The Anglo-Israel Interpretation of the Old Testament
We begin with a study on the Blessing of Joseph in Genesis chapter 49. This important blessing is also a tremendous prophecy to be fulfilled in his descendants. Could this ancient promise be related to our own greatness as a people today? Here you will find the answer.
The True Source Of Our Greatness
The Great Blessings
An interesting and insightful comment appears in “The Interpreter’s Bible” in its exposition on Genesis chapter 49, which speaks of “the source of [Israel’s] greatness.” That source of greatness, they affirm, is the covenant promises given to the Patriarchs. Furthermore, this Bible commentary turns its focus upon the recipients of the greatest of the blessings, saying, “But the great blessings are reserved for two tribes only—Judah and Joseph.” (p. 820) This reminds us that there were separate prophecies given to each of the twelve tribes, and that the tribes of Judah and Joseph were to receive the greatest blessings of all. It is well worth your time to read the story of Judah and Joseph and ponder the wonderfully detailed listing of Israel’s covenant promises, as is found in the book, “The Story Of Celto-Saxon Israel.”
The Interpreter’s Bible translation of Genesis 49:26 further brings out a little-known truth: “The blessing of Joseph shall be better than the blessings of this earth, a glory from God that shall be unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.” The tribe and House of Joseph (comprising the ten tribes of the House of Israel) was promised the greatest blessings, even exceeding Judah's promises. What people or company of nations have received the choicest blessings of this earth as a glory from God? Your answer must be the American and European nations. The Israeli state did a marvelous job transforming the dry, barren terrain of Palestine, but it required complex irrigation systems to support any extensive form of agriculture. It is not the nation that has received the choicest blessings from God!
There is no question but that these blessings are little understood today, even among Biblical scholars. Concerning another important chapter of Abrahamic promises, author Dr. Mark G. Brett mused, “Genesis 12 does not resolve the conceptual puzzle of how a single nation can bless all the clans of the earth…” (Genesis, p. 50) Yet without understanding how or why, some scholars have come to realize that there is indeed a people who have fulfilled the great material blessings of the Abrahamic covenant.
Our Credentialed Link
The late Dr. Ernest L. Martin was a popular and well-respected cult-book author, yet he himself was the promoter of the cultic belief that Keturah’s descendants are the European nations of today. In his rambling study, “Just Who Is An Israelite Today?” Martin gave a wealth of opinion, feeling and emotion in thinly-veiled guise of fact. “I have not the slightest desire (nor has my family for generations that I know of) ever wanted our ‘roots’ to be in Palestine. Many Americans, British and Northwestern Europeans may love the land of Palestine because our Lord grew up there and died there and is coming back to that land, but hardly any of us (besides those who call themselves today ‘Jews’) desire to abandon our own countries and return as Mosaic believers to Palestine.”
Dr. Martin did not want to return to the Mid-east to live, and this, he believed, was evidence that he was not an Israelite! It is a common misconception, that when prophecy speaks of Israel’s return from exile, it constitutes a complete physical return of all of the chosen to Palestine. In fact, the focus of Israel’s return was Spiritual—a return in faith and obedience to God (Isa. 44:22; 45:23; 55:7; Jer. 18:11; 23:14; 24:7, Hos. 6:1; etc.) and the corresponding physical return was representative, not complete. The prophets declared that Israel would physically return as a “remnant,” “one by one,” “one of a city,” not a complete restoration in Palestine (Isa. 10:22; 27:12; Jer. 3:14). Although the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 is popularly considered the complete fulfillment of Israel’s return, any Bible student must also admit that it was partial and representative, and that more Jews live outside of Palestine today than those who have returned. Ignoring this, Martin considered “a desire” to return to the Mid-east as an important proof to identify Israel.
Yet this well-regarded dispensationalist spokesman commented on the fact that Christian European nations have a wealth of Israelite prophetic “credentials.” Curiously, he stated that we do indeed have the “credentials” but not the “marks” of Israel! This is mere doubletalk, because the fact is that the marks—or evidence of fulfillment—are themselves credentials.
