Witnesses to
the Israelite origin of the Western Nations
Part 2: Prominent
British-Israelites
By Mikkel S. Kragh
Many famous people have believed that the Western
nations are descended from the so-called Lost 10 Tribes of Israel. These
include King George VI of the United Kingdom and Charles Fox Parham, who is
widely considered to be the founder of the Pentecostal movement. This idea or
theory started out with the British-Israel movement in the 1830’s. In this
article we are going to take a look at some of the most prominent
British-Israelites.
The ancient nation of Israel consisted of 12 Tribes.
The 12 Tribes left Egypt in the Exodus and settled in the land of Canaan, which
became known as the land of Israel. After the death of King Solomon, the 12
Tribes of Israel were divided into two kingdoms: The Kingdom of Judah with the
capital Jerusalem and which consisted of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
And the Kingdom of Israel which consisted of 10 Israelite tribes.
The 10 Tribes of Israel in the Kingdom of Israel
consistently worshipped pagan gods, and, therefore, the God of Israel let the
Assyrian Empire invade the Kingdom of Israel and deport most of the 10 Tribes
of Israel to northern areas of the Assyrian Empire. From there, the 10 Tribes
of Israel disappeared to world history and became known as the Lost 10 Tribes
of Israel.
The two tribes in the Kingdom of Judah remained in the
land of Israel and became known as Jews, which is a word that simply means ‘men
of Judah’ or ‘Judahites’.
Even though historians and rabbis lost track of the
whereabouts of the 10 Tribes of Israel, many historians, Bible scholars and
rabbis have later traced their migrations to Europe, where the 10 Tribes of
Israel became the nucleus of the nations of north-western Europe.
In part 1 of this series, we showed how prior to 1830,
at least eight men wrote about this theory. They included two Orthodox Jews
(Rashi and Don Judah ben Abarbanel), two Frenchmen (Pierre (?) LeLoyer and Jacques Abbadie), one Fleming (Adriaan van der Schrieck), one Swedish Lutheran pastor (Johannes Eurenius)
and two Englishmen (Henry Spelman and Richard Brothers). The writings and
ministries of these eight men were, however, unfruitful and did not inspire any
movements of Europeans that believed they were Israelites.
That, however, did take place when the Scottish
clergyman of the Church of Scotland John Wilson started a series of lectures
across Britain in 1836 and published the book Our Israelitish Origin in
1840. John Wilson’s ministry started the British-Israel movement which had
approximately two million followers in the early 20th century,
including King George VI of the United Kingdom and many of the pioneers of the
Pentecostal movement, including Charles Fox Parham – widely viewed as the
founder of Pentecostalism – and Anna Bjørner, widely seen as the mother of
Danish Pentecostalism.
This article is a biography of some of the most
prominent British-Israelites. The British-Israel movement inspired many other
people, churches and movements that also believed in the British-Israel message
or parts of it. In this article we will focus on the traditional
British-Israelites, mainly in the United Kingdom itself.
In coming articles, we will focus on the people,
churches and movements that were inspired by the original British-Israel
movement. These include the Anglo-Israel movement (which is similar, but not
identical, to British-Israel), Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God,
the notorious Christian Identity movement, the Orthodox Jewish Brit-Am
organization and recent Messianic (i.e. Christian) Jews who also believe in the
existence of the 10 Tribes of Israel similar to what British-Israelites
believe.
John Wilson: the father of the British-Israel movement
John Wilson (1779-1870), Scottish
Presbyterian clergyman and evangelist. Born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, residing
in Cheltenham, England. Wilson had studied the subject for some years, and in
1836 he began a series of lectures entitled Our Israelitish Origin and
summarized them in the book Our Israelitish Origin: Lectures on Ancient
Israel and the Israelitish Origin of the Modern Nations of Europe (1840).
John Wilson's lectures and book was the beginning of the British-Israel
movement. John Wilson viewed the British, Scandinavians, Germans, and other
European peoples as the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. He viewed the
Jews as Judah, but also acknowledged that Edom was a part of the Jewish people.
John Wilson also wrote The Millenium or the World
to Come (1842), Sketches of Some of the Scriptural Evidences Respecting
the So Called Lost House of Israel (1843), The
Book of Inheritance and Witness of the Prophets Respecting Ephraim and the
Raising Up of Israel (1874), Sixty Anglo-Israel Questions Answered (1878),
The Title Deeds of the Holy Land and The Mission of Elijah (1881).
Wilson wrote: “The
two houses seem to have been intended to fulfil considerably different
purposes, in God's economy of grace to the world. Of Judah was to come the One
promised Seed, the Heir of all things: of Ephraim, the multitudinous seed, so
much promised to the fathers, - the many brethren, who are also called the
Lord's first-born. Judah has been a standing witness to the prophetic word;
whilst Israel – long, to appearance, lost, is to come forth with overwhelming
witness to the truth in the latter time. Judah was the first-fruits, gathered
in the apostolic age; but Israel, is the harvest, to be gathered at the Lord's
return. Judah was privileged to carry the Gospel to the north, and north-west,
to the many nations that have come of Jacob; and these are being employed in
carrying it out thence, unto all the ends of the earth. Judah and his brethren
were to be preserved alive in the midst of famine; but this was to be
accomplished by their unknown brother, Joseph, who had been sent before them,
and given a headship over the heathen.” (John Wilson: Our Israelitish Origin,
pp. 111-112)
“... the Scriptures leaves captive Israel in the
north, - in the cities of the Medes, and in other places in the northern
possessions of Assyria. Now it is a remarkable fact, that to this very quarter
are the Anglo-Saxons traced by Sharon Turner, in his valuable history of this
people. Where Israel was lost, there the Saxons were found. Here are two
puzzles which have been long enough before the historians: - Whither went
Israel, the most important people as to the promises and purposes of Jehovah?
