BRITISH-ISRAELISM

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 38, 8 November 1933, Page 4

BRITISH-ISRAELISM

Lecturer Answers Critics Criticisms of British-Israel contentions were replied to by Mr. O. W. Clift, Dominion president of the Bri-tlsh-Israel-World Federation, New Zealand branch, in a lecture at the Masonic Hall last night under the auspices of the Wellington branch. Mr. Clift commenced by showing that the Jews were not all Israel and quoted numerous opinions, including those of Jews, to that end. Israel being divided into two parts, with the Jews one, it remained to discover who represented the other, he said. In Genesis there was a prophecy that Israel would become a company of nations. There was only one company of nations and that was the British Empire, which had attained that state when in 1926 the King’s title had been changed. The British Empire and the United States of America held the bulk of the world’s resources and otherwise dominated the globe as prophesied of Israel in the Bible. Thus those peoples represented the other part of Israel. Critics of British-Israel truths also said that we could not represent a section of Israel because we had a different cast of face, said the lecturer. The Jews had not always had the'cast of face we now regarded as characteristic of them. Intermarriage with Assyrians had given the Jews that cast of face, he said, quoting opinions to support the view that in the time of our Lord the cast of face was more like that of the Anglo-Saxons, though olive. Yet another question raised by their critics, said Mr. Clift, was, “How can we be Israel, seeing that Israel was never lost?” That argument, he said, was based on the contention that the Samaritans were the lost tribes, and to refute it the speaker quoted Hasting’s Bible Dictionary to show that the Samaritans were colonists brought Into Palestine by the Assyrians and were not the friends of the Jews but another people. To the people who asked what the good of British-Israel was, the lecturer said that he would say the good of it was that it proved the Bible and acquainted the nation with its responsibilities. If all the British people knew that they were Israel they would know that they should lead in untangling the world’s affairs now. Numerous other criticisms of BritishIsrael teachings were replied to by Mr. Clift, who was accorded a vote of thanks. Mr. F. B. Anyon was chairman.