Bible Study An Old Look At Prophecy - Which Nations Will .

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Bible studyAn Old look at Prophecy Which Nations will attack and invadethe House of Israel in the Last Days?A point-by-point response to an article by my friend, StevenCollins’, “A New Look at Prophecy”By C Whitewww.originofnations.orgIn this article, I respond to my friend, Steven Collins’ article on which nations will be attacking theHouse of Israel in these last days. Whilst we agree on most fundamental issues, Steve and I disagreeon this one particular aspect of prophecy. We remain firm friends, despite this disagreement.The layout of this response is simple:1. I reprint Collins’ statement about prophecy2. under his statement is my response3. appendix 1 at the rear listing the consistent and accurate teachings on the rise of a Germanled Europe4. appendix 2 concerns prophecies relating to Assyria5. appendix 3 on the time when Ezekiel 38 & 39 may be applied6. Suggested readingAt the conclusion of my book, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Israel Found!, it was stated that a new bookdetailing prophecies about the ten tribes of Israel would be written. Since my four new books containingimportant new information about the ten tribes’ history had to come first, that book on prophecy is yet in thefuture. However, it is partially written. This booklet-length article is an effort to get some of thatinformation to people in a timely fashion. What follows is not a direct excerpt from my future book, but israther an adaptation of some of its material for those people who are in churches or fellowships whichformed as the “old” Worldwide Church of God disintegrated. For these groups, some of this information istoo important to be delayed for inclusion in a future book.Response:I invite readers to view another perspective. The paper “Pax Germanica or a New World Order – Which?”may be found at http://originofnations.org – click on the link ‘Books and Research Papers’ and then ‘FreeBooks and Research Paper Downloads’.A History of Prophetic Errors:Decades ago, the “old” Worldwide Church of God (WCG) attracted many people with a messageemphasizing biblical prophecy. The WCG developed prophetic expectations which were held so stronglythat they developed into church dogmas. “Old-timers” who remember the WCG in the 1950s and 1960s canrecall the prophetic dogma that a rearmed Germany would lead a “United States of Europe” in an invasionof the USA and Great Britain. This theme filled many pages of the Plain Truth Magazine. The WCG taughtthat this expected invasion would lead to a “Great Tribulation” of national captivity for the USA and Great

Britain. At first the WCG believed this invasion would begin in 1972 and that the church would flee to Petrafor three and one-half years before Jesus Christ returned in 1975. The WCG taught these propheticdoctrines very strongly to its church members, and offered a booklet, based on these assumptions, to thegeneral public called “The Year 1975 in prophecy.” As a teen-ager, I recall reading a booklet called “Thereis a Way of Escape,” which was based on the church’s belief that its members would be uniquely protectedfrom the expected apocalypse in 1972.Response:I have two problems with the above:1. the inference that only prophecy attracted people into the Church2. The issue concerning 1972 should not have any bearing on whether a German (Assyrian) led invasion ofthe United States because 1972 and Germany are two separate issues, not connected in this context at all.“There is a Way of Escape” was not about a place of refuge in the last days. It was not a booklet, but a shortarticle and I cannot recall it referring to 1972 at all.The first sign of a major problem with the WCG prophetic expectations occurred when 1972 came and wentuneventfully. At first, church leaders thought that we had been given “seven more years,” and the expectedevents were postponed to 1979 in the church’s thinking. Then 1979 came and, again, nothing happened. Thefailure of church prophetic dogma was next ex-plained by a new teaching about “19 year time cycles”which, if true, would mean that the Ger-man/ European invasion would begin in 1991 (19 years after 1972).Then 1991 came and the church’s prophetic expectations failed again. The WCG then stopped offering newdates, but the general expectation of an eventual German-led invasion of the USA and Great Britain has remained imbedded in the minds of many people in the various COG off-shoots which formed as the “old”WCG gradually self-destructed.In the “real” world of corporations and businesses, when a set of assumptions or expectations fails over andover again, those assumptions and expectations will either be discarded or intensely scrutinized for errors.However, churches rarely engage in critical self-examination even when their prophecies fail as they areloath to admit error of any kind. Nevertheless, it is now a well-established fact of history that the propheticexpectations of the “old” WCG failed repeat-edly.A re-examination of the assumptions that caused the WCG’s prophetic errors of the last half-century is longoverdue. This article will not only examine the assumptions on which the church’s failed prophetic dogmaswere based, but it will also offer a new look at prophecy, based on a literal application of biblical prophecyto modern world events.Response:My friend uses date-setting as a lead-in to the whole idea of which nations will invade Israel. Yet, this hasnothing to do with it! It is a red-herring and serves to give the wrong impression and focus especiallyconsidering that 1972 was not a prophetic doctrine nor fundamental, therefore it has nothing to do with whowill invade end-time Israel.The fact is, the unofficial idea that there might be a beginning to end-time events in 1972, was dropped bythe mid- to late- 1960s. Indeed, DATES have no bearing on WHO is the end-time adversary of Israel, sowhy bring it up? It only serves to confuse or lead people to associate duties with who the adversary is.This section is difficult to follow. Of course, the US and Britain did not collapse. Nazis did not take overGermany. The former has not happened YET – so what?2

