The Identity Movement teaches that the Anglo-Saxon race and their kin (Scandinavians, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, etc.) are the "lost tribes" of Israel, who are destined as God's chosen people to rule the world. The full name of Identity is "Anglo-Israel-Identity Movement."(75)

It is believed that, as God's chosen people whose king (or queen) sits on the throne of David (the British throne), and whose lineage can be traced back through the Jewish patriarchs to Adam, the Anglo-Saxon race has special favor with God.(76)

"Israel-America" (comprised of Anglo and related descendants in the United States)(77) has a special anointing.

The nation of Israel that exists today in the Middle East is considered a pretender to the name of Israel, being allegedly comprised of certain Asian peoples known as "Kazars." Thus any biblical references to God's prophesied dealings with Israel in the last days are believed to have been fulfilled. Daniel's seventieth week has come and gone, as has anti-Christ, and now we must look forward to the establishment of Yahweh's Kingdom on earth. This is to be administered through the Anglo-Saxon Christians who have come to recognize their unique destiny.

Though Identity is overtly anti-Semitic, its proponents claim that those who are against them are the true anti-Semites. But there is a deeper reason for the anti-Israel stance taken not only by Identity, but by other dominion-oriented movements.

Should national Israel remain established, the belief that God is going to save a remnant of Jews to be a witness for Jesus in the last days would be validated. Hence, the Church will have to be taken out of the world before Jesus sets His feet upon the earth, and before God's wrath is poured out upon rebellious mankind (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Revelation 6 & 7). If this is true, then the dominion theory falls apart: the Kingdom of God will not be established on earth until Jesus returns with His saints to destroy the anti-Christ's kingdom. While we who are outside the Kingdom Now Movement understand that Jews, like all men, are lost until they come by faith to recognize Jesus as their Messiah, we also recognize that the nation of Israel does have a purpose in God's plans for the last days.

Identity's hatred is not limited to Jews, however. Blacks and other non-whites are looked upon as inferior beings who may be allowed to enjoy the benefits of the kingdom as long as they remain subject to their Anglo-Saxon superiors. They cannot hold positions of significant authority, however, because the promises to Israel belong only to the "true" Israelites: the Anglo-Saxon believers.

The snag in Identity's plans for America is the tremendous influx of non-white immigrants whom they see as parasitical and detrimental to the establishment of God's white-dominated world government. The fewer non-whites that are left to enter the Kingdom, the better, as far as Identity is concerned.

As a side note, there is a black counter to Identity known as the Yahweh sect. This cult believes that American blacks are the true descendants of the biblical tribe of Judah, living in the land of the "white devil."(78)  Maybe the black Yahweh sect and white Identity are both right. Perhaps they're related and don't know it.

In view of Identity's racial policy, it isn't surprising that radical racist groups such as the neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan have joined.(79)  For all their error and their attacks against non-whites, these groups are zealously moralistic (by their convoluted standards). Although Identity's members consider themselves Christians their ideology is more akin to salvation by race than salvation by grace. They welcome Aryan pagans into fellowship while mounting hate campaigns against Christian Jews, blacks, and other non-whites.

This isn't to say that all Identity People are overtly racist, but their philosophy reflects a dangerous mindset that threatens to exacerbate an already tense situation between races. Their para-militarism and rebellion against constituted authority combine to create a volatile situation that could someday erupt into fullscale racial warfare.

Even older than the Latter Rain Movement, Identity found fertile ground to propagate its own brand of Kingdom Theology among the neo-Pentecostals of the mid-twentieth century. Seeing the opportunity to cloak itself with the respectability of the Church, Identity has aligned with neo-Pentecostalism, and today presents the Anglo-Israel-Identity Movement as "just as much a result of the work of the Holy Spirit as the Charismatic renewal."(80)

Not all who believe in British-Israelism are part of Identity. But on the basis of little more than conjecture and hearsay, British-Israelism has found credibility in the eyes of many otherwise sensible Christians.

Yet even if true, the very nature of British-Israelism and the strife it engenders is contrary to the warning of Scripture that we not be concerned with endless genealogies
(I Timothy 1:4; Titus 3:9).

True Israel consists of all who have come to God by faith in Jesus Christ, whether Jew or Gentile (Romans 2:28-29). To God no one has any standing except by His grace. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, rich nor poor, bond nor free, male nor female, but we are all one in Him (Galatians 3:26-29). As Jesus said, God is able to turn stones into children of Abraham (Matthew 4:9), so who is anyone to boast of his ancestry, especially an ancestry built on little more than fanciful conjecture?

- Footnotes -

• 75 Curtis Clair Ewing, Tract: "For the Benefit of Our Pentecostal and Charismatic Brethren!" (Waynesville, NC: New Beginnings, undated),p.1.
• 76 'Time,' October 20,1986,p.74.
• 77 Ibid.
• 78 Orange County 'Register,' Orange County, CA, October 30, 1986,p.A23.
• 79 'Time.'
• 80 "For the Benefit of Our Pentecostal and Charismatic Brethren," p.1.