“With her left hand she was leading the advance of the conquering Allied armies into the heart of Germany,” Winston Churchill said, “and with her right, on the other side of the globe, she was irresistibly and swiftly breaking up the power of Japan.”

Churchill, in this April 17, 1945, speech to the British House of Commons, recognized the role that World War ii played in thrusting the United States to “a height never attained by any nation in history.” American power became so immense during World War ii that it stood at the vanguard of the most epic of wars in both Europe and Asia. History has never produced a single nation with such wealth and power.

Although millions of people have joined Churchill in acknowledging American greatness, few understand the truth about exactly what drove the U.S. to such heights.

The same can be said of the global preponderance of the British Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. At its height, it governed a quarter of the Earth’s inhabitants and encompassed a quarter of the its surface.

The fact that America and the British Empire attained unmatched greatness in back-to-back centuries was not coincidence; it actually fulfilled a remarkable, millennia-old biblical prophecy.

Understanding why these nations achieved unparalleled wealth and power is crucial to understanding why they are about to crumble. This truth proves the veracity of the Bible and the existence of the great promise-keeping Creator God.

Age-Old Prophecy

The modern history of American and British greatness is rooted in ancient history, as recorded in the Old Testament. You can study these biblical roots in our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

The family line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the key theme in the history of what made America and Britain great. Chapters 12 through 50 in Genesis detail this family history.

In Genesis 12:1-2, God rewarded the unerring obedience of Abraham by promising that He would “make of thee a great nation.” In Genesis 17, God promised Abraham again that He would “multiply thee exceedingly” (verse 2) and that Abraham would be “a father of many nations” (verse 4).

Following Abraham’s death, God confirmed the same promises to Abraham’s son, Isaac: “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and I will give unto thy seed all these countries, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 26:4).

Upon Isaac’s death, the promises passed to Isaac’s son Jacob, whom God renamed Israel. This is the first time God specifically refers to what we know to be America and the British Commonwealth. Consider the revealing terminology of Genesis 35:11: “And God said to [Jacob], I am God almighty. Be fruitful and multiply: a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall be born of your stock” (Amplified Bible).

Abraham’s grandson Jacob had 12 sons, but God established that it was Jacob’s son Joseph through whom He would perpetuate the promises of national greatness originally made to Abraham.

Under God’s direction, Jacob passed on the birthright promise of greatness to Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. This account can be read in Genesis 48:2-5 and 19, where the aging patriarch stated that Manasseh “shall become a people and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother [Ephraim] shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.” God promised that Ephraim and Manasseh were to become two of the world’s mightiest powers—one a globe-encompassing empire of nations, and the other the wealthiest, most influential nation on Earth.

The United States and Britain in Prophecy describes these prophecies thoroughly and explains in vivid detail the remarkable truth that the nations of the British Commonwealth (those of British heritage—primarily Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) and the United States of America are the modern-day descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh! The greatness of these nations is a direct result of God fulfilling His promises to Abraham and his seed.

The Bible makes clear that British and American domination over the past two centuries has not been mere luck, nor the result of any righteousness or goodness on the part of the people of Britain and America. If we understood the true reason—that it came from blessings for one man’s obedience—our peoples could avoid losing that domination.

God is clearly the author of American and British greatness. And how has He done it?

Elements of Power

In his classic text, Politics Among Nations, Hans Morgenthau identified a number of important characteristics that combine to determine national greatness—among them geography, natural resources, industrial capacity and military preparedness. The extent to which a nation possesses these elements directly impacts the nation’s wealth, strength and influence. To be great, a nation must be strong in most, if not all, of these areas.

Review American and British supremacy with these elements in mind, and it is evident that God played a direct role in delivering all of them into the hands of these peoples.

Geography, the most stable element of national power, has played a critical role in establishing British and American global dominance. Every nation is impacted by its location and geography. Although Russia, for example, is the largest nation in the world and possesses vast amounts of raw materials, it lacks a natural border on its west and southwest, leaving this massive power vulnerable to invasion—a handicap that has repeatedly figured into its history.

America’s geographic isolation has been a key factor contributing to American supremacy. The fact that it sits between the world’s two largest oceans has essentially alleviated the probability of invasion, allowing America to pursue internal interests with little or no concern about foreign threats. And although this is less of a factor in modern times, “It is fallacious to assume, as is frequently done, that the technical development of transportation, communications and warfare has eliminated altogether the isolating factor of the oceans” (Morgenthau, ibid.).

