How would you describe the current status of the Two-House sub-movement? What is your relationship as a ministry toward it?
The following material has been adapted from J.K. McKee, Are Non-Jewish Believers Really a Part of Israel? (McKinney, TX: Messianic Apologetics, 2024), pp 208-211.
As the original 2013 analysis of our ministry publication Are Non-Jewish Believers Really a Part of Israel? was closing, I summarized the three major sectors, at the time, which one was likely to encounter of “the broad Messianic movement.” What did I say about the Two-House sub-movement, and was any progress actually made—away from some of the extremes which were too frequently encountered a short decade ago?[1]
The Two-House sub-movement, while rightly acknowledging that there are unfulfilled prophecies involving the descendants of the exiled Northern Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim, is going to have to stop promoting the unsupportable idea that just about every non-Jew in the Messianic movement, must be one of those descendants, and instead look to pockets of people groups which sit within the sphere of influence of the old Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires.
While some fierce debates raged in the late 1990s and into the late 2000s, over the Two-House issue of Judah and Ephraim—it widely faded into the background throughout the 2010s. Today in the mid-2020s, one is actually not too likely to hear about a non-Jewish person enter into a Messianic Jewish congregation, and forcibly claim that he or she is some sort of “Ephraimite,” a long-lost member of the exiled Northern Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim. In the early 2010s, in no small part due to how a major proponent of Two-House openly began to promote polygamy as a valid lifestyle for men, many Two-House supporters began to move away from Ephraimite and Lost Tribes identity issues—and instead shifted toward what they considered a much better approach: Hebrew Roots.[2] Of course, Hebrew Roots in the mid-2020s means something much different than just examination of the Hebrew Scriptures or study of the Hebrew language. Many who once used the terminology Hebrew or Hebraic Roots with those things in mind, have had to use alternative terminology, such as “faith heritage in the Scriptures of Israel.”
While many in Messianic Judaism continue to remain negatively disposed, when legitimate questions about the Divided Kingdom era of Ancient Israel are asked, and about seemingly unfulfilled prophecies such as Ezekiel 37:15-28—some worthwhile progress has actually been made in Messianic Judaism on the issue of the Lost Tribes. Jonathan Bernis, of Jewish Voice Ministries, has been a significant advocate of helping disenfranchised groups in Africa and South Asia, which have widely been considered legitimate descendants of the exiled Northern Kingdom by authorities in Israel. The Jewish Voice Study Bible (2022) notably includes an appendix on “The ‘Lost Tribes of Israel,’” including a map which traces various dispersions one would indeed consider to be within the sphere of influence of the old Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires.[3]
Because of the transition in the 2010s of many Two-House advocates, into the more generic “Hebrew Roots,” there has been very little written or produced from a Two-House specific perspective since. This is not surprising, as throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Two-House advocates were seen to seldom, if ever, review the sordid and rebellious history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim, as particularly encountered in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. Some of the few things one can find written on the Two-House teaching, lamentably, have come from a point of view tainted by a support for polygamy.[4] Interestingly, though, there has been some academic writing trying to probe a number of the themes, which can involve the Northern Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim, and the salvation of the nations/Gentiles in the First Century C.E.[5]
To be sure, some of the main prophecies involving the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Northern Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim (i.e., Isaiah 11:12-16; Jeremiah 31:6-10; Ezekiel 37:15-28; Zechariah 10:6-10), will be fulfilled in future history by God’s sovereign plan. That they will not be fulfilled, along the lines of how now, a disappearing Two-House sub-movement expected, is absolutely certain.
NOTES
[1] If necessary, do consult the previous Messianic Apologetics FAQ, “Two-House Teaching.”
[2] This shift was broadly recognized, to various degrees, in IAMCS Steering Committee. (2014). One Law, Two Sticks: A Critical Look at the Hebrew Roots Movement, A position paper of the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues (IAMCS). Available online via <http://iamcs.org>.
[3] “The ‘Lost Tribes of Israel,’” in Kent Dobson with Jonathan Bernis, Jewish Voice International Ministries NIV First Century Study Bible, 2011 NIV (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2022), pp 1855-1856.
[4] Peter G. Rambo, Ten Parts In The King: The Prophesied Reconciliation of God’s Two Witnesses (Kindle Direct Publishing, 2018); Authority, Headship and Family Structure (According to Moses) (Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020).
[5] Jason A. Staples, Paul and the Resurrection of Israel: Jews, Former Gentiles, Israelites (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024).
