THE “BRITISH ISRAEL” QUESTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22779, 15 January 1936, Page 4

THE “BRITISH ISRAEL” QUESTION

TO THE EDITOR Sib, —The following extracts from an English periodical, which I received a few days ago from London, may be of interest at the present time:—“ British leraelism is a theory based on false premises from first to last. . . . This British Israel story was introduced to the writer some 55 years ago. We were then in collaboration with a publishing house in London. The author of the paper was a wel-known facile writer of pamphlets on any and every subject, which might catch the attention of the Christian or other ‘public/ and enable him to earn a living. The pamphlet was submitted to those capable of judging, and they turned, it down as being a dangerous story, a kind of ‘red herring’ to divert attention from the truth as it is in Jesus. The good man finally—we understood —got a publisher to give him £5 for the effusion. That any Bible student could adopt the theory seriously, we do not think was ever contemplated. The scheme of the pamphlet wag altogether too grotesque. The ‘lost ten tribes' or 'British Israel theory hag been disproved many times by many writers. In the return from Babylon, detailed by Ezra and Nehemiah, there are to be found representatives from all the tribes, of Israel, and again and again we find in these two books of the Bible the words ‘of all Israel/ and ‘of Judah and Benjamin!' To-day, Jews from all the tribes are to be found, in most' large Continental and American cities, and in London particularly. . . . The ‘ British Israel ’ theory presents ‘ another gospel/ and not that of the true grace of God. God in grace to-day is gathering out from Jews and , Gentiles C people to be associated with His blessed Son in Hia heirship of the vast universe of God. British-Israelism merely looks tor a place in the restored land of Palestine under the Messiah and in the Millennium with temporal advantages. Israel end the Jew s have down to this day. in ppite of their scattering and dispersion, maintained their place of separation from Other peoples. In contrast to this, the Anglo-Saxon race is a mixture of many ttLCoa.” —I am, etc.. Maban-atha.