British Israelism is a COG doctrine that is rooted in absolute delusion, nationalism, racism, and a complete lack of historical understanding. The following is an article discussing its history.

Mirrored via The Ephraimite Deception

Shlomo (Solomon) wrote “There is nothing new under the Sun.” To understand the origin of this doctrine one must look first to the doctrines of the early church. First and foremost, Origen in his Contra Celsum retaliated against the Jewish apologists of his day by claiming G-d had rejected anything which came from Israel. Both Basil and John Chrysostom wrote essays concerning the replacement of national Israel by the Byzantine Church. And finally Tertullian, himself, authored “De Adversus ludaeos” a book which openly attacked Judaism as rejected by G-d. Such thoughts were rampant in early Christendom and culminated in Contantine’s simultaneous adoption of a state religion and rejection of Jews. Medieval Europe was hardly any better. for the heart of anti-Semitism is the concept that G-d has cast away the Jews and chosen the gentiles. A precept which it at serious odds with the teachings of Paul and all of the other Apostles.

Romans 11:1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

By the 19th Century Anti-Semitism was rampant throughout most of the civilized world and the Jews of the diaspora had become a people rejected by most of the civilized world. Against this backdrop an Irish Minister of the 19th Century, John Wilson, published his essay entitled “Our Israelitish Origin” in 1840. Wilson attempted to provide empirical information that supported British- Israelism. His arguments suggested that similarities to English ways in certain elements in Hebrew language and social institutions were not merely coincidental.. British-Israel organizations formed during the 1870s on account of slow, but growing acceptanceof Wilson’s teachings. The linguistic argument is still the principle argument used today to support this theory. Such concepts as Brit-Ish meaning “Covenant of Man” and the Gaelic word for name being “Shaim” have become cornerstones of the Brit-Israel concept. The reality is that most of these borrowed words can be traced to the documented Semitic origin of the Celtic people. A history which shows them to be Phoenician in origin. For more detail please read my page on The History of the European peoples.

Wilson’s claims that the Irish were the residue of the lost tribes found it primary acceptance amongst the Millerites. The followers of a false prophet from New York named William Miller who proclaimed that “Jesus” would return on October 23, 1844 (Sukkoth) when he failed to appear he moved the date 6 months to approximently Pesach, 1845. After the failure of his prophecies the Millerites tended to fall apart but historically many of their adherents moved were instrumental in the forming of the Adventist Sects later in the 19th Century.

By the early 20th century these beliefs had migrated to America and tended to follow two distinct pathways to the modern day. First the Millerites had become the American Adventists which continue to this day as the sect known as Seventh Day Adventists. An offshoot of that sect developed in 1927 as the Worldwide Church of God under American Adventist Herbert W. Armstrong. In 1928, Howard B. Rand became the National Chairman of the Ango-Saxon Federation of America. Rand was a notorious Anti-Semite and by the 1940s he influenced Pastor Wesley Swift of Lancaster California to adopt a mixture of British Israelism and Racial Hatred that became the modern day Christian Identity Movement, the spiritual arm of the Ku Klux Klan. The Identity movement emphatically believes that the modern day Jews are of the House of Judah, while Anglo-Saxons are of the House of Israel.  The movement maintains that only the Anglo-Saxons, of the House of Israel, have a covenant with God, thereby inducing pro-white attitudes.

I must at this point submit that with the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, The Worldwide Church of God dropped British- Israelism and other unorthodox beliefs in 1995. The Church’s official web pagestates: “We have worked hard to inform our own members about where we went wrong,” and they apologize for having “taught…erroneous doctrines [like British-Israelism].”

Though the topic of this study is the neo-Ephraimite movement known as Two House Messianics and not the legacy of William Miller it is worth noting that other groups such as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) also come from this same lineage.

So the etymology of Anglo-Israelism traces the movement from one teacher using linguistic games in the early 19th century… through a false prophet to the formation of a strange legalistic sect (the Adventists) to a full blown cult (WWCOG) and its derivatives (COG) into modern day where we have seen that it produced as a sub-branch and anti-Semitic hate group.  

The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries. He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

Psalms 110

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