by Herbert W. Armstrong
A staggering turn in world events is due to erupt in the next few years. It will involve violently the United States, Britain, Western Europe, the Middle East. It’s already rather late for the free world to come awake to the real meaning behind current world events! Why do not the world’s leaders see what is coming? Why are the world’s best minds unseeing – the heads of state, scientists, educators, editors, news analysts, bankers, industrialists, leaders in business and commerce? They are totally unaware! Why?
Because they have been falsely educated and deceived into closing their minds to the great causes behind world events and trends. This world has been falsely educated to ignore causes and deal with effects! Yet all the world’s problems and ills are simply a matter of cause and effect. There is a cause that has produced strife and war; poverty, wretchedness, inequality; crime, disease, mental ills. But the leaders do not know!
The world’s leaders are the educated of the world. But they were not educated in BASIC TRUTHS – the foundations of right knowledge. The most necessary knowledge is not being taught! They do not know WHAT man is – or WHY! They know nothing of the purpose or meaning of life! They were not taught to distinguish the true values from the false. They did not learn the real causes – the way to peace, to happiness, to universal abundance; nor the causes of war, unhappiness, inequality, world chaos.
They know nothing of the purpose being worked out here below. Consequently, they guide humanity on a course in conflict with that purpose, wreaking havoc upon a distressed, suffering, unhappy mankind. Lacking knowledge of the way to peace, the world does not have peace. Leaders talk of peace; they profess to work for peace; they cry out for peace – while they give approval and blind acceptance to the way that produces war!
This world has simply been going the wrong way!
This world is giving assent to, and conferring civilization’s acceptance on, THE WAYS that are the CAUSES of all the world’s ills.
And now we are fast approaching the final grand smash explosion that is going to stagger the mind of man beyond the bounds of sanity. Forces are at work today on plans, programs, conspiracies, movements that soon will erupt into a world explosion of violence and chaos such as never happened before, and never will again. Men today are tampering with forces of nature they lack the prudence, knowledge, ability and wisdom to control.
In this folly of educated ignorance, it has become fashionable today and intellectually titillating to ignore the great basic cause of all things; the fact of the purpose being worked out here below, and the master plan for its working out; the invisible but Supreme Power now soon to intervene and drastically alter the course of history – before mankind blasts itself out of existence.
Unreal though it may seem to those steeped in modern educational deceptions, some 2,500 years ago the Supreme Power of the universe inspired a man named Isaiah to quote Him, saying: “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand” (Isa. 46:9-10). The great world powers are formulating their policies – laying their plans. But the next few years will see astounding events explode in a manner very different than the nations plan! Why?
Because there is the great God who says: “The Eternal wrecks the purposes of pagans, he brings to nothing what the nations plan; but the Eternal’s purpose stands for ever, and what he plans will last from age to age… The Eternal looks from heaven, beholding all mankind; from where he sits, he scans all who inhabit the world; he who alone made their minds, he notes all they do” (Ps. 33:10-15, Moffatt translation).
This same Eternal God said: “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things…” And again: “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance… All nations before him are as nothing…” (Isa. 40:25-26, 15, 17).
Through His inspired prophets, the great God caused to be written, some 2,500 years ago, and preserved in writing to our time prophecies filling approximately a third of the whole Bible. In them, He named every city of consequence of that time on earth – and also every nation! And He foretold precisely what would, through the years, happen to every city and every nation! In every instance the prophecies came to pass!
What was prophesied HAPPENED to Babylon, to Tyre, Sidon, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron; to Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, Greece and Rome. There has not been a miss! Those prophecies were accurate.
And now, in other prophecies, the same supreme God has foretold precisely what is going to happen to the United States, the British nations, Western Europe, the Middle East, Russia!
Yet the best minds in the world are in total ignorance of the unprecedented cataclysm that is about to strike. And why have these prophecies not been understood or believed? Because the vital KEY that unlocks prophecy to our understanding had been lost. That key is the identity of the United States and the British peoples in biblical prophecy.
That key has been found! We present it in this series of articles to those whose unprejudiced eyes are willing to see.
The events prophesied to strike the American and British peoples in the next few years are SURE!
God says: “Surely the Lord Eternal will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). These colossal world events, shrinking the first two World Wars into insignificance, WILL COME, but not until the warning has been made available for those whose eyes are willing to see.
This may sound incredible, but it’s true. Editors, newscasters, foreign correspondents do not understand the real meaning of the world news they report, analyze and discuss. Heads of government are utterly unaware of the true significance of the very world-shaking events with which they deal. They have no conception of where these events are leading. Incredible? Perhaps – but true!
