It’s astonishing to the natural mind to consider that a country’s fate today was predicted two and three quarter millennia ago! When Hosea wrote down what God told him and taught him through experience, it was for the nation of Israel back then. But God, who sees far beyond the limits of our perception, also intended His words to depict modern Britain.

Britain – a nation to whom God showed great favour, whom He used to publish countless Bibles, to send Christian missionaries into every corner of the world, and to be a preserve of the Gospel – features both allegorically and directly in Hosea’s 14 chapters.

Taught Through Experience

Hosea is the first of the ‘Minor Prophets’ in the Old Testament. These books are not minor in content, merely minor in length compared with the ‘Major Prophets’ of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Yahweh revealed much to this faithful man of God, through his long life, which spanned the reigns of four kings of Judah (Hos 1:1) [Uzziah (792-740 BC), Jotham (750-731), Ahaz (735-715), and Hezekiah (729-686)], and at least six kings of Israel [Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea]. But what God revealed was through the crucible of suffering. Hosea had to experience the lesson which God was conveying.

God’s plan involved Hosea marrying a woman who would later be unfaithful to him.

“God commands Hosea to take a ‘wife of harlotry’ to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness toward God (Hosea 1:2). The command... is to be interpreted proleptically.” (NKJV Believer’s Study Bible, pp 1207-8.)

In other words, God anticipated that Hosea’s wife, Gomer, whom he loved, would commit adultery. God also foresaw that Israel, Britain, and other nations would turn away from Him, too.

Hosea’s first child was a son. God said:

Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel (Hos 1:4,5).

Taking the last point first: to whom does the bow refer? It is the nation renowned for its archers in mediaeval times – England. The archer’s bow symbolised her strength and independence. Britain is about to lose that.

“ ‘Jezreel’ means ‘God sows’. The ‘bloodshed of Jezreel’ refers to the bloodthirsty acts of Jehu recorded in 2 Kin 9; 10. The prophecy has two stages of fulfilment: 1) the demise of the house [lineage] of Jehu with the murder of Zechariah (2 Ki 15:10), and 2) the fall of Samaria [northern Israel’s capital] and the scattering of Israel into exile (2 Ki 17:5,6).” (NKJV  Believer’s Study Bible footnote.)

God is not mocked. People reap what is sown. Punishment (‘vengeance’) comes round in time, as God determines. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the next generations (Deut 5:9). To see how this principle worked the prophesied ‘vengeance’ in the 8th century BC, please read 2 Kings 9, 10, and the other references cited above. It’s an amazing story!

Likewise, the sins of Britain will be visited soon upon this generation. That judgement is in its early stages now (2006/2007).

The British royal family has inherited the throne of King David of Judah. (The Stone of Scone, which was [until a few years ago] under the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey in London, was Jacob’s pillar stone upon which every king of Judah was crowned.)^[1] The Stone’s removal from London typifies the removal of Britain’s sovereignty, which Hosea also prophesied: bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel (1:4). God also used the words in that day, which identify a time of His judgement. The most intense time of judgement for Britain and America is just prior to the time when God intervenes in history through Jesus Christ (Jer 30:7).^[2]

Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head [the Davidic king of 3:5], and they shall come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel! (Hos 1:11.)

Why will they come up out of the land? Because they will be returning, by God’s direction, to their promised homeland – Palestine (Is 11:11,12). They will be established in that central location in the world to become the model nation God originally intended Israel to be. We are a mere few years away from that climactic event at the end of this Age!

But before that deliverance occurs, Britain has to experience the most dreadful time in its history. ‘Why’ is revealed in Jesus’ words in Luke 21:22 and in the symbolism that was worked out in Hosea’s life:

And she [Gomer] conceived again and bore a daughter [but the account deliberately omits who the father was – it was not Hosea]. Then God said to him, ‘Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.’ (Hos 1:6.)

Lo-Ruhamah meant ‘no mercy’. Because of their unfaithfulness to Him, God withdrew His mercy from Israel shortly after those words, and Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians from 721-718 BC.

The statement again finds its fulfilment in our time, as merciless Islamic terrorism attempts to destroy British ‘culture’, and many other forces of evil eat away at Britain from within. God is allowing all these because of the manifold sins of the people and its leaders who are unfaithful to God. They don’t want union with Him. The Christian heritage of this nation is now politically rejected and despised.

When Israel went into exile, God demonstrated His faithfulness and ability by saving Judah from being conquered by Assyria at that time. He said to Hosea that He would (1:7). How and why God miraculously spared Judah is written up in 2 Kings 19.

If Britain were to turn to God like Hezekiah did in that episode, God would spare Britain equally supernaturally. But that will not happen, as the nation rejected that possibility in 1996 when God spoke then.

Gomer later bore another child, whom God called Lo-Ammi, meaning ‘not My people’ (1:9).

...for you are not My people and I will not be your God (Hos 1:9).

Once again the physical illustration depicts the spiritual malady. Hosea’s wife was unfaithful to him. She had sexual union with another man. Likewise, Israel was unfaithful to her Husband, God (Jer 31:32, Hos 2:16), preferring union with foreign powers who were governed by demons. And Britain has similarly rejected God today in favour of secular humanism and other demonically infested philosophy.

No one can serve two masters (Matt 6:24).

Whoever chooses the wrong master will be slave to that master until he or she acknowledges their folly in genuine remorse and repentance. That never takes place without prior suffering or hardship.

Turning The Nation Around

Because of disobedience and rejecting God, He permits insurmountable problems to engulf the wayward people. Suffering and death are the inevitable outcome. Hosea’s message from God contains a warning about all this.

I will be like a lion to Ephraim... I, even I, will tear them and go away; I will take them away and no one shall rescue. I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offence. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me (Hos 5:14,15).

But although God has no option except to allow catastrophe to befall His people, He does so in the full knowledge of what the eventual outcome will be. Contrition can only occur through crushing.

And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there it shall be said to them, ‘You are sons of the living God.’ (Hos 2:10.)

What a turnaround!

Humble people are so endearing to Him. His love will go out to them as before. God assures us:

Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ and to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’ (Hos 2:1.)

“ ‘My people’ (Ammi) and ‘Mercy is shown’ (Ruhamah) signify that Israel shall one day be restored and once again become the object of God’s love. ‘Lo’ in Hebrew means ‘no’ or ‘not’. With its removal, the above two names are dramatically changed into a blessing (cf 1:10; 2:23).” (NKJV footnote on 2:1.)

The fulfilment of this wonderful promise comes after their catastrophic demise and devastation. God has such intense love for people who want to be like Him in holy character. Yet, it is only possible for Him to share the intensity of His love with them when they share His spiritual aspirations; and to be in that position is the privilege of the humble. That doesn’t come easily! It is the product of suffering or hardship.

God’s redeeming love for Israel is the theme of Hosea’s book, and what it will take for a nation to experience it. The Hebrew word hesed expresses this love. It occurs in Hosea 2:19; 4:1; 6:4,6; 10:12; and 12:6. It means faithfulness, steadfastness and loyalty. It is a binding love, one that never changes.

For Israel of old it was expressed in the promises which God made with her through the Old Covenant – great promises of blessing for obedience (Deut 28:1-14). For New Covenant believers it is conveyed to us by Jesus, our Messiah, transmitted through the power of His Spirit. It transforms us from within, to become like Him:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17).

