[Steve Myers] There will be a day of reckoning, but there's good news. Doesn't have to be disaster for all, prophecy shows God wants to bless every one of us.

Prophecy is such an interesting topic, especially for me end-time prophecy, things that will happen in the end. When I first became interested I found that as I looked through the Bible it mentioned many modern nations. Especially when you look through the Bible you'll find the Bible mentions countries like Egypt, countries that are around today. It even mentioned Syria as well. And so as I got more interested I began to get out my Bible and started looking for the big nations, the big nations that are around today because I wanted to know what the future would hold for them. I mean I knew that there were amazing prophecies that were recorded long ago, prophecies that had been fulfilled especially when you think of Greece and Rome. The Bible talks about those. It talks about prophecies that are coming to pass and still others that will come to pass in the future.

But as I looked I thought there must be something about the greatest nations of today, but you know I couldn't find America in the Bible. The term the United States of America wasn't there. It was for me missing in action. In fact you know what else I found, the largest empire in the history of the world, Great Britain. I couldn't find it by that name in the Bible. So as I thought about that I was even reminded about what's going on in Hong Kong today. I mean that used to be a part of the British Empire. What is going on over there? Was that empire in prophecy? I mean it used to be called that empire that the sun never set on, the British Empire. I mean is it possible that these two great superpowers, they weren't even mentioned in end-time prophecy? That really startled me.

But I came to find a key, a key I discovered was that the Bible doesn't actually refer to them by their modern names. Like Persia, the Bible mentions Persia. Well we know that's associated with Iran today. Bible also talks about Babylon. Well today modern Babylon would be where Iraq is located. And so if I was going to find America and Britain I'd have to look under a different name. If I was going to understand these end-time prophecies I'd have to identify how the Bible refers to them. And so with that in mind I began to realize there actually is a lot of Bible prophecy that specifically identifies Britain and America especially with end-time prophecy. And boy end-time prophecy, that was something I truly wanted to understand. I mean I'd heard that the end-time Bible prophecy refers to the United States, to Great Britain and the tribe of Judah more than any others. But where was I going to find it? Well to start I'd have to go back. In fact, I'd have to go all the way back to the very beginning.

Going back to the Book of Genesis, and in the Book of Genesis I found that God made great promises to one man. His name was Abram. That's the one whose name was later changed to Abraham. And in Genesis Chapter 12 God makes a promise to Abraham. And here's what God told Abraham, He said, "Now, Abraham, get out of your country from your family, from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing." God said, "I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you and in you..." God said, "...all the families of the earth would be blessed." As I read that it's like, well could that have anything to do with the United States and Britain?

We began to see that God actually made a couple of promises to Abraham right there. The promise number one, God would make from him a great nation. Of course when God calls something great, it's great. Now many think that the Jews fulfilled that prophecy, but really have they been a great nation? I mean the Jewish people have been relatively small throughout world history, really looking at any period of history it's been relatively small. And so when you compare that to modern nations, nations like China or India or Russia, Germany - they're far greater. And so when you think of God's promises of national greatness, Abraham's descendants, they must have fulfilled those prophecies among other nations. In fact great nations related to the Jewish people. Now there was that second promise that was also there in Genesis chapter 12, God told Abram, "In you, all the families of the earth would be blessed."

Now that's the promise of Jesus Christ. That's the Messiah. He would come and bring God's plan of salvation through Him so that all could be blessed. So I began to find that God intended to shape all history through His promises to Abraham and then his descendants. I mean it's an amazing story. In fact one that's pretty intricate and one that you'll want to learn more about. So we put together a study aid, it's called "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy." It says so much about it. You'll want to get the details. Go to our website beyondtoday.tv. You can read it right there online or download it to your phone or to your computer so you can read it later, or call us at the number on your screen and we'll send you a copy free of charge, come right to your door so you can have it for yourself because you'll really want to know about it.

