On this Canada Day, the country is experiencing a resurgence. Patriotism has increased in the shadow of a trade war with the United States, plus President Donald Trump’s comments on Canada not being a “real country” and its future as the 51st state. The Canadian victory over the U.S. in the 4 Nations Cup hockey tournament earlier this year fueled this sentiment. This year also happened to be the 60th anniversary of Canada’s red-and-white maple leaf flag becoming its national symbol. “Wave the flag” is Canada’s new battle cry. Prime Minister Mark Carney fostered and harnessed this emotional flag waving during the May election.

Canadians are often a reserved and deferring people. But being challenged on the value and identity of their country lit a spark of nationalism in their hearts.

What can Canadians take pride in? Is the idea of Canada worth fighting for?

If you read the Trumpet’s articles on Canada, you may have a negative view of the country. Part of our job at the Trumpet is explained in Isaiah 58:1: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” The sins, corruption and problems of the country must be exposed.

As a Canadian, it has been bitter to see a great country reduced to an international laughingstock filled with existential crises. It is depressing to see mass unemployment, personal and public debt, closing businesses, out-of-control drug consumption, a failed military, incompetent leaders and no solutions in sight. But that is not the end of the story.

The main problem that has always plagued Canada is an identity crisis. Defining Canada’s core identity is an unsolvable riddle. From the Plains of Abraham to Confederation to today, the nation is a collection of competing languages, cultures, opinions and agendas. National unity and patriotism has been fleeting.

If you drive the Trans-Canada Highway from coast to coast, the map will indicate you are in one country, but it feels like you have passed through four different nations.

But there is a single, foundational identity Canadians can rally around. It is awe-inspiring and uplifting. It can transcend any difference of language, race or creed. It is found in the infallible Word of God.

What Is a Canadian?

What are the first things that come to mind when you think of Canada, eh? Probably maple syrup, moose, beavers, hockey, Tim Hortons and Mounties. These are how we are identified in the world. While these things are not bad in themselves, they are not serious national symbols. We have been relegated to a caricature, a cartoon character. These symbols lack substance and inspiration.

Yet Canadians have accepted this shallow identity. It is even harder to put into words the values and symbols that unite us. Events show this has left Canada vulnerable to evil intentions.

There are two main reasons for this identity crisis.

First, Canada is based on the idea of compromise. The original French and British antagonisms have never been resolved: the conflict of languages (English and French), the conflict of religion (Protestant and Catholic), the conflict of law (common law vs. civil law), and the conflict of culture. Our 150-plus-year history shows the divide between these two peoples cannot be bridged with compromise but with supremacy. Even now there is an internal war between English and French factions over Canada’s identity. This is the cause of most of our national turmoil.

Canadian Confederation is an experiment on whether peoples with fundamental differences can coexist. It started with the Quebecois, English, Acadians and indigenous peoples, but it has extended to any diaspora or migrant population. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms empowers minorities over the majority. Division is institutionalized into every part of national life. Each group has its own identity, agenda and loyalties.

Second, there has been a deliberate agenda to fundamentally change Canada’s identity by a Communist infiltration. The late Herbert W. Armstrong warned that Communists would hijack our universities and governments. This has clearly happened in Canada. These leaders, through education and legislation, have replaced our traditional identity with progressive group rights such as multiculturalism, equity and inclusion. Canada’s identity is an amoeba where everyone belongs.

The Marxist virtue of self-loathing has been a plague: We blot out our history because of colonialism, racism, genocide hoaxes or other perceived wrongs. These are self-righteous justifications for a devious agenda. The Trudeau family, as well as many other leaders like Louis St. Laurent and Lester B. Pearson, has been wildly successful in this regard. One of Justin Trudeau’s fundamental goals was to turn Canada into a post-national state: a nation without an identity.

