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THE ENSIGN MESSAGE

THE WORLD’S GREATEST RACIAL MYSTERY

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“Behold ,  I show you a mystery”, says St. Paul. In all his epistles he speaks about  a mystery  of some kind such as Christ’s  miraculous birth, resurrection, incarnation, mystery  of the Kingdom,  and so on. To the  non-Christian and   an  appalling  number  of professing  Christians the Bible is a book of mystery, not so  much  for want  of evidence as  for want  of inclination to search for it, and  there  does  exist  a master  key which  unlocks the mysteries of mankind and some secrets of our Creator.

“Those  who  possess that  master key  have  the “open  sesame” to a hitherto vast unexplored region of knowledge in that compendium of wisdom – “the lively oracles of God”– and revel in “the sweetest story ever  told”  as  unfolded in “the  most  valuable thing that this world  affords”.

The poet Cowper was never more right than when he wrote his famous hymn “God Moves In A Mysterious Way His Wonders  To Perform. Quite  certainly the most important link in the mystery of the Kingdom as presented in  the  Old  Testament is  the   present existence and whereabouts of the “lost” ten tribes of Israel. This is a racial puzzle in a much-tangled skein of ancient and  modern history  that  has  long  been the subject of spirited debate in theological  and other centres of learning.

Accepting  the Bible account as true there  can be no dispute about their last named abode, which was in the precincts of the Caspian Sea in Halah and Habor by the River Gozan and in the cities of the Medes as captives of the King of Assyria, taken  there  in three deportations between 740 and  721 B. C. under  the triple names of “The Ten-tribed House of Israel”, “The Northern  Kingdom”,  and  “Ephraim”, but apocrypha Esdras 13:40-46 reports them  150 years  later  on the banks  of the  Danube evidently intent on  a  mass exploratory westward trek.

Unlike the captivity of the two-tribed Kingdom of Judah  to Babylon  about 120 years  later  there  is no record, either  sacred or secular, that  the ten-tribes ever returned. To all intents and  purposes they were hopelessly lost, a belief which  to this day is almost universal. However,  there  is what  may be called  the Sherlock  Holmes  school of scriptural and  scientific research with  the  investigating thoroughness of X­ Ray which  has  picked  up  the  threads and,  piecing together  various Bible prophecies, works of the most authentic historians such  as  Strabo,   Pliny, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Herodotus  and   others of  the  ancient classical era (not forgetting the  best modern authority, Sharon Turner [ 1768- 1857) a distinguished London  attorney, profoundly learned  historian pre-­ eminent in Anglo-Saxon  history)  plus  the clinching evidence furnished by scholars and scientists in the fields  of ethnology, philology,  anthropology, and especially the  acid   test  of archaeology, adduce incontestable proofs  that  the descendants of these “lost’  ‘tribes are  definitely,  in existence today  and working  out  the destiny  prescribed for them  by the Divine Covenant. These   proofs  are  in the  form  of marks  or national characteristics which  will identify the people. Problem – Find the marks.

Amongst more  than  a score  provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant the Bible says that they would be scattered among the nations; that they would  be wanderers, great  warriors, blind  as  to their  origin, name and   language and, of  course, completely ignorant of their nich   in God’s  plan and  purpose of world regeneration.

“Ephraim, he hath  mixed  himself among the people. Israel is swallowed up; now  shall they be among the  Gentiles  as a vessel  wherein there  is no pleasure. My God will cast them  away because they  did no hearken unto  Him, and  they  shall  be wanderers among the nations.” Hosea  7th 8th and 9th chapters.

Eventually  they would  be gathered together in a permanent home of their own

“Moreover, I   will   appoint a  place   for  My people  Israel  and  will  plant  them that  they may dwell in a place of their own and move  no more”. (II Samuel 7:10)

Here they would  be welded into a nation  and company of nations-and, as the world’s greatest colonisers and missionaries, would scatter to the four corners of the earth,  to be  joined  in the latter  days with the two-tribed House of Judah (See story of the two sticks – Ezekiel 37:15-28). All the major prophets and most of the minor ones tell the story in sufficient detail. The Book of Isaiah from the 40th chapter to the end is addressed to Israel  in the Isles north  and  west  of Palestine, which geographical position, being precisely 45 degrees, can be no other than the British Isles.

To do justice to a saga  of this kind would  require several bulky volumes. For barely an outline therefore I will don seven-league boots and  leap from one highlight  of truth  to another to sketch this most important of God’s mysterious world-shaping designs, foretold   by prophets “who  spake as  they were  moved  by the Holy Ghost”,  buttressed by facts assembled from   the  afore-mentioned  sources, therefore true beyond  peradventure, for prophecy is history prewritten,  and  history furnishes  the fulfilment.

