Anglo-Israel Truth: Is It A New Doctrine?

By: Pastor Matthew Dyer

The Anglo-Israel truth, what is it? Well, in a nutshell the Anglo-Israel message is the belief that the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian and kindred peoples are descendants of the Israelites of the Bible, and heirs of the promises of the Abrahamic covenant, instead of the common held belief that the modern day Jewish people are Israel.

This is because the identification marks in the Bible for true Israel do not match with the modern day Jews, so there must be another option if the Bible is true. This tract is not meant to lay out the reasons the Anglo-Saxon people are Israel, but rather give some history of people who have believed this to show you this isn’t some new doctrine just now raising it’s head, but been around for some time and believed by many.

In the 6th century A.D. the early British historian Gildas (The Wise) wrote in his records now known as On the Ruin & Conquest of Britain during the era when the pagan Saxons were invading Christian Celtic Britain said this:

“After this, sometimes our countrymen, sometimes the enemy, won the field, to the end that our Lord might in this land try after his accustomed manner these his Israelites, whether they loved him or not, until the year of the siege of Mount Badon.”

· In the 8th century A.D. King Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, England declared in what is known as The Law Code of King Alfred the Great, which is the largest and best preserved piece of Anglo-Saxon legal documentation said this referring to the English:

“Be ye kind to the stranger within thy gates, for ye [English people] were strangers in the land of the Egyptians.”

· In 1320 A.D. the Scottish noblemen and King Robert the Bruce wrote up what is known as the Scottish Declaration of Independence (or Declaration of Arbroath) and said this concerning the Scots ancestry:

“We know, Most Holy Father and Lord, and from the chronicles and books of the ancients gather, that among other illustrious nations, ours, to wit the nation of the Scots has been distinguished by many honours; which passing from the greater Scythia through the Mediterranean Sea and Pillars of Hercules, and sojourning in Spain among the most savage tribes through a long course of time, could nowhere be subjugated by any people however barbarous and coming thence one thousand two hundred years after the outgoing of the people of Israel, they, by many victories and infinite toil, acquired for themselves the possessions in the West, which they now hold in their kingdom one hundred thirteen kings of their own royal stock, no stranger intervening, have reigned.”

· In 1590 A.D. French Huguenot Counsellor Le Loyer wrote in his The Ten Lost Tribes Found this:

“The Israelites came to and founded the English Isles.”

· Sir France Drake, who lived between 1540 & 1596 wrote to Rev. John Foxe and made this comment concerning England:

“God may be glorified, His church, our Queen and country preserved, the enemies of truth vanquished; that we might have continued peace in Israel. Our enemies are many but our protector commandeth the whole earth.”

· In 1614 A.D. Adriaan van der Schrieck wrote this concerning the Gauls and Germans:

“..the Netherlanders with the Gauls and Germans together in the earliest times were called Celts who are come out of the Hebrews.”

In 1630 A.D. Pastor John Cotton, a Puritan Clergyman, preached a farewell sermon to his Puritan brethren leaving for the New World from 2nd Samuel 7:10, which was a prophecy about Israel having a new land, and given while they were still in Palestine, and in that sermon by Cotton he said this:

“Go forth with a publick spirit have a tender care to your children, that they doe not degenerate as the Israelites did.”

· In 1682 A.D. John Saddler in his book Rights of the Kingdom or Customs of our Kings and Parliaments advocated the Israelitish origins of the English.

· In 1723 A.D. Dr. Jacques Abaddie said this in his book Le Triomphe de la Providence et de la Religion:

“Unless the Ten Tribes of Israel are flown into the air, or sunk into the earth; they must be those ten Gothic Tribes that entered Europe…

· In 1761 A.D. famous Bible Concordance Compiler Alexander Cruden said this on the dedication to the English King :

“May the great God be the guide of your life, and direct and prosper you, that it may be said by the present and future ages, that King George the Third hath been an Hezekiah to our British Israel.”

·In 1775 A.D. a sermon preached by Pastor William Smith, first provost of the College of Philadelphia, referred to the British & American people as “British Israel” indicating that he believed the British & Anglo-Saxon and kindred people were Israel.

A few notable authors, preachers, and teachers of the Anglo-Israel Truth.
(***This list is currently being expanded. Many more names to add)
List updated 8/20/21

• Rev. John Wilson M.A. (1799 –1870) a Scottish Presbyterian minister, authored Our Israelitish Origin. This book was very successful at spreading the Anglo-Israel message through the English European countries, and laid the ground work for deeper doctrine development.
  
• Dr. George Moore (1803–1880) was an English physician and author. After reading John Wilson’s book Our Israelitish Origins became a proponent of the Anglo-Israel truth. In 1861 he published The Lost Tribes and the Saxons of the East and of the West with new Views of Buddhism, and Translations of Rock-Records in India.
  