How fitting that Hosea’s name should mean ‘salvation’.

Hosea demonstrated his faithful love to Gomer, illustrating God’s faithfulness to Israel in the shadow of their unfaithfulness. The story repeats itself today in modern Israel and the Church, where God is also working out His purposes and preparing His Bride.

But first, He says:

I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry (Hos 2:4).

We have to understand God’s abhorrence of this nation’s evil spiritual condition and what it must face in consequence! Hosea contains dire prophecies of awful things to befall Britain – “Ephraim” in the account.

Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days (Hos 3:5).

“The latter days” identifies it as a NOW prophecy! In Part 2 we will take a closer look.

The Prophecies Of Hosea Concerning Britain

Part 2

Hosea’s account mentions Ephraim 37 times, more than in any other biblical book. Many believers may question the validity of refer- ring to Britain as the modern counterpart of Ephraim, but there are valid reasons for doing so.

In Hosea 1:1, “Israel” refers to the northern kingdom, as distinct from the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern ten tribes seceded from Judah (and Levi and much of Benjamin) after Rehoboam, son of Solomon, increased taxation (1 Kings 12:1-20).

“The division occurred at the death of Solomon, c 930 BC. The northern kingdom is also designated ‘Ephraim’ (the most influential tribe) and ‘Samaria’ (the capital city).” (NKJV Believer’s Study Bible, footnote.)

As mentioned in Part 1, the northern ten tribes were conquered by Assyria and went into exile between 721-718 BC. This was the end result of an immoral lifestyle, one which had forsaken God and the standards by which He wanted the people to live.

“Historically, most of the ancient Hebrew Tribes were exiled by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17) and lost their Israelite identity. The Bible says that all of the northern Israelites were deported, and archaeological and historical studies reveal that after the Assyrian Conquest and Exile they had effectually disappeared. The ‘Lost Israelites’ are popularly known as The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.

“Many researchers in the past wrote books or articles proving that the Lost Ten Tribes in the course of time migrated to the northwest to become the Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, and related peoples... [J H Allen in Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright published in 1902, was perhaps the first to uncover this amazing truth.]

“According to Scripture the Lost Ten Tribes or at least those tribes headed by the descendants of Joseph were destined to possess (Gen 22:17) the gates of their enemies (i.e. strategic thoroughfares, ports, and passes),^[3] to be in the Isles of the Sea (Isaiah 11:11; 24:15; 42:4; 49:1-6; 51:4,5; Jeremiah 31:6-10), in the west (Hosea 11:10), in the north (Jeremiah 16:14,15), in the north-west (Isaiah 49:12), and to be militarily powerful (Genesis 16:19; Micah 5:8), very numerous (Genesis 48:16), and economically bounteous (Genesis 49:25,26), and so on. All of these attributes and more, taken together, are to be found in the Northwest European peoples especially amongst the English-speaking branch which includes the peoples of [Great Britain], North America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. (Yair Davidy, Ephraim, pp 1-2.)

Since Ephraim was the leading Israelite tribe – one of two half-tribes, descended from Joseph, to whom the birthright promise was passed on – we are to look for a successful, populous nation fulfilling this identity. Great Britain fulfils the prophesied criteria mentioned above.

To Joseph’s progeny Jacob prophesied:

Joseph is a fruitful bough [this has spiritual significance], a fruitful bough by a well [remember the incident at the well of Sychar where Jesus met the Samaritan woman – Jn 4, see below]; his branches run over the wall [reaching out in the days of the British Empire, and missionary work].

The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him. But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong [marginal alternative meaning, supple] by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel).

By the God of your father who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. (Gen 49:22-26.)

Compared with other nations, Britain and its ‘sister’ America have enjoyed unequalled bounty that has fulfilled the words above. Joseph had two sons – Manasseh and Ephraim (Gen 46:20). When Jacob (Israel) passed on his patriarchal blessing to the sons he gave the first portion to Ephraim (even though he was younger) and the second portion to Manasseh (Gen 48:8-20). This was fulfilled in the history of first, Britain, and then America.

The Proof Of Etymology

Etymology – the origin of various words – is a strong proof of the origin of the people who use them.

“The North American type of delegated Representative Democratic Government in principle is encapsulated in the Hebrew meaning of the name ‘Menasseh’!

“Menasseh and Ephraim were sons of Joseph the Patriarch, whose descendants migrated to Britain and from there to North America. Many of the early colonisers of North America came from areas of Britain whose clan and place names are those of Menasseh. The British, on the other hand, possess the characteristics of ‘Ephraim’ whose very name in Hebrew connotes the British Aristocratic system!” (Yair Davidy, Ephraim, pp 4-5.)

More than this, God adds further weight to it, by causing Jacob (Israel), who had covenanted with God at Bethel (Gen 28:18-22), to prophesy:

...Let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac [Saxons = Isaac’s sons] and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth (Gen 48:16).

The major way God’s name was named upon them was through the Word of God that they carried or preserved. God’s name conveys His character, His love and beneficence. Jesus expounded that love by His Gospel. And more than most other nations, Britain and America were blessed with unrivalled access to the Gospel. Salvation was theirs – for as many as God would call (Acts 2:39).

This privilege was prophesied in Isaiah 49.

Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel; and He has chosen you (NKJV). In a season acceptable I answer you. And in a day of salvation I help you. And I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of [the] people (CLNT), to restore the earth [spiritually and to develop it in other ways], to cause [thee] to inherit the desolate heritages (NKJV)... (Is 49:7,8).

Isaac Leeser renders the underlined words thus: as a people of the covenant. J H Allen remarks about this phrase:

... [it] is remarkable for its clearness, especially in its use of the article a before people, because Ephraim-Israel, although not all the people, is distinctly a people, of the covenant; and as a people of the covenant she is appointed to establish, people, or cause to be inhabited, the desolate, uninhabited places of the earth [fulfilling Isaiah 49:8, 19-21]. These desolate localities are given to Israel as an inheritance, and she has needed them in fulfilling the destiny of the Birthright Kingdom of Israel – that of becoming many nations, or a company of nations (Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright, p 274).

From this exposition, you can see how Britain was meant to populate and annexe territory like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many other areas in the world. God did so, not just to fulfil prophecy, but as a means to promote His Gospel of the New Covenant in Christ to the rest of the world.

J H Allen continues:

But we must now notice the word covenant, since it is used in the phrase as a people of the covenant. The Hebrew word for covenant is Beriyth, which in Judges 8:33 and 9:4 is used as a proper name, and, for that reason, it is simply transferred into the English text without being translated. It is given there as the name of one of the idols of Israel, namely Baal-beriyth, and means Baal of (the) covenant. Also the Hebrew words Ben-iysh Yemiyniy are translated “Son of a man of Jemini. Thus Ben means “a son”; Iysh, “a man”, and Yemiyniy, Jemini. The anglicised form of these words are Ben, ish and jamin, and, taken together, they mean “A man of Benjamin, or a Benjaminite.”

We have brought you through this group of words to show that ish in Hebrew means a man. Now take the Hebrew word which is translated covenant, which in its original form has no vowel, but which in its Anglicized form retains the vowel i to preserve the y sound, and we have Brith, which joined with ish is Brith-ish, and means “A covenant man.” Today the BRITISH people, or men of the covenant, are called Britons, and are dwelling in the British Isles!!!

