How
Do We Know If We’re Israel?
Bible
Study, Dave & Coleen Logan’s, 8-29-03
It’s controversial to say the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are mainly settled by people who are descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes. How do we know if that is true?
1. “The trunk of the tree”: God’s unconditional promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Genesis
22:16-18
After
Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac, the word “IF” didn’t appear. “Gate” issue: not just cities here, but a control or bottleneck issue. Notice the use of the singular “gate.” Also notice the beginning of the
birthright/scepter distinction here.
How
else fulfilled? Key issue. Strip of land in Middle East and tiny
portion of world’s population a dubious ultimate fulfillment (14 million Jews
approximately out of 6.2 billion people).
Would political entities as important as US and the British
Empire/Commonwealth be ignored in the Bible concerning end-time events?
Gen.
24:60
Rebekah’s
blessing confirms covenant.
Gen.
26:3-5
Issac’s
blessing confirms it also.
Genesis
27:27-29
Issac’s
blessing on Jacob. Notice implications
of last part of verse for those who are steadily anti-Semitic (i.e., present
dispute in Middle East).
Genesis
28:3, 13-15
If
Abraham to be the father of many nations, needs to be more than the embattled
nation of 6 million in Middle East. Not
just Arabs via Hagar and Ishmael either, since the birthright didn’t go through
him. Notice the mentions of a “company”
of nations.
Genesis
35:11-12
The
church didn’t fulfill this, since it isn’t a company of nations.
Genesis
48:16-17, 19
Manasseh
and Ephraim have Israel/Jacob’s nation placed on them also. Manasseh the first-born, yet gets the
subordinate blessing to what Ephraim receives.
The latter is to become the company of nations, the first the single
great nation.
Genesis
49:1, 8-10, 22-26
Notice
the reference to “latter days” or equivalent in v. 1. Isn’t about period of the divided monarchy, etc., millennia ago.
Verses
8-10 vs. 22-26 show how the promise of the Messiah (the scepter), Judah’s, got
divided from the promise of material wealth (the birthright), Joseph’s. Why Judah won’t become wealthy, or
especially so.
Jeremiah
3:6-12 , 17-18
Here
the distinction is plainly drawn between Judah and Israel. The Jews in the Middle East, since they
didn’t lose knowledge of their national identity, mistakenly call themselves
“Israel” today when they really are just “Judah.”
Notice
location of Israel in vs. 12, 17-18 also, implications of displacement from
homeland, etc. during the great tribulation, etc.
Vs.
Hal Lindsey, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” p. 173: “Israel will become fantastically wealthy and influential in the
future. Keep your eyes upon the
development of riches in the Dead Sea.”
His failure to note the following verse messes his interpretation up.
I
Chron. 5:1-2
2. The
unconditional promise concerning the Davidic monarchy.
2
Samuel 7:12-16
Where
is this throne today? Does “forever”
really mean “forever” here? (The
ambiguity of “olam” admitted, but . . .)
II
Samuel 23:5; 22:51
Notice
how David interpreted this promise when he was dying.
Jer.
33:17-26
Notice
how this passage here decisively removes any ambiguity to the word translated
“forever” from the Hebrew.
Jeremiah
41:10
King’s
daughters still alive, not confined to Middle East, make transfer possible.
Eze.
17:22-24
The
“twig” being transferred, highest yet tender person in Judah.
Duality
issue: Just as Joseph concealed from
his brothers, identity of Manasseh and Ephraim concealed today, but will be
unveiled one day. A typology issue,
analogy to Exodus, leaving sin/leaving Egypt, Pharaoh = Satan, Red Sea =
baptism, etc.
Implications
of this teaching for us:
Israel
punished for sins then, will happen again (duality of prophecy issue).
II
Kings 17:18, 22-23; 18:9-11
All
deported, very few ever returned.
Israel ceased to have independent identity soon after going into exile
since had gone largely into paganism.
Assimilated, so it seemed, into the surrounding nations, including
Assyria.
Still
not lost, however.
Amos
9:8-9
Blessings
still to be given despite sins, exile:
Hosea
1:10-11
Why
we have to be alert to prophetically when we’re Israel:
Jer.
30:7-11
Historical
evidence for connection:
HWA: Said could prove doctrine, believe it,
without non-Biblical evidence.
Celts: Spread into France, Britain, Germany, all
the way to the Danube River. Greeks
called them “Keltoi” and “Galatai.”
Lighter skinned branch called “Teutonic” by early writers. Came from same region as “Goths” also, by
shores of Baltic and North Seas.
