Merits & Shortcomings of British-Israel, Part # 3

This is another critical review of the principal beliefs known as British-Israel, and in like manner, with this paper, we will address statements which W.H. Poole made in his book entitled Anglo-Israel Or, The British Nation: The Lost Tribes Of Israel (hereinafter A-I/BN). The purpose of this exposé is to praise such a belief system where it is correct and to give constructive criticism where it is in error.

With this third paper, I will show you an interesting observation made by W.H. Poole, on page 5, concerning the various ideas that people had in the 1800s as to where they thought the lost tribes of Israel had disappeared:

“There are several theories on record as to the locality where we may most reasonably look for the lost tribes of Israel.

“Rev. Joseph Wolf, in his journals, written between 1831 and 1834, says they are in China.

“The Rev. J. Samuels, in a work entitled ‘The remnant found,’ says, they are in the region of the Caspian Sea.

“Dr. Grant was of the opinion that the Nestorians are the lost ones.

“Sir William Jones says the Afghans have a superior claim.

“Mrs. Dixon says the Mexicans and the Peruvians are without doubt the ten tribes of Israel.

“Some say our North American Indians are the people we are looking for, others say the Karens of India, or the Gipsies of Southern Europe.

“Dr. Claudius Buchanan was satisfied that the greater part of the ten tribes are still to be found in the countries to which they were led captive.

“Now, while we cheerfully acknowledge the undoubted ability of those writers, and some of their theories are very plausible, we cannot accept their conclusions, because they all fail to harmonize with the word of the Lord in reference to his banished ones. We repudiate all theories that are antagonistic to the glorious promises of God to Israel.

“In our inquiries after the ten tribes of Israel, known as the lost tribes, we see them in Sacred history, with their brethren, under the government of sixteen judges and of three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon.

“After the death of Solomon the ten tribes revolted, and formed a new kingdom under Jeroboam. After this revolt there were two kingdoms separated the one from the other, and were known as the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel. The severance was complete.”

With these last 11 paragraphs we have no controversy, but on the very next page 6, W.H. Poole, like the rest of early British-Israel, makes some very serious errors when speaking of the “Jews”. Here is what he stated:

“THE JEWS

“The kingdom of Judah was governed by nineteen kings and one queen, and existed as a nation during a period of 387 years, when they were taken captive and carried away to Babylon, where they remained for seventy years, their songs hushed to silence, their harps upon the willows.

“Those Jews, according to the word of the Lord were never to be lost sight of, they were ‘to be known in all lands by the shew of their countenance,’ Isa. iii, 9, i.e. by their expression.

“There are to-day Russian Jews, Austrian Jews, Polish Jews, Italian Jews, German Jews, English and American Jews, and yet they are distinguishable at first sight, as separate and distinct from all others, and this, not from any choice of theirs, for they cannot help it. This remarkable ethnic phenomenon is a strong point in their history, for in the whole history of our globe, no such fact exists among other people, for no race has ever been dispersed among other people without losing their national traits of character, and peculiar characteristics; but the Jews, though scattered throughout the habitable globe for 1800 years, still retain their ethnic identity, though they mingle with every other nation they blend with none. ...

“The Lord said of the Jews, they were ‘to be known as an astonishment,’ ‘a desolation,’ ‘a reproach,’ ‘a by-word,’ ‘a hissing, and a curse.’ They were to be a people ‘scattered,’ ‘meted out,’ ‘trodden down,’ and ‘peeled,’ they were to drink the cup of sorrow to its dregs, to be a target for the marksmen of the nations.

“It is well known that these prophetic utterances have all been fulfilled, and that the Jews are still among the nations, a living proof of the truth of God’s holy word.

“Sir Walter Scott says, ‘Except, perhaps the flying fish, there was no race existing on the earth, in the air, or in the waters, who were the object of such unremitting, general, and relentless persecution as the Jews’.”

