What happens to the billions of human beings who have lived and died without ever knowing the true God?

What about the people who lived centuries before Jesus Christ? What about those born into cultures dominated by religions they inherited from their parents? What about children who died before they were old enough to understand anything about salvation?

Are they lost?

Traditional Christianity has struggled with these questions for centuries, but the Bible provides an answer that is both encouraging and far greater in scope than many realize.

Jesus Christ gave an important clue during one of God’s annual Holy Days. On what John calls “the last day, that great day of the feast,” Jesus stood before the people and cried out:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37).

Christ was speaking during the Feast season described in Leviticus 23. The symbolism of that final day points toward a time when the opportunity for salvation will extend to those who lived and died without understanding God’s truth. The final day of the Holy Day season is the one Jesus was referring to in his dramatic announcement in John 7!

The Last Day, The Eighth Day

But there is more to this day—and more to God’s plan—than the resurrection of those billions of people. The final three chapters of Revelation describe three great events that bring the human phase of God’s plan to completion and then take us beyond it.

First comes the Great White Throne Judgment and the resurrection of those who never received their opportunity for salvation.

Then comes the final judgment of those who ultimately reject God’s offer of life.

Finally, Revelation takes us beyond physical human existence itself, into the New Heaven and New Earth described in its final two chapters. These three great events are all represented in this final Festival, the Last, or Great Day.

Where is all of this leading? Isaiah gives us an important description of God in Isaiah 57:15. He calls Him the High and Lofty One “Who inhabits eternity.”

God doesn’t just live forever. He inhabits eternity.

And ultimately, the purpose of the One who inhabits eternity is to bring His children into eternity with Him.

The Great Resurrection

Revelation 20 begins by describing the resurrection of God’s saints and their reign with Jesus Christ for 1,000 years. But tucked into that description is an important statement:

“The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:5). Who are “the rest of the dead”?

After describing the thousand years and the final rebellion that follows, John sees a great white throne.

“I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life” (Revelation 20:12).

These people were dead. They had been dead. But now they are alive and standing before God!

And significantly, the Book of Life is open to them. This isn’t a picture of billions of people being resurrected so God can condemn them for failing to understand something they were never given an opportunity to know.

Jesus plainly said in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” If they hadn’t been drawn to God’s purpose in the first 6,000 years of human existence–they will be–in the Great White Throne Judgment!

Consider the implications. The overwhelming majority of humanity has never experienced that calling. Billions lived centuries before Christ. Others spent their entire lives in cultures where the God of the Bible was unknown. Some died as infants or young children. Countless others simply believed the religion or philosophy dominant in the culture into which they happened to be born.

Did God lose them? No. Their opportunity is still ahead of them.

Can the Dead Live Again?

Ezekiel was given one of the Bible’s most vivid visions of resurrection. In Ezekiel 37:1–14, the prophet sees a valley filled with dry bones. God asks him, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Then something astounding happens.

The bones come together. Sinews and flesh appear upon them. Skin covers them. Breath enters them. And they live. These aren’t immortal spirit beings. They have been restored to physical life.

Notice their condition before God resurrects them: “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!” (Ezekiel 37:11).

They believed everything was over. God tells them it isn’t.

He opens their graves, restores their lives and then promises, “I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live” (verse 14).

That helps explain why the Book of Life is open in Revelation 20. These people aren’t resurrected to hear a sentence pronounced against them. They are resurrected to learn, understand and choose.

Isaiah may give us another glimpse of this period. Isaiah 65:20 describes a time when one dying at a hundred years of age is still described as a child. While the passage doesn’t explicitly identify itself with the Great White Throne period, it is consistent with the principle that those resurrected are given time to learn God’s way before judgment becomes final. Think about what such a resurrection means.

People separated by death for thousands of years will live again. Families will be reunited. People who endured some of the darkest periods of human history will awaken to life. Those who never knew Jesus Christ will learn who He is. Those who lived under spiritual deception will finally understand truth.

This isn’t their second chance. It will be their first genuine opportunity.

Eventually Christ’s invitation—“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink”—reaches everyone.

But Everyone Must Choose

An opportunity for salvation doesn’t remove the necessity of choice. The Bible describes another resurrection and final judgment. Daniel wrote that some of the dead would awaken “to everlasting life” while others would awaken “to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).

Jesus spoke similarly in John 5:28–29, describing a “resurrection of life” and a “resurrection of condemnation.”

Paul was even more direct, saying there would be “a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15).

God can provide every opportunity. He can teach His truth, demonstrate that His way works, remove Satan’s deception and offer His Spirit. But God allows human beings to choose.

Moses expressed that fundamental principle thousands of years ago: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

That choice eventually confronts every human being.

Judged According to Their Works

Revelation 20:12 says the dead are “judged according to their works.” That statement should cause all of us to stop and think.

None of us would want to stand before God claiming that our own record of works is sufficient to justify us.

Paul wrote that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

David asked the question even more directly: “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3).

The answer is obvious. None of us. But David immediately adds something that changes everything:

“But there is forgiveness with You” (verse 4).

That is the enormity of what God offers mankind.

The books of our lives contain plenty that needs forgiveness. But Revelation says another book is opened—the Book of Life.

Our past doesn’t have to determine our future. God promises concerning those who repent: “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).

Those resurrected in the Great White Throne will need exactly what Christians need today: repentance, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s forgiveness and His Holy Spirit.

But ultimately, every individual must choose.

When Death Itself Dies

Revelation then describes the final consequences for those who knowingly and ultimately reject God’s offer of life. “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death” (Revelation 20:14). Notice the terminology.

It is the second death. Those who finally reject God’s offer of eternal life receive the consequence they have chosen. The punishment is permanent because its result is permanent.

Unpleasant as it may seem, this final judgment allows for everyone to choose God’s way or face the “second death.” This also is part of the meaning of the “Last” or “Great Day.”

But something else happens in this passage that is easy to overlook.

Death itself is destroyed.

Paul had written about this years earlier: “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). For all of human history, death has been our enemy. Every family has experienced it. Every generation has faced it. Every civilization eventually succumbs to it.

But eventually death itself dies. There are no more human beings waiting in graves. No one remains who has not received an opportunity. Everyone who will choose life has chosen it. Death has served its purpose.

The physical human story has reached its conclusion.

But God’s plan hasn’t. There is still a third meaning of this final Feast Day in God’s Holy Day plan.

Beyond the Great White Throne

Revelation 20 ends. Revelation 21 begins:

“Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away” (Revelation 21:1).

Peter described this same future in 2 Peter 3:10–13, when he wrote that the present heavens will pass away and the elements will be dissolved, followed by “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

This theme isn’t confined to Peter and John.

Psalm 102:25–27 says the heavens and earth will perish and be changed. Isaiah 51:6 says the heavens will vanish and the earth will grow old like a garment. Isaiah 65:17 speaks of God creating new heavens and a new earth. Jesus Himself said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:35).

Everything we presently see around us is temporary. God’s purpose isn’t. Then John sees the Holy City, New Jerusalem, descending from God.

And a voice announces: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3).

Now we begin to understand where the entire plan has been going. The Millennium isn’t the ultimate goal. The Great White Throne isn’t the ultimate goal. Even the “Great Resurrection” isn’t the ultimate goal.

The goal is family—God dwelling with His children.

What Will Eternity Be Like?

Revelation 21 and 22 don’t tell us everything about eternal life, but the imagery gives us fascinating glimpses.

First, eternity is safe. Revelation 21:4 tells us there will be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain. Satan has been removed. Rebellion has ended.

John describes New Jerusalem as having a great wall, yet Revelation 21:25 says its gates are never closed.

Why build a wall and leave the gates open? Throughout history, cities closed their gates because enemies might enter. But there are no enemies outside this city. There is nothing left to fear.

The imagery is one of complete security.

Perfect Symmetry

John next gives the dimensions of New Jerusalem. Its length, breadth and height are equal (Revelation 21:16).

That recalls the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple, whose dimensions were also equal (1 Kings 6:20). Under the Old Covenant, God’s presence was represented within that inner sanctuary. Access was restricted. A veil separated it from everyone else. But John says there is no temple in New Jerusalem.

Why?

“For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22).

There is no restricted room representing God’s presence. There is no veil separating God from His children. In a sense, the whole city has become the Holy of Holies because God dwells with His family. The symmetry is fitting. Nothing is incomplete. Nothing is unfinished.

God began in Genesis 1:26 with the declaration, “Let Us make man in Our image.”

Now the work has reached its intended result.

Unity Without Uniformity

John also says something intriguing about the nations. “The nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it” (Revelation 21:24).

God doesn’t appear to erase everything distinctive about the peoples He created.

Throughout human history different peoples have developed different strengths, experiences, abilities and accomplishments. Tragically, those differences have also produced rivalry, suspicion, nationalism and warfare.

None of those divisions remains here. Whatever is honorable and worthwhile is brought into harmony with God. There is diversity without division and unity without uniformity. The strengths of God’s children contribute to one family.

Beyond Eden

Then we arrive at the final chapter of the Bible. John sees “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1).

We’ve seen that water before. Jesus stood on the Last Great Day and cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”

Now the water isn’t pictured as a cup. It is a river.

And beside that river stands something we haven’t seen since the opening chapters of Genesis.

The Tree of Life.

Genesis begins with mankind having access to that tree. Satan enters. Sin follows. Adam and Eve reject God’s instruction and are expelled from Eden. Access to the Tree of Life is removed.

Now look at Revelation. Satan is gone. Sin is gone. Death is gone. The curse is gone.

And the Tree of Life is there again. But God’s plan hasn’t taken mankind back to Eden.

It has taken us beyond Eden.

In Eden there were two physical human beings.

Now there is an immense family of glorified children dwelling eternally with the Father and Jesus Christ.

Does Perfection Mean Nothing Ever Changes?

Revelation 22:2 contains an intriguing statement. The Tree of Life continually produces fruit, and its leaves are “for the healing of the nations.”

That doesn’t have to imply that immortal members of God’s family become sick. The imagery can point toward God’s continuing provision—continuing well-being, benefit and growth.

