, healthy babies! They would have PEACE in their lands; free from fear and worry about voracious neighbors; would-be attackers! Study Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26, where the two opposites; great blessings for obedience to God, and great cursings for disobedience, are plainly listed!

The history of God's new nation is unfolded in the books of Joshua when they entered into the promised land; Judges; the period under God's system of Judges, like a theocracy under God, culminated in the rebellious call for a KING to rule over them in I and II Samuel, like other nations. That king was Saul.

Under Saul, Israel found itself heavily taxed; military conscription of young men occurred, warfare ensued, and the people had no real peace.

The books of I and II Samuel detail the reign of Saul; his evil character. While issuing a royal decree that any witch was to he put to death or expelled from the land, Saul sought to the infamous Witch of Endor in an attempt to receive a message from Samuel, then dead. He continually tried to kill David, becoming jealous of him because of his military prowess; his popularity.

Then comes David's accession to the throne, and the enlargement of the kingdom. David is followed by his son, Solomon, and the temple is built; the kingdom further expanded, until it reached its zenith; a prosperous, wealthy, vibrant nation which was the greatest known on earth at that time.

Under Solomon metals were mined from far away England; Solomon's ships sailed into the Atlantic; circumnavigated Africa. They brought strange and exotic birds, like peacocks; strange animals from India, and from Africa. The Queen of Sheba, probably Hatshepsut of Egypt, was overwhelmed at Jerusalem, with its terraced gardens, fountains, magnificent temple and buildings; splendid homes, great treasuries of gold, silver, and precious stones.

But Solomon became corrupted in his old age; he built temples to the pagan gods of his many wives and concubines, neglected the affairs of government, allowed other forces to prevail. As a result, one of Solomon's servants, Jereboam, brought the northern ten tribes to the brink of civil war with Judah, and those associated with the Jews in and around Jerusalem, including Levi, Simeon, and portions of Benjamin, who had contiguous borders.

The kingdom was divided; Jereboam set up a provisional government in Samaria, to the north, and Rehoboam, Solomon's son, continued on the throne in Jerusalem, as the king of Judah.

Now, there were two distinct nations; The House of Israel, to the north, with capital city of Samaria, under Jereboam, and the House of Judah, consisting mostly of those of the tribe of Judah, together with many Levites and Simeonites, with their capital city of Jerusalem. Never were those of the ten tribes to the north called Jews! The "Jews" were of Judah, from which the term "Jew" derives.

Now, notice what happened immediately after Israel rebelled against Rehoboam's wicked reign: "And Jereboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David [the lineage God promised through the sceptre covenant; the promise of GRACE, not race]: If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Eternal at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam King of Judah" (1 Kings 12:26-27).

Jerusalem was the cultural, financial, spiritual capital of the former nation! The temple was there—the most magnificent structure in all the world! Hundreds of thousands of these people counted it the trip of a lifetime; a veritable pilgrimage, to he able to visit the temple; to offer sacrifice, and to worship God. And, WHEN did they make such pilgrimages? ON THE ANNUAL SABBATHS, when they could use their festival tithe (like a "second tithe" which the people saved FOR THEMSELVES: FOR THEIR OWN FAMILIES—TEN PERCENT OF THEIR ANNUAL INCOME WHICH THEY WERE COMMANDED TO SAVE FOR THAT SPECIFIC PURPOSE!) (Deuteronomy 14:22-26).

Jereboam realized the spiritual, social, cultural and economic ties of the people were in Jerusalem. So what did he do? He purposely turned to IDOLATRY! Like a charlatan "spiritual" leader, "...the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: for behold your gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

"And he set one up in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

"And this thing became a SIN: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made an house of high places [these were to worship beneath the symbols of Astarte and Ishtar (pronounced, "Easter"); phallic symbols arranged in "groves," usually utilizing upright trunks of trees, or stone or metal obelisks] and made priests of the LOWEST of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

"And Jereboam ordained a feast in the eighth month" (I Kings 12:26-32).

Whatever Jereboam did, he did for political expedience. Here was a cynical man; a man who did not for one instant believe in or wish to obey the true God! Why?

In the beginning, Jereboam was singled out because of Solomon's sins; told he would inherit the ten northern tribes! Read it, in I Kings the 11th chapter. After God's prophet rent his garment twelve ways, giving Jereboam ten pieces, he said, "...behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:) Because they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth [Ishtar; Astarte—pronounced "Easter"; the pagan goddess of sexual reproduction and fertility]...and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father...I will take the kingdom out of his son's [Solomon's] hand, and will give it unto thee, even ten tribes... and it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did: that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee (I Kings 11:30-38).

Here was, once again, a conditional covenant. If Jereboam would remain true to God's laws; setting the right example for God's chosen peoples of Israel, he would receive God's blessings! His progeny could continue on the throne.

Instead, he resorted to politics, human reasoning. He didn't truly believe God, as had Abraham. He thought only of power, position, money—material things! His mind was on the SELF; on his ego and vanity!

Like all would-be despots, he was paranoid! Fearful of placing anyone of real intelligence in positions of potential "power" because of a possible threat to him and his office, he set up the very least intelligent: the least qualified in the land as his priests!

Now, the northern ten-tribed Israel was securely in the hands of a power-mad, dishonest, egocentric politician! Now, their leaders were "his men," specially chosen for their banality; their brutish lack of education, character, or qualifications. Realizing he would lose power if the people remained spiritually attached to Jerusalem, he sought to negate any possible reason for their pilgrimages. He set up golden calves: idols—abominations in God's sight, in both Dan and Beersheba. But still, he was not satisfied. Reasoning that the people were accustomed to the great Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month, he sought to alter even this commandment of God—he set up an alternate festival, one dedicated to Ashteroth, not to the living God, in the eighth month.

Shortly thereafter, God sent a powerful witness to Jereboam of his enormous sins. He sent his prophet to warn Jereboam, whom he found standing at his pagan altar of incense. When the prophet spoke against Jereboam and the altar, saying, "...O altar, altar, thus saith the Eternal; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee" (Kings 13:1-9).

Read the account in these verses! When Jereboam imperiously stretched out his hand against the prophet, pointing toward him, commanding his servants to arrest him, his hand withered up like a dried stick! He shrieked in dismay! Suddenly, the altar disintegrated; ashes flew everywhere! The altar had been supernaturally destroyed!

Jereboam was shocked, cowed, frightened! He pled, "Intreat now the face of the Eternal thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me again" (verse 6).

Like many sinners, he knew about God! When he was in trouble from his own sins, he desperately called out to God! He was perfectly capable of SELF pity! Notice he did not say, "the Eternal MY God," but "thy" God, referring to the prophet.

His hand was restored. Yet, even after the prophet was killed by a lion after the lying subterfuge which caused him to disobey the voice of God, the Bible says, "After this thing Jereboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. And this thing became sin unto the house of Jereboam, even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth!" (1 Kings 13:19-34).

Imagine it! Though God had allowed the near civil war to develop; had prophesied Jereboam would be given the northern ten tribes; had cautioned him to obey God, and walk in His commandments; though God had sent a prophet to warn him of his perfidy—still, he refused to repent!

Now, God determined he would be removed. Instead, God would fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! He would fulfill His promise to David! Never would there fail an heir of King David who would be available to sit on the throne of Israel!

Jereboam's calloused politics caused him to appoint wastrels; drifters, vagabonds; the dregs of society to the ranks of the priesthood! Now, the people of Israel had a wholly corrupt leadership!

Jereboam reigned twenty-two years, and was succeeded by Nadab, his son, who continued in his idolatrous ways. The history of Israel is replete with continual pleadings from God to return to His laws; to keep His commandments, that it might be well with them, and with their children. There were a few righteous rulers along the way; Jehu destroyed the prophets of Baal, and was congratulated for it by the Eternal, but he did not destroy the golden calves from Dan and Beersheeba.

Time and time again, God would have totally destroyed the sinning, stiff-necked Israelites! Why did He not do so?

Listen! "But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.

"And the Eternal was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them. and had respect unto them, BECAUSE OF HIS COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB, and would not destroy them, neither cast He them from His presence AS YET!" (II Kings 13:22).

God had made His promises to Abraham UNCONDITIONAL! His mercy in sparing Israel from removal from their land "as yet" was NOT because of any righteousness on their part; it was because God would not go back on His word to Abraham!

But ultimately, God carried out His judgments against sinning, rebellious, stiff-necked Israel—judgments He had repeatedly pronounced to them through His prophets for literally many generations.

God had warned, "But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments [which were given for their good]; and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:

"I will also do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, [anxiety, fear, worry—a lack of mental peace and tranquillity] consumption [diseases like pneumonia, flu, tuberculosis, emphysema, lung cancer], and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes [various diseases like smallpox, chickenpox, and especially measles, which can cause loss of eyesight], and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

"And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

"And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins" (Leviticus 26:14-18). Four times, God repeated this solemn warning—that He would punish Israel seven times for their national crimes and sins! Read the whole chapter! The companion account, in Deuteronomy 28, is worth-while reading, as well. God first details the marvelous blessings He will lavish upon His people Israel if they will but live in the ways which will reap every RIGHT RESULT; the way of God's law, which is GOOD for them!

He promises bounteous crops; the plowman overtaking the reaper in the fields; healthy, happy babies, sound, loving marriages, good, successful employment; an absence of taxation and military conscription—and PEACE; no fear from enemies, no war!

God showed His people that His laws CAUSE all these marvelous things to happen, for they are living laws, vital principles which, if applied, bring about the result of all those wondrous blessings! In a sense, they are AUTOMATIC. Yet, God promised to intervene actively—directly bringing about the great blessings He had promised for obedience!

What does every human being want but success, prosperity; happiness, fulfillment, a sense of well-being; contentment—LOVE, joy, excitement, GOOD HEALTH and a long life to enjoy it? To Israel, God promised all these things—the things every sensible human being REALLY WANTS.

But if Israel abandoned God's laws; broke His Sabbaths, abandoned His commandments; set up heathen idols, followed the abominable practices of the pagan nations around them, then God said He would punish them seven times for their sins!

What is a "Time"?

When God sent the spies into the promised land to search it out, prior to Israel crossing over Jordan to possess it, they were gone, searching, for forty days.

Later, after God rejected Moses from entering the land; deprived the complaining, murmuring, rebellious older generation of Israelites from entering the promised land, He announced they would be delayed in possessing their promised inheritance for forty years!

He explained He had set each day that the spies had wandered in the land to stand for one year. "But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness.

"After [according to] the number of days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, EACH DAY FOR A YEAR, ye shall bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my [opposition, alienation] breach of promise!" (Numbers 14:32-34).

Plainly, God caused them to endure forty years of additional hardship; wandering, deprivation of privilege—of inheritance—to teach them a bitter lesson!

Now, notice! When God told His prophet Ezekiel to portray the coming siege against Jerusalem on a piece of tile, He said, "Moreover take thou unto thee an iron plate, and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city: and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the House of Israel!

"Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the House of Israel upon it: according to the number of days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

"For I have laid upon thee the YEARS of their iniquity, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE DAYS, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the House of Israel" (Ezekiel 4:2-5).

He went on to say, concerning Judah, "...and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah [a separate nation, distinct from the House of Israel!] forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year" (verse 6).

As a key to understanding prophetic chronology, God tells us He reckons differently than the heathen calendars of this world. Read Revelation 12:6, 14 and 13:5. Here, we have three values: "A thousand, two hundred, and threescore days" (1,260); a "time, times, and half a time," and "forty and two months."

These verses deal with a span of time in ancient history of 1,260 years as well as a literal three and one-half years which are yet future! Simple mathematics show that God reckons prophetic time as follows:

(1) Each prophetic year has exactly 360 days.

(2) Each prophetic month has thirty days.

(3) Each prophetic day symbolizes one year in fulfillment.

Forty-two months, 1,260 days, and three and one-half years are all the same length of time.

This is the key to understanding the meaning of the "seven times" during which Israel would bear their iniquities—being deprived of the national greatness; the bounteous inheritance God had promised the seed of Abraham!

As we shall later see, there have been remarkable fulfillments of those mysterious seven times national punishments—many of them quite recently in world history!

Now, back to the REASON God ejected Israel from the land!

One must read the entire chapter of II Kings 17 in order to gain true perspective. I will quote portions here: "In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea, the son of Elah to reign in Samaria [the capital city of the northern ten tribes; Israel] over Israel nine years.

"And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Eternal, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.

"Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant [they capitulated quickly, surrendered at the overwhelming military strength of the Assyrian empire, and became like a `satellite state,' vassals] and gave him presents [paid monstrous ransoms; emptied state treasuries; gave up the economic strength of the nation!]."

During this time, Hoshea turned to every conceivable source for help EXCEPT THE ETERNAL GOD! He was desperate, and sought foreign alliances (as does the United States and Britain, as a matter of course); pacts, agreements; mutual assistance treaties; nonagression pacts, organizations of states which could somehow stave off the terrible exploitation of Israel by Assyria!

"And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present [extortion money; tribute] to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison!" (II Kings 17:1-4).

Imagine! The leader of the nation God had said would cause five thousand to flee before but five of them; the great nation God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the "House of Israel" was now reduced to but a minor power; craven, trembling, cowardly, fearful, they prostrated themselves before the military might of the Assyrians! Their king, after a weak attempt at asking for the help of pagan, heathen Egyptians (not God!), was jailed! What ignominy! What disgrace!

All this occurred in the year of 721 B.C. For the next three years, from 721 until 718 B.C., the Assyrian armies besieged Samaria.

In the ninth year of Hoshea's reign (718 B.C.), after successive waves of invading Assyrian armies had conquered increasingly larger amounts of Israel's territories; taking massive numbers of captives, transporting them into Assyria; into the land between the Black and Caspian seas, Samaria, capital city of the northern ten-tribed Israel, fell.

"In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Havor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

"For it was so, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Eternal their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, and walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Eternal cast out from before the children of Israel, which they had made.

"And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Eternal their God, and they built them high places in all their cities [places for the worship of Asherah, phallic symbols; upright pales and obelisks, as seen in the modern `steeples' adorning churches today], from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

"And they set them up images [Heb., `groves,' meaning; groupings of upright pales; phallic symbols] and groves [Heb., Asherim; the pagan sex symbols of the nations around them] in every high hill, and under every green tree and there burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Eternal carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Eternal to anger: "For they served idols, whereof the Eternal had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

"Yet the Eternal testified against Israel [ten-tribed Israel, to the north], and against Judah [the nation to the south; capital city of Jerusalem: the `Jews'], by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways [repent!], and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.

"Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Eternal their God... and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire [infant sacrifice! An abominable practice] and used divination [soothsaying; seances, seeking after evil spirits, witches, demons—the use of tarot cards, water witching, star gazing, crystal balls, palm reading; all assorted forms of necromancy and satanic practices] and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Eternal, to provoke Him to anger.

"Therefore the Eternal was very angry with Israel, and REMOVED THEM OUT OF HIS SIGHT: there was NONE LEFT but the TRIBE OF JUDAH ONLY!" (I Kings 17:1-18).

How many people know this? Believe it or not, there are thousands and thousands of "ordained ministers"; those who talk about "Jesus" and "salvation" who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the identity of the United States and British Commonwealth nations; who simply DO NOT KNOW that Israel and the "Jews" are NOT THE SAME; but that Israel was taken into captivity—wholly removed from the land; that Judah, the Jews, was the only tribe remaining in the land of Palestine, back in 718 B.C.; over SEVEN HUNDRED LONG YEARS BEFORE CHRIST!

Thousands are COMPLETELY IGNORANT of biblical history. Therefore, they are ignorant of PROPHECY! They lack the single most important KEY to understanding Bible prophecy—the knowledge of the identity of the greatest nation in the world; the United States of America!

Best selling books purport to inform the millions about what they can expect to happen in the future; millions have read books with titles concerning "the Apocalypse" and the "Book of Revelation" and "Armageddon" and about the "image and the mark of the beast."

Millions believe they know what the future will bring. Some believe the "beast" is the UNITED STATES (a ludicrous, woeful error!). Millions believe our peoples are gentiles of the tribe of "Gomer"!

Not one percent of the ministers know about the separate national histories of Israel and Judah; about the removal of Israel into captivity; about the subsequent loss of their identity down through history; about the seven times which would expire while they were deprived of their national inheritance.

Therefore, they cannot know of the actual identity of Britain and the United States in the Bible; cannot know of God's repeated warnings to our peoples.

Remaining IGNORANT of this profoundly important knowledge—they cannot preach the truthful message of God's Word—cannot be engaged in the work of the WATCHMAN to God's people!

Tens of thousands preach "about Jesus." They can preach eloquently about Christian living; various doctrinal concepts; philosophies; about social values. They can quote wonderful preachers of the past; inspire and electrify audiences with wonderful words. Many become famous preachers—speaking about "success," and emphasizing how to "think positively." Some, perhaps much, of what they say is helpful in a day-to-day sense. But being ignorant of the most important KEY that unlocks all of Bible PROPHECY to their understanding, they cannot WARN our peoples about what is coming! Most do not preach what is sin; that it is the violation of God's TEN COMMANDMENTS (I John 3:4); that the wages of sin is DEATH for all eternity!

Somehow, God is bringing now to your mind knowledge that has been LOST; information that has been HIDDEN from millions! Will you listen? Will you heed? Will you prove all things (I Thessalonians 5:21) as God commands; searching your own Bible, coming to understanding, at last?

The 17th chapter of I Kings is a terrible indictment against the corrupt leadership of the Israelitish nation, as we have seen. God said they did nothing but continual evil, "...Until the Eternal removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

"And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof" (II Kings 17:23-28).

The Assyrians practiced massive deportation; massive resettlement, reasoning that displaced populations could not form any cohesive guerrilla forces; could not attempt to form a significant underground; that Assyria would not be threatened from within. Ultimately, when one comes to understand who are the modern Assyrians, one comes to grasp a far broader picture of recent history, and of the future.

Now, WHY did God remove the sinning Israelites?

He had sent His prophets to them for literally generations! He had pled with them to return to His laws; His statutes and judgments; the principles of life that were given for their GREAT GOOD!

Instead, they continually practiced the pagan abominations of the heathen nations around them! Their break-away nation was founded on the concept of a false priesthood, made up from among the malcontents, wastrels, totally unqualified of the nation! Their first king, Jerehoam, set up two golden calves (cherubim) as idols; changed God's annual holy days, set up a feast in the eighth month, instead of the seventh!

They revered the SUN god; observed the phenomena of nature; such as the winter solstice (December 25th; the birthday of Tammuz; accompanied by pagan symbols of sex and fertility, like little trees decorated with orbs and bulbs); the vernal equinox, called after Ishtar (pronounced "Easter") and accompanied by symbols of sex and fecundity, like rabbits, and eggs, and the lily flower, which the pagans thought looked like a sex symbol.

They abandoned God's SABBATH day; the day which would keep them mindful of His existence; that He is the great CREATOR. They abandoned His annual festivals, which were given to the "church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38); which portrayed the great purpose and plan God is working out—would have kept them in the knowledge of the very reason for their human life on this earth!

They embraced filthy, abominable customs; allowed, and even fostered sodomy, homosexuality, licentiousness of every sort. Their marriages were being destroyed; their homes dismantled. God's laws, which would protect the home; preserve marriages, were abandoned! Now, they drifted into infant sacrifice!

Finally, they became so wholly perverted; so completely evil that God removed them from the land. Their criminal practices brought privation, hardship, poverty, squalor, sickness and disease! God took away His blessings. He took away His protection.

Now, they were broken as a kingdom. They were annihilated as a nation; taken into captivity—deported as slaves.

Wandering Israel—How They Became
"Lost" to History

Decades passed, while the lands formerly belonging to Zebulon, Dan, Gad, Naphtali, Benjamin, Asher, Issachar, Ephraim, Reuben, and Manasseh—the northern ten-tribed HOUSE OF ISRAEL were lying in ruins; occupied by pagan dregs, deported there from Assyria.

But in the ancient plains of Babylonia, a rising power was building, expanding, developing. The fertile lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were occupied by the peoples of the Babylonian Empire, now in the ascendancy. Finally, the Assyrian empire was overcome; the mixed peoples of the ten-tribed Israelites joined with their former captors in fleeing far to the north in order to escape the might of Babylon.

When King Omri was on the throne in Samaria, he expanded trade with many of the northern gentile kingdoms. His name was pronounced "Humri" and "Khumri" by many of them. The name for "people" or "house of" Omri, was "Beth-Omri" in Hebrew, mispronounced "Bit-Khumri" by the Assyrians.

Many began to refer to them as the "Samarians," after their capital city of Samaria. This was corrupted into "Simirians" and "Cimmerians."

The tribe of Dan was noted for their custom of naming significant places; cities, mountains, rivers, peninsulas—any important geographical place—after their progenitor, Dan. For instance, very early in the history of Palestine, the tribe of Dan took the northern city of "Laish"; a part of their inheritance when Israel was first settled in the promised land. They immediately renamed the place "Dan," and so it remained, down through history. You will recall that Jereboam, Solomon's servant, and the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel, set up one of his golden calves in "Dan."

The Danites left their name wherever they went. J. H. Allen details many of them. A few are important: The two main rivers in the region between the Black and the Caspian Seas are the DNeister and the DNeiper, draining the vast plains of western Russia and Poland, into the Black Sea. The major river system of Europe, flowing eastward, emptying into the Black Sea, is called "The river of DAN," which is what DANUBE means in Latin. There is the UDON and the DON river, as well.

Near the northern shore of the Sea of Azof, part of the Black Sea, is the city of DONetsk. The peninsula of "Crimea" may well be a corruption of "Cimmeria" or "Samaria."

Not only did the Danites name significant rivers and land features after themselves, they also left the name of their ancient forbear, "Eber" (from which "Hebrew" derives), and "Dan" in areas from the Mideast to Spain and Portugal, and to the British Isles and Ireland. Half the tribe of Dan were seafarers, living along the Palestinian coastland. In the triumphal song of Deborah and Barak after God's deliverance, a poetic chronicle of the tribes of Israel is given. Of Dan, they sang, "...and why did Dan abide in ships?" (Judges 5:17).

Danites were among the very first to arrive in Ireland, which was settled by the Tuatha de Danaan (Tribe of Dan). The river "Ebro" (the Spanish pronunciation for "Hebrew" is "Ebreo"; phonetically, "Eh-brahy-o." "Ebro" is pronounced, "Eh-bro") empties into the Mediterranean south of Barcelona, in Spain. The Spanish peninsula was anciently called "Iberian;" (Once again; "Heber"; or "Eeber" is obvious).

One of the ScanDINavian nations today is "DANmark," meaning, "the mark of DAN." There is strong reason to believe, notwithstanding the many "waymarks" left by the seafaring, migrating Danites in other regions, that Dan is Ireland, today. If so, the protracted hatred between Ireland (which, unlike England and most of northwestern Europe nations and the United States, remained almost 100 percent Catholic) and England; past, present and future political realities may help explain why Dan is omitted from mention of the sealing with God's spirit of the 144,000 during the time of the Great Tribulation. Instead, Dan's share is given to "Joseph," meaning Ephraim and Manasseh.

As the ancient Babylonian kingdom gained the ascendancy, the wandering peoples of Assyria and the ten-tribed captives among them were pushed ever northward, and westward. The leading tribe of the Assyrians was called the "Halmanni." The Latins called the land of Germany "Alemannia." Today, Mexicans and Spaniards call Germany "Aleman." A German is "Un Aleman."

"Teuton" merely means "spear warrior"; a name given to the Germanic peoples by the Romans. "Deutschland" is the Germanic pronunciation of "Teuton," and has no ethnological origins, but refers, instead, to the ancient names applied to the warlike peoples encountered by the Romans in northern and central Europe.

Finally, the southern House of Judah was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, many, many decades; over ONE HUNDRED YEARS after the northern ten-tribed nation of ISRAEL had gone into captivity; after the nation taking it captive, Assyria, had been subjugated, ceased from being a world power; after they had all been driven out. Now, the "Jews" were to endure seventy year's captivity! But, unlike the ten-tribed House of Israel, now LOST from history, the Jews were prophesied to RETURN to the land of Palestine. They did, following the decree of Cyrus, under Ezra and Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel.

Eventually, some few Israelites must have made their way back to Palestine. Of course, people visit across tribal lines; cross national boundaries. Further, the Babylonians may well have captured some fragments of Israelitish families, which subsequently could have intermingled with the captives of the House of Judah during their seventy years in Babylon.

In any event, it is a mistake to insist that not one single human being from the ten lost tribes EVER returned to Palestine, for Anna was a "prophetess of Asher," and Paul clearly claimed to be a Benjamanite. But a few exceptions are not the rule. The vast majority of the ten tribes disappeared from history. Most remain ignorant of their location and identity, even today.

But now, what of God's promises to Abraham? What about the dynasty of kings God promised would not fail? Would God go back on His word? Would Israel disappear forever? Or would they be deprived of their prophesied national inheritances AS GOD HAD SAID; until SEVEN TIMES passed over them? We shall see.

Jeremiah's Strange Commission

When God called Jeremiah, He revealed to him his special calling.

"Then the word of the Eternal came unto me, saying: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jeremiah 1:4, 5).

