Israel means believer. So the phrase, "sons of Israel" means "sons of the believers." God wants the sons of believers to become believers as well.

"Sons of Israel" has several meanings, the major one being the above, and we will concentrate on this meaning in this message.

We will examine briefly, however, other meanings of this phrase. Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, had twelve sons, who also bear the name Israel. Only one son, however, was given the blessing of the firstborn, the birthright inheritance. That was Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

The Birthright Boys

Genesis 48:15-19 reveals a key to understanding prophecy that extremely few prophecy teachers have grasped. We have had over three hours of teaching on freedomtruthseekers.com on this vast subject. We prove this truth from the Word of God and history. A multitude, company, or commonwealth of nations would come from Ephraim, and one great nation would emerge from Manasseh (Gen. 48:19). The name Israel would be principally placed on these two brothers, not on Judah, who inherited the scepter promise of being the nation from which would come Yashua the Messiah. Judah represents the Jews, scattered among the nations and principally residing in the tiny nation of Israel today.

Today's nation of Israel is not called "sons of Israel" in the way the birthright nations are called Israel. In God's eyes, those nations are truly Israel, especially when it comes to prophecy in the Bible.

The surprising identity of Israel is revealed throughout the Bible and in history. The only brother-like nations that have ever fulfilled the promises of prosperity bequeathed upon Abraham and subsequently upon Israel are the United States and Britain, meaning the Commonwealth. Ephesians 2:12 even refers to the "commonwealth of Israel." While that term applies in a spiritual sense to believers today, its physical meaning is not to be ignored. The sun never set on the once-great British Empire.

Detailed prophecies show that the blessings of Abraham were delayed for 2520 years from the time of the captivity of the northern tribes of Israel headed by Ephraim and Manasseh to the early nineteenth century when the U.S. suddenly acquired two-thirds of its rich landmass in the Louisiana Purchase. Britain began to rule the seas and establish its dominance in the world. No other nations could possibly have fulfilled these promises to Abraham, certainly not the tiny nation of Israel.

Those who malign this teaching are dwelling on unimportant details that ignore the clear historical accomplishment of the prophecy of Genesis 48.

The reason the Jews have retained their identity as Israel is that they have kept God's Sabbath covenant, even though imperfectly. The Anglo-Saxons have lost their identity as those who should wear the name "Israel" more than any of the other twelve sons of Israel for one main reason: they have forgotten the commandment and the covenant God told them to remember: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). Ezekiel 20 shows those northern tribes were sent into captivity in Assyria because they had broken the Sabbath.

Satan has deceived even the spiritual sons of Israel, the believers, to forget what God said to remember. Interestingly, our God of perfect foreknowledge gave Manasseh a name that means "forget," and the U.S. has indeed forgotten about the Sabbath that God revealed to their ancestors long ago.

While end-time events will center around Jerusalem, the capital of present-day Israel, or more precisely the children of Judah, the main prophecies about Israel in the last days apply to the U.S. and the Commonwealth nations.  [Continued ... ]