Sometimes when we think of perfection, we unconsciously picture everything becoming static, as though nothing changes, nothing develops and nothing remains to be accomplished. But why should perfection mean stagnation?

God is infinite.

Could His children ever exhaust everything there is to learn about Him? Could creativity ever be exhausted? Discovery? Accomplishment? Relationships within an enormous family of eternal beings?

Notice how active the imagery of Revelation 21 and 22 is.

The river flows. The tree produces. The nations walk. Their glory and honor are brought into the city. God’s servants serve Him. And Revelation 22:5 says they “shall reign forever and ever.”

Eternal life has purpose.

Purpose doesn’t end when the problems end.

We don’t know everything God has planned for eternity. He hasn’t told us.

But He has told us enough to know that eternity isn’t endless inactivity.

It is life.

The God Who Inhabits Eternity

The Bible begins with mankind losing access to the Tree of Life and leaving the presence of God. It ends with mankind restored to the Tree of Life—and God coming to dwell with His children.

That brings us back to Isaiah 57:15. God identifies Himself as the High and Lofty One “Who inhabits eternity.”

Think about the magnitude of what God has been doing from the beginning. The God who inhabits eternity created human beings so that one day we could inhabit eternity with Him.

The Great White Throne is an essential part of that plan. But it isn’t the end.

It is part of the road to something far greater:

The Great White Throne—and beyond.

For Further Study

The biblical Holy Days provide a framework for understanding God’s plan for mankind. Beginning with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they proceed through His return, the establishment of the Kingdom of God, the resurrection of those who have never had their opportunity for salvation, and ultimately God’s purpose of bringing His children into His eternal family.

For a more complete study of these annual festivals and what they picture, the United Church of God offers the free study guide God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind | United Church of God It explains each of the biblical Holy Days and how together they reveal the unfolding plan of God.

The booklet can be read online or requested free of charge from the United Church of God at United Church of God

Imagine a world that has enjoyed 1,000 years of peace.

War has disappeared. Nations are no longer devoting enormous resources to building weapons capable of destroying their neighbors. Jesus Christ governs the earth in righteousness. Satan, whom the Bible calls “the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), has been restrained from influencing mankind.

The prophet Isaiah describes a time when people “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,” when “nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

It will be a world unlike anything mankind has ever experienced.

But then something happens that seems almost incomprehensible.

Revelation 20 describes Satan being bound at the beginning of Christ’s 1,000-year reign “so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.”

Then comes a curious statement:

“But after these things he must be released for a little while” (Revelation 20:3).

Why must Satan be released?

After 1,000 years of peace, prosperity and righteous government, what possible purpose could be served by allowing the great deceiver to influence mankind again?

The answer reveals something important about human nature, character and God’s purpose for mankind.

Can Prosperity Prevent Deception?

One of the first questions that comes to mind is obvious. How could people who have lived in such prosperity possibly be deceived?

Perhaps we misunderstand prosperity. Wealth and prosperity are relative terms.

There was a time when having enough food to eat and a secure roof over your head represented considerable prosperity. Running water was once a luxury. Electricity transformed daily life. Automobiles provided mobility earlier generations couldn’t imagine. Air travel changed the world again, followed by computers, the Internet and instant global communication.

Yet children born into a world of running water, electricity, automobiles and computers don’t normally consider themselves extraordinarily wealthy. To them,those things are normal.

Today’s luxury becomes tomorrow’s expectation.

Project that principle hundreds of years into the future. Someone born during the eighth or ninth century of Christ’s 1,000-year reign will never have experienced the world we know.

War will be history. Widespread hunger will be history.

Governments that oppress and exploit their own populations will be history.

The enormous military establishments nations maintain today will be history.

That generation won’t remember the world Christ rescued mankind from. Peace and prosperity will be the only world they have ever known.

And human history demonstrates something important: prosperity has never made people immune to deception.

Having more doesn’t necessarily make people more thankful, and greater opportunity doesn’t automatically produce greater character.

The Lesson of Eden

In fact, the Bible begins with this lesson.

Adam and Eve didn’t rebel against God because they lived in poverty or suffered under an unjust government. God placed them in an extraordinary environment.

Genesis 2 describes Eden as a garden filled with trees that were pleasant to see and good for food. There was no warfare, crime, hunger or political corruption.

God Himself was their teacher.

Yet Genesis 3 records that when Satan presented them with an alternative to God’s instruction, they chose it.

Now move to the other end of human history.

Once again mankind will have experienced an extraordinary environment, this time for 1,000 years under the government of Jesus Christ.

Then Satan appears again.

Genesis and Revelation therefore provide remarkable bookends. Satan entered the extraordinary environment of Eden and deceived mankind. Revelation 20 shows him entering another extraordinary environment at the end of the Millennium—and again some human beings are deceived.

The lesson isn’t that environment doesn’t matter. It matters enormously.

The lesson is that a perfect environment can provide every opportunity to develop godly character, but it cannot choose godly character for us.

Universal prosperity does not equal universal conversion.

Who Are Gog and Magog?

Revelation tells us what happens when Satan is released:

“Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle” (Revelation 20:7–8).

The names Gog and Magog come from Ezekiel 38–39, where Gog is the hostile leader associated with the land and people of Magog.

But Revelation 20 doesn’t appear to restrict this final rebellion to one modern nation or ethnic population. John specifically says Satan deceives nations in “the four corners of the earth.”

John uses imagery his readers would recognize from Ezekiel—names associated with massive opposition to God—and applies it to a worldwide rebellion.

The participants are geographically diverse but spiritually united in rebellion against God.

And that creates another important question.

How could Satan find anyone willing to follow him?

Satan Reveals What Is Already There

After 1,000 years without Satan’s deception, some people will apparently remain susceptible to it.

They may have lived according to God’s laws because that was the society in which they were born. They may have participated in worship. They may have experienced God’s blessings throughout their lives.

But outward conformity isn’t necessarily inward conviction.

There is an enormous difference between living around God’s way and making God’s way your own.

God taught ancient Israel this lesson in the wilderness. Moses reminded them that God had allowed them to be tested “to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2).

The test revealed something.

And that helps explain Satan’s final release.

Satan’s release doesn’t create their character. It reveals it.

God doesn’t need Satan’s assistance to accomplish His plan. But human beings must ultimately be allowed to choose.

What Will Satan Tell Them?

The Bible doesn’t tell us. Revelation tells us that Satan deceives them, but doesn’t tell us exactly how he does it.

Perhaps some have begun to resent authority. Perhaps generations that have inherited prosperity take it for granted. Perhaps some no longer appreciate why God’s government and laws are necessary.

We don’t know, and there is little value in pretending that we do. But we know Satan’s methods. His basic argument has changed very little since Eden.

Why should God decide how you live? Why shouldn’t you determine right and wrong for yourself?

That was essentially the argument presented to Eve. “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).

Human beings have been attracted to that idea ever since.

Everyone Must Choose

Near the end of his life, Moses placed a fundamental decision before ancient Israel:

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

That choice runs throughout the Bible. Adam and Eve had to choose. Ancient Israel had to choose. Christians today must choose.

And the people living during Christ’s 1,000-year reign will also have to choose.

They will have been taught. They will have experienced God’s blessings. They will have lived under the righteous government of Jesus Christ.

But none of those things can make their decision for them. God’s way must become their way.

And that brings this prophecy much closer to us today.

A person can grow up in a Christian home. He can attend church. He can know the Bible. He can be surrounded by people who believe in God.

But conversion cannot be inherited from parents, a church or a culture. At some point every individual must answer the question:

Do I believe God’s way because I have chosen it—or because it is simply the environment in which I have become comfortable?

The Last Rebellion

Revelation tells us that Satan’s final deception produces one last rebellion. Those who follow him surround “the camp of the saints and the beloved city.”

It doesn’t last long.

“Fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them” (Revelation 20:9).

Human rebellion against God finally reaches its end.

Satan, the being who first deceived mankind in Eden and who has influenced human civilization throughout its history, is removed from the scene (Revelation 20:10).

The great lesson of his final release has been demonstrated.

God can provide peace. God can provide prosperity. God can provide perfect government. God can teach mankind His truth.

But God will not force anyone to love Him or choose His way. Character requires choice.

And that is the reason Revelation says Satan “must be released.”

The thousand years will demonstrate beyond question that God’s way works.

Satan’s final release will demonstrate something else: Who has chosen to make God’s way his own?

The Final Phase of Human Existence

And then comes one of the most extraordinary events described anywhere in the Bible.

Revelation 20 describes a resurrection of the dead before God’s Great White Throne. Billions who lived and died without understanding God’s truth are brought back to life and given their opportunity to know Him.

But even that isn’t the end of the story.

The final two chapters of Revelation take us beyond human history, beyond death itself, to what God intended from the beginning:

“Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

That is where God’s plan for mankind is ultimately going.

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What happens next? What does Bible Prophecy clearly show after Satan’s rebellion is over? Please stay tuned for our next article: The Great White Throne and Beyond

World News & Prophecy Review

Jesus Christ will rescue humanity from self-destruction–but lasting peace also requires the removal of the power that has deceived the world.

The Bible describes a world at the edge of self-destruction when Jesus Christ returns. It is angry, divided and armed. Nations have gathered for war, and mankind’s rebellion has become so dangerous that Christ warns, “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved” (Matthew 24:21–22).

That is why Christ must return. He will intervene before humanity destroys itself. The book of Revelation pictures Him confronting the political and military powers that resist His rule. The armies gathered against Him are defeated, and the leaders of that rebellion—the Beast and the False Prophet—are removed (Revelation 19:19–21).

But the defeat of armies does not, by itself, produce a peaceful world. Wars are fought by human beings, yet the Holy Bible reveals an unseen influence that has cultivated pride, hatred, falsehood and rebellion throughout human history. Before Christ’s millennial reign can proceed unimpeded, that deceiving power must also be restrained.

The Power Behind the Deception

Immediately after describing Christ’s victory over the nations, Revelation turns to another decisive event. John sees an angel descend from heaven, seize “the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan,” bind him for a thousand years and shut him in the abyss “so that he should deceive the nations no more” (Revelation 20:1–3).

