Replacement Theology: The Fable of British-Israel (Part 1)

[Rebbe]

FUNDAMENTALS: The Fable of "British Israel" [1]
A WORD ABOUT REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY
Copyright © BRI 2012 All Rights Reserved Worldwide
by Les Aron Gosling, Messianic Lecturer (BRI)

CAUTION: BRI Yeshiva notes are not available to the general public. They are not for distribution. They are not for reproduction. The notes may also bear little or no resemblance to the actual recorded BRI Yeshiva lecture.

" ...the ten tribes will not return [to Eretz Yisrael], for it is said, and cast them into another land, as is this day: just as the day goes and does not return, so they too went and will not return: this is r. Akiba's view. r. Eliezer said: as this day - just as the day darkens and then becomes light again, so the ten tribes - even as it went dark for them, so will it become light for them" - B. Talmud, Sanhedrin 110b

Replacement Theology takes many forms. It is vitally important to come to grips with this idea in order to disengage others from it, and to remain solidly in alignment with the truth of HaShem and not to succumb to haSatan's lies in regard to the destiny of the Jewish people.

[1] The Christian Church has replaced the people of Israel and all the prophecies that were to constellate about Israel now are applicable to the church. They are applicable to the church because the people of Israel rejected the Covenant of God, and even killed their Messiah. They rejected God, so God rejected them.

[2] The popular teaching that Christians (especially Gentile believers) are "spiritual Jews" is the second form of Replacement Theology and is based on a wrested misunderstanding of a text distortion in Paul's letter to the Romans. Adherents to this false teaching spawned the third form of replacement theology ...

[3] That Ephraim (the lost ten tribes of Israel) are essentially found among those who have accepted the teachings of Christianity, and that as constituting "spiritual Israel" the largely Gentile church has a right to the Land of Israel along with the tribe of Judah. The "two sticks" described by the prophet Ezekiel will manifest as a restored House of Israel (Ephraim i.e., the church) walking together with the tribe of Judah. This variation of the belief, and other notions which are along the same lines generally, is called the "Two House" theology. It's a popular doctrine amongst a growing number of Messianics.

[4] The literal ten lost tribes of Israel eventually relocated in the British Isles (mainly Ephraim and Dan but also a few others their designations depending on the "scholarship" of the teacher), and the land mass that later became the democracies of western and northwestern Europe. The tribal peoples known as the Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Scythians, Cymri, Goths, Visigoths, Jutes, Danes, etc were lost Israelites according to this theory.

SHORT BACKGROUND & EXPLANATION ABOUT R.T.

Replacement Theology -- which I will refer to as "R.T." in this lecture -- or "supersessionism" was really created by Augustine. It is true that Justin Martyr espoused such an anti-Semitic view of the biblical truth, but it was not an actual theology until Augustine's City of God so delineated it.

Justin (circa 100-165 CE) wrote, "For the true spiritual Israel ... are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ" (Dialogue With Trypho 11).

The word supersessionism stems from English supersede, first known to have been used with the meaning replace in 1642.

I am introducing this short series of lectures on Replacement Theology at this point purposely after our completion of the Covenant lectures precisely because we have seen that while the New Covenant supersedes the antiquated Sinai marriage agreement, it in no way ejects the houses of Israel and Judah from the prophetic schema of God or as the people of God. In no way is this the case.

Now, as many of my students already realise, I am no fan of Seventh Day Adventism, and I always find something about that denomination to criticise. When it comes to R.T., we discover that it is the one central teaching of Romanism that is shared by the apostate Seventh Day Adventist Mrs Egg White Personality Cult. Ellen G. White, one of the founders of the SDA organisation -- which broke away from an older Sabbatarian denomination known as the Church of God Adventist in 1863, and which denomination was earlier established by a group of Sabbatarian Baptists that originated in Rhode Island in 1671 -- was enamoured with this spastic Augustinian theological teaching. Due to her spiritual retardation Augustine lives each and every Sabbath day being preached (in one form or another) from SDA pulpits.

Again, it is the one common theological link shared by both SDA's and Catholics yet it remains the SDA's that have spawned this deadly spiritual cancer into the very lifestream of authentic Christian thought, through the promulgation of a book of old wive's tales entitled "The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan." It's amazing how many Protestant pastors and "Reverend's" possess a copy of this little volume on their book shelves. There is, in fact, no controversy between the true Messiah and the Dark Lord -- none at all. Throughout the entire Scripture, the Mashiach is SOVEREIGN and the Dark Lord is ever and always the servant of a holy God. Modern "Christian" denominations that hold to Augustinian theological teaching are suffering, it would seem, from spiritual leukaemia. In my opinion, these people can only be considered authentically "Christian" if they deeply appreciate their roots, and thus their life-sustaining sap, in the original Olive Tree -- notwithstanding their "allegiance" to sects within the historic Christian community (Rom 9,10,11).

