A Critique Of "'Chosen People'
Inside the Mind of Christian Identity"
The following is an answer to a future article in the Media Bypass. Despite
the article praising "Christian Identity," it is an excellent publication,
and worthy of your examination.
Check their web site, http://www.4bypass.com/
"'Chosen People' Inside the Mind of Christian Identity"
According to God's Word, there are some serious errors in the July 1996
issue of the Media Bypass article, 'Chosen People.'
Many sincere people are being influenced by “Christian” Identity. Before
converting to the “Identity” religion, one should do his homework. Is it
“Christian?” Who is Israel? Who is covered by God's Law-Word? Who is the
Abrahamic Covenant with? Is there a physical race of God's Chosen People
on the earth today? According to God's Word, are folks being led into a
false religion that looks like the truth?
First, it rightly admits that "Christian Identity" is a faith, or
religion. Thus it is in opposition to the Orthodox Biblical Christian faith
which says that the Redeemed, or the People of God, consist of people of
every nation, kindred and tongue, Rev 5:9. According to Thayer's Greek-English
Lexicon, Rev 5:9 must be understood thusly.
A) kindred means all the persons descended from
one of the twelve sons of Jacob; a race, nation, people; thus Israel.
B) tongue means the language used by a particular people
in distinction from that of other nations... It serves to designate people
of various languages, so the obvious reference is to all tongues and races
originating at the tower of Babel. The same word us used in Rev 7:9; 10:11;
11:9; 13:7; 14:6; 17:15. Accordingly, contained among the great number
of redeemed before the throne are people from every language group under
heaven.
C)people means a people, tribe, nation, all those who
are of the same stock and language; univ. of any people. Thayer gives the
same additional uses in Rev as he did under tongue.
D) nation means race, nation, foreign nations not worshiping
the true God, pagans, Gentiles. Paul uses nation to define the race
of people outside of Israel to which he was sent by God with the gospel,
Rom 11:13, 15:27; 26:4; Gal 2:12, 14; Eph 3:1, cf. 4:17.
Accordingly, those who might say that God's "Chosen People" are only found
in the White, Anglo-Saxon race might have an "intense" knowledge, but it
is not knowledge of the Christian Bible, particularly the New Testament,
nor of the Christian God.
Restricting God's electing, redeeming grace to one nation or tribe of people
is not Biblical Christianity nor is it the Christian God. The extent of
their "intense" Bible knowledge is also shown in the following.
Second, "Identity" claims to have scholarly support for its position
that the White race is the Israel of old; however, notice their "scholars"
are recent "Identity" scholars, e.g., Raymond Capt and James Bruggeman.
They wisely (subtilly?) avoid the fact that Orthodox Christian scholars
from the very foundation of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ do not
support their suppositions, e.g.,
1) Justin Martyr (AD 110-165). In his very lengthy AD 160
"Dialogue with Trypho, A Jew, we find these headings: "CHAP. XXVI. - NO
SALVATION TO THE JEWS EXCEPT THROUGH CHRIST," "CHAP. CXXIII. - RIDICULOUS
INTERPRETATIONS OF THE JEWS. CHRISTIANS ARE THE TRUE ISRAEL," and "CHAP.
CXXV. - HE EXPLAINS WHAT FORCE THE WORD ISRAEL HAS, AND HOW IT SUITS CHRIST."
(ANTI-NICENE FATHERS, v. I.194-270.) His writings are among the
most important Christian writings to come down from the second century.
Though not the first to write Christian Apologetics, he gives us insight
into the relations existing between the heathens and Christians in those
days. His "Dialogue" shows the early Christian view of the false assumption
that anyone except Christians are the true Israel of God. Under the three
points mentioned above, Justin presents abundant Scriptural support to
counter the false assumptions of his day concerning Israel.
2) Keil-Delitzsch is no doubt the classic Old Testament Commentary.