Winston Churchill declared before the United States Congress: “He must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below of which we have the honor to be the faithful servants.” But he did not understand that purpose! That great purpose long ago was master-planned by the Master Mind of the universe.
It is true, though almost totally unrealized: Mankind was put on this earth for a PURPOSE! And the Maker of mankind sent along with the human product of His making an INSTRUCTION BOOK to reveal that purpose and to guide man in happily, enjoyably fulfilling it. But the human race has rejected the revelation and the guidance and has preferred to stumble on in the darkness of its own futile reasonings.
About one-third of that Instruction Book is devoted to basic education – revealing to man the necessary foundational knowledge otherwise undiscoverable and unknowable: knowledge of what man is, why he is, where his destiny may lead, how to reach it and live happily along the way; revealing knowledge of the true values as distinguished from the false; knowledge of the way to peace, happiness, abundant well-being. In other words, the most necessary of all knowledge – the foundation on which to build discoverable knowledge.
Another approximate third of that Book is devoted to history – to those events and experiences fulfilling the master plan during the first four millennia of man’s mortal sojourn, as examples for our admonition and guidance today.
And then approximately a third – grasp this! – an entire third of our Maker’s revelation to mankind is devoted to prophecy – writing the history of future events before they occur. These foretold future events reveal the great purpose being finally worked out – being brought to its completion.
Now see why heads of state, news analysts, and the great minds of our time do not comprehend the real meaning of world events as they are shaping up right now.
A rational and right knowledge of this great purpose, of the Creator’s master plan, of where in the progression of those foreordained events we stand today, and of major happenings prophesied yet to occur – this knowledge is the essential basis for understanding the significance and true meaning of today’s dynamic world news. Without this vital knowledge, none dealing in news gathering and news reporting, none responsible for government policies can understand current world happenings or where they are leading.
And not one saddled with such responsibilities does know! Why?
Two reasons, primarily: 1) They have been deceived by false education appealing to the vanity of intellect into prejudicial and disdainful rejection of the divine revelation which alone can impart this understanding; and, 2) the vital key necessary to unlock closed doors of biblical prophecy had been lost.
The great world powers of our time have been, and are, the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Germany, France, and other Western European nations. The missing vital KEY is simply the identity of these great world powers in biblical prophecy! The staggering and cataclysmic world-shaking events soon to erupt upon a shocked, stunned, bewildered world relate directly and specifically to the United States, Britain, Germany, Western Europe, and Russia.
Not knowing how and where these nations are specifically mentioned in basic and major prophecies, the educated of the world have been utterly blinded to the plain and simple meaning of prophecy. Due to this lost key more than anything else, the Bible has come to be discredited and rejected in this world’s educational system. The unproved and unprovable theory of evolution has been substituted as the foundational concept which became the supposed rational approach to knowledge.
The colossal tragedy of it! Our peoples, being thus falsely and deceptively educated from little children, have, in a supposed era of advanced rationalism and enlightenment, actually been groping around and floundering in the darkness of ignorance, misunderstanding and confusion, fatally unaware of the earthshaking catastrophe into which they are being directly plunged.
Thus our peoples have forgotten and departed far from their Maker. They have shut their eyes and closed their ears to His dynamic revelation to mankind, which, to ears that can hear, thunders out the life-and-death warning to those in the responsible positions of power!
Is it now too late? Have our leaders become so blinded, so steeped in a deceptive false education, so stultified that they cannot be aroused from slumber? God help us now! Time is fast closing in on us!
But the all-important master key has been found!
That key is knowledge of the astonishing identity of the American and British peoples – as well as the German – in biblical prophecies. This very eye-opening, astounding identity is the strongest proof of the inspiration and authority of the Holy Bible! It is, at the same time, the strongest proof of the very active existence of the living God!
An exciting, pulsating, vital third of all the Bible is devoted to prophecy. And approximately 90 percent of all prophecy pertains to OUR TIME, now, in this latter half of the twentieth century!
It is a warning to us – to our English-speaking peoples – of immediate life-and-death import. The prophecies come alive once their doors are opened by this now discovered master key! This series of articles will open, to open minds, this hitherto closed vital third of all the Bible. No story of fiction ever was so strange, so fascinating, so absorbing, so packed with interest and suspense, as this gripping story of our identity – and our ancestry.
Through it Almighty God gives momentous warning! Those who read, and heed, may be spared unprecedented cataclysmic tragedy soon to strike. If our peoples and their governments will awaken, heed, and return to their living God then our nations may be spared. God help us to UNDERSTAND!
