By Liaf
Here we go again. When conversing with Christian friends on the Internet or wherever, they warn me of the "dangers" of believing the lost tribes ended up in Britain, the United States and kindred peoples. According to them, this is a heretical, racist belief that any "Spirit-filled" Christian wants nothing to do with. Perhaps they even go as far as thinking ol' Liaf here is not even a Christian. It does get a little weary to keep whacking at them with the verses like Genesis 35:11 and Genesis 48:19 like whacking at pesky flies. It seems no matter how much firepower one has for this solid biblical truth; they just circumvent the promises by reinterpreting them to fit their notions (while ironically claiming I do the same with these verses). But as I stated in several messages on this site to the point of sounding like a broken record (for those of you that remember such contraptions), I want to reiterate 3 main things, or I should say excuses that explain away the promises in Genesis where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Ephraim were to become many nations. But before I continue, one may be wondering why we make such a big deal about the "nations" part of the prophecy. The reason is simply this: Genesis with the Abrahamic Covenant is the core foundation of the bible, and the promises of many nations were included with the promised "Seed". If God reneged on any part of the promises, then the promises of Messiah go out the window by default, and Christianity falls flat on its face (as does Judaism). That does not bother the likes of atheists who have their uppity attitude so high that their nostrils catch 747's. And likewise, it does not bother those of another faith because they would love nothing more than to disprove the God of the bible. So, here comes happy "Spirit-filled" Christians who want to assassinate the likes of Liaf here as a heretic while being totally oblivious to the fact that in doing so they are helping the Enemy. And they are equally oblivious to the fact that they are ignoring a major part of the Covenant while the enemies are laughing behind their backs because they do not know, nor care about what God promised. Thus, they look totally asinine. No wonder people don't want to become a Christian. But when an unbeliever hears Liaf talking about Genesis, I must admit (whether or not they turn into believers), I have their attention as they realize there's something "different" about me. I'm not from a cattle herd somewhere mooing the same thing.
OK, so what are the things that Christians say about the "many nations" part of the promises?
It is totally amazing that most of mainline Christendom do not believe in lost tribes at all. According to many, all 12 tribes returned after the Babylonian captivity. We find this totally amazing and unacceptable. I don't even bother to discuss anything with such a person because no serious historian, or Jewish scholar, Rabbi or whoever else denies that some of their tribal brethren were exiled in the Assyrian Captivity and never returned. Here at this site we won't even waste our time proving that tribes never came back because there are oodles of reliable sources that attest to this (just go to the Encyclopedia Britannica, online sources, Jewish and otherwise). And I find it equally appalling when those who would accuse us of heresy would deny such blatant facts like that, then have the gall to claim God keeps His promises and will keep all 12 tribes of his people. So, their way out is to "invent" their own history where they don't have to face that fact (lest it would mess up their theology, I presume).
However, if one wants to believe the Jews are all 12 tribes, then all one has to do is point out that the Jews never became many nations. In fact, they were dispersed into many nations and had no nation that they could call their own after their fall after Christ. And even in these ends times, although the Jews (which we believe is the house of Judah) was strengthened to become an end-time nation as the bible predicts, the nation is still walking on eggshells, and is a headache for all involved. Besides, the very name of "Jew" is derived from the tribal name of Judah. To which tribe did the promise of many nations go to? It was passed down from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then to Joseph (which Ephraim is part). It did not go to the tribe of Judah (a brother of Joseph).
I would not get too bent out of shape from warnings of "going to hell" from such Christians. If the Jew is the best their God could do, I doubt he has any power to send anyone there. Their argument is so ludicrous that I would make better use of my time teaching my cats calculus.
Some Christians point out that Abraham had other wives, and their children became other nations. This includes those from Ishmael and Midianites for example. At least that's a little nobler attempt to find these nations rather than sweeping them under the rug. However, there is a genealogical problem with that theory. You see, the promise of nations were passed down to Isaac, then to Jacob (Genesis 35:11) and then finally to Joseph's son Ephraim (Genesis 48:19). Even Paul attested in the New Testament that,
In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
In other words, there was a definite lineage that the promises were passed through to. Ishmael was Jacob's Uncle, and Joseph's great uncle. Why would the promises of many nations promised to Jacob and Joseph become fulfilled a generation sooner and in another lineage? Sorry, but Ishmael was not the line of promise. Jacob's brother Esau (the father of Edom) was not the promised lineage. If God granted Abraham nations in these lines as well, we have no argument with that, but that was not the actual fulfillment of it. The nations would definitely have to appear in the promised lineage as well.