No pastor's library should be without the 10 volume set. According to Keil-Delitzsch,
As the Hebrew..., like the German..., is not always used in
an exclusive sense, but is frequently abstracted from what lies behind
the terminus ad quem mentioned, it by no means follows from the
words, “the Lord rejected Israel... to this day,” that the ten tribes
returned to their own country after the time when our books were written,
viz. about the middle of the sixth century B.C. And it is just as impossible
to prove the opposite view, which is very widely spread, namely, that they
are living as a body in banishment even at the present day. It is well
known how often the long-lost ten tribes have been discovered, in the numerous
Jewish communities of southern Arabia, in India, more especially in Malabar,
in China, Turkistan, and Cashmir, or in Afghanistan, and even in America
itself; and now Dr. Asahel Grant thinks that he has found them in the independent
Nestorians and the Jews living among them; whereas others, such as Witsius,
J.D. Michaelis, and last of all Robinson in the work quoted by Ritter,
have endeavored to prove that the ten tribes became partly mixed up with
the Judaeans during the Babylonian captivity, and partly attached themselves
to the exiles who were led back to Palestine by Zerubbabel and Ezra; that
a portion again became broken up at a still later period by mixing with
the rest of the Jews, who were scattered throughout the world after the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and a further portion a long time ago
by conversion to Christianity, so that every attempt to discover the
remnants of the ten tribes anywhere must be altogether futile. This
view is in general the correct one, though its supporters have mixed up
the sound arguments with many that are untenable. For example, the predictions
quoted by Ritter..., probably after Robinson (viz. Jer 1. 4, 5, 17, 19,
and Ezek. xxxvii. 11 sqq.), and also the prophetic declarations cited by
Witsius (v. 11-14: viz Isa xiv. 1, Mic. ii. 12, Jer. iii. 12, xxx. 3, 4,
xxxiii. 7, 8), prove very little, because for the most part they refer
to Messianic times and are to be understood spiritually... And the Mosaic
manners and customs of the Nestorians prove nothing more than that they
are of Jewish origin. In general, the Israelites and Jews who have come
into heathen lands from the time of Salmanasar and Nebuchadnezzar onwards,
and have settled there, have become so mixed up with the Jews who were
scattered in all quarters of the globe from the time of Alexander the Great,
and more especially since the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans,
that the last traces of the old division into tribes have entirely disappeared.
(Keil-Delitzsch, 2 Kgs 17:22, 23, vol. III.418-421. 1807- 1888/1813-1890
respectively. Emp added.)
Third, origin of the Anglo-Saxon faith is not from the Holy Scripture,
as is the Christian faith. E.P Ingersoll, in his preface to Lost Israel
found, (1886) claimed the ideas that developed into the "Identity"
religion grew out of a study of the Great Pyramid of Geezeh, by Prof. P.
Smyth, Royal Astronomer to Scotland. James Hastings, in his 1926 classic
Encyclopaedia of Religion & Ethics (in 13 huge volumes), documents
that the Anglo-Saxon faith came from John Sadler's Rights of the Kingdom
(1649). Sadler's assumptions were drawn from a series of parallels
between English law and customs and those of Hebrews and Jews. The more
modern version of the Identity faith comes from John Wilson's Our Israelitish
Origin (1849), and the first Association was formed in 1879. (Study-Graph,
Survey of Major Cults, 1965, John H. Gerstner, Ph. D.) What a wonderful,
firm foundation to build religious system upon: The Great Pyramid! Note
the dates were after the foundation of America, which Identity falsely
claims was founded in Identity theories.
Fourth, "'Saxon' is a derivative of 'Issac Sons.'" Again,
Identity wisely avoids Webster, probably the greatest orthoepist and lexicographer
of the English language, for obvious reasons. According to the 1828 Webster
dictionary, SAXON, n. [Sax. seax, a knife, sword or dagger, a Saxon.]
1. One of the nations or people who formerly dwelt in the northern part
of Germany, and who invaded and conquered England in the fifth and sixth
centuries. The Welsh still call the English Sasons. In addition,
the 1884 Chamber's Encyclopeadia says concerning the word “Saxon:” SAXONS
(Lat. Saxones, Ger. Saxchsen), a German people, whose
name is usually derived from an old German word sahs, meaning a `knife,'…”
(Chambers Encyclopeadia, a Dictionary of Universal knowledge for the people,
vol. VII.101. 1884.)
In the introduction to his 1828 dictionary, Webster deals with the common
words used by different language groups: Being a Christian, Webster assumed
the world-wide Biblical Flood was just what God said it was, a world-wide
flood. Therefore, similarities in the languages, he said, are holdovers
from the common language all peoples had before the tower of Babel. (Introduction,
p. 9.)
Fifth, "the Abrahamic Covenant of the Bible." Isa 42:4-6
& 49:8 clearly identify Christ as the Covenant of God. Thus all who
are in Christ are in the Covenant, for HE IS THE COVENANT. One is placed
in the Abrahamic Covenant by grace through faith in the redemptive work
of Christ, Gal 3:14; Eph 2:8, 9. Nor can we ignore the promised Covenant
of Jer 31:31. The Covenant was not made with any physical race of people;
the covenant was made with Christ and His Church, Heb 10:16, 17, 2 Cor
3:3, &c. Furthermore, all nations are held accountable to the Covenant
Law of God, Ps 9:7; Isa 13:1-23:8; 24:1-6, 21; Jer 11:2, 3; 18:7-10; 24:1-8;
25:29, and Jer 50, whether they agreed to it or not.