Whence sprung the Saxons, the most distinguished of all the families of mankind
in the providence of God...” (ibid., pp. 205-206)
Wilson fully viewed the Germans as a part of the
Tribes of Israel:
“It need scarcely be
remarked, that both Poetry and Music were greatly cultivated in Israel. These
were accomplishments which, it might be expected, would be eminently possessed
by a people who were to be peculiarly devoted to the worship of God - the Most
High over all the earth: and accordingly, they, especially the Germans, have
been remarkable for musical talent, and particularly as to instrumental music;
and the genius of their music appears to be very much like that of the Jews.
With regard to poetry, in all its varieties, these nations have been
remarkable. Poetry was greatly cultivated, even among the operatives, in the
cities of Germany.” (ibid.,
pp. 197-198)
Wilson wrote that the Jews were a part of the 12
Tribes of Israel, but that the people of Edom was also a part of the Jewish
people. In the chapter 'The Jews, or Judah mingled with Edom, etc.' he wrote:
“John Hyrcanus, having conquered the Edomites, the
Idumeans, reduced them to this necessity, either to embrace the Jewish
religion, or else to leave the country, and seek new dwellings elsewhere. They
chose to leave their idolatry rather than their country; and all became
proselytes to the Jewish religion. And when they had thus taken on them the
religion of the Jews, they continued united to them ever after: till at length
the name of Edomites was lost in that of Jews; and both peoples became
consolidated into one and the same nation together ... Say we these things - do
we then bring forward these historical truths - for the purpose of disparaging
the Jew? No: far be it: - but to illustrate the truth respecting Israel; and to
show, that those who were taken out of the land cannot be more lost among the
Gentiles, than were the people that remained in the land. ... But, shall they
be excluded? No.” (ibid.,
pp. 121-124)
Edward Hine (1825-1891), English bank
clerk, who was inspired by a lecture by John Wilson which he heard when he was
15. In 1869 Hine delivered his first public lecture on the subject. Contrary to
Wilson, who believed the Germans were Israelites, Hine believed that the
Germans were Assyrians. Hine believed that only the Anglo-Saxons – and not the
Scandinavians, Germans, Dutch nor French - were the 10 Tribes of Israel, and
that the Jews who were Judah. Hine himself inspired Edward Bird (a.k.a.
Philo-Israel), but Hine and Bird became rivals. Their main point of contention
was that Hine viewed only the Anglo-Saxons and the Jews as Israel and Judah,
respectively, while Bird viewed both the Anglo-Saxons and related peoples as
Israel. As Bird outdid Hine in popularity the latter turned to the United
States where he spread his teachings.
Edward Wheeler Bird (a.k.a. Philo-Israel) (1823-1903),
British civil servant in the Indian Civil Service and one of the leading
British-Israelites of the late Victorian age. In 1874 Bird became active in the
British-Israel movement after reading Wilson's book, and in 1877 he began
publishing the magazine The Banner of Israel, which in 1926 was
incorporated into The National Message, the organ of the
British-Israel-World Federation which was founded in 1919. Philo-Israel wrote
numerous books, among them Are the English the Lost Tribes of Israel? (1876)
and Geography at the Gates (1880).
Jonathan Holt Titcomb (1819-1887), English
clergyman and first bishop of Rangoon, British Burma (today: Yangon, Myanmar).
Titcomb began his ministry in the Church of England as a curate in a parish in
Cambridge where a portion of the population belonged to the most unfortunate
sections of society, but he soon made himself popular and drew many to the
church, also due to his open-air preaching. Later Titcomb was transferred to
London, where he debated with atheists in the Bradlaugh Hall of Science, named
after the infamous atheist Charles Bradlaugh, who later came to faith in God
and the Bible after having come to faith in the British-Israel teaching.
In 1877 in Westminster Abbey, Titcomb was ordained
bishop of the new Anglican diocese of Rangoon, Burma. In Burma, Titcomb
fervently missionized, baptized, and confirmed among the natives, but in 1881
he fell over a cliff in the Karen hills, and in 1882 he had to resign from his
bishopric and returned to England. There he, as the coadjutor to the bishop of
London, became the supervisor for English chaplains in ten nations in North and
Central Europe. Titcomb was President of the Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association
and known as courageous and fearless in his proclamation of the British-Israel
truth.
In his first
book, The Anglo-Israel Post-Bag (1875), Titcomb answered objections to
British-Israelism, and wrote: “... the Ten Tribes voluntarily started off on a
line of migration into other heathen lands out of Assyria, where they lay as
'dead bones', in all the darkness of idolatry, unknown, and unblessed of God.
