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CHURCH
(Continued from page 3)
lege, besides other sins. lt is a diffi–
cult and heartbreaking thing for a
father to have to do. Eli honored his
sinning sons, holding priestly office,
above God. God's apostle of our day,
crushing and heartbreaking though
it was, was given the courage by the
living Christ to do the very difficult
task of removing his son.
Samuel had been trained as a
prophet from a child under Eli. He
was lsrael's next leader. But the
people rejected God as King over
them and demanded a human king
"that also we may be like all the
nations" of Satan's world
(1
Samuel
8:4-7,
20).
God gave them Saul, tallest man in
Israel. But in due time Saul disobeyed
God and sinned. God sent Samuel to
the house of Jesse where God had
chosen Jesse's youngest son David to
be the next king over Israel.
Samuel's sons had not continued in
Samuel's ways. And now King David
had sons who conspired to take their
father 's throne. First, Absalom, hav–
ing been exiled for committing mur–
der. on being received back by kind–
hearted David, conspired to steal his
father's throne. Later another son,
Adonijah, conspi red to seize it and
overthrow his father.
But God had chosen David's son
Solomon to succeed to the throne
over Israel. After Solomon's death
his son Rehoboam became king.
Solomon had reigned in splendor.
Not only had he built theworld's finest
editice, the Temple (as God had willed
and approved), but he spent lavishly
on great public works, buildings and
other projects. He lived in gorgeous
splendor, exceeding every king before
him. For this he grievously overtaxed
the people. He plunged, in old age, into
idolatry and turned to women.
After Solomon's death the people
sent a delegation to King Rehoboam.
" Reduce the excessive taxes," the
people's delegation said, "and we will
serve you"
(1
Kings 12:4).
Rehoboam consulted the older,
wiser men, who advised him to heed
the complaint of the people. Then he
sought advice from the younger men,
40
whose advice he followed, saying to
the people, " ... My father hath
chastised you with whips, but
1
will
chastise you with scorpions"
( 1
Kings
12:11, 14).
Again, a younger son departed
from the wisdom of older men and
willfully sought to lead God's people
on his own rebellious way.
But the nation thereupon rejected
King Rehoboam and made J eroboam
king. However, the tribe of Judah,
with Benjamín, seceded in order to
maintain David 's dynasty and
formed the
new
kingdom of J uoAH.
J eroboam established the capital
over the kingdom of Israel at Samar–
ia, north of Jerusalem. And so the
Israelitish nation was now divided
into TWO NATIONS- the kingdom of
Israel with its capital at Samaria and
the kingdom of Judah with Jerusa–
lem its capital. Often, in biblical his–
tory, they were called, respectively,
the "house of Israel" and the "house
of Judah."
Jeroboam immediately led Israel
into idolatry. After a succession of 19
kings and seven dynasties of contin-.
uous idolatry and other sins, God
drove the house of Israel into captivi–
ty. King Shalmaneser of Assyria con–
quered them in a siege from 721 to
718 s.c., removing them from their
land, carrying them as slaves to As–
syria on the southern shores of the
Caspian Sea.
Shalmaneser thereupon "brought
men from Babylon" - and other cit–
ies following the Babylonian mystery
religion- "and placed them in the
cities of Samaria instead of the chil–
dren of Israel: and tbey possessed
Samaria, and dwelt in the cities
thereor'
(11
Kings 17:23-24).
Kingdom of Israel
Not Jews!
So here is another TRUTH unknown in
the teachings of most churches called
Christian: Israel was divided into two
nations- and the people of the king–
dom of Israel were NOT Jews, nor are
they ever called Jews in the Bible!
The fi rst place where the word
" Jew" or " J ews" occurs in the Bible
is in
11
Kings 16:5-6, where Israel
and ally Syria were at war against
the Jews!
But those of the house of Israel did
not remain more than a generation or
so in Assyria. They migrated north–
west. They became known as "the
LOST Ten Tribes." And indeed they
were
doubly lost- lost in identity un–
ti! they themselves, after a genera–
tion or more, did not know who they
were-and also lost spiritually from
God. The knowledge of this, from the
Bible,
ÍS
ANOTHER PROOF of the one
original true Cburch today!
This .mystery is cleared up in a
substantial booklet,
The United States
and British Commonwea/th in Proph–
ecy- sent
free upon request.
It
is one
of the most amazing, exciting, eye–
opening accounts ever written. Shock–
ing-but TRUE! Meanwhile, the house
or kingdom of J uoAH (the Jews) con–
tinued toan extent in God's ways, but
within a hundred years were sinning
more flagrantly than Israel had.
Judah Drlven Out
By about 604 s.c. King Nebuchad–
nezzar had become king over the
world's FIRST EMPIRE-the Chaldean
Empire, often called Babylon. From
604 to 585 s.c. Nebuchadnezzar's
armies captured the kingdom of Ju–
dah and moved the Jews into Baby–
lonian 'territory as slaves.
Seventy years later, the Persian
Empire had succeeded the Chaldean.
God caused King Cyrus, by "stirring
up the spirit of Cyrus" (Ezra 1:1 )–
his "human spirit"-to issue a decree
sending a contingent of J ews back to
Jerusalem to build the second tem–
ple. Zerubbabel was the governor of
the cont ingent and builder of the
temple to which Christ carne at His
first appearing on earth as the hu–
man J esus. Also, prophetically, this
Zerubbabel was the type of one to
come in the LAST DAvs of this world
whom Christ would use in building
the temple to which the glorified all–
powerful Christ shall come at His
second appearing. Apparently none
but God's Church understands the
truth of the building of this temple.
Sorne of Judah remained in and
near Jerusalem---Qthers were scat–
tered into Russia, Poland, Yemen.
Most of the Israelis in today's Israel
have migrated into the origina l
"promised land" from these coun–
tries. o
(To Be Continued)
The
PLAIN TRUTH April 1979