America

I have the beginning here today of a two-part message. I want very much to acknowledge the fact that this is the 4th of July weekend. It's interesting that without any... our two sermonette men from Ann Arbor here in Detroit... as a matter of fact, our sermonette man from Ann Arbor was actually from San Diego. He was coming into town and he gave almost identical sermonette that you heard Steve give. So, obviously, I want to do something very similar in terms of the sermon. Today, part one, my title, if you want to put this down in your paper, America the Beautifully Blessed. America the Beautifully Blessed. We're going to talk about how God built our nation. You know, you've got politicians all over the place wanting to talk about nation-building. Well, God built the United States of America. And I'm hoping this will be inspirational. I hope this will be educational. As we take a look at just how our country came together and what God's plan for us has been. So today, it's America the Beautifully Blessed. Next week, we're going to look at the other side of the coin. Next week, we're going to look at the fact that America has become a nation of Esau's. Where we have not appreciated our birthright blessing and we're willing to sell it. So next week, it's going to be a little more on the sobering side. As we get into some of the prophecies and some of the things I want to convey with you next week. Getting into today's message, America the Beautifully Blessed, I recently read an article by John Hawkins. This article appeared in townhall.com. Townhall is a leading source for conservative news, political commentary, and analysis. You might want to write that down. townhall.com. A lot of very interesting articles and analysis there. Mr. Hawkins wrote an article dated April 1st this year. The article was entitled, The 7 Reasons America Became a Great Power. Now, if this is, of course, through the eyes of an individual, he's not in the church, but he has a lot of food for thought. In the speech of his 7 Reasons, he gives you about a paragraph, sometimes two, to explain why he's saying what he's saying. I'm going to take some time to read portions of his writing today. The 7 Reasons America Became a Great Power. But I want to biblically base that, so we'll be looking into the scriptures to see how God did these things and why God did these things. I want to start with the tickler, the lead paragraph in his article where he wants to get your attention. And I quote from Mr. Hawkins here, So that was the tickler. You and I might disagree with different portions of that paragraph, but overall, I think he makes a point. The first reason he says that America became a great power, number one, the Judeo-Christian ethic. Let me read just a paragraph from his writing here, his article.

I think he said a lot right there in that one paragraph. Brethren, is it an accident of history that we are who we are? Is it an accident of history? Or has God had a plan in mind for our people here in America? I'm going to be reading a little more than I normally do in the sermon today. I'll be quoting quite a bit from our booklet, The United States in Britain Bible Prophecy. And there's a section here that I want to read to you that I think is very informative along these lines. Again, we're looking at what shaped us as a culture. I'm quoting now from our booklet.

Brethren, as I may have mentioned today over in Ann Arbor, in my computer back at home, I probably have 30 or more different modern translations of the Scriptures. But still and all today, one of the most accurate translations is that 1611 King James Bible. I don't know if any of you have got that sitting on your lap. But that King James Bible is still one of the most accurate. It's got some archaic language. There's some language that's sometimes misleading for the modern reader, but it's still very, very accurate. Now, why is it that the Bible has been so predominant in Britain and the United States? I'm going to use Britain as well because they were a noted ally and they helped us in a lot of our success. Our booklet, The United States and Britain Prophecy, quotes the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy when it says, and I quote, The most widely known book in the English-speaking world is the Bible. No one in the English-speaking world can be considered literate without a basic knowledge of the Bible. In Britain, it was rated as one of the top 50 most interesting books. In the United States, it is currently a bestseller and a single book that Americans say has the most influence their lives. Now, why am I talking about this? We're talking about what built our great nation, and what built our great nation is the values that we founded this nation on. And what we founded this nation on was this book. This book. Now, today, it comes under all sorts of assault in the universities and all over. We don't want God in the classroom. We don't want God here. We want Him on our money. But we don't want Him in a lot of other places. Now, allow me to quote some of our presidents and times going by, and what they said about God's Word. Again, this is one of the great reasons, one of the big reasons why this nation became great, our love for the Scriptures. I'm not talking about all these people who are in God's church. The great, great majority never understood that God had a church, and they were not in it. John Quincy Adams, our sixth president, said, It has been my custom for many years to read the Bible in its entirety once a year. Theodore Roosevelt, our twenty-sixth president, said, A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. I would love to put that in a plaque and walk into a lot of universities today. A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. Daniel Webster, not a president, as you know the name, if we abide by the principles taught by the Bible, our country will go on prospering.

