Are the American Revolutionary War of Independence and the Civil War Prophesied in the Bible – Stephen talks about  a prophecy in the Bible that most have not picked up on concerning the American War of Independence and the American Civil War. You will be enthralled by his teaching.

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted all Scripture references are from the New King James Version (NKJV). Any comments made are either from the NKJV translation or by Stephen J. Spykerman.

In the Book of Isaiah there is an extraordinary prophecy about the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh. On the face of it the meaning is totally obscure and it seems completely impossible to explain. The reality is that it is only those who understand the ancestry of the modern day birthright sons of Joseph, who can possibly understand the meaning of this prophecy. It is only once you have become aware of the true origins of America and Great Britain that you have the key to unlock the meaning of this remarkable prophecy. Yet, even if you were armed with this key, it would still be pretty difficult to understand exactly what this prophecy means, as you also need to have a fair knowledge of American history to get the whole picture. Nevertheless, by this prophecy, we can further discern the modern day identity of the two sons of Joseph. Let us carefully examine the chilling prophecy spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

“19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts The land is burned up, And the people shall be as fuel for the fire; No man shall spare his brother. 20 And he shall snatch [slice off or tear] on the right hand And be hungry; He shall devour on the left hand And not be satisfied; Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm. 21 Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh…” (Isaiah 9:19-21)

What on earth can this mean? Isaiah clearly speaks out a prophecy for the future. Could it be that the Isaiah prophecy has already occurred? The prophet is referring to a yet future time when Manasseh and Ephraim, the two sons of Joseph, are devouring each other. He is speaking of a time when these two brother nations will be at war! The question is, has this already happened? To get the answer, we need to look into the history of Great Britain and America. It is only when we examine the history of these two nations that we discover that Isaiah’s ominous prophecy has already been fulfilled.​

The Catalyst for Rebellion

The British exchequer, after Britain’s victory over the French in the Seven Years War (1756-63), had become heavily depleted and it was in sore need of funds. Westminster was looking for ways to raise the extra revenue needed to replenish its coffers. Some in the British government reasoned that, as much of the war effort had been for the benefit of her American colonists, it would be only fair to have some of those rich colonials bear some of the burden. Thus, the decision was made to levy a special stamp tax on the Americans. The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first direct tax imposed by Parliament on their American brothers. In reality the Americans were only being asked to pay a share of their own defense. As it was, the new tax, even though it effectively doubled the low local taxes the American colonists had to pay, still only came to a flat rate of two shillings per person. Furthermore, the colonial Americans enjoyed a higher level of prosperity than the people back in the mother country. The British on average paid ten times the amount in tax the colonists were being asked to pay. However, the English colonists did not see it that way. They felt strongly that the British parliament had no right to pass laws on Englishmen in the Americas, who did not have elected representation in that government! Very soon the cry went up: “No taxation without representation!” This then became the popular war cry throughout the thirteen Colonies.​

History Repeats Itself

Here we see history repeating itself in the most remarkable way, as in ancient times the division of Israel into two separate nations was over exactly the same issue. It is interesting to note that when the Ten Tribes of Israel split away from Judah the cause for the division was the onerous taxation plans of King Rehoboam. It was the king’s introduction of higher taxation that drove the Ten Tribes of Israel to rebel against their duly constituted monarch. This same Rehoboam was a very stubborn king who simply would not budge or compromise. Thus, in ancient Israel the same cry had gone up: “No taxation without representation!” Although the Bible, (Israel’s ancient history book), expresses the same sentiment somewhat differently, nevertheless it amounted to the same thing. The Scriptures record the incident as follows:

“What share have we in [the House] David? We have no heritage in the son of Jesse! To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O [kingdom of] David.” (Isaiah 9:19-21)

With wisdom and willingness to compromise, conflict could quite easily have been avoided in both cases but, primarily through the stubborn folly of King George III, who without knowing it was walking in the footsteps of King Rehoboam, the whole situation got completely out of hand. It was all so unnecessary, as the Colonists looked upon Britain as their mother-country. They talked of her as “home” and now, for want of a little “give and take” on both sides in a spirit of compromise, both mother-England and her own colonial children were fighting each other. Thus, just as Isaiah had prophesied in Isaiah 9:21, Manasseh was devouring Ephraim.