Here is how he tip-toed around this issue: “Though they do not show any distinguishing marks that they are Israelites, the United States and Britain have credentials for being close relatives of the Israelites…there is good reason to believe that the majority of them are descendants from Abraham, but mainly through his wife Keturah (who had six sons) who went away from Abraham into the east country (Genesis 25:1–6).”
If Keturah prophetically was to be in the east, why would her descendants instead be found in the west? He seems unaware of the contradiction. However, an even more important unanswered question is this: What is the source of our great Biblical material and Spiritual blessings, far exceeding all other nations, if we are not Israel? Could Keturah have wandered off with Israel’s covenant promises? In fact, the sons of Keturah received no inheritance at all (Gen. 25:5). Dr. Martin, in vainly groping for an answer, propounded a “semi-identity” belief: Since it is obvious that the European peoples have some definite credentialed link with Israel, they must be near relatives!
Esau Inheriting The Promises?
In case you are not convinced that the source of all of our covenant blessings is due to being “Keturahites,” he had a second answer that seems to contradict the first. Since dispensationalists have long placed great value on the interpretations of Scripture given by the rabbis, Orthodox Jewish opinion itself constitutes near proof. Who could disagree with the people to whom the Bible was given?
He enthused, “…it has been common custom among the Jews to call the original Romans after the twin brother of Jacob called Esau, who, of course, would be a descendant of Abraham. Note that even the apostle Paul said that the fleshly Romans of his day were what he called the children of Abraham. He said: ‘What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found?’ (Romans 4:1). Paul is saying that the Romans to whom he was writing (though clearly Gentiles) were still from Abraham as pertaining to the flesh, and not simply as being Abraham’s spiritual children alone. The Romans were not fleshly Israelites because they did not possess the biblical qualifications.”
Here we go again. The European people of ancient Rome had the credentials—“fleshly” descent—of Abraham, but not the “qualifications.” So “of course,” he insisted, they must be descendants of Esau, and modern Italy (and perhaps continental Europe) must be Edom! What more proof than this would an ardent dispensationalist need? Perhaps I should apologize for sounding a bit silly, but the fact is that the arguments of our critics do so often border on silliness. It never occurred to Dr. Martin that in attempting to ascribe European greatness to descent from Edom, he was in effect giving the covenant promises back to Esau, who had sold them for a bowl of pottage! (Gen. 25) Yet he did partially see the truth, and recognized that the reason that European nations have fulfilled the covenant promises is because of their descent from Abraham.
The True Source of Greatness
Can we then agree with Dr. Martin’s view that physical Abrahamic descent is the real source of our greatness? Dr. Martin was convinced that, “One of the main reasons that the people of the United States and Britain have been some of the most cordial to the people of Israel over the centuries…is simply because we all have Abraham as our fleshly father.” But if this was the whole picture, then the account of brothers Jacob and Esau—as well as their descendants the Israelites and Edomites—must have been an absolute Biblical love-story! Such is most assuredly not the case, as we learn from the Scriptural accounts concerning those warring brothers and their warring descendants. (Gen. 27:41, 2 Ki. 8:20-22; 14:7-10; Psa. 137:7; Obadiah 1:8-18, etc.)
Some might say that the source of our greatness is that we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet our Savior promised only persecution and trial to those who were faithful to him, not great worldly wealth or success. He said, “Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too.” (John 15:20)
So we see that the source of our material greatness as a people is not really due to having Christian faith, nor is it just due to having Abrahamic descent. No, as the Interpreter's Bible Commentary pointed out above, our material blessings as a people are due to the Divine covenants promised long ago by God to ancestor Abraham—and fulfilled in his progeny. These promises were not hijacked by Esau or Keturah, but fulfilled in Abraham’s legitimate descendants, the offspring of Jacob’s twelve tribes. As promised in Scripture, “The blessing of Joseph shall be better than the blessings of this earth, a glory from God that shall be unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.” (Gen. 49:26)
Pray that modern Joseph wakes up to his Divine heritage and responsibilities! Amen!!!