Listen! To the Jews were granted the oracles of God. To the Jews God confided the promises of the awesome Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. To the Jews God bequeathed the Temple and Sonship. In the midst of the Jews God revealed Himself in His Sh'khinah glory and to the Jewish people HaShem gave His Son, and their Messiah (Rom 9.4,5). Indeed, Yeshua was a humanoid incarnation of the Sh'khinah (Mt 1.20). God's Sh'khinah was actually made flesh (Jn 1.14). The Messiah was born a Jew (Heb 7.14). From the Jews we received the Hebrew Scriptures (the so-called "OT"), and the writings of the Messianic Scriptures (the so-called "NT").

Certainly the Jewish people have blessed the world materially, scientifically, in business, and in the commercial world, in the arts, in countless other ways. They are truly the benefactors of the human race. They have enriched our way of life abundantly. They have benefited our planet with the results of their positive industriousness and resourcefulness. Some of our most gifted social reformers, actors, mathematicians, doctors, politicians, statesmen, and educators have been, and are, Jews. They are among the most gifted and intelligent people walking the earth.

There is a reason for this that most have never understood. The Silver Cup held in possession by Joseph when he ruled Egypt under Pharaoh (Gen 44.2) gave Joseph unparalleled knowledge and wisdom (Gen 44.5,15). Gentile cultures, and Israel's twin nation the Edomites, borrowed Israelite knowledge and perverted it into the "golden cup" of "filthiness" and "porneia" -- detached from original Israelite authority and highly anti-Jewish in thought and application (Rev 17.4). Indeed the woman who sexually rides the beast at the end of the age is coloured scarlet as the symbol of Edom (red) --  the Great Whore!

But God had an intent, plan and purpose for these people. God does not change (Heb 13.8; Mal 3.6)! God still has an intent, plan and purpose for them (Rom 11.28-32). To even consider otherwise is to charge the LORD God with an inability to fulfil His own strategic determinations (Rom 11.11,12,15) and that is a little too close to blasphemy for comfort. It is to further charge HaShem with the creation, initially, of a contingency plan of redemption and, later, the necessity of a replacement theology -- all because the Jewish will somehow went against His transcendent sovereignty, a thought which is not merely preposterous but utterly repugnant to the converted mind (Rom 9.19).

So where to begin on our journey to understand and to combat British-Israelism?

Let's start with history. Always a good place to start anything, actually.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL ... MAKE THAT THIRTEEN.

The twelve tribes of Israel entered the Promised Land after wandering 40 years in the wilderness subsequent to their exodus from Egyptian imprisonment by the mighty hand of God.

The tribes were:

Judah (Y'hudah)
Reuben (Reuven)
Gad
Asher
Napthali (Naftali)
Joseph (defacto, Efraim and M'nasheh)
Simeon (Sh'mon)
Levi (L'vi)
Issachar (Yissass'khar)
Zebulon (Z'vulun)
Benjamin
Dan

After conquering and settling the land of Canaan, God gave them a King called David and he was a military man of huge genius and basic human faults. Having said that, so in awe of David were the nations surrounding his State of Israel, that he had a personal bodyguard of 600 Philistines -- arguably from the nation that hated David the most. That is how powerful he had become and how much he was held in high regard by his enemies.

Whatever the case, David had a son by Bat'Sheva called Jedidiah, who became known as Solomon the wise. Wise he was for he created an empire which gave Israel a Golden Age of peace for about 40 years. In fact, Solomon through treaties and marriages unified the entire Middle East economically and politically. His influence, however, extended right around the globe. Monstrous taxes did not help however. This is when wise king Solomon became "the-not-so- wise." For, after his death there was a tax revolt, and a civil war ensued. As a result, ten of the twelve tribes of Israel joined in a form of confederacy, calling their new State variously, "Israel," "Ephraim" (after one of the larger tribes of Joseph; see Jer 31.9) and "Samaria" (after their new capitol).

Those tribes that remained opposed to the new confederacy maintained Jerusalem as their headquarters city, and continued to worship in the Temple of God which was also located in Jerusalem. There were actually three tribes that remained loyal to the Temple cultus -- Judah, Benjamin and Levi. They became known as Jews. You may be wondering ... if there were 12 tribes, and 10 rebelled and set up a northern Kingdom, how could there also be 3 that stayed loyal to God down south?

