B R A D M A C D O N A L D C O L U M N I S T

The Source of American Greatness

November 26, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com
The key to understanding American history is explained in a single book—which we can
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O f all the treats Americans could set their eyes on today, Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving

proclamation ranks among the most thought-provoking and beautiful.

“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and
healthful skies,” proclaimed Lincoln. “To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are
prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so
extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually
insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.”

What a sublime example of humility and hope. Lincoln was at the helm of a nation embroiled in a civil
war of “unequaled magnitude and severity.” It was a time of discouragement and despair. America’s
future hung in the balance. Yet humble Lincoln encouraged his people to count their blessings, and to
not forget the “source from which they come.”

Lincoln knew that despite the war, America was on the road to becoming a great nation. “Needful
diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have
not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements,
and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly
than heretofore,” he stated. America was growing, expanding, pushing into new frontiers, producing
bountiful crops, marching toward greatness—even as civil war raged.

And Lincoln understood why: “NO HUMAN COUNSEL HATH DEVISED NOR HATH ANY MORTAL HAND WORKED OUT THESE GREAT
THINGS. They are the GRACIOUS GIFTS OF THE MOST HIGH GOD, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins,

hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

America’s 16th president saw God’s role in the “great things” unfolding within his nation. He
considered America’s growing physical and material wealth “gracious gifts from the Most High God.”
And he intended Thanksgiving to be a yearly reminder of the role the “Most High God” played in
shaping American history!

Abraham Lincoln was an avid student of the Bible. Although we don’t know how familiar he was with
the book of Genesis and the details of the birthright promise God made to Abraham, it’s clear that
Lincoln wholeheartedly believed America was a divine product of God’s creation. He was right!
This “birthright promise” is a key theme in our book The United States and Britain in Prophecy, written
by the late Herbert W. Armstrong. We are first introduced to this promise in Genesis 12:1-3: “Now the
Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s
house, unto a land that I will show you. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee,
and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

In The United States and Britain in Prophecy, Mr. Armstrong explained that this promise comes in two
stages, “one purely material and national; the other spiritual and individual.” While the spiritual phase
of this promise—the promise of grace through Christ—is given lots of attention, Mr. Armstrong
explained that the “birthright promise,” that “most amazing NATIONAL AND MATERIAL PROMISE to Abraham,”
has been “almost entirely overlooked.”

When Abraham Lincoln discussed the hand of the “Most High God” in American history, he was, in
essence, talking about this birthright promise! In fact, this promise is key to understanding world
history, and especially the history of the United States. “These are not casual, incidental, unimportant
promises,” wrote Mr. Armstrong, referring to the birthright promise. “These are basic—THE FOUNDATION FOR
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GREATEST WORLD POWERS ….”

God reveals further details about the birthright promise in Genesis 17. “And when Abram was ninety
years old and nine, the Eternal appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; WALK
BEFORE ME, AND BE THOU PERFECT. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee

exceedingly. ... Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for
a father of many nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17:1-5).

Notice, Abraham’s inheritance of this promise was conditional upon faith and obedience. Abraham
fulfilled those conditions when he proved himself faithful and obedient to God by showing that he was
prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22). After that display of faith and obedience, noted Mr.
Armstrong, “the covenant [or birthright promise] no longer was conditional. Now it
became UNCONDITIONAL.” From this moment, God was bound to fulfill His promise of national greatness to
Abraham.

Before Abraham died, the birthright promises were conferred to his son Isaac (Genesis 26:3-5), who,
before he died, conferred them upon his son Jacob (Genesis 27:26-29; 35:10-12). In due time, Jacob
passed the same promises down to his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48), two of the 12
tribes of Israel. The reason God rescued the Israelites from Egypt and took them to the Promised Land
was that He wanted to fulfill His promise of national and material greatness to Abraham.

Mr. Armstrong identified Leviticus 26 as the “very pivot of the Old Testament,” the “basic prophecy of
the Old Testament.” Why? Because in Leviticus 26 God informed the Israelites—including Ephraim and
Manasseh, inheritors of the birthright promise—of the conditions for receiving their inheritance.
Although God’s promise to Abraham became unconditional after Abraham’s display of faith and
obedience, God imposed conditions on the Israelites for them to inherit the promise in their time. In
this chapter God made it clear that if the Israelites obeyed Him, particularly the Second and Fourth
Commandments, He would lavish them, in their time, with the blessings of the birthright promise
(verses 1-14).
But notice! If the Israelites refused to obey God, He would withhold the birthright promises from
Ephraim and Manasseh for 2,520 years (verse 18). As Mr. Armstrong explained thoroughly inThe
United States and Britain in Prophecy, that delay began in 721 B.C., when Israel, including Ephraim
and Manasseh, was taken captive by the Assyrians.

Although God delayed fulfilling His promise to Abraham, He was bound by His word to shower
Abraham’s descendants, specifically Ephraim and Manasseh, with the birthright blessings. And He did
—right around the year 1800—2,520 years after Ephraim and Manasseh had been taken into captivity.

America and the British Commonwealth are the modern-day descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim,
respectively. If you’re familiar with their history, you know that each began to emerge as a major
global power beginning in the early 19th century. “We should face the facts today,” wrote Mr.
Armstrong in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, “and know that we were given all this vast
unprecedented material wealth BECAUSE GOD PROMISED IT, UNCONDITIONALLY, TO ABRAHAM.”

Abraham Lincoln, though he may not have recognized all this history, knew that American greatness
was an act of God. During an address on March 30, 1863, during which he declared a day of prayer
and fasting, he stated:

It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God
… and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that
those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord …. We have been the recipients of the choicest
blessings of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have
grown in number, wealth and power as no other nation ever has grown: But we have forgotten God!
We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and
strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that these blessings
were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

What a beautifully stirring and PRESCIENT invocation!

Abraham Lincoln is widely ranked among America’s greatest presidents. He is respected and admired
by millions. President Obama has even identified himself as a pupil of Lincoln’s. So why don’t more
Americans take the example and admonition of one of their national heroes to heart?

Thanksgiving affords us the opportunity to walk in Lincoln’s footsteps, and to see that beneath
American greatness lies God’s spectacular promise to Abraham!

To learn more, join 6 million others and request your copy of The United States and Britain in
Prophecy. Of all the treats Americans could set their eyes on today, this work by Mr. Armstrong ranks
among the most thought-provoking and beautiful. •

Brad Macdonald’s column appears every Thursday.

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