A Critique Of
"'Chosen People' Inside the Mind of Christian Identity"
By Ovid Need, Jr.
The following is an answer to a future article in
the Media Bypass. Despite the article praising "Christian Identity," it
is an excellent publication, and worthy of your examination.
Check their web site, http://www.4bypass.com/
"'Chosen People' Inside the Mind of Christian Identity"
According to God's Word, there are some serious errors in the July
1996 issue of the Media Bypass article, 'Chosen People.'
Many sincere people are being influenced by “Christian” Identity.
Before converting to the “Identity” religion, one should do his
homework. Is it “Christian?” Who is Israel? Who is covered by God's
Law-Word? Who is the Abrahamic Covenant with? Is there a physical race
of God's Chosen People on the earth today? According to God's Word, are
folks being led into a false religion that looks like the truth?
First, it rightly admits that "Christian Identity" is a faith,
or religion. Thus it is in opposition to the Orthodox Biblical Christian
faith which says that the Redeemed, or the People of God, consist of
people of every nation, kindred and tongue, Rev 5:9. According to
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, Rev 5:9 must be understood thusly.
A) kindred means all the persons descended from one of
the twelve sons of Jacob; a race, nation, people; thus Israel.
B) tongue means the language used by a particular people
in distinction from that of other nations... It serves to designate
people of various languages, so the obvious reference is to all tongues
and races originating at the tower of Babel. The same word us used in
Rev 7:9; 10:11; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6; 17:15. Accordingly, contained among
the great number of redeemed before the throne are people from every
language group under heaven.
C)people means a people, tribe, nation, all those who are
of the same stock and language; univ. of any people. Thayer gives the
same additional uses in Rev as he did under tongue.
D) nation means race, nation, foreign nations not
worshiping the true God, pagans, Gentiles. Paul uses nation to
define the race of people outside of Israel to which he was sent by God
with the gospel, Rom 11:13, 15:27; 26:4; Gal 2:12, 14; Eph 3:1, cf.
4:17.
Accordingly, those who might say that God's "Chosen People" are only
found in the White, Anglo-Saxon race might have an "intense" knowledge,
but it is not knowledge of the Christian Bible, particularly the New
Testament, nor of the Christian God.
Restricting God's electing, redeeming grace to one nation or tribe of
people is not Biblical Christianity nor is it the Christian God. The
extent of their "intense" Bible knowledge is also shown in the
following.
Second, "Identity" claims to have scholarly support for its
position that the White race is the Israel of old; however, notice their
"scholars" are recent "Identity" scholars, e.g., Raymond Capt and James
Bruggeman. They wisely (subtilly?) avoid the fact that Orthodox
Christian scholars from the very foundation of the Church of the Lord
Jesus Christ do not support their suppositions, e.g.,
1) Justin Martyr (AD 110-165). In his very lengthy AD 160
"Dialogue with Trypho, A Jew, we find these headings: "CHAP. XXVI. - NO
SALVATION TO THE JEWS EXCEPT THROUGH CHRIST," "CHAP. CXXIII. -
RIDICULOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF THE JEWS. CHRISTIANS ARE THE TRUE ISRAEL,"
and "CHAP. CXXV. - HE EXPLAINS WHAT FORCE THE WORD ISRAEL HAS, AND HOW
IT SUITS CHRIST." (ANTI-NICENE FATHERS, v. I.194-270.) His
writings are among the most important Christian writings to come down
from the second century. Though not the first to write Christian
Apologetics, he gives us insight into the relations existing between the
heathens and Christians in those days. His "Dialogue" shows the early
Christian view of the false assumption that anyone except Christians are
the true Israel of God. Under the three points mentioned above, Justin
presents abundant Scriptural support to counter the false assumptions of
his day concerning Israel.
2) Keil-Delitzsch is no doubt the classic Old Testament
Commentary. No pastor's library should be without the 10 volume set.