The prophetic sequence and order of these events matter. Revelation 19 shows Christ defeating organized human resistance. Revelation 20 shows Satan removed. Only then does John describe the saints reigning with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4–6). The sequence is victory, removal and restoration.

The Bible identifies Satan as the one “who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9) and “the god of this age” who blinds human minds (2 Corinthians 4:4). His influence does not excuse human sin; each person remains responsible for his or her choices. But it does help explain why the same destructive ideas recur from one generation to the next: that force produces peace, greed produces security, immorality produces happiness, and mankind can build a just world while rejecting the law and authority of its Creator.

Christ’s return ends the immediate threat of human extinction. Satan’s imprisonment removes the relentless spiritual pressure that has distorted human thinking. Human nature and free choice will remain, but the nations will no longer be continually incited and misled by the great deceiver.

A Ceremony With a Future Meaning

This removal was foreshadowed long before Revelation was written. On the Day of Atonement, ancient Israel’s high priest presented two goats before God (Leviticus 16:7–10). One was chosen “for the LORD” and killed as a sin offering. The other goat in Leviticus 16:8 is named “the scapegoat” — as if unfairly blamed. But the correct translation is Azazel or “evil demon.” After the atoning blood had been presented, the high priest laid his hands on the live goat, confessed over it the sins of Israel, and a suitable man led it into an uninhabited wilderness (Leviticus 16:20–22).

The slain goat unmistakably reinforces the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and His sacrifice alone pays the penalty for human sin. The live goat cannot be another sacrifice, because it is not killed and its blood is not offered. Instead, it is removed after the work of atonement has been completed.

That distinction is important. The New Testament says Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many” and that He will appear a second time “apart from sin, for salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). The sacrifice for sin is not repeated at His return. Passover points to the price Christ paid; the events pictured by Atonement look beyond that sacrifice to the reconciliation of the world and the removal of the adversary who opposes it.

The parallel with Revelation is striking. The live goat is identified, placed under the authority of a designated agent, led away and separated from the community. Satan is identified, seized by an angel, bound and confined where he can no longer deceive the nations. The goat does not represent a co-savior and does not pay for sin. Christ alone does that. It portrays the removal of the instigator—the one who bears responsibility for having deceived and corrupted, though never the guilt that belongs to each human sinner.

Why Removal Must Precede Peace

The purpose of Satan’s confinement is not only punishment. Revelation explicitly states that he is bound so that he can no longer deceive the nations. His absence makes possible a radically different environment for human life.

Under Christ’s government, people will at last be taught God’s ways without a worldwide system of spiritual counterfeits constantly pulling them in the opposite direction. Isaiah describes nations coming to learn the law of God. The result is not merely a truce enforced by superior power: weapons are converted to productive use, and people no longer learn war (Isaiah 2:2–4). Peace grows from truth, right government and changed conduct.

This also clarifies the meaning of atonement. Human beings have been separated from God by sin (Isaiah 59:2). Reconciliation is possible only because Christ died for us; “through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:10–11). Yet imagine that a captor continues to hold and mislead people whose ransom has already been paid. Paying the ransom is essential, but the captor must still be removed and the captives brought into freedom. Christ pays the price no one else could pay. Then He ends Satan’s power to deceive the nations.

The biblical festivals present these truths in a purposeful progression. Passover proclaims the sacrifice of the Lamb. The Feast of Trumpets anticipates the return of the King and His victory over rebellious nations. The Day of Atonement points to reconciliation and the removal of the great deceiver. The Feast of Tabernacles pictures the transformed world that becomes possible under Christ’s righteous rule.

The World That Becomes Possible

The Day of Atonement carries a message of extraordinary hope. Humanity will not be abandoned to its present course. Jesus Christ will rescue mankind from its own rebellion, establish righteous government, remove the one who has deceived the whole world, and teach the nations a way of life they could never produce for themselves.

Technology, diplomacy and human idealism cannot cure the deepest causes of conflict. They cannot reconcile humanity to God or silence the spiritual source of deception. God’s plan addresses both: the guilt of sin through Christ’s sacrifice, and the deceiver’s influence through his removal.

Christ has already paid the price for sin. He will return before mankind destroys itself. Satan will be bound, the nations will be taught God’s ways, and the conditions for genuine peace will finally exist. That is the future pictured by the Day of Atonement: the adversary removed, humanity reconciled to its Creator, and the way prepared for the Kingdom of God to fill the earth.

World News and Prophecy Review

The Church of God has observed the Biblically enjoined Day of Trumpets, September 12, 2026. Many have observed this special Holy Day for decades and have learned the meaning of this significant festival. The Day of Trumpets is the first Holy Day observed in the Fall, and pictures God’s intervention in man’s governments, and the defeat, by Christ, of the assembled nations, gathered in the valley of Megiddo or Armageddon. (Revelation 16:16)

What is the role of the resurrected Saints of God during this momentous time? The answer may surprise even those who have kept this Festival for many years!

When Jesus Christ returns to the earth, He will not return alone. The saints who have been raised to immortal life will be with Him. We often speak of their future work as kings, priests and teachers during the Millennium. But what will they be doing as Christ brings the present governments of this world to an end?

Before they help rebuild the world, the saints will participate with Christ in subduing it!

That is a sobering thought. Jude speaks of the Lord coming with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment (Jude 14–15). Psalm 149 pictures the saints taking part in judgment upon the nations and calls it an honor. Obadiah speaks of “saviors,” or deliverers, coming to Mount Zion to judge (Obadiah 21).

These passages raise a question we ought to consider: Why would Christ include the resurrected saints in this work? He does not need military reinforcements. What is God preparing His people to do?

A world gathered against its King

First we must see the circumstances of Christ’s return. He will not descend upon a world ready to welcome Him. Revelation 16:13–14 describes three unclean spirits, like frogs, coming from the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. These demonic spirits perform signs and go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for battle. The dragon is Satan (Revelation 12:9); the beast represents the final political power; and the false prophet adds religious deception to that power.

Behind the military alliance stands a spiritual deception. The nations will be persuaded to resist the One coming to save them. Revelation 19:19 describes the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies gathered “to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.” (Emphasis ours)

Christ returns as a conquering King because the rulers of this world will fight against His rule. Yet Revelation 19 introduces another group: His army. Who are those accompanying Him, and what part will they have in the change of government that follows?

With Christ—and under His authority

Zechariah 14:3–5 says the Lord will fight against the nations gathered at Jerusalem, stand upon the Mount of Olives, and come with “all the saints.” Jude 14–15 also places the saints with Him as He comes to execute judgment. Neither passage requires us to claim that each saint personally carries out every act of judgment. Both place them with Christ at this decisive moment.

In Revelation 19:11–16, the One called Faithful and True judges and makes war in righteousness. The armies of heaven follow Him, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. Earlier, Revelation 19:8 associates fine linen with the righteous acts of the saints. Read with Jude and Zechariah, this gives strong reason to understand the resurrected saints as participants in the company that follows Christ, though the passage does not rule out angels also being present.

We must keep the authority where Revelation places it. The sword that strikes the nations comes from Christ’s mouth. He rules with a rod of iron. The saints do not wage an independent war or settle personal scores. The victory belongs to Him.

Psalm 149:5–9 takes us further. It speaks of saints “joyful in glory,” with God’s praises in their mouths, taking part in judgment on nations and rulers. Its closing words are remarkable: “To execute on them the written judgment—this honor have all His saints.” The picture had meaning for Israel in its own history, but it also points forward to the glorified people of God sharing in judgment under their King. Notice that it is the written judgment: God determines what is just.

Obadiah provides another striking picture. The prophecy concerns Edom, the descendants of Esau, so we should not erase that setting. Yet Obadiah 15 broadens the horizon to “the day of the LORD upon all the nations.” Deliverance appears on Mount Zion in verse 17, and verse 21 speaks of “saviors” coming there to judge the mountains (governments/offices) of Esau. These are deliverers serving under God, not rivals to Jesus Christ. The verse ends by identifying the owner of the Kingdom: “the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.”

Why share this responsibility?

Christ promised the overcomer authority over the nations (Revelation 2:26–27). Daniel saw judgment made in favor of the saints and the time arriving for them to possess the Kingdom (Daniel 7:22, 26–27). Paul asked the Corinthians, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (1 Corinthians 6:2). Their involvement in establishing Christ’s rule fits what God has promised them.

But a promise of authority still leaves the question why.

God is preparing a family to share His work. Christ could defeat the rebellious nations without assistance, just as He could administer every part of the world’s restoration Himself. Instead, He prepares people who have learned to obey Him while living amid the very troubles that must be overcome.

Those resurrected saints will know human weakness. They will have faced temptation, injustice and suffering. That experience will not give them license to judge according to their feelings. It will make their submission to Christ’s judgment all the more important. They will understand both why rebellion must be stopped and why those who survive need patient teaching and mercy.

Their participation also reveals the purpose of the intervention. Habakkuk 3:12–13 portrays God marching through the nations in judgment for the salvation of His people. Judgment is not an end in itself. The oppressive order must be removed so that people can learn a different way. The saints who participate in that transition will then help teach the nations the way of peace pictured in Isaiah 2:2–4.

That is why Psalm 149 calls this responsibility an honor. It is not an invitation to delight in destruction. It is the honor of helping Christ free a world held captive by Satan’s deception and mankind’s failed rule.

Preparation begins now

What, then, is God calling us to become? Are we seeking eternal life only for ourselves, or allowing Him to prepare us for service in His Kingdom?

If we will judge with Christ, we must learn righteous judgment now. If we will exercise authority, we must first submit to His authority. If we will teach peace, we must practice it. And if we will administer justice, we must learn to exercise mercy without surrendering what is right.

The Day of Trumpets announces more than the end of the governments of this age. It points to the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom—and to the responsibilities He will share with His faithful people. Before the saints help rebuild the world, they will accompany Christ as He subdues its rebellion. Then the work of teaching and healing can begin.

“This honor have all His saints” (Psalm 149:9).

