Hi. My name is Matt and I grew up in a cult. If you’re a regular follower of this channel,
you’ll know that two things that interest me are: Number One Royal family trees, and
Number Two the Bible. The main reason for this, is that the cult
I grew up in connected these two things in a very strange way, based on an idea called
British Israelism, and even though I left the cult as an adult, rejected its ideas,
and have since converted to a mainstream branch of progressive Judaism, it was this particular
theory that sparked my lifelong interest in charting history. So, in this video, I’m going to tell you
a little bit about what British Israelism is and because this theory unfortunately still
comes up from time to time in discussions about royal genealogy, I’m also going to
tell you why British Israelism is WRONG! Music The cult I grew up in was called the Worldwide
Church of God. It actually no longer exists but several offshoots
from it do. Collectively, the ideology of these groups
is called Armstrongism named after the founder of the Worldwide Church of God Herbert W.
Armstrong. In this video, I’m not going to go into
great detail about the differences between a cult and a religion but generally speaking,
cults usually have the following four characteristics: 1. A single, charismatic leader who is the ultimate
authority on all things and whom the cult members follow unquestionably. 2. Almost perfect uniformity when it comes to
beliefs and behaviours (Critical thinking skills and differences of opinion – even
on minor issues – are actively discouraged, usually by means of strict rules, a rigid
hierarchy, and subtle brainwashing techniques) 3. An elitist attitude combined with separation
from the larger society. In other words, there’s the belief that
the cult is right and everybody else is wrong. Even in cases where the cult members don’t
actually live together, they are usually encouraged to spend most of their free time doing cult-related
activities and to limit time spent with outsiders. And, finally: 4. Weird or wacky beliefs that fall outside of
generally acceptable societal norms. Now, for some people, any kind of belief in
God is considered to be a weird or wacky belief. But, regardless of your position on that,
believing in God is in fact a generally acceptable societal norm. As is going to a place of worship, praying,
and singing religious songs. But cults tend to go beyond this sort of stuff. For example, my cult believed that God was
going to destroy the world very soon, that a European superpower called “The Beast”
was going to appear and that we, the chosen few, were going to hide out in Petra. But one of the other weird and wacky beliefs
that the Worldwide Church of God promoted is something called British Israelism. The idea first became popular in the 1800’s
and today, it is still being promoted by groups such as those that follow a white supremacist
ideology called Christian Identity, but during the second half of the 20th century, which
is when I was born, it was primarily associated with the Worldwide Church of God due to a
short book written by Herbert Armstrong called “The United States and Britain in Prophecy”. So let me now give you a brief overview of
the theory. In my biblical genealogy series, I talked
about how Jacob had twelve sons and how the descendants of those sons eventually became
the twelve tribes of Israel. Well, around the time that the biblical story
moves from legend to real history, the Ancient Israelites lived in two separate kingdoms. The southern one was called the Kingdom of
Judah and was comprised of two tribes – Judah & Benjamin, whereas the northern one was called
the Kingdom of Israel and was comprised of the remaining ten tribes. The Northern Kingdom was conquered first,
by Assyria, and a portion of the population was carried off and settled elsewhere; whereas
the Southern Kingdom was conquered a bit later, by Babylon. Some of the Judahites were carried off too
but they were later allowed to return, under the Persians, who called their land Judea. Eventually, the people living there became
known as the Jews and history is pretty clear about what happened from this point on. There was the Maccabean Revolt, the wars with
Rome, and then eventually the Jews became scattered throughout Europe and the rest of
the world. But British Israelism is mostly concerned
with what happened to the other ten tribes – those that comprised the Northern Kingdom
of Israel and who supposedly became “lost to history” after being conquered by Assyria. There have been numerous theories about these
so-called “Lost 10 Tribes” with British Israelism being only one of them. Other theories include one in which the Japanese
are the descendants of the 10 lost tribes and another, mostly associated with Mormonism,
in which certain Native Americans are the descendants. But, according to British Israelism, the Lost
10 Tribes migrated north, and then west around the Black Sea, eventually ending up in where,
for example, the Tribe of Reuben became the nation of France and the Tribe of Dan became
Denmark. But British Israelism is primarily concerned
with two out of the ten lost tribes: Ephraim and Manasseh. This is because Ephraim and Manasseh were
the two sons of Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son. According to the Torah, Joseph received a
double inheritance and that’s why his descendants formed two tribes. So, instead of a single Tribe of Joseph, we
get the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh. Now, according to British Israelism, the British
people are the modern day descendants of the Tribe of Ephraim and the European settlers
who ended up in the United States are the modern day descendants of Manasseh. This is all based on a verse from Genesis
where God tells Jacob that his descendants will become “a nation and a company of nations”
- Genesis 35:11. They see the nation as representing the USA
and the company of nations as representing the British Commonwealth. However, also, according to the theory, the