According to Keil-Delitzsch,
As the Hebrew..., like the German..., is not always used in an
exclusive sense, but is frequently abstracted from what lies behind the
terminus ad quem mentioned, it by no means follows from the
words, “the Lord rejected Israel... to this day,” that the ten
tribes returned to their own country after the time when our books were
written, viz. about the middle of the sixth century B.C. And it is just
as impossible to prove the opposite view, which is very widely spread,
namely, that they are living as a body in banishment even at the present
day. It is well known how often the long-lost ten tribes have been
discovered, in the numerous Jewish communities of southern Arabia, in
India, more especially in Malabar, in China, Turkistan, and Cashmir, or
in Afghanistan, and even in America itself; and now Dr. Asahel Grant
thinks that he has found them in the independent Nestorians and the Jews
living among them; whereas others, such as Witsius, J.D. Michaelis, and
last of all Robinson in the work quoted by Ritter, have endeavored to
prove that the ten tribes became partly mixed up with the Judaeans
during the Babylonian captivity, and partly attached themselves to the
exiles who were led back to Palestine by Zerubbabel and Ezra; that a
portion again became broken up at a still later period by mixing with
the rest of the Jews, who were scattered throughout the world after the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and a further portion a long time ago
by conversion to Christianity, so that every attempt to discover the
remnants of the ten tribes anywhere must be altogether futile. This
view is in general the correct one, though its supporters have mixed up
the sound arguments with many that are untenable. For example, the
predictions quoted by Ritter..., probably after Robinson (viz. Jer 1. 4,
5, 17, 19, and Ezek. xxxvii. 11 sqq.), and also the prophetic
declarations cited by Witsius (v. 11-14: viz Isa xiv. 1, Mic. ii. 12,
Jer. iii. 12, xxx. 3, 4, xxxiii. 7, 8), prove very little, because for
the most part they refer to Messianic times and are to be understood
spiritually... And the Mosaic manners and customs of the Nestorians
prove nothing more than that they are of Jewish origin. In general, the
Israelites and Jews who have come into heathen lands from the time of
Salmanasar and Nebuchadnezzar onwards, and have settled there, have
become so mixed up with the Jews who were scattered in all quarters of
the globe from the time of Alexander the Great, and more especially
since the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans, that the last
traces of the old division into tribes have entirely disappeared. (Keil-Delitzsch,
2 Kgs 17:22, 23, vol. III.418-421. 1807- 1888/1813-1890 respectively.
Emp added.)
Third, origin of the Anglo-Saxon faith is not from the Holy
Scripture, as is the Christian faith. E.P Ingersoll, in his preface to Lost Israel found, (1886) claimed the ideas that developed into the
"Identity" religion grew out of a study of the Great Pyramid of Geezeh, by
Prof. P. Smyth, Royal Astronomer to Scotland. James Hastings, in his 1926
classic Encyclopaedia of Religion & Ethics (in 13 huge volumes),
documents that the Anglo-Saxon faith came from John Sadler's Rights of
the Kingdom (1649). Sadler's assumptions were drawn from a series of
parallels between English law and customs and those of Hebrews and Jews. The
more modern version of the Identity faith comes from John Wilson's Our
Israelitish Origin (1849), and the first Association was formed in 1879.
(Study-Graph, Survey of Major Cults, 1965, John H. Gerstner, Ph. D.)
What a wonderful, firm foundation to build religious system upon: The Great
Pyramid! Note the dates were after the foundation of America, which Identity
falsely claims was founded in Identity theories.
Fourth, "'Saxon' is a derivative of 'Issac Sons.'" Again, Identity
wisely avoids Webster, probably the greatest orthoepist and lexicographer of
the English language, for obvious reasons. According to the 1828 Webster
dictionary, SAXON, n. [Sax. seax, a knife, sword or dagger, a Saxon.]
1. One of the nations or people who formerly dwelt in the northern part of
Germany, and who invaded and conquered England in the fifth and sixth
centuries. The Welsh still call the English Sasons. In addition, the
1884 Chamber's Encyclopeadia says concerning the word “Saxon:” SAXONS (Lat.
Saxones, Ger. Saxchsen), a German people, whose name is
usually derived from an old German word sahs, meaning a `knife,'…” (Chambers
Encyclopeadia, a Dictionary of Universal knowledge for the people, vol.
VII.101. 1884.)
In the introduction to his 1828 dictionary, Webster deals with the common
words used by different language groups: Being a Christian, Webster assumed
the world-wide Biblical Flood was just what God said it was, a world-wide
flood. Therefore, similarities in the languages, he said, are holdovers from
the common language all peoples had before the tower of Babel. (Introduction,
p. 9.)
Fifth, "the Abrahamic Covenant of the Bible." Isa 42:4-6 & 49:8
clearly identify Christ as the Covenant of God. Thus all who are in Christ
are in the Covenant, for HE IS THE COVENANT. One is placed in the Abrahamic
Covenant by grace through faith in the redemptive work of Christ, Gal 3:14;
Eph 2:8, 9. Nor can we ignore the promised Covenant of Jer 31:31. The
Covenant was not made with any physical race of people; the covenant was
made with Christ and His Church, Heb 10:16, 17, 2 Cor 3:3, &c. Furthermore,
all nations are held accountable to the Covenant Law of God, Ps 9:7; Isa
13:1-23:8; 24:1-6, 21; Jer 11:2, 3; 18:7-10; 24:1-8; 25:29, and Jer 50,
whether they agreed to it or not.