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The Day of Trumpets and mankind’s only path to peace

Almost a century ago, a brilliant scientist crossed a London street while thinking about a problem. Leo Szilard had been considering the possibility of releasing the enormous energy within the atom. British physicist Ernest Rutherford had dismissed the practical production of atomic energy as unrealistic. But as Szilard stepped into the street in September 1933, an answer came to him.

What if one neutron could strike an atom and release two more neutrons? Those neutrons could strike other atoms, which would release still more. The process could continue as a chain reaction.

Twelve years later, on July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated in the New Mexico desert. Weeks afterward, atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world had entered the nuclear age.

Consider that progression: from scientific curiosity to a weapon capable of destroying a city. Human beings had solved an extraordinarily difficult problem. But another and far greater problem remained: What would mankind do with that knowledge?

That question leads directly to the meaning of the Day of Trumpets and to one of the most important truths in all Bible prophecy: Jesus Christ must return. His return is not only the great hope of mankind. It is an absolute necessity for human survival.

Knowledge Without the Way to Peace
Thousands of years before Szilard crossed that London street, God revealed to Daniel conditions that would prevail at the end of this age.

Daniel 12:1 “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time.”

A few verses later, Daniel was told to seal the book until the time of the end, when “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (verse 4).

Knowledge certainly has increased. Automobiles and airplanes transformed transportation. Radio, television and the internet transformed communication. Medical science conquered diseases that had killed millions. Human beings harnessed nuclear energy, walked on the moon and developed computers of astonishing power. Today we work with artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, satellites, drones and precision weapons.

But Daniel did not say increasing knowledge would produce increasing wisdom, improving character or lasting peace. In fact, the surrounding prophecy tells us the opposite. The explosion of knowledge occurs during the same general period in which humanity experiences unparalleled trouble.

Matthew 24:21-22 “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved.”

For most of history, mankind did not possess the power to make those words a reality. Great empires could conquer nations and destroy cities, but none could threaten all human life. Then knowledge increased. Our ability to do things advanced much faster than our understanding of what we ought to do.

Isaiah 59:8 “The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways.”
We can communicate instantly across the world, yet we cannot make peace. We can calculate with extraordinary speed, yet we cannot govern human desires. We can split the atom, yet we cannot remove hatred, pride, fear, ambition and the desire for power from the human heart.

Jeremiah explains why: “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Mankind does not lack intelligence. What we lack, apart from God, is the spiritual knowledge and character necessary to direct that intelligence toward lasting peace.

The Problem Is Within Man

James takes the enormous subject of war and traces it to its source. James 4:1 “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?”

The problem is not the weapon; it is the human being who controls it. Nuclear weapons do not hate anyone. Missiles have no ambition. Drones do not covet territory. Technology magnifies the power of the person directing it, but it does not transform that person’s heart.

Elections, treaties and alliances may restrain conflict for a time, and responsible government is far better than tyranny. Yet no human government can remove selfishness from the heart or teach every nation the way of peace.

The Conflict Is Greater Than What We See

The Bible adds another dimension that political and military analysis cannot see.
Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Behind human leaders, armies and conflicts is a spirit world. Satan is not a passive observer. Scripture calls him the “prince of the power of the air” who works in the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), and the one who “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).

Daniel 10 pulls back the curtain. The angel described conflict with the “prince of Persia” and the coming “prince of Greece,” while Michael stood watch over Daniel’s people. Human kingdoms were visible, but spiritual forces were operating behind them.
This keeps us from identifying any nation or people as the ultimate enemy. The struggle is greater than flesh and blood. As mankind acquires more destructive power, Satan has greater opportunity to influence deceived human beings toward the destruction Christ foretold.

Trumpets Pictures Christ Taking Control

The Day of Trumpets pictures the return of Jesus Christ as King of kings, the resurrection of the saints and the establishment of God’s government over the nations.
Revelation 11:15 “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”

Jesus Christ does not return because mankind has finally learned how to govern itself. He returns because mankind has reached the point where it can no longer safely govern itself. He will intervene before humanity erases itself from the earth.
Trumpets is followed ten days later by the Day of Atonement, which pictures Satan’s removal. Those events belong together. Christ takes control of the nations, and the deceiver who has influenced this world is restrained. Then mankind can finally be taught what it has never discovered on its own.

Isaiah 2:3-4 “He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths…. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

Daniel described a world in which knowledge would increase while humanity approached destruction. Isaiah describes the world Christ will establish: “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). That is the knowledge mankind has been missing.

The Day of Trumpets should affect where we place our confidence. Christians pray for those in authority, obey the law, do good and seek peace. But we must never confuse political improvement with the Kingdom of God. No leader can change human nature, break Satan’s influence or teach the world the way to peace.

Our hope is in Christ’s return. We prepare for His Kingdom by learning God’s way now—in our homes, in the Church, in the way we settle differences and treat one another.
Mankind has accomplished astonishing things. We split the atom, crossed oceans and reached beyond the earth. But we never learned the way to peace. Christ must return to save mankind from itself and teach all nations the way to peace.

Editor’s Note: The Day of Trumpets is a Christian Holy Day observed September 12, 2026

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_{^{By Craig M White}}

www.friendsofsabbath.org

Part 2: Critiques, Etymology and the Weakness of Mainstream Narratives

Having discussed the background to the subject in Part 1, we now turn to the objections raised against a Cimmerian–Israelite identification by Caleb Howells.

Howells’ Four Criticisms

Caleb Howells, a historian and author with a degree in Education, advances four main arguments against the British-Israelite case:

1. Name similarity is misleading. The Assyrian designation Bit Humri (“House of Omri”) refers to the royal dynasty, not to the ethnic identity of the Israelites. There is no evidence, Howells claims, that the Greeks ever applied the Assyrian term to the Israelites.
2. Geographical origin. Classical Greek writers locate the Cimmerians north of the Black Sea, not in the Median cities where the Israelites were settled.
3. Assyrian distinction. Assyrian records treat Bit-Humri and the Gimirri as separate groups.
4. Late appearance of “Cymry.” The Welsh ethnonym Cymry does not appear in written sources until the early medieval period and is usually derived from a Brittonic word meaning “fellow-countrymen,” not from Kimmerioi.

Each of these points appears correct at first glance. Closer inspection reveals that they rest on assumptions that the classical and archaeological record itself does not fully support.

The Flimsiness of the Northern-Homeland Thesis

The dominant modern narrative is still based on Herodotus: the Cimmerians originally dwelt north of the Black Sea, were driven south by the Scythians, and only then entered Anatolia and the Zagros. Yet the earliest evidence from the Assyrian royal inscriptions of Sargon II (from 714 BC), Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal places the Gimirri already in Transcaucasia and Mannaea without ever stating that they had recently arrived from the Pontic steppe. The inscriptions simply record them as a military power on the northern and north-eastern frontiers of Assyria.

Tim Bridgman, writing in Hermathena, No. 164 (Summer 1998, p. 46), is unusually candid: “The short answer to this question is that archaeology tells us next to nothing about the Cimmerians, since no archaeologist has ever been able to identify a Cimmerian material culture.”

Marek Olbrycht reaches a similar conclusion in his study “The Cimmerian Problem Re-examined,” Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia, 2000, p. 72: “the presently available archaeological materials do not allow any convincing hypothesis about the character of genuine Cimmerian culture. lt is due to the fact that archaeological interpretations depend on historical premises and the latter, relying on fragmentary and contradictory testimonies, still do not enable us to give definitive answers to certain important questions about Cimmerian history.”

Olbrycht notes that the first likely Cimmerian seat is in Transcaucasia and that their entry into that region from the northern steppes is only “in all probability” (p. 95). Daan Nijssen (“Cimmerians and Scythians. Herodotus Reconsidered,” Ancient World Magazine, 27 February 2018) goes further, arguing that Homer’s mythical Kimmeroi dwellers in perpetual mist at the edge of the world were later conflated by the Greeks with the historical Gimirri. The northern homeland, in other words, may be a literary construct rather than a historical memory.

Encyclopædia Britannica (2006) itself admits that “attempts to define their original homeland more precisely by archaeological means, or even to fix the date of their expulsion from their country by the Scythians, have not so far been completely successful.” The northern-origin thesis is therefore far less secure than popular presentations suggest!

How Far Back Can the Word Cymry Be Traced?

The earliest written occurrence of the ethnonym Cymry (or Kymry) appears in the Welsh praise poem Moliant Cadwallon, composed around 633 AD in honour of Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd. The term is used again, with political force, in the prophetic poem Armes Prydein (c. 930 AD), where it unites the native Britons of Wales, Cornwall and the Old North against the Anglo-Saxons.

Linguists derive Cymry from Common Brittonic kombroges, “fellow-countrymen.” Dr John Davies (A History of Wales, p. 69) suggests the spoken form may have become current among the native Britons around 580 AD, when Anglo-Saxon expansion isolated the Welsh-speaking communities from their relatives in Cumbria and southern Scotland. For nearly a millennium the same spelling served for both the people (Cymry) and the land (Cymru); differentiation of the two spellings began only around 1560.

The late written attestation does not, of course, prove that the name itself is late. Oral ethnonyms can circulate for centuries before they are committed to parchment. The phonetic resemblance between Kymry / Cymry and the earlier forms Khumri, Gimirri, Kimmerioi and Cimbri remains striking, even if a direct linguistic descent cannot be demonstrated with the same certainty that exists for, say, the Sacae–Saxon equation.

Were the Cimbri Related to the Anglo-Saxons?

The Cimbri (Greek Kímbroi) first appear in the historical record during the Cimbrian War of 113–101 BC, when they and their allies threatened Italy and were finally destroyed by Marius at Vercellae. Roman and Greek writers locate their homeland in the Cimbric Peninsula (modern Jutland). Pliny the Elder records that the Greek geographer Philemon (c. 325 BC) already knew Cimbrian names for the northern seas, including Morimarusa (“Dead Sea”).