An indispensable factor  for a correct solution  of this mystery is a knowledge of the  Abrahamic Covenant,  because it contains the promises made  by Almighty God to Israel –

“But thou Israel  art My servant, Jacob Whom I have chosen, the  seed of Abraham My friend.” – (Isaiah 41:8)

“…I will preserve thee  and  give thee   for a covenant of the people, to establish the  earth, to cause to inherit the  desolate places”. (Isaiah 49:8)

Supreme among these is that  which  says  that Abraham’s seed shall become “a nation  and company of nations”. Gen. 12:2, Gen. 17:2-16 and sundry others.

“The 17th chapter of Genesis is the foundation of Israel. It is also the Royal Charter as to the nation and nations which should  be developed from Abraham’s seed  and  the  territories they  should  occupy in the earth. From  the  standpoint of inheritance the Abrahamic Covenant is  the  most  valuable of all documents now in existence and active. It overshadows the whole  Bible from the 12th chapter of Genesis, and  all the remaining covenants spring directly from it,” say scholars eminent in the exposition of this divine document.

Judge  of the importance of this mystery  from the following testimony. In the  days  when Charles Bradlaugh  ranked as one of the three  arch  infidels a certain lawyer, Reader Harris, K.C., by name, stumped the country in behalf of his godless delusions, but, as the explorer suddenly confronted by a yawning unbridgeable chasm,  by God’s  grace, this  brilliant analytical mind  was  led  to discover his error  when the identity of the British people as the House of Israel dawned upon him. So profoundly impressed was he with this revelation  that he turned completely around and wrote a book entitled  The Lost Tribes Of Israel, wherein he says –

“The discovery and  acknowledgment of the lost tribes would  revolutionise the whole  world,  give an impetus to scriptural study  and encourage man  in a wonderful degree to believe  the promises of God”.

Thus armed with  such  an  array  of rock-bedded evidence let us, as wanderers afflicted with amnesia, address ourselves to  the  task  of finding  “the lost sheep of  the  House of  Israel”, described by one writer as  “the most perfect alias in disguise” nevertheless bearing  marks of positive identification.

Tell Tale Clues

“By men  of strange lips and  with another tongue will He speak to this  people”. Isa.  28:11. From the works  of reliable  historians we  find  this  prophecy abundantly fulfilled  by the  scores of names under which they wandered in their migrations through Asia and  Europe,  to name but a few  of the  more  noted roots  – Sacae, Scythians, Khumri,  Getae  and  Goths. Scattered  about Europe and   Asia  are   countless monuments of various kinds to mark the wanderings of the ten tribes.

One of the most  important is the Behistun  Rock, engraved about  516 B.C. with cuneiform inscriptions (straight wedge-shaped characters)  of Darius  the Great in  three languages-Persian,  Median and Babylonian. This monument furnishes the master key to oriental languages and  is the  “open sesame” of early European history, serving for Western Asia what the Rosetta Stone does for Egypt. Rising precipitately 1 , 700ft. in Iran it records certain highlights in the life of  Darius and   the Persian  Empire, incidentally establishing the identity of these tribes as Israelites. For this scholastic masterpiece the world is indebted to Sir Henry  Rawlinson in copying  and  translating these inscriptions in  1846.  The  Black  Obelisk of Shalmanezer, now in the British Museum, traces the origin of the Welsh (Cymri) to King Omri of the House of  Israel. Other evidences  are the   numerous tombstones and  objects d’art found along their transcontinental trek, now happily preserved in many of the principal  museums on the continent.

Great Warriors

Israel ,  as  God’s  chosen servant, was  variously commissioned to carry  out  great  tasks  that  would shape the  destiny of nations. One  of these instruments of accomplishment was  the art of war. Of Israel Jeremiah 51:20 fittingly says –“Thou art My battleaxe and  weapons of war, for with thee  will I break in  pieces  the  nations, and  with thee  will I destroy kingdoms”.

While Attila, Ghengis  Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and  others wrote  their  names in fire and blood   as  conquerors in  Asia,  Africa  and   Europe secular history  witnesses that  Israel  armies are  the only forces that truly filled the role of God’s battleaxe, the  consensus of opinion of Greek writers best qualified to state  the  fact  being  that  “no  nation  on earth  could match  them:  they were  unconquerable”. We know that the Scythians warred  with Medo-Persia, slaying Alexander the Great, and also with Darius, by whom the whole  of South  Europe  and  Spain  were overrun. As Goths they overthrew Rome (the  fourth world empire-foretold  by Daniel)  and  founded the nations  of Europe.

An incident in  their  campaigns  (chronicled  by Creasy as one  of the  fifteen  decisive battles of the world) was the Battle of Teutoburg. In A.D. 9 Augustus Caesar,  determined to rid his realm  of these pesky invaders, sent an army under Yarus against Armenius, a Cheruscan lsraelitish chieftain. After two days of fighting the Roman legions were  decimated.