Sixth, America, the covenant nation? Lev 25:18, 19, promises that
if a nation will keep and do God’s statutes and judgments, it
will dwell safely in its own land. Conversely, departure from God’s Word
turns the nation that once dwelt safely over to the pagans, Ps 144:15; Deut
28:15ff. Ps 33:12, tells us that race has nothing whatsoever to do with
being established safely in a land, e.g., “We are a white, Anglo-Saxon
nation; therefore, we are special before God.” Violation of God’s statutes and judgments
causes any nation founded upon them to no
longer dwell safely in a land. Thus any nation established upon God's statutes and judgments is heir to the blessings of God promised in Ps
33:12, &c. (See Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, #326e.
Moody Press.) On the other hand, when that nation turns its back upon God's
Law-Word, it forfeits its safety in the land. In fact, God uses heathen
nations to punish those who are unfaithful to their foundational covenant
with Himself.
Just as sure as God moved His servant, Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Babylon, against His people in Palestine (Jer 25:19, &c.), God is now
moving foreign national troops, e.g., German and Russian, into His place of
judgment against America’s anti-Biblical, Antinomian “Christianity.”
“Promise Keepers,” “Dobsonites” and “Gothardites” continue to multiply, and
televangelists continue to rake in the money to "convert the world and feed
the hungry" while foreign troops enlarge their presence upon American soil.
Why cannot people add two and two and get a proper answer? Clearly, what is
being promoted as Christianity is not Biblical Christianity, or American
Christians would not be on the verge of losing their land, Lev 25:18, 19.
Only the antiChristians deny that the founders of America entered into
covenant with the Lord God of the Christian Bible.
This nation was founded upon and by the Christian God, not the god
exalted by Judaism, Jn 8:54; Jesus Christ clearly told the Jews that the god
they worshiped, which did not point to Himself, was a false god and not the
God of Abraham. Thus the Christian God is defined as He Who: 1) can be
approached by all nationalities; 2) is approached only through the shed
blood of His Son, Christ Jesus, and 3) is revealed in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ (thou shalt call his name JESUS, Mat 1:21.) Thus He is
not the Jewish god nor the god worshiped by the majority of "religious"
people today, for their god does not require the blood sacrifice for sin.
These united States do not have a Judaic/Christian heritage; they
have a distinctly Biblical Christian heritage, emanating from the desire to
spread the gospel of Christ to every creature (not just the "Anglo-Saxon"
race). It was clearly the Christian God Who established America. (The
Christian Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States, B.F.
Morris, Introduction, p II. G.W. Childs, Philadelphia, PA, 1864.)
"[T]hese United States" were to be the theater of the development and
triumph of the Christian religion, the gospel of Christ, not the Jewish
religion. The fathers of America entered into a covenant with the Christian
God of the Bible. John Winthrop (1588-1649), aboard the flagship Arabella,
spelled out what would happen to his national posterity if it forsook the
covenant with God. (See God and Government, The Restoration of the
Republic, vol. III.xi.) The early commitment of this nation, supported
by every colony, was to faithfully obey the Law-Word of God, spread the
gospel of Christ to every creature and advance the kingdom of God on earth.
(Christian Character, 52.) In a large New Haven barn on June 4th,
1639, the founding fathers of these united States made the following
covenant with the Christian God:
"Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Almighty God, by wise disposition of
his divine providence, so to order and dispose of things that we, the
inhabitants of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, are now cohabiting and
dwelling in and upon the river of Connecticut, and the lands thereunto
adjoining, and well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of
God requireth that, to maintain the peace and union of such a people, there
should be an orderly and decent government established according to God, to
order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons as occasion
should require; do, therefore, associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one
public STATE or COMMONWEALTH, and do enter into combination and
confederation to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel
of our LORD JESUS, which we now profess, as also the discipline of the
churches, which, according to the truth of said gospel, is now practiced
amongst us; as also in our civil affairs to be guided and governed according
to such laws, rules, and orders, and decrees as shall be made.
"I. That the Scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and
government of all men in all duties which they are to preform to God and to
men, as well in families and commonwealths as in matters of the church.
"II. That as in matters which concern the gathering and ordering of a
church, so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order,--as the
choice of magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing
allotments of inheritance, and all things of like nature,--they would all be
governed by those rules which the Scripture held forth to them. ...
