Biblical Answers – For Unbiblical Critics Analyzing Arguments Against British-Israel

“A faithful witness will not deceive, but a false witness uttereth deceitful things.” (Proverbs 14:5)

In 1894 a staunch British-Israel advocate, Rev. Leonard Hills, received an invitation to a public debate, but it was suddenly called off; his reverend opponent had dutifully studied the relevant Scriptures to prepare for the challenge, and in so doing converted to B.I.! (Banner of Israel xviii:489) This was an example of a faithful witness. Unfortunately, most of our critics do little or no actual research into our teachings, instead reading some small booklet or article by an opponent and passing the information off as their own.

Rev. David Pawson, a British minister, has an audio teaching posted on the internet opposing British-Israel, and we have received requests asking for an answer. He is a smooth speaker, exudes sincerity, but it was obvious from the outset that he knew very little about his subject, for he referred to “two brothers, the Richard brothers” as if the 18th century seaman, Richard Brothers, was twins! That alone should have signaled to anyone listening that this speaker was clearly not qualified to deal with this subject. His research seems to have consisted only of picking up some third-party information somewhere and he even misinterpreted that!

Critics copy each other’s flimsy research as if it was their own, and the errors and ignorance get copied with it. This critic makes literally dozens of faulty and unsubstantiated statements in a nearly hour-long talk, often while insisting he is absolutely right! Ezekiel 37 is offered as proof that the two houses of Israel rejoined in Babylon long before the time of Christ, but he gives no verse at all to support his claim. In that chapter we are informed that the two houses will be rejoined when they both acknowledge the Davidic Messiah, who is Jesus Christ (Ezekiel 37:25). This prophecy quite obviously could not have taken place before Christ was even born! It also could not occur before Israel and Judah both acknowledge Christ as Savior and Messiah. This passage in Ezekiel 37, known as the vision of the Two Sticks, also says that when the two houses of Israel are rejoined they will be cleansed from sin (v.23), again foretelling that they will be reunited through faith in Christ, being washed clean of sin by the blood of the Lamb of God. (Titus 2:14) The historical fulfillment of this prophecy has primarily been in the peoples of Christendom found in America, Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, showing where the House of Israel exists in the world today. The prophecy will reach final completion at the dawn of the millennium when Ezekiel’s prophetic Messianic David returns. Yet our opponent insists that the chapter proves the two houses were rejoined in unbelief in ancient Babylon, quoting no particular verse of Scripture to support his claim so it can be checked against the Word of God. There is a simple reason why he does not provide a verse to support his belief, because it does not exist! Ezekiel chapter 37 proves the exact opposite of what this man teaches.

What does biblical scholarship say? The Speaker’s Commentary on the Bible has this note on Hosea 1:10, ’Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together.’ “Here a remarkable addition is made to the prophetical picture: the two kingdoms into which all Israel had been split should now be reunited. This is also distinctly predicted elsewhere; as by Hosea’s younger contemporary, Isaiah, the prophet of Judah (Isa. 11:12-13); and later by Ezekiel, in his vision of Two Sticks (Ezek. 37:15-28); see also Jer. 3:18; 50:4, etc. Kimchi, cited by Wunsche, remarks: ‘And this will come to pass in the gathering together of the Captivity in the days of the Messiah; for unto the Second Temple there only went up Judah and Benjamin, who were carried captive to Babylon, and the children of Judah, and the children of Israel, were not gathered together at that time (vol. vi, pp. 416, 417).” The days of the Messiah are at the return of Christ to set up his earthly kingdom, not the days of ancient Babylon.

Nevertheless, our critic has learned to use humor in place of missing facts, and has everyone laughing at his little joke: “You can’t find missing tribes if they were never lost!” He claims that there are no lost tribes of Israel, and that the Bible itself never says any of them were ever lost. We can only assume that he is quite behind in his Bible reading. Here are some verses that our critic cannot seem to find in his Bible:

“My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.” (Jer. 50:6)

“My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.” (Hos. 9:17)

“And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.” (Isa. 27:13, English Std. Ver.)