One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and sealed? Indeed they were – until now! And even now they can be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them. But we have reached the approximate end of 6,000 years of biblical history. We have reached the end of an age! We are entering, right now, the world crisis at the close of the present civilization. We face, today, conditions such as the world never before has witnessed. Today the big problem is the stark question of SURVIVAL! For the first time in world history, the weapons of mass destruction exist which can erase all life from the earth. Chiefs of government and world-famous scientists have been saying publicly we must adjust to living in fear of human annihilation, with no solutions in sight.
To those prejudicially cynical toward the Bible I say: It is now your only hope! Science offers no solutions. The politicians and heads of government have no answers. In the Bible alone you will find the advance news of what is now certain to occur – and occur it will before mankind blasts itself out of existence!
But another objector might ask, are not most of the prophecies outdated Old Testament writings, addressed only to the ancient nation Israel, of no concern to us in our time? And the answer is an emphatic no! These scintillating, dynamic prophecies were, most of them, never given to ancient Israel.
The plain truth is these prophecies were written for our people of our time, and for no previous people or time. They pertain to world conditions of today, and could not have been understood until today.
One of the very pivotal books of prophecy is the book of Daniel. Actually, the prophet Daniel was not the author of the book known by his name. The living God was its author! The message was transmitted to Daniel by God’s angel. Daniel put to writing, to be preserved until our time, what he heard.
At the very close of his book, Daniel wrote: “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end… and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand” (Dan. 12:8-10).
So the prophecies of Daniel were CLOSED, sealed, locked up until now! But today we are living in “the time of the end.” Today the “wise” do understand! But who are “the wise”? Only those who fear and obey God – and who have the master key to unlock the locked-up prophecies. God says: “The fear of the Eternal is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments” (Ps. 111:10). And even most professing “Christians” refuse utterly to do that. No wonder they can’t understand.
And don’t forget, the specific key that unlocks these closed doors of prophecy is the definite knowledge of the true identity of the American and British nations as they are mentioned in these prophecies.
Stop a moment and think. If the prophecies Daniel wrote could not be understood by him; if they were “closed up and sealed till the time of the end” – till the latter half of the twentieth century – as the angel said and as Daniel wrote, then they were closed to the ancient Israelites of that day; they contained no message for Daniel’s time.
Think a little further.
These prophecies could not have been given to or known by the ancient Kingdom of Israel. Daniel wrote in and after the time of the Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion and captivity of the Kingdom of JUDAH, 604 to 585 B.C. But the Kingdom of ISRAEL had long before been invaded, conquered, and its people moved out of Palestine – transported as slaves to Assyria (721 to 718 B.C.) 117 to 133 years before Daniel wrote (II Kings 17:18, 23-24). Years before the book of Daniel was written, most of the Assyrians, with those Israelite slaves, had migrated from ancient Assyria northwest toward Europe. How far northwest – where they finally settled – was not then known. They had become known as the Lost Ten Tribes.
But today we do know.
Today, as Daniel wrote (12:4), knowledge has indeed increased. The whereabouts of the Lost Ten Tribes is one of the ancient mysteries now cleared up. But in Daniel’s day they were lost from view – as if the earth had opened her mouth and swallowed them.
Daniel’s prophecy, then, was not a message to the Old Testament Kingdom of Israel!
Now think further!
Nor was this prophecy a message for the Old Testament Kingdom of Judah. When Daniel wrote, the Jews already were slaves in Babylon. Daniel was one of the brilliant young princes of Judah, specially chosen for service in the king’s palace in Babylon (Dan. 1:3-6). Daniel’s strenuous duties in the Gentile king’s service did not allow him to deliver this closed and sealed message to the scattered Jewish slaves. In this condition of slavery, the Jews had no system of religious meetings – no priesthood. There was no such thing as a printing press – no way to print and distribute literature. And besides, the prophecy was “closed up and sealed till the time of the end” – our time, now! The book of Daniel was not a message for the Jews of Old Testament times!
Finally realize: It is emphatically clear that these prophecies pertain to no time but to our time, in this twentieth century!
Then know this, further:
The greatest mystery book of the entire Bible, to most, has been the book of Revelation. But the book of Daniel is the key to the book of Revelation. And in the book of Revelation, solely and alone, do we find the world events of all prophecies correlated in order of time sequence. The book of Revelation, then, holds the key for putting together all of the prophecies in proper time order. And Revelation, too, was a closed and sealed book – until our time, now. We realize that the living Jesus is the Revelator – and that He has stripped off the seals and opened this mystery book to right understanding.
