God prophesied that Donald Trump would return to America’s presidency, and that prophecy has been fulfilled. We must thank God for His faithfulness and His mercy!
“For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash” (2 Kings 14:26-27).
That is one of the prophecies by which God revealed that Trump, a modern-day Jeroboam, would be back. Verse 28 shows that this man “warred” to recover what had been stolen from him. God is using this man to save Israel temporarily from the forces that want to blot it out. That makes Trump’s election victory even more impressive and exciting. America is about to experience a resurgence.
What God’s people must now realize is what this resurgence means for us. It dramatically impacts our work. We must understand the far-reaching implications this has for our message—and how it puts us on a countdown to the end of this Work and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ!
Amos 7
A corresponding prophecy I have pointed to for the last four years to show that Donald Trump would return to the presidency is in Amos 7. This chapter describes specific events to occur during the reign of the modern-day Jeroboam.
Verses 1-6 show God’s anger at national Israel and His intention to punish severely. The context shows that, as I explain in America Under Attack, the reason for His anger is the destruction caused by Barack Obama—a modern-day type of the treacherous Antiochus iv Epiphanes—abetted by the sins of the American people. America truly has been under attack! Yet verses 3 and 6 show God actually relenting, showing mercy, and refraining from immediate punishment.
Beginning in verse 7, however, there is a shift to the reign of Jeroboam, an indication that God would silence Obama.
Between verses 6 and 7, you can insert the prophecy of 2 Kings 14:26-28. This is a dramatic intervention by God in American politics! God stopped the destructive work of this man who was “fundamentally transforming” the country by destroying its founding principles, and He installed a man who loves America and has shown tremendous courage to fight those ruinous forces.
This makes the next verses in Amos’s prophecy, when it shifts to the Jeroboam era, particularly jarring: “[B]ehold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. … Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more” (Amos 7:7-8). In other words, God will give one last warning—and then the time for mercy is over! He is still angry, still planning to punish the nation!
In verse 9 comes this stunning statement: “And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
Think about this! Here God has just worked marvelous miracles to put this man back in power, silence the political Antiochus, and lead an impressive national resurgence. Yet in the same context, God says He is about to bring the sword against Jeroboam’s family!
It is our responsibility to deliver this severe warning message to Jeroboam.
This is a huge shift. For over a decade, we have focused on exposing Antiochus. That was the subject of my 2013 booklet America Under Attack, my 2016 booklet Great Again, and the expanded version of America Under Attack we published in 2022, which was then expanded and printed in hardback in 2023. This has also been one of the main subjects of my son’s Trumpet Daily program. This was a crucial commission—so much so that God actually prophesied the publication of that book! (Request a free copy of my new booklet ‘America Under Attack’ Was Prophesied if you have not yet proved that truth.)
However, look at Amos 7 and you see an abrupt shift. God has exposed Satan’s Antiochus—though I am sure that there will be more of his wrongdoing exposed. But when Barack Obama is silenced, the attention of God’s prophet turns to Jeroboam. We are no longer focused primarily on exposing Antiochus but on warning Jeroboam!
This is a very difficult message to deliver. We have to be tough Christians to do this job. But we also must always remember: Though there is some bad news in the short term, the overall message of God is extremely positive and filled with hope!
Light in a Dark World
The book of Amos prophesies of America’s many sins today. Read Amos 6, for example. “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!” (verse 1). Zion is God’s own Church! People are suffering, and God’s people should be warning that the calamity will get worse. Yet these people are at ease. That means they “rejoice in what lacks substance and reality.” It makes no sense! They are in Satan’s grip. How terrible for God’s own people to forget their purpose!
Amos prophesies of people enjoying great luxury in spite of terrible curses on the land. “That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph” (verse 6). Joseph is the patriarch of Manasseh and Ephraim, the names that Bible prophecy uses for the United States and Britain. There is deep affliction in our nations—family breakdown, drugs, pornography, immorality, indebtedness, unchecked immigration, violence and crime. We should be grieving for this affliction, the moral and spiritual shattering and destruction. But even as our nations fall apart, most people are pursuing pleasure and heedlessly living the good life!
