The American Wisdom Series

Presents
Pamphlet #1062

Acts 26: 6-7

by John L. Steely

To the CHRISTIAN PREACHER

You are standing in the door of your church
saying goodbye to the folks after your Sunday sermon
when a stranger shakes your hand,
gives you a sealed envelope and walks on.

As soon as you can you go to your study to see what is in the envelope.

A contribution?
He would probably have put that in the collection plate.

A prayer request?

You open the envelope

It says.

"Pastor,
I challenge you to prepare and preach a sermon on two verses of the Bible.

"Acts 26: 6-7."

"What?
Some kind of nut?"

You’ve preached dozens,
maybe a hundred sermons from the book of Acts in your thirty years in the ministry.
Never a problem there.

And you start to throw the note away.

But you turn to the Book of Acts and read from the twenty-sixth chapter,
verses six and seven,
where the Apostle Paul is addressing King Agrippa.

Acts 26:6 "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God to our fathers.
Acts 26:7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes,
earnestly serving God day and night, hope to come.
For which hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews."

"Ha!"
you say.
"What kind of sermon would that make?"
And you begin to question the sanity of the stranger who gave you the note.

But from force of habit you begin to analyze the verses.
First, define and identify the terms - -
'St. Paul.’ Easy enough.
‘King Agrippa.’ King Herod
Agrippa II, according to your Bible Dictionary;
son of King Herod Agrippa I.
‘Our twelve tribes.
H’mm.
Wait a minute.
Our twelve tribes!

And little feelings—faint adumbration’s—tiny fingers of fear begin to form in your chest.

"OUR TWELVE TRIBES."
These were descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob,
who was renamed Israel.
They were Israelites!
Hebrews!
God’s Chosen Race!

But most of them disappeared more than over 2700 years ago
following the Assyrian deportations in 721 B.C.!

The lost Ten Tribes! 

Over 750 years before Paul made this statement to King Agrippa,
Yet, Paul says they are still in existence!
"What?"

And the ‘Jews’ . . Panic now.
Full blown fear.
THE JEWS . . They are NOT part of the twelve tribes!
Which means the members of the twelve tribes are NOT Jews. .
and the Jews are NOT Israelites!

"Help me, help me!
I don’t want to know all this!
If I preach this I’ll lose my job.
I’ll be run out of the Church.
I’ve taught for years that the Jews are the chosen race.
I can’t admit this.
It can’t be true."

"I’LL check it out!"

You calm down somewhat,
and begin a more careful exegesis,
hoping, oh, hoping, to prove your discovery wrong,
and hoping that the stranger was really a nut.

But you think of the first epistle of James,
which the brother of Christ addressed
‘to the twelve tribes scattered abroad.
You check the date.
It was written before Titus sacked Jerusalem in 70 A.D.,
and so was Acts 26: 6-7.
No help! No help!

You remember that Christ rejected the Jews.
‘You are of your father, the devil.’ 
John 8:44

And,
‘You are not of my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice and follow me.’ 
John 10:26-27

You are getting sick.
You recall that Jesus told his disciples to ‘go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’
"Oh, why didn’t they straighten this out in the seminary?’

So, what was the House of Israel?
You remember.
The Northern Kingdom.
That’s right.
After King Solomon died,
his son Rehoboam caused the nation of Israel—the twelve tribes—to split into two nations.
The tribes of Judah and Benjamin and some Levites became the ‘House of Judah,’
the Southern Kingdom, with Jerusalem as its Capital.
And the other tribes went North and formed the ‘House of Israel,’
with Samaria as its Capital.
You remember that there were actually thirteen tribes
because the inheritance of Jacob’s son,
Joseph, was divided between his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

You look at the clock.
You have to go home for lunch and rest up for the evening service.
You hope it isn’t UN-Christian to curse the stranger with the crazy note.

But your mind won’t quit.
Somehow you know that your whole life has changed—in the twinkling of an eye!

You turn to the Old Testament.
What happened to the tribes?
You read again from Chapters 17, 18, and 19 of the Second Book of Kings
that as the result of a series of assaults by Assyrian Kings.
Not only the tribes of the Northern Kingdom were forcibly relocated
South of the Caucasus Mountains
‘in Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan and the cities of the Medes,’
but members of the Southern tribes were taken also.