Relationship between them and Cimmerians of Middle East, as Babylon
conquered Assyria. Scythians (short I
sound), horse-based. Celtic and
Scythian cultures interacted as if unified at some level. Trading based on European rivers, from area
centered where Seine, Rhone, Danube, and Rhine rivers come together. Capable in metal work, especially gold,
could make iron. They both had a better
breed of horses, could run faster for longer periods of time. Hallstatt culture from Danube to Bohemia/Cz.
in 500’s b.c., expanded to west later.
Celtic swords have been found with decoration similar to that of
Scythians. “The archaeological evidence
shows that the Celts and Scyths both freely shared and mingled. Russian and Eastern European excavations
plainly reveal the blending of these two groups” (The United States and
Britain in Bible Prophecy, p. 29).
“Most scholars are convinced that no ethnic links exist between the Saka
Scythians and the Mongols or the Slavic Peoples” (p. 28). Came to dominate region of plains north of
Caucaus Mountains in the steppes from 700 to 500 b.c.
Hosea
9:16-17
To
become wanderers on earth
Names
derived from King Omri of the Northern Kingdom and “Sons of Isaac” keep popping
up. Corruption of pronuniciation as
pass through different languages or as they changed over the centuries.
Genesis
21:12; Amos 7:16-17
“Isaac”/Saxon
derivation, or sons of Isaac. Scythians
called “Sacae” by Herodotus (484-20 b.c.)
He also said the Scythes ruled over the land of Media. Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.) called
them “Saxones.” Terms used
interchangeably. Tel-el-Armarna tablets
(14th century b.c.), mentions and also the “Saka” or “the
Saga.” Corrupted forms of “Saak,”
Isaac, possibly.
On
Behistun Rock from reign of Darius I of Persia (522-486 b.c.), last conquered
king doing homage was Skuka, of the Asiatic Sythians, is called the king of the
“Scythians, Saka, or Cimmerians (pronounced “Gimri” in Babylonian). Hard vs. soft “c” issue, how “k” and “g”
overlap.
Omri
(reigned c. 885-873 b.c., father of Ahab, who started to reign c. 873, overall
dynasty lasted c. 50 years), militarily successful, founded dynasty, Assyrians
called northern kingdom of Israel “Land of Omri” long after his death. “Bit Khumri” or “Bit Ghomri” means “House of
Omri,” what the Assyrians called the people they conquered, not “Israel.” In Greek, there appears “Kimmerii,”
“Kimmeroi,” and “Cymry,” in Latin, “Kimbri,” “Kymbrians,” and “Cimbres,”
equivalents of the Assyrians’ “Khumri.”
Palestine
called “Bit Humri” by Assyrians from Shalmaneser II (860 b.c.) to Sargon
(722-705 b.c.) On Shalmaneser’s black
obelisk, Jehu (c. 842-814 b.c.) called “son of Omri” despite actually son of
Jehoshaphat and desc. of Nimshi, founder of Israel’s 14th dynasty,
tenth king overall, had slaughtered sons/desc. of Ahab. Micah 6:16’s mention of Omri and Ahab shows
importance of former even in Israel.
“H” sound can be silent, or can sound like a “k” in some languages, or
like “h” in “how” in English. Moabites
emphasized importance of Omri also, complained about him: “Omri of King of Israel and oppressed Moabe
a long lite (lit., many days), for Chemosh was wroth with his land. And his son succeeded him, and he too said
‘I will oppress Moab’ in my time [i.e., Mesha’s]. But I saw (my desire) on him and his house, and Israel perish
with an everlasting destruction.”
The
Gauls of France, etc., called themselves “Kymris,” but the Romans called them
Celts, Galli, Gallus, and Galates (Galatians).
“Gaul” in its various forms, such as “gallo” or “gallus” in Latin,
“galler” or “waller” in Celtic, or “waller” or “walah” in German, or “gaullois”
in French, means “stranger, traveler, or exile.” The Hellenistic and Roman conquerors of Gilead, where 2 ½ tribes
used to be, including Manasseh, “Gaulanitis.”
Hebrew: “Galah” or modern
derivates of “galut,” “galo,” or “gallo,” mean “carried captive”!
Scholars’
distinctions between Germanic, Scythian, and Celtic tribes break down when try
to become specific. “Teuton” applied by
Romans to Germanic tribes, means “spearmen.”
Teutoni, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 26, p. 673, was
“really a Celtic tribe” according to “many writers.”
Druid
religion of Celts a mixture of paganism and worship of Jehovah, preserved
religious secrecy however.
Sources: Garner Ted Armstrong, Europe and America in
Prophecy, pp.