Linguists usually derive the name from a Germanic root meaning “people of the rim” or “coast-dwellers.” The chronological gap of roughly five centuries between the disappearance of the historical Cimmerians (after c. 600 BC) and the appearance of the Cimbri is frequently cited as proof against identity. The same geographical region of Jutland later produced the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who migrated to Britain in the fifth century AD. Bede (Ecclesiastical History 1.15) explicitly places the homeland of the Angli “from a land which is called Angulus, and which is said to have remained uninhabited from that time till the present day. It lies between the territories of the Jutes and those of the Saxons,” i.e., the same peninsula.

Aryeh Kaplan, in his commentary The Living Torah (p. 21), notes that some classical sources already identified the Cimmerians with the Cimbri of Jutland, “a nation of Teutonized Celts.” A modern popular history site (historyfiles.co.uk) cautiously asks whether the medieval linkage “remember[s] very vaguely the Cimmerian or Cimmerian-influenced migration into Jutland.” The possibility cannot be dismissed merely because of a five-century documentary silence; tribal identities have survived far longer gaps elsewhere in Eurasian history.

Part 2 has shown that the four objections advanced by Howells rest on a classical narrative whose archaeological and chronological foundations are themselves admitted by specialists to be fragile. The late written appearance of the name Cymry does not preclude an earlier oral existence, and the geographical overlap between Cimbri and later Anglo-Saxon homelands keeps open the possibility of ethnic continuity.

Editor’s Note: Mr. Craig White is a researcher, writer and archivist serving the Church of God. Please visit his website, www.friendsofsabbath.org for more information on his work.

World News and Prophecy Review

Editor’s Note: Mr. Craig White is a frequent contributor to World News and Prophecy Review. We deeply appreciate his research, archives and historical analysis of the modern era of the Church of God. Many Bible students have pondered what happened to the Northern Kingdom, or commonly referred to as “Israel”, located in Samaria, distinct from the separate nation of Judah, located in Jerusalem and surrounding areas. To know ‘who’ Israel was after the separation of the tribes, after Solomon and their modern descendants is an important element in Bible Prophecy. More of Mr. White’s work is available at: FOS | Friends of Sabbath

By Craig M White

This series is a condensed version of the paper The Cimmerian Link to the ‘Lost’ Tribes of Israel available online here.

Part 1: Origins, Captivity and the Early British-Israelite Case

This first instalment examines the Assyrian deportation of the northern tribes of Israel, the sudden appearance of the Cimmerians (Gimirri) in the same geographical area, and the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century British-Israelite scholarship that proposed a continuous ethnic link between the two.

Introductory Remarks

A generation now rising within the Churches of God appears to accept, almost without scrutiny, the conclusions of mainstream academic writers who dismiss any connection between the deported Israelites and later north-western European peoples. Much of that academic literature is based on leftwing ideology. The result is a slow-moving erosion of confidence in the traditional teaching that the lost tribes of the northern kingdom can still be identified among the nations of north-western Europe which lead to this doctrine being watered-down and eventually shelved. This series is written as a corrective. It concentrates on only one of the crucial links – the Cimmerian, and subjects both the classical and the Assyrian evidence, together with the British-Israelite literature that first explored the question, to fresh examination.

The reason for the study was a short YouTube presentation by the historian Caleb Howells entitled “Did the Lost Tribes of Israel Migrate to Britain?” Howells’ four objections will be answered in Part 2. Before those objections can be investigated and countered, the background must be set out clearly.

The Assyrian Captivity in North-Western Iran

The Biblical record is straight forward: “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:6). Assyrian royal inscriptions locate these places in the Zagros highlands and the Urmia basin of north-western Iran precisely the region in which the Cimmerians (Assyrian Gimirri or Gimirrāya) first appear in the official annals around 714 BC, only eight years after the fall of Samaria.

An independent Jewish recollection of the same events is preserved in the apocalyptic work 2 Esdras (4 Ezra), composed shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple. The text states that the tribes “formed this plan for themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the nations and go to a more distant region, where no human beings had ever lived. And they went in by the narrow passages of the Euphrates river. Through that region there was a long way to go, a journey of a year and a half; and that country is called Arzareth” (2 Esdras 13:40–45, NRSV). Whatever the precise location of “Arzareth,” the passage demonstrates that, almost two millennia ago, Jewish tradition still remembered an organised northward or north-westward migration of the deportees.

Further, John Hulley, writing in Origin of Nations (Vol. 1, No. 3, May-July 1995, pp. 12–18), suggested that the legendary Sambatyon river of later rabbinic lore may preserve a memory of the Bosphorus strait, whose currents can reverse or pause under certain conditions. Hulley

regarded the identification as circumstantial, yet it illustrates how ancient memory of a northward crossing from Asia into Europe continued to circulate.

Cimmerians and Scythians: Linguistic and Archaeological Kinship

Modern scholarship generally classifies both the Cimmerians and the early Scythians as speakers of closely related Eastern Iranian dialects. Askold Ivantchik observes that Cimmerian personal names “are purely Iranian and belong to the eastern branch of Old Iranian” (Les Cimmériens au Proche-Orient, pp. 53-79). János Harmatta reaches the same conclusion in UNESCO’s History of Humanity (p. 182). Archaeologically the material cultures of the two groups in the North Pontic region are virtually indistinguishable; Maurits van Loon described the Cimmerians as “Western Scythians” (Reallexikon der Assyriologie, pp. 167-68).

Yet the ancient sources consistently treat them as distinct political entities. Herodotus (Histories 4.11–12) speaks of the Scythians driving the Cimmerians westward, while the Assyrian annals of Sargon II, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal list the Gimirrai and the Iškuzai (Scythians) as separate powers (Daniel Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, Vol. 2, pp. 207, 557). The Encyclopædia Iranica summarises the consensus: the Cimmerians were Iranian nomads closely related to the Scythians, yet cousins rather than identical peoples.

Genetic studies confirm the ethnic complexity hidden under the umbrella term “Scythian.” Damgaard et al., analysing 137 ancient genomes from the Eurasian steppes (Nature, No. 557, 2018, pp. 369-74), demonstrate that various peoples (Mongoloid, Slavic and Germanic/Nordic) adopted Scythian cultural traits at different times. The same caution must therefore be applied when modern writers speak of “the Cimmerians” as a single, homogeneous nation.

British-Israelite Literature of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

From the 1840s onward a succession of British-Israel writers argued that the Assyrian deportees re-emerged in history as the Cimmerians (Gimirri/Khumri) and certain western Scythian groups, and that these peoples ultimately became the ancestors of the Cymry or Welsh, the Cimbri of Jutland, and some north-western European nations.

Rev. John Wilson’s Lectures on Our Israelitish Origin (1840, expanded through the 1870s) first systematically identified the Assyrian Khumri/Gimiri with the Greek Cimmerii and then with the Cimbri and Cymry. Colonel John Gawler’s pamphlet Our Scythian Ancestors Identified with Israel (1875) focused on the Sacae/Saka as “Isaac’s sons.” Edward Hine’s popular Forty-Seven Identifications (1874-78) made the Cimmerian–Cymry equation a central pillar of the movement. Walter Milner’s Israel’s Wanderings; or The Scüths, the Saxons, and the Kymry (1881) remains one of the fullest nineteenth-century syntheses, assembling classical quotations from Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus, Pliny and Tacitus. John Harden Allen’s Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright (1902) reinforced the same narrative for an American audience.

Non-Israelite Historians Who Supported the Cimmerian–Cymry Link

British-Israel writers did not invent the Cimmerian -> Cimbri -> Cymry link; they inherited and expanded it from earlier continental and British scholarship. Amédée Thierry’s multi-volume Histoire des Gaulois (first published 1835) identified the Cimmerians with the Cimbri and early Celts. Robert Morgan’s The British Kymry (1857) argued that the Kymry had been known successively as Cimmerioi, Cimbri, Umbri and Kymry. Samuel Lysons in Our British Ancestors (1865) maintained that Cimmerians and Gauls were the same people, the Welsh being the surviving Cymry.

Sharon Turner’s History of the Anglo-Saxons (1852) similarly linked the Cimmerii, Cimbri and Cymry as branches of one migratory stock and traced the Saxons to the Sakai (Sacae). On page

87 of Volume 1 he wrote: “Sakai-suna, or the sons of the Sakai, abbreviated into Saksun, which is the same sound as Saxon, seems a reasonable etymology of the word Saxon.” Turner’s pages 74–80 examine the possible identity of Cimmerii, Cimbri and Cymry; pages 87–89 develop the Sacae–Saxon argument. These non-British-Israelite authorities provided the British-Israel movement with information that the latter infilled with Biblical, Classical and Assyrian detail.

The first instalment has therefore established three points: (1) the timing of and the geographical ‘coincidence’ of the Israelite deportation with the first appearance of the Gimirri; (2) a continuous nineteenth-century scholarly tradition, both inside and outside British-Israel circles, which connected Cimmerians with Cymry and Cimbri; and (3) the recognition by modern linguists and archaeologists that Cimmerians and western Scythians were closely related Iranian-speaking peoples.

Part 2 will examine the objections to this identification and will test the basis the of evidence on which those objections are based upon.

World News and Prophecy Review

As America marks its 250th year, the Fourth of July offers more than fireworks and grilled hamburgers—it offers a moment to reflect on the deeper currents of history that shaped this nation and the prophetic foundations that continue to influence its future.

My friend Mike —an ardent student of John Adams—insists that July 2nd should be the real Independence Day. A few years ago on the 4th of July, when I wished Mike “Happy Independence Day,” he drolly commented, “Well, you’re a couple of days late, but thanks anyway!”  After all, his favorite President, John Adams, had written to his wife Abagail “that July 2nd would be celebrated as the great anniversary Festival, with pomp, parades, bonfires, and illuminations.” Yet when I asked Mike how many people showed up to his July 2nd barbecue, he grew very quiet.

July 4th won the cultural battle, and perhaps for good reason. It marks not only the adoption of Jefferson’s Declaration but also the remarkable symmetry of history: both Jefferson and Adams died on July 4, 1826—exactly 50 years later.

But anniversaries are not just sentimental markers. They are opportunities to revisit the ancient foundations of nations, especially those whose rise intersects with biblical prophecy.

