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"The Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ" (ICGJC, also Israelite Church-God & Jesus), formerly known as the "Israeli Church of Universal Practical Knowledge", is a professed Hebrew-Christian group and organization of Black Hebrew Israelites (i.e. they believe that African Americans and not the people known to the world today as Jews, are the real descendants of the Hebrews of the Bible and God's chosen people).
Contents
- Black Hebrew Israelite Groups
- The 12 tribes of Israel Black Hebrew Israelite
- Ranking System
- Lawsuit
- Enemies
- Allegations of black supremacy and racism
- References
The ICGJC teaches that the descendants of the lost 12 tribes of Israel and true Biblical /Jews are the Black Americans/Negros, West Indians, and Native Americans of North and South America and those scattered throughout the whole planet, but not the Jewish people or the Africans. The group claims that the "Black Israelites" have divine favor and inspiration and are a race superior to "Edomites", whom they believe to be white people, and also have superiority over all other non-Israelite people. They also hold strong apocalyptic views regarding the end of the world. In regards to traditional Christian beliefs, the ICGJC believes that Jesus Christ is God's divine Son and Messiah, and the redeemer for the sins of the Israelites and no other nation, that the Old and New Testament, and Apocrypha, are inspired Scripture, but the group does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group's leaders are "obsessed with hatred for Edomites", and is one of several extremist/supremacist Hebrew Israelite groups that have expanded since 2000 from black inner-city neighborhoods on the East Coast, to cities in 10 US States. Its headquarters are in New York City, and its leader is known as "Chief High Priest Tazadaqyah".
Black Hebrew Israelite Groups
Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ is the second largest Black Hebrew Israelite organization in the United States, the first being the Nation of Yahweh. While "most Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly racist nor anti-Semitic and do not advocate violence", the ICGJC is and does.
This Israelite church, like most others, believes that their purported Israelite identity is based on the Bible, history, and archaeology. According to some Black Hebrew Israelite Groups, the twelve tribes of Israel are Blacks only, and the understanding of the tribes is unknown. Those groups teach that according to Amos 9:7 "Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?" According to other groups, this means that all 12 tribes look like the Ethiopians which includes children of the slave-trade including all Africans. This belief has led some to ask who were the Hamites, Egyptians Canaanites, Jebusites, Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Perizzites, and the Hivites who were originally in Africa in the days of Moses.
This Hebrew Israelite Group and most others teach that some of the twelve tribes of Israel are made up of lighter non-Spaniard Latin Americans and Native American Indians conquered and enslaved years ago; they are the northern kingdom of Israel that migrated "over the waters" [they believe this means to the Americas] during the reign of Cyrus the Persian King according to 2 Esdras 13:40-45 and Deuteronomy 33:17. Some have mixed themselves among their captors which explains the lighter complexion and hair texture difference according to Hosea 7:8 "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned." The Blacks who were enslaved in 1619 are the southern kingdom of Judah according to Joel 3:1-7. They base the list shown below on Genesis 49 & Deuteronomy 33.
The 12 tribes of Israel (Black Hebrew Israelite)
According to the beliefs of the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, the twelve tribes of Israel have their order listing along with their respective national identities shown below:
Ranking System
There are a number of positions in the Israelite church which may only be filled by a high priest at the higher orders. Among these are Bishop, Chief Priest, Apostle, and/or Holy Apostle. These leaders are primarily responsible for the spiritual welfare of the members and the administration of local church units. But they have also subservient positions that are filled by other men when they are "elevated" by the "spirit". These are 13 shield generals, all the way down to 1 shield generals. Captains of 10,000 to Captains of 1,000. Top Officers of 5,000 down to Top Officers of 500. Officers of 100, and recruits.
Perhaps the most prominent leader of the church is Tazadaqyah, a man who rose in to power of the church in the late 90's. Tazadaqyah is proclaimed by many of his followers to be the God-sent "Comforter" of the Nation of Israel. Tazadaqyah also holds the titles Holy Apostle, Chief Priest.
The Israelite Church and its various splinter groups can be loosely grouped together as sects, which advocate a Hebrew and Authorized King James Version-only approach to the Bible (i.e. they only endorse the Hebrew/Greek and AKJV versions of the Bible), and the notion that Caucasians are Edomites.
Lawsuit
In 2013 the Israelite Church-God & Jesus ordered action figures cast in the image of their leader (Chief High Priest Tazadaqyah) from a toymaker. When they received the dolls they sued the toymaker (Vicale Corp) because they didn't like the dolls. The church complained that the dolls didn't look like Tazadaqyah and weren't black enough, that the Connecticut toymaker put "pointed noses and faces" dolls. And half of them "were light brown" instead of "dark brown," according to the court papers.
Enemies
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group's enemies include white people, "who they preach are descended from a race of red, hairy beings, known as Edomites, who were spawned by Esau, the twin brother of Jacob" (later known as Israel) in the Old Testament. "Equally hated" are "fraudulent" Jews (i.e., the people known to the world today as Jews), "the synagogue of Satan," Asians, promiscuous black women, abortionists, continental Africans (who, according to ICGJC and other extremist Israelites, "sold the lost tribes of Israel, who were black, to European slave traders"), and gay people, who "according to extremist Israelites should all be put to death".
Allegations of black supremacy and racism
In late 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described the ICGJC and other black supremacist Hebrew Israelite groups as "the extremist fringe" of the movement. It wrote that the members of such groups "believe that Jews are devilish impostors and ... openly condemn whites as evil personified, deserving only death or slavery". The SPLC also said that "most Hebrew Israelites are neither explicitly racist nor anti-Semitic and do not advocate violence".
The Black Hebrew groups characterized as black supremacist by the SPLC include the Nation of Yahweh and the Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ. Also, the Anti-Defamation League has written that the "12 Tribes of Israel" website, maintained by a Black Hebrew group, promotes hatred and black supremacy.