Because as I studied about it I found that that wasn't the only promise that God made to Abram. In fact Abram was 99 years old when God spoke to him again and He made a covenant with him. And over in Genesis chapter 17 God said something amazing. Notice what God said, Genesis chapter 17 verse 6, He says this, "I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you." Now that's the time that God changed Abram's name to Abraham and that name means a father of multitudes or a father of many nations. And so those national promises got even bigger. It wasn't just going to be a single nation, but multiple nations would descend from Abraham. And so now I began to understand those promises that God made to Abraham were passed along. From Abraham to Abraham's son Isaac, and then from Isaac to his son Jacob, and then to Jacob's son Joseph.

Joseph was one of his 12 sons. Those tribes of Israel that you've heard about. And when you consider those promises passing down throughout the generation it really begins to show the extent of those promises that God made. Over in Genesis chapter 13 God said something amazing to show this vast extent of the promise. In Genesis chapter 13 verse 14 God says this, "Lift your eyes and now look to the place where you are." He said, "Look, northward, southward, eastward, westward for all the land that you see, I give to you and your descendants forever." I was kind of taken back by that, I mean did you catch that? The promise was to extend to vast regions. It was over the entire earth. It wasn't just the promised land, it wasn't just this little sliver of real estate in the Middle East. That's not what it was. The Israelites would spread throughout the world in the future, far beyond the boundaries of just little Palestine.

In fact a key passage that I ran across was one that God had said many years later. Now it wasn't to Abraham or Isaac but to Jacob, God says something amazing. Over in Genesis chapter 35 notice what God says to Jacob in verse 10. God said to him, "Your name is Jacob." He says also, "Then your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name." So He called his name Israel. God also said to him, "I'm God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you and kings shall come from your body." Now some of that sounds like what he promised Abraham but did you notice, God left no doubt. He made it very clear there was a promise of multiple nations to come through Jacob, through Israel, and through him there would be a nation and a company of nations, a company of nations.

Now that was never fulfilled in ancient times, that was never fulfilled by the Jewish people. And of course I remembered what happened to ancient Israel. Israel they were the descendants of Jacob, right? Jacob's sons, the 12 tribes, they came out of Egypt and where did they end up? In the promised land. They reached the peak of their power during the time of King Solomon. But then you remember the story? They split up. They split up into a Northern tribe. Ten tribes in the north formed the Kingdom or the House of Israel. The two tribes in the South, Judah and Benjamin, and a little bit of Levi, they formed the smaller Kingdom or the House of Judah. And here's where the term Jew originated, right here. The Jews were in the South, the Israelites were in the North. And I was amazed to learn, Jews and Israelites are not necessarily the same people when the Bible speaks about that.

And that is so important when it comes Bible prophecy, all Jews are Israelites. They descended from Jacob. Absolutely, they're descendants of Israel. But here's the key, all Israelites are not Jews because there were many tribes of Israel. And so that was important as I began to realize the significance of that very difference because ultimately what happened to them? I mean, both of these kingdoms disappeared. They came off the map in ancient times. In fact history shows the disobedient Israel, the Northern Kingdom was taken into captivity by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Then they never came back. They never returned to their homeland and in fact became known to history as the lost 10 tribes of Israel. Now it wasn't too much after this that Judah the Southern Kingdom, the Jews also sinned. They were carried off and conquered by the Babylonian Empire.

Now that happened in 586 BC, but there was something different about the Jews. They retained their identity. They knew who they were and later a small group of them came back. They returned from Babylon back to Jerusalem, back to that area once again. And so when we follow history through, that's the time then later that Jesus Christ appears on the scene. And so many of those events in the Bible take place after that. But even then that didn't last for long. Eventually the Roman Empire came in, they destroyed Jerusalem and it was all over by the early second century. So as you begin to think about that we fast forward 2000 years later. What happened? Well the Jews were reestablished as the modern State of Israel in 1948. But that's the Jewish people, that's not all the Israelites. That was basically the tribe of Judah not the people of the lost 10 tribes.

