The Church of Israel (formerly the Church of Our Christian Heritage) is a denomination that emerged from the

Church of Christ (Temple Lot) The Church of Christ, informally called Hedrickites and the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement headquartered in Independence, Missouri, on what is known as the Temple Lot. The nickname for members of ...

in the

Latter Day Saint movement The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Jo ...

J. Gordon Melton John Gordon Melton (born September 19, 1942) is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently the Distinguished Professor of American Religious History with the Ins ...

, ''Encyclopedia of American Religions'' (Detroit: Gale, ) p. 540.

History

The Church of Israel was first organized in 1972. Dan Gayman had deposed the leaders of the Church of Christ at Zion's Retreat and was then elected leader of that church. Most of the members of the church followed Gayman. However, the deposed leaders of the Zion's Retreat church sued Gayman, and the courts ordered that the church property and name be returned to the deposed leaders, and that the members of Gayman's congregation be barred from the premises. Gayman informally organized his congregation under the name "the Church of Our Christian Heritage". In 1977, Gayman and 10 other individuals were arrested for trespassing when they led a group back to the Church of Christ at Zion's Retreat in an attempted forcible takeover. In 1981, Gayman incorporated his church under the name ''Church of Israel''. Little of the Latter Day Saint movement background of the church remains in its current teachings and practices, although the influence and beliefs of the Fettingites seem to be apparent in the rural and

isolationist Isolationism is a political philosophy advocating a national foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality and opposes entan ...

(" survivalist") settings for the church's headquarters and are practiced by many of its adherents. ("Message 18" in the Fettingite ''corpora'' urges believers to "go to the land" in order to "flee destruction" in or of, American cities.) An investigative newspaper report about the Church of Israel was published in the '' Joplin Globe'' in January 2001.Max McCoy
"Separatist by faith: Church of Israel's patriarch rebuts claims of racism"
, ''Joplin Globe'', January 28, 2001. The report was mostly negative and suggested that the church had ties to the

Christian Identity Christian Identity (also known as Identity Christianity) is an interpretation of Christianity which advocates the belief that only Celtic and Germanic peoples, such as the Anglo-Saxon, Nordic nations, or Aryan people and people of kindred blood ...

movement. The

Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...

includes the Church of Israel in its list of "extremist groups." The ADL report states that members of the church are said to have been involved at times with controversial figures such as

Bo Gritz James Gordon "Bo" Gritz (; born January 18, 1939) is an American former United States Army Special Forces officer and presidential candidate. After serving in the Vietnam War and retiring from the military, Gritz has worked on attempted POW res ...

Eric Rudolph Eric Robert Rudolph (born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American domestic terrorist convicted for a series of bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injur ...

, and Thomas Robb, a national leader of the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

2003 Rudolph connection

In 2003, it was revealed that the

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

bomber and one of the

FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William K ...

, and his mother had attended the Church of Israel in 1984 for three or four months, when Eric was 18. Gayman assumed a fatherly relationship with Rudolph and planned to groom Eric as a potential son-in-law by encouraging Eric to date his daughter.

2003 lawsuit

After a falling-out between Gayman and two other leaders of the church in 2003, Gayman filed a lawsuit in an attempt to revoke a severance agreement that included the deed to a house and property that had been given to a former minister, Scott Stinson. Ultimately the judge sided with Stinson.

Publications

The church issues a quarterly newsletter called ''The Watchman''.

Beliefs

The church's doctrine states that it believes in one true and everliving, self-existing, uncreated God whose name is

Jehovah Jehovah () is a Latinization of the Hebrew , one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament. The Tetragrammaton is considered one of the seven names of God in Judais ...

and in the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

- however rejecting the term in favor of the term '' Godhead''. It also believes the

Gifts of the Spirit A spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata; in Greek singular: χάρισμα ''charisma'', plural: χαρίσματα ''charismata'') is an extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit."Spiritual gifts". ''A Dictionary of the ...

still continue into the modern day. Where it diverges from mainstream Christianity is in its advocacy of

Kinism Kinism is a white nationalist interpretation of Christianity. The ideology is a "movement of anti-immigrant, 'Southern heritage' separatists who splintered off from Christian Reconstructionism to advocate the belief that God's intended order is 'lo ...

and Dominionism.

Serpent seed doctrine

Gayman is famous for propagating the theology known as "two-seedline", or "

serpent seed The doctrine of the serpent seed, also known as the dual-seed or the two-seedline doctrine, is a controversial and fringe Christian religious belief which explains the biblical account of the fall of man by stating that the Serpent mated with Eve ...

" doctrine. This doctrine holds that

white people White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

are descendants of

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

and are hence the

chosen people Throughout history, various groups of people have considered themselves to be the chosen people of a deity, for a particular purpose. The phenomenon of a "chosen people" is well known among the Israelites and Jews, where the term ( he, עם ס� ...

of God. The

Jewish people Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

are said to be descendants of

Cain Cain ''Káïn''; ar, قابيل/قايين, Qābīl/Qāyīn is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He wa ...

and thus of

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

. This belief was developed by

Wesley A. Swift Wesley A. Swift (September 6, 1913 – October 8, 1970) was a minister from Southern California who was known for his white supremacist views and was the central figure in Christian Identity from the 1940s until his death in 1970. Early life and ...

, Conrad Gaard, Dan Gayman, and

William Potter Gale William Potter Gale (1916-1988) was a political activist who was involved with several white supremacist groups, including Christian Identity and the Posse Comitatus. He was tied to the Aryan Nations, the Church of Jesus Christ–Christian, the So ...

, among others.

Political views

The Church of Israel holds a "deep distrust for the government". At one time, the church did not believe in the use of Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, or marriage licenses. Most children in the church who were home-birthed do not have Social Security numbers.

Medicine

The Church of Israel believes that the medical profession is "Jewish" and discourages the use of doctors and immunizations.

Sabbath and holidays

Since 1987 The Church of Israel regards the seventh day as the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

. It also rejects traditional Christian holidays such as

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

and

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

as pagan innovations. It celebrates the Hebrew feast days in their stead.

Notes

References

* Brannan, David W. (1999).
The Evolution of the Church of Israel: Dangerous Mutations"
''Terrorism and Political Violence'', vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 106–118. * Kaplan, Jeffrey (1993)
"The Context of American Millenarian Revolutionary Theology: The Case of the 'Identity Christian' Church of Israel"
''Terrorism and Political Violence'', vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 30–82. * * * *

External links

*
Old Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church Of Israel Christian denominations established in the 20th century Christian Identity Christian new religious movements Hedrickite denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement Latter Day Saint movement in Missouri Mormonism and race Organizations based in Missouri Christian organizations established in 1972 Seventh-day denominations