THE TRUE AND NOBLE ORIGINS OF THE ANGLO-ISRAEL MESSAGE

By the late Pastor Alan Campbell

YOU hear so many strange things about British Israelites. Who are they? where did this Anglo-Israel teaching have its origins? Are they a crazy racist cult, a new American sect? Opponents of Anglo-Israel, having little or no Scriptural evidence to refute our teachings, prefer to frighten sincere seekers for truth by seeking to smear British-Israel with the biggest tar brush possible. A favourite method seems to be that of claiming that the Anglo­ Israel teaching originated with the writings of the deranged Richard Brothers, who was for a time confined to a lunatic asylum in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century. Now I feel sure that you the reader would prefer the truth, and so we will trace the origins of our message and tell you of the many distinguished clergymen, evangelists and preachers of many diverse Protestant denominations who have held to our beliefs, as well as many members of our own British Royal Family.

Let us be clear about one thing, there was a knowledge of and writings about the Israel Identity of the Celto­-Anglo- Saxon and related peoples long before poor Rich­ard Brothers ever stumbled upon this truth.

• As long ago as the 6th Century an early British Historian Gildas named “the Wise” wrote at the era when the pagan Saxons were invading Christian Celtic Britain. He wrote that these events were taking place to the end that our Lord might in this land try after His accustomed manner these His Israelites whether they loved Him or not:
• In 1314 A D. the nobility of Scotland signed the Scottish Declaration of Independence at Arbroath Abbey. In it they stated their belief in the Israel identity of their people: –

“We know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients gather, that the nation of the Scots passing from the greater Scythia through the Mediterranean Sea and the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) and sojourning in Spain … and convey there one thousand two hundred years after the outgoing of the people of Israel”.

• Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596) wrote to Rev. John Foxe, the famous Martyrologist:

“God may be glorified, His church, our Queen and country preserved, the enemies of truth vanquished; that we might have continued peace in Israel. Our enemies are many but our protector commandeth the whole earth”

•  French Huguenot Counsellor Le Loyer wrote in his “The Ten Lost Tribes Found” (1590)

 “The Israelites came to and founded the English Isles”

•  John Saddler MA, M.P- in 1649 in his learned work “Rights of the Kingdom or Customs of our Kings and Parliaments” advocated the Israelitish origins of the English.

A TESTIMONY OF OUR IDENTITY

• In 1723, Dr. Jacques Abaddie (1654-1727), Huguenot refugee and Dean of Killaloe, Ireland, in his Le Triomphe de la Providence et de la Religion, wrote:

“Certainly, unless the Ten Tribes have flown into the air, or been plunged to the earth’s centre, they must be sought in that part of the North which, in the time of Constantine, was converted to the Christian Faith – namely among the Iberians, Armenians, and Scythians; for that was the place of their dispersion-the wilderness where God caused them to dwell in tents., as when they came out of the land of Egypt… Perhaps, were the subject carefully examined, it would be found that the nations who in the fifth age made irruption into the Roman Empire, and whom Procopius reduces to ten in number, were in effect the Ten Tribes, who kept in a state of separation up to that time, then quitted the Euxine and Caspian, the place of their exile, because the country could no longer contain them. Everything fortifies this conjecture; the extraordinary multiplication of this people, marked so precisely by the prophets, the number of the tribes, the custom of those nations to dwell in tents, according to the oracles, and many other usages of the Sythians similar to those of   the   children   of   Israel.” [translated from the French by Revd Robert Douglas]

 Dr Abaddie published his work in Amsterdam and the original four volumes can be seen in the British Museum.

• In 1761 Alexander Cruden published the first edition of the famous Bible aid, “Crudens Concordance”. The dedication page of this original edition contained these words: – “that it may be said by the present and future ages, that King George III has been an Hezekiah to our British Israel”.
•  In 1813 Ralph Wedgwood in his publication “The Book of Remembrance” demonstrated that England is Ephraim.
• In 1815 Revd James Hartley Frere wrote a book entitled A Combined View of the Prophecies of Daniel, Esdras and St John in which he showed that the British were Israel.
• In 1816 Revd B. Murphy published Precursory Proofs that the Israelites came into Egypt and Ireland – he went on to publish The Advocate of Israel and the Isle of Erin.
• In 1828 – Revd W Brooks wrote an article which he signed Abdul which was published in the Jewish Chronicle and in which he proved the Welsh to be of Israel descent.
• In 1840- Revd John Wilson M.A. a Scottish Presbyterian minister authored the classic book Our lsraelitish Origin in which he combined the record of history and Bible Prophecy with the most up to date discoveries of archaeology. His writings and lectures helped to make the Israel Message widely known.
• The Israel Message was to spread to the United States where one of the leading exponents was Revd Joseph Wild D.D. minister of Union Congregational Church Brooklyn, New York who published many books on Anglo-Israel including The Lost Ten Tribes in 1879.

As the truth of our Israel Identity gained momentum, it would be hard to include them all. We shall therefore list the best known by their religious denomination which shows how the Anglo-Israel belief took root amongst Christians of diverse back grounds. Our roll of Honour  includes:-

ANGLICAN

 Archbishop Bond of Montreal

Revd Titcomb D.D. Bishop of Rangoon

Rt Revd M.S. Alexander -Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem

Rt Revd Thornton D.D.- First Anglican Bishop of Ballarat Australia who stated:

“British Israel truth is most wonderful-I wish I had known it twenty-five years earlier. It makes clear so many things that have been obscure.”