And where does that lead us? To the fact that prophecy generally was written and preserved for our time today! And some 90 percent of all prophecy pertains actually to this latter half of the twentieth century. And the one central master key to prophecy as a whole is the identity of the United States and the British nations in these prophecies for today!
These prophecies could not pertain to any time previous to our precarious present!
It may not be generally realized – but neither Britain nor the United States became great world powers until the nineteenth century. Suddenly, in the very beginning of the nineteenth century, these two – until then small, minor countries – suddenly spurted to national power and greatness among nations, as no nations had ever grown and multiplied in wealth, resources and power before.
By 1804 London had become the financial hub of the world. The United States had exploded out of its swaddling clothes of the 13 original states and had acquired the expansive Louisiana Purchase. It was fast sprouting up to become the mightiest nation of all time. But Britain burst forth to greatness first, and until the World Wars had become the greatest empire, or commonwealth of nations, in all history.
Between them the British and American peoples had acquired more than two-thirds – almost three-fourths – of all the cultivated physical resources and wealth of the world. All other nations combined possessed barely more than a fourth. Britannia ruled the waves – and the world’s commerce was carried on by water. The sun never set on British possessions.
Now think!
Could the British and American peoples be ignored in prophecies of world conditions that fill a third of the entire Bible – when some 90 percent of all those prophecies pertain to national and international world happenings of our time, now?
Staggering?
Indeed it is. And yet, precisely as prophesied, Britain’s sun has now set. As these same prophecies that foretold Britain’s greatness revealed far in advance, Britain has already been reduced to a second-rate or third-rate power in the world.
And the United States? Today America finds herself heir to just about all the international problems and headaches in this post-World-War-II, chaotic, violent world. And the United States has won her last war – even little North Vietnam held her at bay. Many other nations sap America’s national strength, “and he knoweth it not,” as God long ago foretold!
On the world scene nothing is so important right now as to know where the white, English-speaking peoples are identified in scores and hundreds of prophecies – prophecies which describe vividly our sudden rise to national power and reveal the causes of that greatness; prophecies that paint a crystal-clear picture of our present international dilemma; prophecies that open our eyes wide to see what now lies immediately ahead for our nations – and what our ultimate and final status shall be.
Prior to World War II, the American and British peoples had acquired more than two-thirds of the cultivated resources and wealth of the world. Yet, astonishing wonder though it be, we acquired nearly all of it rather suddenly, since the year 1800. Never in all history did anything like this occur. Never did any people or nation spread out and grow so suddenly and rapidly into such magnitude of national power.
Yet we are beholding before our very eyes the diminishing and evaporating of this national greatness, wealth and power. In the case of Great Britain, it is disintegrating even more rapidly than it developed! Britain has been almost overnight stripped of her colonies and her possessions – source of her wealth – and reduced to a second-rate or third-rate power. Why? There is a reason! It is bound up with history and divine promises pertaining to Israel. Promises never yet inherited by the Jewish people. And now, unless the people and the government of the United States will heed and take immediate and drastic action, the American nation is slated to go down even more suddenly to utter ignominy and loss of all national wealth, greatness and power!
And for the SAME REASON!
It behooves us without delay to quickly review that history and open our eyes to divine promises and warnings almost wholly unrealized by our peoples. It is all connected with the generally ignored plain and simple Bible story that leads to knowledge of our incredible ancestry and modern prophetic identity. And it is the most amazing, the most fascinating story you ever read. Stranger than fiction – yet it is TRUE!
Millennia ago, this same national greatness, wealth and power was promised by the Almighty to Abraham. Yet few have ever noticed this astonishing fact in Scripture. We must realize, if we would understand, a peculiar fact. The Holy Bible is the particular Book of a definite nationality – the children of Israel.
It is undeniable! Its history, from Genesis to Revelation, is primarily the history of one nation or people – the Israelites. Other nations are mentioned only insofar as they come into contact with Israel. All its prophecy, too, pertains primarily to this people of Israel, and to other nations only insofar as they come into contact with Israel. The Bible tells of these Israelites and their God. It was inspired by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, committed to writing through Israelites exclusively, and preserved until after the New Testament was written by these Israelites. In its sacred passages we read that all the promises and the covenants of God, all the sonship and the glory, belong solely to Israel (Rom. 9:4).
Yet we must face the astounding fact that our white, English-speaking peoples – not the Jews – have inherited the national and physical phases of those promises!
How could this have happened?