God then commissioned Jeremiah with these words: "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to BUILD, and TO PLANT" (Jeremiah 1:10).

Like Ezekiel, God told Jeremiah he was not to fear the persecutions against him, but remain faithful to the message of God.

One of the most fascinating portions of Jeremiah's personal history is found in chapters 36 through 38.

Here, Jeremiah faithfully recorded in a scroll the prophecies of God against the nation of Judah. Baruch, his scribe, did the writing. You read of how Jehoiakim burned the words of Jeremiah's prophecy, and how God inspired Baruch to write not only the original prophecy but "many like words" (Jeremiah 36:32).

Later, Zedekiah succeeded Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, on the throne. Jeremiah remained faithful to his warning message and was accused (Jeremiah 37:13) of being a subversive—"falling away to the Chaldeans."

For insisting he was a patriotic man who was called of God to warn his nation, Jeremiah was beaten and put in jail (Jeremiah 37:15).

Later, Zedekiah secretly asked Jeremiah if there was any new word from the Eternal (chapter 38:17) and as a result of his conference with the king was put "into the court of the prison... that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker's street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison" (Jeremiah 37:20, 21).

Still later, some of the princes of the city urged the king that Jeremiah be killed. And the king, unable to totally withstand them, compromised by allowing them to throw Jeremiah into a dungeon (Jeremiah 38:6).

Ebedmelech, one of the king's eunuchs, heard of the situation, prevailed upon the king, and Jeremiah was rescued from the dungeon (Jeremiah 38:7-13).

Consequently, "Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken."

True to Jeremiah's prophecies, Zedekiah was blinded and carried into captivity to Babylon (Jeremiah 39:7).

Jeremiah was given diplomatic immunity (Jeremiah 40:4) and released from his captivity by the captain of the guard of the Babylonian army.

Now it was time for the second part of Jeremiah's commission to be fulfilled!

He had been used of God to warn of the rooting out, pulling down and destruction of the House of Judah.

Now, because God had promised there would never lack of the seed of David to sit upon the never-ending Davidic throne, it was time for Jeremiah to "build and to plant."

How did this happen? Read Jeremiah 40 and 41. Gedeliah, the son of Ahikam, set up a provisional government in Mizpah. Jeremiah went to be with him (Jeremiah 40:6).

It wasn't long until the Ammonitish king plotted with Ishmael to assassinate Johanna. Gedeliah, informed of the plot, refused to believe it.

However, a short while later Ishmael and his cohorts assassinated a large number of persons, including the governor, several of the Babylonians who were there, and a number of the Jews.

Apparently Gedeliah hoped to take these remaining refugees into Ammon as captives, thus increasing the strength of the Ammonites.

Unbeknownst to all the participants in these intrigues, Almighty God was allowing them to provide a means for Jeremiah to fulfill his mysterious commission of "to build and to plant."

Notice! "Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king's daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedeliah, the son of Ahikam; and Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonite" (Jeremiah 40:10).

Notice carefully!

Almighty God had promised David by an unconditional promise that his progeny down through the generations would always sit upon David's throne.

Zedekiah was now dead. Also, the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before Zedekiah's own startled eyes, then blinded him, and carried him to Babylon, where he later died.

Now only the king's daughters of the royal seed remained.

Was God's promise to David going to fail?

Not at all! Remember, Jeremiah had been commissioned to "build and to plant" as well as to root up and destroy.

Now the "building and planting" part of his commission began.

Baruch was Jeremiah's personal scribe, companion and friend. Historical evidence suggests that Baruch was also related to the king's daughters—possibly an uncle.

Why is the strange prophecy of the shortest chapter in Jeremiah given? Read chapter 45! In this brief prophecy, God shows Baruch was grieving because of the catastrophes befalling his nation and, to shore up his sagging spirits, God promised him that his own life would be spared.

"...Behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Eternal: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest" (Jeremiah 45:5).

At this point, it is important to include a substantial quotation from J.H. Allen's book, Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright: "Hence we find in the prophecy as it continues the following: "Behold I shall watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of EGYPT.'

"Remember that the masses of the house of Judah, of the Jewish people, were in captivity in Babylon, where they were to stay for seventy years. Also remember that this remnant which came into Egypt were only the ragged end of the nation, i.e., the poor of the land, and a few captains of small military forces. Now, the Lord proposes to destroy this rag-tag remnant, out of which `a small number shall escape.' Now, let us take our bearings.

"1. We have in this company, which has come down into Egypt from Judah, `the king's daughters.' Since the plural form of speech is used there are at least two of them—history says there were three. These are the royal seed of the house of David, who are fleeing from the slayers of their father, Zedekiah, the last king of the house of Judah, and the slayers of their brothers, the sons of Zedekiah and princes of Judah.

"2. In company with these princesses is Jeremiah, their grandfather, whom also the Lord has chosen to do the work of building and planting. In the princesses the prophet has royal material with which to build and plant.

"3. In company with Jeremiah and his royal charge we have Baruch, his faithful scribe, whom expert genealogists prove to have been uncle to the royal seed.

"4. God has promised that the lives of this `small number,' only five or six at most, shall be to them a prey (reward) in all lands whither they shall go.

"5. Prior to this, at a time when Jeremiah was greatly troubled, when in his great distress and anguish of heart he cried unto the Lord, saying: `Remember me, visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors'; then the Lord said, `Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction... And I will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not' (Jeremiah l5:11-14).

"Note the expression `thy remnant,' i.e., Jeremiah's, for it is he who must build and plant that royal seed. Understand also that Jeremiah and his little remnant were well acquainted with Egypt, and since it was well known to them it could not have been their final destination. Hence, this escaping royal remnant must journey back to Judea, and then—whither?

"`Into an unknown land!' Why? `For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion (on which were the royal dwellings). The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah (royal line) shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward' (Isaiah 37:31, 32).

"Hear it! O hear it! Ye men of earth, HEAR IT! `Shall again take root downward'—be planted! `and bear fruit upward'—be builded! Where? God should tell us where in His Word, and He does" (Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, pages 197, 198).

History records that the 10-tribed northern kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Samaria, was completely subjugated in successive waves of invading Assyrian armies, and carried away into captivity.

The Assyrian Empire was finally conquered by the Babylonian Empire. God used Nebuchadnezzar to subjugate the nation of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem, and, true to the prophecies of Jeremiah, King Zedekiah's sons were murdered, Zedekiah's eyes put out and the king was carried away into Babylon into captivity, to languish and finally die.

But wait!

God had made an unconditional promise to David that one of the royal seed of his own lineage would sit on his throne until the time of the second coming of Christ!

God provided for a "remnant" of the royal seed to ESCAPE!

Jeremiah had been commissioned to take a witness and a warning to King Zedekiah; God had told him he would be used of God to oversee the pulling down of that ancient kingdom, but that he would also be instrumental in building and planting in a new and different land!

There is historical evidence that a remnant of the royal seed did arrive in the British Isles, that a wedding took place, and that children were born—thus fulfilling God's promises to David (the scepter shall not depart from Judah) that David would always have one of his own line sitting on the throne God confirmed to him.

A Breach; and a Healing

J.H. Allen, in his well-known book Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, devotes considerable time to the "prince of the scarlet thread" and "the royal remnant" united (see chapters 6 and 7).

Remember that the sceptre, symbolizing a never-ending dynasty of kings which was promised unconditionally to JACOB (Israel) and reconfirmed to David, belongs specifically to the Davidic line.

Allen correctly points out the distinction between the Judeo-Davidic family and the kingdom which bore the name of "Judah," which of course has been corrupted into the nickname "Jew" today.

At this point in Allen's book (chapter 6 and 7), he thoroughly expounds the story of the first "overturning" of this promised throne, explains the "riddle and the parable" of the great eagle and the highest branch of the cedar tree, as well as the healing of the breach between Pharez and Zarah.

First, turn to and read Ezekiel 21:22-27.

"And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord Eternal: remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more [overturned] until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him."

This prophecy, like so many others in the Bible, is DUAL in nature.

Its first application most certainly applied to Zedekiah, the "prince of Israel" occupying the throne during the very day of Ezekiel's prophecy.

Obviously, God was going to "remove the diadem," meaning take away the position of rulership from Zedekiah (take off the crown—"this shall not be [upon] the same").

God would then "exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high." Zedekiah, being "high," that is, sitting on the throne over Israel, would be brought down.

God said, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is; and I will give it to HIM"!

Obviously, then, the expression "it shall be no more" implies (as Allen correctly infers) NOT that it shall cease to exist, or it could not remain to be given to "He whose right it is," but that it would be NO MORE OVERTURNED!

These three distinct "overturnings" of that throne were prophesied to happen!

By removing that kingly line from Jerusalem in Palestine to a distant land, the first overturning, or transfer, would be accomplished.

Allen says, "Furthermore, the expression, `this shall not be the same,' taken together with the prophecy concerning the overturns, lead us to expect a change of dynasty, at least on the side of the male line, and also a change in the territorial or geographical situation. This is still more apparent when we note that there are to be three overturns, and that, after the third overturn shall have been accomplished. there are to be no more until another certain person comes. Also, after the diadem has been removed from the head of the prince who wore it at the time of the first overturn and placed upon the head of `him that is low,' it is to he noted that then either this man, who is the person understood as the antecedent of the personal pronoun, `him,' or his lineage, is to he dethroned by the Lord in favor of that other person, who is designated as `He whose right it is,' to whom it shall then be given" (Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, pages 202 and 203).

To discover the answer to the question "Whose RIGHT is the throne?" and "WHO is `him that is low'?" you must turn to Genesis 38 and read the story of how Tamar, determined not to remain childless and, outraged by Judah's refusal to give unto her Judah's son, Shelah, posed as a harlot and became pregnant by Judah.

The midwife, somehow (probably by divine Providence) knew that twins were about to be born.

Remember, God had said, "The sceptre [symbol of a kingly line-and symbol of the promise made later to David] shall not depart from JUDAH."

The two babies about to be horn were of a princely line, not-withstanding human plots and subterfuge.

Allen says, "The never-to-be-forgotten manner in which Judah was forced to acknowledge that those children were his offspring and that their mother was more righteous than he, does most certainly place the fact of their royal lineage beyond the possibility of cavil."

"When the mother was in travail and after the midwife had been summoned, there was the presentation of a hand. Then, for some reason either human or divine, the midwife knew twins were in the womb. So, in order that she might know and be able to testify which was born first, she fastened a scarlet thread on the outstretched hand. Since Judah's was the royal family in Israel, and the law of primogeniture prevailed among them, it was essential that this distinction should be made so that at the proper time the firstborn or eldest son might ascend the throne.

"After the scarlet thread had been made secure on the little hand it was drawn back and the brother was born first. Upon seeing this the midwife exclaimed: `How hast thy broken forth?' then, seemingly, she was filled with the spirit of prophecy and said: `This breach be upon thee,' and because of this prophetic utterance he was given the name of Pharez, i.e., `a breach.' Afterward his brother, who had the scarlet thread upon his hand, was born, and his name was called Zarah, i.e., `the seed'" (Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, J.H. Allen, pages 203, 204).

Looking in subsequent history, we see that David was of the Pharez branch of Judah's family—that Zedekiah was also of the Pharez branch, and that biblical genealogies list even Jesus Christ as a descendant (as reckoned through his physical foster father, Joseph) of the Pharez line of Judah's family.

Notice that none was of Zarah.

God was going to ultimately "heal" the breach that occurred by "abasing" him that was "high" (meaning the Pharez line, including David and Zedekiah), and by "exalting" him that was "low," meaning the Zarah line.

How was the breach to be healed?

Consider!

God had promised that the sceptre—the kingly badge of office -would not depart from Judah. It was now firmly in possession of the lineage that came through David, the Pharez side of the family, and God's covenant with David assured that David would never fail some of his seed to sit on that throne—that it was a perpetual covenant.

The "breach" would not be healed by taking the throne away from Pharez (David's progeny) and giving it to the Zarah (him that was "low"). for this would merely be perpetuating the breach.

No, it would be healed by bringing both sides of the family together again through marriage, making both one, thus healing the breach.

The story of how this was accomplished is contained in a "riddle" and a "parable" contained in Ezekiel's 17th chapter.

Allen says, quoting Ezekiel, " `And the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel; and say, Thus saith the Lord God,' etc.

"The Hebrew word here translated riddle is defined as `a puzzle; hence a trick, conundrum, dark saying, hard question,' etc. These definitions correspond to our English thought of an enigma, or something proposed which is to be solved by conjecture, a puzzling question; or an ambiguous proposition. A parable, on the other hand, is more like a fable or an allegorical representation of something which is real in its relation to human life and thought, and is represented by something real in nature" (Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, chapter 7, page 207).

But wait! Complete the chapter, noticing very specifically verses 22 through 24!

Remember, you have been told you are dealing with a "riddle," and a "parable." Now, notice the significance attached to this riddle and parable by J.H. Allen and others.

Allen points out that the cedar of Lebanon is a symbol of royalty. Also, he says, "It is true of twigs that they must he set, grafted, or planted, in order that they may grow and bear fruit..."

Read the whole chapter carefully, and notice that it is not a prophecy to Judah, or the Jews of today—but is a prophecy to "the house of Israel."

The first portion of the riddle is fairly easily explained by the succeeding verses. The "great eagle" that came to Lebanon and took away the highest branch of the cedar obviously represents Nebuchadnezzar's siege, the destruction of Jerusalem, and Zedekiah's captivity.

Very likely, the cutting off of the "young twigs" of the cedar and carrying them to "a land of traffic" has to do with the carrying away into captivity of the king's sons.

But remember, Jeremiah's commission consisted of TWO PARTS! First, he was commissioned to "throw down"; meaning he would be God's prophet carrying a witness and a warning message to the leader of the nation of that day, and if the prophecies went unheeded (which they were) he would see the destruction of the nation.

The second part of Jeremiah's commission was "to BUILD and to PLANT"! Now read the all-important last three verses!

In different language, God says, "I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one and plant it upon a high mountain and eminent."

The Bible uses mountains as symbols for nations. Smaller hills are used for smaller nation, but a "high mountain" or "eminent" mountain certainly represents God's nation of ISRAEL!

If the "young twigs" represented Zedekiah's sons, then the "tender one" represents a daughter or daughters!

The riddle goes on to say that this "tender one" would be PLANTED upon this high and eminent mountain, meaning in the nation of ISRAEL!

Allen says, "Where was she planted? `In the mountain of the height of Israel,' is the divine reply. `What, ISRAEL?' Yes, Israel, national Israel. Israel as a nation; but not Jewish-Israel, that kingdom is overthrown; the people are gone into the Babylonish captivity; the king, with his eyes put out, is doomed to die in chains in a Babylonish prison; the princes are dead; the king's daughters have escaped out of Jerusalem; and the topmost one of these tender twigs is planted here in the height of the mountains of Israel, i.e., the THRONE" (Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, J. H. Allen, page 213).

Remember the distinction between the "HOUSE OF ISRAEL" and the "HOUSE OF JUDAH"!

The "House of Israel" always refers to the 10-tribed NORTHERN kingdom, which capital city at Samaria, which was never JEWISH!

Think of it! Where, in all this world and throughout all of history, can you find two BROTHER NATIONS; looking much alike, speaking the same language, possessing the same general outlook on life; having nearly identical religious, historical, sociological and cultural beliefs, who, between them, would possess much of the WEALTH of the whole world?

Actually, the mysterious story of the "prince of the scarlet thread" and the "breach" that occurred is nothing more than intriguing insight into HOW God would fulfill His great PROMISE to BOTH Joseph (to whom went the BIRTHRIGHT) and DAVID, who was promised that his lineage would always remain on his throne (the sceptre shall not depart from JUDAH).

The first overturning of that throne was in the destruction of Jerusalem, the captivity and the escape of Zedekiah's DAUGHTERS, to he taken to a new and different land in what the Bible describes as the "HEIGHT of ISRAEL."

In the third part of Allen's book, chapter 1, pages 228 and 229, he sets forth the following facts:

"(1) About 585 B.C. a `notable man,' an `important personage,' a patriarch, a saint, an essentially important someone, according to their various ways of putting it, came to Ulster, the most northern province of Ireland, accompanied by a princess, the daughter of an eastern king, and that in company with them was one Simon Brach, Breck, Brack, Barech, Berach, as it is differently spelled; and that this royal party brought with them many remarkable things. Among these was the harp, an ark and the wonderful stone called Lia-fail, or stone of destiny, of which we shall have much to say hereafter.

"(2) This eastern princess was married to King Herremon on condition, made by this notable patriarch, that he should abandon his former religion, and build a college for the prophets. This Herremon did, and the name of the school was Mur-Ollam which is the name, both in Hebrew and Irish, for school of the prophets. He also changed the name of his capital city, Lothar—sometimes Cothair Croffin—to that of Tara.

"(3) The name of this eastern princess is given as Tea-Tephi, and it is a well-known fact that the royal arms of Ireland is the harp of David, and has been for 2,500 years" (ibid., pages 228, 229).

It is well known that various groups that propound the "British-Israel" theory (so-called) believe the stone which rested beneath the seat of the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey is, indeed, that same stone—the "Lia-fail" allegedly brought to Ulster by this ancient patriarch, accompanied by a princess and his scribe, "Brack." This stone is now in Scotland, but will be returned to the abbey for any future coronations.

Was it Jeremiah, Tea-Tephi and Baruch?

Some say the coronation stone may well be "Jacob's pillar stone," but believe it cannot be the fabled "Lia-fail"—which was like an "inauguration stone" used in the ceremony of the coronation of ancient kings, and which tradition said "screaming aloud" or "groaned" as if with an audible voice upon the occasion of a coronation!

Dozens of ancient stone monuments—many with obscure and entirely mysterious purposes and origins—are found in the British Isles.

One of the most famous is, of course, "Stonehenge." Any number of theories have been advanced as to its builders and its purpose read the interesting article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, for further information.

There is only one mention in inspired history of the anointing of a stone.

Significantly, the anointing of that stone comes at a time when God appeared, through a vivid dream of Jacob (the supplanter), whose name was to be changed to ISRAEL (overcomer; one who prevails with God).

You have already read the account (pages 22-24).

I would urge you to read Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, by J.H. Allen. His chapter on "Jacob's Pillow-pillar Stone" (page 230) is particularly interesting.

He makes a strong case for the carrying of that same stone into Egypt which bears reading.

He said, for example: "This brings us to a vital point concerning the subject in hand, namely: "That not only Bethel, the city, or place, but also that Bethel the pillar-rock was given to the birthright family; and that Israel carried that rock with them into Egypt and in their subsequent journeyings in the wilderness.

"Proof: Jacob died in Egypt, and his posterity were in Egypt at the time. When dying, `Jacob called unto him his sons and said, gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.' When his sons, in response to this call, came together, he gave a prophecy concerning that which the posterity of each of them would he in the last days. But while he was making the prophecy concerning Joseph and his house, to whom he had just given the birthright, he stopped in the midst of his prophetic utterances, and used the following parenthetical expression: `(from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel:).'

"`Thence,' as herein used, is an adverb used as a noun, and is equivalent in value to that place, or the place to which it refers. The phrase, from thence, means `out of there, out from thither, (or) out of that place.' Thus, the very fact that Jacob, when dying in Egypt, made use of those words in reference to that Bethel stone, carries proof on its very face that the stone was not, at that time, in the place where it had formerly been, but that it was with them there in Egypt, and had previously been committed to the care of the house of Joseph."

Allen also cites the occasions wherein a special rock was apparently carried by Moses and the Israelites. For example, he reminds us of the occasion when "the Eternal said unto Moses, saying: Take the rod, and gather the assembly together, and speak unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses took the rod from beneath the Lord, as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them: hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: And the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.' "

Further, Allen cites several occasions proving that later kings of the promised dynasty which was to reign stood by a "pillar" rock in making a solemn oath; proclamation, or, even a coronation ceremony. (Read II Kings 11:13, 14.)

Dr. Adam Clark translates the account as follows: "And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord. And when she looked, behold! The king stood on a pillar." Clark goes on to explain this was "the place or throne on which they were accustomed to put their kings when they proclaimed them." And in a revised version it reads: "Standing by the pillar as was their custom."

Now turn to and read II Kings 23:3: "And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord." The article "a" can easily he rendered "the," meaning a specific pillar-stone, one which was commonly used in coronation ceremonies, or when the leader of the nation made a particular proclamation, law, edict or vow.

In a later chapter, Allen delves deeply into the story of the origin of the name of Princess "Tea-Tephi" and her escape to Ireland.

"This little company disappeared from Egypt, but surely they reappeared in Ireland, for, marvel of marvels! they brought with them a pillar-stone, which has ever since been used as the coronation stone of the kingdom.

"Later Tea (sometimes spelled Teah) Tephi herself was crowned upon this pillar-stone, and the name of Erin's capital was changed from Cathair Crofin to Tara, which is also another Hebrew word. But at this juncture history comes to our help, and with unquestioned authority declares that, from that time until the present, every king and queen who has reigned in Ireland, Scotland or England has been crowned upon that selfsame pillar or coronation stone. Queen Victoria herself was twice crowned upon that stone, the first time as Queen of England, and the second time as Empress of India.

"On the occasion of Queen Victoria's coronation, June 28, 1837, an article appeared in the London Sun, which gives a description of the coronation chair and the coronation stone, as follows: `This chair, commonly called St. Edward's chair, is an ancient seat of solid hardwood, with back and sides of the same, variously painted, in which the kings of Scotland were in former periods constantly crowned, but, having been brought out of the kingdom by Edward I, in the year 1296, after he had totally overcome John Baliol, king of Scots, it has ever since remained in the Abbey at Westminster, and has been the chair in which the succeeding kings and queens of this realm have been inaugurated. It is in height six feet and seven inches; the breadth of the seat within the sides is twenty-eight inches, and the depth eighteen inches. At nine inches from the ground is a board, supported at the four corners by as many lions. Between the seat and this board is enclosed a stone commonly called Jacob's, or the fatal Marble, Stone, which is an oblong of about twenty-two inches in length, thirteen inches broad and eleven inches deep; of a steel color, mixed with some veins of red. History relates that it is the stone whereupon the patriarch Jacob laid his head in the plains of Luz.' This, as you see, was published more than sixty years ago [now more than 164!] before it was thought possible that the Anglo-Saxons were descendants of Joseph, the inheritor of the birthright blessing which God gave to his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

"This article further says that `this stone was conveyed into Ireland by way of Spain about seven hundred years before Christ. From there it was taken into Scotland by King Fergus, about 370 years later; and in the year 350 B.C., it was placed in the Abbey of Scone, by King Kenneth, who caused a prophetical verse to be engraved upon it of which the following is a translation: "`Should fate not fail, where ere this stone is found, the Scots shall monarch of that realm be crowned.'"

Allen points out that, prior to the time King Kenneth had his verse engraved on the coronation stone, there was a prophetic verse attached to it which Sir Walter Scott rendered as follows:

Unless the fates are faithless grown,
And the prophets' voice be vain,
Where ere is found this sacred stone
The wanderers' race shall reign.

Continuing, Allen says, "Think of it! For more than seven hundred years this stone has been in Westminster Abbey. Dean Stanley, in his `Memorials of Westminster Abbey,' says: `The chief object of attraction, to this day, to innumerable visitors to the Abbey, is probably that ancient Irish monument of the empire known as the coronation stone.' He calls it a `precious relic,' and says that King Edward I said that `it is the one primeval monument which binds together the whole empire.' The Dean further adds: `The iron rings, the battered surface, the crack which has all but rent its solid mass asunder, bear witness to its long migrations. It is thus embedded in the heart of the English monarchy, an element of poetic, patriarchal, heathen times...(which) carries back our thoughts to races and customs now almost extinct, a link which unites the throne of England with the traditions of Tara and Iona, and connects the charm of our complex civilization with the favors of mother earth, the stocks and stones of savage nature. Faithful or foolish, the sentiment of the nation has, through three hundred generations of living men, made it felt that Jacob's pillar stone was a thing worth dying for in battle'" (Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, pages 251-255).

Yes, indeed—think of it!

This famous stone was certainly the first thing I wanted to see when I visited England in 1956! Each time I have been back, if I had occasion to show first-timers around London a bit, I would never fail to go directly to the coronation chair and show them the stone with its famous sign.

Of course, in later years thieves absconded with the stone and it was subsequently rediscovered by Scotland Yard and taken back to its place. I have been given to understand that the coronation chair and stone are kept more securely now, and do not know whether they are in fact visible to visitors to the abbey.

It is exactly as that ancient newspaper article described it, and leads one to wonder, as you gaze at it; if it has in fact reposed for hundreds of years beneath this one coronation chair from earliest antiquity, how were the handles so worn?

Obviously, that stone was carried and carried for a considerable period of time, over perhaps great distances. There is no other way whereby the metal handle at each end of it could become so worn.

Now, ponder some obvious questions for yourself.

WHY should the modern queen of a space-age nation, a nation which is the very cradle of so-called "Christian civilization," and which is the mother country of all the English-speaking countries of the Western world, be coronated as queen while sitting on an ancient rock?

Even as ancient kings of Judah stood upon the rock, or "stood by the pillar" when either being coronated as king, or making a proclamation, so, today, the queen of a modern nation, Britain, is coronated while being seated in the famous coronation chair, beneath which rests what many believe fervently to be "Jacob's pillar-stone"!