The second, that of Nazism, unlike the former, was not based on prophecy, but misunderstandinggeopolitical realities and has no bearing on identifying the end-time forces that shall invade Israel.In fact, the booklet 1975 in Prophecy has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by many forapproximately 40 long years. It may be viewed as the ultimate condensation of the Ezekiel Message. Thisenergetic booklet shocked people out of their complacency. Its unfortunate title has been a major reason forderision being brought upon this doctrine from certain quarters. Yet it contains vital information for us in abrazen way and a style which is becoming more and more acceptable to the community at large today (thetype of graphic details portrayed by Basil Wolverton are a part of our mass culture today). In many ways itwas a work ahead of its time. Many other booklets have been published which are also very strong anduseful, but are not Ezekiel Message type material as such: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; Is this theEnd Time?; Are we Living in the Last Days?; The Mark of the Beast; The Middle East in Prophecy; Who isthe Beast?; The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last!; The Modern Romans and How to UnderstandProphecy.The 1975 in Prophecy booklet was by far the most stunning and startling. Its title has led to the assumptionthat Mr Armstrong taught 1975 as the date of Christ’s return. Rather, the booklet was trying to catchpeople’s attention with a sensational title. I have before me a book Famine 1975! by William and PaulPaddock which used similar tactics. Another is The Coming Plague, or Newly Emerging Diseases in aWorld out of balance by Laurie Garrett and of course George Orwell’s 1984.The booklet took the following outline: an introduction Good news of the coming Utopia trends toward German resurgence The prophesied US of Europe (under German control and leadership) Coming Drastic Weather Changes World War III The great National Calamity and WHY our peoples will be punished Why all life will not be annihilated Americans and Britons to be made slaves The Day of the Lord Divine intervention Satan put awayThe new the MillenniumWhat is so wrong with the above? How can it be criticised? criticism of the booklet has been unjustified as focus has been on the negative aspects rather than themajority positive aspects of itthe booklet is not just full of doom and gloomit addresses a subject others did notit discusses the Day of the Lord as a literal event which few works by this world’s groups dothe title was unfortunate, but most of the booklet was accurate, pulsating, exciting and Biblically soundno apology is requiredThe booklet was laced with startling graphics portraying the end times, tribulation, Day of the Lord and theWonderful World Tomorrow. It woke up many people and led them to Christ.So, let us quit attacking this booklet.There are those that I struggled with over the “Y2K” controversy, predicting economic collapse and so on(including Collins). In my e-mails and talks with various ones, including Steven, I attempted to assure themthat nothing will happen. But they persisted in their error.3

