AT the Exodus the Lord had told his people, “If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My Covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people ... a kingdom of priests, and an HOLY NATION.”1 “This people have I formed for Myself; they shall shew forth My praise.”2 And so they would!3 But first they had to go into exile, lose their identity, forget who they were, but find a new home where they would embrace the faith of Messiah, receive His Spirit, come under the New Covenant, have His law written on their hearts, and be remarried to the Lord. They would become the NEW ISRAEL and nucleus of His CHURCH, into which all may enter by faith in Jesus the Messiah. Jesus Christ “is the Saviour of ALL men, specially of those that believe.”4
From the place of their captivity between the Caspian and the Black seas, the exiled Israelites, including many of the House of Judah, wandered along the valleys into the foothills of the Carpathians and the Caucasus. From there they migrated north and west into Europe into the coastlands and islands which would be their new home. The tribe of Joseph—Ephraim and Manasseh—came to these British Isles.
In the fulness of time Britain would be the first nation to embrace the Gospel. Church Fathers and historians claim that Britain received the Gospel in the first century—the inspiring story is told more fully in my book How the Gospel Came to Britain. Tertullian (AD155&Ndash;222) wrote:
The extremities of Spain, the various parts of Gaul, the regions of Britain which have never been penetrated by Roman arms have received the religion of Christ. (Def. Fidei, p179)
Eusebius (AD260&Ndash;340), the first great historian of the Church, wrote:
The Apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the Britannic Isles. (De Demonstratione Evangelii, Lib. III)
Gildas (AD425&Ndash;512) wrote:
Christ, the True Sun, afforded His light, the knowledge of His precepts, to our Island in the last year, as we know, of Tiberius Caesar. [This was in AD37, only four years after the Crucifixion!]
(De Excidio Britanniae, section 8, p25)Polydore Vergil (1470&Ndash;1555), a learned Italian historian, wrote:
Britain, partly through Joseph of Arimathaea ... was of all kingdoms the first that received the Gospel. (Lib. I)
The founders of the British—Celtic—Church prepared its service as for the worship of the NEW ISRAEL, a people which had embraced the faith of Jesus Christ and come under the New Covenant. Over a thousand years later, the Book of Common Prayer would become an affirmation of our national faith, its purpose to bring every individual to know Christ and to believe His promises. This, and the fact that the Church of England is the Established Church of these islands, means that our people are placed, as it were, in Covenant relationship to God.
We have forgotten who we are
So what has happened to this once great nation of Britain? How can it be that Britain, once the possessor of the greatest Empire the world has ever seen, is fast being reduced to a mere province of Europe, the forerunner of the soon-coming United States of Europe? What has happened to Britain that today we are a third-rate power with a fast crumbling economy, unable to pay our way in the world, having to relinquish our international commitments? The truth is, we are a nation that has lost our way. We are blind to our destiny. We have forgotten who we are, and what God has done for us.
The Bible says, “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which He hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping His Commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command thee this day: lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then THINE HEART BE LIFTED UP, and thou FORGET THE LORD THY GOD ... And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.”5
1940
In 1940 we were a nation cast upon God as our sole Defence. We were a people that acknowledged God, and GOD HEARD OUR PRAYERS. He drove out the enemy from before us, “Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart ... but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.”6 Yet today, Britain has utterly forgotten God. Our land is filled with lawlessness and immorality; people fear to walk on the street. As a people we have become complacent, smug and greedy, and we are reaping a terrible harvest in Aids, drugs, drunkenness, broken homes, divorce, crime and violence on a massive scale, bribery and corruption in high places. Our government encourages gambling, defends homosexuality, legalizes abortion and experimentation on embryos. There are the crises in education, the health service and the environment. Scores of thousands are dispossessed of their homes and other thousands sleep on the streets.
In all this we are told that our future lies in Europe. The infamous Maastricht treaty demands increasing surrender of our sovereignty to the faceless bureaucrats of Brussels. Yet God decreed that Britain was to be CHIEF OF THE NATIONS.”7 We were to LEAD THE WORLD, pointing the way to true happiness, peace and prosperity through faith in Christ and loving obedience to God’s laws.
What has gone wrong?
The 80th Psalm gives a graphic picture of Britain and America today. It is prophetic of the blessings that Israel would enjoy under the good hand of God. It is also a picture of terrible judgment coming upon the land, of God stripping the nation of her wealth and her influence as a result of sin.
“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, and COME AND SAVE US. TURN US AGAIN, O GOD, and cause thy face to shine; and WE SHALL BE SAVED. O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.”8 What a picture this is of Britain today.
