Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

WHO and WHERE Are the Twelve Tribes of Israel?

Karl F. Schott

According to Strong's Concordance, the name of YEHOVAH's servant people Israel appears over 2,500 times in the Bible. Unless we correctly identify who and where these people are in today's world, the Bible becomes a book of confusion when we study the subject of prophecy. When we consider the great national promises that YEHOVAH God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and try to apply these great promises to the Jewish peoples of today, it becomes very confining, and as a result of this type of Bible application and interpretation, such men as Thomas Paine, David Hume, and Charles Bradlaugh came to the place of unbelief in YEHOVAH's Word, the Bible.

They arrived at this conclusion because the Jewish people had never -- and are not now -- fulfilling these promises. Charles Bradlaugh stated that the British peoples had fulfilled these promises more than had any others. Had these brilliant men known and understood that the great and precious promises YEHOVAH made with the House of Jacob (Israel) were being fulfilled among the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic and kindred peoples, and had they understood that this was so because they are the "People of the Book," they would not have denied the Bible and its Divine revelation.

There is only one race of people that has made the Bible their book of religious faith, and that is the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic and kindred peoples. Wherever they have been scattered throughout the world, whether it be in Africa, Asia, or South America, you will find the Bible with them. Of course, personal salvation is for anyone who calls upon the Name of YEHOVAH God, but when it comes to fulfilling the great national promises, they are the only race of people who consistently do that.

With this in mind, let us consider some thoughts as they relate to the language of the Bible. In John Heslip's book, Who and Where Are the Lost Ten Tribes?, we read the following remarks on page 17:

"The ancient British language is closely related to the Hebrew. The Welsh Cymry is so closely kin to the Hebrew that a Welsh writer, Charles Edwards, was 'so much struck with its similarity, when he first commenced the study of Hebrew at the University of Oxford, that he felt he must make known this discovery.' Another has written, 'Scarcely any Hebrew root can be discovered that has not its corresponding derivative in the ancient British language.' An eminent Cornish scholar of the last century, who devoted a great deal of time to prove the affinity between the Hebrew and Welsh languages, observes: 'It would be difficult to adduce a single article or form of construction in the Hebrew grammar, but the SAME is to be found in Welsh, and that there are many whole sentences in both languages EXACTLY the same in the very words.'

"Canon Lyson finds 5,000 Hebrew roots in the English tongue. And William Tyndale, who gave us the English translation of the Bible says: 'The English agreeth one thousand times more with the Hebrew than the Latin or the Greek.' This is quite understandable in the light of the fact that the British Isles were peopled by the descendants of the Ten Tribes. On any other premise, it  is hardly understandable."

This BASIC TRUTH that the ancient British and Hebrew languages have so much in common has been withheld from our peoples -- and for a very good reason -- by those who want this truth to remain unknown. During the two years that I attended Hebrew classes, this similarity in the two languages was never mentioned. This oversight can be understood when we realize that most Bible colleges and seminaries teach that the Jews of today are the Israelite people.

In respect to the ancient British and Hebrew languages, we received a letter from one of our listeners who made the following comment -- "As far as I'm concerned, the Lost Tribes are represented in all of the White Christian European nations. No one alive today can with absolute certainty prove which nations represent which tribes." Then here is the interesting part. He states, "Strange, isn't it that not one of the Christian West retained the knowledge of the Hebrew? Explain that if you can." We sent him, of course, information which we hope will be helpful in explaining this to him.

Referring once again to John Heslip's book, we note that the following remarks are of great importance as we study the identity and location of the twelve tribes of Israel.

"Professor Huxley, in Racial Origins says 'The invasions of the Saxons, the Goths, the Danes, and the Normans changed the language of Briton, but added NO NEW physical element. Therefore we should not talk any more of Celts and Saxons, for THEY ARE ALL ONE. I never lose an opportunity of rooting up the false idea that the people are different races.' Again, he says: 'I miss no opportunity of uprooting the notion that the people who form the British nation are descended from various nations. All the detachments who flowed into Britain are branches of the self-same stock.' And, we may add, all can be traced, and have been traced, to the selfsame place, the territory where the Ten Tribes were placed by the Assyrians.

"Sir Arthur Keith tells us that he has had to revise his opinion of the origin of the British people. Facts obliged him to revise his opinion. He tells us that he is satisfied that 'the early British, the early Scots, the early Ulstermen, the Welsh, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and Normans are all part of ONE COMMON STOCK which have come from the east.' Prof. Max Muller gives the SAME testimony; so does John Richard Green, the historian.