Sixth, America, the covenant nation? Lev 25:18, 19, promises
that if a nation will keep and do God’s statutes and judgments,
it will dwell safely in its own land. Conversely, departure from God’s
Word turns the nation that once dwelt safely over to the pagans, Ps 144:15;
Deut 28:15ff. Ps 33:12, tells us that race has nothing whatsoever to do
with being established safely in a land, e.g., “We are a white, Anglo-Saxon
nation; therefore, we are special before God.” Violation of God’s statutes
and judgments causes any nation founded upon them to no longer
dwell safely in a land. Thus any nation established upon God's statutes
and judgments is heir to the blessings of God promised in Ps 33:12,
&c. (See Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, #326e. Moody
Press.) On the other hand, when that nation turns its back upon God's Law-Word,
it forfeits its safety in the land. In fact, God uses heathen nations to
punish those who are unfaithful to their foundational covenant with Himself.
Just as sure as God moved His servant, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon,
against His people in Palestine (Jer 25:19, &c.), God is now moving
foreign national troops, e.g., German and Russian, into His place of judgment
against America’s anti-Biblical, Antinomian “Christianity.” “Promise Keepers,”
“Dobsonites” and “Gothardites” continue to multiply, and televangelists
continue to rake in the money to "convert the world and feed the hungry"
while foreign troops enlarge their presence upon American soil. Why cannot
people add two and two and get a proper answer? Clearly, what is being
promoted as Christianity is not Biblical Christianity, or American Christians
would not be on the verge of losing their land, Lev 25:18, 19.
Only the antiChristians deny that the founders of America entered into
covenant with the Lord God of the Christian Bible.
This nation was founded upon and by the Christian God, not the god exalted
by Judaism, Jn 8:54; Jesus Christ clearly told the Jews that the god they
worshiped, which did not point to Himself, was a false god and not the
God of Abraham. Thus the Christian God is defined as He Who: 1) can be
approached by all nationalities; 2) is approached only through the shed
blood of His Son, Christ Jesus, and 3) is revealed in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ (thou shalt call his name JESUS, Mat 1:21.) Thus
He is not the Jewish god nor the god worshiped by the majority of "religious"
people today, for their god does not require the blood sacrifice for sin.
These united States do not have a Judaic/Christian heritage; they
have a distinctly Biblical Christian heritage, emanating from the desire
to spread the gospel of Christ to every creature (not just the "Anglo-Saxon"
race). It was clearly the Christian God Who established America. (The
Christian Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States,
B.F. Morris, Introduction, p II. G.W. Childs, Philadelphia, PA, 1864.)
"[T]hese United States" were to be the theater of the development and triumph
of the Christian religion, the gospel of Christ, not the Jewish religion.
The fathers of America entered into a covenant with the Christian God of
the Bible. John Winthrop (1588-1649), aboard the flagship Arabella,
spelled out what would happen to his national posterity if it forsook the
covenant with God. (See God and Government, The Restoration of the Republic,
vol. III.xi.) The early commitment of this nation, supported by every colony,
was to faithfully obey the Law-Word of God, spread the gospel of Christ
to every creature and advance the kingdom of God on earth. (Christian
Character, 52.) In a large New Haven barn on June 4th, 1639, the founding
fathers of these united States made the following covenant with the Christian
God:
"Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Almighty God, by wise disposition
of his divine providence, so to order and dispose of things that we, the
inhabitants of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, are now cohabiting
and dwelling in and upon the river of Connecticut, and the lands thereunto
adjoining, and well knowing where a people are gathered together the word
of God requireth that, to maintain the peace and union of such a people,
there should be an orderly and decent government established according
to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons
as occasion should require; do, therefore, associate and conjoin ourselves
to be as one public STATE or COMMONWEALTH, and do enter into combination
and confederation to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the
gospel of our LORD JESUS, which we now profess, as also the discipline
of the churches, which, according to the truth of said gospel, is now practiced
amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according
to such laws, rules, and orders, and decrees as shall be made.
"I. That the Scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction
and government of all men in all duties which they are to preform to God
and to men, as well in families and commonwealths as in matters of the
church.
"II. That as in matters which concern the gathering and ordering
of a church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order,--as
the choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing
allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature,--they would all
be governed by those rules which the Scripture held forth to them. ...
