Dear Matt and Doves,

I write in response to Matt's 'throwing a little water on the theory of the
10 lost tribes making up the Christian nations'. He brings some fair
questions to the table, and I would like to comment on them, as this is too
valuable a subject to just let pass for the sake of keeping the peace.

We get so many interesting postings each day here at the fivedoves website.
It would appear that most readers have staunch leanings in support of the
nation of Israel; the awareness of our shared roots with our Jewish brothers
can only help us all to more fully understand why this is so.
Whether we like it or not, the war in Lebanon is our war, too. I don't need
to explain that statement to the majority of the readers here because this
understanding we innately share. We are fighting for our way of life, with
all the unpleasantries that war involves. Our grandparents and great
grandparents had to do it in the two World Wars of last century, and it is
our time now to stand up and resist the great evil of our day, which is the
sword of Islam.

Jesus says that he will rule the nations with a rod of iron, and he doesn't
mix his words here! In fact, he says this commission to rule the nations
with strictness will be delegated to those who keep his works to the end
(Revelation 2:26,27). The same iron rule over the nations is spoken of
elsewhere (Zechariah 14:16-19). No nation is excepted because, as we know so
well from our current predicament, Islamic nations cannot be appeased. The
rod of iron is the only thing they'll understand. I have written this
preamble as it relates to what follows.

First things first, I entirely empathise with Matt's comment about the
singling out of the Anglo-American nations smacking of chauvinism. I had
this very attitude toward the subject of the 10 tribes myself for more than
three years. Believe me, three years is a fair stretch of time to be
carrying around such feelings of antagonism.
A church friend of mine used to constantly go on about who the lost tribes
are and their importance in God's plan for today, and I dedicated myself to
proving him wrong. Some of the literature he gave me on the subject was
nothing short of racist apologetics using a biblical base, and this not only
infuriated me, but it also obfuscated the message coming from the more
balanced and scholarly writers on the subject.
I don't know what became of that friend, it was so long ago now. But I think
he might have lost his way by going to a more extreme position on the
subject, which is why I always say you've got to be careful and discerning
when you start learning these things. Everything must ultimately be to the
glory of God and His Word or else we're just wasting time.

Linda said this knowledge should make our knees buckle in humility, and she
is right. We have nothing to be proud of for being the physical descendants
of Israel. The only glory in this whole saga goes to the LORD and His
faithfulness unto all generations. How could we possibly be proud, when the
reason we were scattered across the whole earth, to be regathered in the
fullness of time, was because we were never faithful to the covenant we made
with God in the Wilderness in the first instant!? What other nation did the
LORD covenant with? Only Israel, and we failed miserably in living up to our
end of the bargain.

The House of Judah at least made an effort to stay faithful, and have kept
their history and identity as the people of God, but the House of Israel -
the Northern Kingdom - never really worshipped the LORD for any meaningful
amount of time, and so we never really identified ourselves as belonging to
Him anyway. The House of Judah and the House of Israel have very different
destinies to fulfill according to Scripture.
The Northern Kingdom - the House of Israel, also called Ephraim - rejected
the first covenant and suffered the consequences thereof, as detailed at
Deuteronomy 28 and 29. The prophet Hosea lived out and personified this
destiny of Israel through his own family life. But you will find, as you
read through the prophet Hosea, that God forgives and saves Ephraim, just as
Hosea's own children are redeemed (Hosea 1:2-11; 14:1-9; compare 1 Peter
2:4-10, and Psalm 118:8,9,22,23).

When Jesus spoke to the Jewish clergy (Matthew 21:28-44), he used the two
sons as a type of Judah and Ephraim / Israel. Judah said he would work the
vineyard for his Father, but he didn't do so, and was culpable in the murder
of the heir, who walked among him. Ephraim refused to work the vineyard, but
later repented, and worked the vineyard for his Father by taking up the name
of the heir. For this our Lord promised he would wrest the kingdom of God
from Judah and give it to Ephraim / Israel.
I wrote previously of why I believe the Lord Jesus is here referring
specifically to America, using the symbols that America employs today on the
Great Seal as evidence (Psalm 118). In the fullness of time, America took up
the calling that Judah forfeited. America was founded by people who moved
there to literally become Israel, to enjoy the freedom of worship that could
never be obtained in hopelessly idolatrous Europe.