I received a tape recording of a Bible study surveying the book of Amos, given in 1981 in the Worldwide Church of God under Mr. Armstrong. The speaker described the sins of Israel that foreshadow the sins of the modern nations of Israel. He read several passages from Amos describing these sins—for example, Amos 3:13-14, from the Good News Translation: “‘Listen now, and warn the descendants of Jacob,’ says the Sovereign Lord Almighty. ‘On the day when I punish the people of Israel for their sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel. The corners of every altar will be broken off and will fall to the ground.’” Amos records many such passages showing just how angry God is with the sins of the people in modern Israel!
In that recording, the speaker then read verses 7-8: “The Sovereign Lord never does anything without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. When a lion roars, who can keep from being afraid? When the Sovereign Lord speaks, who can keep from proclaiming his message?” (gnt).
Then suddenly in this recording, Mr. Armstrong interjected this: “That’s why God is thundering this thing to the whole world! That’s why He called me 51 years ago in this world of darkness, to take the light that is in God’s Word, the Bible, and get it to the world!”
Mr. Armstrong came alive when he said that! He had been doing God’s Work for 51 years—and his heart was deeply in it! Think of the spiritual power he had and his conviction about this prophecy of God. This is the man who wrote The United States and Britain in Prophecy, the most productive book he ever wrote. He was really excited about prophecy! We all need that. After all, it comprises a third of your Bible.
These prophecies from Amos need to reach the people today for whom they were intended! This is the light of God! We need to be motivated the way Mr. Armstrong was. This is where our heart must be!
Mr. Armstrong was a wonderful example. He was deeply convicted and eager to get this light out to the world—because this is about Christ bringing this world joy and happiness forever! He realized what a wonderful thing it is to have God’s light in this dark, evil world! He knew that God wanted him to get this light out there, and he knew how much this world needs that light. He gave himself to that job 100 percent, and look what he did for God!
God’s Church today is God’s royalty, possessing the throne of David, the throne Jesus Christ will sit on. We have a lot of light here—light that we must get to the world! We have the solutions to everything! Can we bring ourselves to Mr. Armstrong’s standard? Even though we have some bad news to deliver, we need to be highly motivated to get that light out there. We must show what is coming, so that even if they do not respond today, they will repent quickly once they find themselves in the Great Tribulation. This light is so wonderful, so precious! It will stop all the evil in this world!
Our Jeremiah 1 Commission
I have written a lot about how the commission God gave in Jeremiah 1:10 applies to God’s Church today. If you look at the rest of that chapter, you see the implication of a change in our work. We need to understand this change.
“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it” (verses 11-12). God says He is going to speed up events. Of course, Satan knows he has a short time and he is going to be speeding things up (Revelation 12:12)—but look what God is doing!
God is accelerating this Work in many ways, such as giving us a corporate jet. That has really helped us to speed things up. So we must not drag our feet! It is time for us to be like King David: a man after God’s own heart who does all God’s will—every little thing God wants us to do!
Now notice what immediately follows: Jeremiah sees “a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land” (Jeremiah 1:13-14). This is the Holy Roman Empire! Jeremiah saw a boiling pot of warfare, including nuclear war! Ours is an age of nuclear bombs, where just one bomb will wipe out a city and leave it without inhabitants! That is the world we live in.
This evil is going to break forth on all the land, three countries in particular: America, Britain and the Jewish nation of Israel.
The last part of verse 15 says these European shock troops “shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem … and against all the cities of Judah.” They are especially going after Judah in this scene.
We have to warn people what is coming. God says, “And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands” (verse 16). That is a tough message!
Recognize: We have to deliver a message to Judah and the Holy Roman Empire when it is seething! Keep that in mind. This is all in the context of the seething pot.
Look closely at what God tells His prophet: “Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them” (verse 17). That is quite a warning: Don’t be afraid of them—or I will confound you before them!
“For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land” (verse 18). Wow! Clearly this is a difficult job! The message of God is going to create a confrontation with Judah!