Assuming this to be the case – which is just what the Anglo-Israel Theorists
maintain – we should have a representation of the Teutonic and Keltic races,
or, at least, a large portion of them, lying in Britain, Gaul, Germany,
Denmark, and Scandinavia, waiting to be collected in one compact and
nationalized mass...” (J.H. Titcomb: British-Israel: How I Came To Believe
It (1928), p. 152. Originally published as The Anglo-Israel Post-Bag (1875))
Bishop Titcomb explained that the
reason why the nations of north-western Europe became Protestant during the
Reformation was because they were the descendants of the Israelites, and the
reason why southern Europe remained Catholic was because they were, generally
speaking, of Gentile ancestry:
“Every
Protestant nation is Teutonic
Did it never strike you, as a man of
thought, to be very singular that every Protestant nation should belong to the
Teutonic family? This has been often observed. Indeed, some writers have so
intensified the circumstance, as to endeavour to
argue from it that Protestantism and Roman Catholicism are not so much matters
of belief, as of race. They contend that the Latin races of Europe are almost
incapable, on ethnological grounds, of ever becoming Protestant; while the
Teutonic peoples are, by their psychological condition, everywhere predisposed
to it. I believe in nothing of the kind. … No, the reason does not lie in any
stereotyped form of psychological incapacity to become Protestant. It is not a
question of race. It is not a question which has to be settled by any of the
laws of ethnology. …
To my own mind, the Anglo-Israel
interpretation of prophecy is enough to make everything clear. For if the
Teutonic race be of Israelitish origin, and the
Anglo-Saxon a mere especial embodiment of them, then all this unity in
Protestant faith and feeling falls into its proper place in Christendom, and
remarkably illustrates the truth of this wonderful Theory.” (ibid., pp.
171-173)
John Cox Gawler (1830-1882), Colonel and
Keeper of the British Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. Colonel Gawler
served in the Kaffir War 1850-1853, and was eight times honorably mentioned in
official reports. In September 1855 he was appointed a special magistrate in
British Kaffraria, and his energetic action there led to the annexation of Kreli's territory. Colonel Gawler is best remembered for
his book Dan: The Pioneer of Israel (1880), which was published in
Danish in 1993 (Dan - Israels Pioner, Palma Forlaget,
1993). He also wrote Our Scythian Ancestors (1875) and The Two Olive
Trees (1880).
Henry Grattan Guinness (1835-1910), British-Irish
Protestant evangelist. For 12 years Guinness – who was of the famous brewer
family of the same name - travelled around the world preaching. He was director
of Livingstone Inland Mission (1880), and founder and director of the East
London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions (1873-1910), and founded
missions in five other countries, which were consolidated into this institute.
Guinness also founded the mission magazine The Regions Beyond (1878).
Israel would
take control of Jerusalem in 1917
In his famous book Light for the Last Days (1886),
Guinness wrote, based on Biblical calculations and British-Israel teaching,
that Jerusalem would be taken by Great Britain in 1917, which also took place
when General Allenby took Jerusalem December 9-11, 1917.
Grattan Guinness calculated the time
when the city of Jerusalem would be liberated from Gentile rulership, or when
the “Times of the Gentiles” spoken of by Jesus (Luke 21:24), would end. Grattan
Guinness based this calculation upon the “seven times” that God would punish
Israel, which for Judah and the city of Jerusalem started in 604 BC with the
Babylonian capture of Jerusalem. “Seven
times”, or 2520 years, after 604 BC was AD 1917, which was approx. the year in
which Grattan Guinness believed Jerusalem would no longer be under Gentile
rule. Writing in 1886, Grattan Guinness wrote, that in the future year 1917
Jerusalem would be under Israelite rule:
“... the astronomical features of this
measurement of the 'Seven Times' are not as remarkable as are those of two
other measurements; that from the first of Nebuchadnezzar, and that from his
final overthrow of Zedekiah. It was in the year B.C. 606 that Nebuchadnezzar
first came against Judah, and carried Daniel and the Hebrew children among
others captive. At this time he was acting on behalf
of his father, and it was not until nearly two years later, B.C. 604, that he
himself acceded to the throne. That year is consequently, properly speaking,
the first of Nebuchadnezzar; and it was probably also the year in which he saw
the vision of the Great Image, in connexion with
which it was said to him, 'Thou art this head of gold.'
This year has therefore some special claims to be considered as a very
principal starting-point of the 'times of the Gentiles'. Measured from it the
period runs out in A.D. 1917, and it is a very notable fact that a second most
remarkable period does the same. The 1335 years of Daniel xii. 12, the ne
plus ultra of prophetic chronology, which is evidently eastern in
character, and consequently lunar in scale, measured back from this year 1917,
lead up to the great Hegira era of Mohammedanism, the starting-point of the
Mohammedan calendar, the birthday of the Power which has for more than twelve
centuries desolated Palestine and trodden down Jerusalem.” (H. Grattan Guiness:
Light for the Last Days (1886), pp. 252-253)
The Gentile Ottoman Turks conquered
Jerusalem in 1517. In 1917 the British army under General Allenby took
Jerusalem and Palestine became British ruled Mandatory Palestine. Since Grattan
Guinness had calculated that Gentile rule over Jerusalem would end in 1917, it
must mean that Israelite rule over Jerusalem would start in 1917. That was
exactly what happened when Ephraim-Britain took control of Jerusalem.