The answer is very simple. One of the tribes of Israel was Joseph. But as he had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he placed his "tribal name" upon them -- so the tribe of Joseph became Ephraim and Manasseh. So in all, there were now 13 tribes of Israel.

It did not take long for the northern confederation or union to sink into apostasy, and God sent them warning after warning through his prophets to repent. They did not do so, and God finally sent the Kingdom of Assyria to conquer them. The northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 721/718 BCE. They were taken into captivity. Those who resisted were slaughtered in the most horrendous fashion. Flaying alive while crucified was a favourite form of death exercised by the Assyrians. Those who went into Assyria disappeared from history. They are known as "the ten lost tribes of Israel."

And it is at this point that certain people today believe the popular stories that the tribal survivors of Israel, escaping from Assyrian captivity, then migrated through Europe and settled finally in the western region of the continent and throughout the British Isles. The proponents of this idea use Bible texts that seem to favour this view, and they also bring to the table reams of historical information that also seems to back up their belief.

[About a century or so after Israel's collapse, the southern Kingdom of Judah went into captivity at the hands of the Babylonians. Only about 50,000 Jews were expatriated to Jerusalem and its environs.]

Those Jews who did not return to Judaea never became "lost" -- they retained their identity.

It was a peculiarity of the Assyrian warlords to deport their conquered enemies and place them into concentration camps, and to replace them wholesale with other subjected peoples who would then possess the towns, villages and cities of the newly occupied territory. This custom of exchanged peoples, sometimes numbering into the millions, is a matter of historical curiosity (B. Oded, Mass Deportations and Deportees in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, 1979, 25,27,32). The entire ten tribal- nation confederacy of the northern kingdom of Israel, after the capture of their capital, Samaria, by Sargon II (Shalmaneser had died during the last invasion) went into exile, never to return. Those who fled south to Judah escaped. But their scattered kinsmen became known as the lost ten tribes of Israel.

Recall that the prophecies of Israel's banishment from the Land PRECLUDED nationhood until they were brought back into Eretz Israel at the end of the age.

"And I will SCATTER you among the nations" (Lev 26.33). Note that HaShem does not speak of entire nations of Israel being scattered as nations throughout the heathen regions -- these are straggling survivors of the ancient Assyrian holocaust. Individuals and small family groupings are in mind.

"And HaShem shall SCATTER you among the nations, and you shall be left FEW IN NUMBER among the heathen, whither HaShem shall lead you" (Deut 4.27).

"And HaShem shall SCATTER you among ALL people, from one end of the earth even unto the other" (Deut 28.64).

"For, lo, I will SIFT the House of Israel among ALL nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth" (Amos 9.9).

The Amos quotation is intriguing, for it reveals that Israelites would not lose their identity. I will have some more to say on this subject in a moment in relation to Asia.

Was "lost Israel" to be planted in distant geographical regions, and rise to a mighty prominence in the world, inheriting the blessings of economic, military and political power as the world's leading nations? Were they destined to be planted in the British Isles and from thence to conquer far-flung foreign shores and become the greatest sea power that ever existed? No, quite the contrary. They were, according to both Samuel and Jeremiah, TO REMAIN SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE EARTH until the time of the end when they would return enmasse to the Land that gave them birth!

"Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them [IN ERETZ YISRAEL], that they may dwell in a place of their own, AND MOVE NO MORE" (2 Sam 7.10).

Those who use this scripture to establish a "planting downward" of a "lost Israel" in the British Isles and the democracies of north-western Europe are wresting Scripture entirely out of context. And they are doing so fallaciously.

"And I will set my eyes upon them for good, AND I WILL BRING THEM AGAIN TO THEIR LAND [the Promised Land]: and I will build them, and not pull them down; AND I WILL PLANT THEM [in the Promised Land]:, and not pluck them up" (Jer 24.6).

Prophetically, those who fled to Judah and whose ancestry is linked to the lost ten tribes are to be again reunited with Judah and Benjamin (with the priestly tribe of Levi) at the coming of the days of the Messiah, along with a restored House of Israel (Isa 11.11-14; Jer 3.14-18; 31.18,19; 50.4,5,20; Obad 1.18; Eze 37.21-23; Zech 8.3,7,13; 9.13; 11.14). It's the overwhelming evidence of the sacred Scripture. Some of these predictions quite apparently refer to the house of Israel and the house of Judah returning to Eretz Israel TOGETHER in the general time frame sequence. Judah has already begun to return. Israel is in the process of returning also, especially from out of "the northern regions" (Russia).