We are told that the people of Waels call themselves, in ancient Welsh, “Bryth y Brithan,” or “Briths of Briton”, which means “The Covenanters” of “the land of the Covenant.” The first form of this phrase is almost vernacular Hebrew.

It is also unmistakably recorded in British history that the earliest settlers in Wales and southern England were called Simonii. They came by the way of the sea in the year 720 BC. At this time there was the greatest influx of the Tuatha de Daanan to Ireland, and this synchronizes with the deportation of the Israelites of the commonwealth of Ephraim to Assyria, and the flight of Dan and Simeon from the seaports and coast country of Palestine. That Simonii is the plural of Simeon we need scarcely mention. [Simeon was another Israelite tribe, and may be represented by the Scots today.] (Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright, pp 274-5).

The Fruitful Bough

Remember what Jacob prophesied:

Joseph is a fruitful bough [this has spiritual significance], a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall (Gen 49:22).

What nation reached out like Britain, both in colonising the world, and at the same time in God’s Work, promoting His truth? Surely Britain was part of that prophesied fruitful bough! And America followed on in that tradition, being a haven for religious freedom and the promotion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is therefore fitting that the analogy should depict part of a tree by a well. She is not the whole tree, for also from other nations God sent out many with His truth.

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman by the well at Sychar, He expounded one of the most profound spiritual truths which concerned receiving God’s living water! (Jn 4:10). Samaria was once the capital of northern Israel. Was it a coincidence that Jesus met her near there? Hardly. And was it also another coincidence that Sychar was “near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph”? (Jn 4:5.) And “Jacob’s well was there” (Jn 4:6). This is very deliberate juxtaposition! There is a divine parallel.

Just as Jesus propounded the wonderful truth of Spirit-endowed living (Jn 4:23,24) there beside the well which had been given to Joseph, so He also used ‘Joseph’s well’ (Britain and later America) to offer spiritual water to those of the nations who thirst.

...the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (Jn 4:14).

Britain had a commission and duty from God to draw from His spiritual well, to preserve and promote the truth of God, Understanding this sets the stage for Hosea’s prophecies of judgement to come.

The Prophecies Of Hosea Concerning Britain

Part 3

Almost total devastation is prophesied for Britain! The same is true for America, because they are both major descendant nations of the ancient Israelite kingdom mentioned in Hosea. Not only were Hosea’s prophecies fulfilled in the 8th century BC, but they were preserved in the Bible for our day. Duality comes into play.

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor 10:11).

If there were no further lesson to be drawn from Israel’s horrendous experience in 720 BC, the words of Hosea would have been long forgotten. God would not have preserved his prophetic testimony. He would be telling us something different. After all, the world has moved on a long way in those 2,700 years!

Or has it? No it hasn’t! Human nature is just the same. The stubborn, self-willed human heart is still ticking. And the same spiritual deviancy still motivates people today as it did in Hosea’s time.

Destruction Is Coming

When God showed me in vision, mushroom clouds – presumably from nuclear weapons – over major British cities, I was aghast! I have related the dream fully in Dreams From God About The Judgement of Britain. That scenario – which is not a figment of the imagination, but a foreseeing of a literal event that is inevitable now in Britain – is only one of several awful catastrophes to occur. They will come upon this nation because of its wickedness, from which people refuse to turn away.

I didn’t decree these things. God did. I don’t want to see them any more than you do. I was born a British citizen in 1949, and I have loved this country. But no one could love it more than God, who IS love! That is what energises Him. He lives to love. But how can He love a people who don’t love Him or His ways? How can He love them while they persist in defilement, debauchery and degradation?

God doesn’t live to love what is evil. He lives to love what is good. So, if you want to be a recipient of His love, you’ll have to choose to want what is good – according to His definition, not your own.

God revealed His will, His laws, His truth to Israel. He also gave Britain and America equal opportunity and exposure to His truth. These nations were not denied the Bible, or religious freedom, like Communist states. They had the chance – if they wanted it – to read a Bible, go to church, obtain more spiritual understanding, and worship Him. But human nature is hostile to God (Rom 8:7), so it doesn’t choose that option. It prefers a route of selfish pursuit. That trunk route is SIN, with a capital ‘S’.

Hosea wrote God’s condemnation against people who have had access to Him but who turn it down:

Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; for she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! (Hos 2:2).

You can sense how much God is hurt. Hosea understood how God felt, because he was in that position, too. His own wife had deserted him for another man. God requires faithfulness and obedient loyalty from us – His creation and dependent subjects. If the relationship is to succeed, there must be change. God adjured Israel, as He does Britain:

Let her put away her harlotries... and her adulteries... (Hos 2:2).

For the simple reason:

...Lest I strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst (Hos 2:3).

Australia is suffering one of its worst droughts at the moment. This is part of the punishment. A land stripped naked is an allegory. It depicts the utter helplessness of people without the necessities of life, like a baby who is totally dependent upon its mother for survival. But our nations don’t consider that they are completely dependent upon God for their survival.

Until each nation as a whole chooses what is good, it must face the consequences of its own waywardness in rejecting God. Hosea prophesies some of what that will entail:

I will not have mercy on her children [this generation], for they are the children of harlotry (Hos 2:4).

Can you imagine being totally forsaken by God in a time of terrible crisis? Jesus went through that heart-wrenching panic on the cross! (Matt 27:46.) It’s the price of sin.

Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out My hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all My counsel, and would have none of My rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes... (Prov 1:24-26).

For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’ (Hos 2:5.)

Do you see the priorities of the nation here? It’s not God first and foremost. He’s not the one they put their trust in. It’s in physical things that they want, and in the trading partners who provide them. So, Britain does deals with trade partners who lock up Christians in prison or torture them to death. (China and a number of other countries today. Before 1989, communist Russia and her East European satellites denied human rights to Christians. They’re still not much better today.) But that doesn’t concern those who live in the physical. They want monetary gain, not moral good. Such an approach is harlotry to God who made us all for spiritual purposes!

Naturally, God responds:

Therefore, behold [look, you’ll see], I will hedge up your way with thorns, and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them. Yes, she will seek them but not find them. [Things won’t work out as she anticipates.] Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.’ [She will have regrets and want to turn back time.] (Hos 2:6,7.)

For she did not know [recognise] that I [God] gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold – which they prepared for Baal (Hos 2:8).

 Human leaders and the average person do not realise that all the resources of a land were fore- ordained by God. He knew how they could – and would – develop it industrially and economically. But instead of giving God thanks, they use it to worship false gods. Baal was the most popular heathen god which the Israelites turned to worship in their apostasy from the true God.

Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time [much of the needed grain in the world has come from North America, but the world will suffer starvation after America is taken over by China and other nations;^[4] agriculture will not function as it does today] and My new wine in its season, and will take back My wool and My linen, given to cover her nakedness (Hos 2:9).

You see, everything the earth produces is not really ours. It’s God’s (Psalm 24:1). He made the earth, and until we give Him credit, and pay the tithe of our increase which He requires, it’s not ours. So, if we don’t give Him credit and obey His requirements, He has every right to take back what is His – the land’s productivity, the rain and good weather.

Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from My hand (Hos 2:10). I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths – all her appointed feasts (Hos 2:11).