Reaching Judah
In 1981, Mr. Armstrong was still concerned about reaching the cities of Judah. He was always looking for opportunities.
As I recall, back in 1967 Mr. Armstrong had recorded 13 World Tomorrow programs he planned to use to reach the cities of Judah from the Jordanian radio station. But then the Six-Day War broke out, so those programs didn’t air. That was the year I went to college. I began to see very quickly how Mr. Armstrong operated in ways I had not seen before.
Mr. Armstrong accomplished some mighty things in Israel using biblical archaeology. God has opened doors for us to continue that work, and we have an inspiring work in Jerusalem today.
However, when I read these verses in Jeremiah 1, I believe there may be more to getting to Judah than we have thought. To this point, our work has never provoked any kind of Jeremiah 1:17-18 confrontation. I think God is going to open another, even bigger door. Biblical archaeology looks to be only Phase One. There must be a Phase Two! God has to open a door for us where we can reach them—maybe through the Internet or television or radio. Isaiah 22:21-22 talk about Eliakim opening doors in a very strong way simply because so many prophecies are being fulfilled.
Again, this confrontation is in the context of the seething pot. It is going on at the same time that the Holy Roman Empire is seething!
Look at Germany now—especially since Donald Trump won the United States election—and it certainly seems to me that it is seething more than ever! (Please read my article “After Trump’s Victory, Watch Germany” in the January 2025 Trumpet magazine.) The political turmoil in Germany has that pot seething more than anything we have seen to this point.
In the context of the seething pot, God says He is going to make us like a defensed city, iron pillars, bronze walls against the whole land! “And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee” (Jeremiah 1:19). What a marvelous promise! “I am with thee,” He says—four little words that are oh, so powerful! Never forget: God is with us! We are His Family. We live by His light, and He does amazing things through us!
If we do our part, we have light to give to this world, to try to wake them up and make them see where their sins are leading them. We are going to have to be stronger and more direct in our message. A lot of people are not going to like this message. Certain people in Judah will have concerns about it, but that is the way it is! We will have a more intense kind of contact somewhere down the road, and we cannot let biblical archaeology be our only focus there. I don’t know what kind of door God will open for us; we have to be patient and see.
But look what God will do for us! He says, Never forget in all of this that I am with you. God says that to every single one of us: I am with you! If we are committed to that, nobody can stop us.
Isaiah 40
A passage we often study in Isaiah 40 also suggests this confrontation.
Verse 9, in the Masoretic text, reads, “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion [speaking of our message to the Laodiceans], Get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, Lift up thy voice with strength; Lift it up, be not afraid; Say unto the cities of Judah: ‘Behold your God!’”
God is saying that we must not be afraid—we have to conquer our natural fear to give this message. Lift up your voice with strength! Even that sounds like it might be more than biblical archaeology—that God has what we could call a Phase Two of this message.
God says this Work is going to have 10,000 saints by the end of it (Deuteronomy 33:2; Jude 14). But again, we have a message that most people will not accept when they know more about it. That is OK. We have light to give them. This message can help them turn things around quickly in the Great Tribulation if they don’t do so before.
Ezekiel 2 and 3
The Prophet Ezekiel also warns that confrontation is in our future. This is the new revelation God gave us about the America Under Attack book (request my new booklet ‘America Under Attack’ Was Prophesied).
God gives a job here to one man. In Ezekiel 2:3, God calls him “son of man.” Ferrar Fenton translates that as “son of Adam.” I like that because that is our problem: We are the sons of Adam—the first Adam, not the second. “Son of man” is good, but “son of Adam” explains it better.
God said, “I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation[s] that hath rebelled against me …. For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God” (verses 3-4). Verse 5 shows that, in the end, they will know this message came from a prophet of God!
“And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house” (verse 6). That is very much like Jeremiah 1. We are going to experience some terribly stormy times!
In verse 8, God warns, “But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.” When God gives a message, He expects that man to deliver it! We all need to eat it and digest it—then work fervently to get that to the world!
