Ephraimite/Two House Theory Cont'd...

This week we continue with our study of the Ephraimite/Two House theory and the flaws in that line of thinking. Let’s start with Jeremiah 31.31 which refers to the Brit Chadasha or “new” Covenant. This covenant is not new in the sense that most Christians have been taught. The word new is “chadash” in Hebrew and it means renewed, rebuilt, restored and is referring to the Covenant of Moab that God gave in Deut. 29.1 -30.10. What is renewed about this covenant is that the Torah will be written on our hearts which is another way of saying “born again” or “live.” Christian theology says the new covenant is a different covenant but that is impossible because the Torah is written on our hearts, not done away with. It is this change in us that allows us to obey the Torah. The problem is us, not the Torah. But notice that this covenant is given to Israel in Deut. and Judah and Israel in Jeremiah which is the same thing. Ephraimites/Two House, modern Judaism, Messianic Judaism teach that this covenant was only given to Israel.

But, the truth is that Israel was chosen to make this covenant with the Lord representing all the family of the Lord who would ever live. They were the “priests” who were to draw the people (including Gentiles) near. This was not exclusively given to just the Jewish people. That is an important concept to remember and figures into why Yeshua sent His followers in the 1st century unto “all the nations.” We all have come to know the Lord through the work of these people empowered by the Holy Spirit long after they have died. Israel was the ambassadors, recipients, priests of this covenant on behalf of the world. Jer. 31.34 says that when this covenant comes, you won’t need to teach his neighbor anymore. Now, we all know who the Lord says is our neighbor (Lk 10). When Israel came out of Egypt there was a “mixed multitude” and this is sometimes taught in a negative way. But, in Hebrew “mixed multitude” is “erev rav” and it means a large group of people “knitted, woven” together. Sound familiar? Non-Jews were always woven into the fabric of God’s plans and the new covenant was given to Israel as representing them, not exclusively for Israel alone.

They were to go out and tell the world the “good news” (basar) that the world has been reconciled and the promise to the Fathers (Messiah) has come. Well, I said all that to come to this. Non-Jews do not understand this, and for that matter neither do many Jewish people, but that is another story. Gentiles have tried to steal Israel’s identity for 1000’s of years because they don’t understand the whole role of Israel to begin with. Replacement Theology has been around along time. The Kings of Scotland had a stone that they said Jacob used as a pillow in Gen. 28. It is called the “stone of destiny” because the rulers believed they had a right to set up kings by the will of God. Well, the English Kings thought the same thing so they can’t have competitors out there so King Edward took the stone from the Scots. This stone has been recently returned to Scotland. The main issue here is the propaganda surrounding this stone and the need of the people to have their kings anointed on this stone to give them legitimacy.

This is what the Ephraimites/ Two House/ British Israelite/ Christian America movements have done, only without “the stone.” They have to “borrow” something in order to give themselves legitimacy so it’s the “we are the lost tribes” or “we are Ephraimites” or whatever to make them-selves feel important. To gain the acceptance of the leaders and those involved you have accept their teachings on this. They make you feel “special” or part of some “elite” group. There is no difference between all these different groups who try to convince people they are “the seed of Abraham.” The Scriptures are clear about how God feels about this physical “seed of Abraham” issue. He says that He can turn rocks into seeds of Abraham (Mt. 3.9). Being a physical descendent was not the point. The point the Lord makes is that it takes faith to be a seed of Abraham, not blood (Rom 4.13-16). Next week we will finish up with this question and hopefully tie up some loose ends.





This week we will conclude with this issue about The Ephraimite/Two House theory. It is the latest adaptation of the old Scottish-British Israelite theories, and it even goes back to the Book of Romans where Paul warns against arrogance by the nations (Rom 11). But, a rose by any other name is still a rose. Speaking of names, the Two House people prefer to be called Hebrew instead of Jew because they say Judah never existed until much later. Their publications will have names like “Hebrew Roots” and have subtle ways of getting you to see them in the right way, according to their theology. To these people Abraham was a “Hebrew” so they don’t like the term Jewish.” I’d like to ask them when did these “Hebrews” become Hebrews and just exactly how did they know? But I suspect they “knew” when someone told them they were and how they know is a little fuzzy. But I do know it didn’t come from the Lord. In Judges 12.1-6 the Ephraimites were driven so low that they had to falsify their identity. Now, people calling themselves Ephraimites are doing the same thing. Again, there is nothing new under the sun. Another problem with this is Jacob made up a small percentage of the world’s population and always has, until now. If you believe the Ephraimite/Two House movement they now make up 10% of the world’s population, and some say up to 33%. There is another question.

