By: Edgar Pennington Young, publisher of The Marine Journal
From “The Marine Journal, America’s Leading Marine Weekly” and later reprinted in “The National Message” from March 1923.
Editor’s Note & Disclaimer: The author of this article believed the modern-day Jews were from the tribe of Judah, and thus represented Judah in Bible prophecy. This idea was incorrect. Although modern Jews may have some percentage of Judahite heritage stemming back to the time of the Pharisees, they are mainly made up of Edomite and Canaanite peoples. This idea of them being Judah was corrected in later writings from Anglo-Israel believers.
What Ails the World?
What ails the world? The answer is simple: We have forgotten God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and everything pertaining thereto.
We are told that the Bible is the inspired Word of Almighty God. If this is true, this Book of Books ought to be the most interesting, the most fascinating, and the most widely read of all literature. Yet today the Bible is read by only a small minority of the peoples of the earth.
We hear of bridge parties, birthday parties, wedding parties, and theatre parties, but seldom, if ever, do we hear of a party gathered for a free and open discussion of the Word of God. Why, I ask—why?
In this latter-day age of infidelity, a man is regarded as something of a crank if he undertakes to defend and uphold the Bible as written. The Bible commands the individual to “search the Scriptures,” but people seem hard of hearing. They prefer to transfer that obligation to their religious leaders and receive whatever consolation they may. Hence, the widespread ignorance of biblical truth.
The only consoling explanation for the present pitiful state of human affairs is found in the inspired and holy Word of God. In the conceit of his fleshly mind, man is making a desperate and futile attempt to whitewash the truth with false and unwarranted optimism. We have forgotten God, and the price must and will be paid.
Multitudes follow blindly, moving from one theory to another—the theories of men. They do not realize it, but they are indulging in modern calf-worship. When examined in the light of biblical truth, these varied beliefs invariably worship a law of God misapplied and adroitly deny God any credit. Their authors seek the applause of men.
The Question of Israel
More than two-thirds of the Bible is about Israel. The Bible repeatedly declares that God is the “God of Israel.” Prophetically, Israel is referred to more than twenty-five hundred times. Throughout the Bible, Israel is described as God’s “chosen race,” “my servant,” “my flock,” “the sheep that were lost,” “the sheep of my pasture,” and by many other such designations.
Ask your preacher today, “What has become of all this Israel?” The chances are that he will repeat what I regard as a widespread error in Christendom and tell you that the Jews of today compose Israel. Others will tell you that the Church is Israel. Neither supposition is correct, for the Bible declares identities that neither the Church nor the Jews can claim.
If either the Church or the Jews are Israel, then it must follow that the God of the Bible has not fulfilled the promises made to Israel, for neither, in my view, can claim the fulfillment of those promises. This same misconception, I believe, made an infidel of Tom Paine and many others. They failed to distinguish between Judah and Israel.
All students of the Old Testament whose viewpoint has not been warped by a sect or creed know that the Ten Tribes were lost. Where are they? The Prophet Isaiah tells us, I believe, that in the latter days Israel shall be found in the Isles of the Sea, northwest of Palestine. The only islands on earth northwest of Palestine are the British Isles, which lie precisely forty-five degrees northwest of Jerusalem.
I will never forget how I felt less than a year ago when I was told that the lost Tribes found their way to Ireland by the ships of Dan, and from there to Scotland, and from Scotland to England. Had I not had profound respect for the gentleman’s scholarly attainments, I might have made a rush for the door. But a subsequent and earnest study of my Bible—which I had scarcely looked at for many years—revealed to me the wonder story of the ages.
The Old Testament is too often regarded as a semi-sacred relic with no bearing on the world today. This is utterly wrong. The problem, I believe, is largely due to the way the Bible is taught in modern theological schools, where textbooks written by men attempt to spiritualize the historical facts of the Bible and disregard a literal interpretation. By this method, plain statements of fact are distorted to mean almost anything.
Although the identity of lost Israel has been known to many great scholars for fifty years and more, only lately has an effort been made to bring this truth to those it concerns. It concerns the whole world, but particularly England and the United States of America.
Abraham and the Promises
God selected Abraham as the earthly and fleshly foundation of Israel, His chosen people, whom our Creator proposes to use for certain purposes set forth in Scripture. God insists upon a tried race, but He creates every man a free moral agent.
