What is the Commonwealth of Israel?<\/p>\n\t
I assume you are referring to the small religious group that calls itself “Twelve Tribes: The Commonwealth of Israel.” It was started in the 1970s by Gene Spriggs in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It contains an odd blend of beliefs arising from its attempt to blend Old and New Testament beliefs.<\/p>\n
Like the Messianic Jews, the Commonwealth people build much on what is not in the Scriptures. They insist on calling Christ “Yahshua” because they believe that it is closer to how Jesus’ name would have been pronounced in Hebrew. Thus, they reject the idea that the New Testament was originally written in Greek by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, they admit that they don’t know exactly what Jesus’ Hebrew name would have been or how it would have been pronounced, but this is what they settled on. See: Should the Father only be addressed as Yahweh and the Son as Yahshua?<\/a><\/p>\n Their blending causes them to worship on the Sabbath and keep the Old Testament dietary laws. Thus, when the Old and New Testaments differ, they will pick which of the laws they prefer to follow. See: Why We Don’t Follow the Old Testament<\/a>.<\/p>\n They believe the church is to be organized into twelve regions, one representing each of the tribes of Israel. It is based on a misunderstanding of Paul’s words in Acts 26:7 and assigning a literal meaning to the mention of the twelve tribes in Revelation, a book stated to be written in figurative language. See: An Introduction to Revelation<\/a>.<\/p>\n They believe in baptism as a part of the plan of salvation, but the community determines who is a candidate for baptism. They have to be first convinced that the person truly believes their teachings. See:\u00a0Notes on Salvation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Members are required to join existing communities of families. These families deny all worldly ties, except for each other, and live in a communal style (all things are own by the community and not by the individual). See: Economic Systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n They are also a Premillennialist group. They believe Jesus is returning to reign on earth, but only after they establish a purified group of followers for him to lead. They also believe in a second chance for people who never heard the Gospel of Christ but tried to live a “good” life to the best of their ability. Thus, people are divided into three groups. The wicked who reject Jesus, the good but ignorant people who get a second chance in the millennial reign, and the holy who have believed and been purified by persecution. See: An Overview of Premillennial Theories<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Consequences of Premillennialism.<\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: What is the Commonwealth of Israel? Answer: I assume you are referring to the small religious group that calls itself “Twelve Tribes: The Commonwealth of Israel.” It was started in the 1970s by Gene Spriggs in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It contains an odd blend of beliefs arising from its attempt to blend Old and New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[650],"class_list":["post-3354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-the-commonwealth-of-israel"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1347,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-covenants-for-the-israelites-only\/","url_meta":{"origin":3354,"position":0},"title":"Were the covenants for the Israelites only?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The New Covenant is made with the House of Judah and the House of Israel only (Hebrews 8:8). Indeed, the New Covenant could not be made with any people who did not first have an Old Covenant. Answer: The reference to\u00a0Hebrews 8:8\u00a0is a part of a quote from\u00a0Jeremiah 31:31-32\u00a0which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1190,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-jews-and-christians-both-follow-the-teachings-of-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":3354,"position":1},"title":"Do Jews and Christians both follow the teachings of the Old Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do Jews and Christians both follow the teachings of the Old Testament? Answer: The Old Testament was given solely to the nation of Israel. \"And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: \"Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19428,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-know-about-the-black-hebrew-israelites\/","url_meta":{"origin":3354,"position":2},"title":"What do you know about the Black Hebrew Israelites?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I hope all is well with you. Getting straight to the point, I want to get some information on a particular group of Christians who look at themselves as being black Hebrew Israelites. I'm not sure if they actually call themselves that but I've seen others refer to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3321,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-jesus-the-name-used-in-the-new-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":3354,"position":3},"title":"Is “Jesus” the name used in the New Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you demonstrate that \"Jesus\" is a very old name mentioned by the writers of the New Testament? Answer: The New Testament was originally written in Greek. The name for our Lord was spelled \"Iesous\" in Greek (using English letters). Four people in the New Testament are mentioned having\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29704,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-the-new-covenant-be-different-from-the-old-if-there-are-so-many-similarities\/","url_meta":{"origin":3354,"position":4},"title":"How can the new covenant be different from the old if there are so many similarities?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Jeremiah 31:31-34, it says God said he'd make a new covenant that was not like the old one, but the new covenant had similarities to the old one. Thanks for your time. Answer: Jeremiah 31:31-34 is discussed at length in Hebrews 8-10. God is still God, morality remains\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18670,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-is-the-better-way-to-pronounce-jesus-name-yahsua-or-yeshua\/","url_meta":{"origin":3354,"position":5},"title":"Which is the better way to pronounce Jesus’ name: Yahsua or Yeshua?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you very much for your article on\u00a0\"Understanding\u00a0the\u00a0 Tetragrammaton: How is it\u00a0Pronounced.\" I am in total agreement with your research and conclusion as to the\u00a0Tetragrammaton\u00a0yhwh\u00a0being pronounced as\u00a0yahweh. Can you share your thoughts and opinion as to the pronunciation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus? Which is more correct in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}