Christian Identity and British-Israelism

The Origins and Development of Hate

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The origins of the American and Canadian Christian Identity movements can be traced back to a peculiar yet relatively benign ideology of late 19th century England. One of the earliest proponents of the pseudo-religious British-Israelism (sometimes called Anglo-Israelism) was Richard Brothers, who explained to anyone who would listen that Western Europeans, especially those living in Britain, were the spiritual and literal descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel.

This managed to fit in well with a common theme in American Christianity which portrayed America as the "New Israel" and the "City on the Hill" which would provide the world with both the light of God and the light of democracy. British-Israelism went a bit further than this, however, in portraying the British (or anyone of Anglo-Saxon descent) as alone being the true chosen people, not the Jews. The Jews would be variously described as simply the descendants of Judah and who required the help of the true Israelites, or perhaps not true Jews at all.

British Israelism came early on to American shores, spreading its message across the country. The path was prepared for Christian Identity in three major ways. First, the followers of British-Israelism spread pamphlets and information to large numbers of people who were otherwise unaware of its doctrines. These ideas would eventually come to form the core of Christian Identity.

Second, a forum was created in which a diverse cross-section of racists, nationalists, anti-Semites, and others on the far-right felt welcome. Finally, a large infrastructure of contacts, groups, publishers, etc. was created. This eventually would allow for the development of a widely spread Christian Identity organization.

I deliberately use the term "North America" rather than just America. Although Christian Identity is probably more common in the United States than anywhere else, it is nevertheless true that they also exist in significant numbers in Canada as well. Canadians are justifiably proud of a society which has traditionally been very tolerant of many minorities.

However, they like America have had a tradition of racism, bigotry and hate. In recent years more and more Canadians are become aware of how deep they still run - they, too, will benefit from learning the nature of some of the hatred in their society.

Millennialism

One key inheritance which Christian Identity received was its millenarian outlook on life. According to British-Israelism, we are living in the "Last Days" when all of history will reach its final culmination in the apocalyptic battle between good and evil. Two different millenarian positions existed in the 19th century: premillennialism and postmillenialism.

The first is postmillenialism (after the millennium), and this is the position that our world is getting better and better through human efforts as the Kingdom of God is gradually realized. Eventually, things will be so good that a thousand years of peace and prosperity will result, after which Christ will finally return and bring in a new heaven and a new earth.

Postmillenialism used to be more common in the 19th century, but has given way to premillennialism (before the millennium), asserts that our world is just getting worse and worse. Evil is gradually gaining control of the earth and humanity - eventually it will become overwhelming. Christ will then return, bind the devil in hell, and establish a thousand years of peace and prosperity.

Thereafter Satan will be let loose for one last chance to tempt humanity, after which he and his followers will be thrown forever into torment. Only then will Christ bring about a new heaven and earth. This is the position which appears to be most common today, especially among fundamentalists. Within pre-millenialism there are two different positions: historicism and futurist.

Historicists traditionally examine human history in order to discern signs of Jesus' Second Coming. Typically historicists focus closely upon the books of Daniel and Revelations, concluding that most of the prophecies have already been fulfilled, which means that we can only have a little bit of time left.

Their hope is to study current political trends in the expectation that they will be able to calculate our end with a high degree of accuracy. We see this happening even today when we hear pronouncements that Prince Charles or Saddam Hussein is the "Antichrist." Historicism, however, has fallen considerably out of favor - for the obvious reason that historicist predictions keep failing.

Slowly taking over was futurism, which asserted that nothing from history could be held as certain fulfillment of any prophecies. John Nelson Darby was perhaps the most influential futurist, and it was he would developed the doctrine of "dispensationalism." His major contributions to this was first the idea that the fulfillment of prophecies had temporarily stopped and would resume at some point in the future, and second that at that point in time, all the saved would secretly be removed from the Earth and taken to heaven in a "rapture," thus sparing them the horrors to come.

This dispensationalism had significant consequences for both British-Israelism and later Christian Identity. Although God had made specific promises to the Jews, they had the audacity to reject his Messiah, Jesus Christ. This resulted in a very paternalistic attitude towards the Jews and their aspirations for their own country.

Eventually, such British-Israelist paternalism became a more virulent sort of anti-semitism due in no small part to the rising star of Zionism. The anti-Semitic themes nurtured over the years by BI eventually provided the basis for the stronger anti-Semitism of Identity theology.

It is a necessary conclusion of British-Israelism's claim to being the True Israel that the Jews religious claims are lessened to a great degree. At the very best, they would have to be content with a small role in God's overall plan for humanity, perhaps affiliated with the tribe of Judah, if they are lucky. Zionism came into play because the Jews should only have a claim to a homeland under the supervision of the British.

The very concept of genuine sovereignty for a Jewish state was anathema for British-Israelism because that could only happen if the British left. In such a case, Palestine and the Holy Lands would at best have a Judah, but not the True Israel. A sovereign Jewish state would also represent direct competition against British claims to being Israel, an intolerable situation.