Black Christians Need to Beware of Cult...Part 1

You all have heard of the Black Hebrew Israelites.  We all have.  Who are they, and where did they originate?

Well, innocently enough, this movement was borne out of a desire to know a race or culture of one's own identity.  In the midst of racism and slavery, an entire race of people sought to seek out their heritage, which is in and of itself not a crime neither a sin.

The following is an excerpt from a popular Black Hebrew Israelite website:

"In scripture the children of Israel are prophesy to lose the knowledge of who they really are. This is also part of our punishment, for disobeying the most high. If a people lose the knowledge of who they are, they have lost the knowledge of their Nationality, History and Heritage. A people without a History is a people that doesn't exist.

Since coming to the United States, we have been called by many different names in reference to our nationality.

We are the only group in this country that this has happen to. Presently we are Known as African-Americans, from Afro Americans, from Negroes, before that we were Colored and so on. This is madness...

"This very thing has happen to us here in North America, we are the only people who were not allowed to practice our original culture, etc. upon our arrival. This is one of the main reasons why we don't know who we really are today. ..."

"In verse 3 of Psalm 83 Israel is referred to as the 'HIDDEN' ones. Hidden means secret, and this is why the truth that I am presenting to you today is called 'The World Best Kept Secret', it's a secret about the identity of true Israel. But at the same time this verse says that our enemies consulted to take away our nationality/ identity...."

The Black Hebrew Israelite can be those who simply desire to get closer to God and believe doing so means embracing what they call their 'hebraic roots'- and using scripture to do so-to the radical, in-your-face street preacher-who consider themselves prophets-who hurl insults and hate language at passerbys all day long on the street corner of any urban area.  And everything and everyone in between.

Marcus Garvey is one of the earliest examples of one who considered himself a direct descendant of Israel, or one of the chosen people described in the Word of God.  He was one of the first leaders who embraced and taught Back-to-Africa movements (better known as Black Nationalism).  He was from Jamaica and had a major impact on modern-day religion that was geared towards black racial pride, ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafarian religion.

Not to say that this cult (which is what they are) was borne simply at the turn of last century, post slavery.  There have been many cultures (mostly Jewish) that embraced and followed a Judaic (or of the law, strictly of the Old Testament) brand of worship and ministry.  Judaism is still practiced in many countries to this day.

Even though we are at the end of the church age-and scripture itself even prophesied it-there are still people who have had a really difficult time cutting ties with religion, temple worship, Judaism, and levitical priesthood.

John 4:19-21, 23-26

The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

There has been a movement in the past 20 years or so of 'Black Hebrew Israelites' to go back to Israel, instead of Africa, as introduced by Garvey.  And as recent as 2010, Israel has accepted black hebrews into their  land, recognizing them as harmless and peace-abiding.

But as with all belief systems, there are dangerous, cult-like, even criminal offshoots of this movement, that targets African-Americans disgruntled with society, with the organized church system, with their lack of knowledge of their own heritage and history. So they use that as 'bait' to catch many an unsuspecting seeker of truth to be recruited amongst their ranks.

The people who are most susceptible to being recruited into this cult range anywhere from the harmless preachers disgruntled with the organized Christian church to murderers and child abusers who reign out of fear and violence over their followers.

They seek out and disciple black men, in particular.

Many mistake the BHI for the Nation of Islam, but the BHI vehemently dismisses that the Honorable Elijah Mohammed is their saviour, as the Nation of Islam believes.

The BHI do believe in Jesus, a false Jesus, nonetheless.  They call him Yeshua, who is only another mask of Jesus Immanuel Sananda.

And they call God, Yah, Yahweh, or Abba.

A lot of people see the BHI as harmless to be ignored.  I beg to differ.

This is a dangerous cult, one that has several 'communities' dispersed throughout this country, much like the Amish ones.  Except that within their communities and compounds, it is anything but peace-loving or law-abiding!

Some of the BHI are criminals, and have even committed murder...as well as attempted murder.

In a case that shocked the nation, BHI cult leader Peter Moses of Durham, N.C., was convicted of murdering two people, including a 5-year-old boy who he thought was gay in 2010.

This was the most well-known criminal case within a BHI community to date.

But do believe that-just like there is abuse, rape, incest and even murder within the so-called institutional church system-that the same injustices, crimes, abuse, persecution, deception and corruption that is publicized and sometimes overemphasized in the media goes on within the Black Hebrew Israelite community!

We just don't hear about it.  Why?

Many BHI fellowships are underground entities, believing that the current societal, religious and governmental systems in place in this country are in a conspiracy, of sorts, against their existence.

This is the reason for the rise in BHI communities, fellowships and organizations throughout the United States.

The Black Hebrew Israelites hold to certain belief systems, in addition to traditional Judaistic doctrines, including:

1) Tracing their geneology back to the 12 tribes of Israel

They believe that most of the minority races existing today can be traced back to the original tribes of Israel.

