Darkness is descending on the long, historically extraordinary Anglo-American age.

Britain, transformed from globe-girding empire to second-rate power, faces an identity crisis as it tries to resist the bullying of a growing European superstate. America, economically battered, is withdrawing itself from overseas entanglements and coming to grips with shrinking global influence.

History teaches that world orders don’t last. They come and they go. This present one, mostly spent and under attack from without and within, is giving way to something very different. And when it has gone, it truly will be the world’s loss.

However, to say that Britain and America’s brightest days are history is not true. In fact, glowing within these nations’ remarkable recent past is the promise of a far, far more luminous future.

Destined to Lead the World

These two related peoples, the British and Americans, have long possessed a sense that they were duty-bound, even destined, to lead the world.

Of Shakespeare, Hermann Sinsheimer wrote, “There was not room enough for him in the island of Britain.” His mission was “to enrich from outside sources, from every corner of space and time, a nation that is just struggling into her proper, uninsular shape. Between the lines and between the characters one may read the legend: Our island is too small; our kingdom is the world!” (Shylock: The History of a Character). “The glory of the British Empire was its service to a cause that transcended Britain, that transcended history, that transcended time itself,” wrote Kirk Emmert in Winston S. Churchill on Empire. That cause, he wrote, was “to lift human life away from barbarism and savagery towards civilization and human excellence.” Such thinking ignited the hearts of generations of British and inspired the advancement of that cause around the globe. Churchill, who passionately devoted himself to promoting that empire, considered “the fostering of civilization” as its highest purpose. “Empire civilizes both the ruled and their rulers,” he wrote.

The United States’ Founders sought to establish a lasting beacon of liberty and democracy to the nations. Lyman Beecher said the nation was “destined to lead the way in the moral and political emancipation of the world.” Lincoln spoke of the need for America to ensure “that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Since its entry into World War ii, it has essentially served as the guarantor of peace in the world. Its sense of obligation to improve the world has infused America’s use of its power to build global institutions like the League of Nations and the United Nations. Even its recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been cast as America’s obligation as a great power.

Naturally, all such efforts carried out by men are carried out imperfectly. But until recently, the fruits of the Anglo-American effort to benefit the whole of mankind have been extremely favorable.

An understanding of biblical prophecy reveals that there is an awesome reason for this—one that points back to ancient history, and that also illuminates an inspiring future. You can read about it in Herbert W. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy. It revolves around an extraordinary truth: that these nations are the modern descendants of the ancient nation of Israel.

Israel, the Bible shows, was given an awesome responsibility. This was the nation God chose to represent Him, and to serve as His instrument in setting an example for and reaching out to the rest of the world!

A Beautiful, yet Sobering, Prophecy

Biblical history and prophecy show that God still intends for Israel’s descendants to fulfill this glorious purpose. It provides an extraordinary dimension to the more recent history and present trend in America and Britain.

Look, for just one outstanding example, at the prophecy in the 13th chapter of the book of Jeremiah.

Here God made an unusual request to his prophet, involving a girdle—a waistcloth, waistband or belt. Men wore this item of clothing around the waist; a strikingly ornamented waistcloth would adorn a man very handsomely. Here this belt represented Godwearing the nation of Israel, and Judah! (read verse 11).

“Here is the big overview. God created the tribes (later nations) of Israel for an incredible purpose,” the Trumpet’s editor in chief, Gerald Flurry, wrote. “They were created to be ‘a praise, and a glory’ to God. The nations of Israel were to cause the whole world to praise and glorify God!” (Jeremiah and the Greatest Vision in the Bible). This waistband was linen, just like the garments of Israel’s priests, which were made “for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2). The nation of Israel had a priestly calling (Exodus 19:5-6), which means a responsibility to serve other nations and point them to God. Israel was like a priestly waistcloth around God Himself! What a picture.

Realize, though, that Jeremiah is an end-time book (the Jeremiah booklet proves this). Now, look at what God wanted to illustrate with this image: It is actually a vivid depiction of how the Israelite nations—most prominently America and Britain—failed in this beautiful calling.

God told Jeremiah not to wash the waistbelt (verse 1), even once it became dirty. Then He had the prophet stick the belt in a cleft in rock beside a river, and retrieve it some time later. At that point, the belt was ruined, unusable.

In verses 9-10, God condemns these modern nations for pride, arrogance, evil, stubbornness, disobedience, self-will and idolatry. They didn’t fulfill their beautiful calling. They became worthless to God. The context talks about all the inhabitants of Israel (verse 13). “All of these specific groups of people are to be warned that they are as worthless as Jeremiah’s linen girdle!” Mr. Flurry wrote. “God will dispose of them like a rotten girdle if they don’t repent and heed His message!”

When John Winthrop spoke of America as a “city on a hill” in 1630, he issued a warning based on prophecies such as this: “We must consider that we will be as a city upon a hill,” he said. “The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.”

This is where Britain and America increasingly find themselves today—though you can be sure it will get worse. However, another passage in Jeremiah provides some needed context—and vital hope.

A New Day Dawns

Jeremiah 33 depicts a time yet future, after America and Britain have endured a nightmarish tribulation intended to correct them for their sins. It contains God’s promises to restore to them fantastic prosperity—and make them a positive example. They will become “a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth” (verse 9).

The sun is setting on the present epoch of Anglo-American dominance. Prophecy is plain that what is about to happen upon America’s collapse will shock the world. Where Britain sought to point the nations toward civilization and human excellence, they are about to plunge back into the blackness of barbarism and savagery.

However, biblical prophecy reveals that Britain and America’s brightest days are actually yet to come—and that these nations will in fact finally fulfill their exalted calling! God always intended Israel to lead the world—and His prophecies show it will. But it won’t be Pax Americana or the British Empire these peoples will be promoting—but the peace of God, and the Kingdom of God. The King of kings will helm the effort to lift all human life toward civilization and excellence—for the benefit of all nations.

The immediate future for America and Britain is extremely dark. But what a radiant future awaits! As Isaiah 60:1-2 prophesies: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”