God established times of rejoicing before Him (Lev 23), but when people reject Him they forfeit the joy that He gives, which is especially poignant on those festival occasions.^[5] Although the days strictly belong to God – they are HIS Sabbaths – He calls them ‘hers’ because of the loss of benefit to her as a nation. Israel was meant to be a nation under God.

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ So I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them (Hos 2:12).

Wild animals represent hostile nations who will come in to devour her assets. That is happening now to Britain, America and other nations of Israelite descent.

I will punish her for the days of the Baals [idols / false gods she chose to serve] to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewellery, and went after her lovers; but Me she forgot, says the Lord (Hos 2:13).

God Wants To Restore Her

This devastation that God allows is for a divine purpose:

...I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness [reminiscent of what God did in taking Israel out of Egypt and leading her through the wilderness to the Promised Land – see 2:15], and speak comfort to her (Hos 2:14).

People can only be turned around morally, and receive comfort from God as a result, after they have been crushed or severely humbled. Otherwise they are too arrogant and self-reliant. Only after humbling can they enjoy proper spiritual relationship with Him.

And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call Me [Ishi Hebrew] My Husband, and no longer call Me [Baali] My Master (Hos 2:16).

The problem with people is that they don’t perceive God’s love for them. They regard God’s laws as burdensome, and Him as a slavemaster. But He’s not like that. He’s loving, so caring, like the best husband a wife could have. After hardship and trial, being humbled and crushed, people will come to see God’s nature as it really is, and enjoy union with Him.

I will betroth you to Me forever; yes I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy (Hos 2:19).

There is that remarkable word hesed or lovingkindness. It depicts the wonderful, pure, totally good nature of God. He WANTS to bless people, but He can only do that when each person accepts His righteousness and moral values (‘justice’).

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord (Hos 2:20).

How fantastic! The nations which today are so filled with evil-doers and God-haters will be restored to enjoy this sublime divine relationship!

The Prophecies Of Hosea Concerning Britain

Part 4

On 15th January 2005, God gave me three dreams about things to do with Britain in various ways. The first was about a Church of England vicar who is not in God’s will (omitted); the second one was about the Church in need of drastic rebuilding; and the third was about Gordon Brown and Britain’s economic future:

15th Jan 2005. M. 2) Chimney Fell In.

The scene was a tall, old, ramshackle, 3-storey building where the chimney had collapsed and fallen in through the roof. It was wedged in an upper floor, between the floor joists. People were worried about the situation, but I wasn't. I told them that, despite the precariousness of the situation, it could be dismantled brick by brick and brought down to ground in buckets.

Meaning: The old building represents the antiquated church, in need of complete renovation and renewal. The chimney could represent the leadership. Dismantling the reliance upon leadership is no problem to us. It seems a disaster to others, but it's part of our heavenly brief.

3) Gordon Brown.

Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, the man holding the purse strings of the British economy, was relaxing in the bath. It wasn't an ordinary bath. It was really deep, about six or seven feet deep! He was sur- rounded by an entourage of personnel. I was a few feet away from this spectacle, and had control of the bath plug. At a given time, I pulled the plug and then went to tell him that he had 5 minutes to get out, get dried and dressed.

Meaning: Gordon Brown is basking in the popularity and success of being hailed as perhaps the most successful Chancellor in history. But his time of 'relaxation' is fast coming to an end. The message we bring is one of the collapse of Britain as we know it, because of its flagrant sinfulness. When 'our' call to repentance goes out, this country will have '5 minutes' (a short time, probably about 2 or 3 years) to prepare for that disaster which is inevitable.

Most Britons have no idea about what this country is to experience shortly! They don’t care to know what was prophesied through Hosea, or by contemporary prophets to whom God has spoken about such things. Nor do they care about morality, for the most part, unless it affects them.

The message of the prophets is unwelcome. It treads on toes. It brings correction. It tells people in what way they are wrong. It appeals for repentance and reform. But people prefer the status quo. Needless to say, prophets are opposed, rejected, and their message is not accepted by the majority.

True prophets are appointed to:

...root out and to pull down [what has been erected by man that is not in line with God’s will], to destroy and throw down, [but also] to build and to plant (Jer 1:10).

The purpose of prophets’ work is not merely to undo. Any dismantling is for the express purpose of rebuilding properly and accurately. After humbling and knocking down, God’s message is constructive.

You can see this in Hosea’s words.

The Valley Of Achor

I will give her her vineyards from there [in the wilderness] and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the days when she came up from the land of Egypt (Hos 2:15).

The Valley of Achor literally means ‘troubling’. A valley represents a situation or stage in your life of deep distress. It leads you to repentance, and turning to God – if you respond in the right way, in meekness.

The Valley of Achor also refers to an incident concerning an individual called Achan (Joshua 7), on Israel’s journey towards the Promised Land. At the Amorite city of Ai, Israel was severely defeated, 36 men died, and Israel’s progress was halted. The reason was unrepented sin.

Achan secretly held onto idols which he knew he should not have kept. His selfish desire for them, for their intrinsic monetary value, and for what they represented, was an affront to God who expected people to worship Him, not anything else (Ex 20).

The sin of Achan is regarded not only as his personal sin, but also as a trespass for all Israel (cf Josh 7:11). Because of him, 36 men died (v 5; cf Rom 5:12,18,19). This story teaches the serious effects sin can have on God’s people. It is important, then, for blatant sin to be disciplined (cf 1 Cor 5:1-8; Acts 5:1-11; 2 Thes 3:6,14,15). Achan’s sin is called a ‘trespass’ (ma’al, Heb.) in v 1, which refers to treachery, a breach of trust, such as refusing to pay a vow, adultery, or idolatry (Lev 5:16; Num 5:12,27; Josh 22:16; Ezra 9:2-4). It is called a ‘disgraceful thing’ (nevalah, Heb.) in v 15, a term usually used of sexual perversions (Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23,24, translated ‘outrage’ and ‘vile thing’). (NKJV Believer’s Study Bible, footnote on Joshua 7:1.)

Britain is full of outrages, vile things, sexual perversions, promiscuity and idolatry of all kinds! For these sins, it will experience ‘the Valley of Achor’.

But ‘the Valley of Achor’ will be its door of hope (Hos 2:15). Through disaster and punishment, pride and self-reliance will be broken. Then God can come into the lives of people as never before. Hosea wrote:

It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer, says the Lord. I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth. The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel (Hos 2:21-22).

‘Jezreel’ means ‘God will sow’. ‘In that day’ is a prophetic term pointing to the time when Jesus returns to earth to rule for 1,000 years. The Millennium will be characterised by peace and plenty:

In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground, bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely (Hos 2:18).

This verse parallels what Isaiah prophesied of the same time – in the very near future – when vicious animal natures will be tamed:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play on the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is 11:6-9).

Peace and safety, prosperity and plenty, will accompany the restitution of all things “which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Jesus will come to restore all that Satan stole at the beginning (Gen 3):

In that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people [giving true leadership and moral direction, which today’s political leaders do not give]; for the Gentiles [all other nations beside Israel] shall seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious (Is 11:10).

It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left [who are left after the horrendous destruction], from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea (Is 11:11).

