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.