By this crushing defeat the frontiers of the Roman Empire were  withdrawn to the  Rhine and  Danube. Today may be seen  in the City of Detmold, Westphalia, Germany,  a statue of Armenius with uplifted  sword, 170ft. high, in celebration of this historic  victory.

It was the Scythian  Queen Thomyri,  a warrior  of the same stamp as Boadicea  of British fame, who met Cyrus, defeated and slew him and scattered his army. Darius was  foiled  on the banks  of the  Danube. The Scythians, although peace-pursuing  people, fought and defeated the world’s greatest military powers of their time. Herodotus wrote  of them  –

“They have one observance which  for its wisdom excels everything I  have met with. The possibility  of escape is cut off from those  who attack them,  and if they are averse to being seen; their places of retreat can never be discovered, for they have no towns  nor fortified cities. Their habitations they constantly carry along with them,  their bows and arrows  they manage on horseback, and  they support themselves not by agriculture but by their cattle, their constant abode may be said to be in wagons”.

As Nation Builders

That the Scythians were  an international factor to be reckoned with is shown by an important meeting which  took place  between four of the most  famous men of their era, about 594 B.C. They were-

  1. Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, now a household term with anything suggesting the law.
  1. Aesop, a Phyrigian slave, who gained  his freedom as to class, one of the wisest  men of Greece by ability, and author of the familiar fables bearing his name.
  1. Croesus, King of Lydia, the richest man in the world of his day.
  1. Aracharsis of the Royal Family of Scythians, a bard and able military strategist.

While the Scythians were  entirely  ignorant of the culture and civilisation of Greece and Rome they had laws and a government which  the ancient writers  of those  nations acclaimed as the most simple, ethical and  pure in the world at the time.

Arrival In Britain

The story of Brutus, the Trojan, of Royal Judah­ Zarah lineage, who landed  in Britain 1103 B.C., is said by author Haberman to be the greatest romance of all history. By inscriptions, monoliths, character and customs he has left the imprint of his genius indelibly upon  the  British  people. He built  New Troy, which today is London. He is celebrated in the Triads as one of the “Three King Revolutionists of Britain”. He was also Great Britain’s original  law-giver, introducing the Common Law that has been  the foundation of British or Saxon liberty ever since.

Lord Chief Justice Cope affirms: “The original laws of this  land  were  composed of such  elements as Brutus first selected from the ancient  Greek and Trojan institutions”. (Preface to Vol. 3).

Some of his laws would put  to shame the legislation of many so called Christian nations of today.  For example: “There are  three   tests  of civil liberty, equality  of rights, equality of taxation and the freedom to come and go. All men were  as free as the king. Men were  given the vote at 21, and women also on their  marriage”. No special privilege  class  those days, and  passports were  unknown.

“Three  things indispensable to a union of nations-sameness of language, rights and laws”. Here is one reason  why the League of Nations collapsed and why UNO will meet the same fate. The only union of nations that will endure is that instituted by the Abrahamic Covenant, whose charter members comprise the British Commonwealth of Nations and  the U.S.A., eventually destined to enlarge into  the Kingdom  of God when “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ”.

Do we grasp  the magnitude of all this? I’m afraid not. Indeed we seem entirely ignorant  of it nationally. And  to  think  that  this  is our  covenanted heritage sealed with the oath of Almighty God!

Belinus  and  Brennus (or  Bran)  sons of Brutus (once in warlike feud with each other but dramatically reconciled by their mother) were destined to demonstrate the warrior  spirit of the “lost”  tribes  in monumental fashion. With an army of 300,000 they settled the fate of Gaul in one battle,  and Brennus invaded Italy. Not to Hannibal  or Napoleon goes  the credit  of the first military  passage of the Alps, but to this British prince.  Pressing on in triumph everywhere the  6th  day  of June  490 B.C found   him  locked  in decisive  battle at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia Rivers where the Romans were  defeated with such slaughter that the event is mourned in Romish history as “The Black Day”, Rome falling soon afterwards.

But how many know such history as this and other epoch-making events that   are   rarely discussed outside  the works of writers in remote ages? Plutarch eulogises the Britons in part as follows –

“As to their courage; spirit, force and vivacity we can only compare them to a devouring flame. All that came before them  was  trodden down  or driven onwards like herds  of cattle. Their forces injured  no man’s property.  They neither pillaged  the fields nor insulted  the towns”.

National annals like the foregoing will sound like strange music  or pure fiction to this generation. The fact is that early British history has been  distorted beyond all  recognition by cunningly devised propaganda of our ecclesiastical enemies – priests, writers, and  commentators (not strictly confined to Rome either) who  have ever been  the worst  foes of Britain since  papal  Rome emerged as a power. They reckon, and rightly too, that the best way to make  us lose confidence in our destiny is to falsify early British history and  to smear our accomplishments:  Britain was Rome’s greatest rival, hence the latter’s age-long envy and diabolical stratagems to destroy the Empire.