Poole, along with most all of British-Israel, fails to distinguish the difference between the good and bad figs of Judah! The good figs of Judah were those who kept their racial purity, while the bad figs of Judah were those who had racially-mixed their seed with the Canaanite tribes.

First, Poole stated in part: “The kingdom of Judah was ... taken captive and carried away to Babylon, where they remained for seventy years, their songs hushed to silence, their harps upon the willows.” Here Poole is either not aware of or is overlooking the fact that the greater part of Judah was taken into Assyrian captivity where they joined with the ten northern tribes of Israel. Therefore, it was only a remnant of Judah that was taken into Babylonian captivity. Hence all twelve of the tribes of Israel and Judah were “scattered abroad”, as stated at James 1:1! And of the small remnant of Judah that was taken into Babylonian captivity, an even smaller remnant of Judah returned to Jerusalem from Babylon! This is a very serious error that is still being taught by some Israel Identity teachers today, along with the greater part of churchianity!

Secondly, Poole states: “Those Jews, according to the word of the Lord were never to be lost sight of, they were ‘to be known in all lands by the shew of their countenance,’ Isa. iii, 9, i.e. by their expression.”

It would have been well had Poole quoted Isa. 3:9 which reads: “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.” To understand Isa. 3:9, we must go to Jude 7 which states: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” “Fornication, and going after strange flesh” is race-mixing, and the reason Isaiah said “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not” is because a minority in Jerusalem had mixed with the Canaanites, and therefore had the racial appearance of Canaanites. As I mentioned before, many in early British-Israel failed to distinguish between the good and bad figs of Judah.

Thirdly, Poole states in part: “There are to-day Russian Jews, Austrian Jews, Polish Jews, Italian Jews, German Jews, English and American Jews, and yet they are distinguishable at first sight, as separate and distinct from all others, and this, not from any choice of theirs, for they cannot help it.” Poole states it correctly here saying, “they cannot help it”, for it was the fault of a few racially pure Judahites who mixed their seed with the Canaanites. It’s the unforgivable sin! It would have been better had Poole said: “There are to-day Russian Canaanite-jews, Austrian Canaanite-jews, Polish Canaanite-jews, Italian Canaanite-jews, German Canaanite-jews, English and American Canaanite-jews, and yet they are distinguishable at first sight, as separate and distinct from all others, and this, not from any choice of theirs, for they cannot ‘hide’ it.”

Today we have to pardon some of the errors of early British-Israel such as those made by W.H. Poole and Edward Hine, but it becomes our duty to give their writings some constructive criticism. That’s what I’m doing here! I’m actually thankful for these men who brought us the truth of our Israel-Identity the best that they knew how! Had we lived during their time, we probably wouldn’t have done as well as they!

On page 6, Poole continued by addressing those whom we know today as Canaanite-jews thusly: “This remarkable ethnic phenomenon is a strong point in their history, for in the whole history of our globe, no such fact exists among other people, for no race has ever been dispersed among other people without losing their national traits of character, and peculiar characteristics; but the Jews, though scattered throughout the habitable globe for 1800 years, still retain their ethnic identity, though they mingle with every other nation they blend with none.”

Poole is also in error here and should have known better! For we today know through study that the Canaanite-jew has mixed with every possible racial combination one could imagine, even the mexicans! Therefore, the mexicans are nothing more than Biblical Canaanites, and should be treated as such! Actually, the mexicans are a mixture of Spanish-Sephardic-jews and Central and South American Indian tribes.

Poole continues on page 6: “The Lord said of the Jews, they were ‘to be known as an astonishment,’ ‘a desolation,’ ‘a reproach,’ ‘a by-word,’ ‘a hissing, and a curse.’ They were to be a people ‘scattered,’ ‘meted out,’ ‘trodden down,’ and ‘peeled,’ they were to drink the cup of sorrow to its dregs, to be a target for the marksmen of the nations.” Poole here was quoting Jer. 29:18 which states: “And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them.”