The Bible is an Israelitish Book, preeminently of and for the Israelitish nationality, inspired by their God through their prophets. Is it not indeed strange that we English-speaking peoples are today the greatest believers in and exponents of this Book of the Hebrew people; that of all nations we are the chief worshipers of Israel’s God and Israel’s Messiah – in name and in form, if not in truth and in deed? The more these facts are realized, the more apparent it becomes that a full knowledge of these Israelites is necessary to a right understanding of the Holy Bible, which is chiefly concerned with them as a people. And this knowledge becomes important if we are to understand the present status of the American and British peoples in the world – and their relation to unprecedented world conditions at this fateful hour! Let us remember as we approach this fascinating story that the Bible is concerned with the material, the fleshly, the literal, racial and national, as well as with the spiritual. Let us not spiritualize away national things, nor nationalize spiritual things. Let us understand the sacred Word of God as it is!
Before the days of Moses there was no nation on earth known as God’s particular nation. Prior to Moses there was no written Word of God; no inspired Scriptures; no Holy Bible. Think of it! For more than two thousand five hundred years – two-and-a-half millennia – mankind existed without any written revelation from God! The only historic record of God’s dealing with mankind prior to Israel is the revealed history of the Bible. And – even more astonishing – only the first eleven of the fifty chapters of Genesis are devoted to the entire history of the world prior to Abraham, father of the Israelites!
Surprising? Only the first eleven chapters of the very first book of the Bible are used to record for us the history of the first approximately 2,000 years – more than one-third of its entire span.
God began this world with just one man – Adam. Whatever God does through human agencies must start the smallest, and, like the grain of mustard seed, grow big. To this first man God communicated directly and personally. God revealed all essential knowledge otherwise inaccessible to the human mind. The basic essentials of all knowledge – what is man? – WHY is he here? – what’s the PURPOSE of life? – what is the WAY of life that will produce peace, health, prosperity, happiness and joy? – what is man’s END – his destiny? – God revealed this basis of all knowledge to the first man.
To Adam, God revealed Himself – the Eternal Creator-Ruler of earth and all the universe. God revealed to Adam that he was, unlike animals, made in the form and shape of God with powers of mind possessed by no other physical creature; with the potential, through free choice, of developing the very character of God and of inheriting eternal life in the Kingdom of God. To Adam God revealed the way of life that would result in everything man desires: peace, enjoyable life, happiness, abundant well-being.
To produce these blessings – to be the cause of such desired effect – God had set in motion His inexorable spiritual law. But Adam listened to Satan and leaned to his own human understanding. He disobeyed God, rejected the way to every desired result, and set out on the human course of greed and vanity.
As men began to multiply on earth, Adam’s sons followed in his Satan-inspired course of human nature. Prior to Abraham, only three are mentioned as accepting God’s way of life – only three during more than a third of the whole span of the history of mankind. Abel was called righteous; Enoch walked with God; and Noah was a preacher of righteousness, which is simply obedience to God’s government (Ps. 119:172). Aside from these three and possibly Shem, there is no record that any man prior to Abraham yielded to the rule of the Eternal.
By the time of Abraham men had lost all knowledge of the true Creator-Ruler, His revelation of His purpose, and the way of God to peace and happiness and to life eternal. Man pursued his own ways and devices, walking contrary to the spiritual laws of God. Sin and violence filled the earth.
It was in such a world, which had strayed far from God and knowledge of the glorious benefits of God’s rule and the worship of the true God, that one man was honest and upright, submissive and teachable, strong and purposeful. So God gave him a test command of obedience. To this man, Abram, God commanded: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 12:1-2).
Here was a command, which was a condition and a PROMISE, provided the condition of obedience was met.
And so now, as God had started the whole world with one man, He started His own peculiar nation in the world from one single man – Abraham. As the world, which has strayed far from God and the blessings of God’s worship and rule, was started with one man who rebelled against God and rejected His rule, so God’s own flesh-born nation, from which is to be reborn the Kingdom of God, was started with one man who obeyed God without question, and accepted His divine rule.
Did Abram stop to argue and reason? Did he say: “Let’s reason this out a bit first; here I am in Babylon, in the very center of all this world’s commerce, society and gaiety. Why can’t you just as well give me this promise right here, where everything is pleasant and alluring? Why must I leave all this and go over to that uncivilized land?”
Did Abram quibble, resist, argue, rebel?
He certainly did not!
The inspired Scripture account states simply: “So Abram departed.” There was no arguing with God. There was no human reasoning that God was all wrong. There were no foolish questions: “Why must I leave here?” “Can’t I do as I please?” There was no stopping to say, “Well, here’s the way I look at it.”
