From: Eddie Chumney
To: John Hulley
Subject: Brit-Am: John Hulley - Article
NOTE FROM EDDIE:
John Hulley is an ORTHODOX JEW who lives in Israel. He works with
Yair Davidy and Brit-Am which is located in Jerusalem, Israel.
Brit-Am is an ORTHODOX JEWISH organization that is devoted to
researching, identifying and locating the Ten Lost Tribes based upon
history, archeology and tradition Orthodox Jewish teaching on the
subject from the Talmud and other rabbinic literature and resources.
The following articles is from the perspective of an ORTHODOX JEW
(John Hulley) who believes in the FUTURE restoration of Judah with
Joseph (Ten Lost Tribes) in the end of days at the dawn of the
Messianic Era.
END OF NOTE
THE RETURN OF EPHRAIM TO THE HERITAGE OF HIS FATHERS
According to prophecy the same peoples which carry out any one of the
prophecies about the Lost Tribes are to carry out all the others. A numbe=
r
of them have already been fulfilled or are in process of being fulfilled.
The same peoples should be involved in all of them.
As we shall see (in section 4d) the prophecies do not allow for any
replacement of Ephraim. New blood may be added through absorption of
individuals who sojourn and intermarry. But there is a continuity of
descent: the people that returns must be descended from the people that we=
nt
into exile.
The previous chapter listed the peoples which have fought alongside Ju=
dah in
the restoration of Israel. We may now examine each of the other prophecie=
s
which has already been wholly or partially fulfilled to see whether the sa=
me
peoples have carried these out also. A good place to begin is with the o=
ne
about their turn to the faith they had lost long ago.
DISCORDANT STRAINS OF THE REFORMATION
Having strayed from the path, the ten Lost Tribes are to return to it=
with
considerable force:
Backsliding Israel [House of Ephraim] hath justified
herself more than [the] treacherous [House of] Judah. Go and proclaim the=
se
words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel [Ephraim]=
,
saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am
merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever . . . For=
I
am married unto you. (Jeremiah 3:11-15)
I will . . . cleanse them [both houses], so shall they be my people,
and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 37:23)
And I will betroth thee [House of Ephraim] unto me
forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in justice=
,
and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me =
in
faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord.(Hosea 3:19-20)
From this and other striking prophecies it is clear that the relation=
ship of
the Lost Tribes with God is not only to be restored, but to be radically
improved as well. Ephraim is to come from a pagan condition of separation
from God to one of proximity to Him. To what extent has this happened?
The faith known to the prophets is set forth in the book known to Christia=
ns
as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Tanach. According to Christianit=
y
the book can only be understood in the light of the New Testament.
According to Judaism it can only be understood in the light of the Talmud.
Differing in this way, the two religions have been the main alternative
paths of return to the faith.
In the centuries after its founding, Christianity gradually
acquired far more adherents than Judaism. Its popularity made it the more
likely way for the Lost Tribes to return. At the same time however its
sacred texts - both the Old and New Testaments - were becoming less
available to its followers. The Catholic Church considered them suitable
for reading only by priests; they were forbidden to the laity, who must be
content simply to follow priestly guidance on the conduct of their daily
lives
.
But the authority of the Church was undermined after 1,000 CE. The=
end of
the world, which it had long predicted for that date, failed to happen. T=
he
year 1,000 went by . . . then 1,001 . . . Next came 1,002 . . . still
nothing happened. The Church had no plausible explanation to offer.
At this point people could choose among various possible reactions. Three
of the more obvious ones were:
* To ignore the problem and remain loyal to the Church. Those who
made this choice assured its survival.
* To give up religion and seek other solutions to life's problems in
the arts and sciences. This movement led to the Renaissance.
* To examine religious beliefs more closely to find out how the Church
could have made such an error. This tendency led to the Protestant
Reformation.
The forerunners of the Reformation were dissenters in southern Franc=
e.
Doubting what the priests were telling them, they insisted on reading the
Bible themselves. In those days there was no printing press, and the few
hand-copied versions were kept in monasteries. However the Waldensians, a=
s
they were known, succeeded in getting hold of the Bible and started to
translate it. Protestant characteristics may be seen in their attachment =
to
the Bible, rejection of most Catholic sacraments and opposition to images.
Their ideas spread through Western Europe, notably in Belgium, France,
Germany, Italy and Spain.
Fearing the consequences of this and other sects, the Pope organized t=
he
Albigensian-Waldensian crusade (1208-13) into southern France. Armies of
knights on horseback destroyed the rich Proven=E7al culture, decimating th=
e
inhabitants and turning some regions into wasteland. The Church also
organized a succession of massacres in northwest Italy.