Well, our country isn't prospering. I don't know about you, but it's almost gotten to the place where I don't like to watch United States news anymore. What's working in this country? What's working in this country? Our government doesn't seem to be working. We seem to be having one issue after another by our elected representatives, Republican and Democrat. Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth president. I believe the Bible is the best gift that God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book. I've been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. A man who had to go through our... lead our country through a great civil war. And he was not very popular for most of his presidency because of that war.

George Washington, our first president. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. That's why I say this is one of the great reasons why this nation has been as great as it is, because our nation was founded on understanding and studying the Word of God. Andrew Jackson, our seventh president. The Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests. The rock on which our Republic rests. Again, I wouldn't mind chiseling that into a piece of stone and putting that in various places in our government. Winston Churchill, not an American, but said this, he said this, and I quote, and taking the Bible's story literally. Brother, when you take a look at it, when you take a look at the Word of God, the Bible, it is essentially a book about a family, the family of God. We talk about our founding fathers. We tend to think on it, especially a weekend like this, of George Washington, Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams, all those good fellows.

But the founding fathers of our nation were people by the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Bible is this country's history book.

The Bible is written with that family in mind. All the other nations are discussed in the pages of the Bible as they touch on Israel. Now, God loves all people. Don't misunderstand. But we must also understand how the Bible is written and how it's in the shape it took. Let's take a look at Deuteronomy 17.

Deuteronomy 17, again, we're talking about a strong Judeo-Christian ethic, a very strong ethic. Deuteronomy 17, here's what God wanted from his leadership. And God got this from our founding fathers. Is God getting this today? And has God been getting this for the last several generations, actually? Deuteronomy 17, verse 14.

He shall not multiply forces for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply forces. The Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. Neither shall he multiply Y for himself, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. Let's pause there for a moment. What God is saying is the leaders of the nation, and by principle, our nation, should be looking and walking in faith.

Walking in the grace of God. Not looking to gold, not looking to silver, not looking to alliances. One of the reasons they're talking about wives here is because people would marry to form alliances. I'll marry this woman. Her father is very influential, very powerful, and so on and so forth. He's the head of that nation. God doesn't want any of that. God wants us to look to him. But notice now, verse 18.

He says in a book, the one before the priests, the Levites, it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of his law, of this law, and these statutes. Now, being the king, he could have somebody write that for him. He could just have somebody present that to him, but it's not the same thing. God wanted the king of Israel to daily write with his own hand the Scriptures. He wanted them to study the Scriptures. He wanted that to be the foundation of the nation. He's king. And then you take a look at our nation as it was being built. As God was building our nation, our nation was a Bible-reading, Bible-believing nation.

Verse 19, it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law, and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandments to the right hand or to the left. That he may be prolonging his days in his kingdom and his children in the midst of Israel.

So what made this nation a great nation? A Judeo-Christian ethic based on God's Word. Based on God's Word. Now, like I said, next weekend we're going to take a look at where we're at now with our universities, our school curriculums, and so forth, and where we are looking to now for our answers. But that's for next week.

Reason number two that America became a great nation, according to John Hawkins, is a powerful military. A powerful military. Again, let me quote here from Mr. Hawkins' article. He says, there's a lot to be said for soft power, but it pales in comparison to raw military might. The United States was not always a great military power, but once the Civil War was over, we started to assert ourselves. Since World War II, we've had the finest military on planet Earth. That one factor alone does more to ensure our freedom and the safety of our allies than any other factors combined. As Ronald Reagan said, history teaches us that war begins when governments believe that the price of aggression is cheap. At least for now, no nation could be so foolish as to believe that a potential fight with the United States would be cheap.

Last week, when I was over in Ann Arbor, I made mention about Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt, in his day, America was an up-and-comer. We're talking about from December 1907 to February 1909. We had what was called the Great White Fleet. It was called the Great White Fleet because the ships were painted white. Today, most Navy ships are gray. They blend in with the background when you're looking off in the distance. You almost don't see them out there. Teddy Roosevelt wanted people to see these ships. From December 1907 to February 1909, he sent the Great White Fleet 16 battleships around the world. He charged them. You go into every major port that you can, all the various countries of this world you can, and you let them see United States power. He was brash. He was up-and-coming. You've read the stories about Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. He wasn't ashamed of our power, and he wanted the world to know that this world is a tough neighborhood. The United States is not going to back down from anybody. That was Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt had what he called the Big Stick Policy. To quote that policy in a single phrase, it would be this.