‘Sennacherib, King of Assyria,
came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.’ (2 K 18:13)
..Only Jerusalem, Judah’s capital was spared. (2 K 19: 32-34)

"But, wait a minute.
Don’t they say that 150 or so years later the Southern Kingdom
was taken captive to Babylon and the remnant
that returned to rebuild Jerusalem seventy years after that included all the tribes?"
In desperation you check.

No luck. Ezra 1:5 and 4:1
specifically mention that the tribes of Judah and Benjamin came back from Babylon.
The Bible checks out.
You are dead!
Members of all twelve tribes were scattered abroad.

But you look and look.
You can’t give up.
"Wasn’t Moses a Jew?
The Bible doesn’t say so.
You were sure it did.
"The Book of Revelation-the 144,000?"
They are all of tribes of Israel but the Bible doesn’t call them Jews.
It was you who called them that.

You find the word ‘Jew’
appears for the first time in 2 K 16:6,
where the Southern Kingdom are fighting the Israelites in the North.

You look the word up in the Concordance.
It should have been translated ‘Judean’ or ‘Judahite.’
It meant a member of the tribe of Judah
or
a citizen of the Kingdom of Judea.

The word was never applied to the Northern Kingdom.
"Why didn’t my professors tell me that?"

You remember that the birthright promises of a great nation
and a company of nations were transmitted by Jacob
to Ephraim and Manasseh.

You begin to think.
"How could these promises
—the very promises which Paul and the twelve tribes were hoping for—
possibly be fulfilled if Ephraim and Manasseh,
who were transported by the Assyrians,
become extinct?
The Jews never fulfilled these promises.
Why did I never see that?"

You are still sick.
You are getting deeper.

By now you know that your seminary professors were ignorant or deliberately lied.

You read aloud the book of Hosea.
It talks about the captured Israelites.
"I will say to them who were not my people,
"Thou art my people’; and they shall say, "Thou art my God,’
and they shall no more be remembered by their name."

"Ah!
They will have a new name.
Not ‘Jew,’ not Hebrew…, not Israelite. – Christian!"
You read the 8th, 10th and 11th chapters of the book of Romans.
They now make sense.
Paul is talking about the cast off,
punished tribes of the house of Israel!
"Thus will all Israel be saved.’
"Of course, of course."

You see Hebrews 8:10.
The New Covenant.
For this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after those days,
saith the Lord.
I will put my laws into their mind,
and write them in their hearts;
and I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people.
Christians!
Not Jews, Christians.

Not the Jews, who in two thousand years have not heard His Voice and followed Him,
because THEY ARE NOT HIS SHEEP!

But who are these Christians—the true Israelites—the chosen Race of God?
Where are they today?
You know who they are.
You are almost paralyzed from fear of the truth,
but you know who they are.

You go home,
eat a few bites and try to sleep.

In a few days you receive an anonymous gift.
It is a book.
"Judah’s Scepter and Joseph’s Birthright,"
by Bishop James Allen (1906)

 Live Link to- American Wisdom Series Version of The Birthright and the Sceptre

You learn that God’s people migrated,
tribe by tribe,
out of the Caucasus where the Assyrians had placed them;
the very people who are now called Caucasians.

You learn that God’s people
—the Israelites--
became the progenitors of the White Christian nations of the world today.

You understand that by Christ’s time the inhabitants of Judea
—the Jews—
were a mixed lot,
most of whom Christ rejected.

You learn that the Holy Bible is the story of one race,
that it is Christian from beginning to end,
for the first time in your life you are beginning to understand it.

You pray.
A voice in your mind says,
‘Do not fear.
Put on my armor.
Feed my sheep.
Tell my people the truth.

And slowly,
reluctantly,
but with courageous resolve,
you prepare a sermon on verses six and seven of the
twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Acts.


Note from the editor: Now that you've read Steely's paper on Acts 26:6-7, read Jesus' revelation to John (us) when John was taken spiritually to the "Day of the Lord"  Rev. 1:10 (The Day of the Lord's return).