• Rev. Samuel Lysons (1806 –1877) was an antiquarian, and rural dean of Gloucester. In 1865 he published the book Our British Ancestors.
  
• Rev. Hibbert Newton D. D. (1817 – 1892) was a poet and in 1867 was ordained as the vicar of St Michael’s, Southwark, London until his death. In 1874 he published a booklet entitled Israel Discovered in Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Kindred Nations.
  
• William Henry Poole (1820 – 1896) was a Irish-born Methodist minister, and author. In 1879 he authored Anglo-Israel; or, The British Nation the Lost Tribes of Israel. In 1880 it was republished with the new title replacing “British nation” with “Saxon Race”.
  
• Edward Wheeler Bird (1823-1904) was a founding member of the Anglo-Israel Association, which merged with the Anglo-Ephraim Association in 1878. Bird became president of the newly formed Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association.
  
• Rev. Edward Hine (1825 –1891) learned the Anglo-Israel truth through listening to a lecture of John Wilson when he was 15 years old, and later in life become a leading preacher and author concerning Anglo-Israel. He authored England’s Coming Glories (1880), The British Nation identified with Lost Israel (1871), Forty-seven Identifications of The British Nation with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel: Founded upon Five Hundred Scripture Proofs (1874).
  
• Pastor Thomas Rosling Howlett (1827 – 1898) was a Baptist, and in 1892 authored of Anglo-Israel, The Jewish problem.
  
• John Pym Yeatman (1830–1910) was a barrister and in 1879 authored The Shemetic Origin of the Nations of Western Europe.
  
• Col. John Cox Gawler (1830-1882) was a Colonel in the British Army, special magistrate in British Kaffraria, and a Keeper of the Jewel House until his death. In 1875 he authored Our Scythian Ancestors, in 1880 authored Dan, The Pioneer of Israel, and in 1881 The Two Olive Trees.
  
• Charles Ottley Groom Napier (1839 – 1894) was a natural historian, geologist, and author.
  
• Elieser Bassin (1840–1898) was a Russian-Jew convert to Christianity, and author. Through the books of Edward Hine became a proponent of the Anglo-Israel truth. In 1884 he published Lost Ten Tribes: Anglo-Israel by a Jew.
  
• Dr. Herbert Aldersmith (1847–1918) was an English physician and author. His first book was Ringworm: its diagnosis and treatment, which was one of the earliest medical works on ringworm. In 1898 he published The Fulness Of The Nations, or, The A B C Of The Promises Given To The House of Israel Considered In Relation To The Second Advent.
  
• Richard Reader Harris (1847-1909) was a English barrister, member of the King’s Counsel, Methodist minister, and founder of the Pentecostal League of Prayer. In 1907 Harris published the book The Lost Tribes of Israel.
  
• C. A. L. Totten (1851 – 1908) was an American military officer, a Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Yale University, and author. In 1887 he published Our Race: Its Origin and Its Destiny.
  
• In 1879 A.D. Dr. Joseph Wild published The Lost Ten Tribes authored Saxon Race Proved to be the Lost Tribes of Israel.
  
• In 1902 A.D. Pastor J. H. Allen (Methodist) published Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright.
  
• In 1900 A.D. Pastor Martin L. Streator (Church of Christ) authored The Anglo-American Alliance in Prophecy.
  
• John Alexander Dowie, faith healer & founder of Zion, IL.
  
• In 1900’s Pastor William P. Goard (Methodist) authored many books, and was the vice-president British-Israel-World Federation.
  
• Bishop Jonathan Holt Titcomb (Anglican).
  
• English King George VI (1895-1952) believed that the Anglo-Saxon and kindred people were Israel. In April 6, 1996 the newspaper The Independent published a facsimile of a letter written by George VI in 1922, before he assumed the English throne. In that letter he wrote “I am sure the British Israelite business is true. I have read a lot about it lately and everything no matter how large or small points to our being ‘the chosen race”.
  
• In 1926 A.D. Dr. Mordecai Ham (Baptist) preached a sermon tilted The Need For The Anglo-Israel Truth.
  
• In 1938 A.D. Pastor James McGaw (Presbyterian ) authored Suppose We Are Israel.
• Charles Parham (Founder of Pentecostal movement).
  
• Pastor George Jeffreys (founder of the Elim Pentecostal Church).
  
• In 1930s Evangelist F.F. Bosworth author a booklet titled The Bible Distinction Between “The House of Israel” and “The House of Judah”.
  
• Howard B. Rand was an inventor, author, and head of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America  during the 1900s, and editor of Destiny Magazine.
  
• Biblical Archeologist E. Raymond Capt author of many Anglo-Israel books.