The founding fathers of America clearly recognized the Biblical connection between the Israelite experience of coming out from Egyptian bondage and their own battle against the colonial bondage under the “tyranny” of an English king. For example, Thomas Jefferson originally proposed that the reverse side of the American Seal portray the liberated “children of Israel” in the wilderness being led by a divine pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. Jefferson’s own motto engraved on his personal seal was borrowed from Oliver Cromwell’s famous words of justification: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

​Manasseh Devours Ephraim — the War of Independence

When in 1775 the first shots were fired in anger, the two brothers, Manasseh and Ephraim, were fighting and devouring each other just as the prophet Isaiah had prophesied. Fighting began at Lexington and also, rather ironically, at a place called Concord. William Pitt, the great war time Prime Minister of Britain during the Seven Years War, now old and somewhat ill, warned the nation at the time that Britain’s enemies would take advantage of this unnecessary family squabble. When he talked of enemies, he had the French especially in mind. William Pitt, by then elevated to the peerage and known as Lord Chatham, had worked tirelessly to stop the conflict. He said: “You cannot conquer America. They are of our own blood. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, I would never lay down my arms—never, never, never!”

​The plain fact is that there are no two other nations on the earth that fit the prophecy so absolutely. “Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm — Manasseh is against Ephraim, Ephraim is against Manasseh.” (Isaiah 9:20-21a) This prophecy gives a very vivid picture of what occurred during the American War of Independence, as when brother fought against brother, they were hurting themselves. They were indeed, metaphorically speaking, eating the flesh of their own arm.

​Born Out of the Womb of Great Britain

William Pitt’s warning came true, as France, England’s perennial enemy, saw her chance to get her revenge for her crushing defeats during the Seven Years War. She supplied most of the weapons and gunpowder for the American revolutionaries and, come 1777, French “volunteers” were arriving in Virginia to assist in the fight against England. One year later, the French became formally allied to the Americans and, soon afterwards, the Spanish and Dutch too declared war on Britain. In no time at all Great Britain was pressed on all sides, as she was fighting an imperial war against most of Europe, as well as against her own thirteen colonies in America. Parliament demanded an end to the war. Lord North, the British Prime Minister, resigned and in September 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed at Versailles, with Britain recognizing the independence of her thirteen “rebellious” colonies. It was a hard blow for the “Old Country,” as, apart from Canada, she had lost all her hard-won possessions in North America. Yet out of this very conflict a new nation was born—the United States of America—that Great Nation that was primarily descended from Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the son of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Thus, in the most extraordinary way, that ancient promise of the “Birthright” blessing was coming to its Ultimate fulfillment.

The Puritan Army takes up Arms against the King in the English Civil War.

This image is from the video “Cromwell”. It reveals America forming within the womb of England 130 years before the actual birth of the nation in 1776. Here the Puritan Army goes to the Battle of Naseby singing hymns. John Bunyan, writer of Pilgrim’s Progress, was with the Puritans in this decisive battle against the king. Note the the cavalry officers in the Puritan Army wearing yellow ribbons and yellow sashes and the banner ‘In God We Trust’. Is this heraldry of the Puritans still with us today?

If we go back a little further in history and look at the emergence of the Puritans in the 1500’s; we can discern that the internecine strife between Ephraim and Manasseh began even earlier with the people of the yellow ribbon. In the English Civil War the Puritan cavalry officers and the soldiers wore yellow ribbons and sashes.

The yellow ribbon was used to identify and distinguish them from the royalist forces on the battlefield. Thus, the yellow ribbon became an established part of Puritan heraldry. This same yellow ribbon has ever since played an important role in American history, especially in a time of war. The Puritans would fight under a great banner stating, In God we trust! Until recently, we have seen the very same phrase on the U.S. dollar bill!

Britain and America—a Special Relationship

It cannot be denied that the United States of America was born out of the womb of Great Britain and just like any birth; it had been accompanied by much pain. The relationship between a mother and a child is always a special one—as the saying goes: “blood is thicker than water.” Yet, is it not interesting to notice that ever since America gained its independence, the world in political circles has never stopped talking about what they perceive as “A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP” between America and Great Britain? Once you understand who these two brothers really are, is it any wonder there should be a special relationship? In Joseph, the son of Jacob/Israel, they share the same patriarchal ancestral father, and in Asenath, the Egyptian wife of Joseph, they share the same ancestral mother. Of course, with that common pedigree, background and experience, it would be very strange indeed if there were not a special relationship between them.