Coincidence? Fable?

The heir to the throne, Prince Charles, will be crowned, probably sometime within the fairly near future, as KING OF ENGLAND, and, you can be sure, he will be crowned as king sitting on a stone!

In fact, God HAS fulfilled His ancient covenant to David—there has never lacked of the seed of David's own line to sit upon the throne, NOT of just "any nation" in the Western world, but a modern nation of ISRAEL! That nation is EPHRAIM, Great Britain, and in that nation is an ancient, scarred coronation chair, with an exceedingly ancient rock beneath its seat.

It is very likely that rock is the same one upon which Jacob laid his head so many centuries ago; the same one carried back up out of Egypt by the children of Israel; the same one which was struck by Moses at Horeb; the same one which was stood upright, or was stood upon, in coronations of kings of Judah for centuries; the same stone which was carried by Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch, together with the king's daughter, to Ireland; the same stone upon which kings of Scotland, and England, have from that time been crowned—indeed, the same stone that was in Westminster Abbey for many centuries, and is in Scotland today.

Those who have carefully studied history know that the United States of America was an insignificant, struggling, minor power in 1800.

The great empires of the world were in Europe and feudal Asia. Great imperialistic, colonizing powers (the British, the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the French) had laid claim to possessions from the East Indies to Africa; from Central and South America to Macao and India; then from Southeast Asia to North America. Britain had waged wars against France and her allies, defending herself against Napoleon Bonaparte, who was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Britain had been struggling mightily to retain her freedom against virtually all of Europe, either allied with, or occupied by, the French.

Three years earlier, the United States had fought its second war with its mother nation, Britain, the War of 1812, which ended for all time further British attempts at regaining her lost colonies on the North American continent.

The fascinating history of the 19th century showed the United States emerging from a roughshod, homespun country of former colonists and European immigrants into, eventually, the greatest single power the world has ever seen!

Significantly, the largest single territorial acquisition in the history of the United States took place at the exact end of a prophesied "seven times" national punishment, delaying until comparatively modern times the prophesied bequeathment of the BIRTHRIGHT promises!

Only 10 years before the turn of the 18th century, in 1790, the total size of the United States was 888,862 square miles.

France, desperate for money in her protracted struggle against Great Britain, offered the United States government the sale of territories extending from the mouth of Mississippi River clear to the Canadian border, a huge chunk of territory embodying 827,192 square miles!

This NEARLY DOUBLED the size of the United States by 1803, bringing the total to 1,716,054 square miles.

Remember, all Bible prophecy is dual!

Study Matthew 24, the famous "Olivet" prophecy, and apply every word Christ spoke to the actual histories of what happened in 70 A.D., as Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the armies of Titus.

Christ did not return at that time, though this prophecy leads directly to the second coming of Christ!

Though the Roman soldiers did prize the very stones of the buildings and the walls surrounding the temple from their moorings, toppling them into the valleys below, and though terrible havoc was wreaked upon the city, with tens of thousands slain and the city destroyed, archaeological excavations of these modern times absolutely prove the prophecy that "not one stone would remain atop another" was not yet fulfilled.

What happened to Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was a forerunner; an historical "type" of a yet prophesied FUTURE destruction of the city of Jerusalem, just prior to the second coming of Christ! The prophecy is dual.

By the same token, in the sobering prophecy of Leviticus 26, God says a time of TERRIBLE national calamities and punishments was (and is, yet in the future) to befall the peoples of Ephraim and Manasseh!

Through successive generations the great birthright blessings promised the progeny of Jacob (Israel) were withheld from the two nations upon whom aged Israel had pronounced the name "ISRAEL"; Ephraim (Great Britain) and Manasseh (the United States).

Turn to and read the remarkable dual prophecy of Leviticus 26!

The chapter begins with the marvelous BLESSINGS God would bestow upon His people if they would adhere to His laws, statutes and judgments.

IF the people chosen of God for a great destiny on this earth were to OBEY God, then boundless blessings of great national wealth and resources, minerals, precious metals—seemingly endless energy supplies—together with bounteous crops, salubrious climate, healthy children, an absence of wars, military conscription, heavy taxation, and disease—the promises of GOOD HEALTH (something everyone earnestly covets, and yet which no one can BUY)—these and other phenomenal blessings would be the promised rewards of OBEDIENCE.

Then, swiftly, occupying the remainder of the chapter, come the thunderous warnings of the sledgehammer blows; the shocking punishments which would befall these peoples if they turned their back on the one true God, despised His laws and His way of life, and descended into paganism and heathenism.

The great blessings are enumerated through the first few verses of the chapter, showing that IF the people obeyed God's laws—especially the great "test commandment," the Fourth Commandment, keeping the weekly SABBATH DAY, then God would not withhold His blessings—the bounty that would fall upon them would be so great there would virtually be no room to receive it!

Conversely, if the Israelites did not obey, God said, "If ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments...I will appoint over you terror, consumption [consumptive disease such as TB, etc.], and the burning ague [such as influenza, pneumonia, colds and fevers] that shalt consume the eyes [measles and other diseases which cause blindness] and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. [Shockingly, though this prophecy does not specifically imply grain sales to great enemies—the United States trades with its nuclear enemy, Russia, sending millions of metric tons of wheat, corn and other vital staples to other countries.] And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall rule over you..." (Leviticus 26:14-17).

The historical chapters of the Old Testament, particularly the books of I and II Kings and I and II Chronicles, tell the story of repeated, flagrant IDOLATRY on the part of the Israelites!

The story of the Exodus itself (Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, principally) catalog an incredible account of hostility, resentment, rebellion and idolatry on the part of "stiff-necked" Israelites who continually disparaged Moses' rule over them, "murmured" (meaning carping, criticizing, griping and condemning), and yearned to go back into slavery, rather than OBEY GOD, and experience the marvelous blessings He had in store for them!

Perhaps one of the bloodiest books in all the Bible is the book of Judges—and, in reading the final verse of this incredible history of wars, murders and rebellions, one is given the divinely revealed REASON for all the bloodshed: "In those days there was no king in Israel: EVERY MAN DID THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES" (Judges 21:25).

God terminated the rule of "the judges" at the end of the reign of Samuel. The Israelitish people told Samuel: "...Make us a KING to judge us like the nations [like the GENTILES!]" (I Samuel 8:5).

Even though Samuel was hugely angry, God told him: "... Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have NOT REJECTED THEE, but they HAVE REJECTED ME, that I should not REIGN over them"! (I Samuel 8:7).

Samuel then warned the people that the king who would reign over them would be despotic, dictatorial, arrogant and completely unconcerned with the welfare of the people!

Samuel prophesied military conscription, wars, heavy taxation and annexation of personal and private property, even the drafting of women into auxiliary military service, but, in spite of the warnings, the people said, "...Nay, but we will have a KING over us; that we also may be like all the nations..." (I Samuel 8:19, 20).

Then follows the history of the reign of Saul, his disgraceful, arrogant behavior and disqualification as a king over Israel, and the final anointing of David as the king over Israel.

From the time of David's reign until the close of the Old Testament, we read of how the nation followed the king. As the king went, so went the nation.

If the king was righteous, even to certain degrees (such as several who did not "cut down the high places" but nevertheless followed basically in the way of God), the nation was blessed accordingly.

If the king was thoroughly evil and wicked (as in the case of evil King Manasseh), the nation suffered greatly.

Finally, by 721 through 718 B.C., the sins of the nation of Israel (cataloged in Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23) had become SO GREAT in the eyes of God that He was determined to "remove them out of His sight."

It is a fact of history that the northern 10 tribes, with their capital city in Samaria, were utterly decimated, completely overpowered, the kingdom destroyed, and the vast BULK of the inhabitants of the land transported into captivity!

Now, what you are about to read you should keep in proper perspective!

Keep in mind the overview of the identity of the United States of America and the British Commonwealth of nations in prophecy!

It is all too easy to approach one particular part of the story, which may in fact be merely a supportive "twig"—not truly essential to the "TRUNK OF THE TREE" of the Bible; attempt to twist, lop off or do away with that "twig," and then believe one has destroyed the whole trunk of the tree!

That unshakable trunk of the tree happens to be the unconditional promises given to ABRAHAM, reconfirmed to Isaac, made completely unconditional to JACOB, and the transference of the name of Jacob (ISRAEL) upon his two grandsons, EPHRAIM and MANASSEH!

In a nutshell, somewhere, somehow, on this earth at this time, one must find a "company of nations," or some grouping or recognizable aggregation of brother-nations, who would appear to be the same people—thus fulfilling the divine promise concerning EPHRAIM, who was to be "greater" than his brother!

One must also find closely tied (for they are BROTHERS, ethnically) with this "company of nations" a nation which would be the GREATEST SINGLE NATION the world has ever seen!

One cannot read the eloquent, magnificently bounteous promises of the prophecy of Genesis 49 concerning JOSEPH (the father of Ephraim and Manasseh) without understanding that these great blessings could never have applied only to a narrow strip of land somewhere between the Sea of Galilee and the mountains around Jerusalem!

Read that prophecy again: "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall [implying spreading out to the four points of the compass, even as God repeatedly promised the progeny of Isaac and Jacob]:

"The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:

"But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel:)

"Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of the breasts, and of the womb;

"The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of him that was separate from his brethren" (Genesis 49:22-26).

Verse 26 should read, as the Oxford margin correctly supplies, "...Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was prince among his brethren."

The great blessings to the two sons of JOSEPH are thoroughly documented in the divine Word of God.

If God's promise is not to fail—if you can trust the very written Word of the Eternal Creator God—then somewhere, on this earth right NOW, you must find a great single nation experiencing the very bounteous blessings prornised those two tribes which were to emerge from Joseph; and another "collection" or "company" of nations—obviously brothers, who, together with that great single nation, SHARE much of the wealth of the world!

No amount of arguing, reasoning or attempting to pull down "twigs" or pointing out the errors of Allen, or other writers who have treated the subject, will suffice to chop down the TRUNK of the tree—God's promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

Of course, some will scoff at listing the names including the letters DN for "Dan" and other such names—turning to other parts of the world, where one may find a few cities or towns such as Denver, Colo.; Danville, Ill.; etc.

But all such scoffing aside—it is nevertheless a FACT that the ancient Danites, half of whom abode in ships and were a seafaring people (Judges 5:17), are revealed in the sacred Word of God to have followed the practice of naming (or renaming) important areas after the name of their father, Dan.

In one case, there are two significant names attached to one of the important Scandinavian countries, Denmark.

Again, the spelling "Denmark" is Anglicized; the Danes (notice the word Dan in the name of these peoples) call their northern peninsula by the name "Danmark." This name means nothing more than "the mark of Dan."

Anciently, however, the peninsula now occupied by the Danes was called Jutland.

As we have already seen, the multiple seed of Abraham were to be scattered to the four winds—spreading out to the east, the west, the north and the south. Consider the fact that the two great brother nations, the United States of America and Great Britain, together having come into possession of two thirds of the WEALTH of the world, are also kindred peoples!

Together, they comprise the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph. Remember, the two sons of dying Jacob (Israel), in placing his hands on the heads of his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, said, "Let my name be named on THEM." The two brother nations who were to become (1) the greatest single nation on the face of the earth and (2) a great company, collection, grouping or commonwealth of nations, were to bear the name of ISRAEL!

From the "riddle and the parable," and the puzzle of the "scarlet thread" (the famous "breach" between the Pharez and the Zarah line), we learned that God intended cropping off a "tender twig" of the royal tree representing the lineage of David—and that this represented one of the king's daughters, who would be "planted" (according to Jeremiah's commission) in a new land.

Thus, Almighty God intended healing the breach between the two lines; fulfilling His promise to David until the time of the second coming of Jesus Christ, until "He come whose right it is"! (Ezekiel 21:25-27).

Also, we know that neither Simeon nor Levi had an inheritance in the land; and that, while they were grouped with the southern "House of Judah" with their capital City at Jerusalem, they were dispersed throughout the other tribes.

The Jewish people have been, uniquely among all human races, a dispersed people! Even today, they dwell in communities all over the world—throughout the United States, Canada, the nations of Europe; and, of course, in the Middle East.

Few realize that one of the first major deportations of Jews occurred prior to the final collapse of the southern kingdom—PRIOR to the removal of the Jews to Babylon!

Notice! "Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them" (II Kings 18:13).

Only a few verses earlier, you learn how Shalmaneser, the previous king of Assyria, besieged and finally captured Samaria, "And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel [the northern HOUSE OF ISRAEL] unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: because they obeyed not the voice of the Eternal their God, but transgressed His covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Eternal commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them" (II Kings 18:9-12).

From the ancient monuments, the details of Sennacherib's campaign against the Phoenician cities, plus Jerusalem itself, come clear.

Sennacherib's Assyrian armies captured Sidon and many other Phoenician cities, while Tyre held out, though its king, Lulia (Elulaeus), fled to Cyprus. Ashdod, Ammon, Moab and Edom submitted to Assyria, but the king of Judah, Hezekiah, depending upon help from the Philistines of Ashkelon and Ekron, plus believing his fortified city of Jerusalem and Egyptian help could withstand the Assyrians, refused to submit.

In a frantic attempt to buy off the Assyrian invaders, Hezekiah paid Sennacherib 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones, couches and ceremonial furniture, including thrones inlaid with ivory, many concubines and servant eunuchs, after 46 fortified towns and cities were taken by Sennacherib, and, note this well, 200,150 Jews were carried away into captivity.

What happened to this more than 200,000 Jews who were removed from Judah SEVENTEEN YEARS after the last Israelite from the northern 10-tribed House of Israel had been removed?

No doubt they were intermingled in the towns and cities ofAssyria, just as the refugees (slaves) from the 10-tribed House of Israel had been deported, and placed in the cities of the Assyrians, or sold to neighboring countries to the north, as slaves.

No wonder, then, that not only do we find the name of Dan (and, as we shall see, other Israelitish names as well) from the area between the Black and the Caspian seas into northern Europe, Scandinavia and the British Isles, but we also find the "land of the Jews," or "Jutes' land"—the peninsula called Jutland.

Ancient Explorers and Tradesmen

Few realize that, as early as the kingdom of Solomon, active trade was carried on with nations far beyond the "Gates of Hercules" (Straits of Gibraltar). Solomon's ships brought to the land of Palestine peacocks, native only to India; exotic trade flourished under Solomon which brought riches of nations from as far away as the British Isles, where tin was mined in Cornwall; apes, ivories and peacocks from India, Pakistan and the East African highlands, where it was said King Solomon had fabulous mines.

Solomon maintained a port at Ezion-geber (the site of present-day Eilat at the northern head of the Gulf of Akaba, north of the Red Sea) as well as his seaports on the Mediterranean, principally at Joppa.

Remember, it was a full 860 years before Christ that Jonah went to Joppa, which was one of the most important seaports on the Mediterranean coast (incidentally, within the borders of Dan), and there boarded a ship going to Tarshish. "Tarshish" was so far away Jonah thought he would literally flee from the very presence of God!

How long had the ships of Tarshish been trading with Palestinian seaports? Historians place the time as early as 900 B.C.!

It is obvious that, if our nervous prophet could easily take passage on a ship of Tarshish to go to the isles and coastlands far beyond what he believed was the province of the God of Israel, any number of other wayfarers of that ancient time also took ships to faraway colonies which were important to the trade which sustained their nation!

Notice this important quote from Allen's book. In Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (pages 267-269), Allen says there was abundant time for a royal prince from the family of Judah "...to have preceded Israel to the isles, and to have had a large colony even before the birthright went to Assyria, an event which did not occur until 721 B.C. (referring to the removal of the "birthright people" by Shalmaneser) that one of those princes did precede Israel to the isles of the sea is evident; first, because God says he did, and, second, because it is recorded in the Milesian records of Ireland that the prince, Herremon, to whom Tea-Tephi was married, was a prince of the "Tuatha de Daanans."

"Mark this! If that prince was a prince of the tribe of Dan—and authentic history declares he was—then he was a prince of the family of Judah, for there can be no prince of Dan other than a prince of the royal family of HIS RACE, and that family has but one fountainhead, i.e., Judah, the fourth son of Jacob and Leah, to whom pertains the sceptre blessing.

"But this rule seems to have worked both ways, for the family ensign of Judah is a lion, and since one of his whelps [young lion] went to the northwest isles with Dan, as a matter of course the ensign of his family, the royal family, went with him. Thus it became associated with the `Tuatha de Daanans,' the tribe of Dan, and in time found its way into their national seal.

"The figure on the seal (which is illustrated in an accompanying cut) is described as `A Lion's Whelp with a Serpent's Tail.' The largest of these represents Denmark, and the other two Norway and Sweden, which were at the time under the dominion of Denmark."

Strange Names

Remember, even as we read in II Kings 18, Almighty God cast away Israel for having broken His laws; broken His covenant; and, especially, having descended into idolatry, and having forsaken God's weekly and annual SABBATHS!

God had said the great identifying sign between Him and His people (Exodus 31) was the Sabbath!

When His people lost that sign, they finally lost their very national identity.

They adopted, in place of the name of Almighty God, the names of Baal!

The name of Baal was virtually plastered all over ancient maps of Palestine. We read in the Bible of places named "Baal-peor," and "Baal-zephon"; and remember that even some individuals were named after this false god, such as "Baalam" (which merely means the plural—"many Baals").

Now, notice this incredible list of the names of Baal found in Ireland!

Baal-y-Bai, Baal-y-Gowan, Baal-y-Nahinsh, Baal-y-Castle, Baaly-Moni, Baal-y-Ner, Baal-y-Garai, Baal-y-Nah, Baal-y-Con-el, Baal-y-Hy, Baal-y-Hull-Ish, Baal-Nah-Brach, Baal-Athi, Baal-Dagon.

Howlett, a pastor in the 19th century in that region, says, "These certainly are memorials of the Baal worship once prevailing in Ireland. In them we have not only the name of Baal but its conjunction also with other Hebrew names. How can this be accounted for, except as they were so called by immigrants from Phoenicia and Palestine?"

The Celts

The ancient Celts, the bulk of whom, history says, inhabited the central and western parts of Europe, were in fact, Israelites whose origins are traced from that region in Europe through which flows the River Danube, and from the Near East.

The Anglicized "Celt," or "Kelt," is nothing more than the generic name of the ancient people who inhabited Northern and Western Europe. They were regarded, by ancient writers, as "all the fair-haired peoples dwelling north of the Alps," and the name "Celt" comes from the Greek language, for the Greeks termed them all Keltoi. The Kelts were classified as falling into two loosely divided groups, which shaded off into each other. The first was distinguished by "a long head, a long face, a narrow aquiline nose, blue eyes, very light hair and great stature," and these lighter-complexioned "Kelts" were usually termed "teutonic" by early writers.

The other group was marked by "a round head, a broad face, a nose often rather broad and heavy, hazel-gray eyes, light chestnut hair, and were said to be thick-set and medium height."

It is fascinating that the ancient "Teutons," whose name is generic for "Germans," appear in history along with the Cimbri, universally held to be Celts, but coming from the same region as the Guttones (Goths, which was a Roman name for these peoples) by the shores of the Baltic and North Sea.

The Belgic tribes in northern France were the Cimbri, and had, according to history, migrated into the region from east of the Rhine.

The dominance of the Celts in northwestern Europe and the British Isles is well known.

Ancient writers spoke of the Gauls, who gave their name to modern-day France, as the Cimbri, and identified them with the Cimmerians of an earlier date, who are mentioned by Homer.

They are identified as migrating through the mouth of the Danube, and early Celts are said to have been "continually moving westward." The "Belgae" were also Cimbri in origin. They spread across the Rhine and gave their name "to all northern France and Belgium" (Encyclopaedia Britanica, 11th edition, Vol. 5, page 612).

Even in language the ancient Celts were identified as having come from the Near East.

In 1831, James Pritchard was one of the first to demonstrate the true relationship of the Celts in his publication Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations. A famous Bavarian historian, J.C. Zeuss (l806-I856), demonstrated conclusively the Indo-European origin of the Celtic dialects. Rediscovering old Irish manuscripts, he published a striking study in Celtic philology, called Grammatica Celtic, publishing the work in 1853.

But who were these Cimbri, or Khummee, who were migrating along the river valleys of the Caucasus and the Carpathians?

Omri began to reign in 929 B.C., having been placed on the throne by the army, during the siege of Gibbethon, a Levitical city in Dan.

The death of Elah and the usurpation of Zimri led to the declaration by the army that their general, Omri, was now king of Israel. His "...chief [achievement] was the foundation of Samaria, which thenceforth became the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel" (Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature, John Kitto, Vol. 3, page 365).

Omri, while appearing from biblical records to be one of the lesser kings of Israel, nevertheless became one of the most important to the Assyrians, the Moabites, and other kingdoms to the north and east of Palestine.

In Hasting's Bible dictionary under the article Omri, the Assyrian spelling is given as Humri or Humria with the comment that the equivalent of the Hebrew-Canaanite y with the Assyrian h is illustrated by Schrader; Cot 2 i p.179.

Several other examples are given, including the identification of Ammi-rabi (Amraphel) with Hammurabi, demonstrating how some languages pronounce the h like a k while others leave it silent.

An extensive inscription from the Moabite stone published in Hasting's Bible dictionary (Vol. 3, page 621) reads "Omri was King of Israel and oppressed Moab a long time (lit. many days), for Chemosh was wroth with his land. And his son succeeded him (i.e., Omri), and he too said `I will oppress Moab' in my time (i.e. of Mesha) he said thus. But I saw (my desire) on him and his house, and Israel perish with an everlasting destruction." (This merely implies that Ahab, who was a son of Omri, was finally compelled to relinquish his hold on Moab and is an exaggeration.)

"So Omri obtained possesion of the land of Mehedeba, and dwelt therein during his days and half the days of his son, forty years..."

Hasting's says, "These dates (following information on difficulties in the chronology of Omri's reign) harmonize better with the results of Assyriology, with the deep impression which Omri had produced in western Asia by his military prowess." This impression was no fleeting one, but extended over a very long period. We have clear indication of this in the fact that Palestine was called Bit Humri or `land of the house of Omri,' from the time of Shalmaneser II (860) to that of Sargon (722-705). `The usurper Jehu is called on Shalmaneser's black obelisk Ja'ua agal Humari, "Jehu, son of Omri." And no less deep was the impression produced in Israel and Judah. `The reference to the "statutes of Omri" in Micah 6:16 is an indication of this, his name being coupled with that of his son Ahab.'"

Bit Humri is the equivalent of Beth Omri in the Hebrew, or the House of Omri, which was the name applied to all Israel by the ASSYRIANS!

Thus, when Shalmaneser's army brought hundreds of thousands of captured Israelites as slaves into the land of Assyria, the Assyrian army and local populace only knew them as Bit Humri. And never referred to them as Hebrews, Israelites, or by any other Israelitish or Jewish term!

In any number of languages, the h is silent. However, in other languages the h has a hard sound, pronounced by forcing the sharp sound against the hard palate, as in the English word "how." In some languages, such as German, the h can be pronounced quite similarly to the English k.

Thus Bit Humri was pronounced by some "Kumri" and by the Greeks "Kimri," "Cimri" or "Gymri."

These peoples are also found in history as the "Cimmerians."

The Bit Humri, or the Kumri, who were known by the Greeks as the Kimbri, are said to be the progenitors of the Celts!

The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, Vol. 20, page 105, says: "The inscription of Mesha throws welcome light upon his conquest of Moab; the position of Israel during the reign of Omri's son Ahab bears testimony to the success of the father; and the fact that the land continued to be known to the Assyrians down to the time of Sargon (after Shalmaneser, who carried away the hulk of the northern ten tribes into captivity) as `the house of Omri' indicates the reputation which this little-known king enjoyed."

The Cimbri are identified as a "teutonic tribe" who first make their appearance in Roman history in about 113 B.C., and who had been "wandering along the Danube for some years warring..."

The Encyclopaedia Britannica says, "The original home of the Cimbri has been much disputed. It is recorded in the Monumentum Ancyranum that a Roman fleet sailing eastward from the mouth of the Rhine (about 5 A.D) ...at the farthest point reached the [region] of a people called Cimbri, who sent an embassy to Augustus."

Several early writers agree in saying that the Cimbri occupied a peninsula, and in the map of Ptolemy JUTLAND appears as the Cimbric Chersonese. Under the article "Cimmerii," the Britannica 11th edition says they were "an ancient people of the far north or west of Europe first spoken of by Homer."

Herodotus, the famous historian (Herodotus iv. 11-13) regards them as the "early inhabitants of south Russia, driven by the Scyths along by the Caucasus into Asia Minor, where they maintained themselves for a century. This authority also reveals that "later writers identified them with the Cimbri of Jutland, who were probably Teutonized Celts..."

The Encyclopedia Biblica says of Assyrian reference to Omri: "On inscriptions from the time of Shalmaneser II (854) down to Sargon (720) we find the northern kingdom designated as Mat Bit-Humri, `the land of the house of Omri'; or simply Mat Humri, `Land Omri,' Jehu even is called `son of Omri' (Schrader Kat 190 ff.). The use of this phrase shows great was the reputation which Omri enjoyed abroad."

