Abraham and The Lost Tribes

The Lost Tribes: The New Testament Evidence

If we are to comprehend the Divine plan laid out in The Bible we must take the Old and the New Testaments as a connected whole, not as separate revelations.

Now we know that the Abrahamic covenant was conditional as to Abraham, but we also know that he fulfilled the condition (Gen. 22: 18): "because thou hast obeyed my voice," but it was unconditional to his seed, and because of the oath God swore to Abraham, his seed have not been cast off "For I am the Lord I change not,.therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Also in Jer. 31:35-36, it is stated that they stand for as long as the sun, moon and stars give light there is to be an Israel nation. "If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever." This cannot be the Jews, for they ceased to be a nation before Him after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Daniel also assures us that this Kingdom of Israel is to endure for ever.

Many objectors think that Israel (not to be confused with Judah, whjich is modern day Israel) is not mentioned in the New Testament, but they forget that the new covenant was made by the death of the Testator, our Lord Jesus Christ with the House of Israel and the House of Judah (Heb. 8), because of their transgressions under the first covenant (Heb. 9:15). This error arises from the idea that God had finally cast off both Houses of Israel and Judah, and they read this meaning into Paul's statement in Acts 28 when turning from the Jews who refused to hear him, "Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles" (Nations), ignoring his words elsewhere, "Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Rom. 9:4); and again (Rom. 11:1,2), "I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid." God did not cast off His people which He foreknew.

James addresses his letter to 'the Twelve Tribes scattered abroad among the Gentiles in the Dispersion'; Peter his to the 'the elect exiles in the Disperson scattered abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia' and Paul's letters to The Romans, Galatians, Hebrews and Ephesians not only make references to Lost Israel but the text indicates some of their readers are part of that dispersed lost House of Israel. These were undoubtedly the people Israel referred to by Hosea when he told them God would not have mercy on them for a time, but that they were again to be brought into covenant with Him. So that from "Ye are not my people," it should be said unto them, "Ye are the sons of the living God" (Hos. 1:6-10). Hosea was admittedly a prophet to the House of Israel.

In John 7:33, we read, "Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. 34 "You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come." 35 Then the Judeans said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?" The people of Judea at the time of Jesus thus believed that a disperson had taken place, that these dispersed people had not returned to be re-united with them, but were in fact now scattered among the Greeks (some translate the word 'Greek' as 'Gentiles'). The Greek empire had occupied a large section of Europe to the north and west of Judea. The word "dispersion" is from the Greek word "diaspora". The definition is, "Israelite residents in Gentile countries".

Coming to the Gospel of Matthew (15:24), we have Christ's statement,"I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." In Matthew 10, when He sent out the twelve apostles, Jesus said, "Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and this injunction must refer to the whole of this dispensation, for it finishes with " Verily, 1 say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come" (verse 23), showing how wide must have been the dispersion in those days. It also clarifies that Christ's reference to Israel in this instance was not to the country we now call Isreal which they called Judea, as the gospel records show that Jesus adequately visited all the towns and cities within Judea at least once during his three years of ministry to the Jews.

Again Caiaphas, moved by the Holy Ghost, prophesied, "that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not for that nation only (i.e. the Jews), but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad" (John 11:51-52). These in Caiaphas's time could only be the cast-out, lost House of Israel.

Christ's parable of the husbandmen (Matt. 21:33-46) refers to the rejection and crucifixion of Christ by the House of Judah and so the "other husbandmen" or the "nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" must of necessity be Israel. For is not The Lord "the Redeemer of Israel" and the Nation so redeemed must be the one capable of bringing forth the fruits of the Kingdom which was taken from the Jews, and to be given to a Nation ?

Cannot we now claim that from Genesis to Revelation, God's scheme of rescue from the fall, in the redemption of Israel, is obvious, and that, after that redemption through the revelation was given to them, they were to carry the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth?

Direct references to the House of Israel in the New Testament

Mat 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Mat 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Act 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Act 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices [by the space of] forty years in the wilderness?

Hbr 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Hbr 8:10 For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:



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