Origin of the ‘Special Relationship’

“Two kings.” That was the tongue-in-cheek caption the White House posted with a photo of King Charles iii meeting President Donald Trump.

When Charles arrived in Washington on Monday for a state visit—the first by a reigning British monarch in over two decades—the fanfare was genuine and the words were warm. President Trump praised the “bond of kinship” between America and Britain as “priceless and eternal.” The king spoke before a joint session of Congress of a partnership “more important today than it has ever been.”

It was, for a moment, genuinely uplifting. In a world of cynicism and division, here were the leaders of the English-speaking world standing shoulder to shoulder, invoking history, heritage and friendship.

What they didn’t say was the inspiring spiritual reason these two nations are great, and why this “special relationship” exists!

Brothers Who Forgot Their Father

President Trump got closer to the truth than he perhaps realized when he marveled at how two nations that literally split apart in 1776 could build the most powerful alliance in human history.

How do you explain it? He called it “a certain nobility of spirit and heroic soul.” That’s a beautiful phrase, but it’s not the answer.

The answer is in your Bible. Long ago, God appeared to a man named Abraham, commanded him to believe Him and obey Him, and made a staggering promise: “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great …” (Genesis 12:2). Abraham did believe and did obey, and God furthermore promised that his descendants would become as numerous “as the dust of the earth” and “as the stars of heaven,” forming nations, possessing land, becoming kings. These were civilization-defining promises.

These promises of national greatness were repeated to and further expanded and specified for Abraham’s direct descendants: Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and brothers Ephraim and Manasseh. Genesis 48 records that God specified to Jacob that Manasseh “shall be great”—one great nation—and Ephraim would become “a multitude of nations.”

Look at world history. Which people became a company of nations spanning the globe, on which the sun literally never set? The British Empire. Which nation rose to become the greatest superpower the world has ever seen? America.

Herbert W. Armstrong documented that prophetic fulfillment in The United States and Britain in Prophecy. The evidence from Scripture and from history is overwhelming! These aren’t two nations who happen to share a language or a legal tradition or a vague sense of nobility and heroism.

They are brother nations—sons of Joseph and heirs of Abraham. And they were made great not by their own genius, but by God’s promises and His fulfilment of those promises.

That is what King Charles and President Trump were celebrating in the city of Washington—without even saying it and almost certainly not even knowing it!

Warm Words, Cold Reality

This state visit was prompted by crisis. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle described it plainly: The king came to Washington on a “diplomatic charm offensive” at a moment when trans-Atlantic ties are seriously strained. The United States and Israel attacked the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. They surely expected help from their ally, Britain. Britain refused. Prime Minister Keir Starmer withheld even basic assistance. Meanwhile, trade disputes are unresolved. London has sided against Washington and with Europe on several crucial issues.

Analysts say the king made the trip precisely because he stands above politics. His visit could help the two countries “rise above the current very, very sour political moment.” There’s no question the pageantry worked, at least for a news cycle.

But pageantry is not policy. And deeper problems between these brother nations remain!

Consider this: King Charles stood before Congress and declared that the Christian faith is “a firm anchor and daily inspiration.” Those are good words. But this is the same man who has spent years promoting interfaith dialogue, elevating other religions to equal standing with Christianity, and characterizing himself as the first king in 500 years to be a protector of all faiths in addition to the official monarchial title “Protector of the Faith”—the Christian faith.

Is that an anchor? Or is it drift? You cannot build upon the Christian foundations of Western civilization while acting as though non-Christian faiths are equally valid and important alternatives.

Is genuine national repentance happening in Britain or America right now? Is the revival we hear talked about real? Is it turning people from their sins? Or is it a form of religion that 2 Timothy 3:5 warns of, “[h]aving a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof …”?

Division Is Not Strength

The spectacle of a king trying to paper over cracks in the Anglo-American alliance is alarming enough. But there is something even more dangerous happening within each nation individually. The U.S. has rarely been more bitterly divided. You hear politicians and commentators say that our “diversity,” including our actual divisions, makes us stronger, that debate and disagreement are signs of a healthy democracy. That is a lie. Division is tearing these nations apart.

Think about what it means that a foreign king had to fly to Washington to try to smooth relations between two countries that are supposed to be the closest allies on Earth. Think about what it means that a sitting president has publicly clashed with his supposed partner nation’s prime minister. These are not minor diplomatic squabbles. They are the early stages of an international fracture that the Bible prophesied long ago.

The same books of prophecy that forecasted the rise of America and Britain—Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, the prophets—also predicted their fall. Leviticus 26 is one of the most sobering passages in Scripture. God warned Israel that if the nation turned from His laws, the blessings would become curses. Strength would become weakness. Allies would become enemies. “And I will break the pride of your power …” (verse 19). Britain’s empire is gone. America’s supremacy is being challenged on every front. The pride of our power is being broken before our eyes.

God Is Not Getting the Credit

After the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the nation was briefly sobered. People saw those videos and those photographs—the head tilting away from the bullet’s path, the fist raised, the flag behind him—and even those who despised the man could see it. Something miraculous had happened. For a few days, you heard people across the political spectrum say that God intervened.

That was less than two years ago. By the third attempt just the other day, the references to God have nearly vanished from public discussion. That trajectory tells you something deeply important about where our nations are spiritually. The memory of God’s mercy lasts about a news cycle.

God made America great. Not American ingenuity or grit or anything else. God made these nations great because He made a promise to our father Abraham 4,000 years ago, Abraham believed and obeyed, and God kept His promises. That is the story of this special relationship. It is a story about belief in the one true God, about obedience and blessing, and about disobedience and consequences.

When was the last time you heard an American president or a British monarch say that plainly?

Prophecy Ahead

There is a reason the Trumpet has been emphasizing the Anglo-American special relationship for decades. It is not sentiment. It is Bible prophecy. The same Bible that accurately foretold the rise of these two nations foretells their coming collapse—not a gentle decline or gradual fading into irrelevance, but a sudden, catastrophic collapse unlike anything in human history.

Jesus Christ called it the Great Tribulation. He prophesied in Matthew 24:21, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” The Prophet Jeremiah called it “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). These prophecies are specifically about the modern descendants of Israel—largely America and Britain.

This is not doom for its own sake. It is a warning meant to drive people to repentance for their sins. God is crying out, through a watchman, through a prophet, just as He did in the past, recorded in the pages of your Bible. God does not want these nations to fall. He wants them to turn. He is sending warning after warning—in geopolitical fractures, in moral collapse, in leadership failures, in the erosion of every institution our nations were built on. His patience is extraordinary. But it is not infinite.

Two kings met in Washington. The photographs were historic. The speeches were eloquent. The friendship is real. But none of that means anything without belief in, humility toward, repentance toward and obedience to the God made us great in the first place! God told us from the very beginning that the blessings of Abraham came due to faith and obedience and, once fulfilled, were conditional on faith and obedience.

We have not believed. We have not obeyed. We are living off the inertia of divine blessings that we won’t even admit are divine blessings.

Ezekiel 33:6 describes a watchman who sees the sword coming and fails to warn the people. That watchman, God says, bears responsibility for the blood that follows. We have seen the sword. We are sounding the alarm. The question—the only question that matters—is whether you will hear it.