In Ezekiel 3:1, God tells His man to “go speak unto the house of Israel”—three nations in particular. We must deliver this message. Here are more strong indications that we have more to get to Judah, beyond what we presently do.
In verse 3, God tells him, Fill your bowels with this message I give you. Make this your passion! Fill your mind and your life with this book and my prophecies! This revelation comes straight from God in the third heaven!
Many people are looking at America and the world and asking, What is going on? My book America Under Attack explains this catastrophe. It really is light in the darkness! And it points to a light that is going to fill this whole world! What could be more exciting? What other book besides America Under Attack could possibly be referenced here?
Verse 7 says, “But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted.” That says all the house of Israel—not just part of them, not just the radical left. God has problems with the whole house of Israel and their sins—and He is going to correct all of them if they don’t repent.
In verse 11 God says, “And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people ….” These are the Laodiceans, who are in spiritual captivity. Children here means sons. We are Spirit-begotten sons of God! The Laodiceans are our Family! We must deliver our Father’s message to His Family. Verse 15 refers to the seven years (seven prophetic “days”) that the Philadelphia Church of God focused on delivering a message to the Laodiceans specifically.
The focus then shifts to the whole world. In verses 16 and 17, at the end of those seven years, God says, “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.” This message is coming from God’s mouth, and it is for the nations! Realize: Ezekiel was not a watchman; he was a prophet in captivity! This is prophecy for this end time about a man who is both a prophet and a watchman.
In verse 18 God says that if we fail to warn people, He will hold us responsible for their blood. This is a serious responsibility!
The Great Tribulation
Ezekiel 3:22 shows God taking His faithful people to a place of safety. Then, beginning in Ezekiel 4, you see a siege against Israel. Deuteronomy 28:52 prophesies of this siege: “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates ….” Britain and America once possessed all the important gates of international trade, and now they have lost almost all of them, which makes them very vulnerable to this attack.
Ezekiel 5 shows how this economic siege sparks three parts of the Great Tribulation. The first third: “Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled …” (verse 2). Yes, this is about to be fulfilled! These events flow right out of the prophecy of America Under Attack coming out! That is the time frame.
This verse continues, “[A]nd thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife [this second part is a nuclear attack]: and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them”—that is the third part, the people of Israel going into captivity!
This is prophecy of terrifying punishment! “In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished” (Ezekiel 6:6).
But notice this promise: “Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations …” (verse 8). A little remnant will escape the sword! In these deadly dangerous events, we can escape! The loyal remnant, the people who give God’s light, are going to be in a place of safety.
Here is the wonderful outcome of all this punishment: “And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them” (verse 10). God never utters His prophecies in vain! He will always fulfill them! Don’t think this is just history. This is prophecy for our day!
Ezekiel says over 60 times, by God’s inspiration, that people are going to get to know God, whom they reject today! People will receive all that light Mr. Armstrong was talking about, all this wonderful truth of God that gives meaning to everything! In the end, that punishment really will work! As difficult as it is to endure, it will produce a wonderful outcome!
Confrontation With Amaziah
Amos 7 also explicitly shows that we have a confrontation in our future.
Anciently, though God used Jeroboam ii to temporarily save Israel (2 Kings 14:26-27), this prophetic passage says about the king himself: “… Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria …. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin” (verses 23-24).
This modern Jeroboam warred his way back—just as God prophesied (verse 28)—and now we need to pay close attention to how God assesses the situation and what He says will happen next.
Again, in Amos 7:9, God warns that He “will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” This king has a lot of sins, and if he does not repent, God will send the sword! This is reality!
That verse also says “the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.” What is that talking about? Sanctuaries are places of worship. This is prophecy about America’s religion. God is so displeased with the state of our religion that He is going to lay our sanctuaries waste!
God repeatedly warns in Scripture about the dangers of false religion—even religion that uses the name of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul, for example, warned of “false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness …” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Christ Himself said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? … For many shall come in my name, saying, I [Christ] am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Luke 6:46; Matthew 24:5). So many people who consider themselves religious know nothing about the Bible. We must be discerning about who we follow!