Accredited historians are  in agreement that  the advance guard  of the  “lost”  tribes  was,  by 58 B.C., occupying  the following  countries in N.W. Europe­ – Lower  Sweden and  Jutland, N.W. Germany and Holland. Here they were  joined about 22 A.D. by the main body of Israel from Asa-land,  originally known as  Scythia (capital  modern Kieff).   There they remained developing power and  character till the movement to Britain began  – first the Saxons  under Hengist and Horsa in 499 A.D., then the Angles in 586, the Danes in 787 and finally the Normans in 1066.

That the people thus consolidated were all of one common stock is the statement of Sir Francis Palgrave:

“Britons, Anglo-Saxons, Danes and   Normans, however  hostile,  were all kinsmen shedding kindred blood … The  multifarious tribes  all of one  kindred, though arrived from  different countries, across different seas, at  different periods of  time,   we embrace under  one  general designation – ancient Britons… The Northmen or Danes, who had for ages been  the  plague  of Britons  and  Anglo-Saxons  and bore rule when William demanded the Crown, were one people ethnically”.

Israel’s Commission

What is Israel ‘s commission. It is contained in the Abrahamic Covenant, one clause of which  is “in  thy (Abraham’s) seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”.Gen. 26:4. One phase of this world-widetask is something which everybody, has  seen demonstrated time  and  time again,  and something which  nearly everybody has actually  participated in – but, being blind as the Bible says we would  be, (and still are nationally) exceeding few realise  the reason why,  the  instinct to  do  it ,  or  the  source of  the inspiration.

Isaiah 58:6,7 enlightens us –

“Is not this the  fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of  wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens and  to let the oppressed go  free, and  that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal  thy  bread to the  hungry and  that thou bring the  poor  that are cast  out  to thy house?When thou seest the naked , that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own  flesh?”

Does not this describe the role that Britain and America have been playing for generations, particularly during the last two wars and their distressful aftermaths? Can this be said of any other nations?

It would  be worse than  idle for anyone to deny that the scope, magnitude and success of colonising enterprises by the  English-speaking race  has  ever been  equalled in the history of the world , with which (in marked contrast to other world  powers) the gospel of Christ has gone hand in hand. It is estimated that over 95% of all foreign missionary work is carried on by the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples.

The British and Foreign Bible Society, in conjunction with the American Bible Society, has translated the Bible into 1066 languages; has distributed  over 500 million copies  of the Scriptures; employs 1100 colporteurs besides  supplying the funds for this great missionary undertaking. Then  there  is that  great  globe-girdling organisation The Salvation Army, and the Red Cross, both of which are  British in origin. As an auxiliar y to these Societies  there is a glorious army of missionary personnel numbering upwards of 30,000 who  have gone forth preaching the Word feeding  the hungry, slaking the thirst of vast land areas by gigantic irrigation projects  to turn waste  desert  into fruitful production, sheltering the stranger, clothing the naked,  healing the sick  and  comforting the  prisoner – in  ver y deed epitomising  the good Samaritan and  performing  in a most practical sense on grand as well as individual scale those  compassionate virtues  described in Matthew 25:35-40.

These  auxiliaries are  in turn  aided by countless benevolent-fraternal organisations. Even the  dumb animals find a champion in The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

All  these  marks of  Israel are  particularly spectacular in time  of national disasters in foreign countries when unstinted aid of every kind is rushed to the stricken. And who besides John Bull and Family and big brother  Manasseh, popularly known as Uncle Sam, does this? Stranger  than fiction, is it not, that we should be doing exactly what was foretold of us more than three  thousand years ago?

By these  infallible proofs, and many others which the Bible mentions, the existence and  functions of the “lost” tribes of Israel is revealed and their identity as  the  Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples established as clearly as any proposition of Euclid. To those  not wilfully blind or prejudiced it is plain that we are marked indelibly  with  Israel  characteristics, as  the events  of history  and  revelations of science amply attest.

The  crowning example of this  world’s greatest racial  mystery is that  the  nation  and  company of nations foretold  in the  Abrahamic Covenant, Gen. 12:2,   legally became  history by  the  Statute  of Westminster enacted December 11th  1931, incorporating the British Commonwealth of Nations as such. The other great nation is the United States of America, its companion presently the wealthiest and most powerful state in all history.

Who  are  Israelites? “To  whom pertaineth the adoption, and  the  glory, and  the covenants, and the giving  of the law, and the service  of God, and the  promises”. Romans 9:4.

This is the glorious  heritage of the Anglo-Saxon­ Celtic race, predominantly English-speaking – a legacy far transcending any material possession that this world affords.

Courtesy: The Association Of The Covenant People

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