Children of the Promises

CHILDREN OF THE PROMISES

Where are the tribes of Israel?

What is their relevance to prophecy?

Just what is the “restitution of all things”?

(a work in progress………)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS: Parts I to IV are stored as separate documents and will need to be printed separately.

Introduction. PAGEREF _Toc97971765 \h 1

PART I PROMISES

What did God promise Abraham? What blessings did Joseph pass on to his sons Ephraim and Manasseh? Were those promises received or were they for the last days? Does Queen Elizabeth the Second of Great Britain sit on David's throne?

PART II PROPHECIES

Who was Ezekiel told to warn? Were the cities of Israel laid waste?What was Jeremiah's commission and did he fulfil it? Are the lost tribes of Israel identifiable today? Are they still cursed? Will they suffer captivity again at the end of this age? Was Israel a shadow of things to come? Did God remove His presence from them?

PART III RESTORATION

Restoration of Israel. Restitution of all things - children of the promises.

PART IV CATCHING THE VISION!

The visionary promises given to Abraham revealed the plan of God. Summation of Conclusions

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Introduction

Background

There are many who are familiar with the claim that the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel are to be found amongst the people of Britain, some nations of the British Commonwealth, some European countries and America.

Please note: solely for reasons of brevity the term “British Israelite” has been used throughout the document to refer to “the people of Britain, some British Commonwealth nations, some European countries and America”. It is to be read as encompassing all of these peoples at all times.

The authors of this paper subscribed to that belief for many years but after some searching questions had been asked, we decided to examine the teachings more closely and this paper is the result of that study.

The teaching stemmed from the understanding of the promises God made to Abraham which were repeated to Isaac and Jacob. It is generally understood that the promise of the sceptre was to Judah, but the birthright promise was to Joseph. After Solomon’s reign the ancient nation of Israel was divided in two. The southern tribes became known as Judah and the northern ten tribes retained the name Israel. It is claimed that the blessings, withheld for 2,520 years because of Israel’s disobedience, have been bestowed upon their descendants in modern times.

Among the ten northern tribes were Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh from whom it is reputed that the people of Britain, some of the British Commonwealth and America have descended, hence their power and wealth today.

It is also maintained that the prophet Ezekiel’s warning of impending national punishment and captivity applies to the modern day descendants of Israel, who, unless they repent, face terrible destruction in the near future.

The British Israelite teachings which some have now rejected were originally adapted from sources outside the Church of God.

· “Lectures on Ancient Israel, and the Israelitish Origin of the Modern Nations of

Reader Please Note:

This paper is by no means an exhaustive work on these issues. It merely tries to point out a number of anomalies in the British Israelite teachings that need further investigation and provides an alternative perspective on events that is worth considering.

It is probable that questions will be raised with regard to things that are not mentioned in this particular paper. It has been hard not to include everything that could be considered relevant! The whole Bible revolves around God’s plan for man and it was a question of being focused. We decided not to deal with the prophecies of Revelation, for example, in any great detail – not least because we are unsure ourselves of some events. Things will become clearer in time as God increases the understanding of His people – the Children of the Promises.

It is a mistake to accept the work of men as valid without checking that what they say is supported by the Bible. We are exhorted to: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (II Timothy 2:15), so we can “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1Thessalonians 5:21).

Hebrew words often have more than one meaning and there are occasions when examining biblical passages that one meaning applied to a word may support a particular interpretation, but if another meaning of the word is used it can give an entirely different interpretation. In such cases the correct meaning is often dictated by the context in which the passage appears or by the concept that God is portraying through the writer, or a number of writers in the overall context of His plan and purpose. We therefore urge the reader to read the whole paper before drawing a final conclusion: “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” (Proverbs 18:13).

We trust that the reader will be led to a more intensive study of the entire Bible to see how the concepts discussed in this paper are portrayed through out.

All Biblical quotations in this paper are from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible unless shown otherwise. We have also quoted from the 'Tanakh - The Holy Scriptures (The NEW JPS Trnaslation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text)' simply referring to it as 'Tanakh JPS Translation'. Our emphasis has been added throughout.