To supplement these measures the Pope launched a powerful instrument =
of
repression in 1231 - the Inquisition. With its torture chambers and publi=
c
executions it was designed to terminate dissent by terminating dissenters
and terrifying everyone else into loyalty. Mere ownership of a Bible coul=
d
get you to the stake. At first the Inquisition was applied with greatest
severity in southern France and northern Italy. Virtually everywhere it
succeeded in suppressing dissent. There seemed to be no way out.
At last in the 14th century the Church experienced another moment of
weakness. To avoid turmoil in Rome the Papacy had moved to Avignon, wher=
e
the Pope was little more than a puppet of the French king. In that positi=
on
the credibility and therefore the authority of the Church sank.
Seizing the moment of relative freedom, an English clerical scholar at
Cambridge, John Wycliffe, sketched the main elements of Protestant theolog=
y.
A few of them were:
#1) The Bible is a higher authority than the Pope
#2) True believers can interpret the Bible with the aid of the Holy Spiri=
t,
without priestly intermediary; and that they therefore need to be allowed =
to
read it.
The invisible spiritual church which they form stands in contrast
to the uninspired and authoritarian Roman Church, with its reliance on
numerous sacraments, its enormous wealth and its sin and corruption.
In 1377 he was summoned to a religious court in London, where he would
likely have been condemned to the stake. But he came accompanied by the
King's son, John of Gaunt, along with Lord Percy, Earl Marshal of England
and other powerful men in the kingdom. In the face of such strong support=
,
the priests backed away from condemning him. Driven into retirement at
Lutterworth, he worked on translating the Bible into English. He also sen=
t
itinerant preachers all over England among the common people.
In 1384 Wycliffe died (in bed - unlike many another reformer). Just=
two
years earlier King Richard II had married Anne, sister of King Wenzel of
Bohemia. Some of the people who accompanied her to England carried
Wycliffe's teachings back to their own country. There they found a
sympathetic audience with Waldensian connections, led by Jan Hus, who was
rector of the University of Prague and a popular preacher.
In course of time Hus was subjected to excommunication by the Catholic
Church; and later on to aggravated excommunication. But still he preached=
.
Eventually the papacy returned to Rome, where it recovered independence an=
d
authority. In 1415 it organized the Council of Constance, which tried Hu=
s
for teaching Wycliffite doctrines. Refusing to recant, he was hanged,
after which his body was burned. The same Council arranged for the bones =
of
Wycliffe to be dug up and burned.
Nevertheless his teachings spread. In England the efforts of the i=
tinerant
preachers led to their acceptance by perhaps as much as a quarter of the
population - popularly known as Lollards. In central Europe the Hussites
attracted large numbers of followers not only in Bohemia but in neighbouri=
ng
countries of central Europe. The doctrines became so familiar that people
did not even remember where they came from. As Luther wrote of himself an=
d
his associates, "We were all Hussites without knowing it".
Luther's contribution to the Reformation was more political than
theological. In his day - over a century after Wycliffe and Hus - the
Inquisition was still burning Bible-readers, and the Catholic Church still
held control in all the countries of western and central Europe. The
believers had as yet no way of defending themselves. Luther's solution wa=
s
to organize national Protestant churches to replace the international
Catholic church.
What he was offering each local ruler was the opportunity to act a=
s pope in
his own country. The doctrine of the "divine right of kings" would
encourage reverence for the national ruler - alongside loyalty to God.
National (sometimes called "established") churches would take the place of
international Catholicism.
In terms of wealth this was tempting. As head of the national chur=
ch, each
ruler would control its properties and income. Owning as much as a quart=
er
of the land in some countries, the Catholic Church disposed of enormous
revenues from it. On top of that were the church collections, fees for
various services, gifts, bequests to shrines and the like. Every year a
large share of these was sent to the Papacy in Rome. Kings and princes
watched the annual drain of resources to Italy with envious eyes. To
capture this wealth could be of great benefit to themselves, as well as to
their countries. Royal envy created an atmosphere in which those who dare=
d
to challenge the Church had a chance of survival.
Luther hit the spot with his attack on a papal agent who was engag=
ed
in the time-honored trade of selling "indulgences". Whatever the theolog=
y
behind them, indulgences were in practice a way of paying for your sins wi=
th
money. There were different prices for different sins. If you could affo=
rd
the price, you received a papal guarantee against divine punishment for yo=
ur
sin, in this life as well as in the next. The proceeds went to Rome.