“As birds
flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem”
Grattan Guinness's prophetic book
even played a role in the British capture of Jerusalem. The New Zealand author
Andrew Adams wrote the remarkable book As Birds Flying (1992) where he
described how General Sir Beauvoir de Lisle convinced General Allenby to be in
command of the Palestine operation even though Allenby was not keen on going:
“Sir Beauvoir, who was later to
preach a sermon at St. Martin-in-the-Fields regarding the capture of Jerusalem,
consoled him [Allenby] with the Biblical predictions contained in a book
published in the 1880s by Dr. and Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness, - 'Light for the
Last Days.' These predictions pointed to 1917 as the year of the deliverance of
Jerusalem from Turkish rule. Allenby was much impressed by these predictions as
he also was by a book called 'Fullness of the Nations', written by another
eminent prophetic Biblical student – Dr. H. Aldersmith
(MB Lond., FRCS). In this book, Aldersmith said
Jerusalem would fall to Great Britain in 1917.
As well as meetings with government
and military officials, Allenby was summoned to a meeting with the First Sea
Lord – the redoubtable Lord Fisher. This summons puzzled Allenby. Did the Royal
Navy wish for a higher profile in the coming campaign, as befitting the Senior
Service? Allenby would soon find out.
In one of the most extraordinary
discussions of the entire war – recorded for posterity by Lord Fisher's
secretary – Allenby was told that he would be, as Commander-in-Chief, God's
instrument for Jerusalem's capture in December 1917. Stunned by the frankness
of Lord Fisher's revelation, Allenby politely asked how Britain's most
distinguished living sailor had come to this deduction.
The hours rolled by as Lord Fisher explained to Allenby the Israelitish
origins of the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples, the covenants made by God to the
nation of Israel, Israel's position in the latter days, the Biblical prophecies
that had ordained the growth of the British Empire, and lastly the prophecies
relating to the capture of Jerusalem in December 1917.
Lord Fisher also told Allenby that aircraft (as
birds flying – Isaiah 31:5) would be absolutely essential for the success of
the campaign. Allenby eventually took his leave of Lord Fisher while
thoughtfully considering all that had been said.” (Andrew Adams: As Birds
Flying, pp. 41-42)
Before
the British army entered Palestine the German Air Force dominated the skies
over Palestine. But General Allenby made it a priority that the Royal Flying
Corps (which later became the Royal Air Force) would have air supremacy. During
the first days of December 1917 the Royal Flying Corps, with plenty of new
airplanes and a new spirit of aggression among its pilots, did take the air
supremacy from the German Air Force. On December 9 the Turks surrendered
Jerusalem to the British and on December 11 General Allenby, along with
Lawrence of Arabia and military attachés from Britain's allies humbly entered
Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate on foot. The British armed forces thereby
fulfilled Isaiah's words written 2,500 years before: “As birds flying, so
will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and
passing over he will preserve it.” (Isa 31:5)
Charles
Bradlaugh (1833-1891), English king's counsel and
Member of Parliament, but primarily known for being one of Britain's most
infamous atheists in the 19th century, and founder of the National
Secular Society in 1866. One day Bradlaugh stood before a great audience in
London with a Bible in his hand. He then read from the Bible about God's
covenant with Abraham, and then asked: “Have those promises ever been fulfilled
in the Jews?” There were no replies in the affirmative. He then said: “And you
tell me the God of that book is a God of truth? I don't believe it.” Bradlaugh
went on to become one of the most infamous infidels and opponents of
Christianity in his day. Initially barred from Parliament because of his
atheism, he later won the appeal and his seat. Later in life he learned of the
British-Israel teaching and then got full faith in the Bible. (Robert
Alan Balaicius: Uncovering the Mysteries of Your Hidden Inheritance, p.