Some have even used the present crisis arising out of the September 11 bombings as proof that Europeannations had sided with the USA and Russia and central Asian nations hadn’t, apparently pointing towardcertain prophetic events. Now look what happened: Russia and central Asian republics have sided morally,diplomatically and militarily with the USA! So who is wrong now?But are they willing to say of themselves what they accuse the old WCG?Over the last half-century, it is a historical fact that Germany did not experience a national resur-gence ofNazism. Germany reunified and became an economic and political leader in Europe, but German militarismnever resurfaced. Germany became a strong member of NATO and a staunch ally of the USA. The USAand Great Britain not only did not “collapse,” as was expected by church dogmas, but actually went on tomuch greater levels of prosperity.The USA became steadily stronger and is now the leading economic and military power on the planet. Theold WCG had taught that “the pride of our power” would be broken, but it never happened. It was thoughtfor a time that the Vietnam War heralded the sunset of American willpower and military prowess. However,the Vietnam War never threatened any vital American national interest. Both the USA and Great Britainhave since fought wars which ended in complete victories after their national interests were threatened. Firstthe British won the Falklands War in the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady” Prime Minister,rallied her nation to accept nothing less than total victory. Then Saddam Hussein conquered Kuwait andthreatened Saudi Arabia, placing the critical oil supplies of the Western Alliance at risk. When its vital oilsupply was threatened, the United States led a coalition of nations in 1991 against Saddam Hussein andquickly inflicted a crushing and swift defeat on Iraq’s large army.Response:1. resurgence of Nazism or not has nothing to do with Assur rising at the appropriate time. The lengthof time for something to occur has nothing to do with whether it will occur or not, and thus sucharguments are superficial and have no bearing on which nations the Bible says will attack the Houseof Israel in the last days2. to say that “German militarism never resurfaced” can only be argued within the context of the leadin to this article trying to synthesise 1972, Nazism, German militarism with a future German-led USof Europe. To say it hasn’t happened and therefore won’t happen, is incomprehensible. One couldlikewise use the same argument for just about anything. For instance, because Russia has notattacked the USA, therefore it won’t?3. the US became structurally weaker, as predicted in the booklet, The Modern Romans. As we alwaystaught, the USA would rot from within, with the outer veneer or shell, looking strong. It’s pride willbe broken and is being gradually so, but we have revivals every now and then as there was inancient Israel4. Britain declined exactly as we predicted in the early 1950s5. Germany became stronger, as predicted and reunited exactly as the Church taught since the early1950s. In particular, HWA, Hoeh, Meredith, McNair and then later, GTA, taught this accurately6. the Church taught that we would have good and bad ‘kings’ or ‘judges’, just as we did in ancientIsrael. So, Reagan and Thatcher we indeed good ‘kings’ or ‘judges’ or however one would like toview them. But did this in any way stop the overall slide politically, ethically, morally, spiritually?Nope, it merely slowed down the slide.The statement that the USA “is now the leading economic and military power on the planet” doesn’t makesense. It was so since WWII. It is now stronger in the sense that no single nation is anywhere near as strong.But, collective nations, such as the EU, are coming closer and closer to the US’s economic might. Further,the US economic might has dropped dramatically since WWII. It was more than 50% of world GDP. Thishas now dropped to about 24%. However, even this has been driven by a massive speculative market bubbleon Wall Street. The US stock market now accounts for about 53% of the value of the entire world’s, but this4