This prophecy foretells of the regathering of the British, Americans, Jews and other Israelites (Is 11:12), after they have been scattered throughout the world during the Great Tribulation:

For then shall there be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be [again]. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect’s sake [the people of God] those days will be shortened (Matt 24:21,22).

The outcome of this most awful time in history will be a great harvest of people turning to God:

I heard the number of those who were sealed [symbol of spiritual protection or salvation, as well as ownership] 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel (Rev 7:4).

The number 144,000 is purely symbolic. There will be many more from Israel who are saved. These will form the nucleus of a new Government on earth with Jesus as Supreme King – the holy Mountain Isaiah saw (Is 11:9).

Seals imply possession and ownership. The 144,000 individuals sealed during the Tribulation are the possession of God.... Israel is loved and treasured by God because of God’s faithfulness to His promises. The Lord has marvelous last-day purposes for Israel. The 144,000... will be wonderfully converted to Christ during the Tribulation... Not only does the text clearly maintain this, but also the care in listing each of the tribes adds validity to the interpretation (vs 5-8). The peculiarities of the listing are these: (1) inclusion of Levi (v 7), doubtless because of the cessation of the OT priest- hood; and (2) the substitution of Manasseh for Dan (v 6), the latter omitted possibly because of its idolatrous history. (NKJV Believer’s Study Bible, footnote on Revelation 7:4.) [More on Dan’s idolatry in Part 6.]

Millions of Gentiles will also be converted in the Great Tribulation:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb [Jesus], clothed with white robes [clothed in righteousness] with palm branches in their hands [recognising and worshipping Jesus as Messiah; see Jn 12:13; also a symbol of liberation] (Rev 7:9). These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14).

In other words, they repent and are forgiven, and their sins are washed away because of Jesus’ blood, shed for their remission.^[6]

These other Bible prophecies above add more meaning to these next words of Hosea:

Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy [Heb lo-ruhamah]; then I will say to those who were not My people [Heb lo-ammi], ‘You are My people!’ [ammi.] And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ (Hos 2:23.)

Hosea’s prophecy is by no means exclusive! While God had begun with Israel, His purpose extends to the whole world, and wants all people to share in the glories of His goodness and salvation. Israel was just the first ‘sowing’. And, don’t forget, Britain is ethnically part of Israel (explained in Part 2).

To depict this prophesied restoration of Israel, Hosea was commanded to enact it in the physical in type by buying back his wife from her lover (Hos 3). He took his wife back and loved her affectionately, despite her insulting unfaithfulness to him. Jesus offers that same affectionate love to Britain, to as many as can receive it!

The Prophecies Of Hosea Concerning Britain

Part 5

People don’t understand God’s love. He is strange to them. He lives in a far superior sphere to our physical world. But though He inhabits another plane, His Spirit permeates the entire world like air. He knows all that is going on. He knows you and me ‘inside out’, your thoughts and motives, and He even knows everything that will take place before it does!

His overarching desire is to share His love with you, so that you can become like Him spiritually. But He can’t do that with you until you are crushed. Hosea’s prophecies foretell of that crushing that must take place in Britain, for her people to receive the greatest gift in the entire universe! Millions would deride and discount the assertion, but we know that it will occur. We have the sure word of prophecy:

Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days (Hos 3:5).

There was a partial fulfilment of this prophecy in the fifth century BC, but “in the latter days” places the main fulfilment in our day. We mentioned the return in Part 4, prophesied in more detail in Isaiah 11:11. What precedes it is what concerns this nation NOW!

No Truth In The Land!

When Hosea pronounced to Israel:

Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land... (Hos 4:1a).

He was declaring God’s warning for his time. But God says the same today.

...There is no truth or mercy [Hebrew, hesed] or [intimate] knowledge of God in the land (4:1b).

That’s contemporary Britain. O you might find a bit of knowledge of God here and there, and a minority of believers who still remain true to God, but overall Britain is deeply anti-God. “We don’t do God,” said Alastair Campbell, former chief ‘spin doctor’ to Tony Blair’s Labour Government in the late nineties.

Don’t ‘do’ God?!!! How tragic that the nation has descended to the level of utter ignorance, and complete rebellion against the One who gave her its land, its freedoms, its monarchy, its privileges, its prosperity, and most of all its values! But those values have been systematically thrown out one by one, until the vestiges that remain are so watered down by humanistic hubris that they have no moral value for the nation’s spiritual worth.

Hosea said it 2,700 years ago:

...There’s no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land (Hos 4:1b).

This is reflected in the people and their behaviour, in local government, national government, Parliament, in business and commerce, in the judicial system, programmes on TV, films and entertainment, and even in mainstream churches.

By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed touching bloodshed (Hos 4:2).

Scarcely a week goes by without the sordid announcement on the news of a bloody murder, or gruesome arson attack aimed at burning to death a whole family. People are knifed to death for a mobile phone or an OAP’s pension! Neighbours from hell plague British cities. Rapes, violent crimes, burglaries and muggings are commonplace. Prostitution and drug taking are on the increase. In December 2006, in an ‘innocent’ rural locality, five prostitutes were callously murdered and their naked bodies dumped.

This is Britain today! It’s not the Christian country many people claim it to be. It’s a land of lawlessness, prophesied long ago. God foreknew!

The government announces one initiative after another in a desperate but futile bid to try and cap this rise in lawlessness. But it’s only treating symptoms, not the cause.

The cause is lack of morality. God provides the basis of that morality, but British leadership doesn’t ‘do’ God, so what hope has it got? None!

Even in ‘Christian’ circles, the ‘Church’, in its deceived folly, has thrown out law as a dirty word! “We’re under grace now” they inanely chant, implying that they are free from the ‘restriction’ of Mosaic law.

Fools and blind! British Parliament and its legal system was established on the basis of biblical law. In the Moses’ room in the Houses of Parliament hangs a huge imposing painting of Moses coming down Mount Sinai with the two tablets of stone in his arms.

More than 70 years ago, the BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation, was set up with its main intent to broadcast to the world the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ. Gradually, little by little the biblical and moral foundation of this land has been eroded and God’s truth is now banished!

Moral Vacuum

It is the grossest folly to throw out the Maker’s Instruction Manual, to dismiss the Maker, replace Him with a blind figment of the imagination called ‘evolution’, and thereby absolve society of any moral accountability other than to itself.

Morals are to protect society, not enslave it. By throwing out the very protection God offered through the moral restraint of His commandments, Britain has opened the sluice gates to hell. Britons are being sucked headlong into Satan’s vortex. Not that they care – they threw him out, too... or so they thought!

Paul prophesied over 1900 years ago:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of them- selves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

These traits even affect those who should have been changed by Jesus’ teaching:

...having a form of godliness but denying its power... (2 Tim 3:5). Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity (2:19).

But little do people heed. Iniquity flourishes! God saw it coming. He knew humans wouldn’t learn spiritual lessons easily. He anticipated that they would run the route of self-will and self-pursuit first, but that it would lead to their downfall. God predicted to Hosea:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge... (Hos 4:6a).

Britain is not destroyed for lack of technology or industrial knowledge, or business acumen, or medical expertise (although there are huge blind spots there also!). The knowledge it needs for survival is SPIRITUAL knowledge.

Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you... Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children (Hos 4:6b).

God has no option but to distance Himself from such vileness. He cannot live in an environment of sinful attitudes. Where people want sin – disobeying God’s commandments, and the underlying motives that cause such disobedience – He is far away!