And so that takes us back to the prophecy. It was supposed to be Joseph's descendants not Judah's descendants, Joseph's that we're to be great. The promise of national greatness was never fulfilled by Judah or even Israel back in ancient times, certainly not fulfilled by the modern State of Israel either. So how were the promises fulfilled? You see that becomes important because this promise of national greatness wasn't given to the Jews or even the descendants of Judah. Instead Israel, Jacob, told his son Joseph that his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh would be the ones to grow and become great powers on earth. In fact Jacob passed those promises originally given to Abraham down to them. In fact we can even read about this in Genesis chapter 48, notice what happened when Jacob blesses those two boys.

This is in Genesis 48 verse 16, he says, "Bless the lads." Asking God to bless Ephraim and Manasseh, "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." Not just some little thing, God said that promise would mean a world power, a global superpower in scope and in strength. So when was this going to take place? When would it be fulfilled? Does Bible prophecy say anything about that? It does. It does in chapter 49 just after this Jacob calls his sons together and is going to bless each of them and notice what he says, "Gather together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days." In the last days, that would mean the time leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

And so when you read about those prophecies it was to bring fabulous wealth. I mean amazing power, influence globally, also meant military dominance. It would be a global scale of power. And in fact a couple of verses later in verse 25 it says, "The Almighty will bless you with the blessings of heaven above" and goes on to say, "They shall be on the head of Joseph." And so what we see here is the descendants of Joseph would become two great peoples, sort of brother nations. Those descended through his son Manasseh they would become a great nation, a tremendous people. And then those who would come through his other son Ephraim would become a group or a multitude of nations and both of them would dominate the earth like no others in history. And so we look around the world today, we could ask, "Well, have these prophecies of Israel's global greatness been fulfilled?"

I mean we'd have to say yes. Think of these two geopolitical powers, descendants from Ephraim was the group of nations that formed the greatest empire the world has ever seen, the British Empire. In fact it ruled over five times the amount of territory of the Roman Empire. Four times the number of people and its territory included almost a quarter of the Earth's population and surface. Much of it the most fertile, productive land of all. And out of it came the Commonwealth of Nations, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and of course not to mention its navy, it ruled the seas. Prophecy fulfilled? I think so. And then of course on the other hand, from Manasseh came the great single nation. And history shows after World War II, America replaced the British Empire as the world's wealthiest and most dominant nation. At one time up to half of the wealth of the world was owned by America.

I mean even though it only had 4% of the world's population, and of course militarily America dominated the 20th century. And still today, still today remains a world superpower. I mean powerful influence really didn't stop there. I mean we have been blessed with religious freedom and that is so critical. The United States and Great Britain they were primarily the instruments in spreading the Bible to most of the world. They brought about the King James Bible and thousands of translations in other languages. In fact it doesn't stop there. They supplied the financial resources and the laborers to bring those Bibles to all parts of the world. In fact it is such an amazing story. One you'll want to learn more about and you can do just that with our study aid, "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy." It will help you to understand those key passages in the Bible that relate to us today.

And in fact in one section on page 81 it says this, "Through the widespread availability of the Bible, God gave English speaking peoples essential information that they needed to know about what He, God expected of them. In addition, they were exposed to their true identity as descendants of Joseph, through his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh." So you'll want to learn more about that. Get our study aid, "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy." Go to our website beyondtoday.tv. There you can download it. You can read it there online. Get it on your computer or your phone so you can read it at your leisure. You'll really want to know. Otherwise we can send you a free copy if you call us at the number that's shown on your screen. Now of course you think about the Bible and the powerful influence it's had around the world and if you live in a country that's been the recipient of these blessings, we can thank God. We can thank God for His love and His faithfulness and really His generosity in promising all of those blessings.

Not only promising them but he brought them about. He made it happen and I think it's important to recognize that God isn't a respecter of persons. I mean this whole thing about God's promises and blessings, this is not about race. God has a plan. He has a purpose to bless. God gave these promises to Abraham and his descendants, national prominence, prosperity that He promised, but He didn't do it at the expense of other peoples or other nations. Instead God's purpose has always been to lead all people into a permanent relationship with him. God's faithfulness in these physical promises should be a good reminder for us that He is faithful in spiritual things. In fact part of the prophecy given to Abraham was one that just jumped out at me when I read it because I realized this applies now. This has to do with today.