The Encyclopedia Biblica also lends support to the very great possibility that the captured Israelites, who had already become corrupt while they were yet in the land, carried the names of Baal with them in their migrations, explaining the many names of Baal persisting in Ireland until modern times!

It says, "The dynasty which the [Omri] founded lasted for half a century, and was only overturned by the hatred of the prophets to the worship of Baal" (Encyclopedia Biblica, 3500).

Scythia

The ancient Scythians were a "nomadic" people who come from "the steppe from the Carpathians to the Don" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 25, page 526).

The Egyptian historian and chronologer Herodotus (iv. 1-42) deals with the Scyths, showing that their original language came from the area of Persia, or Iran.

However, though Herodotus records that a number of Scythian words preserved were from the area between the Black and Caspian Sea, other words, especially the names of their deities, found no satisfactory explanation in any Indo-European language.

It is fascinating that the oldest inhabitants recorded by history in the area of Scythia were the Cimmerii, which is nothing more than a slightly corrupted form (as is common in philology) of Omri, or the ancient names for the people of Bit-Humri, or "the house of Omni."

"...The nature of the country makes it probable that some of them [Scythians] were Nomads, while others no doubt tilled some land in the river valleys and in the Crimea, where they left their name to ferries, earthworks and the Cimmerian Bosporus. [The narrow passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean is called the Bosporus Dardanelles.] By the time of the seventh century B.C., a warlike people harassing the northern frontiers of what is today modern Iran were called the Sake (Sacae), and are considered by some historians as being synonymous with the Scyths.

Who Were the Saxons?

Ptolemy says that about the middle of the second century the "Saxons" (Saka, Sacae, Scythia) inhabited the neck of the "Cimbric Peninsula" (which is Jutland, or the peninsula occupied by the "Cimmiri" or "Cimbri"), together with three islands lying off the western coast of what is today Denmark.

They are next heard from in history in connection with periodical expeditions in the North Sea about the year 286. By the beginning of the fifth century, the northern coast of Gaul (modern-day France) and the southeast coast of Britain were known as Litora Saxonica. Latin for the "littoral of the Saxons," owing, as is obvious, to the establishment of colonies of the Saxons.

The Saxons virtually disappear from history from the sixth century onwards, and it is assumed by historians that the Saxons who invaded Britain, while maritime peoples, had either voluntarily or by conquest gradually become incorporated into the Frisian Kingdom, occupying those lands to the north and the west of Westphalia, in northwest Germany.

To this day, one of the states of Germany is identified as "Saxony." Early inhabitants of Britain, the Angli, together with the invading Saxons, gave their name to the modern term "Anglo-Saxon" for a Briton.

"It is now a well-authenticated fact that the word Saxon is derived from the Hebrew name of I-saac, together with an affix which means `sons of.' Prof. Totten says: `In most of the Eastern languages `sons of' is written sunnia. It is equivalent to the Scottish `Mac' and the English and Irish `Fitz'—MacDonald, son of Donald; Fitz Henry, son of Henry. So, in the distant home of our ancestors, Saac-Sunnia means sons of Isaac. Stambul is formed of Istanbul by dropping the prefix I, and so the Saxon is a direct descendant of our father Isaac. Dr. W. Holt Yates accepts this derivation of the Saxon name as positive, and the Rev. W.H. Poole, D.D., speaks of it as follows: `It is a little curious to glean from the ancient nations and from the stone monuments of the early times the various forms in which this word is to be found. I will here insert a few from a list of my own gleaned from ancient history, thus: Sons of Isaac, Sons of Saac, SaacSunnia, Saac-Suna, Saac-Sena, Saac-pena, Esakska, Sacae-Amyrqui, Beth-Sakal (House of Isaac), Sunnia Sakai-Suna, Saca-Suna, Sacae-Sunnae, Sackisina, Sacka-Sacia, Saca-Cine, Saka-Suna, Sacas-Sani, Sakas-Saeni, Saxi-Suna, Sach-Suni, Sachi, Sacha, Sa-kah, Saa-chus, Saa-cus, Sa-cho, Saxo, Saxoi, Saxonia, Sax-ones, Saxae, Sach-sen, Sack-sen, Saxe-sen, Saxone, Saxony, Saxon'" (Our Race, Judah's Scepter and Joseph's Birthright, page 294).

Many ancient historians agree on the origins of the "Saxons" (son of Isaac): Ptolemy says the Saxans were connected with the Scythians, and were called Sakai, and that they came from the land of the Medes!

One of the most important historians of the Saxons was Sharon Turner, who said, "The Saxons were a Scythian nation, and were called Saca, Sachi, Sacki and Sach-sen." Pliney says, "The Sakai were among the most distinguished people of Scythia, who settled in Armenia, and were called Sacae-sani." Albinas claims that "the Saxons were descended from the ancient Sacae of Asia."

Another historian, Prideaux, says that the Cimbrians came from between the Black and Euxine (the Caspian) seas, and that with them came the Angli!

In the book Our Scythian Ancestors, by Gawler (page 6), "The word Saacae is fairly and without straining our imagination translatable as Isaacites."

Even today, the Hebrew name "Isaac" is pronounced Eetsaak. To force this pronunciation, insuring that the letter i is given the sound of the English ee, one would use a y, as do those using the English language in spelling the name "Isaac" from the Hebrew, rendering it Ytsak.

These "sons of Isaac" became the Saakea, or the Saka, and their names are found coupled with the same origins as the Danites and the Bit-Humri, or the sons of Omri, from the area of ancient Media, and along the river courses, principally that of the Danube, into northwestern Europe, and the British Isles!

These few clues to the identity of the most ancient inhabitants of northwestern Europe, the Scandinavian countries and the British Isles are by no mean all the evidence available!

The fact that ancient Israelitish explorers (not only those who circumnavigated Africa, sailing to India and to the British Isles in the time of Solomon, but later Danites, as well) left their names at principal sources of supply (such as food, fresh water, etc.) along their routes of trade and discovery is obvious.

Remember, God utterly removed the northern 10-tribed Israelites from the land of their original inheritance!

Because they had already rejected the one great sign that would continually remind them of their Creator, keep them in remembrance of just who was their Protector, Provider and their God, they became lost, spiritually!

God rejected them.

Adopting the pagan names of Baal, descending into the pagan rituals of idolatry and even infant sacrifice, they became a stench to God's nostrils.

Through a succession of prophets, He warned them in blistering indictments that the monumental punishments for their individual and collective national sins would be enormous.

Evil, perverted, twisted and sadistic rulers refused to heed; the pagan idols were not removed, and God finally carried out His threatened punishments; removing massive numbers—hundreds of thousands—10-tribed Israelites as refugees into the lands of their captors!

Later, at the final collapse of the Assyrian Empire, the progeny of these early slaves, reduced to a virtual "stone-age," barbarian, uncivilized level of living; like wandering nomads; began to spread out in the lands between the Black and the Caspian sea; wandering along the fertile river valleys into the foothills of the Carpathians and the Caucasus, giving names to prominent features, rivers and tributaries, mountains and mountain passes along the way.

Since their captors called them Bit-Kumria, or the Khumri, and the Romans called them the Cymri, is it any wonder we find not only these names sprinkled across Europe, leading us to the British Isles—but the names of Dan, as well?

One thing is sure: God's Word shall stand! God's promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were absolutely unconditional!

Though deprived of their national inheritance for generations, 10-tribed Israel, finally arriving in the lands which were to become their perpetual possession, became, as the centuries passed, the GREATEST of all nations (the British Empire at its zenith), and the greatest single nation the world has ever seen, the United States of America!

Seven Times Punishment

Now we come to a fascinating part of the story; the remarkable fulfillment of God's promises—long delayed, but nevertheless FULFILLED, to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Remember, God had warned Israel that if they did not keep His commandments and His statutes; SEVEN TIMES national punishment would pass over them! He would punish SEVEN TIMES for their sins!

Seven "times," meaning seven prophetic years consists of seven times three hundred sixty days; 2520 days—meaning a time span of two thousand, five hundred and twenty YEARS.

Israel was not removed from the land all at once. During the reigns of several kings, God sent Assyrian armies to punish them, hoping the leaders would recognize that it was God's doing, as His prophets repeatedly warned; that they would turn from their abominable pagan practices, repent, and turn to God.

Pul, king of Assyria, came into Samaria against Menahem, king of Israel, and exacted heavy tribute, yet did not deport slaves, nor occupy the land (II Kings 15:19). Years later, Pekah was king over Israel and "...did that which was evil in the sight of the Eternal: he departed not from the sins of Jereboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

"In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbeth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria" (II Kings 15:28, 29).

Tiglath-pileser wrote "The people of the land of Omri [which the Assyrians called `Bit-Khumri'] I deported to Assyria, with their property." The year given in Ussher's Chronology for this deportation is 734 B.C. However, Usshur is off by one year because of a miscalculation, omitting erroneously the year's duration of the Noachian Deluge. Subtracting 734 (actually 735) from 2520, we have 1785. However, when subtracting A.D. from B.C., we must remember there is no year "0"; that we are dealing with both "1 B.C.," and "1 A.D.," each being a year. Our figures would not allow for the extra single digit, so we must add one year. Exactly seven times from this major (but not the largest, nor the final) deportation of Israelitish slaves in 735 B.C. brings us to 1786, when delegates from five U.S. states asked the Congress to call a special convention in Philadelphia to write a practical Constitution for the thirteen states! Only two years earlier, Britain had signed a peace treaty with the United States.

Obviously, this event; the signal to write the Constitution, would be a major signpost in the establishment of some of the peoples of Israel in their own lands. However, the exact year Tiglath-Pileser conquered major parts of northern Israel is much in dispute. Kitto says, "Much uncertainty has arisen about the date of his accession, because he states that he took tribute from Menahem in his eighth year, which would make it [his accession] B.C. 767 or 768 [received chronology], whereas it is more likely that it was connected in some way with the change of events in Babylon that gave rise to the era of Nabonassar, or 747.

"However, as LXX [the Septuagint] give the reign of Manasseh thirty-five years instead of fifty-five, this diminution of twenty years would exactly rectify the discrepancy, or else it is possible that in the said inscription Menahem may be by mistake for Pekah, since he is joined with Rezin, whom scripture always couples with Pekah" (A Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, John Kitto, Vol. 1, p.248, 249).

No matter the precise dates, and some of them can be determined with precision, the successive waves of invading Assyrian armies came into northern Israel over a period of decades; transcended the reigns of several Assyrian kings, and several Israelitish kings.

Haberman wrote, "The real captivity of Beth-Sak, the Phoenician name for the `House of Israel' [Haberman pointing out correctly that the heathen neighbors of Israel did not use the names of inspired scripture; but names of their own derivation, such as those like the Habiru, Habiri, or Abiri that appear on the Tel-el-Armarna tablets, obvious corruptions of "Hebrew" and that "Beth-Sak" means "House of Isaac," even as the term "Saxons," as it eventually came to be used, connoted "Sons of Saac," or "sons of Isaac."] began in 745 when Tiglath-pileser came and took large portions of the tribes of Asher, Zebulon, Issachar and Gad into Assyria, as recorded in II Kings 15:29."

Others subscribe to this date as well. Using our prophetic figure of 2,520 years, and subtracting 745 from it, remembering to add one year because of 1 B.C. and 1 A.D., we have 1776! Is there any American who wonders what happened of any significance during that year? However, as a caution, let us note that it was not Manasseh which was included in the captivity imposed by Tiglath-pileser, but other members of other tribes, albeit a significant number.

A great deal of research would be required to link key events among various northwestern nations to the captivity under Tiglath-pileser, 2,520 long years before. However, remember it is primarily Ephraim and Manasseh; Britain and America, with whom we are concerned, for dying Jacob (Israel) said, "Let my name be named on them." The peoples called "The House of Israel" in those specific biblical prophecies concerning the last days; the time just before and during the Great Tribulation (called the time of "Jacob's trouble"), are the peoples of Ephraim and Manasseh!

Haberman also quotes Davidson's The Great Pyramid's Prophecy concerning the British Empire and America, asserting that, the great pyramid "...has shown that [its] chronology fixed the 10th of January, 1776 as an epoch-making date in the history of Israel in America. It was on the 10th of January, 1776, that Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense, in which he called upon the people of the colonies to rebel against the mother land" (Tracing Our White Ancestors, Haberman, p.176).

I want to make it clear that I do not believe in pyramidology. I reject the "pyramid inch" as being an artificially contrived, inaccurate unit of measurement from which to derive prophetic truth. While I believe there may be some significance to the pyramid beyond that of an Egyptian tomb; believe its place on the great seal of the United States may have some significance; that it may be a border marker for a millennial redisposition of national borders, I leave all of this to the future, believing it is highly suspect to assign major events to measurements obtained long after the events have occurred. This is not prophecy; it is interpretive archaeology and history. It is not necessary to grasp at straws to support the facts that America and Britain are, indeed, the latter-day descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim.

Make no mistake! There were hundreds of events spanning dozens of years that resulted in the colonizing, eventual independence, and gradual expansion of the United States. It is not necessary to fix exact dates, for the entire period during which such independence and expansion occurred fits very neatly into the entire period of the conquering and deportation of the ten tribes of northern Israel 2,520 long years before.

Let it be plain that many "interesting sidelights" to the central theme of this book may be presented. Those interesting points merely elaborate upon, and may give interest, color, or some slight credence to the overall truth presented. But the main trunk of the tree is God's irrefutable promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; that Jacob's grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, would eventually become a "company of nations," and a great single nation; that between them they would possess the choicest places of earth; possess the gates of their enemies; that they would multiply as the "stars of heaven" and the "sand of the seashore."

Now, notice a date which bears no refutation—a date about which there can be no controversy!

The largest number of Israelites were removed by Assyrian forces in 718 B.C. This represented the largest loss of territory, citizens, and plunder in the successive waves of Assyrian invasion against the northern ten-tribed House of Israel. It included all of Ephraim and Manasseh! Exactly seven times, or 2,520 years from 718 B.C. (adding one year to account for both 1 A.D. and I B.C.) brings us to 1803.

And what occurred of any significance in 1803?

In 1803, the emperor of France, Napoleon, in return for bonds, and a cancellation of $3,750,000 in claims of U.S citizens against France, sold all of Louisiana, plus French-held territories as far north as the Canadian border to the fledgling nation of the United States of America!

The famous "Louisiana Purchase" more than doubled the size and territories of the United States! By the stroke of a pen, the U.S. more than doubled! Strikingly, this occurred exactly 2,520 years from the time Israel lost the major share of her national territories!

From the late 1700s into the early 1800s, as any tyro of history knows, the United States realized independence; adopted a Constitution and Bill of Rights, successfully concluded a war of independence from Britain, emerged as a sovereign nation. The year following the Louisiana Purchase, President Jefferson ordered Lewis and Clark to explore the entire region from St. Louis to the Pacific northwestern coast—thus opening the way for the flow of trappers, hunters, traders; the famous mountain men, who were followed by settlers, miners; a never-ending flood of emigrants who poured into the vast, unsettled lands of the American west over the next 100 years.

The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition were catalytic to the exploration and settlement of the west; absolutely pivotal events which eventually led to the union of the contiguous 48 states and the emergence of the United States as a world power.

There may be dozens of isolated events which led to significant fulfillment of prophecy; events which have been lost to history. The plain facts are that the northern ten tribes were dispossessed of their national inheritance in the land of Palestine over a period of many years, from about 767 B.C. to 718 B.C. They became intermingled with the fleeing Assyrians as the Babylonian empire forced them northward. God told Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their seed would spread abroad; to all points of the compass, from the land of Palestine!

Wherever one looks, from the far north to the far south, and in all directions east and west, one finds the progeny of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The "Northmen" (Norsemen) of Norway and other Scandinavian countries may well represent Dan, Issachar, and Naphtali. France, at least the northern portions, appear to represent Reuben. Incontrovertible evidence links Holland with Zebulon (see bibliography). "Berith" in Hebrew means "covenant." "Ish" was the name for Adam in Hebrew. It means, simply, "man.'' Eve was called "Ishshah," which means "of man." "Berith-ish," or covenant man, becomes "British"; the people of "Brit" or "Berith."

Haberman says, "The race that came to Britain was the race of the Angles; not the Anglo-Saxons, a term only introduced from the continent after the Norman Conquest. The name given to the country was England, i.e., Angle-land. The church was Anglican. There were subdivisions named East Saxons, West Saxons, etc., but these were merely territorial designations brought by the Angles from their German localities. `An inhabitant of Wessex would call himself indifferently either a West Saxon or an Angle; but none of the Angle kingdom called himself a Saxon,' writes Major B. de Weldon in his Origin of the English.

"There are very few names in England connected with the Saxon name; most of the Saxons remained in Germany, northern France, Switzerland, and Scandinavia, where their descendants still are. The term of Saxon belongs to the whole house of Israel, for, `in Isaac shall thy seed be called [named],' Scripture tells us in Genesis 21:12 and Romans 9:7. They were to be called the `sons of Isaac,' and have been so through the centuries, the Beth-Sak, Saki, Sacae, Sakasani, Saxones, Sachsen, and Saxons. All the Angles were Saxons and so were the Danites, Catti, Getai or Goths, and even the Brits; but it was the Angles who gave England her name, in the same way that the covenant race, the Barats or Brits previously gave Britain her name (Tracing Our White Ancestors, Frederick Haberman, 1934, p.143).

The British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland—all represent major portions of the tribes of Dan, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Zebulon, Issachar and Ephraim, with those of Simeon, Levi and Judah interspersed among them.

As an aside, it might be interesting to determine the origin of the word "Angle." As I have pointed out, the northern kingdom of Israel began under the worship of golden calves; idols symbolizing cherubim; the calf of an ox. Exactly as did Aaron during Moses' absence to receive the law, Jereboam set up idols approximating the familiar representations of the "host of heaven."

The calf of an ox was familiar to the Israelites, being the "god" of many surrounding heathen nations. This blatant idolatry led God to send His prophets repeatedly with condemnations of Israel's idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, and ignoring of His annual Sabbaths. Hosea said, "Thy calf, 0 Samaria [the capital of northern Israel; the ten tribes] hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God; but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces" (Hosea 8:5,6).

The Hebrew word for calf is "Egle" or "Engel." Professor Waddell in his book Aryan Origin says that in the Gothic Runes the letter "A" is pronounced asa or ace, meaning "the one," or "the first one," which may explain why the "Ace" is the first in a pack of playing cards. Our English letter "A" is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph, which means bull. Originally, it lay on its side, representing the horns of a bull; referring to the fall equinox in Taurus the Bull, at which time Creation took place.

Is there any significance to the reference to Britain as "John Bull," or that they became world renowned as breeders of the finest of cattle; that Moses prophesied of Ephraim, "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh"? (Deuteronomy 33:17).

Often, the heathen neighbors of various nations referred to them according to their gods, or religion. Thus, the worshipers of the "Agels" or "Angle" became the "Angles," pronounced and spelled variously, according to the tongue extant among those tribes in the vast, mountainous areas through which the ever-westward wandering covenant people went.

Over a period of centuries, God guided the peoples of His promises unerringly to their ultimate possessions, prophesied to be at the four points of the compass; all the corners of the earth.

To the far South, one finds Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the many possessions of Britain for which she fought so hard—as recently as the Falkland Islands war! The most recently-settled part of the earth was the American West. And so, exactly as God had promised, Israelitish tribes were finally settled around the world to the North, and the South, and the East, and the West. God had destroyed the original inheritors of the promised land for their horrible national and personal sins; Sabbath-breaking and idolatry prominent among them.

Seven biblical times passed over their wandering descendants.

Finally, God's time had come to fulfill His promise to Abraham, for his seed to inherit lands in all points of the compass; to become "as the sand of the seashore" and as "the stars of heaven." They were to "inherit the gates of those that hate them," and "possess the gates of their enemies."

Into the 19th and 20th centuries, Britain and America became the greatest powers the world had ever seen. Between them, they possessed ALL the strategic land and sea gates that controlled world trade; that proved strategically decisive in two global wars!

Israel was removed by successive waves of invading Assyrian armies over a span of many years involving the reigns of several different kings. God continually sent His prophetic warnings concerning their abominable national and personal sins; all to no avail. One king after another persisted in the same sins of Jereboam: the worship of Asherah, which were symbols of the "host of heaven," including cherubim, and abandoning God's feast days for a substitute feast in the eighth month.

As a mirror image, Israel inherited her national blessings over a span of a number of years, in many significant instances achieving large-scale conquests or receiving massive increments of land exactly seven biblical times from being dispossessed thus fulfilling the unconditional promises to Abraham.

Who Were the Original Europeans?

Curiously enough, when one studies the origins of the peoples of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany and England, one continually comes across the same peoples as having been among the earliest known inhabitants of all these countries.

For centuries, there was no political distinction, no specific geographic distribution of the peoples who inhabited the river valleys and plains of Europe and the British Isles. They were merely the "Keltoi" (Celts), or "Teutons," or "Gauls," or "Saxons," or "Gimri," or "Cimmerians." As the centuries passed, languages changed significantly. New dialects arose and faded from use; whole new tongues gradually developed.

By studying both the history of the peoples and their languages, as well as their art forms and especially their religions, one can come to a better understanding of the commonality of the origins of most northwestern Europeans.

The most ancient records extant speak of the peoples inhabiting northwestern Europe and the British Isles as the "Celts."

Who were the "Celts"?

The Encyclopedia Britannica replies, "CELT, or KELT, the generic name of an ancient people, the bulk of whom inhabited the central and western parts of Europe... the ancient writers regarded as homogeneous all the fair-haired peoples dwelling north of the Alps, the Greeks terming them all Keltoi. Physically they fall into two loosely-divided groups, which shade off into each other. The first of these is restricted to northwestern Europe, having its chief seat in Scandinavia... Those are the peoples usually termed Teutonic by modem writers. The other group [of "Celtic" peoples] is marked by a round head, a broad face, a nose often rather broad and heavy, hazel-grey eyes, light chestnut hair; they are thick-set and of medium height. This race is often termed "Celtic" or "Alpine" from the fact of its occurrence all along the great mountain chain from southwest France, in Savoy, in Switzerland... [and] is commonly supposed to be Mongoloid in origin and to have come from Asia, the home of the round-skulled races" (Ibid. vol. V. p.611, 612).

Notice carefully that the so-called "Celtic" peoples came from Asia, and that it is admitted they were not of just one tribal origin. Remember that the Babylonian empire drove out the Assyrians (whose main tribal group were the "Halmanni," from whence comes "Aleman," which is the Latin root for "German.") along with their former captives, ten-tribed Israel! These mixed peoples spread out into Europe from the region of the steppes of Russia; the Crimean (Gimrian, or "Khumrian," from "Bit-Khumri") Peninsula, and along the Danube valley ("River of Dan") into Europe.

The ancient historians regarded the peoples occupying the river valleys of the Danube; the mountains of Switzerland and Bavaria; the broad plains of northern Germany and the coastlands of the northwest as "Ke1toi"; as "homogeneous," meaning—the same peoples!

Remember the ancient Assyrians called the captive peoples of ten-tribed Israel after their famous king, "Omri," making it "Khumri," in their own tongue. These peoples are found throughout the region from the Black and Caspian sea; the Crimean (Khimbrian) peninsula; central Europe along the Don, Udon and Danube rivers, to northwestern Europe and the British Isles! The "K" sound became silent, or the harsh "H" sound, in some cases. Today, we find the "Humber" estuary on the East coast of England; draining two important rivers. "Northumberland" is merely the land of the north "Humbers," or "Khumbris." One finds similar clues in place-names all over Britain, including "Cambria" and "Cambridge."

The "Gauls" gave their name to much of France, and even to far away "Galatia," in Asia Minor, a region to which the apostle Paul directed one of his letters; to the churches of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Even today, France is sometimes called "Gaul," and who does not remember its famous post-war President, Charles deGaul, or Charles, of Gaul? The westward migrations of the ten-tribed Israelites did not necessarily continue incessantly westward over the centuries, for there were regional wars, conquests, long periods of time when some of these peoples pushed back southward and eastward, coming into contact with the Romans in northern Italy; with the Greeks and Macedonians.

Notice the admission of history, "Ancient writers spoke of all these Gauls as Cimbri [Khumbri, Gimry, Cimmeria, Cimmerians, etc.], and identified them with the Cimmerians of earlier date, who in Homeric times dwelt on the ocean next to the Laestrygones, in a region of wintry gloom, but where the sun set not in summer" (Ibid. vol. V. P. 612). In other words, to the far north, where the days were very long in summer, and the winters very dark.

The same source says, "They passed eastward to the Danube mouth and into southern Russia, as far as the Sea of Azov, mingling with the Scythians, as is proved by the name Celtosyths... the Celts had continually moved westward also. The Belgae, who were Cimbric in origin, had spread across the Rhine and given their name to all northern France and Belgium. Many of these tribes sent colonies over into southeastern Britain, where they had been masters for some two centuries [as long as the United States has been a nation] when Caesar invaded the island" (Ibid. vol. v. p. 612, emphasis mine).