Therefore the land will mourn... (Hos 4:3).

And so it does! Even the environment tells the tale of woe:

And everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away (Hos 4:3).

Just recently, fishing quotas had to be cut yet again for British fishermen because of declining fish stocks. Surely it’s not difficult to see the link between jettisoning moral values and environmental decline? The much more difficult proposition is for humanity to accept moral blame and surrender its own will to that of God’s.

In fact, it’s impossible by human means. God has to intervene in your life and grant you repentance when your own ambitions are crushed. Then He can come in by His Spirit, live in you and cause your heart to be turned towards His. Hosea’s prophecies foretell of this wondrous event (Hos 6:1).

But for a person to come to that point of no return is often a long journey. Repentance is not reached without prior wrongdoing. And the catalogue of that seems endless! Hence Hosea’s lengthy list.

For Israel is like a stubborn calf... (Hos 4:16).

The more they increased the more they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame (4:7).

...They set their heart on their iniquity (4:8).

Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff [diviner’s rod] informs them [in other words, they depend on anything and everything other than God!]. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God (4:11,12).

...Therefore their daughters commit harlotry and your brides commit adultery (4:13).

Promiscuous Britain leads the way in promoting teenage pregnancies, single-motherhood, abortions, under-age sex, pornography and other sexual vice. This, in a nation that has printed and circulated more Bibles than any other country except possibly the USA! Britain and the USA are a promiscuous double act that is doubly shameful because of their biblical heritage.

Not just secular Britain, but also ecclesiastical Britain shows this deviancy. There it is even more shameful, because the priesthood knows better!

And it shall be like people, like priest... (4:9).

Like me, you will have heard of the scandalous sexual perversions of paedophile priests, of the torment they inflicted on their hapless child victims, and covered it behind clerical clothing! Why?

...because they have ceased obeying the Lord (4:10).

You can’t throw out God’s commandments and not pay a horrendous price for it!

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:7).

The astonishing thing is that God foreknows of everyone’s waywardness and has made allowance for it, preparing to forgive each one upon repentance.

...“There is no truth [or faithfulness] or mercy [hesed, Heb.] or knowledge [intimate knowing] of God in the land.” God displays all three of these covenant, relational virtues toward His people, but His people have ceased to display any of them toward Him. As a result sin permeates the entire land. Gomer is thus a type of Israel, and Hosea is a type of God. The book ends with a promise of God doing for Israel what Hosea did for Gomer. God’s love truly is amazing! As the book progresses, knowledge is stressed in 4:1-6:3, mercy in 6:1-11:11, and truth in 11:12 ff. (NKJV Believer’s Study Bible, footnote on Hos 4.)

Continued in Part 6.

The Prophecies Of Hosea Concerning Britain

Part 6

I’m writing this on Christmas day, regarded by most deceived Westerners as the day of Christ’s birth. It wasn’t, of course. Jesus was born in the autumn, around the time of God’s appointed autumn festivals, which included the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23). What only a minority know is that 25th December was actually the birthdate of a despotic ruler, millennia before Jesus. He was Nimrod.

You find him mentioned in Genesis 10:9 as a “mighty hunter before the Lord”, which does little to clarify the real meaning – that he was worshipped as a “hero in defiance of God” (Bullinger’s Companion Bible). Nimrod’s name is from the Hebrew marad meaning “to rebel”.

Here we are approximately 4,300 years later, still honouring a human ruler who defied God, and who put himself in the place of Christ as the people’s saviour! He is the one deified with his mother, Semiramis, as the mother and child, whom Catholics worship. They think they worship Christ and Mary, but the custom predates Christianity by two millennia. This dualism began with the founder of Babel, from which the satanic Babylonian Mystery Religion grew. And most of today’s widely accepted customs have their roots in that historic Babylonian setting.

Appropriately, another later prophet, Zechariah prophesied:

Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north [Babylon was north of Jerusalem ... for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven, says the Lord. Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon [modern-day religious Babylon – i.e. the false Church] (Zech 2:6,7).

While the main one to whom the prophecy was addressed is Judah, or the Jews, Zion has a second allegoric meaning of the Church. And much of the Christian Church has links to Britain in one way or another. Likewise, there is a parallel command in Revelation to come out of Babylon’s sins (Rev 18:4).

Instead of doing that, and observing festivals which God decreed for His people (Lev 23), Britain’s population and churches customarily enact a tradition that has its roots in pagan antiquity, with the mother and child dualism, and revere a human despot who rebelled against God. It is part of a religion of Antichrist!

They do it because they enjoy it. Why am I mentioning all this in this context? To show how blind we are to what we do in society and why we do it.

Britain’s Blindness

Similarly, Israel was so enmeshed in Baal worship, that we fail to see where Christian custom today still bends beneath the boughs of its influence.

“Israel, as we know, was cast out of her land for idolatry, and Baal-ism was one of her chief idolatries. Before she was cast out she seems to have acquired the habit of attaching the name of the god Baal to places and cities, for on ancient maps of Palestine we find Baal-meon, Baal-gad, Baal-ath, Baal-shalisha, Baal-tamar, Baal-hazor, Baal-zephon, Mt Baal-ah, and others.

“...these people carried that same proclivity with them to the islands, for in Ireland this name of the god Baal is found just as frequently... Baal-y-Bai, Baal-y-gowan, Baal-y- Nahinsh, Baal-y-Castell, Baal-y-Moni, Baal-y-ner, Baal-y-Garai, Baal-y-nah, Baal-y-Con-El, Baal-y-Hy, Baal-y-Hull-Ish, Baal-Nah-Brach, Baal-Athi, Baal-Dagon.

“....These certainly are memorials of the Baal worship once prevailing in Ireland.... One thing that particularly marks the Hebrew origin of these names is their attachment to places but not to persons. The Canaanites and Phoenicians attached the names of their gods, Baal, Bal, Bel to persons, as Eth-Baal, Itho-bal, Asdru-bal and Han-i-bal. These were family names among the heathen nations surrounding Israel. In like manner, we find among the chosen people the names of their God associated with and forming a part of family and personal names; as ‘El’ and ‘Jah’, in Isra-el, Ishma-el, Lemu- el, Samu-el, Ezeki-el, El-isha, El-jah. Baal never found favour among the Hebrews as a personal name, though used freely for localities. They gave it to their towns, but not to their children. Its use in Ireland is proof of the Israelitish origin of the earliest settlers – philological evidence of racial unity.

“But this custom of thus using the name of Baal has long since passed away from the descendants of those who settled in ‘Innis Phail’ – an Island Wonderful – and her sister isles [Britain] ...we should not be surprised that the name of Baal is no longer in the mouth of their people. By the mouth of the prophet Hosea, whom the Lord used to declare that he would hedge up the way of Ephraim Israel, so that she could not find her paths [Hosea 2:6], he also says: ‘I will take away the names of Baal-im (plural of Baal) out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.’ (Hosea 2:17.)” (J H Allen, Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright, pp 271-273.)

Although the major fulfilment of those words of Hosea 2:17 is Millennial – after Jesus returns to rule the world – a partial fulfilment has occurred, because God has called some to belief in Jesus now. These ones (the Bride) call Him “my Husband” (Hos 2:16). But the majority in Britain are spiritually blind, and continue to observe customs from Baal worship, or other traditions derived from pagan idolatry.

