David Brannan PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

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the promises made to Abraham could not possibly be related to the current state of Israel. Then,
it will become “obvious,” Britain and America are the clear extension of Abraham’s covenant
with God. They, not the modern state of Israel, are the true ‘hidden Israel’ and rightful heir to the
prophetic promises made throughout the Bible. After accepting the basic and essential premise of
British-Israel theology – that there is an actual ‘hidden Israel’ found in the British and American
people – the student is then ready to accept the many additional evidences which corroborate and
support the basic premise. The central hermeneutic must be accepted, but once that leap is made,
everything apparently falls into place.
Some of these “evidences” and “proofs” can be found in Peter Saemi’s, The USA & the
British Commonwealth In Bible Prophecy. 404 Many, if not a majority of these proofs, rest on
questionable scholarship if not sheer fantasy in the areas of linguistics, history and geography as
shown above. 405 The central beliefs of British-Israel theology do not revolve around or even
involve the doctrines of grace, scripture, Christ’s position, the Godhead, the trinity or any other
essential distinctive of the Christian faith. After the ‘extras’ are pulled away, British-Israelism is
a belief system that says nothing more than the assertion that ‘hidden Israel’ can be found in the
people of British origin. The presuppositional starting point, the central hermeneutic for
understanding scripture and the essential message of British-Israel theology is the same – a literal
Israel exists in the British people of today. This then is the hermeneutic for all British-Israel
exegesis and assertion.
404 See, http://www.british-israel.net/USA2.htm. (cited April, 13, 2002).
405 See for instance H.L. Goudge, The British Israel Theory, (London: R Mowbray & Co. Limited,
1933,43), for a step-by-step dismantling of the questionable scholarship of early British-Israelism.