Need Help With Article....

I recently found this article online, and was wondering if any of you could take a look at it, and let me know if it looks sound. It is regarding a controversial topic, and I would like someone’s opinion on it, before I go sharing it with other people.

http://www.angloisrael.com/pdf/beware-of-jewish-fables.pdf

Discussion

I gave it a quick read. From what I saw, its basic premise is the Jews of our Lord’s time on Earth were not Israel. I think the site’s url (angloisrael.com) gives a clue as to its presuppositions. That being the British people are Israel. It’s not a new concept. British Israelism’s last popularizer was Herbert W. Armstong.

Hoping to shed more light than heat..

At various points in medieval history, nearly every nation in Europe had a legenry that made them the real remnant of God’s chosen people — with some odd doctrinal assumptions to enhance those theories. British Israelism is certainly the one we hear most about hear in the US. It had a long history of sympathetic treatment in the English church, though the Anglicans never actually endorsed it as doctine.

Take, for example, the hymn “Jerusalem”, by William Blake, long the favorite hymn in Anglican churches:

And did those feet in ancient time.
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In Englands green & pleasant Land

A brief reading of the words reveals the “civil religion” aspect of the hymn — England has a special place in God’s heart. It serves as the British counterpart to some of our affirmations and assumptions here in America,

If Jesus was not a Jew(in the religious sense), then what would be the proper way to describe the true religion of Isreal? If Jesus is God himself, can it even be said that he practiced religion? Is not religion a way for man to seek and worship God? But Jesus could not have worshipped himself, nor was he culpable of sin. Jesus came to do the will of the Father.

If we now have the righteousness that comes from Christ, how does that affect our religious service to God?