And America is one of them.

Why Prophecy Still Matters
In recent decades, interest in prophecy has waned among some in the Church of God community. The reasons vary—failed date‑setting, generational shifts, or the mistaken belief that prophecy is somehow separate from Christian living.

But Christ Himself taught the opposite.

“Do business till I come.” — Luke 19:13
“Blessed is that servant whom his master… will find so doing.” — Matthew 24:46

Prophecy is not an escape from life—it is a framework for living faithfully, productively, and wisely.

And central to prophecy is one unavoidable truth: If you don’t understand who Israel is, you cannot understand the Bible.

The Bible is a book about Israel. Its covenants, its promises, its future, and its role among the nations.  ISRAEL is the MAIN ATTRACTION of the Holy Bible.

Would you believe that Scripture commands God’s people to understand Israel’s place in world history?  Notice:

“Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you: ⁸ When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:7-8) (Emphasis ours, throughout)

In these verses, Moses recounts the inspiration God gave him in recording Genesis 10:32 and how the 70 nations that descended from Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japeth, were divided after the flood.

In Deuteronomy 32, Moses adds a new wrinkle–those nations inheritance would be arranged around the descendants of Jacob–or “Israel” as his name was changed after he wrestled and prevailed, with God, in Genesis 32.

God arranged the nations around Israel. That includes America.

Ephraim, Manasseh, and the 2520‑Year Mystery

To understand America’s prophetic identity, we must revisit Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons in Genesis 48.

Jacob placed his name—Israel—specifically on Ephraim and Manasseh.  Ephraim was the younger brother, and Joseph was concerned that Jacob placed his right hand on the head of the youngest, instead of the traditional firstborn.

“Thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.” — Genesis 48:20.

This ordering matters.  The pattern of Jacob’s laying on of hands, signified that the younger brother Ephraim would receive the incredible national blessings of prosperity and strength first, becoming a colonizing power around the globe.  

Jacob also prophesied that the descendants of these 2 boys would become separate nations who would receive a greater national blessing than the rest of the sons of Jacob. (Genesis 48:19-22)

In Genesis 49, near the time of his death, Jacob told all 12 sons to gather round him, so that he could “tell you what shall befall you in the last days.” (Verse 1)

The prophecy for Joseph (his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh) was truly astounding (verses 22-26).  The language suggests agricultural abundance, industrial wealth and economic power, natural resources, global trade dominance, military strength.

Together, the prophecies from the 48th and 49th chapters of Genesis point to future outcomes for the descendants of Ephraim, whose blessings would be realized first, and Manasseh.  Ephraim would become a “multitude of nations,” and Manasseh would become a great nation. (Genesis 48:19)

But Scripture also shows that Israel’s national blessings would be withheld for disobedience:

“I will punish you seven times for your sins.” — Leviticus 26:24–28

Using the prophetic day‑for‑a‑year principle (Numbers 14:34), seven prophetic “times”, with each year representing 360 days, (7 x 360) equal 2520 years before those national blessings would be realized.

Israel’s captivity began around 721 BC. Add 2520 years → 1800 AD.

And what happened around 1800?

The British Empire exploded onto the world stage.

President Thomas Jefferson launched westward expansion with the enlistment of Captains Lewis and Clark, and their exploration paved way for Jefferson to complete the Louisiana Purchase from the French.

England dominated the seven seas, colonized Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and ruled the subcontinent of India.   America began its ascent to greatness after defeating the British in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 and added the Gadsden Purchase and Alaska to its territory and achieved National greatness throughout the 20th Century.

Many historians associate the 19th Century as the peak of the British Empire.  And since 1900 many have called the next hundred years the “American Century.” 

This is not coincidence. It is prophetic timing.

On its 250th Anniversary, the United States remains the most powerful and influential nation on the world stage.

As Americans celebrate the Semiquincentennial, another Bible prophecy–perhaps a bit obscure– may offer us a clue as to future actions.  The prophecy is found in Zechariah 11.

Zechariah and the Breaking of Bonds

“Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.” — Zechariah 11:14

This passage describes a future moment when the unity between Judah (the Jews) and Israel (Ephraim/Manasseh) fractures. Has this already happened, in part?  

Following the defeat of the World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Britain ruled much of the Middle East, including Palestine, Jordan and Iraq, by the Mandate System established by the League of Nations.  The British, more so than any other nation, were responsible for ushering in the potential for a Jewish homeland.  In 1917, The Balfour Declaration, issued by His Majesty’s Government paved the way for this possibility, proposing the idea of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East.

For roughly four centuries—from the early 1500s until the end of World War I—the Ottoman Empire was the dominant political power across most of the Middle East. Its collapse created the power vacuum that Britain and France largely filled through the postwar mandate system.

But Zionist leaders were frustrated that Great Britian limited Jewish immigration, blocking holocaust survivors from entering Palestine.  In 1946, the King David Hotel, housing many British bureaucrats and military officials was blown up, killing 91 people, including 28 Britons.  The next year, Britain referred the “Palestine question” to the United Nations and eventually left the Middle East altogether.

War between Arabs and Israelis began almost immediately after the British evacuation and has been ongoing since that time.

The formerly helpful unity between Great Britain (Jacob) was broken and has never been the same since.

Britain (Ephraim) and Judah parted ways.  This break between the Jews and Ephraim may have been the first to happen in modern times.  Since the end of WW 2, it has been the United States that has been Israel’s protector, calling the nation of Israel its greatest ally in the Middle East.

Are we witnessing a similar fracture today?  Between the modern state of Israel and the United States?

America’s relationship with modern Judah is under strain—politically, militarily, and morally. The wars in Gaza and Lebanon, the geopolitical entanglements, and the rising domestic backlash all point to a weakening bond.  A rising sentiment in the United States today is that America has been involved in far too many incursions in the Middle East for the past 40 years, and support for Israel is at an all-time low.

This is not dogma. It is observation. But one thing is certain–

The Good News: The Reunion Ahead

Prophecy does not end with division—it ends with restoration.  Several significant prophecies indicate that the breach between Judah and Israel will be restored after Jesus Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God. (Jeremiah 3:17-18, Isaiah 11:11-13)

Hosea 1:10-11 “Yet the number of the children of Israel Shall be as the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are not My people,’ There it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’ ¹¹ Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel Shall be gathered together, And appoint for themselves one head; And they shall come up out of the land, For great will be the day of Jezreel!

The tribes will be reunited. The covenant will be restored. The division between Judah and Israel will be healed.

World News and Prophecy Review

By Craig Martin White

June 10, 2026: Editor’s Note: As World News & Prophecy Review anticipates the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, Craig White, submitted this piece which helps explain the historical significance as well as national character traits of the United States. Mr. White is an archivist researcher and avid Bible Student. More of Mr. White’s work can be found here: FOS | Friends of Sabbath

The former Worldwide Church of God and many of its offshoots have held the view that the ‘lost’ tribes of Israel migrated into the British Isles, the British colonies (including America) and certain nations located in northwest Europe.

A component of this doctrine is the belief that the Anglo-Americans were descendants of the tribe of Manasseh.

This article examines the historical development of the belief that the United States represents the modern tribe of Manasseh. It references Herbert W. Armstrong’s interpretation, traces earlier influences on the doctrine, and considers historical, cultural, and demographic evidence that proponents believe supports this identification.

The Influence of Herbert W Armstrong

Although Herbert W. Armstrong popularised this teaching, he did not originate the concept. The identification of Anglo-Saxon peoples with the tribes of Israel had been developing for decades through the work of earlier British-Israel writers.

Based on his readings, Mr Armstrong posited that the Anglo element of the United States are direct descendants of the tribe of Manasseh, whereas England and certain former colonies, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South Africa from Ephraim. Collectively, they received the birthright blessings that were promised to Joseph’s sons, which are distinct from the sceptre promises held by Judah.

This principle is a fundamental aspect of his interpretation of British Israelism, which identifies English-speaking populations as the descendants of the ‘Lost Ten Tribes’ of Israel who migrated to northwest Europe following release from the Assyrian captivity.

Mr Armstrong based his argument on Genesis 48 (Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh):

• Jacob embraced Ephraim and Manasseh as his own, bestowing upon them the birthright (national promises of greatness, population, wealth, and resources).
• He crossed his hands, conferring the greater blessing upon the younger Ephraim (‘a multitude/company of nations’) and the lesser blessing upon the elder Manasseh (‘a great people/nation’).

As Mr Armstrong explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy (1980 edition): “…he [Manasseh] also shall become a people [nation], and he also shall be GREAT: but truly his younger brother [Ephraim] shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a MULTITUDE [a company, or COMMONWEALTH] of NATIONS’ (Gen. 48:19).” (p. 106)

He interpreted this prophecy to mean that Ephraim was England which possessed the most significant empire in history (‘company of nations’); while Manasseh became the United States – a singular great nation that separated from Britain and grew very powerful in terms of population and wealth.

He also connected this to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 12, 17, 22, 28, 35, 49; Deuteronomy 33). Notice the prophecy of Genesis 49:

“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely,

yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), [compare Deuteronomy 33:17 and Micah 5:8]

by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” (Genesis 49:22-26)

Joseph’s blessings of fertility, colonisation, and resources are rooted in the above. He further contended that the birthright promises were withheld for 2,520 years (7 prophetic times, as indicated in Leviticus 26) as a form of punishment, concluding around the early 1800s. This period coincided with Britain’s ascension to empire status and America’s gradual growth to world leadership (e.g., Louisiana Purchase etc).

This was connected to the migrations of ancient Israelites (through Scythians, Cimmerians, etc.) to the Anglo-Saxon peoples by highlighting similarities in names, language, and heraldry.

In chapter 10 of the book titled “Birthright Withheld 2520 Years!”, he outlines the sudden emergence of these two powers as the realisation of the promises made to the sons of Joseph. These developments cannot reasonably be dismissed as mere coincidence.