The same can be said for Britain, and even many of its Commonwealth nations. On numerous occasions, the English Channel has saved the British from vicious neighbors. This treacherous strip of water thwarted Rome’s attempts to invade more than once; even though Rome did eventually invade England, the blustery Channel remained a thorn in its side the entire time it occupied the island.

If oceans are the watery fields that people must cross to travel between continents, then ports and sea lanes are the gates through which people must enter to visit individual nations. The nations that control those gates brandish significant influence over global commerce and possess a strategic military advantage.

Quite remarkably, between them Britain and America have had control over every major sea gate and sea lane in the world!

This, too, was part of the promises made to Israel: “And they blessed Rebekah [Isaac’s wife], 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).

The sea gates not only delivered great wealth into the hands of Britain and America, they also played critical roles in their military histories. Consider the consequences, for example, if Great Britain hadn’t controlled the Strait of Gibraltar, the western gateway into the Mediterranean, during World War ii.

The British Commonwealth and America were also blessed with an incomparable abundance of natural resources.

The most important natural resource is food. America’s self-sufficiency has historically been one of its greatest advantages. In like manner, Britain at its height had access to boundless quantities of food thanks to the globe-spanning reach of its empire and the fact that it owned the sea lanes through which food and other goods were carried.

Great Britain dominated global trade and commerce. Cloth, spices and tea from Asia, gold and minerals from South Africa—all these contributed to its wealth and power.

Read Deuteronomy 33:13-17 and notice the great wealth that was to be bestowed upon the descendants of Joseph. This prophecy alone is a powerful indicator of who modern Israel is. As Herbert W. Armstrong wrote, “Whoever is Ephraim and Manasseh today must have been in possession of the Earth’s choicest agricultural, mineral and other wealth—the great gold and silver mines; iron, oil and coal; timber and other resources” (The United States and Britain in Prophecy).

With these prophecies in mind, we can’t view it as coincidence that over half of all tillable, cultivable, temperate-zone lands on Earth came after a.d. 1800 into the possession of America and Britain.

These two entities, at their height, possessed natural resources in unmatched abundance. World petroleum output in 1950 was almost 3.8 billion barrels. Of this total, the United States alone produced over half. Together, the British Commonwealth and the U.S. produced 60 percent of the crude petroleum, not including their vast foreign investments. Britain and America mined 50 percent more than all other nations combined. In 1950, the British Commonwealth and America produced three quarters of the world’s steel—the U.S. alone producing almost 60 percent of the world’s supply. They also produced half again as much pig iron as all other nations combined. They possessed nearly 95 percent of the world’s nickel, 80 percent of the world’s aluminum, and 75 percent of the zinc. Together, Britain and America produced two thirds of the world’s rubber, and dominated the world’s copper, lead, tin, bauxite and other precious metal outputs.

These are stunning facts! Like or dislike America or Britain, no one can deny the sheer wealth and industrial might these nations once possessed, and still do today—though to a diminishing extent.

Industrial capacity is a nation’s ability to transform its raw materials and natural resources into readily usable products. Raw materials such as oil and coal are useless if the technology and infrastructure to harness the energy within them is not available. Both America and Britain have benefited immensely from their industries. It’s no surprise that modern industry actually began in Britain with the Industrial Revolution.

Highlighting the importance of industrial capacity to a nation’s power, Morgenthau wrote, “What distinguishes the superpowers from all other nations … is their virtual industrial self-sufficiency and their technological capacity to stay abreast of the other nations” (emphasis mine throughout).

Until the past two decades, no nations even came close to competing with the U.S. in technological development. Evidence of American industrial and technological capacity is scattered across the globe. Farmers in Russia plant wheat using the American-designed Global Positioning System. Diseased people throughout Africa use U.S.-designed medicine. Even Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil-producing nation, is supported by American technology and human resources.

Although the aforementioned elements of national power are important, what gives them their teeth is how they contribute to the nation’s military preparedness. In this respect too, America and Britain have excelled all other nations.

If diplomacy is the velvet of a nation’s foreign policy, military preparedness is its steel. Without the military capacity to back up its rhetoric (combined with the political will), the nation’s power to pursue its foreign policy is restricted.

No other nation in the world has a military capacity comparable to that of the U.S. In 2004, America led the world in military expenditures with $455 billion spent on military hardware and personnel. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the U.S. figure was more than the combined total of the 32 next most powerful nations!