But "Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor, and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria" (2 Kgs 15.29).

Subsequently, Israel was "carried away out of their own land to Assyria" (2 Kgs 17.23). A minority migrated further afield as we shall amply demonstrate. The majority of those who did not perish in the sieges and invasions, and who survived the public-example extermination programs, and who escaped the humiliation of castration, as future Assyrian sex toys, were removed completely and assimilated into Assyrian society. Those who became assimilated were then granted better life choices.

The Encyclopaedia Judaica tells us, "It is evident that as a rule they did not possess the status of slaves or of an oppressed population. The exiles were first settled in Mesopotamia as land tenants of the king ... the craftsmen among them were employed in state enterprises. Eventually, some of the exiles achieved economic and social status and even occupied high ranking positions in the Assyrian administration ... The striking of roots in Mesopotamian society by a large part of the descendants of the Israelite exiles resulted in their eventual absorption into the foreign milieu" (Exile, Assyrian, 1036).

"There was none left," we are reliably informed by the reverent biblical chronicler, "but the tribe of Judah only" (2 Kings 17.18). Ezra tells us, "And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they possessed [the land of] Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof" (2 Kings 17.24).

If we wish to be honest with the biblical narrative "none but the tribe of Judah only" is meant to convey the fact that the myriads of Israelites who had fled the Northern Confederacy for protection to the Kingdom of Judah were now known as Jews! If we do not wish to be honest, and we deny this historical fact, then we are issuing a self-proclaiming flag-waving to the entire world of our utter ignorance against the facts of Scripture that stare us in the face from the Holy Bible's contents as inspired by the Spirit of God.

DID ISRAEL SUFFER FROM COLLECTIVE AMNESIA AS TO THEIR IDENTITY?

There can, of course, be little doubt that after the storms of war had cleared and a precarious peace in the Near East ensued at the height of Assyrian greatness that some few of the countless thousands of the Israelites who had fled southward as refugees -- taking advantage of the protection offered within the borders of Judah -- returned to their original region, now occupied by transplanted foreigners, in an attempt to salvage something of their northern Ephraimitish roots and homeland.

Most of those who did return to what was a decimated northern region were absorbed into Samaritan culture and religion. This occurred 130 years before a similar fate befell the Royal Kingdom of Judah.

Daniel really has the last word on the decimated kingdom of Israel.

The Jewish prophet of the Babylonian Captivity informs us that in the final days to come "the saints shall possess [God's] kingdom" (Dan 7.22). The saints in Daniel's mind (at least) are not JWs, SDA's, Armstrongites, White Identity folk, or British-Israelites. The saints are not Christians. THEY ARE JEWS. They are loyal JEWS of his day and age in Babylonian captivity. They include ISRAELITES still faithful to God, who had returned to Torah observance.

He further enumerates, a little later in his narrative, that "unto US [exists] confusion of faces, as at this day: to the men of JUDAH, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto ALL ISRAEL near AND far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass" (Dan 9.4).

All rabbis (and some honest Christian scholars) realise that these "saints" are the people of Israel. Daniel tells us that in his day there were saints of Israel that were "near" for they were Israelities who had joined the Southern Union at Jerusalem, and who had been taken into captivity with the Jews by the Babylonians, and there were also those who had been carried away by the Assyrians long before and who were, according to Daniel, STILL "afar off" scattered "through all the countries where [God] has driven them." But they were the "saints" who would possess God's kingdom when the time came. In effect, the survivors of "the lost house of Israel" remained obedient to God, with their national identity and ancient customs of the fathers still quite intact.

According to British-Israelites Israel forgot who they were, and their God. They forgot their customs and their ethnicity and began to think of themselves as Goths and Vandals, Gaels and Scotia. Brethren, the entire idea of a lost ten-tribed Israel forgetting their rich heritage is so much hogwash.

Proof?

In recent years explorers and others have come into contact with descendants of Israelites in Kashmir, India, Afghanistan, Africa, and other places in the world. There are even Asian tribal people who keep kosher, observe Israel's ancient feast days, and celebrate the seventh day Sabbath. One small tribe in S.E. Asia calls itself after the tribe of Manasseh (M'nasheh). They appear Asian, but they claim to be Israelites! Yes, some lost Israelites travelled afar, not as entire tribes but as individuals and family groups. And God did not fail to keep them, no matter where they ended up! Very few ancient Israelites forgot their origins. More modern Jews, whose ancestors were forced to turn into good little Roman Catholics DID forget their origins. Some of them are rediscovering their roots through this ministry as we labor strenuously to "raise up the holy sparks."