He looked down the road. What's going to happen to this nation? We want to be prepared. He made sure our nation was a growing military power. Let's take a look over here at Genesis 22. What you and I enjoy today as Americans, as a result of the fact, obviously that God built our nation, God realized that we are a carnal people. We are His special people, but we're a carnal people. We're not obeying His laws as a Christian would. But at least in our early days, we had some ethics and some values that were more godly than they are today, talking about as broad brushes a nation. Take a look here at Genesis 22, verse 17.

That's Deuteronomy 22, verse 17. Possessing the gates of our enemies. Now, at this point, again, quoting from our both of the United States and Britain in prophecy, I'm going to include Great Britain here because they have been a valuable ally over the years for the United States of America. And we've worked together to be that one great powerful nation and a company of nations that was prophesied in the Scriptures. One of the gates we see here in chapter 22, verse 17, the gates of our enemies, one of the great gates that we've possessed was the Straits of Gibraltar.

That is meaningful. And for so often, we've talked about how the Mediterranean was an American lake. They're covering the southern belly of Europe, the northern border of the Mediterranean, And for so often, we've talked about how the Mediterranean was an American lake. They're covering the southern belly of Europe, the northern portions of the continent of Africa. Very, very strategic, very important.

We receive that because of the victory God gave England with France. A second seagate that we had that helped us militarily is the Suez Canal. More than a century and a half later, the British gained direct control of another critical seagate – again, I'm quoting from our booklet – at the other end of the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal. The British remained at Suez for nearly three-quarters of a century. This 100-mile, man-made passage between the Mediterranean Red Sea has long been one of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes, eliminating the long and arduous trip around the southern tip of Africa.

In accordance with the biblical prophecy, God gave the seagate to the British people, the modern descendants of Ephraim, the son of Joseph. And again, brethren, we're talking about God building a nation through a Judeo-Christian ethic based on the scriptures and prophecies dealing with the promises God gave to our original founding fathers – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Lastly that I want to discuss, there are so many other seagates we can mention, but the last large one, big one, is the Panama Canal.

A third critical seagate acquired by Joseph's descendants was the Panama Canal. Like Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory or Benjamin Disraeli's acquisition of Suez Canal stock, American President Teddy Roosevelt took steps to secure Panama with bold decisiveness but questionable legality. You know, you study Teddy Roosevelt, you realize he did what he was going to do. He didn't care what allies said, he didn't care what the United Nations was going to worry about. He simply did what he felt was in America's best interests.

He felt that was very much in America's best interests. About his presumption, Roosevelt remarked, I took the Isthmus, started the canal, and then let Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me.

Good old Teddy Roosevelt. So that was the second major reason America became great, a powerful military. This third, you may like to argue with Mr. Hawkins. We will look at both sides of this. We will look at one side today, one side next Sabbath. The third reason America became great is because of Western culture. Western culture. Now, what are we talking about when we're talking about Western culture?

Again, I'm just going to quote a sentence or two from John Hawkins' article. The emphasis in Western culture on individualism, innovation, Christianity, capitalism, science, technology, freedom, individual rights has given us an enormous advantage that we are sadly eroding with our foolish embrace of multiculturalism. When he's talking about Western culture, we're talking about the seeds that gave way to, again, founding the culture of America.

And that culture was founded in God's word. God had a very specific purpose for our nation, a very specific purpose. He wanted us to do certain things. The British and American peoples have been the greatest instruments to spread God's word of the Bible. The Gideon Society. All the places the Bible has gone on, planet Earth, has come because largely the British and American peoples have done that.

For many centuries, virtually the only copies available outside of the original languages were in Latin with the Roman Catholic Church, and they very tightly controlled the Scriptures. Neil Lightfoot in his book How We Got the Bible says this, yet it was in England so long deprived of the living word where the battle was fought and won for the right of a common man to have his Bible in his own language.