British monarch is not actually from the Tribe of Ephraim but rather from the Tribe of Judah. This is because, whereas the Northern Kingdom
of Israel had several reigning dynasties throughout its history, the Southern Kingdom of Judah
only ever had one dynasty – the House of King David. And it was this dynasty that was supposedly
meant to rule over all of Israel. According to British Israelism, when the Kingdom
of Judah fell to the Babylonians, the prophet Jeremiah secretly escaped with one of the
Judean princesses, named Tea Tephi, and he travelled with her, all the way to Ireland,
where she then married an Irish king. The royal line of Judah therefore continued
in Ireland, until it was then transferred over to Scotland, and then finally over to
Great Britain, when the thrones of Scotland and England were united. So, according to the theory, Queen Elizabeth
is a direct descendant of the royal line of Judah and the most senior heir of the biblical
King David. Okay, so that’s the theory. And like I said, it pops up from time to time
on websites about royal genealogy. Many people come across the idea that the
British royals are the direct descendants of the House of David and simply assume that
it is true. Some even use this fact to try and connect
their own family tree all the way back to Adam and Eve. But, if you know anything about history, you’ll
know that British Israelism makes absolutely no sense. Let me tell you why. First of all, the Lost Ten Tribes were never
really lost. According to what we know from archaeology,
after their defeat at the hands of the Assyrians, the vast majority of the Northern kingdom’s
population simply migrated south and joined the Kingdom of Judah. This is why the Southern kingdom’s population
suddenly exploded at that point and why the priests living in Jerusalem at that time started
to compile, write and edit what would eventually become known as the Torah, or the Pentateuch. Although the details are still being worked
out, biblical scholars have known for well over 200 years now that the so-called “Five
Books of Moses” were not actually written by a single author but are rather a collection
of several older documents that were edited together over time in an effort to create
a unified story. And the reason why a unified story was needed
had to do with the fact that what had originally been two separate kingdoms suddenly ended
up becoming one kingdom and the northern Israelite traditions had to be integrated into the southern
Judahite traditions. This is a topic that I will be returning to
in a series that I plan to do on Who Wrote the Bible. But for now, let me just say that it is clear
from several textual sources, that the people who lived in Judea during the Second Temple
Period, considered themselves to be comprised of members from all 12 tribes of Israel, not
just one or two. And
there is a total of ZERO sources and ZERO archaeological findings to indicate that any
of the Northerners taken captive to Assyria maintained their tribal identities after that
point or that they migrated as a group to Europe. So, in short, there were no lost tribes. And speaking of Europe, the archaeological
record is crystal clear on the fact that, during the Bronze Age, let’s say around
2000 BCE (which is at least 1000 years before the fall of the Kingdom of Israel), the Celtic
Peoples and Germanic Peoples were already living in Northwestern Europe. And we know from modern DNA research that,
aside from more recent immigrants, these Bronze Age peoples are the direct ancestors of those
who currently live in these same areas and of the majority of those Europeans who went
on to settle in the United States and Canada. In addition to this, there is absolutely no
evidence in the archaeological record or in DNA studies to indicate that a group of people
from the Middle East entered this area, replacing the previous inhabitants, during or after
the Iron Age (which is when the so-called Lost Ten Tribes were supposedly lost). In other words, there is an archaeological
and genetic continuity in Northwestern Europe that is very, very old. On top of all of this, we also have linguistic
evidence. Linguistically, Celtic languages and Germanic
languages (which include English) are part of the much larger Indo-European language
family, whereas the Ancient Israelites quite clearly spoke a language that was part of
the Semitic language family, which also includes Modern Hebrew and Arabic. There is absolutely no evidence that English
in any way developed from Ancient Hebrew. Then there’s the whole idea of the British
royals being the descendants of the House of King David. That entire part of the theory hinges on a
claim that a Judean princess escaped around the time of the fall of the Kingdom of Judah
and travelled all the way to Ireland. As you might have guessed, there is absolutely
no evidence that such a thing ever occurred. In fact, the earliest mention of Tea Tephi
is in an 1861 book by a Reverend Glover and it would appear that Glover simply made the
whole story up. All of the Irish manuscripts that later British
Israelites offered as evidence were proven to be forgeries. And then, finally, there’s the elephant
in the room: What’s the motivation behind the whole theory anyway? Well, the whole thing is centered on the idea
that white Anglo Saxon people living in the United States and the British Commonwealth
have a special God-given destiny and that they have been given a special “birthright”
from God to the exclusion of all other groups of people. So,Not only is the theory wrong, it’s also
RACIST. Herbert Armstrong likely picked up the idea
while living in Oregon, a state that was a hotbed of white supremacist activity in the
1930s and 40s, which is when he left his previous church and established the Worldwide Church
of God. Anyway, like I said, I left British Israelism
behind a long time ago and have never believed in it as an adult. But unfortunately, several of its ideas are
still floating around in discussions of royal genealogy so that’s why I thought it would
be a good idea to give you a head’s up and to let you know what it’s all about. Thanks for watching.
