Ontario, Canada

Today is Canada Day, celebrating 159 years of Confederation and Canada being a nation. Saturday, July 4, is America’s 250th anniversary. There is a lot to celebrate and be grateful for.

It is easy for these days to become shallow: We enjoy the day off, the fireworks, the family time and the physical abundance of our nations. There is nothing wrong with enjoying those activities, but we should also think more deeply about what these days mean. We must ask and answer some hard questions.

It is impossible to understand Canada without mentioning our mighty southern neighbor. The creation of Canada was a reaction to the creation of America. The defining difference between the two countries was Canada’s loyalty to the British throne: Most loyalists fled north following the American Revolution. This happened again during the War of 1812. Confederation occurred only two years after the American Civil War ended in 1865. Fearful of the Yankee war machine, and fearful that an American form of government would lead to civil war in Canada (because of Canada’s deep ethnic divisions), the Fathers of Confederation chose to link themselves to the British Empire.

In many ways, 1776—the foundation of America—laid the seeds for the foundation of Canada in 1867. But our origin stories are connected far more deeply than just recent history: Canada and America are cousin nations.

We are descendants of two brothers, Ephraim (British peoples) and Manasseh (Americans), the sons of Joseph, the great-great-great grandchildren of the patriarch Abraham. Through these two brothers God would keep His unconditional promise to Abraham of national greatness. This is all explained in the late Herbert W. Armstrong’s classic work, The United States and Britain in Prophecy.

Our racial origins and our national prosperity are connected. The British and American peoples have been the most blessed in the history of civilization. Canada has benefited from both: It has its own portion as a descendant of Ephraim and has enjoyed wonderful prosperity because of its proximity to the U.S.

This might not be a popular message in the climate of anti-Americanism, but it is true. Propaganda from the mainstream media and Mark Carney’s government has affected many people. Many focus on President Donald Trump’s personality and fail to see the facts. But to really understand what Canada Day is about, we need to look past the physical and get our minds on God.

The only reason Canada and America have lasted until today is because of God’s will and God’s miracles. The only reason we have these abundant blessings and prosperity is because of Abraham’s faith and obedience, and God’s faithfulness to His promises.

Shouldn’t we consider God’s point of view on Canada and America? What is God’s opinion on the state of our nations?

The most famous book on Canadian nationalism, making the case for an independent Canada, is George Grant’s Lament for a Nation. It champions the cause of Canada in the shadow of the American behemoth.

However, God has His own book on the current state of Canada, America and Britain. It is called The Lamentations of Jeremiah, written by Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry.

“Lamentations is a unique biblical book. Many scholars believe it is the Bible’s most poetic book,” Mr. Flurry writes. “It is the most elegant poetry in all the Bible. What makes this so unusual is that this sophisticated message is profound correction from God.”

A loving God is looking at Canada, America and Britain, and seeing terrible spiritual sickness (Isaiah 1 and 3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5) caused by disobedience to God’s law of love. God sees our nations embracing sinful lifestyles and disregarding any form of correction or rebuke. We don’t like being told we are wrong. We despise any mention of God’s law. We use freedom as a cloak for lawlessness, when in reality, we are only free when we obey God (John 8:32).

Our national celebrations barely show gratitude to God, or they ignore Him altogether and focus on materialism, selfish pleasures or glorifying sin.

God has a very different and sober picture. Lamentations expresses God’s emotions at our sins because sin brings consequences. National sin leads to national curses. Universal sin leads to universal destruction. On July 1 and 4, God doesn’t see two nations getting better; He sees two nations about to die. That is why Lamentations is a type of elegy, a poem written for a funeral: “In a sense, the book of Lamentations is like a funeral dirge,” continues Mr. Flurry. “It’s about dying and death. God is showing us reality—a terrible picture of what is about to transpire in the Great Tribulation.”

The Great Tribulation is a 3½-year period of intense punishment God brings upon our nations to lead us to repentance. This period of correction ends with the return of Jesus Christ. God can and will resurrect our nations—but in His Kingdom and under His government. While we celebrate our way to national destruction, Lamentations is God expressing His sorrow and correction.

However, God reserves the most important part of this dirge for those members of God’s one true Church who turned away from the truth. If you remember Mr. Armstrong and the mighty work he had in Canada and America, then Lamentations is for you. One in every 27 Canadians received the Plain Truth, Mr. Armstrong’s flagship magazine. God wants you to respond to the warning before the intense punishment.

The great Prophet Jeremiah wrote this book after being an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem in 585 b.c. That nation too had turned from God, embraced sin, and refused to listen to a warning message. Mr. Flurry writes:

Ezra had this book read to Israel on the 10th day of the fifth month, Ab, because it marked the anniversary of the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century b.c. (The Jews today still read this book on the anniversary of the temple destruction.) … This fact should be of interest to all of us, because in a.d. 70 the temple was also destroyed on the 10th day of the fifth month. That was not a coincidence. That destruction was a type of what is about to happen in this end time.

The 10th day of the fifth month this year is July 22 and 23, soon after our national celebrations. We are repeating this terrible history.

Are you willing to see your nation through God’s point of view? Are you willing to measure your lifestyle according to the Bible?

We should celebrate our nations, and especially celebrate God’s goodness, greatness and faithfulness. However, we need a national reality check.

Despite Lamentations being a funeral dirge, it ends with a message of hope. There is hope in correction: the hope of change, the hope of learning the lesson and beginning a new way of life. The ultimate hope is that very soon Jesus Christ will return and end all sin and suffering forever. That future will be far more glorious, abundant and prosperous than anything we have yet experienced in Canada or America.

“This is the last time ever that God’s own Church or the nations of Israel will be punished like this,” writes Mr. Flurry. “Christ is going to stop the rebellion and rule forever. This is an endless hope and will soon be reality.”

There is endless hope. Use Canada Day and Independence Day to begin building your foundation of hope, a hope founded in the mighty power and promises of the living God.

Learn more about this foundation of hope in The Lamentations of Jeremiah.