ABSTRACT
British-Israelists believe that God works through nations, peoples and races in order to accomplish His will. Whilst Bible-based theories of race waned in significance within mainstream thought, they retained a central role in British-Israelist thought long into the twentieth century. For British-Israelists, the descendants of Shem were to be recognised as Caucasians, the Japhethites as Mongolians and the sons of Ham as ‘the Negroid group.’ British-Israelists believe that the origins of the British people have, over the past thousands of years, determined the nature of the British national character. British-Israelists extrapolated – from the Biblical texts and from ancient historical accounts – a detailed history of the journey of the lost tribes to the shores of Britain. In the twentieth century, however, and particularly after the Second World War, there was a greater readiness amongst British-Israelists to extend the olive branch to other nationalist movements in Europe who claimed Israelitish heritage.