“Abram departed.” Just plain, unquestioned obedience!
And God established this man, whose name He later changed to Abraham, as the father of His nation, Israel! To Abraham and his descendants were all the promises of God made. And we must become like Abraham, and through Christ one of his children, if we are to inherit the promise of eternal life in God’s Kingdom.
Of His peculiar flesh-born nation, Israel, the Eternal said: “This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise” (Isa. 43:21). That prophecy shall yet – and soon – be fulfilled!
Few have realized it, but a duality runs all the way through the plan of God in working out His purpose here below.
There was the first Adam, material and carnal; and there is Christ, the second Adam, spiritual and divine. There was the Old Covenant, purely material and temporal; and there is the New Covenant, spiritual and eternal. God made man mortal, physical, of the dust of the ground and of the human kingdom; but through Christ he may be begotten of God to become immortal, spiritual, and of the Kingdom of God.
And in like manner there were two phases to the promises God made to Abraham – the one purely material and national; the other spiritual and individual. The spiritual promise of the Messiah, and of salvation through Him, is well known by the most superficial Bible students. They know that God gave the spiritual promise to Abraham of Christ to be born as Abraham’s descendant – and that salvation comes to us through Christ. But – and this will sound unbelievable, yet it is true – almost no one knows what that salvation is; what are the promises of salvation we may receive through Christ; how we may receive them, or when – incredible though that sounds! But that truth belongs in another article.
What is essential to the theme of this series of articles is the fact that God also made another entirely different, most amazing national and material promise to Abraham which has been almost entirely overlooked.
Notice now again how God first called Abram, and the twofold nature of His promises: “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 shew thee: And I will make of thee A GREAT NATION… and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:1-3).
Notice the twofold promise: 1) “I will make of thee A GREAT NATION” – the national, material promise that his flesh-born children should become a great nation – a promise of RACE; 2) “… and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” – the spiritual promise of GRACE. This same promise is repeated in Genesis 22:18: “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” This particular “one seed” refers to Christ, as plainly affirmed in Galatians 3:8, 16.
Right here is where those who profess to be “Christians” – and their teachers – have fallen into error and scriptural blindness. They have failed to notice the twofold promise God made to Abraham. They recognize the messianic promise of spiritual salvation through the “one seed” – Christ. They sing the hymn Standing on the Promises – falsely supposing the promises to be going to heaven at death.
This is a pivotal point. This is the point where professing “Christians” and their teachers jump the track of truth. This is the point where they switch off the track that would lead them to the missing master key to the prophecies. They miss the fact that God gave Abraham promises of physical RACE as well as spiritual GRACE.
But the plain fact that the “great nation” promise refers alone to race – not the “one seed” of Galatians 3:16, who was Jesus Christ the Son of Abraham and the Son of God, but to the plural, multiple seed of natural fleshly birth – is made certain by God’s repetition of His promise in greater detail later.
Notice carefully! Understand these promises!
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Eternal 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… thou shall be a father of MANY 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” (Gen. 17:1-5).
Notice, the promise is now conditional upon Abraham’s obedience and perfect living. Notice, the “great nation” now becomes many nations – more than one nation. This cannot refer to the “one seed,” Christ. The following verses prove that.
“And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings [more than one] shall come out of thee” (verse 6). Notice, these nations and kings shall come out of Abraham – physical generation – multiple seed, not just one descendant through whom scattered individuals may become Abraham’s children by spiritual begettal through Christ (Gal. 3:29). The scattered, individual Christians do not form NATIONS. The Church, it is true, is spoken of as “a royal priesthood, an holy nation” (I Peter 2:9), but Christ’s Church is not divided into “many nations.” This is speaking of race, not grace.
“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations…” (Gen. 17:7). The “seed” is plural – “in their generations.” “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan [Palestine], for an everlasting possession; and I will be THEIR God” (verse 8).
Notice, the land – material possession – is promised to the plural seed, of whom He is “their,” not “his,” God. The plural pronoun “their” is used again in verse 9: “and thy seed after thee in their generations.”
But now examine this PROMISE carefully!
The future of great nations rests on the promises the eternal Creator made to Abraham. The only hope of life after death for anyone – regardless of race, color or creed – is dependent on the spiritual phase of these promises to Abraham – the promise of grace through the “one seed” – Christ the Messiah!
These are not casual, incidental, unimportant promises. These are basic – the foundation for the establishment of the greatest world powers; the basis for any personal salvation spiritually; for any hope of eternal life for humans. These are stupendous promises. The future of mankind is based, by the Creator God, on them.