In the Bible that you and I have, the Bible is sitting on your lap, it's sitting right here in front of me, it's become the basis for English common law, it's become the basis for our law in this country. So when we're talking about Western culture and talking about it from a positive perspective, we're talking about it in terms of what influenced our American Constitution, our American Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta over in England, and so forth. Let's move on to number four. What's the fourth reason that America became great?

Geography. I'm going to read a paragraph here, and please take note of what he's saying, because I don't know that I quite have thought of it this way. John Hawkins' article, Townhall.com.

I quote, We can't underestimate the importance of being a large, resource-rich nation that's isolated from powerful foes. Had Britain been considerably closer, it's possible that we may not have been able to break away and take control of our own destiny. If we had powerful adversaries to our north and south, we might have had greater difficulties when our nation was young and we're just finding our strength. If we had been closer to Europe, our homeland might have been decimated during World Wars I and II. If God had given us first choice of places to found a nation, this is what we would have chosen. Again, brethren, is it an accident of history that our nation, the United States of America, found itself between two great oceans, two great buffers from the rest of the world? It's not easy for Europe to come this way or people from the Orient to come this way. Two great oceans that traverse. God allowed us to have neighbors to our north and to our south who are not just world cowars all to themselves. Let's turn to Genesis 49. Steve went to chapter 48. Let's go to chapter 49 and see a prophecy here. Genesis chapter 49 verses 22-24. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well. His branches run all over the wall. This is a discussion about how that company of nations and the one great nation that is prophesied in the scriptures that come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. He had the 12 sons, one of whom was Joseph. Joseph had Ephraim and Manasseh. We understand that this nation is Manasseh. A fruitful bough by a well whose branches run all over the wall. When I was growing up, and we joke about it being a thousand years ago, when I was growing up and you looked into world history, back in those days when you looked at a map, Britain and all the Commonwealth countries were wrecked. Back in the 1950s and prior to the 1950s when you looked at a world map, every fourth citizen on this planet was a part of the British Empire. Every fourth person. Land so vast we couldn't do, you know, just vast land, branch running all over the wall. Verse 23, the archers that have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him. Have we as a nation been hated? Have the British been hated? Of course we have. But, verse 24, his bow remained his strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. So, yeah, people have been against Britain, against the United States, but God gave us the strength to prevail, because God was keeping his promises to our founding fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. I want to quote from an article that was written by a fellow I think most of you know, a fellow by the name of Melvin Rhodes. Melvin wrote this a number of years ago, I think 13 years ago, but it was an interesting piece on history. It appears on our website. I quote, the fledgling American colonies not only emerged with their independence, but they did so in a vastly stronger position. British historian Paul Johnson writes that, and I quote enough from Paul Johnson, that the 1783 piece of Paris doubled the size of the United States, adding the western territories to the Atlantic states. So after our Revolutionary War, we were no longer just 13 little colonies huddled on the seashore.

Britain ceded her territories west of the original states and east of the Mississippi River.

What does that mean in terms of God building this country? After the Revolutionary War, these states became a part of the Union, became a part of the territory. They didn't become states at that point, but they became part of our territory. What would become Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi? Not too terrible. Our dad did that. God did that after the Revolutionary War. Geography. God knows how to build a nation. But it goes on. There was war that seemed to be perpetual war between France and England.

Napoleon was wanting to conquer all of Europe. He was defeated in 1815 at Waterloo. As a result of the wars that France had in Europe, Napoleon needed money. So what did Napoleon do? He sold something that we call the Louisiana Purchase today. 828,000 square miles of the richest farmland in the world.

And we bought it at an average of three cents per acre. Not bad. We added the states of Louisiana, what would be the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, as well as much of the territory of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota.

The United States of America, barely a quarter century old, was now as large as all the countries of Europe put together. That's God's view of nation building. God's view. God is no piker when it comes to building nations. In 1819, the United States acquired from Spain a territory that would become Florida and the Alabama and Mississippi Panhandles. 25 years later, after a war with Mexico, we would annex Texas, California, Nevada, and Utah, portions of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

In 1867, we bought something that everyone said was so totally worthless. We bought Alaska.

For basically two cents per acre. And we added 20 percent to the landmass of the United States.

Income from Alaska's many resources, petroleum, timber, minerals, fishing, and the like amounts to tens of billions of dollars every year. So, yes, geography was one of the reasons we became and are a great nation. And God did that. Number five of the seven. Number five. Fifth reason we became a great nation. Industrial capacity. Industrial capacity.

