At 7:53 a.m., on Dec. 7, 1941, the first Japanese bombs struck their targets on Oahu, Hawaii. The United States Pacific Fleet was under surprise attack. The center of the Japanese assault was on “Battleship Row,” where eight of the most powerful ships in the Pacific Ocean were anchored in a neat, defenseless line. A total of 94 U.S. ships were targeted. All were completely unprepared for the attack.

Within 10 minutes of the first bomb being dropped, a Japanese bomb pierced both decks on the uss Arizona and ignited the magazine, causing a massive explosion and ripping a hole in the side of the ship. The iron behemoth quickly listed to the side and sank beneath the waves, taking 1,300 men with it. Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, “Half an hour after the battle opened, Arizona was a burning wreck, Oklahoma had capsized, West Virginia had sunk, California was going down, and every other battleship (except Pennsylvania in dry dock) had been badly damaged.”

For two hours, hundreds of Japanese planes mercilessly attacked Pearl Harbor and the American fleet. A peaceful day in paradise became a fiery conflagration of war. At the end of the attack, 20 Navy vessels were damaged or sunk, 300 airplanes were damaged, 2,400 Americans were killed, and another 1,000 were wounded.

“Never in modern history was a war begun with so smashing a victory,” wrote Morison. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt declared Pearl Harbor “a day of infamy.” The following day the United States declared war on Japan. As journalist Edward R. Murrow said, America was bombed into World War ii.

Despite the overwhelming damage, not all was lost. The Japanese had not destroyed the infrastructure at Pearl Harbor, which allowed many of the damaged ships to be quickly repaired. Miraculously, the aircraft carriers were not at Pearl Harbor that day, which saved the Pacific Fleet from being completely neutralized.

Perhaps the greatest miracle of all is that America did not crumble in the face of this disaster. In fact, it became the turning point for the entire war! Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote: “December 7 is a date etched indelibly into the memories of many Americans. On that day in 1941, the Pacific Fleet of the U.S. Navy was smashed to smithereens in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. America’s response was furious and hard-hitting; its entrance into both theaters of World War ii marked a turning point of the war.”

Pearl Harbor turned America into the world superpower. James Holmes wrote for 19FortyFive:

America was slumbering in that it was reluctant to get involved in foreign wars, but it was a giant in that it boasted gargantuan natural resources and industrial capacity. In other words, it was an industrial giant with the latent capacity to make itself a military giant. And it could translate that potential into working military might given sufficient resolve. The U.S. economy was nine to ten times the size of Japan’s. You don’t want to poke a potential enemy with that vast a potential military advantage. And yet Japan did at Pearl Harbor. It mobilized the American people and society to transform latent into actual military power. Their fury aimed that juggernaut at the empire across the Pacific.

Not only did America boast the materiel power to fight back, the American people responded with courage and ferocity. The late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in The United States and Britain in Prophecy:

An important additional proof of modern Israel’s identity is found in a fantastic, detailed and most specific prophecy found in Micah 5:7-15. … “And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver” (verse 8).

Again, this symbolism describes the last generation of Israel as a great power—as a lion among the other nations of the Earth.

“Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off” (verse 9). …

So this prophecy shows that at the very time we were receiving God’s blessings, we were a tremendous blessing to the other nations of the Earth—for it is our peoples who have rescued the other nations of the world time and again ….

It is our peoples who have been like a “lion” among the other nations of the Earth—preserving in two great world wars the peace of the world and stability for all human life on this planet!

The Bible prophesied that at the peak of receiving the birthright blessings of Abraham, the American people would be as a lion among the nations of the Earth (please read The United States and Britain in Prophecy for a full explanation). America struck back against the empire of Japan with a unified fury and unparalleled courage, just as a lion strikes its prey. America’s greatest generation of generals and admirals, including Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and George Patton, rose up to lead to victory the greatest military juggernaut ever seen on Earth.

Eighty years later, much has changed in America.

There are some vital lessons we need to learn from Dec. 7, 1941. If imperial Japan was willing to risk attacking the slumbering giant of America, when the people and leader were as lions, would America’s enemies today think twice about attacking a declining and decrepit nation?

America boasts no more great generals and leaders. It’s as God warned in Isaiah 3: “For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away … The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator” (verses 1-3). The Afghanistan crisis exposed this dangerous reality.

The Prophet Isaiah also wrote a vivid analogy of what American society would be like in these last days: “[T]he whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” (Isaiah 1:5-6). We truly live in an age of infamy.

Yet in this time of decline and curses, there is another December 7 anniversary that points toward a real reason for hope. It occurred 32 years ago, another turning point in another war. It was a surprise attack not from the outside but from within. And it occurred not only inside one of the physical nations of Israel, but inside the spiritual nation of Israel, God’s one true Church. It was a preemptive, imperious attack on God’s message of prophecy, judgment and warning. The leaders of the one and only true Church attempted to destroy God’s message by firing and excommunicating the only minister, and his assistant, whom God was using to deliver His message. On that day, the history of God’s Church changed, because that man, Gerald Flurry, held on to the truth with lionlike tenacity. Since that night in 1989, God has built His Church from 12 members to thousands and raised up the spiritual ruins to give America, the nations of Israel and the world one last warning message.

Jesus Christ said, “[U]pon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). That means that the very same Church that He founded is still somewhere on Earth right now. December 7 can help you find it. Look into these two dates in 1941 and in 1989, and they can inspire you, embolden you and encourage you in these dark times.

Read “December 7, God’s House, and New Jerusalem.”