110)
Of the
British-Israel meetings, Charles Bradlaugh said: “I love to come: It is most
wonderful what light British-Israel truth throws on the Bible.” (Thy Kingdom
Come, March 1992, pp. 34-35)
Elieser Bassin (1840-1898) was born into a
wealthy Jewish family in Mogilev, the Russian Empire (today Belarus), but
converted to Christianity and moved to Britain where he came to believe in
British-Israelism. In his booklet British and Jewish Fraternity, Bassin
wrote: “The Hebrew Scriptures points to the British Isles as
the home of God's firstborn. … it is my conviction that Britain is the nation
with whom God has from first to last identified Himself. I as an Israelite of
the House of Judah, claim you as Israelites of the House of Ephraim. As
believers in the faithfulness of our Covenant-keeping God, I call you to awake
from your sleep.” (H. Robin Tourtel: Facets of the Great
Story, pp. 141-142)
In a series of lectures entitled “God’s Dealings With
His Chosen People Israel“ delivered in Portobello, Scotland, in 1884, where
Bassin explained why the Anglo-Saxon and related peoples were the Lost 10
Tribes of Israel, he said: “Before I became a Christian, I believed, as the
most of my Jewish brethren still believe, that the Ten Tribes of Israel exist,
somewhere, as a powerful nation, having a king of their own, and that they are
hidden from the sight of men until the coming of the expected Messiah. …
… I, an Israelite of the House of Judah, claim you as
my brethren, as Israelites of the House of Ephraim, and ask you to remember
your brethren, the Jews, more earnestly in your prayers before the Lord, that
the time may soon come when 'The House of Judah shall walk to the House of
Israel and they shall come together out of the land of the North to the land
that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers' (Jeremiah 3:18). Yes,
dear brethren, I firmly believe that the Jews, who are called by Jeremiah the
House of Judah, will in due time recognize the British people as their own
kindred of the House of Israel; and in joy at seeing their lost brother Ephraim
raised in the marvelous providence of God to a position of such preeminence in
the world, will come and ask Britain to restore them to the land of promise. At
that time the Lord will order events, so that Palestine, with the Euphrates as
a boundary, will come into British possession, and the land will become
inhabited by Britons who are of Ephraim-Israel, and by Jews who are
Judah-Israel. …
Let us thank God that to our lot has fallen the high honour of aiding in the fulfilling of God’s great and
glorious purpose in bringing to light the Ten Tribed
Kingdom of Israel, which has been hidden so long from the sight of men, in
order to enable 'the House of Judah to walk to the House of Israel,' and help
them to 'return and seek the Lord their God and David their King' (Hosea 3:5).”
(Elieser Bassin: “God’s Dealings With His Chosen People Israel”: http://www.pocketoz.com.au/colours/bassin.html)
John Charles Ryle (1816-1900), Bishop of
Liverpool in the Church of England. J.C. Ryle was considered one of the great
scholars of his day. He wrote: “I warn you that unless you interpret the
prophetic portion of the Old Testament in the simple, literal meaning of its words
you will find it no easy matter to carry on an argument with an intelligent
Jew. Will you dare to tell him that Zion, Jerusalem, Jacob, Judah, Ephraim,
Israel did not mean what they seem to mean, but mean the Church of Christ? I
believe it is high time for the Church of Christ to awake out of its sleep
about Old Testament prophecy … For centuries there has prevailed in the
Churches of Christ an unwarrantable mode of dealing with the word 'Israel'. It
has been interpreted in many passages of the Psalms and Prophets as if it meant
nothing more than Christian believers. Have promises been held out to Israel?
Men have been continually told that they were addressed to Gentile saints. Have
glorious things been described as laid up in store for Israel? Men have been
insistently told that they described the victories and triumphs of the gospel
in Christian Churches … In reading the words which God addressed to His ancient
people, never lose sight of the primary sense of the text.” (H. Robin Tourtel: Facets of the
Great Story, p. 136)
Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900), British
astronomer and Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Smyth was born in Naples, Italy,
to British parents. His father was Captain (later Admiral) William Henry Smyth.
He acquired his middle name from his godfather, the Italian astronomer Giuseppe
Piazzi. Piazzi Smyth is a highly respected astronomer. A 13 km. wide moon
crater is named after him, and the 21 km. wide asteroid Piazzismyth
between Mars and Jupiter is also named after him.
Professor Smyth wrote: “The effect of the discovery of
the identity of the Anglo-Saxons as Israel is twofold. First, it causes us to
behold and acknowledge therein the accomplishments of a true miracle, and of
the mightiest kind, through the ages consummated in our own days. Second, it
causes the Bible to become for us, as it was for the Tribes of Israel of old,
and infallible book for national guidance, as well as a collection of inspired
instruction for each individual soul in religion.” (ibid., p. 140)
William Bennett Bond (1805-1906), bishop of
Montreal in the Anglican Church of Canada 1879-1906. Bishop Bond stated: “I
strongly advise a study of the Scripture prophecies upon British-Israel lines.”
(H. Robin Tourtel: Facets of the Great
Story, p. 138)
Samuel Thornton
(1835-1917), the first Anglican bishop of
Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Thornton was born in London, England, and at
Westminster Abbey in 1875 he was appointed the first bishop of Ballarat,
Australia. He was held in high esteem, and was described as “probably the best
scholar on the Australian Episcopal Bench of his day” by the Australian
Dictionary of Biography (1976). (Australian Dictionary of Biography,
article “Samuel Thornton”: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/thornton-samuel-4721) In 1900 Thornton resigned and travelled
back to England where he became Assistant Bishop of Manchester in the Church of
England. Bishop Thornton said: “British-Israel truth is most wonderful. I wish
I had known it twenty-five years earlier. It makes clear so many things that
had been obscure.” (H. Robin Tourtel: Facets of the Great Story, p. 138)
John Arbuthnot Fisher (1853-1920), Lord, 1st Baron
of Kilverstone, British naval admiral who is known
for his huge reforms of Royal Navy. Served in the Crimean War (1856) and in the
2nd Opium War (1856-1860). In the Anglo-Egyptian War (1882) Fisher
was captain of the HMS Inflexible and bombarded the port of Alexandria. As
Vice-Admiral in 1896 and Full Admiral in 1901, he was chief of the naval
Mediterranean station 1899-1902, and First Sea Lord 1904-1910 and 1914-1915.