Jesus Christ came “to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Rom. 15:8) – which fathers were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
A carnal cynic, whose mind is hostile to God and His promises, purposes, and ways, tosses these tremendous promises aside, saying flippantly, “Oh yeah? – but what kind of ‘many nations’? Twentieth-century style? Nations of 100 million or more people? Don’t be ridiculous! Those men who wrote the Bible knew nothing of nations that would be ‘great’ by our twentieth-century standards! They referred only to little nations like there were then – nations containing no more people than a small township or county today!
“And then how much land did this promise include? Was God supposed to have promised an inheritance out of the land of Canaan, as mentioned in verse 8 of Genesis 17? And then in repromising this land to Jacob, all the land that was included was ‘the land whereon thou liest’ in Genesis 28:13. How much land was that? Not more than a tiny plot two feet wide, and about six feet long!”
A cynical objector actually argued thus!
So let’s answer the sneering closed-minded cynic!
Let’s check carefully, and see precisely what was promised under this phase of the promises pertaining to race – the physical, material, national promises. I leave the checking of the spiritual phase of the promises to be explained in other booklets or articles.
How much land was promised?
But first hear out the refutation of the criticizing cynic. “That promise,” continues the objector, “of ‘many nations’ was written in Hebrew, and the Hebrew word for ‘nation’ is goi, and for more than one, plural, it is goiim. It merely means some “people” – it could mean just a little handful of Abraham’s children and grandchildren.”
I mention this because a self-professed “scholar” did one time make this very ridiculous statement and professed to reject this entire important truth on these arguments primarily. If the reader cares to check up on this Hebrew goi he will find it means “nation” – or, in the plural, “nations” or “peoples,” without regard to size of population. This is the word most often used – actually hundreds of times in the Old Testament – for the various nations of the world, including the largest nations. In the prophecy of Joel 3, verse 2, God says He will gather “all nations.” That is speaking of a time yet future, in this twentieth century – and the Hebrew goiim is used. There the word goiim includes such nations as Russia, Germany, Italy, China, India – pretty big nations.
But God promised that Abraham’s literal, human, flesh-and-blood descendants should become “a great nation” (Gen. 12:2); that He would “multiply thee exceedingly” (Gen. 17:2); that “thou shalt be a father of many nations” (verse 4); and that “I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee” (verse 6). As we proceed along with other promises and prophecies, we shall see that biblical language describes these as great and large nations.
And how much land? In Genesis 17:8, God promised “all the land of Canaan,” but in other scriptures He promised much more. In Genesis 15:18: “In the same day the Eternal made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt [the Nile] unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” The Euphrates is a considerable distance to the east in the ancient land of Babylon, which is today Iraq – considerably east of Palestine.
But all of this objector’s arguments are refuted and made ridiculous by the very next verse from the one he quoted when he said that all that was promised was a plot about 2 x 6 feet. He could have read this 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” (Gen. 28:14).
Here the size of the “many nations” is compared to the number of grains of dust of the earth. Elsewhere God compared the populations of these promised nations to the grains of sand on a seashore and to the stars – uncountable for multitude.
As we proceed, the magnitude and the reality of these promises will become quite evident.
Again, notice carefully – the Jews have never been more than one nation. They are not, and never have been, many nations. So here is an amazing prophecy, a solemn promise from Almighty God, that could not be fulfilled in Christ, in Christians, nor in the Jews. We must look for a number of nations apart from either the Church or the Jews. Amazing as it is, we must do it or deny God’s promise!
God put Abraham to the test, and Abraham, through, faith, obeyed – even to being willing to sacrifice his only son, if need be. And after that the covenant no longer was conditional. Now it became UNCONDITIONAL.
“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 sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies [or, as correctly translated in the Revised Standard Version, “And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.” The Fenton translation renders it: “And your race shall possess the gates of its enemies” – so far the material, national promises of race]; and in thy seed [Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed [this promise is spiritual, of grace]; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Gen. 22:16-18).
The promise now is UNconditional. God has sworn to make it good. God does not promise these things IF Abraham or his children do certain things. He promises them to Abraham BECAUSE he already has performed his part of the agreement. If these promises could be broken or annulled, then no promise in the Bible is sure!
These promises cannot be broken or annulled. Not if it be true that “heaven and earth shall pass, but my word shall NOT pass away.” Now God must perform His part without fail.