How did these “Ephraimites” come to speak so many languages and develop a different culture and lose the “Hebrew” roots all across the board. Go to any big city in America and you will see a variety of cultural expressions there. Where is the “Ephraimite” culture? It’s not there because it doesn’t exist except in the minds, books, CD’s, tapes and conventions of these people. There is no evidence in Josephus, a 1st century historian, to back any “lost tribes” theory and he ought to know. The New Testament mentions Anna from the tribe of Asher and James was written to the twelve tribes dispersed (not lost). Peter writes to them as well. Other Jewish historical writings do not support this theory either. These writers knew where they were and how to contact them. Ancient nations have all made war on the Jews (the name of one of Josephus’ books by the way). They have been tracked through history, from the Exodus from Egypt to the Hezbollah. Satan has made sure the “locals” have found out who they were and persecuted them.

Need I mention the Canaanites, Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks, Romans, Moslems, Spanish, English, Russians and the Germans to name a few? This whole “identity” nonsense is for one reason and one reason only, to increase the flock so they can be sheared! It’s the same thing that can be found at the heart of any false movement… power and money. There is nothing new to what they are teaching and saying if you look back in history. So, in conclusion I hope this has answered the initial question from several weeks ago about why people call themselves this. The same evil thread holds it all together, can be found going back to the time of the Judges and all the way up to the present time. There is so much more that can be said about this but we will move on to other things and other questions next week.

Are Birthdays Pagan Celebrations?

Q. Does the Bible attach any significance to birthdays?
A. That is a good question and it comes up every now and then. There are some denominations and believers in general who feel birthdays and their celebrations are wrong, but let’s see what the Scriptures say.

Two biblical holidays celebrate birthdays. Rosh Ha Sha-nah means “head of the year” and is biblically known as “Yom Teruah” (day of the awakening blast). This term is found in Num 29.1 and is the first day of creation while others believe it was the day Adam was created.

It begins the civil year and it is how the years were counted from creation, so at least it is the “birthday” of the world and it is celebrated every year.
The other is Passover which is the collective birthday of Israel according to Ezek 16.1-14.

A birthday can be a day to express thanksgiving to God for another year, for bringing you into this world to experience life with Him, entrusting you with a calling to know Him and to be a light to the world. This day is like a personal ”Rosh Ha Sha-nah” and it is a good time to recommit to the calling God gave you and realizing with another year of experience you can accomplish things better. Birthdays are not “evil” and everybody has one.

You don’t learn about birthdays from the pagans. Birthdays were recognized by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and anyone who had a genealogy and age mentioned in the Scriptures. If they didn’t keep track of them, how would a priest know he was 30 to enter service in the Temple? Yeshua knew how old He was and marked the time.
In Luke 2.42 it says He “became 12” so He had a birthday.

In Luke 3.23 it says He began His ministry when He was “about 30” so He had to know when His birthday was. Genesis 5.1-2 makes reference to Adams birthday. In Genesis 12.4 it says Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran so he knew how old he was.

In Genesis 15.9 it gives the ages of animals, which you would have to keep track of in order to have a proper sacrifice to God. Exodus 30.11-15 gives a command to give a half shekel by those 20 years old and older.
A widow can be put on the list for help at 60 years old in 1 Tim 5.9 and the list can go on.

There is no connection between the birthdays in the Bible and the evil which happened.

Job’s children were not struck down for celebrating a birthday. Is it any surprise Pharaoh and Herod had ungodly birthday celebrations?
Bad things happened at weddings in the Bible too so does that mean we shouldn’t have weddings? Birthdays are part of our life-cycle so let the Lord lead you about celebrating birthdays or not, but there is no command against it. What it comes down to is it really doesn’t matter whether you have a celebration or not, it’s up to you.