METHODIST

Bishop H.A. Allen of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in California USA who wrote Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright back in 1902. This book is still a B.I Classic today, a century later and has run into millions of copies. Reviewing the book at the time of publication the Baptist Messenger stated “that the arguments produced by Mr Allen seem to be unanswerable.”

 Dr Dinsdale Young (1861-1938) the famous English Methodist preacher, who pastored Westminster Central Hall and was President of the Wesleyan Conference stated:

“I increasingly believe that the weight of argument is with the British-Israel position. My heart warms to it, because of its splendid adherence  to the Bible. The British Israel Federation has lighted a lamp the golden beauty of which shall never be obscured.”

 Revd Robert Bradford – Belfast Methodist clergyman, Member of Parliament for South Belfast in the British House of Commons. He spoke extensively on the Message both in the U.K. and in Canada and was to be assassinated by Irish Republican terrorists in 1982.

PRESBYTERIAN

In addition to Revd John Wilson, we have Revd James McGaw, a Reformed Presbyterian minister who authored Suppose we are Israel. He testified that:

“The revelation brought to me through the study of the Israel Truth, has established my faith in the Bible as the Inspired Word of God.”

 Revd Duncan McDougall- Free Church of Scotland.

BAPTIST

 For many years the Woodward Avenue Baptist church in Detroit U.S.A was regarded as the largest Anglo-Israel congregation. Two of its Pastors were leading exponents of Anglo-Israel.

Dr John Wellington Hoag (1915-1947)

Pastor William J Washer (1947-1962)

Dr Mordecai Ham – a convert of the famous evangelist Billy Sunday. Dr Ham led Billy Graham to Christ back in 1934. He held an honorary doctorate from Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina, and published a magazine entitled The Kentucky Revivalist.

 Revd T. R. Howlett B.A. minister of Calvary Baptist Church Washington D.C. author of The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel Found and identified in the Anglo-Saxon Race.

 Pastor James Mountain D.D. leading Baptist Fundamentalist in the United Kingdom. Author of Modernism Refuted and compiler of Hymns of Faith and Consecration. He authored British Israel Truth Defended and The Triumph of British Israel.

 HOLINESS

 Revd Maynard James – editor of The Flame magazine.

SALVATIONIST

 Major A Smith of the Salvation Army in South Africa.

FULL GOSPEL/PENTECOSTAL

 Charles Parnham pioneer of Pentecost, at whose Topeka Bible College the Pentecostal outpouring began at the turn of the 20th Century.

Pastor Jones and Dan Williams – founders of the Welsh Apostolic Church.

Principal George Jeffreys – founder of the Elim Pentecostal Church and the Bible Pattern Church.

Evangelist Stephen Jeffreys – the Principal’s brother.

Evangelist F.W Bosworth author of Christ the Healer.

Pastor Leo Harris – founder of the Christian Revival Crusade in Australia.

CONGREGATIONAL

 Revd Dr Pascoe Goard – a graduate of Wesleyan College in Winnipeg, Canada, he pastored the Knox Congregational Church in Vancouver, going on to be Vice-President of the British Israel World Federation and Editor of the National Message magazine. He was author of many Anglo-Israel books, and helped start the Harrow Weald Bible College.

 Revd Merton Smith converted in a Moody Revival – he went on to become organising secretary for Moody’s campaign in Britain and America. He helped to establish the Moody Bible Institute and was Pastor of the Grandview Congregational Church Vancouver, Canada.

OTHER DISTINGUISHED BELIEVERS IN ANGLO-ISRAEL

Professor Charles Totten of Yale University U.S.A.

Professor Piazzi Smith Astronomer Royal of Scotland

Admiral Fisher – First Sea Lord

Hon. W E Massey – Prime Minister of New Zealand

ROYALTY ALSO

Queen Victoria

King Edward VII

King George V

King George VI

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone

ANGLO-ISRAEL PUBLICATIONS

To further refute those who say Anglo-Israel is some recent cult, we list some of our magazines going back over one hundred years and more:-

These are given as just a random sample.

CONCLUSION

 The evidence that we has produced in this small pub­lication gives striking evidence to the historical back­ ground of the Anglo-Israel movement, not to mention the wide range of godly and scholarly men out of every Christian denomination who have proclaimed this truth. Let me finish by giving you:

AN ATHEIST’S TESTIMONY TO THE ANGLO-ISRAEL TRUTH

Charles Bradlaugh K.C. M.P was one of the leading atheists in Britain even being barred from Parliament for a time because of his infidel beliefs. He would address huge atheist meetings in public halls across the country. He would read the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then quite correctly point out that the promises had not been fulfilled in the Jews. He wrongly deduced therefore that the Bible was untrue and there was no God. Late in life he was introduced to the Anglo-Israel message and was a regular attender at meetings. The one-time atheist declared “I love to come, it is most wonderful what light British-Israel truth throws on the Bible.”

 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS AND ROSE AGAIN FOR OUR JUSTIFICATION. YOUR NATIONAL IDENTITY AS THE RACIAL SEED OF ISRAEL WILL NOT SAVE YOU OTHERWISE CHRIST NEED NOT HAVE COME. WE EXHORT OUR READERS TO REPENT AND OBEY THE GOSPEL.