British Israel Theory

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The British-Israel theory of the American copywriter and lay theologian Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986) was an essential basis of the Christian special community he founded " Worldwide Church of God " . It is a variant of Anglo-Israelism , according to which the British and other north-western European peoples descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel .

Justification of the teaching

In deriving the dogma , Armstrong met his linguistic inclination as a copywriter. Among other things, he referred to Jacob's prophecy to his son Dan in ( 1 Mos 49,17  LUT ): Dan will become a serpent on the way and an otter on the path. He understood this to mean that the tribe of Dan would leave their name on their journey. Armstrong followed geographical names such as the Dnieper , Danube and Don rivers on the map to Denmark (in the national language Danmark ) and across the North Sea to Great Britain .

Armstrong also derived from a play on words that the British in particular were descended from the once chosen people of the Bible: The Hebrew word b'rit means covenant, the word ish (or isch ) man, together b'rit-ish . He made a similar play on words with God's promise to Abraham to bless the descendants of Isaac ( Gen 21.12  EU ): "Isaac's sons" means Isaac's sons in English . If you left out the I at the beginning, it sounded like Saxons , i.e. (Angel) Saxony .

Armstrong had also calculated a point in time for this blessing: Having previously belonged to an Adventist splinter group , he had learned that "days" in Bible prophecy often mean "years" of 360 days each. In the 3rd book of Moses ( Leviticus ) God announced that he would have the people kidnapped for repeated relapses into idolatry and: "If you still do not obey me, I will punish you sevenfold" ( Lev 26:18  LUT ). Armstrong understood the "sevenfold" as "7 years", i.e. 2,520 days, and calculated from the year 718 BC. Chr. To 2520 years. In fact, shortly after 1800, the United States and Great Britain, among others , had attained more wealth, size and power than any other empire in history.

symbol

The legendary British coronation stone Stone of Scone in Edinburgh Castle in Scotland , which was under the coronation throne of the English kings in Westminster Abbey in London from 1296 to 1996 , is of particular importance for Armstrong . According to Armstrong, it is said to be a remnant of the throne of the Israelite king David , according to other legends to the stone on which the head of the biblical Jacob rested when he dreamed of the ladder to heaven ( Gen 28: 10-22  LUT ).

Doctrinal implications

The British Israel theory was the core doctrine of the fundamentalist faith community " Worldwide Church of God ", which Armstrong founded in 1934 and which he chaired as "Pastor General" until his death in 1986 .

From his identification with ancient Israel, Armstrong consequently concluded - unlike mainstream Anglo-Israelism - that most of the Old Testament laws from the Pentateuch (five books of Moses) also apply to believers.

So he abolished Christmas and Easter and reinstated a number of the Jewish festivals that, according to the Bible, had been instituted by God himself: Passover , Pentecost , the Day of Atonement and the several days of the Feast of Tabernacles in autumn.

He also taught the biblical dietary rules , according to which, among other things, the consumption of pork, rabbit and seafood (except fish) was prohibited, and forbade his followers "mixed marriages" with partners of non-Nordic origin.

history

Armstrong's community also found supporters in German-speaking countries. In 1988 it had 126,800 members and around 150,000 worshipers worldwide. After Armstrong's death in 1986, his community gradually developed into an evangelical free church . In the process, however, it lost around half of its members, among other things, to newly founded movements that continued to represent Armstrong's teachings.

Armstrong's writings were finally withdrawn from the market in early 1993, and on 13 July 1995 rejected the " Worldwide Church of God " his "British Israel Theory" publicly, in part because they Racism and anti-Semitism made feed: In the United States, the Anglo was -Israelism was taken up by extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and culminated in the Christian Identity movement .

However, not all members agreed with the departure from the British Israel theory. They left the Church and organized the United Church of God in Indianapolis in the spring of 1995 .

literature

  • Kurt Hutten : seers, brooders, enthusiasts. 12th edition Stuttgart: Quell Verlag, 1982.
  • Horst Reller / VELKD (Hrsg.): Handbook of Religious Communities. 2nd edition Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1979.
  • Thomas Schirrmacher : A sect becomes Protestant - The Reformation of the Worldwide Church of God. idea documentation 11/2000.
  • Herbert W. Armstrong: The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy. Düsseldorf: Ambassador College, 1980 (no longer available)