Had Poole read the previous verse 17, he might have observed that Jeremiah was addressing the evil, racially-mixed figs of Judah rather than the good-fig Judahites who had been previously deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. At Jer. 24:8, Jeremiah addresses the bad-fig-jews of Jerusalem as “... the residue of Jerusalem that remain in the land and them that dwell in Egypt.” This curse was not placed on the good-fig Judahites that were deported to Babylon! Also, this curse was not fully fulfilled until 70 A.D. when Titus laid siege to and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. It should now be evident to the reader that Poole and the early British-Israel researchers were applying this passage to the wrong people.

And like Jeremiah implied, a half-breed Canaanite-jew can buy forty gallons of strong lye soap and shower for forty days and forty nights, and he’ll still be a Canaanite-Edomite-jew! And Jeremiah was speaking of the Judaeans who had mixed their blood with the Canaanites! This can be found at Jeremiah 2:21-22: “²¹ Yet I had planted thee [Judah] a noble [racially pure] vine, wholly a right seed [sperm]: how then art thou turned into the degenerate [race-mixed] plant of a strange vine unto me? ²² For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith Yahweh singular-Elohim.”

Also, Poole quoted Isa. 18:2 which reads: “That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!” This passage has nothing to do with the evil Canaanite-jews, but according to Bertrand L. Comparet’s America Is A Bible Land and Howard B. Rand’s The United States In Prophecy, Destiny Magazine, Dec. 1961, is rather a prophecy about America. I just mention this to show that everything taught by British-Israel is not necessarily true, and we have to be very careful with some of their conclusions. We will now turn to a portion of W.H. Poole’s book on pages 6-7, where little criticism can be found where he states:

“THE LOST TRIBES

“The ten tribes, or the kingdom of Israel, had also nineteen kings, and they existed as a nation for 274 years. They were driven into captivity 133 years before the captivity of Judah, and they have never returned.

“In the Sacred Scriptures, 2 Kings xv. 29, and xvii. 6, and in 1 Chron. v. 26, we are informed how Tiglath-pileser and Shalmanezer took them captives and carried them away to Halah, Habor, Hara, and to Gozan, cities of the Medes.

“There is on an Eastern obelisk, an inscription of Sargon, whose name is found, Isa. xx. 1, which reads, ‘Sargon, king of Assyria came up against the city of Samaria and against the tribes of Beth-Kymri, and carried captive into Assyria 27,280 families.’

“So Israel was carried out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.”

While I cannot criticize Poole on these last four paragraphs, I will say, at this point, that he should have reminded his readers that Sennacherib of Assyria attacked Judahites of the southern kingdom recorded at 2 Kings 18:13; 19:16, 20, 36; 2 Chron. 32:1, 2, 9, 10, 22; Isa. 36:1; 37:17, 21 & 37.

I will now reproduce a slightly edited portion from my Watchman’s Teaching Letter #62:

SENNACHERIB TAKES THE GREATER PART OF

THE SOUTHERN KINGDOM OF JUDAH

INTO ASSYRIAN CAPTIVITY!

This is the important part of the story that most Bible students completely overlook! And this captivity doesn’t include the many of Zarah-Judah and Pharez-Judah who migrated away before the Assyrian invasions. Later, after taking all of the ten northern tribes of Israel captive, the Assyrian king Sennacherib (705-681) came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, taking them (2 Kings 18:13). While Scripture is silent on the subject of the deportations of Judah, Sennacherib himself has left the following record: “And Hezekiah king of Judah, who had not bowed down to my feet forty-six of his strong cities, his castles, and the smaller towns in their neighborhood beyond number with warlike engines ... I attacked and captured 200,150 people small and great, male and female, horses, mares, asses, camels, oxen and sheep beyond number from the midst of them I carried off and distributed them as a spoil. He himself, like a bird in a cage, inside Jerusalem his royal city I shut him up.”