Summary of Mr Armstrong’s position is as follows:

Armstrong characterised this identity as the “master key” for interpreting Bible prophecy, particularly regarding end-time events that would impact the U.S. and Britain (which he cautioned would incur national punishment for their sins unless they repented). The U.S. (representing Manasseh) was foretold to become a prominent single nation, strong yet not matching Britain’s (Ephraim’s) overall blessings over time – although in our times, America has outstripped Britain itself.

Note on various editions: The book has developed from earlier iterations (for instance, The United States in Prophecy from the 1940s) into the more comprehensive The United States and Britain in Prophecy. The 1980 edition is among the most frequently cited. Every edition of the book is on the Friends of the Sabbath website here with the exception of the 1986 edition.

To understand in more detail how God inspired for this doctrine to be incorporated into its belief system, have a read of the article How the Israel Identity Truth entered the Church of God.

Summary of Mr Armstrong’s position is as follows:

Armstrong characterised this identity as the “master key” for interpreting Bible prophecy, particularly regarding end-time events that would impact the U.S. and Britain (which he cautioned would incur national punishment for their sins unless they repented). The U.S. (representing Manasseh) was foretold to become a prominent single nation, strong yet not matching Britain’s (Ephraim’s) overall blessings over time – although in our times, America has outstripped Britain itself.

Note on various editions: The book has developed from earlier iterations (for instance, The United States in Prophecy from the 1940s) into the more comprehensive The United States and Britain in Prophecy. The 1980 edition is among the most frequently cited. Every edition of the book is on the Friends of the Sabbath website here with the exception of the 1986 edition.

To understand in more detail how God inspired for this doctrine to be incorporated into its belief system, have a read of the article How the Israel Identity Truth entered the Church of God.

Key Works Influencing the ‘Manasseh’ doctrinal position

1. Our Israelitish Origin by John Wilson (1840)

John Wilson’s work, Our Israelitish Origin, investigates the notion that the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain and their descendants are directly connected to the lost ten tribes of Israel. Wilson relies on Biblical prophecy, historical migrations, and linguistic similarities to bolster his claims. He argues that the moral, religious, and political traits of the Anglo-Saxon nations correspond with the covenantal blessings promised to Israel in the Scriptures. Wilson interprets historical events, such as the settlement of the Saxons in Britain, as proof of Divine guidance and the preservation of Israelite identity. Furthermore, he underscores the spiritual and national duties he believes arise from this lineage, contending that Anglo-Saxon nations are uniquely equipped to fulfill God’s purpose in the world.

2. Forty-Seven Identifications of the Anglo-Saxons with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel by Edward Hine (1878)

Edward Hine’s work presents a methodical collection of links between the Anglo-Saxon peoples and the ‘lost’ tribes of Israel. The list of identifications encompass religious, historical, linguistic, and cultural evidence. Hine investigates surnames, traditions, historical documents, and migrations to support his claim that the Anglo-Saxons are the direct peoples of Biblical Israel. The text is meticulously detailed, which includes evidence that supports his argument. Hine also interprets geopolitical occurrences, such as the emergence of the British Empire, as a sign of Divine favour and intervention towards the modern descendants of Israel. It significantly contributed to the popularisation of British Israelism during the late 19^th century.

3. Manasseh and The United States by Rev. Joseph Wild (1882)

Rev. Joseph Wild’s work, Manasseh and The United States, explicitly identifies the United States as the tribe of Manasseh. Wild contends that the European settlers to North America, particularly those of Anglo-Saxon descent, fulfills the prophecies concerning Manasseh’s destiny to be numerous and prosperous. The book interprets the political, economic, and military strength of the United States as a sign of Divine execution of the Genesis promises. He believes that the Anglo-Saxon descendants, particularly in America, possess a distinct mission in the course of world history.

America as Manasseh in the Contemporary World

Within the context of the aforementioned influencers, most adherents to the British-Israel doctrine are of the view that Anglo-Americans are descendants of Manasseh, though there is variation within this view. While others feel that America is Ephraim or Dan. So, while differences of opinion remain, such discussions can be conducted in a spirit of mutual respect and civility.

If America is indeed linked to Manasseh, one might reasonably ask whether any characteristics associated with the Biblical tribe can still be observed in the modern nation. One feature noted by commentators is the meaning traditionally associated with the name Manasseh: “causing to forget.”

For this writer, it is of interest that Manasseh means to “making to forget” (New Bible Dictionary, p. 778). The ESV Study Bible notes: “Manasseh sounds like the Hebrew for making to forget.” He was so named because as stated in the Book of Genesis, upon the birth of his first son, Joseph named him Manasseh, derived from the Hebrew term nashah, as God enabled him to “forget all my troubles and all my father’s household.”

This forgetfulness sometimes appeared in the character of the tribes later on in the Old Testament such as forgetting God’s command during the conquest (Joshua 17); forgetting God for pagan idols (1 Chronicles 5); centuries later, the southern Kingdom of Judah was ruled by a king named Manasseh (the namesake of the tribe). He may be viewed as a Scriptural example of spiritual forgetfulness.

It was therefore of interest when I read this quote in 1987:

“Because Americans’ historical memories are so short, there is little understanding for the Federal Republic …” (R. G. Livingston, Die Zeist, “Reagan visit highlights,” reprinted in The German Tribune, 21 June 1987, p. 3)

Interestingly, some historians and political scientists call this American behaviour “historical amnesia” or “strategic forgetting” in American foreign policy and domestic governance.

This includes thinkers such as leftwing historian Gore Vidal who referred to the nation as the “United States of Amnesia,” arguing that America regularly erases history to approach new global crises with a clean slate.

From these thinkers and researchers, it is clear that well-documented instances of this amnesia occur in various aspects of American history:

1. Cyclical Foreign Interventions:
American foreign policy often overlooks the consequences of recent interventions, resulting in the recurrence of the same strategic blunders.

For example during the Vietnam to Iraq/Afghanistan Cycle, in the 1960s and 70s, the United States learned difficult lessons regarding the limitations of military power in Vietnam. However, by the early 2000s, these insights had been disregarded. The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan repeated the same mistakes. Throughout the Cold War, the United States provided arms to radical militant groups in Afghanistan (the Mujahideen) to combat the Soviet Union, completely neglecting the long-term dangers of exacerbating extremism. Years later, those very networks transformed into the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, which the United States subsequently invested trillions of dollars to combat.

2. The “Recurrence of Innocence”:
Political analysts observe that the United States tends to overlook its historical responsibility for regional instability, which enables it to present each new intervention as fundamentally moral and reactive.

In Latin America the U.S. has often shown confusion regarding political instability or anti-American feelings in Central and South America. This reaction completely disregards the time during which the U.S. actively deposed democratically elected leaders and supported military regimes in nations such as Chile, Guatemala, and Argentina to prevent the spread of communism.

Similarly, in the Middle East: American dialogue often characterises hostility from the Middle East as an intrinsic cultural characteristic. Yet sometimes American actions have provoked this backlash.

3. Public Literacy and “Geopolitical Blindness”:

This institutional forgetfulness is bolstered by a deficiency in historical and geographical understanding among the general populace. A notable survey (U.S. Adults’ Knowledge About the World) conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in December 2019 revealed that adult Americans correctly answered only about fifty percent of fundamental questions regarding world affairs and geography. Due to the decline of public memory, political leaders can repackage outdated strategies with new terminology, thereby evading responsibility for previous shortcomings.

4. Domestic Amnesia:

Economy and Public Health. This Manasseh-like tendency toward forgetfulness is not confined to international affairs; it can also be seen in domestic policy. One example is financial deregulation. In the aftermath of the Great Depression of 1929, the United States established regulations (such as the Glass-Steagall Act) to prevent banks from engaging in excessively risky activities. Over the years, Washington lost sight of the reasons behind these regulations and dismantled them in the 1990s which contributed to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

Similar to the ancient tribe of Manasseh, this forgetfulness is seldom unintentional (eg 1 Chronicles 5:23-26), but serves as a convenient consequence of a people that seemingly prioritises short-term outcomes over historical understanding.

US Ethnic composition

Critics of the Manasseh identification often point to America’s increasingly diverse ethnic composition. Therefore, it is useful to examine the historical demographic foundations of the United States and the extent to which its early population was derived from British and north-western European stock.

The dominant European population in the US was overwhelmingly from British stock from the earliest times, but this has decrease markedly.

Research indicates the following European ethnic percentages.

1700:

English: 90%

Keltic: 3%

Other: 7%

1800:

English: 66%

Keltic: 18%

German: 12%

Other: 4%

1900:

English: 42%

Keltic: 18%

German: 15%

Other: 25%

Here are approximate percentages for those Americans claiming descent from northern and northwestern European stock based on 1920-era data:

• Anglo-Saxons (English): – Roughly 30–40% of the total population.
• Kelts (Celtic peoples, primarily Irish, Scottish, and Welsh): Around 15–20% combined.
• North-west Europeans (broader North-western Europe excluding the above, e.g., Scandinavians, Dutch, French): Roughly 10–15% combined.
• Germans: Around 15–20%.

The ethnic composition of America has changed dramatically over the past century.

Based on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2022 American Community Survey here are the approximate percentages:

• Anglo-Saxons: About 9.4% (31.4 million people).
• Kelts: About 11% combined. This breaks down to Irish at 9.2% (30.7 million), Scottish at around 1.5% (5 million), and Welsh at 0.5% (1.8 million). The Irish include Gaels, some Nordic and other elements.
• North-west Europeans (including Scandinavians, Dutch, French, Belgians, and others from North-western Europe): Around 6-7% combined for key subgroups like French (2.3%, or 7.6 million), Dutch (1.1%, or 3.8 million), Norwegian (1.3%, or 4.5 million), and Swedish (1.1%, or 3.8 million).
• Germans: About 12.3% (41.1 million people).

These figures are based on a U.S. population of approximately 333 million.

What of the ‘German’ migrations to America?

During the mid-to-late 19th century, particularly between the 1840s and 1880s, hundreds of thousands of individuals emigrated from western Germany, including regions such as Rhineland, Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate. Their motivations for leaving were based on a combination of economic difficulties, political dissatisfaction, and resistance to Prussian militarism, especially in light of Bismarck’s unification policies and the imposition of mandatory military service. In fact, around 5 million migrated to America during the 19^th century!