http://wnd.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51480

Matt, try and understand what God has done through His servant nation.
It is America that has taken up the Lord's commission, which is the kingdom
of God, by taking the Bible to 'all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues' - the very Scripture you quoted from at Revelation 7:9.
It is America that is spoken of at Revelation 12, when God says that 'to the
woman (Israel) were given two wings of a great eagle' that she might be
protected from the serpent.
It is America that is spoken of in Psalm 118, a nation that has as its
motto, IN GOD WE TRUST, and that has the symbols of this psalm on its Great
Seal.
It is a divinely-appointed role, and the prophets spoke of it, and God kept
faithful to His Word by bringing it to pass in the fullness of time. Most
importantly, He left the symbols as a witness in His Word of the identity of
the nation that would bring forth the fruits of the kingdom of God. These
are the fruits that you guys in America have to fight to keep. You'll find
these fruits written into your nation's founding documents, and in the
documents of each State as it has entered into the Union.

The benefits of being a lost Israelite, as you ask, are meaningless without
Christ. The whole purpose of the regathering of the lost tribes is to
witness to Christ to all nations of the world. Jesus always said that there
would be tares sown amongst the wheat when referring to his kingdom (Matthew
13:24-30). So you have it in America today, where liberals and their ilk are
using your freedoms to try and erase Christ from your nation. These wicked
people enjoy all the benefits and blessings promised by God to the nation of
Israel if they kept His Word (Deuteronomy 28:1-14); and in partial answer to
your question these, too, are the national benefits enjoyed through being a
lost Israelite. Even the tares among your people get blessed above other
nations of the world, enjoying wealth and opportunities not afforded to
other nations.

Matt, you write that Anglo-Americans have been pretty much running the show
for the last two hundred years and that the world is in a real mess. There
is much truth in what you say, but I believe you are missing the full
picture here.
I put it to you, Matt, and indeed to all who are reading this, where would
the world be today if it were not for the Anglo-American influence of the
last two hundred years?
Where would all these nations, people, kindreds, and tongues be that the
Bible says will worship God for eternity?
How would the Word of God ever have reached their shores, but for the
Anglo-American missionaries - the seed of Abraham - taking the gospel of the
resurrected Christ to them, thereby becoming a blessing for all nations?
What kind of world would we be living in now if it wasn't for the dominant
influence of the Anglo-American peoples over the last two hundred years?
And where would the world be today without Britain, and especially America?
Let me cue you in answer to that last question. Just take a look at
fanatical Islam as it is right now. Without the Anglo-American influence
restraining the onslaught of Isalm, this would be the lot for the whole of
humanity. Total spiritual enslavement, and impoverishment of the human
spirit.
It was the British Empire, in particular, that halted the evil of Nazi
Germany.
It was the United States that saved the world from the hell of atheistic
Communism.
It's the United States and Britain that is standing in the way of this
latest evil of Islamic fascism.
Wake up, Matt!
WE are the nations that have taken the Cross of Christ to the world.
In OUR seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, all nations of the world shall be
blessed.

I urge you, Matt, to think a lot more deeply about what's been going on and
what's at stake here. Sure, we haven't always done what's right over the
years. And a humbler attitude would definitely take us a long way, as I will
point out in the next paragraph or two.
But please don't sell us short by negating the great good we have done, and
are still doing, for the world in service of Christ. None of it would've
happened without the genealogies you want to put aside, because those are
the people the Lord has used to become His servant nation and make His Name
known.
Yes, the tribes were never lost in His eyes. God never forgot those
genealogies, which is why they are there in His Word to this day.

Look, I live in South Korea and am amazed at how poorly America represents
itself here. You guys are supposed to have invented marketing, and yet
America is losing the PR battle simply because it's got its head in the sand
and it's not listening to the pulse of the Korean people. Maybe the stress
of keeping the nations in check is beginning to tell on America.
I can tell you in this part of the world that PR comes down to basic
humility; to small things done well. It's a crying shame that you guys have
got the wrong people here representing you because Korea is a nation that
has embraced Christianity in a huge way. Because of this, it wouldn't be a
difficult task to win back the man in the street, but it needs to be done
soon as the consequences grow more serious as it's left unattended.