Read Rev. 2:9.  Jesus says to the church of Smyrna, ...and I know the blasphemy of them who "say they are Jews, and are not,"....  Then read  Rev. 3:9.  Jesus says to the church of Philadelphia ,.., i will make them of the synagogue of Satan, "who say they are Jews, and are not",...

These are the only two churches of the seven he addresses in Rev. 2 & 3 ( in these end times) that He finds no fault with and the only thing they have in common is their knowledge that the people claiming to be Jews are not Israelites.

Where are the descendants of the nine tribe, plus some of the tribe of Levi, ancient "House of Israel", and the two tribe, plus some of the tribe of Levi, ancient "House of Judah", living in this 21st. century A.D.?

see bolow



Jeremiah 23:6 "In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Editor's Note: This verse disproves the theory the many preachers in our Christian churches today promote, claiming that "The House of Israel" and "The House of Judah" have already been joined back together, when the "House of Judah" was allowed to return to Jerusalem, from Babylon, in the 5th century B.C. These preachers claim that the remnant, very small percentage, of peoples from those 10 tribes that made up the northern kingdom "House of Israel" returning with the returnies from "The House of Judah" fulfilled the prophecy of Ezekiel's joining of the two sticks, in Ezekiel chapter 37, and are now part of the group of people, referred to today, as the "Jews", even part of those people now living in the little country in the middle east which is called Israel today. How wrong they are! This verse shows that the joining wouldn't (will not) happen until Christ's return for His second advent, to set up His earthly Kingdom.

Live Link to-   Ezekiel's (two sticks) the dry dead bones.

Actually it is the opposite of what our pastor's assert that is true. Most of the ancient "House of Judah" (the two tribes of the southern kingdom) were carried away by Assyria back in 735 B.C. and migrated north and west into Europe and now on into the Americas along with "The House of Israel" (the ten tribes of the northern kingdom). They were no longer living in the middle east when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon carried away "The House of Judah" in  586 B.C.

Dates of captivities:

The northern kingdom, "House of Israel", along with many from the southern kingdom, "House of Judah" were taken by Assyria, in 721 BC well over eight hundred thousand Israelite men  2 Samuel 24:1 - 9 and their families from ten different tribes (2 Kings 17, 18, and 19.)  In 2 Kings 19:32-34 we learn that only Jerusalem was spared.

Then, from the southern kingdom, "House of Judah" one hundred and thirty five years later, in 586 B.C,,  Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon carried more than one half million Israelite men 2 Samuel 24:1 - 9 and their families from the other two tribes, of Benjamin and Judah (the Jews), away to Babylon. 2 Kings 25:1 - 21.

(All total approximately 1,300,000 men plus their wives and children were carried away)

Since these so called Christian pastors believe and teach this falsehood they don't know how to account for the converted Christians since our Lord's first advent, so they call the Christian church of today "Spiritual Israel". I guess there is some truth to the "Spiritual Israel" part of their assertion but, not because they, we, for the most part are converted gentiles; but we are majority Israelites from the ancient "Houses of Israel and Judah", the northern kingdom and some from the southern kingdom.

Live Link to-  "Do you know who you really are?"
Are you a Israelite?
Be thoughtful before you answer.
(Maybe you only think you're a Gentile!)

Live Link to-  "Israel's Lost Tribes"

"In the days" of the Branch, the Savior. This day is the day of His second coming. The word "our" is very special because it is a gift from God to ourselves. This is the only righteousness that you will ever have, because our deeds to him are as filthy rags. In the Hebrew tongue it is; "Yehovah Zidkenu".

Jeremiah 23:7 "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;"

In that day they will not be talking about the delivery from the bondage from Egypt.

Jeremiah 23:8 "But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land."

Notice that that the two houses are separate here, the House of Israel, which were the ten tribes to the north of the House of Judah. The House of Judah comprised the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Today much of Judah has returned to Jerusalem, and the tiny nation called Israel. However the House of Israel has not returned to Palestine, nor will they until Christ has come and we have changed from our flesh bodies to our spiritual incorruptible bodies.

This delivery is new and to this day it shall not come to pass until the Millennium age. In that time all evil rudiments will be removed from us, and the nations and peoples will dwell in their own lands. Today part of the remnant of the House of Judah has returned and we refer to this time as the generation of the fig tree.

Read  all of Jeremiah 23




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