The Constant Church of God presents clear answers to your questions, directly from the Bible!

In part 2 of this series, we learnt the patriarch Jacob adopted Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh; conferred upon them the birthright; and, gave them his name Israel.

Ephraim would become the promised company of nations; greater than Manasseh the firstborn who would become a great nation.

By what national names are they known today?

WHERE are they now?

Most people think it’s that tiny nation in the Middle East.

They believe that only the Jews are Israel today.

The Bible tells us that Israel was one nation.

But after the death of King Solomon, Israel split into two separate kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel made up of 10 tribes with its capital in Samaria.

And the southern kingdom of Judah, made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin with its capital in Jerusalem.

Please open your Bibles and turn to 2nd Kings chapter 16. Here is the first time the word “Jew”, short for Judah, occurs.

Beginning in verse 5.

5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.

6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.

Pekah, king of Israel and his ally Rezin king of Syria, were at war with Ahaz, king of the Jews!

These verses prove that the northern tribes were not Jewish at all!

The Jews are the house of Judah only.

A PART of the Israelites.

But not all Israelites are Jews!

And so, the real identity of Israel remains a mystery.

We do not find any evidence showing that Ephraim and Manasseh received the promised blessings of the birthright until the early 1800s AD!

Because they worshipped idols and did not keep God’s Sabbaths, they broke the covenant they made with God.

So God imposed this penalty on Israel.

Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 18.

18 And if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

The duration of Israel’s punishment was seven times.

Bible prophecy counts seven prophetic times as seven prophetic years or 2,520 years.

Because of their disobedience, God withheld the birthright promises to Ephraim and Manasseh for 2,520 years beginning in 721 BC, when the Assyrians invaded Israel, took them captive and re-located them to the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.

Notice, 2nd Kings chapter 17 and verse 18.

18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

Over the centuries, God dispersed and scattered the Israelites throughout the continent of Europe.

Israel lost its identity, its language, its knowledge of the true God, its land and its name.

They became what many refer to as the “lost tribes of Israel.”

Eventually, they migrated to northwestern Europe.

At the start of the 19th century, history testifies that both Great Britain and the United States of America emerged from obscurity to assume the power, prominence and immense national wealth of the birthright God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Great Britain overpowered France, Spain and Portugal to become the unrivalled and unchallenged naval superpower of that era.

While British ships ruled the seas, her armies stood guard over the vital, strategic sea gates of the world.

And her traders, merchants and bankers dominated the world’s commerce, establishing London as the center of global trade and international finance.

At the pinnacle of her power, Great Britain’s imperial rule held sway over 61 nations from such far-flung areas as India, Kenya, Jamaica, Singapore and South Africa, encompassing 11 million square miles and 372 million people - - - one quarter of the earth’s land and people.

Just as Jacob said, Ephraim became that great company of nations, that commonwealth of nations forming the mighty British Empire, the largest in history upon which the sun never set.

In 1783, after the war of independence, a defeated Great Britain surrendered to the United States all of the original 13 colonies as well as all the land eastward from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1803, the United States acquired the vast Louisiana territory from France, about 530 million acres of the richest farmlands in the world!

The acquisition of the contiguous 48 states over a relatively short period of 70 years remains unprecedented in history.

After Israel’s punishment of 2,520 years for breaking God’s commandments, the seeds of America’s greatness were sown in the 1800s.

It catapulted the United States onto the world stage, prompting British statesman Winston Churchill to acknowledge that America had “arrived at the summit of the world.”

American greatness was secured.

America did not have to seek or build an empire around the world.

She had her blessings in that huge block of land, stretching over an area about 3 and a half million square miles.

From the Pacific to the Atlantic.

“The United States of America is the world’s most dominant economic and military power . . . and also the most technologically advanced.”

It is America’s footprints on the surface of the moon.

It is the world's largest economy.

In 2024, the US economy produced 27 trillion dollars worth of goods and services.

The land is rich and fertile, blessed with a favorable climate.

The United States has been blessed with an abundance of natural resources: wheat, corn and other grains; cattle, poultry and dairy products; fish and forest products.

The Great Lakes holds 6 quadrillion gallons of water — 21% of the world’s fresh water supply and 90% of the US supply — providing 30 million Americans and 10 million Canadians with drinking water.

Deep in the heart of the earth are precious stones and minerals: gold, silver, copper and nickel.

In a competitive world economy, where energy is a vital component for sustained growth, the United States is the world’s largest oil-producing nation with the world’s largest recoverable oil reserve base; the world’s largest producer of natural gas; the leading exporter of refined petroleum products; such as gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, jet fuel, lubricating oils, and asphalt; and the largest coal reserves in the entire world!

No other nation has been the beneficiary of an unparalleled standard of living, freedoms and rights such as the United States of America.

Truly, these United States of America has been blessed like no other nation on this earth.

With its high standard of living, America became the envy of other nations.

Just about everyone wanted to come to America and grab a piece of the American dream.

No other company of nations, no other single nation has achieved such complete domination of the entire world in the political, economic and military spheres to the extent that Great Britain and the United States of America have attained.

We now have that vital key unlocking the correct understanding of the prophesied, unprecedented time of turmoil and upheaval the Bible calls “Jacob’s trouble."

It will engulf the whole world, especially Britain and the United States, in OUR generation, our time today, the “time of the end”!

But God promises that those who repent and obey Him will be accounted worthy to escape the horrendous times that are certain to come.

That promise is sure!

As sure as the awesome birthright promises He gave to Abraham and conferred upon Jacob who passed them on to Ephraim, that great British company of nations and to Manasseh, the great nation of the United States of America.

This is Ross Abasolo with the Constant Church of God.

Join us again next time to hear more about what the Bible actually says!