The General Court, established under this constitution, ordered,--
"That God's word should be the only rule for ordering the affairs of
government in this commonwealth." (Christian Character, 66-68.)
In Exo 19:8; 24;3, 7, the Hebrews at the mount said, "All the words which
the Lord hath said will we do." (Compare Jn 14:15 with Ac 7:30-38: It was
Jesus Christ Who spoke to the Hebrews.) They, accordingly, agreed to do
the Law of God as revealed through Moses. The founding fathers, with no
thought of whether or not they were decedents of the Hebrews of old, said,
"All the words of God's Law we will do." And thus they made a covenant
with the Christian God of both the Old and the New Testaments, for the
God they covenanted with is revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ;
He is, therefore, not the Jewish god. They promised to base the laws and
actions of their new nation in Holy Scripture; they promised the Christian
God that if He prospered them, they would render strict obedience to God's
Word; they made it clear that if the nation they founded departed from
the covenant they made with the Christian God, that God's wrath and
vengeance would be upon the faithless people for breaching their covenant.
America’s founding fathers’ agreement with the Lord God placed the following
generations of Americans within the covenant- conditions of possessing
the land (Lev 25:18) that have stood since Abraham.
The original covenant was not between the civil authority and the people
under that authority; the covenant was between the people and the Christian
God of the Bible Who established their nation. We must all admit that the
covenant has been broken, but which covenant? Those looking and hoping
for a political solution requiring no repentance and obedience to God's
Word (even Antinomian Christians) say the covenant that is broken is between
the Federal civil government in DC and the people, i.e., the Constitution.
However, those who believe God's Word know the covenant that is broken
is the one between the people and the Christian God: The people promised
to render strict obedience to God's Law-Word, and the founders agreed to
God's righteous vengeance if they or their children departed from that
covenant.
Every weapon that fallen man can bring to bear has been used against that
founding covenant to pattern America's laws after God's Law-Word. The state
education system has been, probably, the most effective weapon.
Abraham, the father of those who have placed their faith in Christ (Ro
4; Ga 3:9, 29, &c.), walked in the statutes of the Lord long
before the Ten Commandments were given. He is held up as the example for
all God's people of all time — till the end of time. Thus any person or
nation, e.g., America (clearly founded in the Christian faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ), can enter into the covenant relationship that Abraham had,
and receive the blessings outlined in Deut 28, 29. On the other hand, those
who fail to walk in His statutes will inherit the curses. Nationality has
nothing to do with the blessings and curses of the law, for the law covers
every living soul, or there is no final judgment according to God's Law.
Certainly, every pulpit in this nation at one time sounded forth the responsibilities
of the covenant made by America's founding fathers with the Christian God
as revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ, but that message was not the
message that the Anglo-Saxon race is somehow, though a series of supposed
travels, God's "Chosen People." It was a distinctly Calvinistic message
that held that the Elect of all races are God's Chosen People. It is by
God's sovereign, electing grace that one enters into the covenant, and
God does not call according to race.
Seventh, some day even those who hate the name of Jesus will
have to bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, Php 2:10,
11.
The above facts, and many more, are throughly documented in Pastor Need's
book, Identitying Identity.
Rev. R.J. Rushdoony said of Identifying Identity: "Pastor Ovid Need,
Jr., has a discerning and systematic mind, and this appears clearly in
his study, Identifying Identity: A Biblical Examination of Assumptions
Found in British-Israelism, Anglo-Saxonism, Christian Identity (spiral-bound,
72 pp., King and Kingdom Publishers, P.O. Box 6, Linden, Indians
47955; telephone 765-339-4609; $14 postpaid). This is a detailed exegitical
analysis, made without rancor or unkindliness, of some of the basic assumptions
of champions of that faith. In specific, the premises of one man are analyzed,
but these are points common to most in the Identity Movement. Ministers
should keep a copy of this work on hand to answer questions, or to loan
to troubled persons. The fact that derelict ideas are sometimes held by
likeable people does not lessen their danger. Pastor Need s analysis represents
much painstaking study, and we are all the better for having his manual.
It is detailed, specific, and Biblical. He explains and corrects rather
than condemning and is always gracious." (Chalcedon Report, June, 1996.)
[America's conversion to "Protestant Zionism" is well documented
in The Death of Victory, a 460 page book by Pastor Ovid Need Jr.,
Ross House Books. 1997.]
Pastor Ovid Need Jr.
Linden Baptist Chruch
30 Plum St
Linden Indiana
(Pastor Need publishes a serious theological paper, The Biblical
Examiner, which examines issues as mentioned above from a throughly Biblical
perspective. It is sent upon request, as the Lord provides.)
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