Lament for a Nation

George Grant’s book Lament for a Nation is considered Canada’s best case for nationalism. The first part of the book points out how liberalism has become the political mainstream. The second half uses German rationalism to reason out the greatest threat to Canada: the United States. Grant warns that the U.S. threatens to swallow up Canada through modernism and mass technology. Besides the stumbling intellectual language, Grant cannot put his finger on the one idea behind Canada. The fundamental flaw of his analysis is dismissing the fundamental flaw within the country and focusing on our American neighbors (like every politician today). We shouldn’t need a perceived enemy to find a unifying national cause. If Lament for a Nation is the best argument we can make for Canada, we are indeed lost.

Thankfully, another book puts forward the argument for Canada. The United States and Britain in Prophecy does not have Canada in the title, but it reveals Canada is part of the central story of the Bible. In this masterful work, the late Herbert W. Armstrong explained the biblical identity of many modern nations, particularly those of the English-speaking peoples.

Canada’s biblical identity is founded upon two pillars. In Genesis 48:19, it was prophesied that the Israelite tribe of Ephraim would become a “multitude of nations.” Genesis 35:11 calls Ephraim a “company of nations.” As The United States and Britain in Prophecy explains, this incredible prophecy was fulfilled by the British Empire. Canada became a leading member of this company, or commonwealth, of nations.

Yet this commonwealth was held together by another promise, another identifying sign. “Soon Britain’s Empire spread around the world, until the sun never set upon her possessions,” wrote Mr. Armstrong. “Canada, Australia, South Africa were given dominion status—made free and independent nations, ruling themselves independent of England—a company, or commonwealth, of nations joined together, not by legal government, but solely by the throne of David!”

The throne of David, which was continued through the royal family of Great Britain, was the unifying force in the prophesied company of nations. It also brought together the different peoples spread across Canada’s vast expanse. These two pillars gave our nation purpose and vision.

This was evident in Canada’s early history. Micah 5:8 describes the British Empire as a “lion.” “Again, this symbolism describes the last generation of Israel as a great power—as a lion among the other nations of the Earth,” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “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!”

Canada has a distinguished legacy in the world wars, swinging above its weight class and forging an important role in defeating tyranny. This determination was also displayed in the taming of our vast wilderness and our scientific innovation.

We did not earn nor deserve these incredible blessings, but they were given for a definite purpose.

Uniting the World

Canada was founded by the living God. Our existence fulfills Bible prophecy. Our national identity is permanently intertwined with the most incredible promises of the Bible.

The first pillar is based on the promise of national greatness; the second is based on the scepter promise of a kingly line culminating in the return of Jesus Christ to this Earth. That heritage should dazzle our imagination.

Perhaps it is hard to believe this is reality. Our culture and thinking today is so far from God and the Bible that it seems preposterous. But you should prove it for yourself by studying The United States and Britain in Prophecy. When we realize our true identity, we should rejoice and seek to understand what this implies for us as a nation. Mr. Armstrong wrote:

Yes, we are God’s chosen people Israel! Think what that means! Chosen, not for favors while we defy our God, but chosen for service we have failed to perform.

We should shout for joy at the discovery of our true identity—and we should be brought to repent—and to turn to God—and to get back of this crusade by radio and by printed word to warn our people, and to call upon God in real heartrending prayer for divine deliverance.

Our identity should cause us to brim with joy and pride in our shared history with God. The history of the people of Israel in the Old Testament is the history of our forefathers. The God of miracles revealed in the Bible is the same God who established Canada.

This gives us purpose and vision: God’s intent is not to show favoritism to one nation, but to set an example. Acting as a “firstborn” nation, Canada and the other Israelite nations have the mission of leading the rest of the world to God. Canada was meant to unite the world under the leadership of God, the only path to world peace. This is not achieved through peacekeeping or multiculturalism, but through obedience to God’s laws.

How much more inspiring, majestic and fulfilling is this identity than what we have settled on today: hockey, maple syrup and beavers. This is the Canadian idea we should rally behind. This should stir our hearts to action. A healthy patriotism should be founded in our love for the God who gave us these tremendous blessings.

We are living through the effects of rejecting this identity. We must use this resurgence in patriotism to inspire a resurgence in repentance, in seeking God, and reclaiming our biblical heritage. This is the only path to saving our country.

This life-saving knowledge is in our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.