Luther's denunciation of the system as a fraud (in 1517) was immensely
popular. Protestant ideas spread rapidly.
When the Church tried to prosecute Luther, Frederick the Wise, Elec=
tor of
Saxony, protected him. Rulers in several other nations in northern and
central Europe took similar steps. By degrees the new churches moved towa=
rd
Protestantism. Such were the several Lutheran churches in Europe, as well
as the Anglican church in Britain. The very name "Anglican" expressed its
national character.
The new system put the rulers in position to mobilize their
countries' resources in the struggle against papal control. They could pu=
t
real armies in the field. Then came a century of what may have been the
most ferocious wars ever fought in Europe, before or since. The Pope sent
the armed forces of Austria and Spain to exterminate the Protestants. The
casualty rate among the latter was similar to that in the Nazi holocaust o=
f
Jews during World War II.
The result was a stalemate. By the middle of the 17th century the=
religious
boundaries had settled down approximately to where they stand today. The
organization of national churches under the leadership of kings and prince=
s
had turned the tables. The Bible came out of hiding into the hands of the
common man. Protestantism emerged from the furtive world of heresy and
found lands where it could survive in the open.
For many Bible-believers however there was still a long way to go=
.
BIBLE BELIEVERS
Where Wycliffe had focussed on the invisible church, Luther concent=
rated on
the visible one. The winning strategy that he devised had given quasi-pap=
al
authority to local rulers. In England, for example, Henry VIII simply too=
k
over the Church there and renamed it Anglican. Confiscating Church lands,
he gave them to his courtiers. Appointment of church officials, as well a=
s
finances, were under his control. From his church he demanded and general=
ly
received the same kind of loyalty as had formerly been due to the Pope.
The Catholic Church had been monopolistic, claiming the support=
of
all Christians in any country where it held sway. It was perhaps only
natural that the new national churches should also be monopolistic,
demanding the support of all Christians in the country. Thus at the end =
of
the religious wars each of the many small states of which Germany then
consisted, had just one religion. It might be Catholic, Lutheran or
Reformed - but only one of them. Which of the three was to be the nationa=
l
religion in each state was decided by the local ruler.
Similarly England followed Henry VIII in: switching from Catholi=
cism to
Protestantism in 1534; reverting to Catholicism under his daughter Mary 21
years later; and returning to Protestantism under his second daughter,
Elizabeth, three years after that. Neither clergy nor people offered much
resistance to these changes. The buildings remained the same, as did mos=
t
of the personnel. The number of resignations and martyrdoms was small.
But the new national churches were spiritually unsatisfactory t=
o
many Bible-believers. They opposed not only the Pope but anyone - royal =
or
not - who sought his spiritual authority. They wanted their own independe=
nt
congregations, whether or not these were within the territories over which
the new national churches asserted monopolistic control.
Spiritual descendants of the martyrs of earlier centuries, the=
y regarded the
Bible as their sole guide. When questions of scriptural interpretation
arose, they left it up to each individual to decide, in the light of such
inspiration as God might give. The national authorities, on the other han=
d,
had no faith in such inspiration. Like the Jews, they believed that the
ability to receive divine inspiration had more or less disappeared. And,
like the Catholics, they believed that the independents should submit to t=
he
authority of the clergy on pain of death.
Here was something on which national churches and Catholics cou=
ld agree -
exterminating the independents. Luther denounced them as vermin and call=
ed
for their annihilation: "It is just as when one must kill a mad dog", he
wrote. Since many of the believers were pacifists who did not resist, the
martyrs were numbered in the tens of thousands. Anabaptist and other
independent sects ceased to exist in Germany
A remnant of the dissenters fled to Holland, which was an isla=
nd of
toleration in a sea of religious monopolies. Later on they found refuge i=
n
England, after conditions there became more favorable to them. Under Hen=
ry
VIII the government had continued to burn dissenters, notably the Lollards=
.
In the next century however the position of the non-conformist sects grew
stronger as a result of their helping the Calvinists to win the English
Civil War (1642-48).
The victory put an end to the theory of the "divine right of ki=
ngs" in that
country. It also helped pave the way for Bible-believers to gain civil
rights and become an effective minority there. In 1688 the rise of a
Dutchman - William of Orange - to the British throne provided the occasion
for importing Dutch ideas of religious toleration too. In the following
year the Bill of Rights and the Toleration Act were passed.