​Yet, just as the Patriarch Jacob had declared, the time had come when the two brothers should walk separate paths. The prophecy had to be fulfilled and it was always inevitable that it would be fulfilled within God’s perfect timing. For this reason it was necessary for Great Britain to lose the American War of Independence, as his elder brother Manasseh had to go his own way in the world to become a great nation prophesied by the Patriarch Jacob/Israel. If Britain had not lost that war in the resounding way she did, the prophecy would not have been fulfilled and the credibility of the great God of Israel would have been put into question. It was God’s purpose that Britain should lose that war. Ephraim was meant to lose it, as it was to be the instrument in bringing the blessing of the “Birthright” to his older brother Manasseh, e.g. America.

​George Washington – A Man of Destiny

George Washington’s Inauguration

Inevitably, after a further three years of bloody war, on October 17, 1781, the British forces under General Cornwallis surrendered at the famous siege of Yorktown. That the final battle should take place at a town called “Yorktown” is highly significant in that the original meaning of York is “Castle or stronghold of the Hebrews.” It is at this “Castle of the Hebrews” that Ephraim, the younger Hebrew son of Joseph (Great Britain), is forced to surrender his sword to his elder gentile former Hebrew brother Manasseh (U.S.A.). To add to the humiliation, the English troops were forced to march out of Yorktown with their colors, (the red ensign), encased. They went out with great dignity in true British grit style. The British military band played The World Turned Upside Down, a most appropriate tune, as it described exactly how the British felt. For them the world truly had been turned upside down, as their outstanding record for many centuries was to win wars rather than lose them.

The formal peace treaty was signed in Paris on September 3, 1783, accompanied by much gloating in France over England’s misfortune at having lost the war. The French had come to the aid of the Patriot Continental cause, not because of any regard for the Americans but simply to thwart and spite the English from gaining their place of destiny as the prime inheritor of the “Birthright.” Finally, after eight and a half long years of bitter battles, the war had come to an end.

​It is not generally appreciated that the American War of Independence was in effect America’s first civil war. The fact is that nearly a third of the population had supported the king of England in this epic struggle. Those who sided with England were almost certainly from the tribe of Ephraim, whereas those who supported the revolution consequently were from the tribe of Manasseh. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy, that no man shall spare his brother and that, metaphorically speaking, every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm, was fulfilled in every sense in this titanic struggle, in which Manasseh devoured Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh (Isaiah 9:19-21).

​At the end of the American War of Independence, the people of America, having thrown off their colonial shackles, had become Americans. Nevertheless, there was as yet no unified American Republic. The peace treaty with England was made between the 13 Colonies that had succeeded in becoming 13 independent states. The Declaration of Independence only implied a league of friendship between 13 small independent countries not imply union. The reality at the time was that it was the emergency of the war that had created the necessity for the states to bind together. Once the war was over, the bond was practically dissolved, and every State did its own thing and went its own way. Had this scenario continued, America would never have walked in the destiny of her Birthright and she never would have become the “Great Nation” the Patriarch Jacob had prophesied she would become. Once again, it was George Washington, who together with other leaders became the catalyst for change, as he presided over the drafting of the Constitution for the United States of America. He was subsequently elected unanimously as the first President of the United States. To date, he still holds the unique record as the only unanimously elected president in the history of America.

​The inauguration took place significantly in New York, (the “New” Stronghold of the Hebrews), near the spot now marked by Ward’s statue of him in Wall Street. Once in New York, he traveled to the city in a special barge festooned with the Stars and Stripes and was greeted by a joyful crowd en route. Looking back at this event, we realize what a momentous occasion it was, as George Washington took the oath of office before a cheering crowd. He thus became the first American president under a democratic governmental system that has provided for the peaceful transition of power for more than two centuries.

Did George Washington Understand the Significance?

“22 A charming son is Joseph, a charming son to the eye; each of the girls climbed heights to gaze…

25 …the God of your father and He will help you, and with Shaddai — and He will bless you [with] blessings of heaven from above, blessings of the deep crouching below, blessings of the bosom and womb. 26 The blessings of your father surpassed the blessings of my parents to the endless bounds of the world’s hills. Let them be upon Joseph’s head, and on the head of the exile from his brothers.”

(Genesis 49:22 & 25-26, The Chumash)

This raises the question of whether George Washington understood the enormous significance of those words as he took his oath of office on that auspicious day on April 30, 1789. One cannot but wonder whether Washington realized that he was God’s appointed instrument in bringing those prophetic words into reality. As the great man is not with us any more to give us the answer, we can only surmise what was in his heart at the time. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to think that Washington consciously chose this particular passage of the Bible because he understood that America was descended from Joseph, the chosen “Birthright” son of Israel. According to some accounts, Washington kissed this very Bible passage at the end of his oath of office, as the first President of the United States of America.