Admiral Fisher opposed Churchill's Gallipoli Plan and argued for the Baltic
Plan, an attack on the German Baltic coast. The Gallipoli attack turned out to
be a disaster. Lord Fisher is by some viewed as the second-most important
figure in British naval history, after Lord Nelson. He was also a close friend
of King Edward VII.
In 1919 Admiral
Fisher wrote a letter to The Times of London arguing that the
headquarters of the newly-formed League of Nations should be in Jerusalem and
not Geneva, wherein he wrote that “the only hypothesis to explain why we win in
spite of incredible blunders is that we are the lost ten tribes of Israel.” (Aidan
Cottrell-Boyce: Israelism in Modern
Britain, pp. 7, 64, quoting from The Times, May 7, 1919)
Admiral Fisher is credited as the first
person to use the colloquial initialism OMG (standing for “Oh, my God!”) in a
letter to Winston Churchill, dated Sep. 9, 1917. (Rachel Nuwer: “The First Use
of OMG Was in a 1917 Letter to Winston Churchill”)
Ferrar Fenton (1832-1920), businessman
from London who spent 50 years translating the Bible from the original
languages with the goal “to study
the Bible absolutely in its original languages, to ascertain what its writers
actually said and thought”. (The Holy Bible in Modern English, translated by Ferrar Fenton, p. vii) His translation is commonly referred to as the Ferrar Fenton Bible. He was
descended from Roger Fenton (1565-1615), who worked on translating the 1611
Authorized King James Version of the Bible. In February 1888 Fenton engaged in
a formal debate in Yorkshire, England where he defended the British-Israel
message. (Matthew D. Dyer: Anglo-Israel
Messengers, pp. 25-26)
William Ferguson Massey (1856-1925), Prime Minister
of New Zealand 1912-1925. Born in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in a
Presbyterian family, he came to New Zealand with his family in 1870. He was
seen as one of the most skilled politicians of his day. He is the
second-longest serving Prime Minister in New Zealand history. Prime Minister
Massey said: “British-Israel truth is God's truth. It is therefore bound to win, it is winning all along the line.” (H. Robin Tourtel: Facets of the Great Story, p.
140)
John Harden Allen (1847-1930), American pastor
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Church
of God (Holiness). Allen was from Illinois, but later moved to California. J.H.
Allen wrote several books, one of which was the Anglo-Israel classic Judah's
Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902).
Edward Faraday Odlum (1850-1935), respected
Canadian professor, historian, scientist, educator, lecturer, and Fellow of
American Geographical Society. According to Judge Howay, a noted British
Columbia historian, Odlum, under the direction of Dr. Haanel,
built the first electric light (a big arc light) used in Canada; and in
collaboration they built the first telephones used in Canada for public
purposes. Odlum and Haanel founded the Science
Association at Victoria University, Toronto, Canada. Here Odlum was
instrumental in getting named a building after himself, the "Faraday Hall,
the first building in Ontario devoted to the teaching of science." (Quote
from Victoria University's web site.) Odlum taught at public schools, at the
Collegiate Institute at Cobourg, was principal at Pembroke High School, and in
1886 he became principal at a college in Tokyo, Japan under the Canadian
Methodist Church. In Japan he continued his scientific studies and studied the
ethnology and history of the Japanese. Odlum took some of the phones he had
made in Canada to be used in Japan.
In 1889 he returned to Canada, to Vancouver. While
visiting relatives he met a lady who knew of his great interest in history. She
asked him if he had ever considered the possibility that the Anglo-Saxons and
related peoples were the descendants of the ancient Israelites. He immediately
replied that the notion was 'pure nonsense'. But he could not get the idea out
of his head, and began writing a paper refuting the idea. After only a few days
study, he realized the subject was far greater and involved more than he had
imagined. It was not long before he realized it could not be refuted, because
it was true.
Odlum became very important to the British-Israelites
in Vancouver, and he was also granted permission to examine the Stone of Scone,
the stone which the British monarchs are crowned upon, and proved that this
stone did not originate from the British Isles. He travelled to Palestine, and
found a similar rock formation near Luz. The patriarch Jacob, whose name was
changed to Israel, slept upon this rock when he had the dream of Jacob's
Ladder.
Odlum wrote daily articles for the newspapers Vancouver
Daily Star and Vancouver Sun, and in the 1920s and 1930s he made two
weekly radio broadcasts. A small street in Vancouver is even named after Edward
Odlum. Edward Odlum's son was the well-known Canadian journalist, soldier, and
diplomat, General Victor Odlum, who also was a British-Israelite. Edward Odlum
wrote several books about the Tribes of Israel, such as God's Covenant Man:
British-Israel (1927), and one of his articles was printed in the Danish Evangeliebladet in 1927. (Evangeliebladet
was the paper of the Apostolic Church in Denmark, which was founded by Anna and
Sigurd Bjørner, who were outspoken proponents of the message about the 10
Tribes of Israel.)