Ruben = Seminole Indians (Muskogee).
Simeon = Dominicans of Hispanola.
Levi = Haitians.
Judah = African-Americans.
Dan = Cubans.
Naphtali = Argentineans & Chileans.
Gad = Native Americans.
Asher = Incas.
Issachar = Aztec Indians and other Mexicans.
Zebulon = Mayan Indians and other inhabitants of countries from Guatemala to Panama.
Ephraim & Manasseh = Taino & Boriqua Indians and other Puerto Ricans
Benjamin = Carribe, Cibao, Arrowack, and other inhabitants of Guyana and the West Indies.

2) BHI believe that Israel taken into Egyptian and Babylonian captivity in the Word of God was prophetic of the blacks being taken into slavery in this country.  They believe that all the curses in Deuteronomy 28 were meant for the African-American peoples.

3) BHI are either overtly or covertly oppressive of women (and children) in their community.  

Speaking as a woman who was engaged to a BHI-as well as having seen the treatment (or should I say mistreatment) of the women and children within this community, I can attest to the fact that the men within this cult system are not only oppressive of 'their women,' but that they outright abuse them.  Much like what went on with Jim Jones' Peoples' Temple and their movement in Guyana, women and children are viewed as property.  The trick is that they do not show their true colors right away when trapping unsuspecting women into their cults.  They start out wining and dining them.  Calling them sisters and queens, or 'achoti' or 'malcah' in hebrew.

They seek out strong women are some even practice polygamy.  They will 'marry' more than one woman; some men (who call themselves 'apostles' or 'shalachs' within the BHI) have been known to marry as many as 5 or 6 women in different states, to set up 'ministry' in that state..or just another shootoff of their BHI belief systems.

Many of these men will let a woman head up the ministry in a particular region, while he goes off and marries another woman in another state in hopes of developing a franchise (if you will) of BHI settlements throughout the country.

But within the system, many women are beat, raped, and attacked often when they do not comply or 'submit' to the so-called leadership of their 'husband' or 'leader.'

Much like what happened with Jim Jones...

I have even heard of BHI communities where the child labor laws are ignored and children are put to work in fields-in THIS country-to support these cults.

And the sad part is that many women who have been caught up in the web of deceit and lies are afraid or too ashamed to come out of it, so they stay and subject themselves AND their children to abuse, neglect, spiritual exploitation and a host of other injustices within the BHI.

4)  Those entrapped within the BHI will push racial pride-even to the point of putting down other races.

BHIers are very racially conscious.  Now, there is nothing wrong with embracing one's culture, neither of being accepting of who you are.  Some BHI congregations don't allow ppl other races into their services!  But you venture off into sin when you start idolizing your culture, your race, your ethnicity...and NOT worshipping JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH.  OR trying to conform Jesus Christ into an image that you can more readily accept, in other words, conforming HIM to please YOUR flesh, instead of KILLING YOUR FLESH, dying to who you are or you THINK you are-or who you believe YOU WERE, and conforming to the Image of Jesus Christ clearly spelled out in the Word of God.

What BHIers have done is allowed a religious demon to make them believe a lie, or make them so focused on race, on sex (or the flesh), and if Jesus was a black man or not, if the Israelites were black, or hispanic, or cuban, or whatever...that they have FORGOTTEN what the scripture says that there is neither male NOR female, Greek or Jew, nor bond OR free...in Galatians 3:28!

Now, I want to stop right there!

BOND NOR FREE!!!

Do you know what that means to me????

YES, let's go there.  YES, slavery happened.  CAPTIVITY happened.  I LOVE THE WORD OF GOD because you see GOD foresaw that man would harp on the injustices they suffered, one of them being slavery, captivity.   Just like BHIers harp on slavery, some Jews hard on being in captivity, etc., GOD said ONCE YOU PUT ON CHRIST JESUS, YOU ARE NO LONGER YOUR HISTORY!!!!!!! 

YOU ARE NO LONGER JUST A FEMALE.  YOU ARE NO LONGER JUST A BLACK, A JEW, A HISPANIC.  YOU ARE NO LONGER JUST A SLAVE TRYING TO GET REPARATIONS OR JUSTICE.  YOU ARE NO LONGER A JEW.

YOUR PAST IS ERASED!!!!!!!!

THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH HAS WIPED OUR SLATES CLEAN!!!!!!!!!!!

We all have a past.  We all come with baggage.  But Christ said HIS YOKE IS EASY, HIS BURDEN IS LIGHT!  So LIGHT PACKING is what is needed for this journey!!!!

I'm not saying you wont remember what you have been through.  I am saying when you have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb, it wont hurt anymore!

And when you share your testimony, that anger is not there.  That bitterness, that rage...so prevalent within the speech, the demeanor, the delivery of BHIer preachers, SIMPLY IS NOT THERE!

The enemy's job is to keep you stuck in your past.

If you are NOT aware of that, then the enemy has done his job in stealing your identity.  And once the enemy can steal your identity, he can then replace it with his identity, his lies.

And that is exactly what he has done with this BHI movement!

Know your history.  Remember and share your testimony, as the Spirit of God leads you to.

But it shouldn't sting when you do.  If it does, you have not been healed...

Stay tuned for Part 2