STEP 3 - Divide of the Tribes Israel
Picture reproduced with kind permission of UAFC in South Africa
Israel was divided into two separate kingdoms after the death of Solomon.
Read: 1 Kings 11:9-13, 28-37; 12:4-6, 12-15, 21-15
Both Kingdoms were separately carried off into captivity by separate empires. Scripture shows that only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and some Levite priest ever returned to Palestine.
Read: Ezra 1:1-5, 2:1, 4:1-4; 10:7-9.
The Northern Kingdom of 10 Tribes went into Captivity in 751 BC and the Southern Kingdom went into captivity in 604 - 586 BC and the Jews returned in 534 BC from Babylon.
There is no Scripture anywhere that says the two sections ever reunited. On the Contrary, Scripture speaks of the reunion of all the tribes of Israel in the last days, possibly only completely in the Millennium.
Read: Isaiah 11, Ezekiel 37: 15-28, Jeremiah 3:6-12, 14, 16-18.
What about History?
Both modern secular and Jewish scholarship confirm the existing division of the kingdom of Israel. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1975 edition, article entitled: " Judah - tribe of" ) says: "Modern Jews trace their Linage to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, or to the priestly class known as Levites. The history of the tribe of Judah".
Dr Hertz, late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire wrote as follows: "The people known at present as Jews are descendants of the tribe of Levi. As far as is known there is no further admixture of other tribes...We look forward to the gathering of all the tribes at some future day." Jewish Prayer books contain a prayer for the return of the lost 10 tribes. It follows that bible prophecy cannot be fulfilled if the 10 tribes have disappeared for ever.
So... the Question is.... Step 4