William Pascoe
Goard (1863-1937), English Methodist clergyman
for more than 40 years, and maybe the most prominent British-Israelite of the
first half of the 20th cen. Goard was born in Cornwall, England, but
moved to Canada where he in 1912 became pastor of the Knox Congregational
Church in Vancouver (later renamed Grandview Congregational Church after it
relocated to another district in Vancouver). Goard became Vice-President in the
British-Israel-World Federation in 1921, and editor of The National Message when
it was founded in 1922. In 1930 Goard attended a special ceremony at the
College of Laws in Chicago, where he was awarded the degree of 'Doctor of Laws
and Logic' by Chancellor DuBois in recognition of excellent scholarship for his
book The Law of the Lord: The Common Law (1928). In June 1930 he wrote
his first manifesto entitled The Present Menace and How To
Meet It, which was published in 21 newspapers in Britain. In 1931 he wrote
his second manifesto The World Crisis, which was also printed in many
British papers, and also in the Danish Evangeliebladet.
Goard helped establish the Harrold Weald Park College in 1933, which was a
British-Israel teaching college. It was closed during World War II when the
army used it, but opened again under the name Garrison Bible College. (Robert
Alan Balaicius: Uncovering the Mysteries of
Your Hidden Inheritance, pp. 116-117)
George Campbell Morgan (1863-1945), English
Congregationalist minister and evangelist. At the age of 10 Morgan was
converted by the famous American evangelist D.L. Moody, and preached his first
sermon at the age of 13. At the age of 15 he preached regularly in his own and
the neighboring parishes. Morgan's reputation as a preacher and Bible
interpreter soon became so known that D.L. Moody asked him to hold a lecture at
the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. After Moody's death in 1899, Morgan was
chosen as his successor. In 1904 he returned to England and took over the
pastorate of the 'white elephant of Congregationalism', the Westminster
Congregational Chapel, a dying church at Buckingham Gate, London. In 1919
Morgan left the church as one of England's most active and well-known churches.
He served at the faculty of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles 1927-1928, and
was a Bible lecturer at Gordon College of Theology and Missions, in Boston,
Massachusetts, 1930-1931. Morgan was also pastor at Tabernacle Presbyterian
Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1929-1932. He returned to England and
1933-1943 he was once again pastor at the Westminster Congregational Chapel. (ibid., p. 128)
Charles Marston (1867-1946), son and heir of
the English industrialist John Marston from Wolverhampton who founded and owned
Sunbeam, which made the highest quality bicycles on the British market until
1936, and Sunbeam Motor Car Company, which produced cars and motorcycles
between 1905 and 1934. Charles Marston was President of the anti-Darwinist
Victoria Institute between 1942 and 1946. He was the President of the
Shropshire Archaeological Society and financially supported its excavations
across Palestine from 1929. Marston also financially supported John Garstang's
excavations of Jericho which by and large supported the Biblical narrative of
the conquest of Jericho. Marston wrote several books incl. The Bible Comes
Alive (1937) and The Bible is True (1938). On Feb. 2, 1929 Marston
said in a lecture in Caxton Hall, Westminster, London: “Great Britain was the
first of all nations to adopt Christianity. Bible study and the result of the
Great War are forcing me to the certain conclusion that to-day we, as a nation,
represent the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel … We are in the peculiar
position that upon us – both as a Church and a People – may depend the whole
future civilisation of the world.” (H. Robin Tourtel: Facets of the
Great Story, p. 140, quoting from The National
Message and Banner, Feb. 9, 1929)
William
Grant
(1883-1949), an MP for the Ulster Unionist Party who spoke alongside the
British-Israel preacher Maxwell Carnson at a meeting in Belfast in 1931. (Cottrell-Boyce,
p. 9) William Grant was both Minister of Security, Minister of Labour and Minister of Health in the government of Northern
Ireland.
King George VI (1895-1952) of Great Britain
(ruler 1936-1952), King of Ireland (until 1949) and Emperor of India (until
1947), born Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George. His maternal grandmother
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge did not like his first name (Albert), and
she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name “may supplant the less favoured one”. His father, George V, had had severe
reservations about letting his firstborn Edward become king, and said shortly
before his death: “I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that
nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne.” (Bertie was
Albert and Lilibet was his daughter the late Queen Elizabeth II.)
In
January 1936 Edward became king under the name Edward VII, but he abdicated in
December of the same year in order to marry an American woman who was divorced
two times and whose ex-husbands were still alive. Edward VII was a well-known
Nazi sympathizer, and the Nazis had a plan to make him a puppet king if they
were able to successfully invade Britain.
In 1996 a
series of letters from the then Duke Albert George of York (the future King
George VI) were made public. In a letter from 1922, he wrote: “I am sure that this British-Israelite
business is true. I have read a lot about it lately and everything no matter
how large or small points to our being 'the Chosen Race.'” (“Conclusive
evidence: King George VI confirms his belief in the British-Israel teaching” (The
Covenant Nations, Vol. 5, No. 10, 2022, p. 17, quoting from The
Independent Weekend, April 6, 1996))
I have talked with many British-Israelites who say
that many British monarchs have believed in British-Israel. The theologian and
left-wing Green Party member Aidan Cottrell-Boyce confirmed this in his
detailed and unbiased history of the British-Israel movement Israelism in
Modern Britain (2022): “There have long been rumours
that the crowned heads of Britain were secret supporters of the British-Israel
cause.” (Cottrell-Boyce,
p. 8)
David Davidson (1884-1956), Scottish
pyramidologist. Davidson was a British-Israelite and a big name within
Pyramidology. His books on pyramidology are sold in alternative circles to this
day. Among other works he wrote The Great Pyramid, Its Divine Message (1924)
and Iceland's Great Inheritance (1937).
