The Rise of Ephraim and Manasseh
Back to 1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!
These passages can be proven. Since the 1800s, two nations stand out in growth unlike any in history!
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the rapid advancement of technology and economics, beginning in Britain, changed the lives of most of the population. Technical achievements, such as the invention of the steamboat, assured Great Britain total and complete authority over the sea. It allowed her to colonize new lands, to the point that the “sun never set” on her holdings. The British Empire covered almost a quarter of the earth’s land mass—14 million square miles—and became the largest empire the world had ever seen!
America has a greater concentration of natural resources than any other geographic location. Utilization of new, rich resources kept raw material costs down and allowed for unprecedented growth.
From 1800 to 1950, both nations came to control nearly every important resource on the planet!
Oil, still civilization’s primary source of fuel, has been called “the lubricant of the world economy.” The control of this vital resource has been the cause of many geopolitical and military struggles. In 1950, America produced 52 percent of the world’s oil supply. (Together, America and Britain produced over 60 percent.)
The 1950 snapshot also shows that these two great nations produced over 75 percent of the world’s steel—over 60 percent from America alone!
They also controlled the world’s production of coal—a more critical fuel in the 1950s—producing 50 percent more than all other nations on Earth combined! Imagine the stability of the world today if just these three products were still under the control of either of these nations.
Virtually every precious metal was mined from the United States and Britain. More tin, iron, lead, copper and chromite were also produced by these nations than the rest of the world combined!
Our nations produced 80 percent of the aluminum, 75 percent of the zinc and nearly 95 percent of the world’s nickel. Such important metals were almost completely under the control of just two truly blessed nations.
Another metal vital to construction is pig iron. These nations once produced 33 percent more pig iron than the rest of the world combined!
But America and Britain dominated many other raw minerals, producing 100 percent of the world’s chromite supply in 1950. That same year, they produced one-fourth of the world’s copper and nearly 6.5 percent of the world’s bauxite.
Over 66 percent of the world’s electricity was produced and used by these two nations in 1950. This almost doubled the rest of the world.
They produced far more ships, cars, planes and trains than any other nation—with over 50 percent of the world’s railway mileage!
Nearly any index of wealth—from gold to silver to precious stones—would have shown these nations to be the world leaders.
How did such power—such wealth—fall to such new and unknown nations? The skeptic will say that it came by the sweat and effort of our peoples—that our workmanship and our effort brought our peoples to this pinnacle of power.
But God’s promises were made thousands of years before either nation appeared. He foretold their growth—and He is the Source of such prosperity, strength and worldwide influence!
What I Saw and Learned
As a grade-schooler starting in the mid-1950s, I learned of America’s unmatched greatness in ways far too numerous to recount here. Classes were filled with stories about America’s unique place in the world.
I also witnessed firsthand, in my own hometown of Lima, Ohio, America’s unsurpassed industrial might at work. Superior Coach Corporation led the world in school bus production. This massive factory had earlier produced tanks for the American war machine in World War II, having a direct impact on the Allies’ ability to literally outmass the weaponry of the Axis powers, and save the U.S. and Britain’s birthright!
Lima Locomotive was the world’s largest manufacturer of the powerful steam-driven locomotives that once pulled some of the longest trains the world had ever seen—with just one engine.
My hometown was also home to the Baldwin-Hamilton Corporation, which produced some of the largest steam shovels (and other heavy equipment) in the world. I grew up right around the corner from “Mr. Hamilton,” and often heard the story of his large corporation and the influence that it had.
Standard Oil Corporation had a giant refinery and storage capability in Lima that was so big, it practically dwarfed the imagination. I recall regularly driving past the vast areas that it encompassed. The father of one of my childhood friends became its president in the 1960s.
I can remember how I felt about these things as though it were yesterday. Every American student or citizen who was paying attention recognized that we were far and away the most dominant nation on Earth. We were simply unrivaled—in either the world of that time, or in history!
The Source of Wealth and Blessings
America’s forefathers could never have envisioned this nation as the global superpower it became. The United States has continually been at the forefront of economic prosperity, medical science, technology, food production, sanitation, architecture, space exploration, etc. Its citizens enjoy freedoms completely unattainable to so many. The income and standard of living for most Americans, Britons, Australians and Canadians is still higher than even most other industrialized nations.
But we have forgotten where these blessings came from! Only God’s promises to Abraham kept these nations from joining the Third World’s “brotherhood of poverty.” We have not had to face the grim reality of famine or pestilence continually sweeping our cities and countryside.
From rolling green pastures to oil-rich lands, it is evident that our wealth and countless resources are God-given blessings. Nevertheless, this same national power, prestige and wealth has caused many to become blind to where this awesome bounty came from. The general national attitudes of arrogance and pride demonstrate a gross lack of gratitude toward God—the Provider!
Another famous Abraham, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American President, said in a January 27, 1838 address, “We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We…found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or the establishment of them.”
In proclaiming a “National Day of Fasting and Prayer” (March 30, 1863), Lincoln also said, “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 bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever 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 all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
“It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
But there are also statements from other leaders in American history demonstrating how they recognized where this national wealth and greatness came from:
First, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for benefits, and humbly to implore His protection, aid, and favor” (George Washington, 1732-1799, first president of the United States).
And, “…The divine Author of our blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose example…we can never hope to be a happy Nation” (George Washington).
And also, “How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy” (Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, third president of the United States).
And then, “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever” (Thomas Jefferson).
And finally, “The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God” (John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, 35th president of the United States).
These men recognized God as the Source of this sudden rise to power—and warned of the need to be grateful for His provisions and blessings.
Now think of the attitude in today’s American Congress, courts and schools, where references to the Ten Commandments in public buildings elicit lawsuits and court injunctions. The God that these presidents spoke of is now almost persona non grata in the same government from which they spoke of him with such authority.
Moses warned Israel long ago: “Then beware lest you forget the Lord, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deut. 6:12). Moses understood—and recognized—that when people receive much, it is in their nature to become ungrateful and arrogant, and to forget the Source of their blessings—God!
But how long will America and Britain’s prosperity last? Indefinitely? Although Abraham’s modern descendants are seemingly “on top of the world,” they are not destined to stay there.