I have long been a believer in the Lost Tribes of Israel having their fulfillment in America and the English-Speaking world. I thank Herbert W. Armstrong for the general outline. BUT, I never could convince myself of his placing Ephraim the younger brother as Great Britain, and America as Menasseh, the elder. Too many mental gymnastics were required. Having never taken any man's word as a matter of faith, and always researching and reflecting, I came to the conclusion that HWA erred by taking the self-given name British Commonwealth, at its face value.

Though called a commonwealth, it has rarely if ever functioned as one. It had been the British Empire, true. But the resultant group of independent nations only briefly held a common Sterling Zone. For the most part, the so-called commonwealth was merely the group of nations that maintained the Crown of Britain as the symbolic head of state. There was NEVER a true commonwealth with a federalized group of states that coordinated a common taxation, foreign policy, armed forces, trade policy. And even today, some members do not even recognize the Royal Seat as head of state -- even symbolically.

But once we take the misleading word, Commonwealth, out of the equation, and notice that the USA is the youngest, and in fact is a true commonwealth, the scales fall from the eyes! The original 13 Colonies became 13 Sovereign States which contracted together as equals to create a Federal Government, the true example of a Commonwealth! As we gained states our flag became a virtual field of Stars.

The USA is Ephraim, but, YHVH told Joseph, the younger too shall be called Great. And is not Great Britain the only nation in the world called "Great"?

Two pairs of blessings were bestowed upon Abraham at Moriah:

1. Descendants will number like the stars, and stand in the gate of your enemies.

2. Descendants will number like the sand on the shore, and the nations will be blessed through you.

America, a true commonwealth of sovereign states that had contracted to create (the first 13), and then allowed the admittance of the latter 37 states to the federation to mutually protect one another, and to establish a single border, for trading and defense purposes. We developed from a coastal scattering of colonies to the mightiest nation the world has seen.

Exodus 23:20: Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

21: Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

22: But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

23: For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

24: Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.

25: And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

26: There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfill.

27: I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

28: And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

29: I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

30: By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

31: And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

The unlikely rise of the United States of America was, and is, and will be the only new thing under the sun, in terms of nations and world history. The only nation whose history does not drift back into the misty and mythic depths of prehistory, we are the only nation created consciously, and even more remarkable, the only nation that sought to create itself by consciously likening itself to Ancient Israel! Even the idea of making Hebrew the national language came up!

It is clear now, that the Pilgrims did not intrude upon a simple woodland society of Indians. NO! They came upon a post-apocalyptic landscape. Squanto, an English speaking Indian who had been kidnapped by passing Spaniards, made his way to England, found a ship to the fishing and drying areas of Nova Scotia and walked home to his village near Plymouth. He followed in the footsteps of the pestilence (or hornets, same Hebrew is used for both!).

Plagues of European diseases raged down the Eastern Seaboard from the drying and trading posts in Canada. The Pilgrims like the Israelites ate crops that they had not planted that first year! YHVH did not drive out all the Indian nations at one fell swoop, in one year, less the wild beasts multiply in the land. "Wild beasts" often refers to the gentile nations. Piece by piece, America was stitched together. The French and Indian War ended the Indians ability to play off the French against the British, and left the natives divided and spent before the growing American population. The Napoleonic Wars diverted the "wild beasts" attention as little by little our ancestors followed the Fear of Isaac, the Plagues, the Hornet Swarm into the Trans-appalachian lands.

Napoleon's Army bound for New Orleans was destroyed by pestilence in Haiti. Yellow fever, carried by mosquitoes (hornet-like) demolished the French. Napoleon would rather that New Orleans become American than British, and he had no other option. Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory. This huge bit, was a result of the hornet plague in Haiti! By the time Europe looked west again after Waterloo, the USA was a major power in North America. The British came to see that good relations with America would prevent a constant cold war at the Canadian border. And a strong USA would prevent Britain's competitors from encroaching in North America. Thus the Monroe Doctrine was given strength by the Royal Navy. Finally Manasseh came to terms with Ephraim's emergence as a major power and, instead of risking war, friendship was offered.

Bismarck remarked that that greatest fact of history was that English was spoken by the United States. He is correct and it could just as easily have been German instead. The largest single ethnic group that migrated to America, second only to those from the British Isles, were Germans. Ger in Hebrew means an alien acolyte; not just one passing through, but one who is settling among the people, Israel. Germans, strove to become Americans. The Germans knew the devastation that religious war, and anarchy would bring. They wanted only to become Americans and would leave their European hostilities on the far side of the Ocean. Bismarck was correct, the fact that Americans spoke English was a major factor of the 19th and 20th centuries. One that Germany would learn twice.

As Americans we think of Britain as having a long history drifting back to prehistoric myths. This is true. But, the British Isles were merely insignificant outliers of the European Civilization. Not until the Tudors, did England begin to be anything but a cultural appendage of France. (Despite political dominance over Paris, Norman England was a part of the Francophone World.) Henry VIII, and his split with Rome started England upon a tract that was similar to Europe but was not European. Elizabeth I, with her sea-dogs defeated the Spanish Armada, with more than a little help from the God of the Heavens and the Winds! The English Civil Wars made for a lost generation.

Only with the final settlement by the Duke of Orange (Netherlands) and his wife Mary, sister of the Catholic King's heir, was another round of Civil War aborted. William and Mary's reign saw Britain's rise from local power in northwestern Europe to Global Power. This was only in 1694. The rise of Britain began only a hundred years before the rise of America. The description of two brothers goring the nations to ends of the earth can refer to none but us, Joseph's children.

Naming Ephraim as America makes it that much easier to teach this fantastic fact. The convolutions required to make Britain the younger, and America the elder brother was just an extra unnecessary stumbling block.