From 1776 to 2026

The United States is celebrating its 250th anniversary, and it has been quite a ride. But how many more anniversaries will it enjoy? Not many, I am deeply sorry to say—unless we turn in heartfelt repentance to the God who made us great.

All countries have their own beauty—from the tea fields of Kenya and the snowcapped mountains of Chile and Argentina, to the neatly designed farmlands of the UK and France. There is something special about Israel and its biblical history. Truly, there is something unique and wonderful about countries everywhere, be they large like China and India or small like the many beautiful islands of the Caribbean.

I have been privileged to travel to every continent except Antarctica—mostly while serving members of the Living Church of God. I find that people everywhere have great similarities as well as differences. One time in Rome, several of us were on a street corner, poring over a map and trying to find a bus stop, when a woman in smart business attire, carrying a briefcase and wearing high heels, walked a couple of blocks out of her way to make sure we found the location. People in Munich were more reserved but were just as helpful.

However, there is no place like home, and for me that is one of the two countries in which I am a citizen—the U.S. and Canada. And no, Canada is not the 51st state! These two, along with the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe, have enjoyed special blessings over the centuries. This is why so many in the rest of the world want to move to one of these nations. But what is it that makes these countries special?

Why God Will Remove His Blessings

My article in this issue explains something that few understand today—the ancient roots of these modern nations. God promised the patriarch Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). The last part of this verse refers primarily to the promised Messiah, who will bring blessings to all nations upon His imminent return. But what about the first part—that those who bless Abraham’s descendants will be blessed and those who curse them will be cursed? We can only understand this when we realize that the Jewish people are only a small minority of Abraham’s descendants.

False Pride

Sadly, as have the other descendants of Abraham, Americans have forgotten from where their greatness comes. Many believe that America can make itself great again by its own efforts. The British sing the refrain, “God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!” And there was a time when Britons and Americans knew something about God, even if much of it was in error. How much less today!

Devaluation of Human Life

Millions of abortions are performed in Britain and the Commonwealth as well as in the United States and much of Western Europe. Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) continues to grow in Canada, and the I should be left out of the acronym to label it what it is—MAD. It is difficult to halt the slide once nations step onto the slippery slope of playing God and deciding when one made in the image of God should live or die. Abortion was the beginning. How long will it be before people are encouraged to end their lives as a public service once they become “inconvenient” to those around them? Or has that already begun in Canada and the Netherlands?

Prophecies for Ephraim and Manasseh’s Future

At the end of his life, Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, called together his twelve sons and foretold what would become of them “in the last days” (Genesis 49:1–2). It is easy to be reminded of the song “America the Beautiful” when reading the words prophesied of Joseph, whose inheritance would be divided by his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh:

Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall [he spreads out across the world]. The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him. But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), by the God of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers (Genesis 49:22–26).

But America and its brothers have forgotten the source of our strength—“the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob.” We have arrogantly attributed our strength and blessings to our supposed self-made exceptionalism: Americans to rugged individualism, Canadians to their greater compassion, Australians to their luck. Moses also prophesied of Israel’s son Joseph:

And of Joseph he said: “Blessed of the Lord is his land, with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, and the deep lying beneath, with the precious fruits of the sun, with the precious produce of the months, with the best things of the ancient mountains, with the precious things of the everlasting hills, with the precious things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come ‘on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers’” (Deuteronomy 33:13–16).

But Moses was not finished. He went on to describe a militarily powerful pair of nations, Joseph’s two sons, the brothers Ephraim and Manasseh: “His glory is like a firstborn bull, and his horns like the horns of the wild ox; together with them he shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh” (v. 17).

Who pushed their enemies to the ends of the earth in World War II? Was it not America and the British-descended nations? But this brief account only introduces the story of Israel. There is so much more. Our free resource The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy chronicles the history of the descendants of Joseph’s two sons in much greater detail and shows from the pages of the Bible that these two brother nations must exist somewhere on earth today. It explains the unique relationship between Britain and America. Bible prophecy correctly foretold that Ephraim would be a company (commonwealth) of nations—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and more—and that his brother Manasseh would become a single great nation. Nowhere else on earth do we find this pairing.

Only when we know our heritage can we understand world affairs. Only then will we understand the unique relationship Britain and America have had with the Jewish state of Israel. Brothers often fight among themselves—but, when the chips are down, they pull together against an outside threat.

America celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, and it has been on an illustrious ride with highs and lows—but its true potential has never been realized. Only when we turn to God with our whole heart will we be truly great—and that will finally come to pass in tomorrow’s world, when the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, returns to bring peace to every nation on this troubled planet.