"If all this testimony is contrary to what we have believed, we may quote Sir F. Palgrave again. He says: 'The fundamental rule of science, whether in history or elsewhere, is not what has been believed, but what is TRUE. The inquiry into what is true on the present subject discovers a strong link of relationship between the Cymry and the English."

Quite often when discussing the Good News of the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God -- and what YEHOVAH God has ordained concerning His coming Kingdom -- well-meaning Christians will ask, "What difference does it make if we know we are Israel, just as long as we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior?" Actually -- it is YEHOVAH God the Father who is our Savior through the agency of the Messiah, and to know YEHOVAH is first and most important. However, we pray that everyone who reads this article will know if they are physical Israelites or not -- the people of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

Unless we understand this basic Biblical doctrine, it is hard to understand Bible prophecy, and as was mentioned earlier, some of the most brilliant minds of the past two hundred years (Thomas Paine, for example) became disillusioned with the Bible because they could see that the Jewish people were NOT fulfilling the great national promises that YEHOVAH God had made with the Israel people.

The apostles knew where the twelve tribes were located in their time. Peter, writing to the scattered twelve tribes "of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (I Peter 1:1), was concerned for their welfare and spiritual development. In Chapter Two, Verse Nine of his first Epistle, we read these comforting words that he has for them:

"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priest-hood, a holy nation (i.e., a nation or people set apart by YEHOVAH God to do His Will and purpose), a peculiar people (or a people of His own) that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

The ONLY nations or peoples that fulfill this verse are the twelve tribes, or the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic and kindred peoples who have shown forth the praises of YEHOVAH God by printing and publishing His Word the Bible and disseminating it throughout the entire world -- calling the world out of the darkness of sin into His glorious light. May YEHOVAH God help us to turn back to His holy laws and commandments so that He will heal the Christian Israelite nations and bring YEHOVAH's blessings upon us once again -- and through us upon the entire world!

Writes Dr. William Pascoe Goard --

"While Israel enjoyed unspeakable privileges under the election of Race, as is set out in the first five verses of the ninth chapter of Romans, because of her apostasy she had to come into the privilege of Grace on the same level as the sinners of the heathen world. As is illustrated in the test in the time of Elijah, though the children of Israel were a great multitude, according to the election of Race, the election of Grace numbered only seven thousand, so, in Paul's day, a remnant only belonged to the election of Grace, and these constituted the 'All Israel' who should be saved. The passion and the agony of the Apostle was to increase the number and thus bring about the salvation of them all.

"When we read, therefore, the Apostle declaring, 'And so all Israel shall be saved,' it seems to me we are forced to the conclusion that he is speaking of the election of Grace as Israel, and is passionately laboring to add all the race to the enjoyment of that privilege. Thus in True Israel today the election of Race is the Celto-Saxon peoples; the election of Grace is the body of true believers who constitute the Church of Christ, rebels and apostates only being excluded.

"True Israel possesses the election of Race and the unspeakable privileges which go with it, as set out in the ninth chapter, verses 1-5.

"It is for us to manifest the same passionate energy which possessed the Apostle Paul to add all the 'election of Race' to 'the election of Grace' that all True Israel might be saved.

"The phrases 'election of Race' and 'election of Grace' are selected in an endeavor to show my meaning" (courtesy The National Message).

You may have noticed a discrepancy concerning the number of tribes that we feel migrated from Assyria and the number mentioned in the title of John Heslip's book. We'll share a few verses here to explain our position. According to Isaiah 36:1, we read that all the fenced or fortified cities of Judah were taken by Sennacherib, King of Assyria, during the first invasion -- about 702 B.C. We read the following: "Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them."

This verse is repeated almost word for word in II Kings 18:13. It was during Sennacherib's second invasion and attempt upon Jerusalem some ten to fifteen years later that he was defeated when YEHOVAH God intervened on behalf of Hezekiah.

In addition to the foregoing, it is important to note that during the reign of King David -- who ruled over the twelve tribes of Israel --  there were five hundred thousand fighting men from the tribe of Judah alone, as recorded in II Samuel 24:9, which states: "And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto the King; and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men."

When we consider that there were only a FEW THOUSAND captives taken from Jerusalem one hundred and twenty years later in the Babylonian captivity, it stands to reason that there must have been an EARLIER EXODUS from this area. There must have been hundreds of thousands of Judahites -- perhaps even millions -- who had migrated away from their homeland before Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, marched west laying siege to the city of Jerusalem. This is why we have chosen to use twelve tribes, instead of ten tribes, as many from the tribe of Judah were already gone and scattered among the other nations.

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Proclaiming the Good News of the Soon-Coming Kingdom of YEHOVAH God!

Hope of Israel Ministries P.O. Box 853 Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A. www.hope-of-israel.org

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