This touches on another point that needs to be said in passing. Learning who
we are from the history of the 10 lost tribes means learning about the great
faithfulness of God. This knowledge should enrich us and give us a greater
understanding of the sacrifices the Lord Jesus Christ made for us. It
especially helps in shedding light on Bible prophecy. Vitally so.
There are also many things folks have been predicting will come to pass, and
most of these predictions have been made without taking into account this
crucial awareness of who the biblical Israel actually is. I believe this
allows for a large margin of error in some predictions.

It also needs to be said that the message of tribal identity is not really
appropriate for where I live, in Korea. It would be pretty pointless
teaching this knowledge here as it simply doesn't apply to Koreans.
Knowledge of the lost tribes does have its context, and in the context of
Korea it would add no value to the gospel. Once we have given it up to the
Lord, we are adopted into Israel, regardless of ethnicity. There is no
distinction to be made.
But in the context of the physical descendants of Ephraim / Israel, this
teaching has a vital place. As Linda said, if we wake up nationally to who
we really are, other nations are going to have to take sides. As Joshua
said: 'But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD' (Joshua 24:15).

And finally, as concerns the 144,000 from the 12 tribes spoken of at
Revelation 7, it is my conviction that this is to be read symbolically
rather than literally. I believe there is no distinction between the
144,000 from all tribes and the innumerable company of saints spoken of in
verse 9. They are one and the same. The number 144,000 is purely symbolic,
just as many other of the numbers - and, indeed, imagery - found in the
Revelation.
For starters, we know that the tribe of Dan will be represented in the
future numbering of the tribes, as is made clear in Jacob's vision for the
last days at Genesis 49:16-18. Furthermore, Dan's is one of the 12
foundation stones of the New Jerusalem, the Hebrew sappir being the Greek
sappheiros, rendered as sapphire in the Authorised Version.
My conviction is that one of the reasons Manasseh subs in for Dan at
Revelation 7 is for the purposes of identification through gematria. In
Greek, the 12 tribes listed at Revelation 7 sum by gematria to 8880 by
having Manasseh in for Dan. Anyone interested in gematria knows that the
value of the name Jesus is 888, and these are his tribes. Hence 888 times 10
equals 8880.
There are other reasons, too, for Manasseh's name being listed in place of
Dan, and I believe it might have something to do with the two tribes being
conflated in the symbology on the obverse of the Great Seal of the United
States. But that's another story.

This is a long posting, but it needed to be written.
To the likes of Ellen, the two Lindas, and others who have touched on this
subject I say this:
Please, don't let this vital topic peter out on the fivedoves website. There
will be opposition, for reasons you will already be familiar with. But keep
up your postings. Keep informing the people of their Christian identity and
birthright obligation, which is to make Christ known in all the earth. Don't
sell yourself short or let others sell you short. You know how much of an
epiphany this knowledge has been in your own relationships with the living
Christ, and the deep respect for God's Word that it nurtures. Truly, He is
indeed a God that is faithful unto all generations! So keep the flame of
this knowledge constant on this website.
To Matt, I don't expect any of this will come to you easy. I know only too
well the barriers to this knowledge that are erected in your thoughts, and
they are very hard to break down. Scripture alone can be the reference, and
understanding only comes about through thorough and prayerful searching out
of the matter. Thank you for throwing some water on this theory. It can only
help this planting of the LORD to grow.
Is this matter a salvation issue? No, it is not.
Does this mean we should ignore it? No, it does not.
Is it necessary for us to study this subject? No, it is not.
Will we understand our God better if we do study the subject?
Unquestionably.
Should we oppose this teaching? No, we should not.
If we oppose it, we are opposing the knowledge and plan of God set out in
His Word.
But remember, the whole of this matter centres around Christ: the testimony
of his death; his resurrection; the outpouring of the Spirit; and,
crucially, the commission to take this message of the gospel of Jesus Christ
to the nations. These are the roots and the offspring of this entire
subject, our heritage and inheritance as the children of Israel.

I am a Kiwi, from New Zealand. I'm not American. But I recognise the awesome
plan of God Almighty in commissioning America as a peculiar people, an holy
and Christian nation responsible for taking the kingdom of God to the
nations of the world. The world knows you for this, for being THE Christian
nation of the world. Your enemies know this better than you do yourself!
So wake up! And learn who you really are!

God bless the United States of America!

Yours in Christ,
Stephen Coneglan