To use an example more familiar to us, how many times have we read about a rich person dying and then all sorts of obscure relatives turn up claiming the inheritance? That's what Ishmaelites, Midianites, Edomites, and you-name-it represents. But many in Christendom would actually claim that the inheritance is theirs! Think of it! However, if there is no will, the courts usually trace the next of kin, to the child, the grandchild and so forth (analogous to Abraham's sons Isaac, Jacob and Joseph). Needless to say, I think most people would agree that the inheritance would go to the next of kin and not some great uncle, or second cousin or whoever else first. If these extra relatives do get any inheritance, then that's an undeserved benefit at best that they can be thankful for, but the most direct lineage are the recipients, and again in the Bible story, God named Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as the birthright inheritors of many nations---- not some cousins of theirs that became Middle Eastern nations. Therefore, we must trace the people of Joseph, particularly Ephraim to find these nations.
This is the bottom line and the most commonly expressed "escape hatch". While most Christians believe that the Jews are all 12 tribes composing a literal nation, Christians fulfill the promise of many nations spiritually. (How they can justify interpreting a single nation literally and "many nations" spiritually totally escapes us.) While we agree that Abraham was promised many Spiritual seed, he was promised physical seed as well (Spiritual was represented as "stars of heaven" while physical as the dust or sand). However, we testify to the fact that even though multitudinous spiritual seed was promised, that there must also be nations of multitudinous physical seed as well. How do we know that? Basically, it boils down to the genealogical example again.
Many Christians believe that Paul said that by faith in Christ, we become the seed of Abraham. Thus, those with faith in Christ become joint-heirs and thus is all that is needed to prove that "many nations" were fulfilled. First of all, Christians are not in and of themselves many nations, but from many nations but clearly one in Christ. That is a difference. But even if we consider the vast number of people in Christ, we have to ask if that is truly the fulfillment of "many nations"? To answer this question, we have to ask the nature of Christ himself and why believers in Christ are inheritors of the Abrahamic Covenant. Christ came from heaven above. He was born of His Father, not Joseph's seed. Thus, he has a heavenly, eternal aspect to his nature and the promises involved with that. How does this relate to Abraham? It relates to Abraham because Jesus was of the house of David, of Pharez, and of Judah, the lineage that was promised to have Kings. That came from Mary's lineage back to King David. Thus, the eternal touched the earthly lineage in the promises given to Abraham. He was given the promise to Judah as an inheritor of the son of Abraham, but being the divine Son of God tied these two facets together in His incarnation.
Therefore, if a person is a son of Abraham in Christ, must he be a literal son? No, He is a spiritual son of God, and because the Judaic connection Christ had, he likewise inherits what Christ did as a brother. However, if he likewise supposedly becomes an inheritor of "many nations" what connection is that by? If anything, we have to say by Judah, for that is the only tribal connection the spiritual son of God has thru Christ.
However, for the same genealogical reason given above regarding other nations, we run into the same problem. Many nations did not come via Judah and even if promised that, it would not be the sole fulfillment. Why? Because that was also promised to Ephraim which is not the tribe of our Lord. In other words, Judah would take away from Ephraim the very same way we saw the other nations of the Middle East would have done. And since the tribe of Joseph by Ephraim also was promised to become many nations, then fulfillment spiritually in Judah only just does not cut it. Or to put it another way, what was the whole point in promising many nations to Ephraim if that was meant to go spiritually in Christ of the tribe of Judah? It makes no sense.
To conclude, in all three cases, we proven them wrong, and I've heard no other explanation to date other than to simply take the bible for what it says: Ephraim shall become many nations. Period. The question now simply becomes, since Ephraim was one of the lost tribes, then where did they turn up? Who are the people of Ephraim? There are all kinds of theories, but due to the biblical descriptions, prophecy and history, we believe they ended up in the British Isles, NW Europe and ultimately here in the United States. And we truly believe all this not the least of which is the experiment we conducted where we asked non-believers to name the nation based on 7 biblical descriptions (but they did not know they were biblical descriptions). So that erased any accusations that we were fashioning the biblical descriptions to fit Great Britain (and her Commonwealth of Nations) and vice versa if unwitting participants came to the same conclusion. The reasoning is solid, the facts are positive and any other explanation involves far more assumption and fancy footwork than we ever could contrive.