"British-Israel" is a Two-Houses of Israel Understanding
Do the Jewish People Represent All of Israel in the World Today?
The Holy Scriptures clearly teach that God is working out a Great Purpose in human history and affairs, in and through a servant people and nation called Israel. The Scriptures also emphatically state that God's choice of Israel to be the instrument of His Purpose is irrevocable, and that Israel is to continue as a people and nation forever. The Prophet Jeremiah declared, "Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD." (Jer. 31:35-37)
Israel, therefore, must still be in existence today, and must still be being used of God in the fulfillment of His Will and Purpose. Consequently, if the Jews are all of Israel in the world today, then it is to them alone we must look for world leadership and the fulfillment of God's Purposes. But are they fulfilling all of the prophecies themselves and doing all of the things that Israel was to do? Are they carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6)? Are they a company of nations (Gen. 35:11)? Are they numbered as the sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17)?
In further considering this question the first point to note is that originally the Israel people were composed of TWELVE separate family or tribal divisions descended from the twelve sons of Jacob-Israel, the grandson of Abraham. Although God's Purpose was to be fulfilled in and through the twelve-tribes as a whole, the Birthright -- the right of leadership in that fulfillment -- was given to Joseph (1 Chronicles 5:1-2) and through him to his descendants, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. These tribes were to remain separate and fulfill separate prophecies in the latter days (Genesis 49:1 ff). What became of them? These are questions that are of crucial importance in order to understand the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in our world today.
Let us give some background to our subject. About 1446 B.C., after a rescue from slavery in Egypt, God formed this twelve-tribe people into a nation and established them in Canaan. Here they continued as a united people for nearly 500 years, but after the death of King Solomon about 925 B.C., TEN of the tribes, headed by Ephraim, rebelled against the rule of Solomon's son Rehoboam and gaining their independence set up a separate kingdom of their own. This kingdom is variously called "Israel," "the House of Israel," "all Israel," or "Ephraim" by the Biblical prophets.
By Ephraim's act of separation from the tribe of Judah, the Hebrew people were broken into TWO separate and distinct nations, the TEN TRIBES (House or Kingdom of Israel), and the remaining TWO TRIBES (called the House or Kingdom of Judah). Though often overlooked or ignored, this division is vitally important because the Ten Tribes were not only far more numerous, but were headed by Ephraim, the Birthright Tribe. It is evident that it is primarily to them that we must look for the eventual fulfillment of many of God's Purposes.
Following this division the Ten Tribe "House of Israel" and the Two Tribe "House of Judah" continued as separate and distinct nations in Canaan for about two centuries. During this time their mutual antipathy was so great that they warred with one another and finally were conquered by separate enemies and exiled to separate lands.
The penalty of their rebellious failure to carry out God's Purposes was fatal to their national life. In 721 B.C. Israel was conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians, who deported all of her people to Assyria and Media. About 130 years later the smaller nation, Judah, composed of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, was attacked and conquered by the Babylonians who carried her people away as captives to Babylon.
Because this fact is so often overlooked, we repeat that it was the people of Judah, NOT the House of Israel, who were taken as captives to Babylon! This is important because those taken to Babylon were the only ones who became known as "Jews." After a seventy-year exile they regained their freedom, and some of them returned to Canaan, while many continued to live in other lands. In Canaan the returnees and their descendants continued to live as subjects of a succession of foreign rulers until the Roman-Jewish War during the years 70 to 73 A.D., when after an unsuccessful rebellion many were either killed or exiled. These, together with a considerable number of religious proselytes, are the Jews of history and the ancestors of the Jews of today.
The Prophet Ezra, living at the time of the Judean restoration, clearly reveals that the Babylonian returnees to Canaan were all of the two-tribe House of Judah, not of any of the tribes of the House of Israel. The prophet in Ezra 1:5, for example, definitely states that those who returned were of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. This is also stated by the respected Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus (Book II, Chapter 1). Further, in both Ezra 2:1 and Nehemiah 7:6, we read that this return was from Babylon, not from Assyria. This too is important because the House of Israel was never in Babylon.
