The Ten Tribes

Where are the lost 10 tribes? I hope no one is disappointed to find the answer is simply
apparent.

First the facts: 1) They are not exactly 10 tribes, but remnants of 12 of the 13 tribes,
Judah excluded. 2) They are lost to our knowledge, but not necessarily out of sight. 3) At
least a remnant will yet be reclaimed spiritually and lead home as a group.

Now some history: The northern Kingdom of Israel, lead by the tribe of prideful
Ephraim, was taken to Assyria in 729. They were resettled within Assyria over a
possibly wide area roughly centering in northern Iraq. Their quarrel with Judah included
the fact that the center of worship, the temple in Jerusalem, was under Judah’s control.
Clearly, returning to Palestine was not their priority. In fact, if they did choose to move,
they might well have chosen to go north, away from Jerusalem. The apocrypha says
this is exactly what happened*. It is clear that at least the tribe of Ephraim ended up
in northern Europe and the British Isles, where they were found by missionaries in the
latter-days. Clearly this rebellious yet gifted group, still possessing Jacob’s birth right,
decided to throw off their oppressive yoke and strike out on their own. But what of the
other tribes? Obviously individuals and perhaps clans are likely to have scattered all over
the earth; but we are looking for a core group still hidden yet reclaimable as prophesied.

Hidden where? So we are looking for the 10-11 tribes left of the original 11-12 after
Ephraim took off north. Where did they go and how do they remain hidden? People
have speculated they were hidden on a land mass at the North Pole, or on the North Star-
- Come on, they never went anywhere. Like many other conquered nations of that time
they basically became assimilated and stayed. They heard the original apostles and
many were presumably converted to the gospel and may have come to understand their
heritage. Who knows what spiritual revivals they might have had before being conquered
by Moslem nations and becoming enclosed behind the most spiritually impenetrable
barrier ever known to man-Islam.

The future: So the 10 tribes are most likely lost behind the curtain of Islamic law, which
forbids preaching of or conversion to Christianity. It will be interesting to see how the
Lord breaks down that barrier to allow missionaries to gather the final 10 tribes. This
explains the Lord’s proclamation that the first will be last and the last first. The 10 tribes
of Israel and Judah, chosen first, will be reclaimed only after the gentiles have had ample
chance to receive the truth.

*http://www.gatheringofisrael.com/12tribes.html

History of the Tribes

The apocryphal second book of Esdras, regarded as genuine by many early Christians, gives the following
account of the ten tribes:

'"and whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable people unto him. These are the Ten Tribes
which were carried away captives out of their own land in the time of Oseas, the king, whom Salmanaser,
the king of the Assyrians, took captive and crossed them beyond the river; so were they brought into
another land, but they took this council to themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen
and go forth onto a further country, where never man dwelt, that they might keep the statutes, which
they never kept in their own land. And they entered in at the narrow passages of the river Euphrates, for

the most High then showed them signs and stayed the springs of the flood till they were passed over;
for through the country there was great journey, even of a year and a half, and the same region is called
Arsareth." (2 Esdras 13:39-45.)

See also: Lands of the Dispersion: Britains from Armenia; Picts from Scythia By David Stewart
www.gatheringofisrael.com/12tribes.html

Darwin Fish

I love the "Darwin" car emblems, you know the ones, fish with feet. What do they mean?
Let me try: because Darwin showed that life came spontaneously, why fear God? But
who is God: let's say Someone who made things, watches over things, can control them
to a certain extent, and cares what happens. In short, someone really smart, powerful and
good. Maybe someone like Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, if either had been
able to live and keep learning another 10 million years, or 100 billion or something. But
since there is no one around like that, why worry?

But wait, let’s think this through. Darwin says everything happened by chance. OK,
but who says it happened only once, and only recently. If a person really believes it
happened here by chance, how narrow minded to assume it never happened before,
anywhere, in all of time and space we know nothing about. And if it did happen
somewhere else, say 10 million or 100 billion years ago, who are those people? Let's say
they are smart, basically good, and that have been at it for all that time. Now tell me there
is no God.

So there you have it. Those people sporting the footed fish with Darwin's name are
actually the greatest proponents for a God in the Universe, if they could only see the
simply apparent extension of their logic.

Scientists and Global Warming

Science:  I love science; and I admire the scientists whose integrity, work ethics and native talents have made this a better world.  Any criticism of scientists found on this site should be considered in the context of the profound respect I have for my colleagues.

Global Warming:  That said, I do have a grudge.  Scientists love to impress each other: for most the goal is notoriety before wealth.  This is a mixed blessing.  For example, global warming may not be an easily understood environmental phenomenon, but without doubt it creates political heat.  Because so much influence and prestige are at stake, political and even scientific battle lines have been drawn, and separate camps formed.  The most conspicuous casualty of this tumult has been the rigorous culture of unfettered intellectual interchange, a foundation of scientific progress.  For some it almost seems a tool for intellectual bullying, if not scientific bigotry?

The Solution:  In this stifling atmosphere, I believe the basic points have been overlooked by almost everyone.  To find the truth, look for the SIMPLY APPARENT.  First; plant life is composed mostly of carbon dioxide and water.  Second; at one point earth’s foliage was magnificently abundant; so abundant that it piled up too fast to be recycled, resulting in immense buried carbon deposits.  Third, with reduced carbon dioxide available for photosynthesis, to say nothing of the water frozen at the poles, this planet became mostly barren.  So what to do--dredge up the carbon; burn it back into the biosphere; hope the earth heats enough to melt polar ice; and reap a windfall of plant life.  Imagine a rain forest in Saudi Arabia as it once was.  Hunger would vanish even with a world population vastly exceeding the present.  Energy sufficient for all our needs could be directly obtained by gleaning fallen foliage that otherwise would pile up again into carbon deposits.

Paradise:  So, shield your eyes from the political fire, see the apparent, and realize that freeing carbon from its underground prison is the key to turning earth into the paradise many of us believe it is destined to become.