'Two-House' Theory

This week we are going to continue dealing with the question concerning a concept taught in Messianic circles concerning what is the “Ephraimite/Two House” theory and how it is affecting believers. Those in Christian Churches may not be familiar with this, but the roots of Gentile Christianity have similar concepts, and some Christian denominations still hold to some of it but it is known by different names. We ended last week with 4 major flaws of the teaching, which will be abbreviated to “E/TH” for convenience. First of all the main premise of this theory is that there are “lost tribes” and this is a myth. There are lost “sheep” or people but not lost tribes. They were not lost after Assyria and Babylon deported some of them to Mesopotamia. Many remained in the land and participated in Hezekiah’s Passover. They were known up to the first century and came to Jerusalem in Acts 2. Much of the information sent out by the adherents of the E/TH theory get their information from the old British Israelite teachings, so there is nothing new under the sun. Because the mainstream Messianic Movement teaches that Gentiles have less status than Jews, many came out of those congregations thinking they were not “up to par” with Jewish believers.

There had to be a reason they had a desire to follow the Torah, so it had to be they were “lost Jews/Israelites” and so the theory was resurrected, painted with a different brush and packaged different and then sold to unsuspecting believers. They began to emphasize bloodline lineage (which they can’t prove anyway) rather than faith and that always appeals to the flesh. For some, and I have personally experienced this many times, this theory became a litmus test. Either you were for them or against them. This teaching is racist and designed to make adherents feel special and give them the “upper hand” over other believers. Rather than see their desire to come out of pagan beliefs and follow the Messiah and His Torah as a fulfillment of the Spirit’s work reaching Gentiles, they disregard their Gentile roots and say they are “Ephraimites” or “Israelites” and play a semantic game.

They avoid being called “Jewish” because that is “Judah” and they see themselves as from the “lost” ten northern tribes even though for hundreds of years before Yeshua all these terms were synonymous, as history will attest to. Their leaders teach that the union of Judah and Israel, led by “Ephraim” (themselves) is one of the most significant prophecies concerning the work of the Messiah. They believe that Yeshua died on the cross so that the “two houses” may become one, quoting John 10.14-17. But this verse has nothing to do with their false teaching about two houses. He is referring to those who are not yet in the Kingdom of God, whether they are Jew or gentile.

Ephesians 2.11-22 speak of the Gentiles as being “afar off” but they have been brought near by Yeshua’s death and are “one man” with the Jewish believer and an heir to the same promises, which had always been God’s plan. It has nothing to do with seeking people with a particular blood-line and it has to do with faith in Him. When the Lord speaks of sheep He means people not tribes. Yeshua, John the Baptist, Paul and every New Testament writer knew full well that bloodline does not save anyone and it was not the purpose of the Messiah to save a certain ethnic group. God created the nation of Israel to fulfill His promise to the fathers that through them the nations of the earth would be blessed. They are to be the ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, the bearers of “good news” (gospel) to the world that all men have sinned but now have forgiveness in the Messiah by faith. Israel is to be “little lamps” in a dark world reaching the lost sheep in humanity not a particular tribe or tribes.

The lost sheep includes gentiles. E/TH teachers have twisted these Scriptures to say something it doesn’t. Volumes have been written about the grafting in of the Gentiles into one body, one faith, one olive tree and so on. To these “Ephraimites” the good news is that they are of ancient Israel and the sooner they realize their destiny the sooner certain prophecies can be fulfilled, but like Don Quixote they are fighting windmills and chasing the wind. James knew where the 12 tribes were (1.1) and knew how to get a hold of them. Yeshua did not die on the cross to unite the “two houses”. The Jewish people of the first century understood the role of the coming Messiah quite well. They knew that when the true Messiah came he would go to the Gentiles. In John 7.34 Yeshua said He was going away and they could not go with Him. They wondered among themselves whether He was now going to the Gentiles to teach.

