Canada “ceases to exist as a viable country” without money from the United States. That was the assertion President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social in February. He also said he wants to use “economic force” to make Canada the 51st state.

This was more than just insulting rhetoric: In February, Trump announced tariffs on Canada. Then he delayed them, then imposed them a month later, then delayed them again. In March the U.S. placed tariffs on steel and aluminum that affected most of the world but hit Canada and Mexico hardest. Businesses have been left guessing and workers are worried about layoffs.

President Trump’s team has some good reasons for what they’re trying to do—but so too do their critics in Canada and beyond. What’s important to realize is that a lot of bad blood is building between the two nations.

Canada seems eager to strike back. “[W]e’re going to make sure we inflict as much pain as possible on the American people,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, “without inflicting pain on the Canadian population.” Canada’s news media are rabidly anti-Trump, and are helping to shape a major public backlash: Only one third of Canadians say they have a positive view toward the U.S. under its new president. That makes America under Trump only slightly more popular than China under the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2021, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry pointed out the danger in division between Britain and America. Many of these same points apply to the U.S. and Canada.

“The division developing between our nations is a deadly weakness,” he wrote. Whoever is to blame, this division is deadly dangerous. “Threats in the world are increasing,” continued Mr. Flurry. “Other nations are betraying and attacking America and Britain and Israel. Many Bible prophecies show these trends will intensify. In a world this hostile, Britain, America and the Jewish nation of Israel need to stick together and to turn toward God. But they are splitting from God and from each other” (Trumpet, July 2021).

The EU is eager to transform itself into a military rival to the U.S. Europeans stand for fundamentally different values than Americans traditionally have—for example, increasingly restricting free speech and democracy. Yet Canada is siding more and more with the EU. Europe is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, and the two sides already have a trade deal. The EU is an ocean away, so Canada’s lost trade with the U.S. will hurt badly. Perhaps it will turn Canada toward the Europeans even more.

Mr. Flurry concluded his article, “It is shameful that we are causing so much of this division and bringing it upon ourselves. It is going to lead to some dark times for Britain and America.”

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Herbert W. Armstrong proved in his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy that the U.S. and Canada descended from the ancient kingdom of Israel. Division within that kingdom led directly into times of terrible suffering. After the death of King Solomon, divisions in Israel worsened so severely and so quickly that the kingdom split. The northern 10 tribes retained the name kingdom of Israel, and the remaining southern tribes became the kingdom of Judah. No longer united in serving God and being blessed by Him—no longer united at all—the two kingdoms were weakened greatly, warred against one another at times, and eventually fell to outside empires.

Division is also prophesied to play a major role in the fall of modern-day Israel and Judah. “Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; Together they shall be against Judah” (Isaiah 9:21; New King James Version). Manasseh refers to the United States, and Ephraim to Britain and the British Commonwealth, including Canada. These nations being at each other’s throats is a curse!

The next few verses in Isaiah 10 condemn those who “decree unrighteous decrees” and “turn aside the needy from judgment, and … take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!” This describes those who abuse the law to make the innocent suffer.

God goes from talking about disunity to talking about sin. Isaiah 10 goes on to warn all Israel that it too will be conquered if it doesn’t repent of its sin.

While discord is a curse, unity is a blessing, and one God promises to bring soon. The turmoil in this world is leading to the rise of a new world, where nations will be taught to obey God. Then “[t]he envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim” (Isaiah 11:13).

The divide between the U.S. and Canada is the result of sin. Unity comes from repentance. When these nations return to God, they can lead the world into unity with Him.