Who is the Israel of the Bible? Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ted Cruz argued over this question on Carlson’s podcast, which averages over 1 million views. Both men are Christians but have diametrically opposite biblical beliefs.

This is a microcosm of the confusion over the identity of biblical Israel in religion, society and government worldwide. It is debated, with weapons, in the Middle East, where conflicts over religion, over Jerusalem and ultimately over the Israel of the Bible threaten to engulf the region and the world. In fact, it is a question you need the answer to because it affects your life.

“It behooves us without delay to quickly review that history and open our eyes to divine promises and warnings almost wholly unrealized by our peoples. It is all connected with the generally ignored plain and simple Bible story that leads to knowledge of our incredible ancestry and modern prophetic identity. And it is the most amazing and fascinating story you ever read. Stranger than fiction—yet it is true!”

These riveting words in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, requested by millions of people, are by Herbert W. Armstrong, the most important televangelist, educator, philanthropist and theologian of the 20th century. Written 80 years ago this year, this book is even more relevant and important today.

This anniversary also reminds us that the truth in this book was attacked, nearly destroyed, then miraculously saved.

Master Key

The United States and Britain in Prophecy explains the “master key” that unlocks all Bible prophecy.

Bible prophecy, whether delivered by Old Testament prophets, by Jesus Christ or by New Testament apostles, focuses on one people: Israel.

Mr. Armstrong came to a crossroads in 1926. His business endeavors were wiped out repeatedly by events beyond his control, and he was simultaneously confronted with his wife’s challenge on the Christian day of worship and her sister-in-law disputing what he believed about creation. He began a six-month, night-and-day study to find answers.

The answers came, one after another, as he compared scientific literature to the Bible, and various passages of Scripture to one another. He found irrefutable proof of the Creator, the Bible as the Word of God, the Christian day of worship and the reality of Bible prophecy.

He didn’t know it then, but this began one of the most important developments in the 20th century. The Bible foretold that God would send a man like the ancient prophet Elijah (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 4:5). Jesus Christ confirmed that he would “truly come,” and specified that he would also “restore all things” (Matthew 17:10-11). God was calling Mr. Armstrong to fulfill this role—to restore biblical truths that had been lost by God’s true Church over centuries of persecution, migration and spiritual lethargy. (To learn more, request your free copy of The True History of God’s True Church.)

One truth Mr. Armstrong restored was the identity of modern Israel. This is the master key to unlock Bible prophecy.

One third of the entire Bible is prophecy. A true Christian needs this master key! When you know the modern descendants of nations that appear in the Bible, you can understand how ancient prophecies apply to our time.

After 31/2 more years of study, along with his wife, Loma, Mr. Armstrong found the church that most closely kept the doctrines of the Bible: The Church of God, headquartered in Missouri. (Mr. Armstrong later understood that this was the Sardis era of God’s Church.)

“After exhaustive study and research, I had found it proved that the so-called ‘lost 10 tribes’ of Israel had migrated to Western Europe, the British Isles and later the United States,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in his autobiography. “This truth was written in a lengthy manuscript of close to 300 typed pages and mailed to this editor and leader of this church.” In response to the manuscript, Andrew Dugger—leader of the Stanbury Sardis Church—wrote in a letter dated July 28, 1929: “You are surely right, and while I cannot use it in the paper [the church publication] at the present, you may be assured that your labor has surely not been in vain.”

That admission encapsulates the problem with the Sardis era; they would not take this truth to the world! The Sardis members of God’s Church did nothing with it, but Mr. Armstrong did—and in dramatic fashion.

Mr. Armstrong was ordained into the ministry in June 1931, and through him, God revealed more Bible truth. He also began a humble radio broadcast that became the World Tomorrow program in 1934, as well as the Plain Truth magazine.

Then, in 1945, this small work, dynamically alive with restored truth, reached a turning point. That was the year that Mr. Armstrong published The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

The book constituted a loud trumpet blast, not only informing modern nations that they descended from ancient Israel but also alerting them to prophecies warning them to repent.

In 1947, Mr. Armstrong founded Ambassador College and the publishing department. The work of proclaiming Bible prophecy grew rapidly.

The wonderful restored truth of the identity of the U.S. and Britain in Bible prophecy has been under attack ever since.

War Over the Truth

Mr. Armstrong expanded the book in 1967 and continued offering it on radio and television and in print and advertising, with 6 million requests coming in over his lifetime.

