A Promise Kept

Do you know what the strongest proof of the inspiration and authority of the Holy Bible is?

Do you know what the strongest proof of the active existence of the living God is?

The late theologian and educator Herbert W. Armstrong said the answer to both of these foundational questions is found in the master key that unlocks the understanding of biblical prophecy.

Few people pay attention to Bible prophecy, and far fewer understand it. But significant sections of God’s inspired Word, the Holy Bible, are explicitly prophetic for the “end time,” the “latter days” and the “time of the end”—a period far in the future from the time those prophecies were recorded.

Mr. Armstrong’s book The United States and Britain in Prophecy is a masterpiece that reveals the key to comprehending these divinely inspired writings.

“An exciting, pulsating, vital third of all the Bible is devoted to prophecy,” he wrote in the first chapter. “And approximately 90 percent of all prophecy pertains to our time, now …. 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 book will open, to open minds, this hitherto closed vital third of all the Bible.”

Mr. Armstrong’s book proves through biblical and secular history the identities of the modern descendants of the tribes of ancient Israel. He then shows how knowing these identities enables you to apply ancient prophecies involving Israel, Judah, Ephraim, Manasseh and the like to modern peoples such as those in the United States, Britain and the Jewish state of Israel. God recorded and preserved those prophecies to be understood—and that understanding is now open to the very peoples for whom they were intended.

If you have not read The United States and Britain in Prophecy or do not own a copy, we will gladly send it to you at no cost. We own the copyright to that book after a six-year legal battle with the church Mr. Armstrong founded. The leaders who replaced him after his death in 1986 discontinued that wonderful book and repudiated its teachings. But it has never been more urgently needed!

Mr. Armstrong called the understanding in that book “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!” (emphasis mine). I agree completely! This history shows how the all-powerful God shapes world events to fulfill His Word. It shows that God always carries out His promises. It proves that when God foretells that something will occur, He will ensure that it comes to pass!

Time after time, Bible prophecy has unfolded to the exact detail just as God said it would. Many prophecies are in the process of fulfillment in spectacular ways. Not one word of God will go unfulfilled (Isaiah 55:10-11). The United States and Britain in Prophecy proves this in an inspiring way.

This is one of the most fundamental truths you could possibly come to understand: God is perfectly trustworthy. When He makes a promise, He keeps it. When He issues a prophecy, He fulfills it. When He says He will do something, it is as good as done. He cannot lie. He will never go back on His word. As King David wrote in Psalm 12:6-7, “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” The passage of hundreds or thousands of years, the rise and fall of generations of mortal men, does nothing to change the fundamental reliability of God’s utterances and His determination to see them through—in His perfect time.

We must learn to trust God.

The book you now hold in your hands amplifies this theme.

An Extraordinary Promise

One of the most inspiring aspects of The United States and Britain in Prophecy is centered on an astonishing promise God made to King David: “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (2 Samuel 7:16).

God told this human king that he would always have a descendant ruling on his throne—“for ever”! Luke 1:31-33 confirm that this promise will ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus Christ Himself being crowned and ruling eternally on “the throne of his father David.” The King of kings and Lord of lords will sit on and reign from an eternal throne that originated with a mere human being—named David.

In biblical history, however, you see how, soon after David’s son Solomon’s reign ended, Israel tragically split into two separate kingdoms: Israel and Judah (1 Kings 12). After the rule of 19 kings, the 10-tribed kingdom of Israel was taken captive in an Assyrian invasion beginning in 721 b.c. and was, by most accounts, lost to history. Then in 585 b.c., 21 kings after David, the Babylonian Empire invaded the kingdom of Judah, the sons of the king were killed (2 Kings 25:7), and it appeared the Davidic dynasty had ended!

But if that were true, it would have meant that God broke His promise to David. Which He never would and never will do.

Mr. Armstrong proved that God did keep His promise. He preserved David’s kingly line through one of Zedekiah’s daughters. She married a prince of Ireland (which itself fulfilled a prophecy), and the Prophet Jeremiah traveled with her to plant the throne of David in the British Isles!

The transplanting of David’s throne to Ireland is a truly extraordinary chapter of history. Mr. Armstrong covered it only briefly insofar as it proved that God kept His promise and as it establishes the identity of the British and American peoples in prophecy.

This book you are now reading expands on what Mr. Armstrong proved. It explains in greater detail the inspiring strand of history that unfolded in Ireland—before, while and after David’s throne was planted there. It casts special light on how the great Prophet Jeremiah accomplished his commission in preserving not only the throne of David but also the epic spiritual culture of David.

This book will help you come to know God. You will see the extraordinary measures God took to ensure the continuation of David’s dynasty. You will gain deeper appreciation for God’s power, His love, His devotion to human beings, His long-term, strategic thinking and steadfastness.

This book will also show you how to better worship this almighty, loving God. You will thoroughly study the example of David, a man with a heart after God’s very own, a model of fervent devotion to his Maker. You will see how Jeremiah studied intensely and emulated his example to more capably and thoroughly fulfill God’s commission to him.

You will gain an inspiring vision of a blueprint of the culture God is about to establish worldwide in the soon-coming Millennium, and how that culture is rooted in godly virtues—we might even say Davidic virtues—of humility, repentance, faith, trust in God, thanksgiving and gratitude, and passionate praise—ardent love, intensely expressed.

This study of a particular chapter in biblical and secular history reaches back through the mists of antiquity, and forward toward a resplendent future, to teach profound lessons that will ennoble and enrich your life today.

Continue Reading: Part One: The Psalter of Tara