We need to understand. God has blessed Britain and America above all the nations of the world. We are the VERY PEOPLE spoken of in the Bible whose land has been blessed as no other with the “precious things of heaven .. the precious fruits brought forth by the sun ... the chief things of the ancient mountains ... the precious things of the lasting hills ... the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof.”9
We are the VERY PEOPLE whom God said should become “a nation and a company of nations,”10 possessing the gate of our enemies,11 pushing the people together to the ends of the earth,12 having the strength of a unicorn, and couching down as a great lion.13 There are no people under the sun that have been so blessed as our nations of BRITAIN, AMERICA and the COMMONWEALTH—Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Together we possess more than half of the world’s agricultural and mineral wealth. We are the people blessed with “blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.”14 Every promise God ever made to His people has been literally fulfilled in Great Britain and the Commonwealth, and the USA.
However, Britain has forgotten the God who made her great. We have turned our back on God, forsaken His laws, despised His Word. And God says He is going to punish our nation like no other in human history until we repent bitterly of our sins, and turn to Christ in sorrow and humiliation. Write for our free book Judgment on Britain and read for yourself the terrible indictment of Britain today and the startling prophecies concerning our immediate future.
In Leviticus 26, God promised Israel unprecedented blessings if they would only walk in obedience to Him. God said, “If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit ... and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid ... and ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred; and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight ... And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people.”15 God promises rain, plentiful harvests, abundant food, divine protection, victory over our enemies. All these blessings God has bestowed upon Britain.
The pride of our power—broken!
But God also gave a solemn warning of the results of disobedience. “But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these Commandments ... I also will do this unto you ... I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you ... And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: and your strength shall be spent in vain.”16 These are the very things that are happening to Britain today. God has broken the pride of our power. Our once great Empire, given us in fulfilment of the birthright promises to Joseph, is no more; the monarchy is under threat; increasingly, we lose our sovereignty to a supranational Europe dominated by Germany. Truly God has made us a strife unto our neighbours and our enemies laugh among themselves.
We need to realize that it is God alone who made our nation great. God has promoted our people, blessed our land, not for any merit of our own, not because we deserve these blessings, but that we might be a blessing to the nations of the world. But we have forgotten God. We desperately need to take this message to heart, to remember and reflect upon what God has done for us.
“Thou has brought a vine [Israel17] out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast Thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.”18
Why is Britain today the laughing stock of the world? Why have we given up our role as a world power, thrown off the responsibilities God laid upon us? It is because of SIN. We have forgotten God, broken God’s Commandments, forsaken His ways. And so God says we are being punished, and shall continue to be punished until we turn to God and realize the error of our ways. “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.”19
The promise of revival
There is only one answer to Britain’s predicament. God says, “If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”20
“Return, we beseech Thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine; and the vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself. It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. Turn us again, O LORD God of Hosts, CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE: and we shall be saved.”21
Shine, mighty God; on Britain shine,With beams of heavenly grace;
Reveal Thy power through all our coasts,
And show Thy smiling face.Amidst our isle exalted high,
Do Thou our glory stand;
And like a wall of guardian fire
Surround our favoured land.When shall Thy Name, from shore to shore,
Sound all the earth abroad?
And distant nations know and love
Their Saviour and their God?Sing to the Lord, ye distant lands,
Sing loud with solemn voice;
While British tongues exalt His praise,
And British hearts rejoice.Earth shall obey her Maker’s will,
And yield a full increase;
Our God will crown His chosen isle
With fruitfulness and peace.God, the Redeemer, scatters round
His choicest favours here;
While the creation’s farthest bound
Shall see, adore, and fear.(Isaac Watts, 1674&Ndash;1748)The decision is yours
Please understand. National identity does not confer personal salvation. The House of Joseph could not enter into the birthright blessings except by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and no more can any individual lay claim to the favour of God except through Christ. Israelite ancestry of itself cannot save anyone. God calls for individual repentance.
You who have read this book can be saved. You can enter into a joyful, loving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour! You can know that there is a God who reigns supreme in the kingdoms of men,22 “declaring the end from the beginning.”23 The things you have read in this book are evidence to you of the existence of an Almighty God. There is no greater proof of the existence of God than the fulfilment of prophecy in the British and kindred peoples.
The conditions of salvation are the same for the individual as for the nation: REPENTANCE toward God, FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ, and OBEDIENCE to His Commandments. His Word to you is, “REPENT, and BE BAPTIZED every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST.”24 May God give us grace to understand these things, to be obedient to His Word, and to stand behind this great Crusade to warn our nation before it is too late!