1. Economic Challenges: Population density, division of land (inheritance practices), agricultural failures (potato blight from 1845 to 1849, further failures in the 1850s), diminishing cottage industries, and industrialisation pushing rural labourers out of work. Sources: Pushes, Pulls and the Records: A Brief Review of the Various Waves of German Immigrants to the United States” by Bernard N. Meisner (2019) which discusses 1840s crop failures including potato blight in Germany and resulting mass emigration (pp. 3-4). Another is James Boyd, An Investigation into the Structural Causes of German Emigration to the United States during the Nineteenth Century (PhD thesis, Cardiff University, 2013), pp. 143-151 – covering 1830s-1880s waves, economic growth followed by heavy outflows of 750,000 per decade in the mid-late 19th century.

2. Militarism, Conscription, and Bismarck/Prussian Policies: Compulsory military service, which was expanded in Prussia during the 1860s, along with the opposition to Bismarck’s wars (1864, 1866, 1870–71), authoritarian unification, and the policies implemented after 1871. A significant number of young men chose to emigrate to evade the draft. See British Royal Commission report (1870s–1880s), excerpted in German History in Documents and Images: “Causes and Effects of Emigration from Germany (1870s–1880s).” It states: “…discontent felt, at any rate in time of peace, with the German military system” alongside low wages and industrial decline. And FamilySearch Wiki, Germany Emigration and Immigration (updated 2026): “Many Germans also left to avoid wars and military service” in the 1820–1871 wave, noting heavy involvement from Rhineland and Westfalia.

3. Political Discontent and Forty-Eighters (1848–1850s wave): The failed revolutions of 1848 resulted in a wave of political refugees, predominantly from western and southwestern Germany, particularly the Rhineland regions, escaping repression. This phenomenon coincided with economic motivations and the emergence of early anti-Prussian sentiments. Refer to Carl Wittke, Refugees of Revolution: The German Forty-Eighters in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952), pp. 46–49 (discusses Hessian and other western German revolutionaries emigrating, sometimes released on condition of leaving for America); and Dieter Cunz, The Maryland Germans: A History (Princeton, 1948), which references to these Forty-Eighters on pp. 204–206.

Other sources include: Walter Kamphoefner, The Westfalians: From Germany to Missouri (Princeton University Press, 1987) which focuses on Westphalian (western German) emigration patterns in the 19th century, linking economic and military factors. Also, Ute Langer in his chapter on “Emigration from the Rhineland in the Nineteenth Century” (chapter 3) in Wisconsin German Land and Life (Heike Bungert and Robert Ostergren, eds).

So, while economic factors dominate academic accounts, anti-militarism and opposition to Bismarck-era Prussian dominance appear consistently as important secondary motives, especially for males of military age from Prussian-controlled western provinces.

From what can be taken from this is that the so-called ‘German’ element was mainly (but not completely) from the far west of Germany, near the borders of France and Belgium and not far from where the Anglo-Saxons migrated from to Britain a few centuries prior – from the north-west German and Denmark region.

Nineteenth-century German emigration to America drew heavily from western and southwestern Germany, especially the Rhineland, Westphalia, Hesse, Baden, Württemberg, and the Palatinate. At the same time, western Germany was increasingly replenished by internal migrants from eastern and southern Germany as industrialisation accelerated. The emigrants were not confined to the far western or northwestern German region traditionally associated with the Anglo-Saxons, although some migrants did originate from areas geographically adjacent to those ancient homelands.

From the 1870s onward, Germany experienced massive internal migration to the western regions. People moved:

• From East Prussia, Posen, Silesia, and Pomerania in the east.
• From Bavaria and other southern regions.
• Into the industrial Ruhr, Rhineland, and other western manufacturing districts.

The Ruhr became one of Europe’s largest industrial regions and attracted workers from all over Germany. Therefore, while a farming family from the Rhineland might emigrate to Missouri or Wisconsin, a miner from Silesia or labourer from East Prussia might move into the Ruhr or Cologne region. Israelites were thereby replaced by descendants of Hittites and Assyrians.

By the late 19th century, many western provinces were actually net recipients of migrants. A common pattern was:

• Western Germans migrated to America.
• Eastern Germans migrated into western Germany.
• Rural Germans migrated into the industrial cities.

This was especially true after German unification in 1871 and the industrial boom that followed.

This process is well documented by migration historians (refer again to Walter Kamphoefner in The Westfalians: From Germany to Missouri).

Raymond McNair in his book Key to Northwest European Origins addresses some of this aspect of Israelitish migrations in chapter 5. The book is available for purchase via Amazon.

Final Comments

From Biblical and historical research, there can be little doubt that the United States (specifically its Anglo-American core population) represents the modern fulfillment of the Biblical tribe of Manasseh, one of the two sons of Joseph who received the birthright blessings of national greatness.

It is self-evident that Biblical, historical, and national-character strongly supports the identification of the United States as modern Manasseh. The sudden rise of Anglo-American power, fulfillment of specific national promises (population, wealth, military strength), and even cultural traits like historical forgetfulness are presented as clear signs of Divine covenantal blessings continuing through the descendants of Joseph’s son, Manasseh.

World News & Prophecy Review

(April 24, 2026) In recent months, interest has surged around a supposed ‘Red Heifer Prophecy’—with some suggesting that the appearance of a single animal could signal the beginning of end-time events. But is this really what the Bible says?

For several years, interest in the “appearance” or “availability” of a “red heifer” is thought by some to herald the advent of Bible Prophecy, being an indication that daily sacrifices would again begin in Jerusalem. According to some sources, a “red heifer” is so rare a commodity, that if one were found, it would surely signal a dramatic fulfillment in prophetic events. Daily sacrifices were halted in 70 A.D. when the Roman Empire destroyed the second Temple in Jerusalem.

Daily Sacrifices Once Again?

Of course, the Bible does show that prior to the return of Jesus Christ to earth, daily sacrifices will be halted. There are several chapters of end time Bible prophecy that imply the implementation of a sacrificial system in Jerusalem. Chapter 12 of Daniel specifically refers to “the time of the end.” Daniel was given a glimpse of world conditions thousands of years into the future. He was told, in verse 4, to “seal,” or secure and protect the content of his scroll or book. Much later — in “the time of the end” his prophecies would be better understood.

“The Abomination of Desolation” — 167 A.D.

Of course, Daniel also was given understanding of the rise of the Grecian Empire, and how that Kingdom would bring an end to daily sacrifices, detailed in Daniel 8. Historians and Bible Scholars understand this chapter deals with the clash of 2 Ancient World Empires — the Persian Empire, which would be toppled by Greece, under Alexander the Great. The vision of Daniel 8 is so specific in outcome that some commentators, astonished at the accuracy of Daniel’s vision, reasoned that this chapter must have been added after the events took place!

The vision of Daniel 8 was revealed to Daniel in 551 B.C. (3rd year of Belshazzar), 230 years prior to Alexander the Great’s defeat of the Persian Empire. Daniel lived in Babylon during the height of Babylonian reign, as well as serving in the court of Cyrus, conqueror of Babylon. The prophecy of Daniel 8 has already been fulfilled but serves as a “type” of future prophetic fulfillment.

In 167 B.C., during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, of the Seleucid branch of the Greek Empire, the daily sacrifices at the 2nd Temple were stopped by the Greeks, and Antiochus sacrificed a pig in the Temple, and erected a statute of Zeus. Daniel was told that the persecution and desecration of the Temple would last for “2300 days,” (Daniel 8:14) This is generally understood as 2,300 total sacrifices, (some translations cite “evenings and mornings) twice each day, or a total of 1,150 days.

In fact, a little over 3 years after this desecration, the Temple was cleansed and rededicated by Judas Maccabeus, in the month of Kislev, 25th day, in 164 B.C. This event is still celebrated today as “Hanukkah.” This does indeed fulfill Daniel 8:14 “And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

Future Fulfillment — The Abomination That Makes Desolate

Let’s notice what the Bible shows about a future fulfillment of the scenario in Daniel 8, and then we can consider the ramifications of the “Red Heifer Prophecy,” as some have called it. Clearly, the last chapter of Daniel, with the time frame of the “time of the end,” once again shows sacrifices being removed — ostensibly by a conquering power:

Daniel 12:11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.

Where Does “The Red Heifer Prophecy” Come From?

The only mention in the Bible about a “Red Heifer” is found in the book of Numbers, chapter 19:

² “This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never come. 

This offering was not a typical sacrifice. It was a purification offering. Its ashes were used to create “waters of purification.” Verse 9 in this chapter shows that the water was used to purify people who had become ritually unclean.

To some, finding a red heifer, without blemish, fulfilling the requirements of the law means that God is ready to purify priests, reinstate Temple service and resume the sacrificial system, which would then lead to sacrifices being stopped — which would then foreshadow the appearance of the Messiah.

The reasoning often follows this pattern:

• A red heifer is required for purification
• Purification is required for Temple service
• Temple service leads to sacrifices
• Sacrifices being stopped fulfills prophecy

Therefore, some conclude that the appearance of a red heifer signals the start of end-time events.

But this conclusion is not stated in scripture.

The Bible does not say a red heifer will appear before the end-time.

The Bible says daily sacrifices will be stopped. Which implies that they will begin at some point of the future, but it does not depend on a “miraculous” discovery of a red heifer. Though some may believe they need to identify a perfect color heifer and that by doing so, it may usher in prophetic fulfillment, Bible prophecy does not depend on man’s reasoning.

More Importantly

Of far greater significance in the overall prophetic scheme is WHY sacrifices in Jerusalem will be halted, and by whom, and for what reason.

While speculation continues about a red heifer, Bible prophecy directs our attention elsewhere–toward the restoration of a sacrificial system, the rise of deceptive religious power, and the events that will ultimately lead to the return of Jesus Christ.

The focus of prophecy is not on an animal–but on the system of worship and authority that will shape the final events of this age. Next time we will cover the important fulfillment of “The Abomination of Desolation.”

World News and Prophecy Review

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