In the 1970s, as Mr. Armstrong was traveling and meeting hundreds of heads of state, legislators and other world leaders, rebellious Church leaders began to water down doctrines and bring liberal ideas into Ambassador College. They gutted the content of The United States and Britain in Prophecy, unfairly calling it racist and unscholarly.

The rebellion climaxed in 1979, when the rebels convinced the California attorney general to attack Mr. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God (wcg) in a breach of religious liberty. He fought back, won in court and in the California legislature. He then reinforced the truths in this book, updating it in 1980 and making it available in hardcover.

Mr. Armstrong died on Jan. 16, 1986. His successors vowed to follow his footsteps—then almost immediately attacked the biblical truths he had taught. They committed a shocking betrayal and a systematic, subtle, deceptive transformation of the Church’s doctrines, including those in The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

Over time, the betrayal became more obvious. The new leader of the church, Joseph Tkach Jr., accused Mr. Armstrong of having plagiarized J. H. Allen’s 1902 book Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright. As Chapter 4 of Raising the Ruins explains, Mr. Armstrong read Allen’s book during his research but found much of it to be in error, as can be easily seen by simply reading both books. The conclusions and prophetic accuracy are completely different.

In 1987, wcg editors slashed more than two thirds of the book, reducing it from 184 pages to 53, falsely claiming to have done so to save on postage. The next year, they stopped publishing The United States and Britain in Prophecy permanently. They wouldn’t tell Church members the real reason—that they rejected what it taught—until years later. In the same manner, they tried to destroy Mr. Armstrong’s greatest book, Mystery of the Ages.

The United States and Britain in Prophecy, the book that had built God’s Church, the book that constituted one of the most effective warnings to the people of Britain and America, was out of print, buried in a grave of treachery.

But the war for the truth wasn’t over.

Hold Fast

Dec. 7, 1989, was another historic pivot point. Tkach Jr. had summoned two wcg ministers to his office for refusing to reject the truth Mr. Armstrong had taught in Mystery of the Ages and throughout his long ministry. Most wcg ministers went along with Tkach’s changes or were complicit in the conspiracy. But these two ministers, Gerald Flurry and John Amos, held on to what they had been taught from the Bible by Mr. Armstrong. Tkach fired them.

As he left that office, Mr. Flurry said, “This is the first sip of a very bitter cup you are going to have to drink.”

A new organization, the Philadelphia Church of God (pcg), began, dedicated to holding on to the truths of the Bible restored by God through Mr. Armstrong.

Exactly seven years after it was officially incorporated, the pcg printed Mystery of the Ages on Dec. 20, 1996, resurrecting Mr. Armstrong’s greatest work. Within days, wcg lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter, then filed a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement. Mr. Flurry filed a counterclaim, demanding the rights for all of Mr. Armstrong’s major books, including The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

The battle lines were drawn for a court battle: The wcg was using its copyright to suppress the teachings of its own founder. The pcg was fighting for its constitutional rights and for the truth of God.

The history of the wcg’s transformation and the yearslong copyright litigation is documented in Raising the Ruins.

Victory

The Worldwide Church of God lost its lawsuit in district court, but won on appeal. When the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, the pcg appeared to have no hope. Then, on Jan. 16, 2003, exactly 17 years after Mr. Armstrong died, the wcg inexplicably acquiesced to terms for a settlement. They sold the pcg full rights to print Mystery of the Ages, The United States and Britain in Prophecy and 17 other books and booklets by Mr. Armstrong. God had granted a miraculous victory!

This vital truth began going out to the world again as our civilization approached its greatest crisis.

It has now been a lifetime, 80 years, since God used the end-time Elijah to restore the truth of the Bible, to reveal the identity of Israel today, and to warn modern-day Israelites. A war has been fought—and won—to give you the opportunity to read this book next to the Bible. The truth it contains, and its warning, could change your life.

What has been your response to the master key of prophecy? Do you believe it is surely right, but have no use for it? This history teaches us a vital lesson: Once we have the truth, we must do something with it!

Read this book again, or for the first time, and answer the challenge Mr. Armstrong concluded it with: “By God’s direction and authority, I have laid the truth before you! To neglect it will be tragic beyond imagination! To heed it will bring blessings, happiness and glory beyond description! The decision is now yours!”