There are other clues as to the origin of the peoples who settled the northwestern European nations and Scandinavia, not the least of which is philological. Julius Caesar observed there was little difference between the speech of the Gauls and the Britons in his day. Jerome says the speech of the Galatians in Asia Minor bore a strong resemblance to the speech he heard in the neighborhood of Trier. Trier is one of the most ancient cities in Europe, in Germany. It was the favorite residence of Constantine, and derived its name from the most powerful peoples among the "Belgae," who have been proved to be the "Celts," or those mixed peoples who inhabited Europe from several centuries before Christ. Julius Caesar conquered the "Treviri," a tribe of the "Belgae" in 54 B.C. Some have attempted to show that these "Belgae" were of Germanic origin, but the Encyclopedia Britannica says, "...although they were doubtless subject to German influences, they spoke a Celtic language" (Ibid. vol. 27, p.268, emphasis mine). As the most important city in Germany for a long time, Trier became the capital of "Belga Prima" during the reign of emperor Diocletian, who also named it the seat of the Diocese of "all of Gaul," which later included "Gaul" (France and part of Germany), England, and Spain.

The foremost authorities on the origin of European languages admit to a commonality among them; especially the tongues of the northwestern European river valleys. The earliest Roman writers found a number of tribes west and south of the Rhine who "...belonged to a non-Germanic race, and who, closely related to the Belgian tribes (the Belgae, Goths and Visigoths), spoke a language belonging to the Celtic group... we do not know anything about their being mixed with or subdued by the intruding German tribes. We can only guess it" (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 8, p.717, article "Dutch language").

Like most European nations, true written histories do not commence until about the 8th or 9th centuries. Beyond that, one is left with the writings of the earliest travelers to those regions, such as Pliny, Strabo, Herodotus, Julius Caesar, and others. Of Danish history, it is admitted Pliny is the most ancient contributor. "Our earliest knowledge of Denmark is derived from Pliny, who speaks of three islands named `Skandiai,' a name which is also applied to Sweden. He says nothing about the inhabitants of these islands, but tells us more about the Jutish peninsula [named after the `Jutes,' or Jewish emigrants following their captivity under Sennacherib, II Kings 18:13], or Cimbric Cheronese as he calls it. He places the Saxons on the neck of the Jutish peninsula" (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 8, p.28, article "Denmark").

Notice again the name "Cimbric," derived from the ancient Assyrian "Bit-Khumri" for "House of Omri." Time and time again, the ancient writers tell us of mingled peoples called "Jutes" (Jews), "Cimbri" (from Omri, a king of ten-tribed Israel), "Saxons" (from "Sons of Saac," or Isaac), and the "Teutons" (from the Roman word for `spear man"), who inhabited northwestern Europe. Remember the practice of the Danites, half of whom lived "in ships," of naming lands, rivers, significant topographical and geographical sites after their progenitor? Listen to what the Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition) says about the origin of the name for "Denmark" (spelled and pronounced "Danmark" by the Danes): "Jutland was acquired by Dan, the eponymous ancestor of the Danes!" (Ibid. p.28, emphasis mine).

Many myths have been perpetrated concerning the earliest Scandinavians. It is commonly believed the "vikings" were a race of warriors who were the inhabitants of much of the western Scandinavian area, and who settled Iceland and Greenland. But the term "viking" was not an ethnic term at all. "During the saga age (900-1050), in the beginning of Norse literature, vikingr is not as a rule used to designate any class of men" (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 28, p.62).

The vikings were so-called because of raids carried out by pirates against the "Christian" countries of England, Scotland and Ireland during the Frankish empire. "The word `viking' in the sense in which it is used today, is derived from the Icelandic (Old Norse) vikingr, signifying simply a sea-rover or pirate... the reason for using `viking' in a more generic sense than is warranted by the actual employment of the word in Old Norse literature rests on the fact that we have no other word by which to designate the early Scandinavian pirates of the 9th and beginning of the 10th century" (Ibid. p. 62-63).

The peoples of Scandinavia are most likely the peoples of Issachar, Dan, and Naphtali.

Now, what of the Islands called "Britannia"? Of the name it is admitted, "The Greek and Roman forms [of Britain, Britannia, etc.,] are doubtless attempts to reproduce a Celtic original, the exact form of which is still a matter of dispute. Brittany [Fr. Bretagne] in western France derived its name from Britain owing to migrations in the 5th and 6th century A. D. The personification of Britannia as a female figure may be traced back as far as the coins of Hadrian..." (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 4 p.583).

It has been suggested by enthusiastic supporters of the "AngloIsraelitish theory'' as some call it, that `'British" is really nothing more than "Berith-ish," "Berith" meaning "covenant" in Hebrew, and "ish" meaning man; hence, "covenant-man." This is difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt, and remains an open question. It is not necessary to grasp at straws to demonstrate the veracity of God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, nor is it difficult to establish beyond the shadow of a doubt that the peoples who were among the earliest known inhabitants of northwestern Europe and the British Isles bore the names, even if somewhat altered by enemies, neighbors, and linguistic changes, of ancient ten-tribed Israel and its forebears. Actually, the authorities admit they do not know the actual origin of the term "Brithon" for the earliest peoples who inhabited England, so the matter remains conjecture.

As to pre-Roman Britain, the same source admits, "Geologists are not yet agreed when and by whom Britain was first peopled" (Ibid., p. 5S3).

It is admitted that the first real evidence of Britain's earliest in-habitants begin with the two Celtic invasions; with the arrival of the Belgae and the "Brythons." These peoples lived under a tribal system, governed by royal princes; they gathered in walled cities, made of earth or stone, with forts built atop the hills. This was the custom in ancient Palestine.

Their religion was Druidic, which was a mystical, magical order of "priests" who practiced barbarous rites, including human sacrifice. Who were the Druids? From when did they come? What is the origin of their religion? Can we derive any tangible clues as to the ancient origins of the earliest inhabitants of Britain from their religion?

The Druids-Magicians and Astrologers

The Druids were a caste of erudite, learned men who were regarded as the most gifted and powerful teachers, physicians, astrologers, judges, soothsayers and magicians among the peoples of pre-Christian Europe and England.

It is admitted they were "Celtic" in origin. They worshipped in groves of oak trees; erected stone monuments; altars and/or astronomical observatories (as Stonehenge is alleged to be, although it is admitted Stonehenge may have been built by pre-Druidic peoples), claimed to possess magical powers, and practiced human sacrifice.

From the time of Pliny the elder, the term "Druid" was said to have been etymologically derived from the Greek word for "oak." Huge groves of oak trees figured prominently in their worship. They resorted to such groves for magical rites and prayers, and regarded them as sacred places.

Another etymological derivation of the name suggests it came from ancient Gaulish and Irish, and meant "very knowing," or "wise." It is used in the Irish annals as "Magi."

Though the information contained in the following lengthy quotation from Julius Caesar is considered but recent in Druidic history, for they are said to have been in Gaul and Britain for as long as several hundred years before Christ, it is nevertheless significant, and is quoted by all histories and encyclopedias as a primary source:

Caesar wrote, "They attend to divine worship, perform public and private sacrifices, and expound matters of religion. A great number of youths are gathered round them for the sake of education and they enjoy the highest honor in that nation, for nearly all public and private quarrels come under their jurisdiction, and when any crime has been committed, when a murder has been perpetrated, when a controversy arises about a legacy or about landmarks, they are the judges, too. They fix rewards and punishments; and should anyone, a private individual or a public man, disobey their decrees, then they exclude him from the sacrifices. This is with them the severest punishment. The persons who are thus laid under interdict are regarded as impious and wicked people... All these Druids have one chief, who enjoys the highest authority among them...The Druids take no part in warfare; nor do they pay taxes like the rest of the people; they are exempt from military service and from all public burdens..." (Julius Caesar approx. A.D. 54).

Where did the Druids learn of this concept of a priesthood; a powerful class of leaders who were arbiters in disputes, and who practiced augury, soothsaying, magic arts, claimed the gift of prophecy, and had the power to excommunicate anyone who disobeyed their decrees? We shall see.

"Besides being priests and teachers of religion the Druids appear also to have been adept astrologers and magicians, and were versed in the mysterious powers of animals and plants; the oak tree, the mistletoe when growing on the oak... their mysterious rites were usually performed in the depths of oak forests..." (Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 9, p.350-351).

Not so surprisingly, the Druids are linked to the "Magus" or the "Magi" of ancient history. Notice, "The Irish Druids seem to have had a peculiar tonsure. The word drui is always used to render the Latin magus, and in one passage St. Columba speaks of Christ as his Druid" (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 8. p.598, some emphasis mine).

The Catholic Encyclopedia says, "The etymology of this word [Druid] from the Greek `oak' has been a favorite one since the time of Pliny the Elder; according to this the Druids would be the priests of the god or gods identified with the oak" (vol. V. p.162).

Why the oak? What is significant about priests worshipping beneath groves of oak trees? And what about the claim of being "wise men," or "magi," meaning, "magicians"? The same source says, "...it is clear that there were the most striking resemblances between the Druids of Ireland and those of Gaul [France]. In both lands they appear as magicians, diviners, physicians, and teachers, and not as the representatives of a certain religion... in the earliest Christian literature of Ireland the Druids are represented as the bitterest opponents of Christianity, but even the Christians of the time seem to have believed in their supernatural power of prophecy and magic" (Ibid. vol. 5, p. 164).

Speaking of the Celts of England, the Encyclopedia Britannica says, "In religion, the chief feature was the priesthood of the Druids, who here, as in Gaul, practised magical arts and barbarous rites of human sacrifice, taught a secret lore, wielded great influence..." (vol. 4, p. 583).

How did these peoples—the mixed peoples of ancient Israelitish and Assyrian parentage who gradually occupied western and northwestern Europe, Scandinavia and the British Isles, come to have a "priesthood" who worshipped in groves of oaks; who practiced magic and soothsaying, divining and prophecy, and who were exempt from taxes and military service?

Though referred to as a "priestly caste," they were not born to the office, but aspired to it because of its obvious benefits; power over the people, and money. "...Caesar's account is as follows: On those who refused to submit to their decisions [they were the judges of their societies] they had the power of inflicting severe penalties.. .as they were not an hereditary caste and enjoyed exemption from service in the field [military] as well as from payment of taxes, admission in the order was eagerly sought after by the youth of Gaul" (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 8, p.597).

As we have seen, when Jereboam revolted against Solomon's son, Rehoboam, he turned to idolatry, changed God's annual Feast of Tabernacles into a different feast, held in the eighth month, in order to keep the northern ten-tribed Israel from making annual pilgrimages to the temple in Jerusalem. Calf worship was a natural for them, for it was commonplace among their neighbors, who worshipped some of the "host of heaven." The first idol Israel set up was a golden image of the calf of an ox, or representation of a Cherub, under Aaron.

At the giving of the law at Sinai, God had said, "Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Eternal spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth...and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them,... take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Eternal your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the Eternal thy God hath forbidden thee" (Deuteronomy 4:14-24).

God's Word shows there are innumerable "hosts" in the spirit world, also referred to as the "host of heaven"; they include the twenty-four "elders" seen about God's throne, the cherubim and seraphim, or the "living creatures," seen by Ezekiel (Ezekiel I and 10) as well as countless angels. Only three archangels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Lucifer was one of the original exalted archangels who became corrupted, rebelled against God, taking his one-third of the angels with him in his rebellion (Revelation 12:4-9; Luke 10:18; Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28). He was originally called "the anointed cherub that covereth" (Ezekiel 28:14).

As we learn in Ezekiel 1 and elsewhere, each cherub had four distinct visages; each appeared as if four separate creatures. They appeared as a man, a lion, an eagle, and an ox. Everywhere in ancient mythology; in the altars, religious inscriptions, statuary and icons, and in the writings of the pagan nations of the near and middle east, one finds the worship of these four faces of the cherubim. How did it all start?

Remember, God placed two cherubim to protect the way into the garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled. For approximately one-sixth of all human history, those creatures guarded the way to the garden, frightening any who would venture too close. When the Israelites were told to decorate the tapestries of the ancient tabernacle with "cherubim," Moses was given no instructions whatsoever concerning their visage. He already knew what they looked like. How many times, over a period of one thousand long years, generation after generation from the time of Adam, had sojourners, wayfarers, wanderers, attempted to enter the region where the garden of Eden was being preserved? After all, we are told God did not destroy it when Adam was expelled, but preserved it, guarded it with cherubim! It would not have been destroyed until the Noachian deluge!

An important principle to remember is that as tribal groups became scattered, more widely dispersed, knowledge suffered! The arts, sciences, literature, knowledge; these are found only among large concentrations of peoples in civilized groups. Some ancient mythology no doubt began as true stories, told innumerable times around the evening fires of scattered peoples. How many tales are there about dragons, huge beasts, giants and the like, who guard castles on remote precipices which are filled with inestimable treasures? What about Jack and the Beanstalk; Jack and the Giant Killer, St. George and the Dragon, and so many more? Are not these but modern versions of ancient myths—some of which may have originated with the tales of sojourners who had been turned away from the entrance to Eden by a roaring cherub, which may have appeared as a many-visaged beast, or a fire-breathing dragon?

The characterizations of these creatures are found everywhere in ancient mythology. The Sphinx of Egypt is a man-headed lion. The winged bulls on Sargon's palace walls; at the gates of ancient Assyrian and Babylonian temples and public buildings, feature the head of an Assyrian king, the body of a huge bull, the wings of an eagle, and the claws of a lion. Sometimes, the entire bull is featured, and sometimes the lion, or the eagle, or the man. Man is supreme among all creatures on earth. The lion is called the "king of beasts" and has no natural enemies save man. The eagle is the absolute king of the skies. The ox is the largest, most useful of all domesticated cattle.

Ancient Egyptian monuments show many characterizations of mythological creatures which contain two or more features of the cherubim. When Aaron made a golden calf for the Israelites to worship, he did so because he was completely familiar with the calf-worship of the Egyptians; the worship of one of the four faces of the cherubim, the ox. Even today, the worship of domestic cattle is extant in one of the most populous nations on earth, India.

When Jereboam revolted, he "...said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the House of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the House of the Eternal in Jerusalem then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.

"Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold [Oxen! A representation of cherubim!], and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel [House of God], and the other put he in Dan [renamed by the Danites from Laish]. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship... and he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi" (I Kings 12:26-31).

Jereboam's "priests" were volunteers. "After this thing Jereboam returned not from his evil way, but made again the lowest of the peopIe priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places" (I Kings 13:33).

One of the most enduring of all sociological phenomena is religion! Languages may change, customs, habits; people may emigrate from one place to another, but religion has a habit of enduring. Look at the ancient histories of Japan, China, India! See how their religions have endured for thousands of years.

It is not in the least surprising that the ancient writers found a caste of priests holding power and influence over the earliest, pre-Christian inhabitants of northwestern Europe and the British Isles who were volunteers, and not of any specific ethnic or tribal origin; who worshipped the symbols of the bull (Taurus); whose chieftains wore the horns of a bull (many archaeological finds substantiate this—the "vikings" used such, and it was common among ancient Celts); who worshipped in "groves" (asherah); who practiced the mysterious rites of the ancient Babylonish mystery religion!

"It is therefore not surprising that the people of Odin, the Asa, or Angles, should in their homeland in Ariana, in Asaland and also in North Germany, wear the horns of a bull as their headdress, either brazen helmets having the ears and horns of an ox or else actually wear the horns of one, as shown on pictures of Odin and his Asa or Angli" (Tracing our White Ancestors, Haberman, p.135).

Now, what were the "high places"?

When God sent the twelve tribes of Israel into the promised land, He knew they would encounter many pagan groups, including Perizzites, Jebusites, Hivites, Hittites, Phoenicians (Philistines) and Canaanites, among others. These peoples traditionally worshipped the signs of the seasons, astrological phenomena, animals and birds, symbols of the "host of heaven," such as cherubim, and especially phallic symbols, and other symbols of sex, fertility, and reproduction. The Hittites burnt children to "Chemosh," and "Baal" worship was prevalent among the Canaanites.

God warned Israel, "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, [an "high place"] and upon the hills, and under every green tree [it was their custom to gather amidst "groves" of trees]: and ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars [upright columns of stone, or wood; sometimes, the trunks of trees left rooted in the ground, stripped of branches, and carved, representing phallic symbols], and burn their groves [they worshipped in oak groves!] with fire; and ye shall hew down [as in cutting down a tree trunk!] the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place" (Deuteronomy 12:2, 3).

Jereboam built "high places." Throughout the idolatrous reigns of many kings of Israel, the issue of the "high places" was continually brought before them by God's prophets, who condemned this idolatrous practice, and, with it, the practice of worshipping in groves of trees, called asherim. A single upright pale, or tree, was an asherah, coming from ashtoreth, which was "astarte" (silent "te" on the end of the word), among the Babylonians. The trappings of sex, fecundity and fertility were rife among the ancient middle-eastern peoples, and featured the symbols of the original goddess of the Babylonish mystery religion, Simiramus (Semurammut), the mother-wife of Nimrod, founder of ancient Babylonian cities. She was "Ishtar" (astarte, ashtoreth), pronounced "Easter," to the peoples of the entire region. The origin of the yule log is wrapped up in the pagan mythology of Nimrod's death and "resurrection" characterized by a fallen tree trunk, from which, according to pagan tradition, sprang up, overnight, a little green tree—an evergreen, which symbolized the risen Nimrod. Symbols of the egg (as in the orbs, bulbs, egg-shaped ornaments on "Christmas trees") were worshipped as symbols of life. The lily was seen as a picture of the act of copulation, and revered by the pagans as a sign of reproduction.

Speaking of the many "high places" and "groves" in ancient Israel, Kitto says, "The system set up by Jereboam was partly an imitation of the national religion, partly of the idolatry of Egypt and Canaan. From this time we find the high places yet remained in use, the people still sacrificing and burning incense at them. It is said of Asa that he took away the high places [2 Chron. xiv. 5], but it appears that this reform was not successfully accomplished, at least in Israel [xv 17; I Kings vx. 14], of which he held cities [2 Chron. xv. 8; xvii. 2]. Jehosaphat, again, is said to have taken away `the high places and the grove out of Judah' [ver. 6, comp. xix. 3]; but it seems that he was not fully successful, for we read in a later place that `the high places were not taken away' [I Kings xxii. 43] (Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Kitto, vol. II p 301, 302).

And what were the "groves"? The word in Hebrew is "asherah." Kitto says, "The word asherah and its plural [asherim] [is] rendered in the A.V. [and is] constantly mentioned with high places. At first sight the common LXX [Septuagint] rendering, followed by our version, seems to carry conviction with it, from the connection of high places with worship under the trees, and the prevelance of nature-worship in Palestine; but a closer examination shows something of the character of an image must be intended" (Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Kitto, vol. 11, p. 302).

Kitto also says, "It must be remembered that the grove is constantly connected with Baal" (Ibid. p.302).

The authorities connect ashtoreth with the asherah, or groves of the ancient Israelites. Solomon, when he became an old man, left the worship of the true God and worshipped the gods of his many concubines and wives. God said, "For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the Eternal his God, as was the heart of David, his father.

"For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites...then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon" (I Kings 11:4-7). And who would have been on the scene—perhaps instrumental in carrying out the instructions to the builders, the artificers, stone masons, craftsmen, and casters of metals and hewers of wood? Jereboam! Jereboam was Solomon's most loyal and trusted servant; the one to whom the northern ten tribes were given! Was it any wonder Jereboam set up high places; groves, asherah, and a low-level caste of priests who adopted the idolatrous rites of the pagans around them?

The ancient priests of the Babylonian mysteries were astrologers, as were the "Magi," like, Simon, the Magus, who tried to purchase an apostleship from Peter (Acts, 8th chapter). Ashtoreth was the "queen of heaven" mentioned in Jeremiah 7:18! Notice, "Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven [Simiramus, Isis], and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger."

The cakes they made contained a symbol of the sun, formed by an X, like the solar wheel worshipped by Constantine. Among the Teutons of medieval times, these cakes were called after the symbol of "Taurus" the bull, and were called "bous," or "boun," for "bull." The word "boun" is the origin of our English word for "bun," and is seen today in "hot-cross buns," baked and eaten on the day of "Ishtar" (pronounced "Easter" today, as then), in honor of the queen of heaven, whose symbols were fecundity and sexuality, like rabbits, eggs, and the lily. Since the Druids believed in the immortality of the soul, it was an easy transition from Druidism to so-called "Christianity," especially when the newly-arriving "Christians" in Britain and northern France observed the days of the pagan Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, such as the winter solstice (the "Brumalia" of the Romans, and "Saturnalia" of the Greeks, on December 25th), with their traditional trees, commemorating Nimrod's "resurrection," yule logs, orbs and bulbs symbolizing eggs, and sexual reproduction, and especially the mistletoe, which was such an important feature of Druidism; that they also worshipped on "Ishtar," at the Vernal Equinox, as a symbol of new life springing forth; baked cakes to the queen of heaven, used eggs, decorated with serpents, symbols of Taurus the bull, and in all cases observed customs familiar to the pagan Druids.

For centuries, the peoples of the lost ten tribes had retained the pagan religion of their forebears, complete with "volunteer" priesthood, worship in groves of trees and on high places; human sacrifice, astrological and magical rites, and the annual festivals associated with the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.

The Druids were worshipping Ashtoreth, just as their forbears had done! Kitto says, "Ashtoreth is the name of a goddess of the Sidonians (I Kings xi. 5, 33), and also of the Philistines (1 Sam. xxxi. 10), whose worship was introduced among the Israelites during the period of the judges (Judges ii. 13; I Sam. vii. 4), was celebrated by Solomon himself (I Kings xi; 5), and was finally put down by Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13). [A king of Judah, long after the northern ten-tribed Israelitish nation had gone into captivity.] She is frequently mentioned in connection with Baal, as the corresponding female divinity (Judges ii. 13); and, from the addition of the words, `and all the host of heaven,' in 2 Kings xxiii. 4 (although Asherah occurs there, and not Ashtoreth)... it is probably that she represented one of the celestial bodies. There is also reason to believe that she is meant by the `queen of heaven,' in Jer. vii. 18; xliv. 17; whose worship is there said to have been solemnized by burning incense, pouring libations, and offering cakes" (Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, vol. 1, p.242, 243, article "Ashtoreth").

Speaking of the worship of reproduction in connection with this pagan goddess, Kitto says, "As for the power of nature, which was worshipped under the name of Ashtoreth, Creuzer and Munter assert that it was the principle of conception and parturition—that subordinate power which is fecunded by a superior influence, but which is the agent of all births throughout the universe...Ashtoreth was worshipped as the moon, and the transition from that to the planet Venus (which we will immediately notice) was unquestionably an innovation of a later date. It is evident that the moon alone cannot be properly called the queen of heaven; as also that the dependent relation of the moon to the sun makes it a more appropriate symbol of that sex, whose function as female and mother, throughout the whole extent of animated nature, were embodied in Ashtoreth [BAAL].

"The rites of her worship... in part agree with the few indications in the Old Test., in part complete the brief notices there into an accordant picture. The cakes mentioned in Jer. vii. 18, which are called in Hebrew Kavvanim, were also known to the Greeks... and were made by them in the shape of a sickle, [to this day, one of the most popular French breads is the `croissant,' or `crescent,' keeping alive this ancient practice] in reference to the new moon... The most prominent part of her worship... consisted of those libidinous orgies, which Augustine, who was an eye witness of their horrors in Carthage, describes with such indignation... In Canaan she was probably represented as a cow. In Phoenicia she had the head of a cow or a bull, as is seen on coins. Sanchoniathon states that `Astarte adopted the head of a bull as a symbol of her sovereignty'; he also accounts for the star (Cyclopedia of Biblical literature, Kitto, vol. 1, p.242).

Not so strangely, the Druids of Britain retained some of the practices of the ancient Levitical priesthood. For example, they constructed altars (these are found in great abundance all over Britain, Ireland, and northwestern Europe) of unhewn stone, because according to Druidic law, no axe could touch a stone intended for an altar of sacrifice. Why? Where did this prohibition originate?

Notice, "If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar..." (Exodus 20:25, 26).

The best-remembered practice of the Levites was the ritual of sacrificing animals as a picture of the need for the shedding of blood to atone for sin. The Druids practiced the same thing! Remember, the ancient Passover included animal sacrifice, as well as a feast featuring bread and wine. Is it so strange that the Druids of ancient Gaul (France) and England practiced nearly identical rituals?

Study the histories of the northwestern European nations, and you will find again and again an admission of ignorance on the part of the foremost authorities as to the actual origin of the earliest waves of settlers who were called "Teutonic," or "Brythonic," or the "Belgae," the "Gauls" and the "Celts."

Notice! "As to the origins of this stock [the earliest inhabitants of France] we are again in complete ignorance and it would be idle to linger upon the many conjectures of migrations of an `Aryan race'" Encyclopedia Americana, vol. 11, p.718).

However, again and again the admission is made of a commonality of religion! "The inhabitants of Gaul had in common from the earliest times a national character and a religion..." (Ibid. p.718).

This same authority says, of the dogmas of the Druids of ancient France, "Among these dogmas...[was] the necessity for sacrifice, and, presumably, a universal God... a sacrament of bread and wine distinguished this cult, and a ritual holiness attached to certain objects and shrines, as the mistletoe among vegetables and the Grotto of Chartres among places" (Ibid. p.718, emphasis mine).