Early in the 19th century, it was the British Navy under Admiral Lord Nelson that blockaded the English Channel and spearheaded the demise of Napoleon and his navy. The peace that settled across the oceans that century came largely because of the British Navy. Under pressure from the advancing Axis powers in World War ii, it was the British who invented and used radar to assist in defeating Hitler’s armies. To the east in the South Pacific, it was the American-designed atomic bomb that brought Japan to its knees.

Who can deny the military supremacy of Great Britain and America over the past two centuries?

One Man’s Faith

Possessing all of the physical characteristics required for national greatness, America and the British Commonwealth have been the dominant peoples of the past two centuries. It behooves us to remember why.

The sole reason these peoples received such wealth and power was that God, though having deliberately delayed it for 2,520 years, was keeping His promise of national greatness to the patriarch Abraham! (see again Genesis 12:1-2; 17:1-6).

America and Britain did not deserve or earn the wealth and influence they possessed. The great God of this universe gave it to them as a gift!

America’s 16th president publicly acknowledged this fact in his April 30, 1863, proclamation: “We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the Earth. … We toiled not in the acquirement or the establishment of them. … We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven.” Peoples of America and the British Commonwealth today would do well to meditate on Abraham Lincoln’s words!

We can’t emphasize this point enough. America and the British Commonwealth became the two greatest powers in the world solely due to the faith and obedience of one man. Strive to fathom this profound truth!

However, while it was the faith of a single man that secured the unmatched wealth and power of America and Britain over the past two centuries, it is the sins of the American and British peoples that have hastened the loss of those blessings and demise of these great powers.

Losing the Elements of Power

Speaking to Ephraim and Manasseh today, God said, “And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins” (Leviticus 26:21).

The British Empire attained the height of its power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the United States, as Winston Churchill noted, reached its peak during and right after World War ii. Since these times, the greatness of both peoples has deteriorated as a result of their increasing sins.

While the Trumpet takes little pleasure in discussing these national calamities, it is our hope that this message will wake people up!

The peoples of America and the nations of the British Commonwealth lead the world in social problems. Droughts, floods and other natural disasters have plundered the agricultural wealth of Australia and Britain, and the U.S. agriculture industry is rapidly plummeting. These nations have carelessly let the critical sea gates they once owned slide through their fingers, leaving these nations at the mercy of China and Europe in global trade and commerce.

Compared to the more than 50 percent of world oil production America accounted for in 1950, today the United States produces only 11.1 percent of the world total—and relies on foreigners for more than 60 percent of its oil. Whereas America and Britain manufactured about 75 percent of the world’s steel in 1950, by the late 1990s, American and British steel production had plummeted to about 14 percent of world production. These nations have experienced similar declines in the mining of key minerals, including gold, silver, nickel, aluminum and zinc. America and Britain now seek these minerals from foreigners.

The United States has transformed from being a world supplier of critical resources into the world’s largest debtor nation—a stunning and dangerous change of direction.

The God-given elements that drove Britain’s and America’s greatness are rapidly being lost!

You can study the last half of Leviticus 26 to see all the curses for disobedience God promises to send upon America and Britain, and read your daily headlines to see how they are coming to pass.

Gentiles to Wrest Control

The rapid decline of these two major Israelite powers—the British Empire’s decline in the mid-20th century, and now the irreparable weakening of U.S. influence—is clearing the way for Gentile power blocs to assume the lead in global politics (see page 13). Soon these Israelite nations’ power will be gone. The “times of the Gentiles” will begin in earnest.

There is a route you can take, however, to escape the catastrophic demise of America and the British Commonwealth nations. That too, can be found in the story of Abraham.

Study Abraham’s life for yourself. Note the number of occasions where Abraham willingly and without hesitation obeyed God. This man was prepared to sacrifice everything for God—even family and possessions. Those who strive to match Abraham’s obedience and faith will be saved from the calamities soon to fall upon America and Britain!

Upon repentance and obedience to God, you too can experience a future life of wealth and greatness, just as America and Britain have, thanks to the faith and obedience of Abraham.

God has a master plan for this Earth that is unfolding before our eyes. You are part of that plan. If you would like to begin to understand your role, it’s important to learn the key to understanding Bible prophecy. Request The United States and Britain in Prophecy to gain this all-important key.

And after reading this book, request our free book The Incredible Human Potential for a detailed explanation of the future of man. Together, these books will introduce you to the most remarkable, encouraging and inspiring truth anyone could find!