Notice an additional detail of the promise – the nations who are Abraham’s racial descendants are to possess the gates of their enemies. A gate is a narrow passage of entrance or exit. When speaking nationally, a “gate” would be such a pass as the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the Strait of Gibraltar. This promise is repeated in Genesis 24:60 to Abraham’s daughter-in-law: “Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them.”
Notice, Abraham’s descendants would possess vital geographic passageways of their enemies – “those that hate them.” This has never been fulfilled in the Jews, nor could it be fulfilled after Jesus Christ returns to rule the nations and establish world peace. This promise could only be fulfilled in the present world or else we must deny the Bible as God’s revealed Word. We must look for a people forming more than one nation – yet all one people, children of Abraham – either now or in history who possess the sea gateways of the world, or we must deny the Word of God. It is a test of the inspiration of the Bible and of God’s power to rule this world!
These tremendous promises were repromised to Isaac and to Jacob. Ishmael and Abraham’s other sons were rejected from this birthright. Esau, Isaac’s son and Jacob’s twin brother, sold it and was rejected. The promise, as confirmed to Isaac, is recorded in Genesis 26:3-5: “I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to MULTIPLY as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries…” Notice! Twice God promised “all these countries.” That is millions of times larger than the 2 x 6-foot plot our “intellectual” cynic contended for. Also, Isaac’s descendants were to “MULTIPLY as the stars of heaven.” That’s thousands of times larger than a tiny “township.”
To Jacob it is repeated in Genesis 27:26-29, where MATERIAL blessing of wealth in the things of the ground is added, with the prophecy that heathen nations shall be ruled by the birthright nations of Israel. “Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness [margin: fat places] of the earth, 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 every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.”
And we find the promises again in Genesis 28:13-14, where the added detail that these nations of Israel shall eventually spread around the world is recorded. “And, behold, the Eternal… said, I am the Eternal God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 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…”
The original Hebrew for “spread abroad” means “to break forth.” This promise places no limit on how far east, west, north and south Jacob’s descendants should spread. Thus it indicates they would spread around the earth. This is confirmed in Romans 4:13: “For the promise, that he [Abraham] should be the heir of the world…”
But this is not a promise that Abraham’s descendants should inherit, own, and possess the whole of the earth, leaving nothing for Gentiles – that is, prior to the new earth – but rather that, in years and centuries to come, they would spread and occupy certain areas in various parts of the earth. Yet, the new earth – after the millennium – will be inhabited only by those who shall be Abraham’s children through Christ (Rom. 4:13).
There is a phase of this prophecy heretofore utterly overlooked – not before understood. Indeed these birthright Israelitish nations have spread to and occupied various lands or areas in many locations around the world. This occurred after they were – 721-718 B.C. – driven in a captivity out of their own promised land of Samaria in Palestine. The next verses in Genesis 28 complete this phase of the prophecy. “And, behold,” God continued, “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest [God is here referring, not to Jacob personally, but his descendants who were to spread abroad in all directions], and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (verse 15).
This generally unnoticed, but significant prophecy will be fulfilled at the second coming of Christ. It is explained further in Jeremiah 23:7-8, and 50:4-6, 19-20, and other prophecies.
Still later, God appeared to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, even further defining the makeup of these “many nations” thus: “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 shall come out of thy loins” (Gen. 35:11). The Moffatt translation renders it “a nation, and a group of nations.” The Fenton rendering is “a nation and an Assembly of Nations.” The RSV translates it as in the Authorized Version, above quoted. So the “many nations” are eventually to take shape as a nation – one great, wealthy, powerful nation – and another company of nations – a group, or commonwealth of nations.
Mark carefully this crucial fact! This is basic, if you are to grasp the all-important key to all prophecy – the very key to the real meaning of the unprecedented world events of the present. This promise never has been fulfilled in the Jews. It cannot be “spiritualized” away by interpreting it as being inherited only through Christ. It could not pertain to the Church, for there is but one true Church acknowledged in the Bible, and it is not a nation, or a group of nations, but one Church of called-out individuals scattered through all nations. Yet this amazing promise MUST stand fulfilled, unless we are to deny the Bible and God’s sacred Word!
Here is the enigma of the ages! Is this a divine promise unkept? Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll lost faith in God and rejected the Bible because they believed these national promises were never fulfilled.
The very fate of the Bible as the revealed Word of God – the evidence of the existence of God – hangs on the answer to this momentous question. The Jewish people did not fulfill these promises. The promises do not refer to the Church. The world with its great church leaders does not know of any such fulfillment. Did God fail? Or has He made good this colossal promise unknown to the world? The true answer is the most astonishing revelation of Bible truth, of prophecy, and of unrecognized history!
(To Be Continued)