Please remember that any one clue as to the identity of the nations of northwestern Europe, the British Isles and the Commonwealth, and the United States of America, when isolated and studied by itself could hardly be said to be conclusive. Remember, the real trunk of the tree is God's infallible promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the promise He made to David that of his seed there would not fail one to sit upon the throne that is to be Christ's at His coming. However, when dozens of historical facts; facts from philology, ethnology, archaeology, history, and from religious history as well, form a positive picture which lead unerringly to the same conclusions, then those facts deserve careful study, not contemptuous dismissal.

The Druids wore priestly garments; the high priest wore a breastplate, exactly as did the ancient Levitical priests. After all, Jereboam's selected and volunteer priesthood was merely a counterfeit, standing in place of the Levites.

And what of the Levites who were so dispossessed? It is perfectly logical that any number of them would have striven to attain to the new, counterfeit priesthood. Jereboam wished to interdict those Levites who would insist upon the worship of the true God, Yahweh, Yaveh, or Jehovah, as His name may have been pronounced, and who would insist on worshipping on His prescribed festivals, where He had placed His name, in Jerusalem. Any of the Levites who abandoned these tenets, and who joined the ranks of the volunteers for the priesthood would have been admitted, without a doubt.

British historians have been struck by the amazing similarity between Druidism and the rituals of the Levitical priesthood of ancient Israel. "Many other authorities have noted the resemblance between the Druidic religion and that of the Old Testament. To quote Charles Hulbert, a noted British scholar: `So near is the resemblance between the Druidic religion of Britain and the patriarchial religion of the Hebrews, that we hesitate not to pronounce their origin the same'" (Stonehenge and Druidism, E. Raymond Capt., p.75).

Is it so strange, then, that we find nearly identical practices and beliefs among the most ancient Britons and Irish as were instituted by Jereboam, and continued by nearly all the kings of ten-tribed Israel, which resulted in their expulsion from their land? And is it any wonder that later additions and refinements of the pagan worship of the northwestern Europeans bear strong resemblance to the worship of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians; that they worshipped before the "winged bulls" (cherubim), and in "groves" of oak trees, revering the same pagan "gods" as Israel's neighbors?

Remember, Israel and Assyria were driven out together. No wonder, then, the close affinity between the "Teutonic" races of northwestern Europe; the affinity between the "Dutch" (a philological derivation of "Teutch," from "Teuton"), and the Germans.

Britain in the "Dark Ages"

Any student of history is familiar with the "dark ages." The reason they are called "dark" is simply because there is such a paucity of information available, especially written information, such as histories, annals, chronicles, epics or sagas which would detail the life and customs of the peoples of northwestern Europe and the British Isles in those centuries prior to the Roman conquest.

For example, "Geologists are not yet agreed when and by whom Britain was first peopled" (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 4, p.583, article "Britain").

The authorities agree that the "Brythons" and "Belgae" were among the earliest known inhabitants, and that they "brought Celtic civilizations and dialects. It is uncertain how far they were themselves Celtic in blood and how far they were numerous enough to absorb or obliterate the races which they found in Britain. But it is not unreasonable to think that they were no mere conquering caste, and that they were of the same race as the Celtic-speaking peoples of the western continent" (Ibid. vol. 4, p.583).

Concerning the origin of the word "Britain," this foremost authority admits the word is an "anglicized form of the classical name of England, Wales and Scotland, sometimes extended to the British Isles as a whole (Britannicae Insulae). The Greek and Roman forms are doubtless attempts to reproduce a Celtic original, the exact form of which is still in dispute" (Ibid. p.583).

As was mentioned earlier, there are those who have insisted the term derived from "berith," which is Hebrew for "covenant," and "ish," for "man." If this is supposedly fanciful, let us re-read the above, and remember that the earliest Romans who came into contact with the "Celtic-speaking" peoples of pre-Christian Britain attempted to write, in their own tongue, an approximation of the name by which the early Britons called THEMSELVES! One may argue this way or that, and the matter will still be unresolved. However, there is equally as much reason to suspect those peoples may have retained such an expression as "covenant people." Remember, the names of "Khumbri" and "Cimmerian" have been amply proved to be foreign corruptions of both "Omri" and, if not the same term, "Samarians." In each case, these were names applied by others, and not the name these peoples applied to themselves. As an example, there is no such city in Italy as "Florence." This is an anglicized word, and the phonetic sounds produced by Englishmen and Americans in pronouncing it bear only passing resemblance to "Firenze," pronounced "Pheer-ERN-tsay" by the Italians. An American asking an Italian about "Florence" would be stared at in puzzlement—the Italian simply would not recognize the name.

Is there any significance to place-names? Of course there is! Men have always named cities, rivers, significant promontories and mountains, bays, estuaries, river valleys and other geographical locations after themselves or their progenitors.

"Heber" was the progenitor of the Hebrews. In many languages, the "H" was silent, and the "e" was given the long sound, hence, the "iber" (ee-ber) in the various Latin tongues. It is not strange that the earliest inhabitants of France and Spain were called "Iberians." Even today, the peninsula of Spain and Portugal is called "Iberian." It is the name of the Spanish national airlines. One of the most important rivers in Spain is the "Ebro" (notice the similarity to "Hebrew"). In the Arabic (Moorish) tongue, a wadi is a river, or dry rivercourse. The Wadi-al-kebir or river of the Hebrews became Quadalquivir, which is one of the main rivers of Spain. The seafaring Danites passed through Spain; explored its rivers, and left place-names.

We have already mentioned place-names like the major river systems of eastern Europe; the Don, Udon, Dniester, Dnieper, the Danube. Allen catalogues many, many place-names in England and Scandinavia which include the "dun," "don," "din" and "dan" sounds, some of which may be purely conjectural. Those who object to such comparisons strive to find similar sounds in other nations, of course, and to do so is not terribly difficult. However, the preponderance of evidence leans heavily toward the place-names of northwestern Europe and England as relating to the ancient Israelites, as they were known by others—and not necessarily, in every case, as they called themselves.

The very large area of ancient eastern England called "Northumbria" is unmistakably from the Khumbri, Kimri and etc., as the Assyrian captors corrupted the "House of Omri." An important estuary on this coast is the "Humber." "Wessex, Sussex and Essex" are merely West, South, and East "Saxons."

It is futile to scoff at place-names, for historians admit to their importance. "Our earliest information about the land and its people is derived from geological, ethnological and archaeological studies, from the remains in British barrows and caves, Roman roads, walls and villas, coins, place-names and inscriptions. The writings of Caesar and Tacitus, and a few scattered notices in other Roman authors, supplement this evidence" (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 583, article, English History, emphasis mine).

Attempting to trace the earliest known roots of the English language, one finds the following admission: "The Angles, Saxons, and their allies came of the Teutonic stock, and spoke a tongue belonging to the Teutonic or Germanic branch of the Indo-Germanic (Indo-European) family, the same race and form of speech being represented in modern times by the people and languages of Holland, Germany, Denmark, the Scandinavian peninsula and Iceland, as well as those of England and her colonies. Of the original home of the so-called primitive Aryan race, whose language was the parent Indo-European, nothing is certainly known..." (Ibid. p. 588, emphasis mine).

Time and time again, one finds the strongest indication that the birthplace of the peoples of northwestern Europe and the British Isles was in "Asia," including the "Crimea" (from Gimri, Kimbri, Cimmerian, etc.) and the steppes of southern Russia; the region between the Black and Caspian seas—the precise region into which the ancient Assyrians and captive ten-tribed Israelites were driven by the Babylonian empire.

The Anglo-Saxons; Who Were They?

The disintegration of the idolatrous northern kingdom of Israel was not accomplished in a matter of days or weeks; not even in the course of several years—but over decades.

As early as the reigns of evil king Ahab and Jehu, many of Manasseh and Reuben, as well as those of Gad, were driven from their lands; others slaughtered. In comparatively recent times, archaeologists have confirmed the biblical accounts of the successive removal of ten-tribed Israel from their lands. Annals of Assyrian kings have been found and deciphered in which the names of ten of the Israelitish kings occur. They include Omri (called "Khumri" in the Assyrian tongue), Ahab, Jehu, Menahem, Pekab, Hoshea, Uzziah, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh.

One of the important finds was the "black obelisk of Shalmanezer," which I have seen, and which is in the British museum. It is a block of very dense, hard black stone, completely covered with writing and pictorial scenes. In the second line from the top on one of its four sides is a figure kneeling before the Assyrian king and the inscription, "The tribute of Jehu, son [successor is implied by the Assyrian expression] of Omri [Khumri], silver, gold, bowls of gold, chalices of gold, cups of gold, vases of gold, lead, sceptre for the king, and spear-shafts, I have received."

One of the very earliest removals of Israelites occurred before 800 B.C. Notice, "In those days the Eternal began to cut Israel short: and Hazael [king of Syria] smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan" (II Kings 10:32, 33).

This was prior to 800 B.C., yet, the bulk of the ten-tribed kingdom was not finally removed until 720-718 B.C., about 100 years later, another two to three generations. What became of these tens of thousands who were removed from sinning Israel so early?

Remember, God had said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Amos wrote, "Now therefore hear thou the word of the Eternal: Thou sayest, prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac." The Syro-Phoenician name for these peoples was Beth-Sak.

Remember, the captive peoples were in no position to collect in centers of learning; to establish a highly-developed civilization, promote language, literature, the arts and sciences. Refugees do not concern themselves with erudition. The traces we find of the many tens of thousands of displaced ten-tribed Israelites are necessarily among the literature (which is exceedingly fragmentary) of their conquerors; of those peoples through whom they passed in their ever-westward and northward migrations. Bristowe, in his The Oldest Letters in the World, page 32, refers to the Tel-el-Armarna tablets, and their references to peoples who conquered Palestine under Joshua as the Habiru, Habiri, or Abiri, also calling them the Saga or Saka. The obvious corruption from "Hebrew" and "saak" or "Isaac," is seen.

One of the most massive deportations of the Beth-Sak or the Sacae, as they were called, came when Tiglath Pileser attacked Israel in about 745 B.C. "In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbeth-maachah, [Able's house at Maachah] and Janoah [Noah's God] and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee [these included areas inhabited by Gadites, Reubenites, and Manassites] all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria" (II Kings 15:29).

Amos said, "Behold, the eyes of the Lord Eternal are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth [Heb. ehrets, meaning land, partitively or commonly, not the whole world]; saving that I will not utterly destroy the House of Jacob, saith the Eternal.

"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth" (Amos 9:8, 9).

Wandering Israel became intermingled with Syro-Phoenicians, with Assyrians, with peoples who were to later bear names given them by Romans, Greeks, and many others. For centuries, these peoples were in fact "sifted among the nations" as they wandered along the river valleys of eastern and central Europe until they came to the coastlands of northern Europe and the British Isles.

To some, it seems incredible that the United States could be "Manasseh," for they point out that the citizens of the United States are a "melting pot" of many races. It is true, especially in the last half of the 20th century, that massive influxes of foreign refugees have come into the United States. Koreans, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, El Salvadorans, Cubans, Nicaraugans, Mexicans, Costa Ricans; those of dozens of races and nationalities have sought America as their asylum. But the original inheritors of the land during the establishment of the colonies and the subsequent massive migrations under such as William Penn were primarily from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Secondarily, they were from the Lowlands, Scandinavia, and from Germany. How many millions of Americans claim "Scotch, Irish and Dutch" ancestry? How many millions more claim British progenitors?

The point is, God was able to "sift through" the peoples of Ephraim to England and the commonwealth countries; to see to it, even as He promised, that "...not the least grain [shall] fall upon the earth." That Americans have Teutonic, French, Dutch, English and Irish names, among many others, is not strange at all. The late General Dwight Eisenhower carried a German name; but he was not "German" either in his genealogical roots, nor his racial temperament. Millions of those of Judah, who are Jews carried German names; names like "Weiz," and "Weitzman" and "Lieverman" and "Lieberman" and "Loeb" and "Gelt" and "Birnbaurn," and "Bauer" and so many, many others. Yet, they were of the House of Judah, and were never "German" except in a political, nationalistic sense. Racially, they did not stem from ancient Assyrians, as do the core of the German peoples of central Europe.

No, Manasseh was contained in "holding areas" scattered throughout other races; intermingled just as God said they would be with their brethren of Gad, Asher, Zebulon, Reuben, Issachar, Simeon and Levi, and Ephraim. Furthermore, they were intermingled with their former Assyrian captors, the "Halmanni," who because of their warlike nature, were called "spearmen" ("Teut-ons") by the Romans. This later became "Teutonic."

By 721, when Shalmanezer had carried away the final remnants of all of the ten-tribed House of Israel, there were tens of thousands of their brethren from various tribes (but all were "sons of Isaac," since Isaac was Jacob's [Israel's] father) who had already been intermingled with the peoples of eastern and northwestern Europe, some nearly one hundred years earlier.

Of the final conquest of the remaining Israelites, Sargon II, who was Shalmanezer's successor, had inscribed on his palace walls, "In the beginning of my reign I besieged, I took by the help of the god Shamash...the city of Samaria. Twenty-seven thousand two hundred and eighty of its inhabitants I carried away ...I took them to Assyria and put into places people whom my hands had conquered. I set my officers and governors over them, and laid on them a tribute as on the Assyrians."

As the Bible affirms. "And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel into Assyria. and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (II Kings 17:5, 6; 18:11).

The river Gozan has been identified as the Uzen river which flows northward from ancient Media into the Caspian Sea. Israel was banished into one of the hintermost portions of ancient Assyria. It is likely that "Habor" was an Assyrian corruption of "Heber" just like "Habiri," and "Iber," and was nothing so much as a vast refugee camp which was given its name by the arrival of the wretched prisoners, rather than an established city of Media.

From Sargon's own admission, they were not assimilated into the mainstream of Assyrian life, but sent into an outlying border area; more than 400 miles from Nineveh, capital of Assyria. There, they were expected to till the land, raise cattle, ply their various crafts and trades, and pay annual tribute to Nineveh. This was Assyrian custom. Conquered peoples were invariably deported to "labor camps" in outlying territories.

As you will recall, the rising power of Babylon finally subjugated Assyria, which faded into history. For centuries, the peoples of Israel and Assyria were intermingled in their migrations ever northwesterly. Of this period Haberman writes, "It was at this period, 700-600 B.C., that the Runic characters developed from the Phoenician script, which characters we find engraved in that region as far east as Lake Aral, where the Massagetai lived, and all across Russia to northern Germany, Scandinavia, England, and Iceland. In those Runic characters the sagas of the Saghs [`Saacs'] and Goths were written, the Gathas of Zoroaster and the Eddas of the Norsemen, which again are derived from the earlier Vedas of the Indo-Aryans. All of these ancient sagas, though considered today only as fictitious literature, contain the legendary lore of the heroes of ancient times, who were the forefathers of the Goths and Scythians, the Getai or Guti of Tyrkland or Turkestan, and the Saks of Sakland, south of the Caucasus. There in that region south of the Caspian Sea was the cradle of the so-called Nordic races, and there also the cemetery of ancient Israel. Where Israel disappeared from the pages of history the Anglo-Saxons and the Goths were born."

The Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition, admits, "The origin of this title [Anglo-Saxon] is not quite clear."

Yet. the article, "Anglo-Saxon" in the eleventh edition goes on to say. "It is generally believed to have arisen from the final union of the various kingdoms under Alfred in 886. Bede (Hist. Eccl. i. 15) states that the people of the more northern kingdoms (East Anglia, Mercia. Northumbria, etc.) belonged to the Angli, while those of Essex, Sussex and Wessex were sprung from the Saxons (q.v.) and those of Kent and southern Hampshire from the Jutes" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition, vol. 2, p.38).

The term "Jutes" is from "Judah," and is found not only among the pre-Christian peoples in the British Isles, but is found in the "Jutland Peninsula," the name for "Danmark" on many maps, even today.

Of the Saxons, the same source says, "...a Teutonic people mentioned for the first time by Ptolemy about the middle of the 2nd century. At that time they are said to have inhabited the neck of the Cimbric [note the name; from "Khumri,"" Gimry," "Gimiri" and "Cimiri," as well as "Cimmerian"] peninsula, by which we have to probably understand the modern province of Schleswig, together with the three islands lying off its western coast" (Ibid. vol. 24, p. 264).

Admitting the connection with the "Angli," the same source says, "it is doubtful how far the Saxons who invaded Britain were really distinct from the Angli, for all their affinities both in language and custom are with the latter and not with the Saxons (old Saxons) of the continent" (Ibid. vil. 24, p.265).

Wales and the Welsh

Throughout the British Isles, philological origins bear testimony to the fact that the ancient people who began their migrations from between the Black and the Caspian Sea; i.e., the steppes of southern Russia and the area presently inhabited by Ukrainians, Afghans and Iranians, finally arrived in extreme northwestern Europe, the Scandinavian nations and the British Isles!

One half of the tribe of Dan was wandering along these same routes with the others of the dispossessed Israelites, including members of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (who bear the name "Israel" more than any others), Zebulun, Naphtali, Issachar, Reuben, Gad, Benjamin, Simeon, and many from Levi, who, while considered "Jews," were dispersed throughout all tribal lands.

Also, remember the more than 200,000 Jews departed from northern Judah into the same lands as captives prior to the final capitulation of Judah!

Philology is a fascinating study! The origin of words and languages can be very cloudy and obscure; taking strange twists according to the customs of the peoples. While most Americans are familiar with "the `Apache' Indians," this was merely the name applied by other Indian tribes to a warlike group of Indians in the southwestern desert regions, and the term "Apache" merely meant, in the Indian tongues, "enemy."

Actually, the word "Welsh," from which the area of Wales in England is derived, merely meant "strangers." It is a teutonic term applied to the people of Kymry, who were the last remnants of the "Kimmerioi" spoken of by Homer and of the Cimbri (Kymry) from northern Germany.

Saville says: "This name Kymri, or Cymry, as it is more commonly written, is in reality the plural of Kymro, meaning a Welshman, and the country of the Kymry is called by themselves Khymru, which has been Latinized into the well-known Cambria.

"The letter V in the Welsh language has two powers, and both these powers are active in the word Kymry. This letter `V' sounds as `U,' except when it stands in the last syllable of the word, and then it has the sound of the Italian `i' or the English `ee'! Hence, the correct pronunciation of the country of Wales, or the land of the Cymry, in its ancient tongue would be as near as possible to the names Kumree, Khumree or Kumri."

Who Were the Goths?

What traveler to Europe is not familiar with the pointed arches, soaring spires and baroque decorations of ancient cathedrals, castles, mansions and public buildings which are said to be "Gothic"? Yet, history tells us the term is a misnomer, which came to be applied to all architecture featuring a "pointed arch" rather than a rounded one, not unlike those of ancient Egypt, Assyria, and the Mideast.

History tells us the Goths were a people who allegedly came from ancient Sweden, poured into the central regions of Europe north of the Danube, finally came against the northern frontiers of Rome, and eventually reached as far as Asia Minor and Greece; conquered and sacked Rome, and had one of their kings sitting on the Roman throne. There is no doubt the peoples called "Goths" by others were in and around Sweden, but the assertion they originated there before spreading southward throughout Europe as far as northern Macedonia is much disputed. The island of "Gotland" off Denmark bears their name. At the height of their power, the Goths ruled over vast regions of Europe; one of their kings occupied the throne of the Caesars, and another sat on the throne of Spain, the richest part of Gaul at that time.

Yet, in but another 250 years from this time, when the Goths were the most powerful people in Europe, they disappear from history. What happened to them? Who were they?

A foremost authority says the Goths were "...a Teutonic people who in the 1st century of the Christian era appear to have inhabited the middle part of the basin of the Vistula..." (Encyclopedia Bnitannica, 11th edition, vol. 12, p.272).

The word "Teuton" was the Roman word for "spearman," and was applied to those barbaric and warlike peoples with whom they came in contact north of their famous "limes" or lines of defense, along their northern borders, roughly following the alpine regions of central Europe. In later times, historians invariably refer to any peoples, irrespective of tribal distinctions, as "Teutonic," if they come from the region occupied, at various times, by literally dozens of different tribal groups, or, contemporaneously, by many of them at the sane time; central and northwestern Europe. The word was corrupted into "toitch," with the "t" giving way to a "d" sound, or "doitch," "deutch" and so-on. The ancient "Teutons" with whom the Romans came in conflict are called those of "Deutschland," or the "land of the Teutons" today. The origin of the word "Dutch" is obviously similar.

Some refer to the Goths as barbarians. Yet, they had a well-developed language, and their degree of civilization was remarkable. The Goths were probably not "barbarians," except in their descriptions by others. Tradition says they came from ancient Scandinavia, and it is pointed out "Gotland" may have been named by them. In this is a peculiar item of interest. Of the name, "Goth" there is little etymology. The previous source says, "Gotones, later `Goths' " in reference to the name.

But notice the origin of our English word for "God." The Germanic word is "Gott," and the old Gothic word was "Guth," pronounced "Goeth," as with an umlaut. The "Goths" were a people who worshipped their concepts of "God," or "Guth." That they were pagan, rather than Christian, is well established. But remember that the Israelites under Jereboam worshipped golden calves. Jereboam, borrowing a line from Aaron at Sinai, said, "These be the gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." The "gods" were the calves of an ox, or a representation of one of the four aspects of a cherub. Satan was one of the cherubs that "covered" the throne of God, originally (Ezekial 28:14), and the Israelites were worshipping the "host of the heavens," rather than the true God.

The New English Dictionary traces the roots of the English word "God" back to two Aryan roots, both of the form "gueu," one of which means "to invoke," and the other "to pour." The Encyclopedia Britannica says, of this word origin, "It has been also suggested that the word might mean "a molten image" from the sense of "to pour." (Ibid. vol. 12, p.169, article "God").

Was the word "Guth," then, an obvious origin of the "Goths," or the peoples who worshipped their concept of "Guth," or "Gott," which concept was contained in calf or bull-worship? The likelihood is impossible to ignore. For example, Alexander the Great pushed the peoples called the "Getae" (pronounced "Ghetay") out of northern Macedonia, across the Danube (the river of Dan) and toward the Baltic Sea. Pytheas of Marseilles called them "Gutones," but they called themselves Guita-thiuda, meaning, "The people of the Guths," or Goths. In other words, the people who worshipped before the sign of the bull, or the cherub; the ox, who is found as "Taurus" among the Nordics. The horns of the bull are common among the peoples of northwestern Europe, particularly the Scandinavians and the Vikings.

The Gothic peoples were divided into many sub-tribes, not necessarily all distinct, but named, usually, by their neighbors or enemies. Some of them were the Gretungi, Teruingi, Austrogothi (Ostrogoths, meaning "Eastern Goths"), and the Taifali (Ibid. vol. 12. p.272). The Goths were heralded by all the other Teutonic races, and recorded in their annals and traditions. The literature from the Anglo-Saxons (Engle-Saaks, of the bull-worshipping "Saaks" or sons of Isaac) claims the supremacy of the Goths reached as far west as Holstein, one of the provinces of Germany just below the Jutland peninsula, and Danmark.

Researching all known literature concerning the origin of the Goths, one invariably comes across the earliest known mention of them, found in the memoirs of a traveler from the Greek colony of Marseilles. His name was Pythias, and he wrote about 300 B.C. about a people called the "Guttones" (the people of "Goot," or "Gute").

The single most important piece of literature coming down to us from the most ancient old English and Germanic language is the famous "Beowulf," preserved in a single manuscript (now in the British Museum), written about A.D. 1,000. The epic poem is about the exploits of Beowulf, who is the son of Ecgtheow, and nephew of Hygelac, king of the Geatas (Goths). Of the etymological origin of the term, the Encyclopedia Britannica says, "Geatas, i.e., the peopIe, called in Scandinavian records Gautar, from whom a part of southern Sweden has received its present name Gotland" (Vol. 3, p. 758, article "Beowulf").

The epic poem is a mixture of profane history and mythology, and includes many particulars of the "...history of the royal houses, not only of the Gautar [Goths] and the Danes [Danites], but also of the Swedes, the Angles, the Ostrogoths [eastern Goths], the Frisians and the Heathobeards..." (Ibid. p.759).

Who, then, were the Goths? They were a people of many tribes, occupying, over vast periods of history, lands from as far east as the area between the Black and Caspean seas; the Crimea and northern Greece; as far west as Spain and Normandy; and as far north as Sweden, Danmark and the Baltic shores, and all of central and western Europe! Did these people simply disappear? Far from it. Over the centuries, their language, which is one of the ancient tongues which gave rise to all the Teutonic languages, and English itself, gradually changed, as did old German, old English, and Gaelic, as well as others, falling into disuse.

Speaking of the origin of the Teutonic languages, the Encyclopedia Britannica says, .... a comprehensive term for a number of languages, most of which are still spoken at the present time, namely English, Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, German (both High and Low) and the various Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Icelandic and the Norwegian dialects). The course of time has tended very largely to obscure the affinities between these languages, and in several cases they have been mutually unintelligible for many centuries. In their earliest known forms, however, they betray the most unmistakable traces of a common origin. To the languages enumerated above we have to add the now extinct Gothic, which in the 5th and 6th centuries was spoken over a large part of Europe" (Ibid. vol. 26, p.673).

