No Ephod? Part Four of Truly Earnest (17 December, 2014, 25 Kislev, 5775)
Continued from Earnestly Yours
A Refutation of the article:
The Not Lost Tribes of Israel. Who and Where Are the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel Today?
by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D.
http://www.soundchristian.com/tribes/
Part Four:
Martin continues:
As for the Ten Tribes, Hosea said: "the Israelites shall live many a day long without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without image or household gods: but after that they will again seek the Lord their God and David their king, and turn anxiously to the Lord for his bounty in days to come" (Hosea 3:4,5 NEB).
The truth is, the Ten Tribes were sent into captivity by the Assyrians because they had been setting up kings of their own (Hosea 8:4); were sacrificing to heathen deities (Hosea 4:19); were worshipping before sacred pillars of the heathen (ancient stones which were basically phallic symbols) (Hosea 4:17); were using ephods in fortune telling (seeking after familiar spirits and wizards that peep - Isaiah 8:19), and they were consulting the household gods of the heathen. God promised through Hosea that all this pagan nonsense practiced by the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel would cease among them until they would finally return to Palestine and to the Lord their God and to David their king.
This prophecy of Hosea has been fulfilled over the centuries and is being fulfilled to this very day. Since their captivity they have ceased from doing such things. You will not find in any synagogue of these Israelites outright and blatant pagan phallic symbols, fortune tellers, images or household gods of the heathen. But among our Celts, Angles, Saxons and Scandinavian ancestors, they utilized all these pagan artifacts in great profusion. Not only have our ancestors had a plethora of kings over the centuries, we even bury some of them in our prestigious churches to honor their reigns. And look at this. To this very day (and even though our people claim to be Christian) we find steeples on our churches (which are remnants of pagan phallic worship), We have rose windows that resemble the symbolic shape of the sun god Baal along with scores of other pagan symbols in our churches. Even among Protestants who claim to get their doctrines and religious practices only from the Bible, we have books that children use for Sunday School (or Sabbath School) with pictures of a long-haired "Jesus" that any ancient pagan would say was nothing more than Serapis, the Egyptian form of Zeus, the chief pagan god of the heathen world. Many churches are filled with icons, idols and pictures of this same long-haired "Jesus." In no way did the real Jesus have long hair, nor does he or God the Father groom themselves with long hair now (I Corinthians 11:3-16) like the evil spirits from the bottomless pit (Revelation 9:8). Why, the apostles would blush at the sight of such paganism being practiced in our churches today.
But this is not what Hosea prophesied would happen to the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel. He stated dogmatically that they would remain a long time away from the idolatry that led them into captivity. And look at it. You see no steeples ("sacred pillars" or phallic symbols) on their synagogues and they abhor the placement of idolatrous images in their places of worship. And, as for the Gentile races of Europe being equated with the Ten Tribes of Israel, that did not happen until interpreters in the last century misapplied what they thought were chronological prophecies of the Bible that supposedly made the exile period of Israel terminate about A.D. 1803. There are no such prophecies in the Bible.
BA
We have answered the above claims and misinterpretation of Ernest Martin in our article:
Milky Way. Israel in Exile as Neither One Thing or the Other
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/hosea/milky.html
It is recommended that the entire article be read but the gist of our reply is encapsulated in the extract below:
# The Rabbinical Commentators [Rashi, Radak, Metsudat David] explained this verse to mean [in paraphrased form]: Many days the Israelites will abide without acknowledging the Almighty as King and without worshipping an idol [Hebrew: "sar" literally "prince" or "person of authority" but understood here to represent an idol]; without legitimate sacrifice and without idolatrous worship; without the Holy Ephod [Priestly garment bearing the Breastplate with the Urim] and without pagan divinations [teraphim].
# In other words the situation would be similar to what it is today. The Israelite Nations in the West cannot be described as practicing idolatry but neither are they doing the right thing as described by Scripture. There are those who claim they do not believe in a Deity and call themselves atheists. Others are agnostic meaning they are not sure. In numerous cases however there are those who believe vaguely but are not certain exactly in what or what it is they should do about it. The false doctrines of Evolution, Biblical Criticism, and academic skepticism have eroded the strength of faith even in those who otherwise would be considered firm believers. Even if they wanted to do the "right thing", and many actually do, they cannot at present. They do not know how or what they should do. [ At present there may not be anyone who can actually tell them! ] This is part of a Divine Decree...