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 Few
if any cults or our clay have deluded more people, with
greater error, than has Herbert W. Armstrong and his Radio
Church of God. Thousands hear his son, Garner Ted, and swallow
his “smooth speech” without realizing the background of
Anglo- Israelism that is in his “prophecy” nor the
consequences of its error.
Herbert
W. wrote: “We want to impress here that Israel and Judah are
not two names for the same nation.... The House of Judah always
means Jew. This distinction is vital if we are to understand
prophecy.... The next place where the term “Jew” is
mentioned in the Bible, the House of Israel had been driven out
in captivity, lost from view, and the term only applies to those
of the House of Judah. There are no exceptions in the Bible.”
(Where Are the Ten Lost Tribes? H.W. Armstrong, p.8.)
The
mere “smatterer” in Bible history will remember that
following the reign of Solomon, The Israelites were divided into
two nations —the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin
being called “Judah” while the ten northern tribes kept the
name “Israel.” This distinction is found frequently in
Chronicles, etc., and in the writings of the Prophets during
this time. But the Prophets foretold reunion (Jer. 30:1-4 etc.)
and Nehemiah prayed for “Israel.” “All Israel” gave
portions to the Levites (Neh. 12:47); some of the children of
“Israel” returned with Ezra (Ezra 6:21 7:7); and men of “Israel”
repented of having taken foreign wives (Ezra 10:25). Isaiah said
the Lord would “set his hand again the second time to recover
the remnant of his people... from Assyria, etc.”
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(Isa. 11:10-f.) The first time
points to their physical restoration. referred to above. The
second time refers to redemption in Jesus Christ, where both Jew
(all Israelites) and Gentile (all others) have equal opportunity
to be one in their salvation from sin.
The
New Testament does not maintain the strict distinction which Mr.
Armstrong says is so “vital if we are to understand prophecy.”
Jesus sent His disciples to “the lost sheep of the house of
Israel,” “the cities of Israel;”— and they went to the
Jews. (Matt. 10: 6,23) (Israel was not as “lost” —
physically— as Armstrong seems to think.) Paul was “of the
stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,” an impossible
combination if Armstrong is right. (Phil. 3:5) But the truth is
that the Judah-Israel distinction of “divided kingdom” days
was not maintained; some of Israel as well as some of Judah (not
all) returned to Jerusalem (Anna the prophetess was of the tribe
of Asher, Lu. 2:36) and Armstrong’s idea that the British and
American people are the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh. “the
ten lost tribes” — is foolish.
It
is Armstrong who does not understand prophecy. His special brand
of folly, first advocated during the plush Colonial days of
Britton, is a “superior race” concept; although the current
reaction to such a spirit may cause this facet of the doctrine
to be soft-pedaled. The materialistic basis, like all
premillennialism, refuses to accept the Holy Spirit’s
explanation of prophecy and the church.
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