And who were the Teutons? They were "...a tribe of northern Europe, who became known to the Romans in the year 103 B.C., when, according to the Epitome of Livy, together with the Ambrones they reinforced the Cimbri [Gimiri, Gymri, Khumri, Bit-Humri, or house of Omri!] after their repulse from Spain by the Celtiberi." (Notice the name: "Celt-iberi" where the Celts and the "Haberi," or "Hebrew" are commingled in the identification of these peoples by the Romans.) "... Their name is Celtic in form, and many writers suppose that the Teutoni [merely a name applied by the Romans, meaning "spear-men," not the name they applied to themselves] were really a Celtic tribe, it is possible that their name may have been preserved in that of the district called until recently Thyland or Thythsyssel in the extreme northwest of Jutland [Denmark]. (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 26, p.673).

There is no doubt many Israelites were at one time called "Teutons" by the Romans, even as they were known by many, many other names. After all, there were millions of them; tens of thousands representing ten different tribes, all to eventually inherit lands according to the ancient prophecies of God revealed in Genesis 49.

The "people of Saak," or sons of Isaac came to be known by many different names over the centuries of their gradual migrations from their original land of captivity in the forbidding wastelands of northern Assyria; the region between the Black and Caspean seas. Notice the admissions of various authorities concerning the history of the "Scythians."

The Egyptian historian, Herodotus, (iv. 142) wrote about the country over which the "Scythae" were lords as being the steppe from the Carpathians to the Don River, a part of Europe along which the migrating Israelites traveled, and a river which still bears the name of one of their tribes, "Dan."

There are at least three different theories as to the identity and origin of the Scyths. In each case, they are linked with the "Cimmerians"; either because they drove the Cimmerians out of their lands, or because they were driven into the land of the Cimmerians. Herodotus said the Scyths ruled over the land of Media. Remember, it was into the land of the Medes, along the major rivers, over 400 miles northeast of Nineveh, that the captive Israelites were taken.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "The Assyrian evidence [concerning the Scyths] is in the main a confirmation of Herodotus, though most writers think that the Scythians who troubled Asia were Sacae from the east of the Caspean sea" (Ibid. vol. 24, p.527).

The Scythians were said to have been driven over the river "Araxes" (Gk., "Oxus," referring to "the ox") by a people called the "Massagetae." The term merely means "the people of Massa." Remember, one of the largest tribes removed from Israel, possessing a double portion of land, split east and west by the Jordan river, was Manasseh! And who were the "Massagetae"? Herodotus says they were an ancient warlike people dwelling beyond the river of the Ox. "Probably the name [Massagetae] denoted no ethnic unity, but included all the barbarous northeastern neighbors of the Persians [meaning the peoples between the Black and Caspean seas]" (Ibid. vol. 17. p.864, article, "Massagetae").

Interestingly enough, the peoples known as "Scythians" by Herodotus had a tribal division he called the "Royal Scyths," and who claimed dominion over the others! Historians divide the Scyths into various sub-tribes according to their way of life. The Britannica says, "Herodotus expressly divides the Scythians into the Agriculturalists, Callipidae, Alazones, Aroteres and Georgi in the western part of the country, and the Nomads with the `Royal Scyths' to the east. The latter claimed dominion over all the rest." Then, it is admitted, "The question arises whether we have to do with the various tribes of one race in different states of civilization, or with a mixed population called by foreigners after the ruling tribe" (En-cyclopedia Britannica, vol. 24, p.526, emphasis mine).

The point is that the people inhabiting much of Europe of whom later historians wrote are always said to have come from the "IndoAryan" regions of ancient Persia; the region of ancient Assyria and Babylonia! No matter the many names applied to them by Greeks, Egyptians, Romans and others, these were the peoples of Assyria, together with the peoples of ten-tribed Israel, whose identity gradually became lost, confused in history; peoples whose language underwent the same gradual changes as did the tongues of all other peoples over the course of time; peoples who were named by their enemies, neighbors, or by historians of other nations; peoples who worshipped the ox, and whose names contained clues linking them with the "Bit-Khumri" (House of Omri) as they were called by their captors; with "Dan," one of their progenitors; with "Isaac" (Saka, Sacae, Saki, Saaks, Saxons, Saxones), and with other names (such as "Sarmatians," a corruption of "Samarians").

Haberman writes, "The Hebrew-Phoenician inscriptions found in the Crimea and vicinity indicate that the Saki, who left those inscriptions there, were not a heathen people and were conscious of their Israelitish descent, while on the other hand the mythology of the Goths shows that they were pagans. The enigma thus presented can only be explained by the fact that most of the Gothic sagas center around Odin, who, although made a deity in later years, was nevertheless a man and leader of the Aesir, Asen, Asa, or Asia men, whose capital was at Asgard in Asaheim, where his castle, the Valhalla, was located" (Tracing Our White Ancestors, Haberman, p.133).

Haberman proposes that the term "Asia," which ultimately became attached to the entire continental mass from the Urals to the Japanese Islands, came from the bull-worshipping Israelites who dwelt, anciently, along the Black and Caspean seas. He points out that the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet (Hebraic in origin) is Aleph, and is depicted as the symbol of a bull. The people of the man Odin, who later became worshipped in Nordic mythology, were called the "Mighty Asa," or the "Primary Ones," or the "First Ones." The Gothic runes contain the letter "A," which was pronounced "Asa," or "Ace." It is likely that is the reason our modern playing cards contain a card called the "Ace," which is the principal, or first, card.

Because the Hebrew "Egle" or "Engle" (ox) is linked to the symbol of "Aleph" (which was a bull), Haberman sees a connection to the pagan practices of the ancient ten-tribed Israelites, who worshipped the sign of the "Taurus," or bull. He wrote, "It is therefore not surprising that the people of Odin, the Asa, or Angles, should in their homeland in Ariana, in Asaland and also in north Germany, wear the horns of a bull as their headdress, either brazen helmets having the ears and horns of an ox or else actually wear the horns of one, as shown on pictures of Odin and his Asa or Angli" (Ibid. p.135).

Who Are The Germans?

Who are the Germans? Can the modern German peoples be located in the pages of your Bible?

The identity of the Germanic peoples must, of necessity, deal with a question of race, not merely nationality.

Many nations are composed of two or more races; they do not necessarily encompass only one race of peoples.

The principal races in Yugoslavia, for example, are the Serbs and Croats; in Belgium, Flemish and Walloons; in Switzerland, those of Germanic, French and Italian descent; and in Germany, Thuringians, Hessians, Swabians, Bavarians, Austrians, and many others.

In order to identify modern peoples we must first establish the names under which they were known by ancient historians, and, even more anciently, the names applied to these same peoples in biblical histories and prophecies.

A passing acquaintance with some foreign languages is helpful. For example, there is no such word in the Latin tongues (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.) for "Germany" or "German." To the Spaniards, Germany is "Alemania," and a German is un Aleman. Actually, the word "German" was a name applied to the warlike tribes migrating from the region between the Black and Caspian seas into central Europe and meant "warlike" or "men of war." Some of the other important tribal names applied to the Germanic peoples by the Romans were, "Hatti," "Alemani,'' (Halmanni) and "Saubi,'' the "Casuari," the "Quadi," etc. (See Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, article "Germany.")

Surprising claims are made in ancient German histories. The oldest city in Germany is Trier, allegedly founded more than twenty centuries before Christ. In a German textbook Indeutschen Landen, author Josef K. L. Bihl says, "The inhabitants of Trier maintain that their city is the oldest in all Europe." He says, "Trier was founded by Trebeta, a son of the famous Assyrian King Ninus. Ninus stood for Nimrod, the founder of NINEVEH, capital of ancient Assyria. In fact, one finds... in Trier the inscription reading, `Trier existed for thirteen hundred years before Rome was rebuilt.'" Surprising?

But why? Remember, the footprints of mankind lead away from the Middle East! The spade of the archeologist always confirms and corroborates the biblical histories and divine record—never refutes it!

Every great modern nation represents sometimes multi-racial tribal groups who are descendants of the three sons of Noah: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

The "tables of nations" are found in the tenth chapter of Genesis. There, you will read of the children of each of the three sons of Noah; basically, you are reading tribal names which in many cases still remain indelibly stamped upon modern peoples!

You will notice that one of the sons of Ham was Cush (Genesis 10:6). Now, reading verse 8, "And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty hunter before [in place of] the Eternal: Wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Eternal. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar" (the land of "Shinar" is nothing else than the land occupied by the ancient Assyrians between the Black and the Caspian seas!).

The next verse is a little confusing in the King James English, but the marginal comment in the Oxford King James Bible clears it up, as do other translations. It should read, "Out of that land he [Ninus, or Nimrod!] went forth into Asshur [Assyria] and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah" (Genesis 10:6-11).

Nimrod, known in history as "King Ninus" was the founder of both Babylon and Nineveh! It is significant that German historians claim their most ancient city (pre-dating Roman times!) was founded by the son of the Assyrian king "Ninus"!

The ancient Assyrians had some outstanding racial characteristics. First, they believed themselves the "master race," and believed that there was nothing more glorious than conquest by war. Assyrian kings and heroes were invariably shown in war chariots, astride horses, with the enemies over whom they had gained victory being trampled under-foot. Kings were shown accomplishing feats such as the subjugation of whole armies, or single-handedly killing lions and other beasts.

The Assyrians were the first builders of major, paved roads, not merely for commercial purposes, but with the specific purpose of logistical support of armies in mind! A network of paved roads led outward in various directions from the ancient Assyrian capital, Nineveh!

The Assyrians revered women, and were apparently the very first to use iron in their chariots (mechanized vehicles of war).

The Roman historian Pliny claimed the "Assyriani" (the Assyrians) inhabited the region north of the Black Sea (Natural History, IV, paragraph 12, p.183).

German historians are united in their description of an hostile, warlike people inhabiting central Europe who came into confrontation with the expanding Roman Empire, causing the Romans to build their famous "limes" (defensive positions and walls) and station legions along their northern borders to stop the advancing warlike hordes.

Histories of Germany are unfailingly unanimous in their description of these tribes.

Bear in mind that one of the most important names of the wandering lost ten tribes of Israel was bit-khumri (which derived from "Beth-Omri," meaning "the house of Omri") or other derivations of that name such as "Humri," "Gymri," "Cimmiri," "Gymbri," and "Cimbri."

Please bear further in mind that you are reading these various descriptions in the English language, which finds its roots in the central European tongues of these very same peoples, including the Franks, Celts, Angles, Saxons, and others. Actually, "High and Low German," Dutch, Old English and modern English all stem from the same basic origin—that of the Indo/European tongues of the aforementioned tribes.

Bear in mind, too, that we tend to identify various racial and tribal groups by the names attached to them by the most literate of the ancient civilizations with whom they came in contact.

Thus, it is to the Roman historian, Tacitus, as well as to others, that we are indebted for a description of some of these wandering tribes.

It is obvious that the dispossessed Assyrians, removed out of their lands between the Black and the Caspian Sea by the invading armies of the expanding Babylonian Empire, freely intermingled, during their wanderings and successive expansions northwestward, with the hundreds of thousands of their own former slaves.

Thus, it is no wonder that the Romans spoke of the invading tribes in central Europe as being two distinct groups of peoples, both the "Cimbri" and the "Teutons."

Sabine Baring-Gould, in his book, Germany, (page 1) says, "These invaders called themselves the Cimbri and Teutons."

Later, speaking of the modern Swiss peoples, Sabine Baring-Gould explains, concerning the bilingual and biracial character of Switzerland, "This is because two distinct races live together in Switzerland now, as they did one hundred and thirteen years before Christ. The French-speaking people represent the Cimbri and the German-speaking people represent the Teutons" (Ibid., p.2). Interestingly enough, even the name "Germany" and "Germans" derives from a name attached to these warlike tribes by the Romans. Baring-Gould says, "The Germans were so-called from the spears they carried—the name means `spear-men'"; (emphasis mine). The Romans, whose unaccustomed ears tried to translate into their own tongue the names of these fierce "Germanic" peoples, rendered the "Deutschen" as "Teutons."

Actually, the "t" in their tongue could be pronounced very similarly to the "d" in English.

The Encyclopedia Americana, under the article, "Germany," says, "In 113 B.C., when the first Germanic tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutons, attempted to break into the Roman Empire, the Germanic frontier became a major problem for maintaining the security of the Roman world." It is quite logical that the displaced Assyrians, driven from their vast plains between the Black and Caspian seas, would be found wandering along the major river valleys, together with remnants of the "lost ten tribes" of Israel.

But for all their wanderings and tendency to settle in areas where they were either adjacent to, or intermingled with each other, as the decades and the centuries passed, the linguistic, cultural, religious, social, racial, economic and philosophical differences of these peoples tended to cause them to settle separately according to their original old tribal patterns, and to avoid those of other racial stocks.

Of the mingled peoples migrating ever westward, the Americana states, "...Germanic tribes...with the exceptions of the Scandinavian tribes, settled for some time in the lands between the Rhine and Vistula but moved on to the west or south. The Anglo-Saxons (sons of `Saac,' or `Isaac's sons') went to England, the Goths, and Vandals into Mediterranean countries, the Lombards into northern Italy, the Burgundians into the Rhone region, the Franks into Gaul (France)" (Encyclopedia Americana, article, "Germany").

One of the chief distinctions between these wandering Assyrians, called "Teutons" by the Romans was their warlike character. In 98 AD., only 67 years after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, Publius Cornelius Tacitus published his "Germania," reporting them to be a "warlike people," and stating that, "war was their chief industry." In battle, he said, "It was considered to be a disgrace to have survived the death of one's chief, and to have returned alive from the field. The height of loyalty, on the other hand, was to have defended, protected and supported the chief, and to have ascribed one's own brave deeds to the leader, so that the tribal aspirations and goals were seen to be channeled into the will of one man, the chieftain. Even if one of the tribes sank into prolonged peace," Tacitus said, "Its young men would seek service under some other chief who was engaged in war" (emphasis mine).

Tacitus also mentioned martial music among the German tribes, relating how "noisy warrior's choruses" were utilized before and after battles.

The Americana says, "It is safe to assume that most of the German tribal songs were sung by pagan priests, and that they were chiefly choruses designed to inflame the martial spirits of the warriors."

We know the Assyrians were great builders. Their magnificently-fortified cities, palaces and monuments and great statuary are among the finest of antiquity. That they were superb warriors; that they used the most advanced techniques of engineering and technology of their day in both their domestic industry and in waging war is also documented.

From such monumental achievements in building came Rawlinson's conclusion that, "...the Assyrians had made considerable advances in mechanical knowledge and were in fact acquainted with most of the contrivances whereby heavy weights (as massive columns, building blocks and stones set in place with pulleys, etc.) have commonly been moved and raised among the civilized nations of Europe. (They possessed)... skill in the mechanical processes of shaping pottery and glass, of casting and embossing metals, and of cutting intaglios upon hard stones... the secrets of metallurgy, of dyeing, enamelling, inlaying, glass-blowing, as well as most of the ordinary manufacturing processes, were known to them" (The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, chap. VI, p.240, 241, Rawlinson).

The same author states that the Assyrians followed "... the practice of borrowing skilled workmen from the conquered states..." (Ibid. chap. IX, p.507).

The conclusion that the modern Germans are, in large part, descendants of the ancient Assyrians is not an hysterical indictment. It is not to say that the German people of today "glory in war," or that they are waiting, poised, to hear the rantings of another Hitler to march off, lemming-like, soaking Europe in blood, to another horrible holocaust.

God's Word says of Assyria, "Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so..." concerning conscious plans of conquest. However, in the same prophecy, "...but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few" (Isaiah 10:7).

There may be no such thing as the remotest dream, in the mind of a living German, that a reunited Germany, at the head of a future United States of Europe, could ever conquer the United States of America. But, even as many Germans understand, the current world situation is not the last chapter, either in European history, or in American history. The future will too soon be upon us.

Once you know the identity of modern nations in biblical language, it is comparatively simple to understand what Bible prophecy says will happen to them in the future.

Has America's Pride Been Broken?

God said our people would experience a terrible weakening of, WILL; of the PRIDE of our power! Notice, "And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power..." (Leviticus 26:17-19).

That prophecy has already begun to be fulfilled!

We don't know why we are. America has no great cause. There is not great goal toward which we unitedly press. There is no great single unifying bond, no common spiritual dedication, no deep, transcendental purpose for which we strive.

During World War II, we had the goal of putting an end, once and for all, to oppressive dictatorships and attempts by madmen to rule the world. Our goal was not only to "make the world safe for democracy, " but to fight the war to "end all wars."

We won the war—but we lost the peace.

There were progressive stages through which America's pride was broken!

The Cold War; the Berlin Wall; the arms race; Korea; Gary Powers and the U2 incident; the Pueblo; Vietnam; Watergate; the Iranian hostage crisis, Nicaragua, and the "Contra" hearings, all played their part.

Following the return of the hostages from Iran, national attention was brought to focus by the media on the bitterness of tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans. Their sad homecoming from the most unpopular war in history to an indifferent public left wounds of the spirit perhaps as ugly as those of the flesh of patients in VA hospitals.

Vietnam veterans decorated with the medals of heroism, consigned to spend their lives in wheelchairs as helpless paraplegics, do not lightly return their medals as one last defiant act against government policies they could never understand.

Where went our patriotism? Did something kill it? Did it just gradually die? Patriotism is, after all, a deep, prideful love of one's father country, a thankful appreciation for the freedoms and liberties bought at such a dear cost by the tens of thousands who paid the most horrible of prices. Patriotism is love of country. But, like the love within a tight-knit family, a completely patriotic American can become very, very angry at trends within his country. Parents, who dearly love their children, become angry when they witness the child making a decision they know will harm him.

Patriotism can never be blind flag waving, a flag-shrouded refusal to admit family difficulties, a blind determination to remain studiously ignorant of deep family sicknesses.

Most Americans have forgotten how to sacrifice.

We're sick. Our greatest sickness is our stubborn refusal to acknowledge our own moral and spiritual poverty. To diagnose our many illnesses is to invite sneers from a rising number of superpatriots whose stock-in-trade is the big-business, chamber-of-commerce attitude of "let's talk about what's right about America."

Fine. Let us do so. We are the greatest single power the world has ever known. We have risen to dizzying heights of technological development and scientific achievement. American footprints dot the moon. Our language, our culture, our products have girdled the globe. We have been blessed with the most fabulously rich piece of real estate on the good earth. Our standard of living has risen to opulent heights never imagined in the science fiction of yesteryear.

But where did we get our wealth?

Let Abraham Lincoln answer:

"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..." (Presidential Proclamation, April 1863).

Those words are truer today than they ever were before!

That famous president recognized that our fantastic wealth was given to us directly by the Creator God. It came because of Abraham's obedience!

The fabulous lands of our peoples, our mineral resources, our stands of timber, our sprawling grazing and farmlands, our coastlines, our strategic sea gates, our favorable climate—all were given to us by the God we—in this generation—have forgotten.

To understand what's been happening to us, you need to look back as far as 1950, and Korea. We lost in Korea. Since then, we have lived through the Gary Powers incident, the Bay of Pigs, the Hungarian Revolution, the Pueblo, the years and years of the Berlin Wall, and a decade of horror abroad and frenzied protest at home over the futility of war in Vietnam, and the hostages in Iran.

We have lived through eight years of utter shamelessness, blatant hypocrisy, and moral degradation in the highest office in the land.

Just as Abraham Lincoln said, we forgot the God who gave us our liberties! We forsook the Creator who blessed and enriched us above all peoples who have ever walked the earth.

Our laymen plunged into materialism with greedy delight, and our churchmen gave them all their blessing, calling the breaking of God's Ten Commandments a "new morality."

And that God says to us, "...And if you will not yet for all this listen to Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

"AND I WILL BREAK THE PRIDE OF YOUR POWER."

It's been broken. We don't keep the Ten Commandments. Can you, in good sense, deny the connection?

"And I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass, and your strength shall be spent in vain..." (Leviticus 26:18-20).

We have spent our strength—oh, how we've spent it. We have wasted our energies, our vast wealth, our young, strong men—we have spent enormously, vastly, prodigiously.

And we have done it all in vain.

We have spent our homes and families, our farms and produce, our factories and their products. We have spent our time and our concern. We have spent dearly.

In vain.

Something terrible has happened to America. What is being destroyed is the keystone of a healthy, viable people. Some leaders have recognized what made America great.

Prosperity and Decay

President Eisenhower said, in his State of the Union message, Jan. 7, 1960: "America did not become great through softness and self-indulgence. Her miraculous progress and achievement flow from other qualities far more worthy and substantial: adherence to principles and methods consonant with our religious philosophy; a satisfaction in hard work; the readiness to sacrifice for worthwhile causes; the courage to meet every challenge to her progress: the intellectual honesty and capacity to recognize the true path of her own best interest."

It was only a few days previous to this outstanding speech, which seems in retrospect prophetic, that the late economist, Roger Babson, said: "The test of a nation is the growth of its people -physically, intellectually, and spiritually. Money and so-called `prosperity' are of very little account...

"Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Spain and France all had their turn in being the richest in the world. Instead of saving them, their so-called prosperity ruined them.

"Our nation is now rated the richest, but it could easily become a second-class nation and head downward: Money will not save us. Crops will not save us. Stock exchanges and banks will not save us. Already our gold at Fort Knox is diminishing. Only a sane spiritual revival which changes the desires of our people will save us. We must be filled with a desire to render service, to seek strength rather than security, to put character ahead of profits. Even the democracy for which our fathers fought and bled could result in our downfall."

It was only two weeks previous to these prophetic statements that another famous American, historian George Kennan, said before a Washington audience: "If you ask me—as an historian—whether a country in the state in which this country finds itself today, with no highly developed sense of national purpose, with the overwhelming accent of life on personal comfort and amusement, with a dearth of public services and a surfeit of privately sold gadgetry—with a chaotic transportation system... with insufficient social discipline even to keep its major industries functioning without grievous interruptions—has over the long run good chances of competing with a purposeful, serious and disciplined society such as that of the Soviet Union, I must say that the answer is `no.'"

Coming at the beginning of the 1960s, such words now seem prophetic.

The Moral And Spiritual Decline of
Britain and America

From the beginning of the 1060s, both Britain and America began a toboggan-slide into spiritual and moral degradation. Our "cultures" began to drift toward more and more hedonism, materialism, and even nihilism. We abandoned those deep-seated patriotic sentiments of the war years, and embraced the concept of self satisfaction.

Every facet of our societies reflected our moral and spiritual decline.

Think of the incredible difference between the decades of the 30s, 40s and 50s with those of the 60s to the turn of the century. Back then, "Gone With The Wind" was banned in Boston because of Clark Gable's infamous and daring use of the slang term "damn." Today, millions flock to the theaters to hear "rap stars" mouthing hideous obscenities and blasphemies out of a mouth resembling an open sewer. His spittle-flecked, hip-gyrating, glazed-eyed screeches are laced with urging the killing of cops, or the raping of one's mother.

Such "stars" (an incredible appellation for sputum and vomit) earn megabucks, and win the adulation of millions of adoring "fans" as they receive top-notch "awards" at Hollywood's myriad number of award shows.

It all began with the Beatles and Elvis, who while outrageous to the older generation during their time, seem benign in retrospect.

A brief survey into the dramatic change from the big bands and "swing" to the "rock and roll" and "heavy metal" suffices to convince anyone of the plunge into the sounds of demonism and death.

Television, that one-eyed monster of sex, sadism, violence and inane "soaps" contributed massively to the moral and spiritual toboggan-slide. Britain led in the rush to knock down moral barriers, allowing full frontal nudity on television in the 1960s. America dutifully followed suit. Eventually, movie moguls were convinced they needed cautionary "ratings" for the never-ending flood of filth they purveyed. Along came "G" and "PG" and "R," while "X" stayed in the sleazy movie theaters and drive-ins in the disintegrating pockets of communities long since taken over by pimps, prostitutes, drug pushers and gays.

Today, X and XXX have moved into American and British living rooms.

Now, the most hideous displays of perverted sexual activity from sodomy to sado-masochism are beamed to millions of living rooms from space, and available to 10 and 12 year olds on the family computer. There are no further restraints. Hedonism reigns.

Whether you review the covers of the various and sundry scandal rags available near every supermarket checkout stand, or the covers of the dozens of magazines in the magazine rack, you will see almost nothing but sex, sex, and more sex; who is divorcing who, who is having whose illegitimate bastard child, who has "come out of the closet" and pronounced he or she is "gay," or the latest case of murder, wife beating, drug addiction, or pederasty. All this, of course, written about the "stars" who are worshiped at the box office and on television.

God says, "Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

"Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these [saying "We are God's People; This is God's country"];

"For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

"If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

"Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

"Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit [witness many Supreme Court decisions on everything from abortion to school prayer to pornography].

"Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

"And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? (Jeremiah 7:3-10).

Today, there are "gay" (read "perverted sodomites and lesbians) churches in America! Several of the most formal and staid old denominations have authorized the ordination of openly homosexual ministers and priests. Not only this, but openly "gay" men are in dome of the highest offices in the land. Read Genesis 19 for God's attitude toward homosexuality. God produced a miniature Gehenna Fire to consume Sodom and Gomorrah as His perpetual witness against "abusers of themselves with mankind" (Romans 1:24-27). Now, even such American institutions as the Boy Scouts, traditional teachers of strong moral principles, are beset with legal moves to force America's young boys to go on camping trips with homosexuals!