Besides Christmas and Easter, and all the syncretistic practices of the major so-called Christian churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Coptic, Anglican, etc.), we find that the High Places of pagan worship, with their symbols of eternal life in long-living Yew trees or other evergreen tree groves, still exist at sites of British pre-Reformation churches. The misguided organised ‘Christian’ church – not true believers, but the counterfeit ‘brand’ who tried to ‘convert’ the masses – built their stone church buildings on old pagan sites which were high places, often replete with Yew tree groves. By doing so, their humanistic ploy was to amalgamate ‘Christianity’ with accepted paganism and thereby win many ‘converts’.

Old stone-built Anglican churches still adorn these hills in England. Ellesborough near Aylesbury is but one site, where the British Premier Margaret Thatcher attended near Chequers. It’s an old pagan high place which is still haunted by the demons that inspired the ancient Israelite apostasy. There are hundreds more across the land.

Isaiah wrote of Israel’s idolatrous apostasy:

Inflaming yourselves with gods under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks (Is 57:5). On a lofty and high mountain you have set your bed [adultery implied; symbolic of unfaithfulness to God]; even there you went up to offer sacrifice (Is 57:7).

...you said, ‘I will not transgress,’ [which is the same claim of innocence that the Church excuses itself with] when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down, playing the harlot (Jeremiah 2:20).

God calls them:

...sons of the sorceress, you offspring of the adulterer and the harlot! (Is 57:3.)

Please understand how seriously God regards falsifying the customs He has assigned for our observance! Christmas and Easter are not accept- able because He did not assign them. They were ‘borrowed’ from paganism by a corrupt Church! God tells us in His Word what is acceptable to Him. You won’t find one mention of these ‘Christianised’ (a lie!) syncretistic observances there. But you WILL find Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the other festivals which I mentioned earlier.^[7]

God commanded Israel to destroy – not ‘sanctify’ – these pagan edifices with their associated evil idolatrous practices!

Ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves (Exodus 34:13, KJV.)

But the nation adopted the pagan customs of the peoples around them (Judges 3:7), and inter- mingled with them, worshiping their gods (3:6). Multi- cultural integration was not OK, because it involved watering down the truth, accepting falsity in its place, and disobeying God.

Israel of old seriously transgressed, as does Israel today – including Britain and America. The details of apostasy have changed, because times have changed, but the nature of the corruption is as despicable to God as ever!

All that physical people can see, without the Spirit of God, is the physical. They don’t perceive what is invisible, what incites human behaviour, the spirits that motivate various traditions to be followed. If they did, most would be horrified!

Paul revealed it:

The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? (1 Corinthians 10:20-22).

When our English churches meet on Sundays – the day set aside to honour the greatest sky god, the sun – in antiquated buildings built on haunts of demons who inspired the idolatry of the high places, and place before their congregations men in long robes, which were a mark of élitism in the Chaldean (Babylonian) priesthood, the dominant spirit present is not the Holy Spirit but a satanic spirit.

Britain Will Pay For It

Hosea warned of the eventual outcome:

When Ephraim spoke trembling [when he was humble and truly feared God], he exalted himself in Israel [humility causes God to lift up a person or people]; but when he offended through Baal worship, he died [not at that time, but in due course, that way of life led to death] (Hos 13:1).

And like father, like son:

Now they sin more and more... (Hos 13:2).

The outcome for Britain? Read on:

Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away, like chaff blown off from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney (Hos 13:3).

When they had pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me (13:6).

So I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road I will lurk; I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them (13:7,8).

God is not vindictive. Don’t misunderstand God’s words. He is trying to convey in striking imagery the severity of the people’s sin, which elicits this severe response. The wild beasts represent foreign powers who will take over Britain because of the moral failure in the land.

Throw out God; throw out His morality, and you are left with nothing of true worth. A nation can only go down and down from then on.

The Prophecies Of Hosea Concerning Britain

Part 7

Ephraim’s catalogue of sins, evils and follies is only matched by the catastrophes that are to follow in their wake. God guided Hosea to write about them. Like I said earlier, many will be incredulous that a man living 2,700 years ago could foretell the problems which Britain, and other Israelites and Jews, are now facing. But, as Don Francisco aptly sung, “the hand that is led by the Spirit is the proof of the God who is there.”

God is in control, even though it may not look like it. People think to themselves: “My way is hidden from God” (Is 40:27), not realising that every word and every thought is logged on the giant heavenly ‘computer’ (Ps 139).

Besides making the stars, God has them all named and catalogued (Is 40:26). If you think He doesn’t have you completely catalogued likewise, you are foolish indeed!

He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite (Ps 147:4,5).

Do you realise how many stars there are? Our own galaxy, the Milky Way (which is only one of who knows how many galaxies?), has between 200 billion and 400 billion stars! The distance across our galaxy is... wait for it... 885,000,000,000,000,000 miles. If someone tried to count every star that is known at the rate of three stars per second, they would have reached less than 5 per cent of the total after 100 years! Does this give you a glimpse into the awesomeness of God?!

So, don’t be surprised that God predicted Britain’s maladies and catalogued Britain’s sins all those years ago. The Bible is God’s book to man – to those who will heed it.

Few do.

The majority prefer doing evil to doing good. So, Hosea’s words are right on target:

Catalogue Of Britain’s Woes

If you can take it, here is a quick run down of Britain’s misdemeanours and woes that Hosea listed:

1.               It begins with pride:
The pride of Israel testifies to his face (5:5).

2.              And self-righteousness and complacency:
Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself; in all my labours they shall find in me no iniquity that is sin” (12:8).

3.              Idolatry (4:12-13).
Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone (4:17).

4.              Sexual immorality:
...your daughters commit harlotry and your brides commit adultery (4:13).

5.               Rebellion:
Their drink is rebellion, they commit harlotry continually (4:18).

6.              Stubbornness (4:16).
For Israel is stubborn, like a stubborn calf.

7.              Political scandal, sleaze and vice:
Her rulers dearly love dishonour (4:18).

8.              Empty, vain pursuit:
The wind has wrapped her up in its wings and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices (4:19).

9.               Lack of justice:
Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement (5:11) and have devoured their judges (7:7).

They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field (10:4).

[Hemlock is a pernicious weed, a curse to the land!]

10.            Humanism and political ‘correctness’:
...he willingly walked by human precept (5:11).

11.            Lack of spiritual direction:
The pride of Israel testifies to his face; therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity... (5:5).

12.            Adulterous reliance upon other nations:
They have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey... by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers (8:9).

13.            Repudiation of God’s biblical truths:
I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing (8:12).

14.           Utter spiritual vacuum:
There is no truth or mercy, or knowledge of God in the land (4:1).

Ephraim is also like a silly dove, without sense – they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria (7:11). Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them because they have transgressed against Me! Though I redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me (7:13).

15.            Paedophile priests and ministers:
As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem; surely they commit lewdness (6:10).

16.           Crime and violence rampant:
By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed (4:2).

17.            Environmental catastrophes:
Therefore the land will mourn; and everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea will be taken away (4:3).

18.           Prosperity led to excess and degeneracy:
The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame (4:7).

When they had pasture [physical provision], they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me (13:6).

