Thanks Gladiator:
The Witnesses believe that they alone are God’s chosen people. They alone have God’s spirit and guidance. Israel was restored – the Witnesses were living proof! They believe that the Bible’s promise to bring Israel into a land of their own where they would dwell in peace and security has been fulfilled, on them.
One red flag that comes up though is the connection with Britsh Iraelism; where Eurpeans aggressively assigned themselves as descendants of the lost 10 tribes of Israel, and where America is the true Promised Land. The winged disk, in particular was part of their symbolisms. The Mormons, likewise, believed similarly, that they had replaced the Jews or in fact were part of the lost ten tribes. While the witnesses have a different take on this, obviously besides inserting oneself into the promise given by Jewish Covenant to the Jews, it clearly seeks to exclude those natural Jews as having this special relationship with God that they once had. In the meantime, other groups clearly think the budding of the fig tree mention by Jesus in Matthew 24 (as the WTS once did) is a reference to the restoration of the Jews to the Promised Land. In a strange way, the witnesses exercise a form of British Israelism concepts.
JC
REF: British Israelism (sometimes called Anglo-Israelism) is the belief that that many early Britons, Europeans and/or their royal families were direct lineal descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel but rarely the Tribe of Judah. Proponents assert that national favor with God is based on a nation's status as an Israelite nation while individual salvation remains based on a personal relationship with God.
The theory was greatly expanded and promoted to justify the break of the Church of England from the authority of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church under King Henry VIII, by British theologians claiming that the English were among the Lost Tribes of Israel. The theory played a significant historical role in the establishment of a church separate from Rome. [citation needed]
Due to the Restorationist tendencies of the adherents, there has rarely been a central head, recognized leadership, or organizational structure to the movement. This has led to a diverse set of professions and beliefs ancillary to the genealogical claims. The ancillary doctrines held by some can often be contradictory to those held by others but a central theme revolves around the genetic connection of the believers with Biblical characters such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Most strands of British Israelism agree that large numbers of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were captured and enslaved by Sargon II, king of Assyria, on the fall of Samaria in 721 BC, [1] and then migrated to Northern Europe, the British Isles, and with European colonization eventually North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere around the globe.
