David Baron

“ The British Empire, again, can never be conquered. Daniel says, ' The God of Heaven shall set up a king- dom which shall never be destroyed : it shall stand for ever.' Consequently we shall never be conquered ; we must continue till the end of time, so that we are to continue to exist as the last Kingdom or Empire this world is to see. ”

“ Life from the Dead," which was edited by Edward Hine himself:
" Are the British people identical with the lost Ten Tribes of Israel ? And is the nation, by the identity, being led to glory ? If these things are so, then where is the Deliverer ? He must have already come out of Zion. He must be doing his great work ; he must be amongst us. It is our impression that, by the glory of the work of the identity, we have come to the time of Israel's national salvation by the Deliverer out of Zion, and that Edward Hine and that Deliverer are identical." ”

“ If they are Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, their destiny is not linked either with Palestine or with England, but with that inheritance which is incorruptible, and undefiled, and which fadeth not away ; and if they are not Christians, then, instead of occupying their thoughts with vain speculations as to a supposed identity of the British race with the " lost " ten tribes, it is their duty to seek the one and only Saviour whom we must learn to know not after the flesh, but in the Spirit, and without whom a man, whether an Israelite or not, is undone. ”

“ Anglo-Israelism teaches that members of the ten tribes are never called " Jews," and that " Jews " are not " Israelites," but both assertions are false. Who were they that came back to the land after the " Babylonian " exile ? Anglo-Israelites say they were only the exiles from the southern kingdom of Judah, and call them " Jews." I have already shown this to be a fallacy, but I might add the significant fact that in the Book of Ezra this remnant is only called eight times by the name " Jews," and no less than forty times by the name " Israel." ”

“ There is not the least possibility of doubt that many of the settlements of the Diaspora in the time of our Lord both north, south, and west, as well as east of Palestine, were made up of those who had never returned to the land of their fathers since the time of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, and who were not only descendants of Judah, as Anglo-Israelism ignorantly presupposes, but of all " the twelve tribes scattered abroad (James i. i) . ”

“ The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions (that is, those of Israel who before the captivity fell away from the ten tribes and joined the southern kingdom) : then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the house of Israel his companions : and join them one to another into one stick ; and they shall become one in thine hand. ”

“ Jews " dwelling in it are regarded as the house of Israel, although many members of that "house" were also scattered in other lands.
In this charge of the Lord to the apostles, we see also by the way, in what sense Israel is regarded as "lost." Now Anglo-Israelites are very fond of this word, but they use it in an unbiblical and unspiritual sense. The ten tribes were in the time of Christ, even as they still are, " lost " ; but not because they have forgotten their national or tribal identity, but because they " all like sheep have gone astray, and have turned every one to his own way." ”

“ Even if it were true that the Nestorians, or the Afghans, or some other Eastern tribes are descen- dants of the original Israelitish exiles in Assyria, having more or less mixed themselves up by intermarriage with the surrounding nations, and having given up the distinctive national rites and ordinances, they have, like many " Jews " in modern times (who gradually assimilate with Gentile nations) cut themselves off from the hope of Israel, and are no longer in the line of the purpose which God has in and through that " peculiar " and separate people. ”

“ III. Then, finally, it not only robs the Jewish nation the true Israel of many promises in relation to their future by applying them to the British race in the present time, but it diverts attention from them as the people in whom is bound up the purpose of God in relation to the nations, and whose "receiving again" to the heart of God, after the long centuries of unbelief, will be as " life from the dead to the whole world." ”

“ So, Daniel also, towards the end of the seventy years' captivity, includes not only the men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem in his intercessory prayer, but " all Israel that are near, or far off, from all the countries whither thou hast driven them," who, he confesses, were alike involved in sin and judgment, and equally cast on the mercy of God on the ground of promises made to the fathers. ”

“ Jews," to whom, and of whom, the Lord and His apostles speak ? There is, indeed, reference and mention of the Diaspora, "the dispersed among the Gentiles" (John vii. 35) , forming, as we have seen, the greater part of the nation, and some of them still settled in the ancient regions of Assyria and Babylon, but wherever they were, they are all interchangeably called " Jews," or " Israelites," who regarded Jerusalem, with which they were in constant communication as the centre, not only of their religion, but of their national hopes and destiny. ”

“ The historical proof for my assertion is found in the fact that about a century after the fall of Samaria we find in the reign of Josiah some of Manasseh and Ephraim, "and a remnant of all Israel" in the land, who contributed to the collection made by the Levites for the repair of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and joined in the celebration of the great Passover in the eighteenth year of that zealous and promising young king. ”

“ And thus they will continue ever more mixed up and intermingled among themselves, with all genealogies lost, and not one of them either east or west being able to prove of what tribe or family he comes until the day when He that scattered Israel will gather him, and by His own Divine power and omniscience separate them again into their tribes and families. ”

“ Such effect as it may have, can only be on the ignorant and unlearned on those who are unaware of the absolute and entire diversity in language, physical type, religious opinions, and manners and customs, between the Israelites and the various races from whom the English nation can be shown historically to be descended. ”

“ These were the component elements of which the southern kingdom of "Judah" was made up, when it, too, reached the stage, when, on account of its idola- tries and apostasy from the living God, " there was no more remedy " (or "healing" 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16) . It consisted, as we have seen, of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and many out of all the other ten tribes of Israel, " in abundance."
Jerusalem was finally taken in 588 B.C., by Nebu- chadnezzar just 133 years after the capture of Samaria by the Assyrians. Meanwhile the Babylonian Empire succeeded the Assyrian ”

“ Jews," there is nevertheless a distinct people somewhere, who are descendants of the Israel of the ancient northern kingdom, which is to be brought to light in the future, and, together with "Judah," will be restored to Palestine, and enter into the enjoyment of the promises. Thus the Nestorians who inhabit the inac- cessible mountains of Kurdistan (which is part of ancient Assyria) , the Afghans, and even the North American Indians, have been variously identified as that people ”

“ Thus Artaxerxes III., Ochus, on his way to re-conquer Egypt, " having taken Apodasmus in Judea, conveyed the Jewish population into Hyrcania near the Caspian Sea." When he made himself master of Egypt we read of his finding Jews there, and, being incensed against them on account of a stubborn defence against him of places entrusted to their keeping, " he sent part of them into Hyrcania, in the neighbourhood of the country which the tribes already inhabited, and left the rest at Babylon " ; while soon after many thousands were taken to Egypt by Alexander ”

“ Jews " eleven times, and " Israel " twenty-two times. As to those who remained behind in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the Persian Empire, which included all the territories of ancient Assyria, Anglo- Israelites would say they were of the kingdom of " Israel " ”

“ Professing themselves to be wise they became fools," or how else could they descend to such impious trivialities, or dare to liken the glory of the Personal Presence of the uncor- ruptible Jehovah, of which the shekhinah cloud was the visible symbol, to the smoke ascending from "blazing furnaces" and "steam engines." ”