Here in Amos 7 is a confrontation between one of Jeroboam’s spiritual advisers and the Prophet Amos! This “Amaziah the priest of Bethel” is a trusted religious figure—but he is a false priest and an enemy of God! (I explain specifically about this man in my booklet The Lion Has Roared.)
Here is a terrible warning sign of something very wrong in the Jeroboam administration! How could you have such a man exerting such influence and still expect to receive God’s backing and support? If people will repent and follow God, they can have the golden days that they are seeking. But how can they do that if Amaziah is there?
This “priest of Bethel” rebukes God’s prophet and tells him, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there” (verse 12). This false minister telling God’s man to flee to Judah shows he is aware that we have a work over there.
He continues, “But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court” (verse 13). The “king’s chapel” is a place of worship that belongs to the king. President Trump has a strong following among evangelicals and Catholics. Many Christians in America today look to this man for leadership. But if you understand this prophecy, you recognize that this is not true religion. It is religion that has “a form of godliness,” but from which God tells us to “turn away”! (2 Timothy 3:5).
This will not be a popular message! Neither was Amos’s message. This prophet had to boldly stand for God in a time of a strong and popular king, a time of prosperity, a time when religion, of a sort, was ascendant—and give God’s final warning before the nation fell!
Sadly, Amos 7 shows that most people will not heed God’s warning. Verse 10 shows this Amaziah telling King Jeroboam, “Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.” Anciently, people could not bear Amos’s message. What about today?
This prophecy says Americans who are caught up with Jeroboam do not want to hear about sin and punishment. They will close their ears to God’s correction. They won’t examine their lives and make changes. They are failing to learn lessons from the curses we have suffered. They want to believe everything will be just fine!
God prophesies otherwise. He says people must repent. He has warned many times, and He is now giving His last warning! He will not again pass by anymore.
This horrible Amaziah figure will tell God’s people to get out! The indication is, there is such hostility to God’s message that God’s people will be exiled!Amos 8:11 speaks of “a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” People won’t be able to hear God’s message because God’s people will be gone!
Our Head Who Blesses
How angry is God at the people of Israel? Amos has some of the most blistering warnings of any prophet in the Bible of the horrific curses that are about to descend on our nation (e.g. Amos 3:11-12; 5:3; 6:9-11). Amos 1 and 2 describe a
nuclear “fire” (1:4, 7, 10; 2:2, 5) that is about to envelop America, along with several other nations! The Anchor Bible says these are all referring to “one cosmic holocaust, not just several invasions that would pick off these countries one by one.” Nuclear war is coming—primarily in an attack on America and Britain!
Why is the punishment so extreme? In Amos 4:11, God likens this nuclear conflagration to the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—“fire from the Lord out of heaven”! (Genesis 19:24). God is going to destroy America as He destroyed those cities for their rank immorality! Shouldn’t God’s punishment of Sodom cause us to think twice about indulging in the same sins of which they were guilty?
The Prophet Amos has some of the harshest prophecies in the Bible about what is happening to Israel. What is interesting is that Amos continually used the word Adonai for God—which emphasizes the Headship, or the Head who blesses. He undoubtedly kept repeating that title to remind himself continually that in spite of all the suffering, he was serving his Head who blesses! As he worked to convey all those frightening prophecies, he wanted to ensure that he held the Head, the God of the Old Testament who became Jesus Christ.
These terrible prophecies are sickening—but it is nevertheless God’s blessing. Sometimes that is what people need to get to know God.
Always remember that positive outcome of all that is about to happen. Remember how Mr. Armstrong kept the vision of God’s light clear in his mind! He was driven to get that light out to this dark, evil world.
That is what we must be doing. Keep this vision vividly in your mind. Entering this Jeroboam end requires that we step up, that we toughen up, that we grow more direct in the message we publicize. It portends more difficult times ahead. We must be ready for that, and we must be spiritually strong!
God will fortify us—He will make us like a defensed city, iron pillars, bronze walls against the whole land! He is with us. We simply must do our job, whatever consequences it may bring. Shine God’s light! It is the light that this dark, evil world must have.