is over 50% over-valuation. When it finally bursts or deflates, the world will not look too kindly at the USAfor the massive economic crisis that will follow.“The economic size and significance of the 15 countries that make up the European Union are indisputable.The combined 1995 gross domestic product of these countries was estimated at 8.4 trillion, exceeding thatof the United States ( 7 trillion). This means that Europe is the largest single market on the face of theglobe. The European market is not just large -- it is also affluent. The EU's population stood at 371 millionin 1995 and G.D.P. per capita was 22,690; comparable figures for the United States were 264 million and 26,640. One manifestation of these simple facts has been the significant presence of foreign investors inEurope, corporate and individual, with the result that the stock of foreign investment in the EU, at the end of1995, stood at 6.55 trillion, as compared with 3.16 trillion in the United States. Any corporation thatpretends to be global has to have a substantial European presence.” (quoted from Business Expectations andStrategy for the United States of Europe).The strength of the US economy has been driven by ‘hot air’ – a massive speculative bubble funded byenormous unsustainable debt and by huge inflows of foreign capital primarily from Europe. But, there is nofundamental reason for the stock market valuations that have occurred.Secular commentators have been predicting this collapse for decades, but it has not happened yet. It isalmost as if a hidden hand has staid events from taking their natural course. He knows when to permitevents to occur and will remove His protection in due course, permitting the US and then the world’seconomies to tumble – but we just do not know when this will happen.But because it hasn’t happened, does that mean it will not?Before both these wars ended in spectacular victories for the British and Americans, some voices in theWCG-related churches expected and even predicted American and British defeats in those wars, based onthe “old” WCG doctrine that “the pride of our power” had to be broken in the latter days. It didn’t work outthat way. Since the purpose of this article is to edify its readers and identify prophetic errors, not toembarrass individuals who espoused those prophetic errors, no church personality will be named. Thoseindividuals were shaped in an autocratic church envi-ronment which demanded that church leaders either“support headquarters or else.” Honest, biblically based research was discouraged and even punished!Because the church “sowed” a climate where it would not and could not reconsider its latter-day prophecies,it has “reaped” the embarrassment (and extensive loss of membership) that has resulted from a series ofvery public prophetic errors.During the Falklands War, one prominent church leader voiced an expectation that a famous British oceanliner, refitted as a troop ship and full of British troops, would be torpedoed on its way to the Falklands andsunk as the ”pride of British power” would be broken. When the Persian Gulf War was imminent, anotherex-WCG personality predicted a victory for Saddam Hussein as he also expected the “pride of Americanpower to be broken.” These predictions were based on the “The Germans Are Gonna Get Us” dogma whichwas at the heart of all WCG prophetic expectations. As usual, these dark predictions about British andAmerican fortunes failed again. Many readers will also recall WCG leaders giving sermons with detailedprophecies based on the prophetic dogmas of the old WCG. It is doubtful if any of these prophecies evercame to pass. Everyone who has made prophetic predictions based on the WCG expectations of a Germanled invasion of the USA and UK has been left with “egg on their face.” Isn’t it time we re-examined thisprophetic dogma which has led to so much embarrassment for the leaders and churches that espoused it?As we will see, the WCG’s prophetic dogmas consistently failed because they were based on wrongassumptions. Let’s examine those assumptions and see why they lacked a biblical foun-dation. It should beacknowledged, however, that the WCG leaders who made those incorrect prophetic predictions were nottrying to deceive anyone. They truly believed that they possessed vital prophetic “keys,” and they wanted toshare that warning message with others. They were deeply sincere in their prophetic teachings, but it is nowalso clear that they were sincerely wrong in those teachings.5

Response:It is a pity that wording such as “Everyone who has made prophetic predictions based on the WCGexpectations of a German-led invasion of the USA and UK has been left with “egg on their face”” was used.It is, firstly, not the case and secondly, the language is a little strong.But again, because something hasn’t happened, does not mean that it won’t and referring to the Falkland’ssituation has no bearing on who will invade Israel.The Key False Assumption:Allow me to acknowledge that hind-sight is always, as they say, “20-20.” This article will notcastigate or demean those who originated the incorrect assumptions that led to 50 years of pro-pheticerrors. Indeed, one can easily understand how those assumptions began. The church had,quite correctly, understood the USA and Great Britain to be primarily composed of the moderndescendants of the so-called “lost” Israelite tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. The church alsosaw, correctly, that the modern descendants of ancient Assyria were found among the modernGerman people [As an aside, those who have read my book, The “Lost” Ten Tribes of Is-rael Found!, also know that many Germans are Israelite descendants as well]. As World War IIended, the old WCG originated an assumption, based on the above facts, that there was going tobe a parallel in the latter-days to the series of wars fought between the ancient Kingdoms of Is-raeland Assyria. It was assumed that even as the ancient Israelite-Assyrian wars continued untilAssyria conquered and “took captive” the ancient Israelites, that modern Assyria [Germany]would keep fighting the nations of modern Israel [primarily the USA and UK] until “modernAssyria” conquered “modern Israel” and took it captive.Response:Calling it false is very strong language indeed. TheThe Church has been involved in a growth curve. The Church saw the Beast as emanating out of Europesince the 1930s. Only since the late 1940s or early 1950s, to my knowledge, did it come to see that Assyriais today resident in

emphasizing biblical prophecy. The WCG developed prophetic expectations which were held so strongly that they developed into church dogmas. “Old-timers” who remember the WCG in the 1950s and 1960s can recall the prophetic dogma that a rearmed Germany would lead a “United States of Europe” in an invasion

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