Quoting from John Hawkins' article in Townhall.com, economically, America managed to take full advantage of the industrial revolution.

Most people still don't realize how important our ability to turn out material was to winning World War II. Let me give some examples. I think these are interesting examples. By 1944, America built 96,300 planes. More planes that were possessed by the Axle's powers combined. That doesn't include what the British and Soviets produced.

At Ypsilanti, Michigan, I thought I'd throw in a fact here for the locals.

Just a few miles from where I live in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company's gigantic Willow Run plant began turning out B-17 bombers by the hundreds, then thousands.

I don't know how many of you have paid close attention to World War II and that sort of thing.

The most famous plane, perhaps, was the Flying Fortress. That's not what I'm talking about here. The Flying Fortress was the B-17. The B-24 that came off the line here in Ypsilanti.

And when you would take a look at that plane, it had on the back end of the plane, it had the double vertical stabilizers. I'm sure you've probably seen pictures of that plane.

It was called the Liberator. The Liberator was a more modern design than the Flying Fortress. It had a higher top speed and it could carry a heavier bomb load.

At its height, in August of 1944, the Willow Run plant produced 14 B-24s every day. They didn't work a full three shifts. They were putting out a full B-24 bomber one an hour.

One an hour. That's less than 60 miles from a place we're now sitting.

Talking about industrial capacity. When the Japanese learned that America was, you know, when they really didn't want to fight us but they realized, well, we better have a knockout punch to begin with. That's why they designed Pearl Harbor and did so well in their efforts there.

But they realized they were going to wake a sleeping giant when they bombed us.

By 1944, look at the comparison here, by 1944, every United States soldier could draw upon up to 8,000 pounds of supplies. 8,000 pounds per American soldier. Compare that to the Japanese soldier. What can he rely upon? Four pounds. 8,000 pounds versus four pounds. Industrial capacity. It's one of the things that made our nation so great. Genesis 12, verse 2.

Next week we'll discuss how our national capacity to build our industrial capacity is really going downhill. It's been so for some time now. Genesis 12, verse 2. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. One of the great reasons we are strong is because of this industrial capacity that we've had. We quoted Genesis 49.22, where it said, Joseph is a fruitful bow. Fruitful in terms of industrial capacity.

Moving on to point number six. Mr. Hawkins says one of the sixth reasons America became a great nation is because we are a merit-based society. A merit-based society. Quoting again is the paragraph from his write up. America's lack of an aristocracy, tribes, and caste help allow the cream to rise to the top in our society. Although we certainly weren't perfect in this regard as any slave or woman throughout most of our history could attest to, we were well ahead of much of the rest of the world. The fact that we're still regarded by the rest of the world as a land of opportunity is one of our greatest strengths. One of our greatest characteristics is a merit-based society. You know, brethren, that has been such an important aspect of the building of this country. Where people could come to this country, my grandparents, not on my mother's side, but on my father's side, my grandparents sold everything they could.

They were peasants in just about 90 miles east of Rome, Italy. There was no future for them. They realized that, but they realized that over in America, my grandfather had made a couple of trips over here kind of scouting things out, but over here in America, there was a land of opportunity. So they sold everything they had. They had the clothes on their back. They had a few suitcases. My grandmother, my grandfather, my father and my aunt in 1922 moved over to this country. And, you know, the fact that we were a merit-based society, you know, you didn't have to worry about who your father was or grandfather was. If you were a pauper, you could rise to greatness with your ingenuity, with your inventiveness, with your hard work, with your labor.

You weren't held back by anybody. We were a merit-based society. And now, unfortunately, again, we'll talk more about this next week, but today, our young kids. I'm painting with a broad brush here. Every young kid is not like this, so please, you know, don't stone me. But too many of our young people today, they come out of college and they say, hey, I deserve the standard of living that my dad or my mom worked 30 or 40 years to build. They want it right now. Just give it to me.

Well, you know, I'm looking at a number of people here. You've been working all your lives. You've worked hard all your lives. And you've educated yourself in the ways you need to be educated for your particular profession. And you deserve what you've earned. But for somebody to walk out of college and say, give me, that's one of the reasons why our nation is suffering the way it is.