The General Court, established under this constitution, ordered,--
"That God's word should be the only rule for ordering the affairs of
government in this commonwealth." (Christian Character, 66-68.)
In Exo 19:8; 24;3, 7, the Hebrews at the mount said, "All the words which
the Lord hath said will we do." (Compare Jn 14:15 with Ac 7:30-38: It was
Jesus Christ Who spoke to the Hebrews.) They, accordingly, agreed to do the
Law of God as revealed through Moses. The founding fathers, with no thought
of whether or not they were decedents of the Hebrews of old, said, "All the
words of God's Law we will do." And thus they made a covenant with the
Christian God of both the Old and the New Testaments, for the God they
covenanted with is revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; He is,
therefore, not the Jewish god. They promised to base the laws and actions of
their new nation in Holy Scripture; they promised the Christian God that if
He prospered them, they would render strict obedience to God's Word; they
made it clear that if the nation they founded departed from the covenant
they made with the Christian God, that God's wrath and vengeance
would be upon the faithless people for breaching their covenant. America’s
founding fathers’ agreement with the Lord God placed the following
generations of Americans within the covenant- conditions of possessing
the land (Lev 25:18) that have stood since Abraham.
The original covenant was not between the civil authority and the people
under that authority; the covenant was between the people and the Christian
God of the Bible Who established their nation. We must all admit that the
covenant has been broken, but which covenant? Those looking and hoping for a
political solution requiring no repentance and obedience to God's Word (even
Antinomian Christians) say the covenant that is broken is between the
Federal civil government in DC and the people, i.e., the Constitution.
However, those who believe God's Word know the covenant that is broken is
the one between the people and the Christian God: The people promised to
render strict obedience to God's Law-Word, and the founders agreed to God's
righteous vengeance if they or their children departed from that covenant.
Every weapon that fallen man can bring to bear has been used against that
founding covenant to pattern America's laws after God's Law-Word. The state
education system has been, probably, the most effective weapon.
Abraham, the father of those who have placed their faith in Christ (Ro 4;
Ga 3:9, 29, &c.), walked in the statutes of the Lord long before the
Ten Commandments were given. He is held up as the example for all God's
people of all time — till the end of time. Thus any person or nation, e.g.,
America (clearly founded in the Christian faith in the Lord Jesus Christ),
can enter into the covenant relationship that Abraham had, and receive the
blessings outlined in Deut 28, 29. On the other hand, those who fail to walk
in His statutes will inherit the curses. Nationality has nothing to do with
the blessings and curses of the law, for the law covers every living soul,
or there is no final judgment according to God's Law.
Certainly, every pulpit in this nation at one time sounded forth the
responsibilities of the covenant made by America's founding fathers with the
Christian God as revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ, but that message
was not the message that the Anglo-Saxon race is somehow, though a series of
supposed travels, God's "Chosen People." It was a distinctly Calvinistic
message that held that the Elect of all races are God's Chosen People. It is
by God's sovereign, electing grace that one enters into the covenant, and
God does not call according to race.
Seventh, some day even those who hate the name of Jesus will have to bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, Php
2:10, 11.
The above facts, and many more, are throughly documented in Pastor Need's
book, Identitying Identity.
Rev. R.J. Rushdoony said of Identifying Identity: "Pastor Ovid
Need, Jr., has a discerning and systematic mind, and this appears clearly in
his study, Identifying Identity: A Biblical Examination of Assumptions
Found in British-Israelism, Anglo-Saxonism, Christian Identity
(spiral-bound, 72 pp., King and Kingdom Publishers, P.O. Box 6,
Linden, Indians 47955; telephone 765-339-4609; $14 postpaid). This is a
detailed exegitical analysis, made without rancor or unkindliness, of some
of the basic assumptions of champions of that faith. In specific, the
premises of one man are analyzed, but these are points common to most in the
Identity Movement. Ministers should keep a copy of this work on hand to
answer questions, or to loan to troubled persons. The fact that derelict
ideas are sometimes held by likeable people does not lessen their danger.
Pastor Need s analysis represents much painstaking study, and we are all the
better for having his manual. It is detailed, specific, and Biblical. He
explains and corrects rather than condemning and is always gracious."
(Chalcedon Report, June, 1996.)
Pastor Ovid Need Jr.
Linden Baptist Chruch
30 Plum St
Linden Indiana
Pastor Need publishes a theological paper, The Biblical
Examiner, which examines issues as mentioned above from a throughly Biblical
perspective. It is sent upon request, as the Lord provides.
By Ovid Need, Jr.
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