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Sadness, Years of Triumph ,
page
277).
President Franklin Roosevelt's
simple but e loquent prayer for
American forces broadcast to the
nat ion on the evening of D-day still
resonates with emotion:
" Aimighty God: Our sons, pride
of our Nation, this day have set
upon a mighty endeavour, a strug–
gle to preserve our Republic, our
religion, our civilization, and to set
free a suffering humani ty.
"They will need Thy blessings.
Their road will be long and hard.
The enemy is strong. He may hurl
back our forces, but we shall return
again and again.
" They fight not for the lus t of
conquest. They fight to end con–
quest. Help us, Almighty God, to
rededicate ourselves to renewed
faith in Thee, in this hour of great
sacrifice.
" Many people have u rged that 1
call the Nation into a single day of
special prayer . But because the
road is long and the desire is great,
I ask that our people devote them–
selves in a continuance of prayer."
Acros s the Atlantic, King
George V1 called the Briti s h
Empire to prayer as well :
" Tha t we may be worthily
matched with this new summons of
destiny, 1 desire solemnly to cal!
my people to prayer and dedication.
We are not unmindful of our own
shortcomings, past and present. We
shall ask not that God may do our
will , but that we may be called to
do the will of God; and we dare to
believe tha t God has used our
nation and empi re as an instrument
for fulfilling His high purpose."
Here, certainly, is a little-known
part of the untold story of D-day.
And it was not just the national
leaders who felt the need for
prayer. Forty-eight hours befare
invasion, at Portsd own Pa r ish
Church, General Dempsey, Com–
mander of the Bri t ish and Cana–
dian forces on D-day, sat for one
hour with 400 officers and men
through "one of the most moving
experiences of my life."
Sir Francis Drake 's famous
prayer befare the battle of Cád iz
was recited: " O Lord God , when
Thou givest to Thy servants to
endeavour any great matter, grant
us also to know that it is not the
34
beginning, but the continuing of
the same, until it be thoroughly fin–
ished , which yieldeth tbe true glo–
ry; through H im that for the fi nish–
ing of Thy work laid down H is life,
our Redeemer, J esus Christ."
In such a spirit, did the great
crusade in Europe begin, shocking
as this may seem to a skeptical gen–
eration.
Ancient Parallels
The paraJlels between the spiritual
preparations and godly consecra–
tion of the Engl ish-speaking world
on the eve of D-day and the cus–
toms of the ancient 1O tribes of
the House of Israel are striking
indeed.
Here was the prerequisite for
warfare in ancient Israel:
"When you set out to make war
upon your enemies, and see ... an
army larger than yourselves, you
must not be afraid of them, for the
Eterna! your God ... is on your
side. When you open the campaign,
a priest must approach and address
the army thus: 'Listen, Israel, you
are opening a campaign to-day
against your enemies; never lose
heart, fear not , tremble not, be not
afraid of them, for the Eterna! your
God goes with you, to fi ght for you
against your enemies and to give
you the victory' " (Deu
t.
20: 1-4,
Moffatt t rans.).
Another encouragement in
lJ
C hr o nicles 6:24, 35 seemed
strangely fulfilled at D-day as
well:
"Or if Your people Israel are
de feated before an enemy because
tbey have sinned agai nst You, and
return and confess Your name, and
pray and make supplication befare
You ... then hear from heaven
thei r prayer and their supplication,
and maintain their cause" (Revised
Au thor ized Ve rsion throughout,
except where otherwise noted).
Consider this interesting side–
light from Winston Churchill's
memoirs of World War I,
The
World Crisis.
This incident oc–
curred just after Mr. Churchill had
taken charge of the Royal Navy:
"That night when l went to bed,
I saw a Jarge Bible lying on a table
in my bedroom. 1 thought of the
peril of Britain, peace-Jov ing ,
untbinking, little prepared. . . . I
thought of might y Germany
... wave after wave of valiant man–
hood ... of the sudden and success–
ful wars by which her power had
been set up. I opened the Book at
random, and in the 9th Chapter of
Deuteronomy 1 read-
" ' Hear, O Is rael: Thou a rt
to . .. possess nations greater and
mightier than thyself ... a people
great and tall of whom thou hast
heard say, who can stand befare the
children of Anak!
"'Understand therefore this day,
that the Lord thy God is he which
goes over befa re thee; as a consum–
ing tire.... Not for thy righteous–
ness, or for the uprightness of thy
heart ... but for the wickedness of
these nations the Lord thy God
doth drive them out from befare
thee, and that he may perform the
word whic h the Lord sware unto
thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac and
J acob.'
" It
seemed a message fu ll of
reassurance" ( Mentor edition,
pages 58-59).
This was the same Churchill who
at the vic torious conclusion of
World War 11, as Prime Minister,
led the entire British House of
Commons to "give humble and rev–
erent thanks to Almighty God for
our deliverance."
A Blind Servant Nation
Longtime readers of this magazine
know that the American and Brit–
ish peoples are, in large part, direct
lineal descendants of the so-called
lost 1O tribes of the ancient House
of Israel. This surprising truth is
explai ned in our free booklet
The
United States and Britain in
Prophecy.
No wonder sorne of the prophe–
cies relating to the descendants of
the ancient House of Israel so
uncannily fit D-day and other key
events in British and American his–
tory:
" ... Fear not [O Israe l] .
... When you pass through the
waters, 1 will be with you ..." ( l sa.
43: 1-2) . Allied amphibious assaults
had God's protection on many
occasions, as the generals and
admirals testified.
The U-boat, the blitzkrieg, the
V-2 rocket- all the fruits of the
Nazis' scientific genius could not
prevent the All ied victory in World
War
JI
(Mic. 5:9) .
The
PLAIN TRUTH