The Biggest Missing Persons Case of All Time
The conquerors were the Assyrians, a proud, warlike people whose power and cruelty terrorized the rest of the known world. The vanished people belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel. As we saw in three previous posts (links below), they are now called the “lost ten tribes of Israel.”
What happened to the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel? Were they obliterated in an ancient genocide, or are their descendants still wandering this terrestrial globe? Did they assimilate into surrounding peoples and disappear altogether, or have they secretly played a role in world history? Have you been looking at them your whole life without realizing it?
This mystery is just as important as it is interesting. The outcome not only weighs on the Bible’s credibility and the faith we have in it, but also weighs on world affairs past and present. The rise and fall of many nations hinges on the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. Fail to understand who they are today, and most Bible prophecy — about one-third of the Bible — will remain a mystery to you!
On the other hand, many locked doors within the Bible swing wide open when one discovers the identity of Israel. The course of world events no longer seems random, but follows a pattern when one understands who the Lost Ten Tribes are!
Let’s start our quest in Genesis 17:1-8 with the Israelites’ ancestor Abram/Abraham:
“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.’ Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: ‘As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God’” (Gen. 17:1-8).
So we see that Abraham’s descendants would sprout into many nations. Though Abraham fathered many sons who in turn fathered many different tribes, and though God promised to bless at least one of them as well (Gen. 16:7-12), God told him that the blessings would pass on to His son Isaac: “For in Isaac shall your seed be called” (Gen. 21:12).
After God famously tested Abraham’s faith, He had another message for Abraham:
“Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: ‘By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son — blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice’” (Gen. 22:15-18).
Two important things stand out here. Number one, God swore by Himself, that is, He promised unconditionally. Number two, He would make Abraham’s descendants numerous and powerful beyond imagination. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it — it would happen!
God’s promises passed from Abraham to Isaac, from Isaac to his son Jacob, and from Jacob to his 12 sons. In Gen. 35:11, we learn, “Also God said to [Jacob]: ‘I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.’”
There it is. Jacob’s twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel, would father many nations, not just one! God would make them fruitful and multiply them as the stars of heaven, just as He had sworn to Abraham.
Though Jacob’s eldest son Reuben should have received the birthright — and the lion’s share of the blessings — this did not happen. 1 Chron. 5:1-2 explains, “[Reuben] was indeed the firstborn, but because he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that the genealogy is not listed according to the birthright; yet Judah prevailed over his brothers, and from him came a ruler, although the birthright was Joseph’s….”
Joseph’s descendants through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh would be the biggest benefactors of God’s blessings. Moses prophesied that they would hold unparalleled power and be the greatest nations on earth: “His glory is like a firstborn bull, and his horns like the horns of the wild ox; together with them he shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh” (Deut. 33:17).
We know that God swore by Himself, that He is always faithful, and that He cannot lie (Tit. 1:2), so these blessings must come true, or the whole Bible would be false. God must have made the people of Israel, especially Joseph’s descendants, into many nations, and they must have become great nations on the earth. Yet anyone can recognize that the Jewish people, the people of Judah, have not received all these blessings. Therefore, God’s promises must be fulfilled through their cousins, the Lost Ten Tribes. In fact, Ephraim and Manasseh, the biggest benefactors of God’s blessings, are among the Lost Ten Tribes!
As we saw last time, when God exiled the ten tribes from their own land, He promised not to forsake them, telling Jeremiah that He would keep His covenant with Israel to the end of heaven and earth (Jer. 33:23-26). Though He condemned them to “be wanderers among the nations” (Hos. 9:17), He also promised to watch over them in their wanderings, to “be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone” (Ezek. 11:16) and to make their descendants “as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered” (Hos. 1:10).
In fact, God told the prophet Amos, “‘Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth; yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,’” says the LORD. “For surely I will command, and will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve; yet not the smallest grain shall fall to the ground” (Amos 9:8-9). That is a faithful God!
Where, then, did the Lost Ten Tribes end up? Hos. 12:1, perhaps, gives us a bit of a clue: “Ephraim feeds on the wind, and pursues the east wind….” The east wind blows from the east toward the west, so a people pursuing the east wind would migrate toward the west.
When Jesus Christ regathers Israel after His return, Isa. 49:12 tells us, “Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.” There was no phrase for “northwest” in Biblical Hebrew; the expression would be “north and west” as it is here.
We find another instructive passage about Israel’s regathering in Hos. 11:10: “They shall walk after the LORD. He will roar like a lion. When He roars, then His sons shall come trembling from the west….”
If you look on a map, and draw a line from the land of Israel toward the northwest, you’ll come to western Europe and North America. This is where the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel must be today. God promised to make the Lost Ten Tribes many nations; these must be the nations of western Europe and North America!
God’s Word gives us plenty of other clues, too. We discover in Jer. 31:6, “For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’”
“Watchmen” is natsar (Strong’s #5341), which means “to watch, guard, or preserve.” Incredibly, it’s also the root word of notsrim or notsri, the modern Hebrew word for Christians. Notsri designates a Nazarene, or someone from Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, for example, would be Yeshua ha-Notsri, or Jesus the Nazarene. Thus, the watchmen of Jer. 31:6 are the Christians!
In the modern world, the Christian or Protestant nations are primarily in Europe and North America, northwest of the land of Israel! Likewise, God’s called out ones, those who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and who also keep His laws, including His Sabbath and holy days, operate largely out of the western nations, especially the United States. We have found the watchmen on Mount Ephraim!
As for the United States of America, that very name gives us another fascinating clue. In Hebrew, the United States is called Artsot ha-Brit. By a strange coincidence, or rather Divine inspiration, Artsot ha-Brit literally means “lands of the covenant.” It’s another sign that God has kept His covenant and has preserved the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel!