Over in Genesis chapter 22 verse 17, it says something so amazing. God said, "In blessing, I will bless you, and in multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand, which is on the seashore." But God didn't stop there. He said, "And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies." Now when I read that I thought that explains a lot. The British Empire and the United States owned the sea, these passageways, so that goods could be transported all around the world. Services could be shipped all over. They controlled the seas and these important gates so that commerce could take place and it benefited the entire world. In fact when you think about that one of these last strategic gates of your enemies, I mean one of those that the former Great Britain held was Hong Kong. So if you want to know what's going on in our world today, get to know Bible prophecy.

Britain surrendered Hong Kong to mainland China back in 1997. No wonder there's such a people there. They were a free people. But what's going to happen next? That's why all the unrest. In fact what was it that happened to the Suez Canal or what happened to the Panama Canal? You see in the last few decades both the British and the Americans have been forced to give up many of those gates that they formerly controlled. That's amazing to think that was predicted in Bible prophecy. So there is no doubt the Bible is a book for today. It describes the world that we live in. It discusses real world problems and it even shows that the bad news that we see around us really is just a part of the future positive plan that God wants to bring about. In fact our life, our future, may depend on understanding these end-time prophecies and not only understanding them but acting on God's warnings and on His instructions.

So you'll want to know more about it. Be sure you get our study aid, "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy." Go online, read this for yourself. You'll want to know much more because as you recognize what's written here, you will see so many things in Bible prophecy that will impact your life. So go to beyondtoday.tv or call us at the number on your screen. We have to ask ourselves, have we really appreciated the blessings that God has given us? I mean would it be fair to say America's lost its way? It's drifted away from its biblical foundation. We've lost it and ultimately we will fall. So we must repent. We have to change. We need to return to God and the Bible, our growing national sins are testing God and Bible prophecy is prophecy you need to know because there are dire warnings in the Bible, dire warnings for Britain and America.

And part of the purpose of these prophecies is to shake us up, to wake us up, to help us to change and repent, to turn from our selfish ways, to humbly look to God. I mean isn't that obvious? We've rejected the knowledge of God and His way. The more we've prospered the more our sins have increased. Immorality have sapped our strength and destroyed our national spirit. Our national sins are an affront to Almighty God. I mean when we look around we've enjoyed the wealth. We've enjoyed the national greatness that was promised to Abraham but remember God blessed Abraham because of his obedience to God and his law. Those blessings can also be revoked because of disobedience. We can't properly understand our modern world unless we understand the Bible and God's purpose and have a relationship with God. So now's the time. Now's the time to take the time to learn about it. When we recognize the modern people that prophecy is speaking about, we know those blessings for Jacob were passed on to us and there will be a day of reckoning, but there's good news. Doesn't have to be disaster for all, prophesy shows God wants to bless every one of us. God has proven He's faithful in His physical promises so let's all turn to Him and promise to be faithful in spiritual things.

[Narrator] Call now to receive the free booklet offered on today's program, "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy." Are America and Britain described in Bible prophecy? If so, where? The truth about the identity of the United States of America and Britain is one of the most fascinating and inspiring stories in the Bible. Order now, call toll free 1-888-886-8632 or write to the address shown on your screen.

This crucial study aid shows straight from the Bible how God foretold the rise of these two nations. The role of the United States is changing, so is Britain's place in the world. There are biblical reasons behind the dramatic events playing out in our times. Learn the truth about the identity of America and Britain.

When you order this free study aid, we'll also send you a complimentary one-year subscription to "Beyond Today" Magazine. Beyond Today brings you understanding of today's world and hope for the future. Six times a year, you'll read about current world events in the light of Bible prophecy, as well as practical knowledge to improve your marriage and family and godly principles to guide you toward a life that leads to peace. Call today to receive your free booklet, "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy" and your free one-year subscription to "Beyond Today" Magazine. Call 1-888-886-8632 or go online to beyondtoday.tv.