The youth of our country is being denied youthful innocence. Instead, they are plunged into the cesspool of pornographic slop, slime, swill and vomit forced upon them by the judiciary and legislative bodies of government itself, not to mention the incredible examples set during the 90s by the executive branch.

For decades, simpering apologists, leftists all, have argued that there is no connection between the non-stop violence and sexual promiscuity seen in movies and television, and now on video games, and violent crime.

Even when it is known that the video games of recent decades, such as "Dungeons and Dragons" and others which are (if possible) even more Satanic, were continually viewed and practiced by young boys who then attacked their own schools, murdering their own helpless classmates, the hair-shirted, breast-beating apologists whimper that there is no connection.

They are fond of pointing out that "many others play the same games, and they do not turn violent." And so there are no restraints. Modern video games are in 3-D, appear REAL to the youngsters who play them. They see bullets splashing into simulated flesh, arms and legs flying in dismembering blasts, bodies twitching, blood oozing.

Then, distraught parents throw up their hands in pretended innocence and say, "I can't understand it. I gave him everything he wanted! He was always such a GOOD boy!" Yes, they gave him all he wanted, but they did not give him discipline, nor did they teach him right from wrong!

Think for a moment of youthful crime and suicides; of youthful alcoholism and drug addiction; of all the vomit-laden, garbage-strewn filth that is poured into children's minds, and then think of the feminist movement, women "preachers," women in government, and the incredible number of women voters. Think of all this as you read what your Creator God said through Isaiah about our societies today — both Britain and America: "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths" (Isaiah 3:12).

Yes, it is "they which lead thee," from judges to legislators, and from the clergy to the teacher who set the trends, display the examples, and work to expunge from Britain and America the last vestige of moral restraint. Millions want an orgy, and God is going to give it to them!

God inspired Ezekiel to write, "Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

"Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.

"Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

"Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

"The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD" (Ezekiel 7:23-27).

You need not look very deeply into the trends in our societies in the last fifty years to admit to yourself that our peoples are deserving of these powerful indictments from God.,

When we are no longer worthy to inhabit our lands; no longer worthy of God's mercy and protection; no longer fit to survive, God will PUNISH our heedless, God-defying, lawbreaking, hedonistic societies!

It's not too late for Britain and America—not too late, yet, for inspired leadership, clarity of goals, unanimity of purpose, dedication to great cause, and collective sacrifice to push the world's greatest single power into broad avenues of peace, into a bright new tomorrow, into a utopian era of the realization of man's fondest dreams. It's not too late for America to see the vastness of her wealth. It is not too late for a spiritual answer to our deepest problems of the spirit.

But it's much, much later than you think!

The measure of a nation's greatness is not its industrial capacity, not its natural resources, not its GNP. It is the quality of the character of its people.

America is losing character.

Is there any willpower left? Any spirit of sacrifice? Any dedication to great cause?

Have we forgotten how to repent?

Needed—National Repentance

Can you envision government leaders dropping to their knees in real heartfelt REPENTANCE before God, crying out to Him to deliver us from our awesome national problem?

"Ridiculous!" some would say.

And, because such a picture of national repentance is so "ridiculous" to even imagine, our peoples are headed for perhaps the greatest national punishment that ever came on any nation.

Notice this striking prophecy from the biblical book of Ezekiel:

"The iniquity of the House of Israel [our modern English-speaking peoples] and Judah is exceeding great and the land is full of blood [America leads the world in crime] and the city full of perverseness [our cities have become asphalt jungles of crime, immorality, drug addiction and sensuous pleasure-seeking], for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and, the Lord seeth not" (Ezekiel 9:9).

And isn't that exactly what millions say today: "God doesn't exist," "He's gone way off somewhere," "He's gone into retirement"?

But God is not in retirement. He really does exist. And He does say in His Word—the Bible—that He punishes people who are constantly breaking laws and bringing all the awesome problems we see everywhere around us today upon themselves. It does matter to Him how we live!

He says, "I... will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations [our national crimes and sins] and mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee" (Ezekiel 7:3, 4).

Does this sound a little vague—perhaps a little archaic—a little too much like some "Old Testament fire and brimstone"?

Don't delude yourself! God is going to punish our peoples severely for our national and individual crimes and sins—unless we really repent—and turn to Him.

Our Own Ways

So far, God is not yet directly punishing our peoples. He is merely letting us begin to kill ourselves. He is letting us suffer the automatic consequences of our own ways. We abuse the earth He gave us: polluting our rivers and streams with pesticides and chemicals; killing the nutrients in the soil, striving by our own humanly devised mechanical means to produce crops.

God says, "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee..." (Jeremiah 2:19), and "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself but in Me is thine help" (Hosea 13:9).

Our Creator says, It's not too late for Britain and America yet. We could still repent—and He would help us.

Notice the conditions:

"Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place... For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger [minority groups], the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood [brutal murders are commonplace in America today], neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your Fathers, for ever and ever" (Jeremiah 7:3-7).

Otherwise a national captivity and scattering of our peoples to the four winds is foretold in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 5, verses 11 and 12.

God says He's willing if we are. He wants us to repent. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11).

Prayer and Fasting

Can this nation follow the example of Abraham Lincoln? Continue with his presidential proclamation quoted earlier "...Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace [apparently Abraham Lincoln understood the real meaning of grace], too proud to pray to the God who made us.

"It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness:

"Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views, of the Senate, I do by this proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer... All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace."

I wonder if a president today could get away with calling a national day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting?

There Is a Way of Escape

But, even if the nation stubbornly continues on its present course—does not repent—there is a way out for you personally. You as an individual can repent and escape the direct future punishments of God Almighty.

Yes, there is a way of escape for you—even in this modern age—if you're willing to heed—if you're willing to seek your God.

Read the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel. Read how God says any who will really heed the voice of His watchman will be protected from these perilous times ahead! Read His promises in Psalm 91.

True to the prophecies—the pride in our power has been broken. Unless we repent, it is only a matter of time until our nation will be broken, our cities destroyed, our peoples taken captive by powerful enemies we do not presently suspect.

The Time of Jacob's Trouble

Irrefutable evidence absolutely proves that Britain and the United States are a part of the so-called "lost ten tribes" of Israel! Most of the peoples of Scandinavia and Northwestern Europe make up the remainder of ten-tribed Israel.

Utterly ignorant of our identity, most students of Bible prophecy are left with nothing more than wild speculations about the scenario for the future—blissfully unaware that the prophecies of Christ Himself concerning the coming GREAT TRIBULATION are directed PRIMARILY against the United States and Britain, then against Northwestern Europe, and the Jewish state in modern-day Palestine, called "Israel."

The Great Tribulation is described as a time of terrible national calamities brought on by a myriad of causes—drought, famine, disease, crime, pollution, overpopulation, wars—a time when the military might of Britain and America will not save us from the most unthinkable disasters!

Millions of Israelites were slaughtered during World War II; Many Israelitish nations were subjected to enemy occupation, deportation, slave labor, unthinkable privation. Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France—all fell before the Nazi armies, just as ancient Israel succumbed before waves of invading Assyrians seven hundred years before Christ. Finland was bled in a war with Russia. Britain suffered horribly from 1939 until the end of the "Battle of Britain," and continued to lose men and equipment, was wounded so deeply, financially, that she would never completely recover, as a result of World War II. Following that great war, Britain began a slide downward. The once-proud British Empire was dismantled, and Britain became known as the economic "sick man" of Europe; finally joined the Common Market as an economic necessity.

The Commonwealth countries; Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, though unoccupied and unattacked, except for the Japanese bombing of Darwin, and occupation of part of New Guinea, left tens of thousands of their sons and fathers to rot in foreign lands, or beneath the seas.

The United States suffered 407,316 deaths in the military; 670,846 non-lethal wounded, from Dec. 7, 1941 until Dec. 31, 1946. The cost to the economy was $360 BILLION!

At the end of World War II, the United States was at its zenith. She had 8,266,373 men in the Army, 3,380,817 in the Navy, 2,372,292 in the Air Force, for a total of FOURTEEN MILLION, one hundred ninety-four thousand, four hundred eighty-two in all services combined!

Yet, by 1946 the Air Force had shrunk to but 455,515; the Navy to 381,538 by 1950; the Army down to 67,784 by the same year.

Anciently, God said He would BREAK THE PRIDE OF OUR POWER if we did not observe His laws.

Today, millions of Americans have swallowed the fable that America is "the world's only remaining super power!" They forget that MANY other countries possess the atom bomb, among them France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel. Suspected to possess nuclear weapons, or to be working on them, are Germany, Brazil, Iraq, North Korea, South Africa and Iran.

Many nations possess sophisticated ICBMS and IRBMS. Russia is still in possession of thousands of missiles and nuclear warheads, along with nuclear armed submarines. Ukraine instantly became a nuclear power when the USSR split up. China has purchases advanced AEGIS type cruisers and missile-carrying submarines from Russia.

Many nations have satellite-launching capabilities, among them Britain, France, China and Japan. Dozens of nations have nuclear reactors humming away daily, the by product of which is material used in producing nuclear bombs.

Many nations have deadly chemical and biological stockpiles.

Today, both Britain and the US brace themselves for further horrifying terrorist attacks. From the bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon in the 1980s to the bombing of US forces barracks in Saudi Arabia in the 90s, and highlighted by the bombing attack against the USS Cole in 2000, the US has become aware of the virulent hatred of the Islamic nations against us. Because we have become a mentor and protector of Israel, we are termed "The Great Satan" by the likes of Iran and Iraq, along with other nations of Islam.

The truth is we are NOT the "world's only remaining super power." There is a major power forming in Europe which I have predicted for more than 45 years now, which will SHOCK its builders! It will eventually become a fully nuclear-armed "United States of Europe," with an all European air force and army, and it will eventually OCCUPY THE MIDDLE EAST!

Bible Prophecy—A Warning!

One third of the Bible is prophecy. Jesus Christ was the greatest Prophet of all time. His famous "Olivet Prophecy" is the CORNERSTONE of all prophecy for the time of the end—the time of the GREAT TRIBULATION, the Day of the Lord, and the Second Coming of Christ to RULE all nations!

Armed with the knowledge of the identity of the modern nations of the United States and Europe, you can come to UNDERSTAND, at last, the overall picture of future events.

As we shall see, the prophesied GREAT TRIBULATION is to come primarily on JACOB! It is the "time of Jacob's trouble," meaning the time of great national trauma for England, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the United States, as well as others of ten-tribed Israel. Remember, EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH were the recipients of the NAME OF ISRAEL! Dying Jacob (Israel) had said, "Let MY NAME be named ON THEM!"

Now, let's notice the prophecies of Christ Himself.

The Prophecies of Christ

A partial understanding of Bible prophecy is possible without the knowledge of the identity of the Lost Ten Tribes. For example, a careful study of Daniel 2, 4, 7; together with Revelation 13, 17, 18 and Christ's Olivet Prophecy gives an overview of world events in the immediate future, but only if one is armed with knowledge of the true meaning of the beast, the image of the beast, and the identity of the false prophet and the antichrist! Even then, one remains ignorant of how those prophecies will affect the United States of America if one is missing the most important KEY to prophecy; the identity of the United States and Britain!

The proofs concerning the identity of the world-ruling empires depicted by the fabled image of Nebudchadnezzar (Daniel 2) are too numerous to mention. Most Bible commentaries include ample references to historical sources correctly identifying the kingdoms of Babylon (the head of gold), Persia (the chest of silver), Graeco- Macedonia (the belly and thighs of brass), and Rome (the feet and toes of miry clay and iron). That Daniel could have successfully predicted the rise and fall of all these kingdoms, including the successive resurrections of the same system (the Roman Empire) down through the centuries, is one of the great testimonies to the inspiration of scriptures; the accuracy of God's Word.

Today, millions of amateur theologians muse about the "beast," leap to incredible, fantastic conclusions based on whimsical theories. Some think the beast is the United States. Some claim it is the Catholic Church. Some think it is a group of Jewish money-lenders involved in a vast conspiracy. Opinions and theories are rife, as Christ predicted they would be. "Many shall come in My Name, saying I am Christ [not necessarily that they are Christ, but that HE is Christ! "Preaching Christ!''] and shall deceive many!"

But the identity of the beast has never changed. The culmination of the ancient kingdoms was Rome. Its many revivals down through history are documented. A weak revival of the "Holy Roman Empire," embodying the same races of the heartland of Europe as the days of the Hapsburgs and Otto the Great, occurred during World War II, under Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who declared the central European alliance the "Holy Roman Empire."

The second beast of Revelation 13 is "lamblike," that is, masquerades as a Christ-like organization, yet "spoken as a dragon," that is, like Satan!

Bullinger's Companion Bible includes a comparison between Christ's Olivet Prophecy and the seven seals of Revelation. It can be proved conclusively that the "four horsemen of the apocalypse" represent the progressively worsening human condition predicted by Christ in Matthew 24. The white horse indicates false christs, false prophets; the rise of the final "false prophet" (11 Thess. 2) who will have the power to perform miracles; sit in the "temple of God, shewing that he is god," and cause millions to "worship the beast and his image." In other words, the white horse of the 1st seal means the unveiling of the false prophet and antichrist, at the head of the "Image of the Beast" (the Babylonish mystery religion) in the time just prior to the Great Tribulation.

The red horse is synonymous with Christ's predictions of "wars and rumors of wars," of the Olivet Prophecy. Bullinger correctly shows the exact parallels between the two prophecies; that the grey horse depicts famine, and the black horse death.

Christ looked beyond His time into ours; foretold the future, the time in which we live; the times just ahead of us! Even if one did not know the identify of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, one can be sure we are living in the biblically-prophesied "time of the end," like the "day of Noah," when all mankind pursues the passions of flesh; heedless of the catastrophes that lie ahead.

The difference is, those who know the identity of Israel know how their own people are going to be involved; they recognize the horrifying national punishments soon to come, and they are equipped to have a part in the work commissioned to give powerful WITNESS and WARNING to God's people before it is too late!

Yes, millions know about the prophesied "Great Tribulation!" But those same millions do not know the tribulation is prophesied to fall upon the peoples of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL FIRST!

Let's see the proof!

Christ said, "For then shall be GREAT TRIBULATION [a time of terrible trouble], such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:21). An unprecedented time, absolutely unique in the horrors it shall bring, without parallel in all history! That means the Great Tribulation is a time of human suffering that happens ONLY ONCE! There are not TWO such times! Only ONE! Notice what that means!

At the conclusion of the longest prophecy in the Bible, Daniel 11, the archangel Gabriel said to Daniel, "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people [Israel!]: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book" (Dan. 12:1, 2).

Obviously, this great time of trouble is the SAME as the Great Tribulation predicted by Christ. There cannot be TWO such times, one canceling out the other—the description of the greatest time of trouble IN ALL HISTORY means the UNIQUE time of the Great Tribulation!

Now, notice! "Thus speaketh the Eternal God of Israel, saying, `Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.

"For, lo, the days come, saith the Eternal, that I will bring again the captivity [bring back the captives; return them from captivity] of my people Israel AND JUDAH..."

Notice! TWO DIFFERENT GROUPS OF PEOPLE! Israel, meaning ten-tribed Israel; the "House of Israel," and "Judah," the Jews!

But remember, Israel DISAPPEARED from history! They were NEVER brought back from the land of their captivity between the Black and Caspean Seas, but wandered across Europe, became lost to history in the centuries that passed. Today, the Jewish people have their own nation, "Israel." As we shall see, as horrifying as it is to contemplate, a future captivity for the Jews is prophesied in your Bible!

Now, back to our scripture, "...and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

"And these are the words that the Eternal spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

"For thus saith the Eternal; we have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

"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 turned into paleness?" Here, Jeremiah sees in vision people so shocked, so terror-stricken, that they are doubled over in pain because of the horrors their disbelieving eyes behold!

"Alas! for that day is GREAT, So THAT NONE IS LIKE IT..." Note that well! Once again, we read of the SAME TIME; the "Great Tribulation" prophesied by Christ; the SAME TIME described by Daniel; a time of trouble SO GREAT that it is absolutely unparalleled in all the earth's history! And UPON WHOM IS THAT GREAT TIME OF NATIONAL TRIBULATION TO COME?

"It is even the time of JACOB'S TROUBLE..." (Jer. 30:1-7).

Ah! The time of JACOB'S trouble! And who was Jacob? His name was changed to ISRAEL! As he lay dying, he crossed his hands, as you have read, blessing Ephraim over Manasseh, said, "Let MY NAME BE NAMED ON THEM!" Among all the tribes of Israel, only Ephraim (Great Britain) and Manasseh (the United States) have the right to be called "Jacob," or the "House of Israel!"

So the Great Tribulation spoken of by Christ; the horrifying time of Satan's WRATH on the earth, is to come PRIMARILY AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES, and incidentally against the remainder of the lost ten tribes of Israel! Now, notice the remainder of this remarkable 30th chapter of Jeremiah:

"...but he shall be saved OUT of it [meaning Jacob; the U.S. and Britain, shall have to go through it, but shall not be completely destroyed; shall be saved `out' of it!]. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Eternal of hosts, that I will break HIS YOKE from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him..." (Jer. 30:7, 8).

And what is the time setting of this prophecy about impending national captivity for the House of Jacob; of Israel? "But they shall serve the Eternal their God, and David their King, whom I will raise up unto them!" (Jer. 30:8, 9).

Are the U.S. and Britain serving God, today? Is the nation of "Israel," in Palestine, "serving God?" NO! The time setting of this prophecy is the SAME as that of Matthew 24, Revelation 6, and Daniel 12. It is just before the Second Coming of Christ; just before the time of the resurrection, when God will raise David, together with all His righteous saints and patriarchs who have died, to be caught up to meet Christ (I Thess. 4:17) when He returns to this earth (Rev. 1:7; Acts 1:11; Rev. 19) to stand, in that same day, on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem (Zech. 14:4).

Now, whose yoke will be laid upon our peoples?

The Woman Who Rode the Beast

John saw, in vision, a great harlot astride a many-headed beast. Christ's prophecies, together with those of Daniel and Revelation, leave no doubt as to the identity of this church-state system. Notice, "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgement of the GREAT WHORE that sitteth upon many waters:

"With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

"So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

"And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Rev. 17:1-5).

The woman is a great, universal, false church! She "sits on" a "beast," meaning she holds sway and influence over the ten-nation union in central Europe. She CONTROLS the beast!

Clearly, the ten nations exist at the very last days of man's governments on this earth, just PRIOR to the Second Coming of Christ! Notice, "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings [absolute autocratic power] one hour [a very short time in prophecy] with the beast.

"These have one mind [one policy; one purpose on which they are in complete agreement], and shall give their power and strength unto the beast [they will pool their national economies, raw materials, industry, and their military into one].

"These shall make war with the Lamb [they will assay to FIGHT CHRIST at His second coming — the time setting of this prophecy is impossible to ignore], and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful" (Revelation 17:12-14).

It is necessary at this point to remind you of a critically important geopolitical FACT. Suppose, for a moment, that all that you have read about the origins of the United States and Britain is mere fantasy. Suppose that all history is askew, and that none of the facts concerning Dan, or Judah, or Ephraim and Manassah, really apply.

Then, REMEMBER! Jesus Christ's Olivet prophecy concerned JERUSALEM primarily! It was uttered in full view of the world's most famous skyline of the time, from the Mount of Olives, in full view of the Temple of Christ's day. His prophecy was only "typically" fulfilled, as a preliminary forerunner, in 70 AD when Titus' armies destroyed Jerusalem.

But the literal, end-time fulfillment is YET AHEAD!

Now, think! Do you believe for one moment that if Israel is attacked by combined Arab armies; if SCUDS and SILKWORM missiles come raining down on Tel Aviv, Haifa, Lod, and other Jewish cities; if chemical and biological weapons are killing HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Israeli citizens, that the US and Britain will be UNINVOLVED?

It would be the height of stupidity to assume such!

You KNOW we would be immediately involved if the specter of the wholesale slaughter of Jews in modern "Israel" were to occur!

Daniel's 11^th chapter shows that the BEAST power, not the US and Britain, will immediately descend into the Middle East like a "whirlwind" and OCCUPY all the nations from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia, including Israel and Egypt! Likely, this will be a move to PROTECT surviving Jews as much as it will be to STOP A MAJOR WAR FROM ENGULFING THE WHOLE WORLD!

But it will be in vain! Notice that "tidings out of the north and the east" bring news of a coming massive intervention by RUSSIA and CHINA! (Daniel 11:40-44). It is this finally great battle — called the "Battle of Armageddon," which will bring about the heavenly signs and the Day of the Lord!

Remember, at the return of Christ, the Beast power, which will then be ensconced in Jerusalem, together with the great "false prophet" who is the ANTICHRIST, will attempt to FIGHT CHRIST!

This is an exact parallel of Daniel 2:44, and preceding verses, where God says the symbolic STONE (Christ) that is seen coming down from heaven like a meteor, smashes the ten toes of the great image. The image represents all the Gentile world-ruling kingdoms from the time of ancient Babylon down to the time of our modern age, the ten toes representing the ten kings (nations) of Revelation 17.

That great false church which has concourse with national governments is identified again in Isaiah 47. Notice it, "Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, the lady of kingdoms.

"I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; UPON THE ANCIENT HAST THOU VERY HEAVILY LAID THY YOKE.

"And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

"Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

"But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

"For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

"Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not he able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know" (Isaiah 47:5-11).

Notice that it is the great false church, under the FALSE PROPHET, who is the antichrist, that CONTROLS the ten-nation combine that is to PUNISH our peoples!

And the principal nation that will be one of the ten? Read Isaiah l0! Notice what is says about the nature of the modern-day Assyrians! "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the REMNANT [There will be only about TEN PERCENT LEFT ALIVE (Isaiah 6:13)] of Israel, and such as are escaped of the House of Jacob [Ephraim and Manasseh], shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Eternal, the Holy One of Israel, in truth!" (Isaiah 10:20). This is describing their deliverance at the time of the Second Coming of Christ!

Notice further, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and HIS YOKE FROM OFF THY NECK, and the YOKE shall be destroyed because of the anointing!" (Isaiah 10:27).

Notice, then, that the YOKE, symbolizing SLAVERY, captivity, is laid upon our peoples by both the universal church AND ASSYRIA, and that YOKE is in place until the Second Coming of Christ; until our peoples begin to "stay upon the Eternal," and until "the anointing"!

Notice the following proofs concerning the CONDITION OF OUR PEOPLE at the time of Christ's coming: "And 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, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

"The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim" (Isaiah 11:11-13).

"And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.

"And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt" (Isaiah 11:15, 16)

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

"In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

"But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:5-8).

Notice that the coming exodus from the NORTH countries will pale into insignificance the ancient exodus under Moses! Now, see the time setting of Jeremiah 3:17, and succeeding verses: "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Eternal; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it [compare with Zech. 14:16-21], to the name of the Eternal, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after imagination of their evil heart.

"In those days the House of Judah shall walk with the House of Israel [NOTICE! TWO SEPARATE `HOUSES'; TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLES!], and they shall come together out of the land of the north [this never happened in history! Ten-tribed Israel had disappeared, in the main, long before the Babylonian Empire sacked Judah!] to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers."

Finally, notice this prophecy: "...And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown [see I Cor. l5:50-52], and they shall come which were ready to perish in the LAND OF ASSYRIA and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, AND SHALL WORSHIP THE ETERNAL IN THE HOLY MOUNT AT JERUSALEM" (Isaiah 27:13).

Every time you encounter prophecies concerning ISRAEL and the SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, Israel is found to be in a state of CAPTIVITY, horrible slavery, privation, suffering, starvation! The time setting is OBVIOUS, impossible to ignore!

Not only is the modern nation of Israel in the land of Palestine to suffer YET ANOTHER TERRIBLE HOLOCAUST—SO SHALL THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND BRITAIN UNLESS WE REPENT, AND TURN TO OUR GOD!

God commands, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 55:6-8).

Jesus Christ commanded, "REPENT, and believe the Gospel!" On the Day of Pentecost, Peter cried out, "REPENT, and be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!"

To those who heed God's commands; who accept the invitation of Jesus Christ, God says, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the HOUR OF TRIAL [GREAT TRIBULATION], which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Revelation 3:10).

David cried out, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways" (Psalm 91:1-11).

What about you? Have you settled the BIGGEST question of your life—what will happen to you in the future? Are you safe and secure in the arms of God; under His Divine PROTECTION? Make no mistake! What you have read in this book is truth! Read the many, many books in the bibliography! Study the voluminous amount of literature available which PROVES beyond the shadow of a doubt, our national identities! But remember, whether you believe the truth about our identity or NOT, the Great Tribulation is SURELY COMING!

The next world war will mean the use of NUCLEAR weapons; biochemical weapons like botulinis toxin, nerve gas, horrifying, unimaginable weapons! TENS OF MILLIONS will die! It is not a matter of WHETHER a terrible war will rock the world—threaten human annihilation—it is a matter of WHEN!

Thanks be to God for His TRUTH; for an understanding of prophecy: for His calling to be a PART OF THE WORK OF HIS WATCHMEN, preaching witness and WARNING to a sin-sick, dying world! May God give you the personal conviction to act on what you know.

- End -

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