George
Jeffreys
(1889-1962), Welshman and one of the leading voices in the Pentecostal
awakening in Britain in the 1910's and founded the Elim Pentecostal Church.
George Jeffreys was also a firm British-Israelite. This, among other things,
caused him to leave the church he had founded and start a new church in 1939.
Before his death, George Jeffreys was visited by a 21 years old German
evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, and passed on “his mantle” to Bonnke.
Reinhard Bonnke went on to become one of the most successful evangelists in
Africa. (Cottrell-Boyce, pp. 75-76)
Lord
John Moore-Brabazon (1884-1964) was an aviation pioneer
and Conservative MP. He was the first resident Englishman to make an officially
recognised aeroplane flight
in England, which took place on May 2, 1909. He was also a member of the House
of Lords, and member of Churchill's cabinet during WWII. (ibid., p. 8)
Princess Alice, Duchess of Athlone (1883-1981),
the last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria. For much of her life Princess
Alice was the chief patron of the British-Israel movement and attended the
annual congress of the BIWF for several decades. (ibid., pp. 7-8)
Robert
Bradford
(1941-1981) started out as a footballer, and later became a Methodist minister
and Ulster Unionist MP from 1974-1981, as well as a British-Israelite. He was
assassinated by the IRA in 1981.
Bob
Danvers-Walker (1906-1990) was a top media personality in
Britain from the 1940's to 1970's. As Cottrell-Boyce writes, his name is
practically forgotten now, but for several decades his name was familiar to the
majority of the British public. He was broadcaster to the British troops on
Radio Normandy during the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Later he
hosted a number of talk shows and game shows, including the British version of Wheel
of Fortune and Take Your Pick. Danvers-Walker was also a staunch
British-Israelite and spoke at many British-Israel meetings (ibid., p.
11)
Patience
Strong
(1907-1990) (pen name for Winifrid May). She was most known for her poems, most
of which were published in the Daily Mirror, to this day one of the leading
English newspapers, from the 1940's to the 1970's. Cottrell-Boyce mentions that
“many of the poems that Strong published in the pages of the Daily Mirror
express definitively British-Israelist sentiments.”
For example, on page 7 of the Daily Mirror from the 27th of June,
1940 – during the height of the Battle of Britain – Patience Strong wrote the
poem entitled “Israel”:
“The
veil is lifted. Now we know our name, our task, our place. God is working out
His purpose through the British race. And will set His kingdom up according to
the Word. Israel must contend with Satan. Let these truths be heard and
understood.” (ibid., p. 11, Daily Mirror, 27 June, 1940)
John
Dunlop
(1910-1996) was MP for the United Ulster Unionist Party from 1974-1983, and
likewise a British-Israelite.
Walter Walker (1912-2001), British general
who ended up as Commander-in-Chief of the NATO forces in Northern Europe. He
was born of British parents in India, and fought against Japan in Burma during
World War II. As Colonel, he fought the Communist rebels in Malaya during the
Malayan Emergency (1948-1960). As Brigadier, and later Major General, Walker
was commander of the Commonwealth forces during the Confrontation with
Indonesia over Borneo 1962-1965.
Between 1969 and 1972 Walker was the Chief of NATO's
Northern Command and NATO's Commander in Chief of Allied Forces in Northern
Europe, which meant Norway, Denmark and northern Germany. General Walter Walker
was an arch-Conservative and anti-Communist as well as a British-Israelite. He
was a prolific writer in British-Israel various magazines in the 1970's and
1980's.
If World War III had started between 1969 and 1972, the
armed forces of the author’s country, Denmark, would have been under the
supreme command of a British-Israelite general! (ibid., p. 190)
Sir
Edward MacMillan “Teddy” Taylor (1937-2017), Conservative MP,
was also a British-Israelite and spoke at the BIWF conference in Glasgow in
1976. He was MP from 1964-2005. (ibid., p. 9)
Nelson
McCausland
(b. 1951), Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the Democratic Unionist
Party and Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure 2009-2011 and Minister of
Social Development 2011-2014. Nelson McCausland is a British-Israelite and has
spoken at events organized by the British-Israel-World Federation.
These
British-Israelite witnesses to the Israelite origin of the Western nations are
only the tip of the iceberg of the many people that have believed in this
theory. Therefore, we see that among the people that have believed that the
Western nations are the Lost Tribes of Israel are great kings, princesses,
clergymen, high ranking generals, respected members of the parliaments of the
UK, Northern Ireland and New Zealand and revered poets. The fact that so many
respected men and women have believed in the British-Israel message should,
therefore, make it clear to both Christian Israelites and their opponents that
this belief is not a weird or a fringe belief.
Hillerød,
Denmark
November 2025
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