​It was the birth of a new nation. It was also a prophetic moment of the highest order, as the descendants of the tribe of Manasseh inherited their divinely apportioned sovereign territory in the New World. It was the preordained moment when gentile Manasseh was to claim his share of the “Birthright” covenant God had made with Abraham. The birth process itself had been exceedingly painful, as the nation was born in the crucible of fratricidal war, when the two brothers Ephraim and Manasseh fought each other almost to a standstill. Ephraim fought to maintain his dominance, whereas Manasseh fought for his freedom. After the victory, that untamed spirit of freedom has forever imbued America and she has ever since become known as “the land of liberty and the land of the free!”

Ephraim Devours Manasseh—the Civil War

In the American Civil War, we have yet another occasion where the Isaiah prophecy seems to come to its partial fulfillment. We need to bear in mind that it was the gentile Englishmen, descended from the tribe of Ephraim, who first established their colonial settlements in America. This means that at that point in history large segments of America’s white population, perhaps as much as a third, were from the tribe of Ephraim. The American Civil War may well be seen as Manasseh, the older son of Joseph, asserting himself over Ephraim, his younger brother. We have already seen that in the War of Independence nearly a third of the Colonial population took up arms on the side of the king of England. Most of those would have been of English descent, meaning that they had descended from Ephraim, the younger son of Joseph. It appears also that in the south of the U.S.A. the dominant element was composed of the tribe of Ephraim. In the Southern States the aristocratic landowners of mainly English stock operated the feudal system of England. They managed huge plantations spread over vast territories requiring the work of thousands of slaves. The chief crop grown in these plantations was cotton, to fulfill the almost insatiable demand from the great cotton mills of England. It is a well-documented fact that the British favored the South in the Civil War.

​In the Revolutionary War of American Independence it was Manasseh who started the conflict against the rule of Ephraim, as the American Colonials rebelled against the rule of England. Ironically, we see exactly the opposite occurring in the American Civil War, where Ephraim in the South started the rebellion against the Union. In this context, it can well be argued that in the American War of Independence, it was Manasseh who devoured Ephraim’s arm, whereas in the American Civil War it was Ephraim who devoured Manasseh’s arm. From this, we can see that Isaiah’s prophecy may well have been fulfilled more than once. It is uncanny how well the prophecy describes what happened during the American Civil War, as Manasseh devoured Ephraim and Ephraim devoured Manasseh, these two brothers and sons of Joseph truly were “devouring the flesh of their own arm.” They were inflicting the most ghastly self-harm upon their nation with an unspeakable ferocity that cost the lives of 620,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilians. This has proved by far the bloodiest conflict in all of American history in which 10 percent of all northern males 20-45 years of age died, as did 30 percent of all southern white males aged 18-45 years.

A fascinating point is that the symbols associated with the very first battle in the conflict pointed directly to Manasseh and Ephraim. The first battle of the American Civil War took place at, “Manassas,” Virginia! Furthermore, the Northern forces (the Yankees), referred to this first battle as, “Bull Run.” “Bull Run” was named after a creek that was in the vicinity of the town of “Manassas.” The paramount symbol of Ephraim is the bull, and the English characteristically refer to themselves as, “John Bull.” The Southern Confederate forces on the other hand called the battle, “Manassas,” after the nearby town. When you place these statements side by side, we see a subliminal acknowledgement to the battle by the two brother tribes of Israel by both the North and the South. The North was fighting Ephraim, the “Bull,” whereas the South was fighting Manasseh at a place called Manassas. As a point of interest, even the nickname, “Yankee,” is derived from a Hebrew form of Jacob.

Thus, several thousand years prior to the actual events, the Prophet Isaiah had prophesied in the most descriptive way, exactly what was destined to happen to these two sons of Joseph. He prophesied that Manasseh would devour Ephraim and that Ephraim would devour Manasseh, not only in the War of Independence but also during the subsequent Civil War. Thus, these two brothers and sons of Joseph truly were, “devouring the flesh of their own arm,” as, with brother killing brother, they were inflicting excruciating self-harm upon their nation, not once but twice in their history.