After this, all that was left of the southern kingdom of Judah was Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:13, 17; 2 Chronicles 32:1-2 and Isaiah 36:1-2). Rightly does The Bible Knowledge Commentary by Walvoord and Zuck say on 2 Kings 18:13: “Next he [Sennacherib] attacked all the fortified cities of Judah except Jerusalem and captured the people.”

The 27,280 of the house of Israel and the 200,150 of the house of Judah can hardly account for a fraction of their numbers. At 2 Chron. 13:3, we are told that Abijah put four hundred thousand men of war in battle array compared to eight hundred thousand by Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel, totaling 1,200,000 between them. At 2 Chron. 17:14-19, we find 1,160,000 in Judah under Jehoshaphat a generation or so later. At 2 Chron. 25:5 we find 300,000 men of war in Judah over the age of 20 from a census. At 2 Chron. 26:13, we observe 310,100 men of war under Uzziah, king of Judah. At 2 Chronicles 28:6, we see that 120,000 men of war under Ahaz of Judah were slain in one day by Pekah, king of Israel.

While Sargon’s inscription might record a small division of the 46 cities of Judah, it surely doesn’t necessarily account for all the Judahites taken captive. What seems to be evident here is that the early British-Israel teachers were aware of the 27,280 of the house of Israel, but may not have been cognizant of the deportation of Judahites to Assyria as it is not explicitly recorded in Scripture. Though Sennacherib is mentioned several times in the Bible, the deportation of Judahites is found only in the Assyrian records. If this is true, we will have to excuse them on this matter. That is why the “hunters” (archaeologists) are every bit as important as the “fishers” (apostles) at Jer. 16:16! Just because the early researchers of British-Israel may not have been aware of the Judahites being deported to Assyria, that is no longer an excuse for us today! The most important thing we must do today is to point out the difference between the racially-pure members of the tribe of Judah as opposed to the half-breed Canaanite-jews! Now continuing on page 7 of Poole’s book:

“TWO NATIONS

“It must be remembered that these kingdoms had a separate history, each entirely distinct from the other. The two-tribed kingdom of Judah is not the ten-tribed kingdom of Israel. The Jews are one people; the lost tribes are another. The Jews, are, of course, of Israel, as a slip taken off from a tree has an existence independent of the stock from which it was taken. The ten tribes are not addressed as Jews, nor are they known as such. The term Israelite is a general term, including the whole Hebrew race. Every Jew is, of course, an Israelite, but all Israelites are not Jews. All Scotchmen are Britons, but all Britons are not Scotchmen. We often find such terms as ‘the whole house of Israel,’ and ‘all Israel’ applied to them.”

The reader should notice here how awkward the teachers of British-Israel are at defining the difference between Israel and Judah. That is because there are three different entities concerned rather than just two: (1) the house of Israel, (2) the house of Judah, and (3) the impostor Canaanite-jews pretending to be Israelites!

With this third paper on this subject, we are beginning to see that early British-Israel didn’t have all of the information from archaeology which we have today. It is clear, though, that with the publication of the book An Outline History Of The Seventy Weeks Nation by the Rev. Alban Heath, they became aware of the archaeological evidence of the captivity of a large portion of the house of Judah by Assyria. Heath addressed this in a single paragraph on page 13 thusly:

“Later, the Southern kingdom fell a victim to the ravages of heathen rulers. ‘Sennacherib king of Assyria (705-681 B.C.) did come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.’ While the Scriptures are silent on the subject of deportations at this time, Sennacherib himself has left the following record: ‘And Hezekiah king of Judah, who had not bowed down at my feet forty-six of his strong cities, his castles, and the smaller towns in their neighbourhood beyond number with warlike engines ... I attacked and captured 200,150 people small and great, male and female, horses, mares, asses, camels, oxen and sheep beyond number, from the midst of them I carried off and distributed them as a spoil. He himself, like a bird in a cage, inside Jerusalem his royal city I shut him up’.”