Thanks again for your wonderful work and Praise God for your talents and knowledge.
I was wondering if you could shed some some light on a verse for me.
” Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’ ” 2 Sam. 7, 16
I was talking to one of our Church elders last night, he was convinced that Queen Elizabeth 2’s roots can be traced all the way back to King David. I was in no position to argue. He said God made a promise to David that his Throne would endure forever. Could this be true? That would mean that the whole British Royal Family is Jewish?
The “British Israel” theory has been around a long time. There are several legends behind this thinking. One is that Jeremiah escaped to England about the time of the Babylonian conquest with the daughter of King Zedekiah. Through her marriage to the King of Ireland, who also claimed to be of the tribe of Judah, their descendants became the royal family of England, hence their throne is called the throne of David.
Another view states that Joseph of Arimathea came to England and founded the royal family. King Arthur was supposedly the eighth generation from Joseph, and King Henry VIII used this claim to deny the Vatican’s authority over England, saying that only he and his descendants had the “divine right of rule” over England.
Some say that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was originally put forth as an attempt by Darwin’s friend Karl Marx to disprove this “divine right”, contending that if man ascended from the animal kingdom rather that being a direct creation of God’s then there was no “divine right”.
As for the verses from 2 Samuel 7, God did promise that David’s throne would last forever. Then in verse 12 said that He would raise up David’s offspring to succeed him. By the context offspring appears to be singular, but since God said that He would be the father of David’s offspring (v. 14) it’s clear that Solomon would only partially fulfill the prophecy. Sure enough, He then said that would have David’s offspring flogged by men. These two things could only refer to the Messiah, the Son of David.
Although all of Israel’s kings were descendants of David, the royal line was cursed and the succession interrupted in 597 BC just before the Babylonian captivity (Jeremiah 22:28-30). Jehoaichin (aka Jeconiah) was the last legitimate King. In Ezekiel 21:25-27 God announced that He was suspending the kingship until the one comes to whom it rightfully belongs. There hasn’t been a king in Israel since then.
When the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would have a son, he promised her that her son would sit on David’s throne and reign over Israel forever. (Luke 1:32-33) identifying Mary’s son as the fulfillment of God’s promise to David.
You can see from this that neither Jeremiah nor Joseph of Arimathea, being learned in Old Testament Scriptures, would have been so presumptuous as to start a new branch of the royal line in England. And there are so many other holes in these legends that only someone completely unaware of Jewish Scriptures and traditions could accept them. Sad to say, that includes most Christians. British Israelism is a false teaching.