We no longer value a merit-based society. Last poll I saw said 50% of Americans, they're happy that people just give them stuff. Don't necessarily want to work for it. Just give me stuff. Over 50% of our country believes that. Lastly, number seven. Number seven, Mr. Hawkins believes that what made our country great, number seven, was a constitution that limited central government. A constitution that limited central government. Quoting a paragraph from his writing, nothing could be more fundamentally American than a deep and abiding distrust of government. That's why the constitution was specifically designed to keep our own government from oppressing the people. This contributed mightily to our success because the bigger and more powerful the government becomes, the smaller, weaker, and poorer the people become. Our founding fathers understood this and were fanatical about small, decentralized government. The further we move from that principle, the more economic stagnation, frightening levels of debt, and potentially dangerous tyranny we'll see from our own government.

Brethren, do we really think that government is the answer? Now, God's government is the answer. That's true. But has our American government been the answer? No. Our founding fathers in this nation, the George Washingtons, the Jeffersons, the Ben Franklins, they realize, you know, let government get out of our way. Let's unleash the inventiveness of the American people, and we will move forward. And we did so. We did so. You know, in case and point about a small government, you know, by comparison, one of the foremost pieces of legislation that's been handed down the last couple years, the word count in this piece of legislation in America is 425,116 words. 425,000 words. Botanic commandments in Exodus, 319 words.

That's when you include the citation and the verse numbers, 319. In Deuteronomy 370, small is better when it comes to government. And that is God's view as well. Very much God's view. Now, there's an eighth thing here. Let me go through the seven that we discussed today before I get to this eighth thing that he missed, because he does not understand the plan of God.

But he felt that these seven items were the reason America became great. Number one, a Judeo-Christian ethic. Number two, a powerful military. Number three, western culture. Number four, geography. Number five, industrial capacity. Number six, a merit-based society. And number seven, limited central government. Next Sabbath, I'm going to take those same seven points and show that as we abandon those philosophies, as we forget or twist or distort those philosophies, that's why this nation is going down. And this nation is in the process of going down. I've lost track of the number of brethren I've talked to in the last number of months who said they really don't like watching world news anymore or American news anymore because of what we're seeing. It's depressing. It's discouraging. Nothing seems to work anymore.

But there's something that the man missed. And what he missed was the fact that the United States, we are God's people. You know, if you've not read our booklet, the United States and Britain and Bible prophecy in a while, pull that thing out. Most of you have that somewhere in your possessions.

Pull that out. Because of Abraham's faith in God and obedience to God, God promised great rewards to his descendants, and that's us. The reason why this country became great is because God fulfilled his promises to our founding fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

It's not because we're the smartest people or the hardest working people. It's because God was faithful to his promises. Now, more and more people are coming to see this.

Glenn Beck explained that in his TV show back in August of 2013, the truth about the United States and Britain and prophecy. Glenn Beck, worldly commentator. Joe Kovach, so the World Met Daily, published a very supportive article on August 29th. The article was entitled, Glenn Beck, US Identified in Bible. His article began, radio and television host Glenn Beck has now gone public with his belief that the United States is among the famous lost ten tribes of Israel. America today is suffering calamities just as ancient Israel did, due to its disobedience to the laws of God. So this eighth issue here, this eighth reason that America is powerful and became what it became because of promises to our forefathers in the Bible. Mr. Hawkins missed, but we understand. We understand. So, brother, on this Fourth of July weekend, let's appreciate the fact that our Father God built this nation. Let's appreciate the fact that God Himself is given to you and I as Americans. And let's also appreciate that God is given to you and I a tremendous job to do. If you and I were Jewish people in Europe in the 1920s, we would be almost frantic trying to warn our fellow Jews about what was coming down the road with Adolf Hitler. But we may very well be just like those Jews in 1920 in Europe right now. When Jesus Christ returns, there will not be a United States of America. There won't be. Now, God says that at times, prophecies fail. You know, God went to, had Jonah go to Nineveh and say, hey, you know, hey, fella folks, you know, this thing is coming to an end. They repented. They made their animals fast. They made their animals fast. And God said, well, you know, these people, we're going to delay all of this. That can happen to us. But that means you and I, we need to be doing what we need to be doing in our prayers, in our offerings, in our sacrificing, as being a light and an example of what this book, the Built America, talks about.

So, next Sabbath, a little more sobering discussion as to why this nation is going down.