It is certain, therefore, that those who returned from captivity to re-establish themselves in Canaan were of the House of Judah ONLY.
The next question to be considered is whether or not the Ten Tribes returned at a later date to merge with them. Turning again to Josephus, the Jewish historian (Book II, Chapter 5), let us note his statement that in his day, the first century A.D., the Jews consisted of TWO tribes only and that the Ten Tribes were still living beyond the Euphrates River outside of the Roman Empire. This is corroborated by the writer of the Book of Esdras who says that the Ten Tribes, after being freed from captivity in Assyria and Media, crossed the Euphrates River and migrated to a distant land called Arsareth (2 Esdras 13:39-46)
. Cruden's Concordance, another respected authority, says of the Ten Tribes "...it is generally believed that there was no return from this captivity, and that the Ten Tribes never came back again." We should also note that for centuries the Jewish people have offered special prayers for "our brethren lost in the land of Assyria." This prayer would be completely absurd if the House of Israel had already returned and been rejoined to Judah.
Finally, the highest possible Jewish authority, the late Dr. Hertz, Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, stated in 1918: "The people known at present as Jews are descendants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin with a certain number of descendants of the tribe of Levi. As far as is known, there is not any further admixture of other tribes. The ten tribes have been absorbed among the nations of the world." (See letter reproduced in "The Story Of Celto-Saxon Israel," pages 187-189)
It would therefore seem that if the Ten Tribe House of Israel has already been merged with the Jews the highest Jewish authorities have not heard of it.
The prophetic descriptions of what Israel was to become also rule out any possibility that the House of Israel is to be found in Jewry. Of the many prophecies that could be quoted, let us note here these three:
1. Israel was to have a permanent home in a new land. (2 Samuel 7:10)
2. Israel's tribes were to become separate nations, a prophesied "many nations." (Genesis 17:5)
3. Israel was to spawn a kingdom with a descendant of David on the throne as king. (2 Samuel 7:16; Jeremiah 33:20-21; Psalm 89:34-36)
For ages the Jewish people did not have a permanent home, they are not a multitude of nations, and they have neither king nor throne.
The Jews of today, therefore, cannot constitute all of the descendants of Israel in the world, nor can they alone fulfill the prophecies given specifically to each of the individual tribes of the House of Israel in Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33. The Jews are descendants of a portion of the House of Judah only, plus a considerable number of religious proselytes. Why then should Christians believe and teach something that Jewish scholars themselves neither believe nor claim?
It is to the descendants of Joseph, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, we must look for world leadership as the holders of the Divine Birthright given in 1 Chronicles 5:1-2. We read that the "birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel...For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's."
The Celto-Saxon peoples of the world are their descendants as proved by the fact that in every detail they fit the prophetic description of what the ten-tribe House of Israel was to do and become. Read a list of prophecies fulfilled and historical studies in the form of many special studies, audio, and video on the subject of British-Israel on our website.
Norse Sagas reveal important evidence of their origin in dispersed Ten Tribe Israel
The British-Israel or Anglo-Israel belief...
The Canadian British-Israel Association is known as "The Servant People" because Israel was called by God to be His Servants in proclaiming the Word of the Lord to the ends of the earth! Isaiah 49:6 says, "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." Who is doing that—and who has done that—during the whole of this age? Read the wonderful prophecies given to Israel in Jacob's blessing in Genesis chapters 48 and 49, as well as the parallel prophecies in Moses blessing in Deuteronomy chapter 33, and notice something significant: There are individual prophecies given to each tribe as well as to the two separate Houses of Israel. Since these are specifically called "latter day" prophecies (Genesis 49:1), how could they each be fulfilled today if the individual tribes totally intermixed long ago and Israel only constitutes one mixed nation? Instead, research by scholars such as Steven M. Collins has shown that elements of the ten tribes of the House of Israel can be traced to European nations of today. Read a synopsis from his interesting book, "Israel's Tribes Today." Also read a synopsis of W.H. Bennett's outstanding study-book, "The Story Of Celto-Saxon Israel," which traces twelve early European tribes who entered Europe from Asia, showing that each of them had distinct elements of Israelite culture.