​Sadly, prior to the Civil War, between June 1812 and February 1815, there had been yet another occasion when these two sons of Joseph found themselves at war, this time over Canadian territory. The United States declared war on England on June 18th 1812, whilst the English were still heavily involved in their war against Napoleon’s France. U.S. troops entered Canada unopposed on July 12th, only to be subsequently forced to retreat to Detroit, where they suffered defeat at the hands of the British. Much of the fighting on land thereafter takes place around the Canadian lakes with the battle over the next two and a half years ebbing to and fro with respectively 8 victories to the British and 6 to the American forces. Yet, the United States Army suffered terrible humiliation when after the Battle of Bladensburg; the British were able to march into Washington D.C. The President and Mrs. Madison only had a few hours to pack their bags to escape from the Presidential Mansion or face capture by General Ross, the British Commander. The troops under his command then proceeded to burn the White House, the Capitol Building plus many other buildings in the city. On the lakes and on the seas however, the Yankee captains were able to greatly humble his Majesty’s invincible Royal Navy. This was especially the case in the Battle on Lake Champlain, when the Americans were able to defeat the superior British fleet by giving the Brits a terrible pasting. American Privateers and Buccaneers in the meantime relentlessly pursued the merchant convoys of the British Empire on the seven seas at a huge cost to the Kings treasury. Then on February 17th 1815 President Madison officially declared an end to the War of 1812.

​Clearly therefore, Isaiah’s prophecy about these two brother tribes was actually fulfilled not twice but three times! Thus, this one prophetic utterance written down and recorded in the Book of Isaiah provides us with evidence that America and Great Britain and her Commonwealth daughters are descended from Manasseh and Ephraim, the “birthright” sons of Joseph. Isaiah’s prophecy thus adds to the reams of additional evidence that America and Great Britain are Israelite nations, as only in American and British history this prophecy finds its most perfect fulfillment.

​A Federal Union of States by God’s Design

A most important point to consider is that the Southern States believed that secession was a matter of right for each state. They believed that when a government fails to fulfill the compact that created it, then the people have the right under the Constitution to withdraw from it. It is perhaps significant that the central government released Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, without trial after keeping him in prison for just two years. The question is: Why didn’t they try him for treason? Might it be because the legal experts of the day knew that they did not have a case, as secession was a right for each state to choose? Whatever the case, it is clear from all of subsequent history that America was destined to become a Federation of United States. It was only through this means that America, e.g. Manasseh, the older son of Joseph, could come into his position of supreme power, as prophesied by the Patriarch Jacob. Remember Jacob, while on his deathbed, pronounced the “Birthright” blessing on the two sons of Joseph. According to the blessing (Genesis 48:14-20), the younger son Ephraim received the primary blessing, and in the latter days of this age, he was to become a “Company” or “Commonwealth” of nations, whereas Manasseh, the elder son, was to become a “great people” or “Great Nation.” The Sovereign Creator God had, in his predetermined council, decreed that this group of people, in the North and the South, would coalesce into one unified nation. In this respect the attempt by the Southern States to secede was against His divine purpose and consequently it was bound to fail.

We need only to look at the 20th Century and into the early part of this 21st Century to see this “Birthright” purpose fulfilled in the history of America. The United States, as a cohesive whole, prevailed in World War I, in World War II and in Korea. While she was humbled in the Vietnam War, she did subsequently prevail in the Cold War, etc., to emerge as the only superpower on the earth. America, the older son of Joseph, has become the dominant force in the world, while Ephraim (Great Britain) has become a second-class power. Although Ephraim today still ranks as the seventh largest economy in the world, she has become powerless and unable to act militarily without the assistance of her older brother Manasseh. Manasseh was to separate from Ephraim and become the greatest, wealthiest and most powerful single nation of earth’s history. Thus, the Birthright promise has been fulfilled, as Ephraim, who came to his place of global prominence and dominion first, has handed his baton of leadership to Manasseh, his elder brother. These two brother nations most certainly are a most remarkable pair.

​Having come thus far in this teaching the reader will by now understand that the reason for America’s extraordinary prosperity and universal dominance is due to the hidden ancestry of her people. The reason for America’s incredible cultural, economic, technological and military dominance lies in the simple fact that she is ruled by Manasseh, the thirteenth tribe of Israel. She has come to her inheritance as a result of a promise given by the Covenant-keeping God of Israel to the Patriarch Abraham, who is the ancestral father of all Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Americans. America’s global supremacy has decidedly not come to her because of her own merit. Neither has her fabulous wealth been given to her because somehow the Americans are better and more talented people than those of other nations.