Indeed, Hosea (the first Minor prophet of the Twelve), states that there was no way that ancient Israel was destined to be anything other than wanderers and vagrants scattered throughout the nations of the world -- certainly they were never intended by God to become the modern nations of the western European civilised world, including Great Britain and the USA, as some modern perversions of churchianity insist.

Interestingly, the astonishing Joseph Wolff -- the first great pioneer of the Church Mission to Jews (CMJ) whose zeal for Yeshua knew no bounds --  wrote that in 1832 while he lodged in the home of a fellow Jew during his sojourn in Bukhara (ancient Haran in West Asia) he was visited by a number of Jews who claimed (among other things) that they could trace their lineage back to the Assyrian captivity when their ancestors were taken from Samaria in one of the great sieges. After all those lost centuries they still knew their identity! (See George H. Stevens, "Go Tell My Brethren" - A Short Popular History of Church Missions to Jews (1809-1959), The Olive Press, London, n.d., 37).

And isn't this precisely what Daniel stated? (see Jn 11.49-52). Even the high priest Kayafa knew that if Yeshua was the Messiah he would personally extradite them from the far flung regions of the Diaspora and bring them AS ONE into the Promised Land. Kayafa just got the time of the deliverance wrong. To argue with Daniel (and Hosea) as do the British-Israelites is to argue with God.

NEW TESTAMENT EVIDENCE THAT JUDAH ABSORBED ISRAELITE REFUGEES

The Messianic Scriptures contain absolute evidence that (at least in the minds of the inspired "NT" authors) the Jewish government at the time of the Assyrian conquest of ten-tribed Israel, absorbed refugees from all ten Northern Confederacy tribes.

WHAT LUKE RECORDED

After all, we have been witness to Luke's account of "Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of ASHER" (Lk 2.36).

Anna was of the tribe of Asher so there had to have been other tribal members being in Jerusalem who were also of the tribe of Asher.

WHAT PETER SAID

Peter, on the day of Pentecost, called the Torah-faithful at Jerusalem "the House of ISRAEL" (Ac 2.36). The descendants of Zerah along with Ephraim and Manasseh, subsequent to the Babylonian captivity, had repopulated Jerusalem. Incidentally, this event  of repopulation occurred almost 200 years after they were supposed to have emigrated into Europe.

"Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were the Israelites, the priests, Levites and the Nethinims [temple servants]. And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim, and Manasseh ... And of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel, and their brethren, six hundred and ninety" (1 Chron 9.2,3,6).

Can we read? Their descendants were still in Jerusalem worshiping the true God in Peter's time.

WHAT YESHUA HIMSELF ADDED

Then, there is the witness of Our Lord Yeshua himself who said on at least one occasion, that he was sent "to the [spiritually] lost sheep of the house of ISRAEL" (Mt 15.24). In this instance, he is not referring to the [physical] "lost ten tribes." The Messiah began his earthly ministry at his baptism. Prior to this event his spiritual ministry was merely in preparation.

We repeat, his spiritual ministry was decidedly not launched until his baptism in the river Jordan by Yochanon the Immerser. We recognise flimsy evidence exists that Yeshua may well have spent some time (perhaps even a few years) out of the country when he was a child, but a spiritual ministry during his lifetime -- even to "lost tribes" -- is entirely out of the question.

WHAT PAUL SAID

And on top of this we have the testimony of the apostle Paul, who stated to Herod Agrippa, that ALL twelve tribes were at that time IN the land (under Roman occupation) and they were ALL worshiping God.

"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise OUR TWELVE TRIBES instantly serving God day and night, hope to come" (Acts 26.6,7).

To claim, as some have dared to do, that Paul is referring to the "lost ten tribes" somewhere in Britain or Sweden or Belgium or Switzerland in this instance is really drawing a long bow and borders on the scurrilous. These "twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night" were accomplishing this objective right there in Jerusalem, Judaea and Galilee. Or, to be more precise, they were actually accomplishing this service in the Temple at Jerusalem, for Paul here uses the technical phrase "serving God" in a ritual, ceremonial and cultic sense for they are in God's employ or hire (cf Rom 12.1; Plato, too, uses it in relation to the liturgical service of God), and predisposes to ascribe that "service" as being fulfilled "fervently, and with intensity, without ceasing" [KJV, "instantly"; Gk. en ekteneia].