19.           Deceit and hypocrisy:
They make a king glad with their wickedness and princes with their lies (7:3).

Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit (11:12).

20.           Spiritual blindness:
They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness... (7:2).

21.           Compulsive rebels:
...inflamed with wine, he stretched out his hand with scoffers (7:5).

They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the Lord (5:4).

...None among them calls upon Me (7:7).

22.           Multicultural madness:
Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned (7:8).

23.           Foreigners and immigrants sap Britain’s strength:
Aliens have devoured his strength but he does not know it... (7:9).

24.           Unaware of his demise and imminent death:
...Yes, grey hairs are here and there on him, yet he does not know it (7:9).

25.           Obdurate and self-reliant:
The pride of Israel testifies to his face, but they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek Him for all this (7:10). ...they refused to repent (11:5).

You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way, in the multitude of your mighty men (10:13).

26.           Self-seeking and indulgent:
...They assemble together for grain and new wine [but] they rebel against Me (7:14).

27.           Corrupt churches:
Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, they have become altars for sinning (8:11).

My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, none at all exalt Him (11:7).

28.           Treacherous to God:
Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against Me. They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a treacherous bow (7:15,16).

29.            Provoke God to anger:
Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly: therefore the Lord will leave the guilt of his blood- shed upon him, and return his reproach upon him (12:14).

The Destruction Of Britain

Britain’s time of reckoning has nearly arrived!

People not versed in God’s truth don’t realise why, but retribution for evil is one of the immutable principles in God’s Word.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth... (Romans 1:18).

Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. For Israel has forgotten His Maker, and has built palaces [to glorify himself, not to glorify God]... (Hosea 8:13,14).

Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure (Hos 5:9).

This is no empty threat. This is definite! God has spoken!! What He says is SURE!

They have dealt treacherously with the Lord, for they have begotten strange [pagan – totally wayward] children. Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage (5:7).

A new moon marks the beginning of each new month, so it can symbolise a month in time. It could denote the SUDDEN collapse of the country, when God allows all these destructive factors to assail it. It may only take one month to make Britain desolate!

For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them (1 Thes 5:3).

The nation will be warned beforehand:

Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them; I will bring them down like birds of the air. I will chastise them according to what their congregation has heard (Hos 7:12).

The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The spiritual man is insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity (9:7.)

The prophet, the spiritual man, is considered an idiot, because of the magnitude of sinfulness in the nation! His words are repudiated! Britain will not take heed or repent this side of turmoil. Britain has to experience what is prophesied before contrition can come.

My God will cast them away, because they did not obey Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations (9:17).

Therefore tumult [terrorism] shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be plundered (10:14).

When it is My desire, I will chasten them. Peoples shall be gathered against them when I bind them in their two habitations [Britain and America] (10:10). Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh grain; but I harnessed her fair neck. I will make Ephraim pull a plough (10:11).

In other words, Britons will be enslaved! 

The Prophecies Of Hosea Concerning Britain

Part 8

It’s a tragic prospect, but unavoidable now. The die is cast. There can be no turning destruction back because the nation will not repent. The majority have chosen what they want. They prefer sin to righteousness; iniquity instead of purity.

They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one (Romans 2:12).

When Paul penned those words, quoted from Psalm 14, they applied to Israel then, and they still apply today. It is because humanity doesn’t perceive how vile sin is, and thinks it’s ‘fun’ or appealing, that God had to allow Jesus to be killed so horrifically by crucifixion. His life was sinless, but He gave His life to redeem all errant humans who turn away from sin.

It is also because of that human blindness to the spiritual horrors of sin that God has to allow equal physical horrors to occur to cause us to perceive. It would be unloving of God, and against His character, if He were not to let that happen.

God grieves greatly over it:

How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? [Admah and Zeboiim were two other cities which were obliterated by astral fire, along with Sodom and Gomorrah.] My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred (Hos 11:8).

It is because people choose the wrong way of life that God has to let them learn the hard way:

Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting: being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:28-32).

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man... the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things (Rom 2:1,2). Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honour and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil... (Rom 2:4-9).

Those are the hard facts of spiritual truth. Tribulation and anguish are coming to Britain because it has earned that fate. It could have avoided it if it had chosen what is right, but the nation threw out the truth of God, ignored the Bible, and rejected Jesus as their Saviour.

It is too late now for the nation to turn. 1999 marked that turning point. God spoke to me three years earlier and said “This nation has three years left” – three years to turn, but politicians, leaders and people all ignored the handwriting on the wall. They preferred their own ways to God’s.

Humanity always tries to solve a spiritual problem its own way first, but it doesn’t work. The only solution to a problem with a spiritual cause is God’s spiritual solution. Turning to Him is the only way.

O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me! (Hos 13:9.)

But Britain didn’t choose God:

When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to king Jareb; yet he cannot cure you, nor heal you of your wound (5:13).

Assyria, with its king Sennacherib (Jareb), was the dominant power in the region back then. Britain today repeats the mistake of going to a ‘lover’ – a foreign power – relying on human might and economic strength to try and solve its problems.

Repentance and turning to God is the only real solution:

O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity (14:1).

God will allow catastrophes to befall this nation the likes of which it has never experienced previously:

I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offence. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me (Hos 5:15).

God revealed to another prophet more details:

One third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one third shall fall by the sword [violence and war] all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them (Ezekiel 5:12). Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the Lord [they will come to know God is in full control, and come to know Him as they repent before Him]; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them (Ezek 6:9,10).

The Nation Returns To God

The amazing outcome of this greatest trial in all history – which, incidentally, will test all people on earth (Rev 3:10) – is wonderful, breathtaking:

Come, and let us return to the Lord, for He has torn but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up that we may live in His sight (Hos 6:1,2).

Two prophetic days can refer to two years (Ezek 4:6). It can also refer to 2,000 years (2 Pet 3:8).

Almost 2,000 years ago Jesus died to redeem Israel (and the world) so that people can be spiritually healed and raised up to live in His sight. After 2,000 years from Jesus’ death, Israel will be restored in her land, as so many Bible prophecies relate (Is 60:21; Jer 31:7-12; 50:4-5; Ps 37:9-11, etc.). The third day is the 1,000-year rule of Jesus on earth (Rev 20:4).

After suffering humiliation and crushing, many Britons will say:

Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth (Hos 6:3).

The refreshing and life-giving rains that fell on parched land in Palestine depict the outpouring of the Spirit and God’s forgiving, loving, restoring power:

For I desire mercy and not sacrifice (6:6).

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rains righteousness on you (10:12).

He will. That is the wonderful end to Ephraim’s and Israel’s agonising plight – to those who choose right over wrong. Here is the prophet’s advice:

Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity; receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. Assyria shall not save us, we will not rise on horses [military might], nor will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods,’ for in You the fatherless finds mercy.” (14:2-3.)

And God responds with deep clemency:

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. [Rich forested land, with stately, valuable cedar trees.] His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall be revived like grain, and grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, “What have I to do any more with idols?” I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; your fruit is found in Me. (Hosea 14:4-8.)

Salvation will come to the nation, and true spiritual fruit will finally be born.

Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them (14:9).

Will you stumble, or will you be wise?

Malcolm B Heap,  January 2007

Quotations from the Bible are taken from the NKJV, New King James Version, unless otherwise stated.