Meanwhile many of the Bible-believers had chosen a new escape ro=
ute
that was just opening up - emigration to the American colonies. There th=
e
battle for religious freedom continued, with the independents gradually
gaining the upper hand. In 1789, the Congress of the newly independent
nation of the United States adopted the Bill of Rights. First among its
provisions - taking precedence over freedom of speech and freedom of the
press - was separation of church and state. Accordingly - unlike other
Protestant countries - the U.S. has no government-sponsored church. More
than any other nation, America has become the land of independent churches=
.
Thus the second phase of the struggle of the Bible-believers
succeeded more easily than the first. The battle against the Catholics h=
ad
included more than three centuries of the Inquisition, supplemented by
massacres and a crusade. It culminated in a century of what were probably
the bloodiest wars of European history, in which perhaps a quarter of all
Protestants were wiped out. In contrast the battle against the national
Protestant churches lasted little more than one century, during which
persecution rose to the level of massacre only in one country (Germany).
In both phases the intensity of the drive to return to the fai=
th of
the prophets and to recover a favorable relationship with God can be
measured by the obstacles which had to be overcome. Freedom of religion
was not an acceptable concept. Dissent from religious authority was call=
ed
heresy and punished by execution. There were no missionaries. There wer=
e
no Protestant societies elsewhere in the world, serving as advertisements =
of
what a Bible-based faith could do for you. The Protestant faith had to be
worked out from scratch. Bible in hand, and often with a weapon too, the
pioneers of that age were venturing into the unknown.
To what extent can these two phases of Reformation history be
considered a fulfillment of the prophecies about the restoration of the
relationship between the House of Ephraim and God. The faith that was
known to the prophets was that of the Tanach. In Christianity, as in
Judaism, this book is a basic text. Within Christianity, Protestantism
gives much more attention to it than does Catholicism. And within
Protestantism the Bible-believing wing gives more attention to it than doe=
s
the wing of the state-sponsored churches.
Nevertheless all forms of Christianity carry within them pagan
elements. Some were introduced by the Catholic church; before that other=
s
were put in by the Byzantine Church. The Protestants have made progress i=
n
removing many of them. They have nothing like the graven images of the
Catholics or the icons of the Orthodox. They have eliminated the worship
of the Virgin Mary and the adoration of saints. The unusual plainness of
the buildings the Bible-oriented sects have gone further than others in
their effort to get away from these forms of idolatry. They are thus
fulfilling the prophecy that
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? (Hosea 14:8)
Other pagan beliefs and practices still remain to be cleared up by al=
l forms
of Christianity. Among them, however, it can be said that the
Bible-believing Protestants appear to have come closest to restoring and
strengthening the ancient relationship with God.
This is the same group of people that has spearheaded the gentile
Zionist movement (see section 2c). The Bible-believing churches of today
are descended from the Bible-believing churches of the Reformation era. A=
s
is true for other churches, there is a social continuity in the people
belonging to them. If the spiritual experience of individuals often are
not repeated in their children, they may recur in their grand-children.
Branching out in unpredictable ways, they bring in descendants of the same
families from generation to generation.
This line of descent may even go back further than the Reformation
era to the centuries of Catholic repression. The martyrs of Protestant
Dissent are certainly the spiritual descendants of the martyrs of the
Inquisition. The geographic continuity of these protest movements leaves
open the possibility of their being relatives as well.
Whatever may be the truth about those earlier relationships, the cont=
inuity
of the Bible-believing churches from the Reformation onwards is fairly
clear. The gentile Zionists of today are at least in large part descended
from the Bible-believing dissenters of the Protestant Reformation. This
means that the same people have been fulfilling two of the prophecies abou=
t
the lost tribes: turning to the faith of the Tanach and joining Judah in
reconquering the land.
On the basis of participation in the defense of Israel alone it was
suggested (in section 2d above) that descendants of the House of Ephraim
must be found among Zionists in the Anglo-American and French groups of
peoples, as well as in Italy. The history of the Protestant Reformation
points to the same peoples in the same countries. So far in this review o=
f
history the identification seems to be confirmed.
NOTE FROM EDDIE:
It is also mostly among these same group of "Bible believers" that the=
re
is a desire today to embrace the Torah, Sabbath, the Biblical
Festivals, the Jewish people, the land of Israel and
Jerusalem. EWE are a part of this Bible believing remnant who are
fulfilling the ancient prophecies written in the Tenakh (Old
Testament) that in the end of days that Judah and Joseph / Ephraim
would be restored to the God of Israel and to each other and would be
reunited in the end of days.
END OF NOTE
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