WHAT JAMES SAID

James, too, assessed that the remnant of the twelve tribes "scattered abroad" (Jam 1.1) were essentially in the Mediterranean region and they were in contact with the Jerusalem authorities when he penned his epistle to them. They were not barbaric pagans, having lost all Israelite "sensibility" as well as their mother tongue, the holy Scriptures and their own geographical roots.

After all, they still knew the Hebrew language (Jam 5.4) and attended synagogue on Shabbat (Jam 2.1-4), were familiar with the topography of Jerusalem (Jam 3.6) and its peculiar rainfall patterns (Jam 5.7), as well as comprehending their sacred texts (Jam 1.25; 2.8,12). They were cognisant of faithful Abraham's fatherhood and the intended sacrifice of his son Isaac (Jam 2.21), fluent as to the story of the prostitute Rahab (Jam 2.25), were aware of Job (Jam 5.11), understood who the prophets were (Jam 5.10), knew about Elijah (Jam 5.17,18) and were more than acquainted with the designation of haSatan as "the devil" rather than the heathen appellations they would have been utilising if they had settled in pagan Britain (Jam 4.7).

WHAT JOHN SAID

The apostle John, writing Revelation during the days of Nero, before the destruction of Jerusalem, has the "Jewish-Christian righteous" male population of Israel set at around 144,000 out of most of the tribes of Israel -- Judah, Reuven, Gad, Asher, Naftali, Manasseh, Shimon, Levi, Yissass'khar, Z'vulun, Yosef, Binyamin (Rev 7).

Yaakov (James) had earlier commented to Shaul (Paul) at "the tens of thousands" of Jews (Ac 21.20) who were zealous of the Torah (and of their Messiah) during his leadership of the Messianic Community (ekklesia). It should not boggle the mind to contemplate the fact that by 70 CE there would have been over 100,000 Messianic believers alone in the regions of Jerusalem. And John tells us they constituted the house of Israel. They were in Jerusalem in his time, not in the British Isles and northwestern Europe.

In view of the foregoing, we must be ready to freely admit that Our Lord Yeshua fulfilled His intention of reaching "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" -- because representatives of all twelve tribes were then in the Land.

Of course, proponents of B-I theory will argue against the plain evidence we have presented. But the onus is on them to explain WHY the apostle Paul identifies himself by the time of the mid-first century as BOTH a JEW and an ISRAELITE. "I am truly a man who is a JEW, born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, yet brought up in this city [Jerusalem] at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the Torah of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as you all are this day" (Acts 22.3). "I say then, Has God cast off His people? God forbid. For I also am an ISRAELITE, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of BENJAMIN" (Rom 11.1).

So here in these linked passages Paul admits to being (1) an ISRAELITE (2) a JEW and (3) a BENJAMINITE. Were Benjaminites, as a tribal people, racially descended from Judah? Of course not. Did some of the Benjaminites, who aligned with Judah and Levi, intermarry with Judah? Absolutely. Were they then "Jews"? Needless to say, Paul's view was that the terms "Jew" and "Israelite" were synonymous and interchangeable.

THREE NEGLECTED TEXTS

To further establish the point, consider what the holy Scripture tells us in three neglected texts about the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity.

Remember, please, that this record comes from the post-Exilic period. The Jews have returned from Babylonian captivity.

"There was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren THE JEWS ... And I said unto them, We, after our ability have redeemed our brothers THE JEWS, who were sold unto the heathen ... Moreover there were at my table one hundred and fifty of THE JEWS and rulers" (Neh 5.1,8,17).

"So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinims [Temple servants], AND ALL ISRAEL, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE IN THEIR CITIES" (Neh 7.73).

"Now in the twentyfourth day of this month THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE ASSEMBLED with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them" (Neh 9.1).

It is again stated plainly that the Jewish captives who returned from Babylon, who were taken into slavery by Nebuchadnezzar after the fall of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom of Judah, are referred to as ALL ISRAEL. The Jews, by this date, included representatives from ALL the tribal nations descended from Jacob. Of course! For myriads had bolted Jeroboam's apostasy, and later escaped from the Assyrian onslaught by seeking refugee status in Judah.

I can establish this to be exactly what happened, and in the next lecture we shall see again from the pages of the biblical revelation knowledge that leaves one unimpressed with the "scholarship" of so-called British-Israelites. Modern archeologists are establishing the Bible to be fact, and not fairy tales or Jewish legends.