“The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.” (Ezek. 34:4-6, 16, 23) Jesus Christ is that prophetic Messiah, the Messianic David, and the people known as Christendom have fulfilled the prophecies of lost Israel being regathered in faith. God declares that he would seek out his lost sheep of Israel, but our opponent apparently thinks the Lord is rather confused because there are no lost sheep, he says!

Isaiah 7:8 reads, “For…within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.” The Speaker’s Commentary on this verse says, “From that time onward Ephraim has been scattered and lost among the nations. This was not the case with Judah in its captivity—Judah still continued a people.” (vol. v, p.78) The Bible and scholars affirm that the House of Israel was indeed exiled, scattered and lost!

So does the New Testament: “…but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 10:6); “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24) After receiving these instructions the Apostle Paul and nearly all of the Apostles set out for Europe!

After telling us that he, as an Englishman, is sometimes mistaken for being Jewish, our critic promptly contradicted himself by insisting that the Hebrew race is “quite different” from Europeans. Not so! The Anglo-Saxon fair complexion is the fair countenance of the Ten Tribes. Sarah, the mother of Israel, was ‘a fair woman,’ ‘very fair’ (Gen. 12:11, 14). Rebecca ‘was very fair to look upon’ (Gen. 24:16). David was ‘ruddy and of a beautiful countenance’, ‘of a fair countenance’ (1 Sam 16:12; 17:42). Absalom’s sister, ‘Tamar,’ was fair (2 Sam. 13:1); his daughter ‘was a woman of a fair countenance’ (2 Sam. 14:27). Esther ‘was fair and beautiful’ (Esther 2:7); ‘And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job’ (Job 42:15). The Song of Solomon and Amos 8:13 also bear witness to the fair complexion of the Israelites.

In the Scriptures the Almighty says of Israel: “Ye are My witnesses,” “Ye are My witnesses that I am God,” “This people I have formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise.” “Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people; all that see them shall acknowledge that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.” “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” (Isa. 27:6: 43:10, 12, 21; 44:8; 61:6-9; Hosea 1:10-11). Who are these people in our world today? Who has fulfilled the prophecies concerning Israel? See a long list of “Scriptural marks” fulfilled today in the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic nations of Christendom on our CBIA website at www.israelite.ca/research under “special studies.”

Our critic actually has quite a lot of confusion about Israel: The church is the new Israel, he says, but God is not done with Israel the Jews! So according to his theology there must be two dissimilar and unrelated Israel’s in the Bible! Anyone with even a minimum of Bible understanding should pass on his nonsense. He stated that his disagreement with us rests on two points: Was Israel ever lost? And were the Ten Tribes ever found? We have answered both questions by referencing Scripture and scholars.

It is also important to point out that our critic’s main focus is not on the central core of our beliefs, but on peripheral issues not essential to our message, including the Stone of Scone, the Great Pyramid, and the Queen’s royal descent. He does not address a single one of our core Scripture passages precisely because they are unanswerable.

This critic gives the unwary and those that are not versed in Scripture the impression of being believable due to an honest-sounding, grandfatherly persona that is not based on facts. A century ago, The Banner of Israel (xxv:29-30) aptly observed, “It has been well said that ‘the fall of man has muddled his head as well as his heart,’ and this aphorism is well illustrated in some of our Futurist friends. Grace in the heart is no evidence of correct knowledge in the head, or vice versa. Futurists seem to forget that the Holy Spirit does not teach men grammar, or exegesis, or the rules of evidence; these have to be acquired through the usual channels, and He (the Holy Ghost) teaches us how to use them; and as far as I am able to judge, they do not take the time and patience to acquire them. This lack seems to be at the root of the errors of the Futurist School…” Yes, much of the opposition we still receive demonstrates a lack of careful study and understanding of the Scriptures.

You might then think our critic’s falsehoods are just simple ignorance, but when he presents his false statements with an insistence that he is certain of being absolutely correct, he is “a false witness [who] uttereth deceitful things.” (Proverbs 14:5).