The United Kingdom of Israel, particularly under King Solomon, sent ships to both North and South America at least 1000 years before Christ. This is evidenced by the gold mining operations in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that is identical to Solomon's mines in the Sinai Peninsula. No doubt this was a three-year journey, as described in 2 Chron. 9:21,

²¹ For the king had ships which went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks."

Historians now understand that the Israelites and their allies from Tyre were collectively called by the Greeks, "Phoenicians," and that they traveled to the New World during the Golden Age of Israel to mine gold and silver. They crossed the Atlantic from the horn of Africa to Brazil, which was less distance than the length of the Mediterranean Sea. Evidence has it that they mined iron in Brazil and gold in Michigan.

The Vikings re-discovered the New World no later than 500 years after Christ. They traveled across the northern Atlantic by way of Iceland and Greenland to Nova Scotia. From there they found their way south all the way to the Mississippi River. Their writings (in Ogam script) are found in Oklahoma. Furthermore, the Ten Commandments, in old Hebrew-Phoenician script are engraved on a large flat rock on the side of a mountain near Los Lunas, New Mexico.

But regardless of this, the New World remained unknown to the rest of Europe. Columbus is the one who opened up the New World to European exploration and settlement in 1492. Because Columbus came under the Catholic Spanish flag, it was argued years later that the whole of North and South America belonged to the Roman Church. But this is the same logic as the Russians used in the 1960's when they sent an unmanned space ship to shoot their flag to the moon's surface to claim the moon for the USSR.

Though the Catholics came first in 1492, there is an Israelite-Phoenician connection that goes back many centuries. But that Israelite connection does not really surface prophetically until the year 1776, when representatives of the 13 American colonies drew up their Declaration of Independence. The year 1776 happened to be 2,520 years after the beginning of the dispersion of the House of Israel in 745 B.C.

The number 2,520 is one of the most significant numbers in mathematics as well as in prophecy. The ancient Greeks discovered that 2,520 was the lowest common denominator divisible by all the numbers from 1-10. In Bible prophecy, it is set forth as “seven times." In Daniel 7:25 the kingdom of the beast is said to be for "a time, times, and half a time," or three and a half "times." This is interpreted for us in Rev. 13:5 as being "forty-two months," 1,260 days, or three and a half years.

Since a prophetic year is the mean distance between a lunar year (354 days) and a solar year (365 days), the prophetic year is set at 360 days, or a "time." Thus, three and a half "times" is equal to 1,260 days, and a full seven times is equal to 2,520 days.

When God gave the law to Israel, He warned them that if they refused to follow it, they would be judged "seven times" for their sin (Lev. 26:18). While this has usually been taken to mean seven times more intense, Daniel and Revelation interpret it literally as a TIME period. Moses defines it purely in terms of what will happen to them, but Daniel identifies it as a period of time—though yet undefined. In the book of Revelation, John interprets in the clearest manner of all, making a "time" equal 360 days in short-term prophecy and 360 years in long-term prophecy.

Thus, the judgment of God upon the House of Israel, which began in 745 B.C. was to continue for 2,520 years. This time period ended in 1776 A.D. Was it just a coincidence that the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in that same year? I think not. Although the nation was small at the time, history has proven just how important this event would become in the history of the modern world.

Even more interesting is the fact that the United States' Capital, Washington D.C., was completed in the year 1800. This happened to be precisely 2,520 years after Israel's capital, Samaria, had been destroyed in 721 B.C.

These ancient dates are substantiated by the Assyrian Eponym Calendar as referenced in my book, Secrets of Time, pages 26, 81, 146, 156, and 163.

The parallel between ancient Israel and the United States was so striking that virtually every preacher and theologian in early America saw it and mentioned it in some way in their sermons. They called this land the "New Israel," "God's Vineyard," and even "The Kingdom of God," which may have been a bit optimistic, but revealing nonetheless.

Historians would have us believe that the term "America" probably was derived from a relatively obscure and unknown Italian explorer named Amerigo Vespucci. This is highly unlikely. The Catholics coming up from the South preferred "Columbia," named after Columbus. Many of the English settlers in the North were highly educated and even contemplated making Hebrew our national language. They were well acquainted with many languages, and so it is no stretch to say that they would know the origin of the term, America.

America is an old Saxon and Danish compound word: Amer means "heavenly," and ric means "kingdom." It literally means "the Heavenly Kingdom," or the Kingdom of Heaven. The Pilgrims undoubtedly knew this, so if by chance they really had named it after Amerigo Vespucci, it was only because his name, coincidentally, described this land precisely as they viewed it.

If we study the etymology of the entire name of this nation, "The United States of America," we find an even more interesting and complete meaning. The means "God's," that is, owned by God. This is why THEology is the study of God. In Greek, theos means God.  And another connection is this: the Spanish word for "the" is EL, which is also the Hebrew word for God.

The word United means "greater." The word State means "estate." Thus, if we put all of this together, it means "God's Greater Estate of the Heavenly Kingdom."

The name does not manifest our actual national character, for we are anything but a righteous people. So please do not misunderstand this. The name indicates our national goal as envisioned by our founders. I am the first to admit that we have fallen far away from that lofty goal, and for this reason, as we will see in a later chapter, we have again come under the judgment of God for our national sins.

And yet the very fact that God judges and disciplines us for our sins is good news. If the judgments of the law in Lev. 26 and Deut. 28 are indeed applicable to us as a nation, it means that we are, in some way, a manifestation of true "Israel" in the modern world. As Hebrews 12:6 tells us, "those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives."

Early American sermons clearly show the wide-spread belief that this new nation was the fifth kingdom of Daniel, the "stone" kingdom that was destined to finish the work that the Reformation had begun and ultimately smash the feet of the Babylonian image. To them, Babylon was political Europe and Papal Rome, both of which were based upon aristocratic or monarchical foundations. America, they felt, was to be a beacon of light and a model of hope to those who are enslaved to absolute power—whether political or religious.

This was the original "American Dream," our national purpose. It was not secular, but neither did it establish a "religion." It established God and His Word as King and put all men and religions under His authority.

America will yet fulfill her original Dream, but it cannot be done under a mere Pentecostal anointing. Pentecost only gave us an earnest of the Spirit (2 Cor. 5:5; Eph. 1:14). Furthermore, Pentecost was a leavened feast (Lev. 23:17), which was designed to show us that we cannot be perfected by an earnest of the Spirit. Perfection requires the full anointing of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Likewise, for America—and any other nation—to fulfill its national destiny in the furtherance of the Kingdom of God, its leaders must have a Tabernacles anointing. These are the Sons of God, who are called to set creation free by the power of the Gospel of Christ (Rom. 8:19).

As we will see in later chapters, America rejected God and finally came under divine judgment of a new Babylonian captivity in 1914. But I believe that God is about to do a new thing in the earth. He is about to set America free, along with the rest of the earth, by the power of His Spirit. Then and only then will His glory begin to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.