They knew that the prophecies clearly state the one of the signs that Messiah had come would be the salvation of the Gentiles. Paul used his work among the Gentiles and the signs he saw as evidence that Yeshua was the Messiah. That’s why he was sent among the Gentiles to begin with, it was to seek the lost sheep and to teach them. Isa 56.6-8 plainly says that the Gentiles would join themselves to the Lord and serve Him and that He would “gather them” just like He did with Israel. The terms “afar off” and “scattered abroad” have to do with people separated from God spiritually, not physically. In Acts 1.6-8 the disciples (talmidim) ask Yeshua about this “physical reunion” they heard about and when it was going to happen. They thought Yeshua was going to be like King David and restore the physical kingdom and the tribes to their rightful “status” with all the other kingdoms under their authority. But Yeshua told them they didn’t have the right idea about it all and to go into the world and teach the good news and stop worrying about all that “other stuff.”

The “hope of the fathers” and the “promise of the Father” was the Messiah Himself (Gen 3.15) who would destroy the enemies of mankind (sin and death) and reconcile the world to Himself. Yeshua’s job was a lot bigger than just Israel, the tribes and it crossed every border of the world, they just didn’t understand that and neither do the adherents of the E/TH theory. They were told to get out there and be salt and light to every creature, teaching them about the redemption through Yeshua and making them students of the Kingdom of God. It has nothing to do with “lost Ephraimite identity” and the joining together of “two houses” and so on. Next week we will pick here with several other concepts including to whom was the New Covenant referring to and given to.

Are Gentiles Ephraimites?

Q. What is the basis for Gentile believers or Christians to identify themselves as “Ephraimites?”

A. Over the last 26 years I have been teaching the Scriptures, this question or ones like it have come up. So, over the next several weeks this will be dealt with and hopefully bring some much needed light to the subject for many who read these articles. It won’t be in massive detail but it will be enough for people to stay clear of this teaching and similar ones. The premise for this belief is when the northern 10 tribes rebelled against God they were dispersed among the Gentile nations, becoming a part of them. A remnant of these tribes including Ephraim, were preserved because they did not rebel and are included among those who call themselves Jews. Most of these “Ephraimites”, as they like to call themselves, claim to have blood lineage so they don’t call themselves “spiritual Ephraimites.” This is an old theological premise and has its roots in the British Israelite theories that were adopted by the World Wide Church of God and others.

It is similar to “The Two House” and “Messianic Israel” movements popular today. Seizing the opportunity to make money, this “call” to the lost Ephraimites goes out through tapes, printed media and massive conferences to unsuspecting people who have no mature knowledge of the Scriptures and believe this false teaching and that’s what we are going to look into over the next few articles. Ephraimites, Two House, British Israelites were never called to discover themselves among America, Britain or any nation. In past articles the concept of the “Lost Tribes” has been dealt with and it is a myth so that won’t be emphasized this time because there is so much more to this. The term “Two House” never appears in Scripture and this is a term that is only a few years old.

Those who claim to have Ephraimite /Two House identity without any evidence is stealing the identity of a person. It’s like trying to cash in on a bank account (blessing) by using the ID card of someone else. It is a lie and just a work of the flesh. God never called His people to build institutions or programs or theologies that put up walls between believers. These current movements come out of the racism and prejudice of the leadership of the current Messianic Jewish movement who teach a two-class system in their congregations. Many “Ephraimites” were once a part of this movement but were not included as equals. This can be well established by the leaders own words and actions. The problem is the “Ephraimite/Two House” adherents have a desire for Torah that far exceeds their spiritual maturity.

We don’t need to find an “identity” outside of the identity described for us in Scripture like “New Creation” in Yeshua, “servant”, “friend”, “Children of God”, “sons/daughters” and so on. There are four theological errors in these theories. First, it is built on the myth that the tribes lost their identity when Scriptural and historical evidence shows otherwise. Second, it has most believers in Yeshua being a descendent of these lost tribes when God’s plan is for all nations, not just descendants of Jacob to be saved. Third, they teach that only when believers realize their true identities can the prophecies of the union between Israel and Judah be fulfilled.

However, Scripture teaches that this union comes as a distinct event from the salvation of the Gentiles. And lastly, you can’t prove you are descended from a lost tribe anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. Yeshua, John the Baptist and Paul taught that it took faith to be a “seed of Abraham” not blood. Next week we will continue with this question in more detail so this is just an introduction if you will. We will “dig in” to this subject and deal with the above four errors and how it relates to what the Lord is trying to accomplish in these last days.