After changing Abram’s name to Abraham, as recorded in Genesis 17, God told him He would make an everlasting covenant with him. The name Abraham means “father of a great multitude.” Biblical names often have meanings that give us much light. Abraham’s wife’s name was also changed, from Sarai to Sarah. Sarah means “princess.” God said of her, “I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her” (Genesis 17:16).
I recently asked a preacher how he figured that the Jews of today comprised all Israel when they did not, and never had, possessed the gates of their enemies. “Oh, yes, they do,” he replied. “They control the money of the world and also the moving pictures.”
Here is an illustration of the blindness that follows from spiritualizing and muddling Scripture. How can “gates” mean moving pictures or bank accounts? Gates are entrances, and nothing else. Who controls today the gates, or entrances, to practically every nation on earth? Great Britain and America.
Joseph and the Promises
The blessing given to Joseph is of vital importance to us. More is said concerning Joseph than concerning any other son, by far. It is found in Genesis 49:22–26. We are told that Joseph is a “fruitful bough” by a well, or water, whose “branches”—the marginal reading is “daughters”—run over the wall. Consider the British Empire, upon which the sun never sets.
Joseph has been shot at and hated, yet “his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the mighty God of Jacob.” England and America today go along accepting the blessings of the living God—which, I believe, are the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham—while giving God very little credit for it all.
“From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.” After the account of Jacob’s dream, in which he used a certain stone for a pillow and named the place Bethel, meaning “the house of God,” the word stone is used with great significance throughout the Bible.
Moses carried this stone when he led Israel through its forty years in the wilderness. The kings of ancient Israel were crowned upon this stone. There is no doubt in the minds of those who have studied this great subject that the “Coronation Stone” is the stone of the Bible, and that when the proper time arrives, it will be so identified.
The Signs of Israel
The Tribes of Israel were commanded to set up ensigns, or standards, by which they should be known. Each Tribe had its own ensign. In addition, there were four ensigns representative of the Twelve Tribes, which Moses carried throughout the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Those four ensigns were the unicorn, the lion, the man—or cross—and the spread eagle. Today, all four are found among the national ensigns of Great Britain and America.
Only one of the twelve disciples was a Jew—Judas. The other eleven were Galileans of the Tribe of Benjamin. In Matthew 10:5–6, Jesus explicitly commanded His twelve disciples: “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” The word “Gentiles” is much misunderstood. It means “nations.”
Again, in Matthew 15:24, Jesus told a Gentile woman, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” Paul, who was a Roman citizen and a Jew, declared himself after his conversion to be an Israelite.
The word Brith is the old Hebrew word for “covenant.” The word ish is the old Hebrew word for “man.” Therefore, in the word British, we have “the covenant man.” The Saxons were originally called “Isaac’s Sons”; later they were known as Saacsons, and then Saxons. Scripture says, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.”
The word Britain means “the Covenant Isle.” The Prophet Isaiah refers to Israel “in the Isles of the Sea” some seventeen times, and once locates them northwest of Palestine. In England, it is well known that the king is a direct descendant of King David. The British Throne is the earthly throne of King David, which the Lord has promised not to remove from this earth so long as we see the sun, the moon, and the stars.
The Key to the Bible
The Epistle of James is addressed to the Twelve Tribes “which are scattered abroad.” The First Epistle of Peter is also addressed to the “strangers scattered.” And what is written on the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem? The names of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, which show conclusively that the New Jerusalem is an Israelitish proposition.
This Israel truth furnishes the master key to the entire Bible. Professor C. A. L. Totten of Yale University, who devoted most of his life to this great question, said:
“I can never be too thankful to the Almighty that in my youth He used the late Professor Wilson to show me the difference between the two Houses (Israel and Judah). The very understanding of this difference is the KEY by which almost the entire Bible becomes intelligible, and I cannot state too strongly that the man who has not yet seen that Israel of the Scripture is totally distinct from the Jewish people is yet in the very infancy, the mere alphabet, of Biblical study, and that to this day the meaning of seven-eighths of the Bible is shut to his understanding.”
These matters vitally concern every human being. The Bible commands us to prove all things. This is an appropriate season for you to begin searching for the hidden truths of God’s Word, to establish your identity as an Israelite, and to ascertain the work your Creator still has for Israel to do.
