A self-avowed socialist is a frontrunner to become the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. Following strong showings in the Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders took a commanding lead in Nevada, leaving his closest competitor in a distant second place. Whether or not Sanders ultimately receives the Democratic nomination, this is a sea change in American culture.

While attending the University of Chicago in the 1960s, Sanders became a member of the Young People’s Socialist League. He backed the People’s Party in the 1972 presidential election, which demanded that any income higher than $55,000 be outlawed. Sanders also helped found the Liberty Union Party, which demanded the nationalization of all banks and the government takeover of all utility companies. He served as a presidential elector for the Socialist Workers’ Party in 1980. He took several diplomatic trips to Cuba, Nicaragua and the Soviet Union, where he praised the Communist governments of these nations. And now he wants to bring what he admired about the Soviet Union to America.

Senator Sanders wants to nationalize the health-care system, break up the big banks, seize control of the energy industry, provide free college tuition for all, raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and guarantee homeownership and employment through massive public works projects. These socialist proposals would cost as much as $97.5 trillion over the next decade. That means government spending would have to surge from 36 percent to 70 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. This would make America the highest-taxed nation in the world unless he plans on printing or borrowing the money.

Such radical proposals by a socialist would have rendered a candidate unelectable a generation ago. Today, these proposals are so popular that America’s largest political party is seriously considering making Senator Sander’s candidate for president of the United States.

How did socialist principles become so strong in America?

One reason is that socialists recognized the importance of American education when many conservatives did not. They have worked for decades to take over U.S. universities and public schools in their quest to educate the next generation. Another reason concerns an ancient Bible prophecy about demographic change in end-time America and Britain.

Hosea 7:8-9 say, “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.”

In The United States and Britain in Prophecy, Herbert W. Armstrong showed how the English-speaking peoples who settled the U.S. and Britain descended from the Israelite tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, respectively. The Prophet Hosea often refers to the northern 10 tribes of Israel, which split away from the kingdom of Judah, as “Ephraim,” the most prominent tribe, and “Samaria,” the capital. The prophecy of Hosea 7 applies to Ephraim and Manasseh jointly.

Ephraim, or Britain, has made foolish alliances with foreign nations and has allowed foreigners to settle in its major cities. Manasseh, or America, has allowed so many foreigners to immigrate to its shores that British Americans are a minority in many parts of the country.

In 1965, America passed an immigration act that abolished its earlier quota system based on national origin. It established a new system designed to let in people from all parts of the world. This act dramatically changed America’s culture and ethnic composition.

Over the past 55 years, the African-American share of the population has remained steady at about 12 percent. The Asian-American share has septupled from 1 percent to 7 percent. The Latin American share has more than quadrupled from 4 to 18 percent. Meanwhile, the European-American share has plummeted from 80 percent to 60 percent.

And falling fertility rates among white Americans is hastening this demographic change. The most common age among white American is 58 years old; the most common age among Hispanics is 11 years old.

Demographers predict that white people will become a minority by 2045. In fact, British Americans may have already become a minority as over half of white Americans claim Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian or Swedish descent (though intermarriage in America’s melting pot culture has blurred these ethnic distinctions). When you understand that the British settlers of America descended from ancient Israel, Hosea’s prophecy takes on a very literal meaning. Israel has become mixed with foreign peoples.

This may be a victory for ethnic diversity, but it is also a huge component in America’s cultural transformation. Senator Sanders won by a much greater margin in the Nevada caucuses than he did in Iowa or New Hampshire because of his Hispanic support. Pew Research shows that an overwhelming majority of Hispanics (71 percent) support a drastic increase in government control. Among those who have emigrated from Latin America relatively recently, Sanders’ far-left beliefs do not sound radical. In fact, they may even sound moderate compared to some of the policies espoused in their home countries.

Further proof of immigration’s effect on U.S. culture is demonstrated by the 2016 presidential election. Exit polls show that if white Americans could not vote, Hillary Clinton would have won the election in all 50 states. Conversely, if only white Americans could vote, Donald Trump would have won a 37-state landslide. Leftist politicians will say this discrepancy is due to racism, but it is due to the failure of immigrants to assimilate into American culture. On average, those Americans of Israelite descent pay lip service to the constitutional principles of their founding fathers more than those Americans who have immigrated here from other cultures. Yet these Israelites’ nonchalant attitude toward the Bible and hostility against God’s law has enabled America’s cultural sea change.

While most do not realize it, God says that the immigrants in America currently agitating for socialist revolution have “devoured” America’s strength while those descended from ancient Israel grow older. Other scriptures show that if people do not turn back to God and His law as revealed in the Bible, then the strangers, or foreigners, living among them will rebel and burn down cities (Deuteronomy 28:43; Isaiah 1:7).

“It is time for the American people to wake up!” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in his article “Communism in America Today.” “Or is it already too late? The Prophet Hosea says that we allow ourselves “to be mixed up with foreigners. … Foreigners eat away his strength unknown to him” (Hosea 7:8-9; Moffatt translation). Foreigners are eating away America’s strength, yet we don’t even realize it because we have forsaken God. It is amazing how few people will really talk about what is happening. Our people are sick in their reasoning and are faint of heart (Isaiah 1:5). When they see something fearsome, they are afraid to face it!”

God says He allows these curses to come on America because Israel will “not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.” Obviously, God is not against migrants or people from other areas of the world. He wants all nations to embrace His law, which is the only law that brings peace, joy and prosperity. But He intended the nations of Israel to be an example to the nations of how to keep His law. Instead of doing this, the end-time Israelites have followed after the beliefs of the nations around them.

For more information on what the Bible prophesies about race conflict in America’s future, please read “Where America’s Race Riots Are Leading,” by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry.