Are You One of Them?

Can millions of people suddenly disappear from the earth and be forgotten as though they never existed? Can an entire nation be swallowed in the abyss of historical darkness and students of the Bible not be concerned about them? Such is the case with the Northern Kingdom of Israel and a large number of the Israelites who lived in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. After the Assyrian armies invaded both of these kingdoms and carried away hundreds of thousands of these Israelites, placing them in the vast regions of Central Asia, what happened to them? Have theologians overlooked one of the most significant events in salvation history?

The identification of the lost ten tribes of Israel should be one of the most compelling questions ever. After all, 85% of the Bible is devoted to Israel of the Old Testament. Contemporary theologians can account for only a small quantity of the original twelve tribes, and aside from the exceedingly small remnant numbering less than 50,000 souls of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi as enumerated in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the religious world knows precious little if anything about the remaining tribes.

Modern theologians have been content to simply ignore perhaps the single greatest question of all Scripture. To cover this gap they have forged a replacement theology to cover the obvious fact that the primary people for whom the Bible was written and for whom Jesus Christ came to save has been lost in the shuffle of salvation history.

Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians now call the church spiritual Israel—with no regard whatsoever to literal, physical Israel and the covenants, pledges, charters, and promises given them in Scripture. They recognize only the people calling themselves Jews as the literal, genetic seed of ancient Israel. This complete disconnect from literal, physical Israel of the Bible has allowed Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians the liberty of building a multi-racial, Gentile church as the replacement for biblical Israel.

Evangelical theologians have fared no better than Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy. Having written off the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, they also have been content to replace literal Israel with a multi-racial, Gentile church, all the while allowing a special place for the modern Jews, whom they court and favor as a people with salvation rights apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It matters little whether a seeking Christian ends up in a Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Evangelical church pew: they still will never, in their whole lifetime, hear a preacher or pastor account for the missing lost ten tribes of Israel. These theologians regard modern Jews as all that remains of biblical Israel; hence, they use the terms Jew and Israel interchangeably, as if they were synonyms.

The word Jew (Yee-hoo-dee’) in singular form appears only ten times in all of the Old Testament, eight of those ten times in the book of Esther. In its plural form, Jews appears only seventy-three times in the Old Testament, and forty-three of those times again are in the book of Esther. Moreover, Jew does not appear in any form in the Old Testament for more than one thousand years after Abraham died. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-Israel were not Jews. Moses was not a Jew. The word Jew is derived from the word Judah, one of the twelve sons born to Jacob and from the tribe bearing that name. Only one of the twelve tribes of Israel was racially Judean. The other eleven tribes were Israelites. The name Israel appears more than 2,500 times in the Bible and can never be a synonym for Jew.

The Old Testament is the history of twelve-tribed Israel and the millions descended from them. These people are identified as those who historically have embraced Jesus Christ, the Bible, and the Christian faith in the Anglo-Saxon confederation of nations. These are the people who have brought forth the blessings of Abraham and the promises of Scripture and continue to do so to this day. The spiritual, racial, and historical roots of the Anglo-Saxon and kindred peoples can be traced directly back to the Israelites of Scripture.

A reign of Judges collectively ruled the twelve tribes of Israel for three hundred and thirty years beginning with Othniel and ending with Samuel. Around 1095 BC, twelve-tribed Israel rejected Jehovah’s reign through judges and selected a king. Saul, David, and Solomon each ruled for a period of forty years. In 975 BC at the death of Solomon, the nation of twelve-tribed Israel split into two separate and sovereign kingdoms. Ten tribes united under Rehoboam in the North with their capital in Samaria. They existed independently from Judah until Assyrian armies invaded, plundered, and carried them into captivity beginning in 771 BC and ending in 721 BC, when their capital was captured and plundered and tens of thousands of Israelites were carried into captivity into Central Asia in lands that Assyrians occupied.

The tribes of Judah and Benjamin, plus a portion of Levi, remained in Judea with Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, and continued to make Jerusalem their capital. The nation of Judah remained sovereign and separated from the Kingdom of Israel. In 713 BC, Assyrian armies carried into captivity a major portion of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The armies of the Chaldean (Babylonian) armies under Nebuchadnezzar invaded and plundered the Kingdom of Judah in 606-607 BC, taking captives and placing them in Babylon.

The final invasion and deportation of the Kingdom of Judah occurred in 588 BC, when the city of Jerusalem was sacked and plundered and all the upper classes removed to Babylon. This marked the end of the Kingdom of Judah for the next seventy years until a small remnant returned to rebuild the temple, restore Jerusalem, and rebuild the wall. This left a majority of all twelve tribes in dispersion throughout Central Asia when the Old Testament canon of Scripture closed in 397 BC. At this time, the millions of Israelites constituting these two sovereign nations were in dispersion under the rule of the Persians. The political and military history of the twelve tribes of Israel ended with their dispersion.

The prophetic history of these people is chronicled in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Amos, and other prophets of the Old Testament. These prophetic voices called for a future reconciliation and restoration of ten-tribed Israel with Jehovah. Israel in dispersion ultimately was to be reconciled and restored to Jehovah with the remnant that had returned to rebuild the temple and restore Jerusalem. The long-standing wall of partition between Judah and Israel, existing since the days of David, was diminished by the coming of the Messiah, with the final resolution of this bitter division coming in the Kingdom Age. The blood of Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, was to bring both Judah and Israel under the bond of the covenant which Christ’s blood sealed.

At the conclusion of the Old Testament, God promised both Judah and Israel a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34); that the New Testament is a record of this covenant is confirmed in Hebrews 8:7-13; 10:15-18. The Lord Jesus Christ ratified the New Covenant promised to Judah and Israel, declaring, “For this I my blood of the new testament (covenant), which is shed for many for the remission (forgiveness) of sins” (Matt. 26:28). The ministry of Christ, His apostles, and the disciples who followed them was exclusive to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. The Apostle Peter wrote to these twelve tribes in dispersion (I Peter 1:1-2). Likewise, James addressed his epistle to “the twelve tribes scattered abroad” (James 1:1). St. Paul addressed his epistles to the Israelites of the dispersion in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, and Thessalonica.

The utter rejection and loss of the millions of people descending from the lost ten tribes of Israel has had profound implications in contemporary salvation and politics. Failure to identify and locate these lost ten tribes has resulted in the following problems in the past and in contemporary history:

1) Failure to identify and locate the lost ten tribes has caused a complete disconnect from the Old Testament and a misunderstanding of the New Testament that was promised to Judah and Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Without the understanding of the lost ten tribes, much of the Bible remains a mystery to most readers.

2) The failure to identify ancient Israel in dispersion among the nations has allowed the church world to evangelize non-Israelite nations, including most of the third world, giving them a fraudulent salvation in a multi-racial Christianity of which God and Scripture know nothing. The entire history of foreign missions rests upon fraud and the lack of finding the lost ten tribes.

3) The loss of physical Israel from history has closed the door on understanding Bible prophecy. Identifying the lost ten tribes is the key to understanding the wonderful pronouncements of prophecy, much of which today focuses on the Jews (constituting only a tiny minority among the twelve tribes) or simply ignores most of the prophetic Word of Scripture. As a result, modern teachings on prophecy are convoluted, distorted, and in conflict with the remainder of the Bible.

4) Since 1948, American foreign policy has focused on the defense and support of the Jewish Israeli State in Palestine. This foreign policy rests on the belief that the modern Jews in Palestine represent biblical Israel and that they have the title to this land. Such a policy has been articulated largely from the pulpits of evangelical pastors, who honor and sympathize with modern Jews, all the while ignoring the lost ten tribes of Israel.

5) Failure to identify these lost ten tribes has allowed a counterfeit people known in Scripture as Esau/Edom and their Canaanite counterparts to claim that they are literal, physical Israelites of the Bible. This case of identity theft is one of the most flagrant and deceptive lies ever perpetrated! The Lord Jesus Christ referred to these people as a race of snakes (vipers), as in Matthew 23:32-33, and clearly denied that they were the legitimate seed of Abraham (John 8:38-44), instead referring to them as “the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9; 3:9).

6) Failure to identify and discover the lost ten tribes of Israel has fostered a depreciation of the sovereignty of Almighty God. Modern theologians have altogether slandered the God of the Bible Who entered unconditional covenants with ancient Israel, giving them pledges that could never be broken. Without recovery of the lost ten tribes, Jehovah is mocked from one end of the Bible to the other.

7) Without an understanding of the lost ten tribes of Israel, millions of their descendants are left rootless, a non-people without a heritage. The “thousands of millions” of descendants that Isaac and Rebekah of Bible fame (Genesis 24:60) were to produce are unknown in the modern world, even though they have colonized and ruled much of the world for the last several centuries. Because the lost ten tribes have not been identified and located, the British Commonwealth of Nations, the United States of America, and the individual European and Scandinavian nations are judged by most theologians as a non-people. These people “who are not a people” appear in the New Testament under the name Gentiles in spite of the fact that these same people translated the Bible, built cathedrals of worship, promoted Christian morals and laws, wrote constitutions, multiplied labor-saving inventions, and have shared their wealth and affluence with all the nations of the world for the past several hundred years.

8) Failure to identify the lost ten tribes has allowed the church to replace these people and forge a theology unknown to the Law of Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the Gospels. Having rejected the lost ten tribes, modern theology has created a replacement theology that calls the church true Israel, and the Old Testament forecast of the Kingdom is considered fulfilled in the same church.

9) Sadly, failure to identify the lost ten tribes of Israel has blinded Bible readers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation call of Jesus Christ was exclusive to Israel. He commanded His disciples to preach “ . . . to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6) and later declared this to His disciples in Matt. 15:24: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Jesus further emphasized this concept, saying that “the Son of man is come to save that which was lost” (Matt. 18:11). The lost people who were (Greek-apollumi-put away in punishment) the lost ten tribes of Israel. In St. John 10, Jesus announced that He had come to save the sheep people, who were the Israelites of the dispersion who were put away, divorced, and sent into dispersion for punishment. That Jesus Christ came to save these sheep people is confirmed in John 10:11: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” In this same sermon, Jesus declared, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd” (John 10:16). These other sheep were the lost ten tribes of Israel in dispersion in contrast to the small number of Judeans indigenous to Jerusalem and the land of Judea where Jesus Christ was then living.

If you are one of these sheep people genetically connected to ancient Israel and have been called to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, you should bow in humble reverence to your God. Humility, not pride, meekness, not arrogance, should belong to those who have identified the lost ten tribes of Israel and the millions descended from them. As an Israelite, born from above, begotten from the womb of Sarah through the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-Israel, and filled with the Holy Spirit, you have a mission to fill on earth. Having been marvelously called out of the darkness of Satan’s kingdom and translated into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, you have been called as an Israelite to assist in the battle for truth, wage a spiritual warfare for the Kingdom of Christ, and recall daily the mission given Israel from the sovereign God of heaven and earth:

1) Israel was called to witness to the unity of Jehovah God in the midst of universal idolatry (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 43:10, 12). Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-Israel, revealed Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate God of the Old Testament. Israel is commissioned to bring glory and honor to this one, true, and ever-living God Who in His one divine essence we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength is the duty of every Israelite begotten from above and born of the Spirit (Mark 12:28-31; John 3:3-8).

2) Israel was chosen to praise, honor, glorify, and revere the only true God, Jehovah Elohim (Isaiah 43:7; 21). “This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise” (Isaiah 43:21). Speaking of Israel, Jehovah said: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (Isa. 43:10).

3) Israel was to witness to the unparalleled blessings of obedience to the commandments, statutes, and judgments of Jehovah in the sight of other nations: “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, . . . Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so night unto them, . . . And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day” (Deut. 4:5-8).

4) Israel was chosen and called to receive, preserve, and transmit the Holy Scriptures given by direct revelation from Jehovah their Elohim. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). Scripture declares that Jehovah Elohim “Sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them . . .” (Psa. 147:19-20). (See also Deut. 4:1-8; Rom. 3:1-2; John 5:45-47; Luke 16:31; Luke 24:44). The Old and New Testament Scriptures have been in the hands of one people—Israel—throughout recorded history.

5) Israel was called to be the highway of seed through which Jesus Christ came in human form. This royal seedline can be traced from Joseph and Mary back through the covenant lineage to Adam and Eve (Matt. 1:1-16; Luke 3:23-38). The Messiah first promised in Genesis 3:15 was to arrive in human form from the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:16), Isaac, and Jacob-Israel. Jesus Christ came as a Kinsman Redeemer to save His people from their sin (Matt. 1:21; 18:11; Luke 1:68-77; 19:9-10; 24:21; Acts 5:31; 13:23).

6) Israel was chosen to be the servant people of Jehovah Elohim. Israel was called to bear the heavy responsibility of serving God and blessing all of God’s creation. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen . . . Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: . . . Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me’ (Isaiah 43:10; 44:1; 44:21). Consider how many times the Anglo-Saxon and kindred peoples of the Christian West have aided those suffering from natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, ravaging floods, pestilence, and disease throughout the nations and peoples of the earth.

7) Israel was chosen to be the people through whom Jehovah God could work out His plan for the ultimate restoration of His Kingdom and the return of Christ to rule on the throne of David over the House of Jacob (Luke 1:31-33; Isaiah 9:6-7; Jer. 23:5-6).

As an Israelite, you must remember that your race has been called to a place of honor, blessing, and privilege. But with this great calling comes great responsibility. Let us be diligent to make our calling and election sure. May we with reverence and love for the Lord Jesus Christ work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

We are the beneficiaries of a tremendous heritage. We are called to be the servant people of Jehovah Elohim. Let us love one another and serve God with a servant heart. As soldiers of Christ, let us be fearless in the face of the age-old enemy and filled with faith as we advance the crown rights of Jesus Christ. With humble and penitent hearts, let us take this spiritual and biblical stewardship to heart and with all our might and spiritual strength become involved in the search and rescue of the lost sheep of the House of Israel to the glory of Jesus Christ!