Thus God’s Word and its first language, Hebrew, show us that the Lost Ten Tribes migrated west and northwest of the land of Israel to Europe and North America, that the watchmen of Ephraim are the Christians of Europe and North America, and that the United States is the “lands of the covenant.”
Though we don’t have time to go through it all right now, many researchers have also traced the Lost Ten Tribes from the Assyrian Captivity and proven that they became the ancestors of the Celtic and Germanic peoples of western Europe, who in turn settled in the United States. This simply confirms what the Bible has already told us.
Once we see that the United States and western Europe are the lost ten tribes of Israel, it all makes sense.
Remember that God had promised to make Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the fathers of many nations? Today, we see that their descendants are not just the Jews, but also the Americans and western Europeans, truly many nations.
Why have a succession of European empires and now the United States dominated the world for the last 1,500 years? It’s because God promised to bless Israel. Many scriptures prophesied it.
Let’s take a look at Mic. 5:7-9:
“Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, that tarry for no man nor wait for the sons of men. And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, who, if he passes through, both treads down and tears in pieces, and none can deliver. Your hand shall be lifted against your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off [can mean “fail”; Strong’s #3772].”
This description can only fit the United States and the nations of western Europe. No other nation or empire in history has possessed that amount of power. Not one.
Why are the wealthiest nations in the world the United States and western Europe? Because God promised it. Please look up Gen. 49:1, 22-26 and Deut. 33:13-17 to see for yourself!
Why has western civilization achieved so much more than any other before it? The industrial revolution, freedom and representative democracy, the space age, and the information age have all come about through the western nations, especially the United States and Great Britain. Diseases that killed millions have been eradicated, and the world has enjoyed more peace and prosperity in the last seven decades, under American supremacy, than at any time before. All this has happened because God promised to bless all nations of the earth through Abraham’s descendants.
Perhaps we can see, too, why the modern nation of Israel’s greatest friend in the world has been the United States. They are brother nations without realizing it!
Finally, notice that while God has blessed the western European nations beyond all other nations, He has blessed the United States and Great Britain far beyond even those nations. They are the descendants of Joseph through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, who inherited the birthright from Jacob, and whom God promised to bless beyond the other sons of Jacob. For more on this topic, please refer to the book 31 Reasons the U.S.A. Is Ephraim. It’s available for free in PDF format, or in paperback or e-book from Amazon.
Truly, we can see that all the blessings God promised to the Israelites have come true for the United States and the nations of western Europe, their descendants. We serve a faithful God indeed!
What, then, comes next? Now that we know that these nations are the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, what does the future hold for them? God's Word has much to say about that, but that is a topic for another day.
To be continued…
This is completely off the wall. Your church book saying ephraim is the united states is about the only thing out there saying this. I looked up is ephraim the united states online and yours is the only thing that came up. Basically almost no other church group believes this. When ephraim was made greater he was made greater for a reason. The british empire is the greatest ever known, and it covered over 1/4 of the world and 1/4 of the worlds population. It ruled the 1800s dominantly. No other empire came close. Most historical scholars agree it is the greatest to ever live. I even looked at a graph once at the most powerful nations to ever exist, and the USA wasnt even close based on all types of things saying what makes a nation great. Then, in the 1900s ephraim split apart, and every one of those nations became some of the best in the world in riches and happiness levels and others. They were blessed. Notice how its a multitude of nations. the USA has never been a multitude. All the USA has is the mainland and then a few territories like puerto rico and guam. They are very small ones too and not great. The USA is indeed a great nation, just like the Manasseh prophecy, how ever it is a single nation. The british empire was a empire, many nations. The USA has never been many nations. It is a great military power and the biggest economy in the world, which makes it a superpower and the great nation. The church has always taught that ephraim is the british commonwealth and manasseh is the USA. Dont you think mr armtstrong was revealed the truth at the beginning when he learned this from god by studying? In the bible truth was not found over time by people but at this he beginning. See, this is the problem with the church. The church always taught grow in grace and knowledge. Its sounds nice and all but in reality it was just excuses to change doctrine after doctrine after doctrine until eventually all the splits started happening starting in the 1970s. Please reconsider this when trying to come up with new ideas. Let me know what you think about this.
ReplyDeleteHappy Sabbath and thank you for your feedback! I'd like to point out first that truth is never determined by a popularity contest or by any man's teachings, but only by the Word of God.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ephraim being the United States, have you considered that God promised Ephraim a larger population than Manasseh (Deut. 33:17) and that the United States has a bigger population than Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand combined? That the United States today does more international trade in 3 weeks than the whole British Empire did in a year, even after adjusting for inflation? Throughout the book of Hosea, as well as in Isa. 11:13 and Ezek. 37, God speaks of the whole house of Israel as Ephraim, showing that Ephraim is the leader of Israel in the last days. Who is the leader of the Israelite nations today, in the last days? Great Britain? No! The United States! Furthermore, Jer. 31:6 shows that in the last days, watchmen on the mountains of Ephraim will call Israel to repentance. The Churches of God are and always have been headquartered in the United States, not Great Britain!
The United States has more (Israelite) people than the British Commonwealth, is many times wealthier than the British Empire ever was, has a bigger military presence around the world than the British ever have, is the leader of Israel in the last days, and is the headquarters of God's people. These are just a handful of the reasons presented in 31 Reasons the USA Is Ephraim. It's free to read in PDF format, and I encourage you to do so. Like the Bereans in Acts 17:10, please listen to the evidence presented and search the Scriptures to see whether those things are so.
All the best to you, and may all of God's people continually grow in grace and knowledge and understanding, as those who think they have all truth have the Laodicean attitude: "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing" (Rev. 3:17).