Chapter 1
History knows, in
general, that the Gauls are the true ancestors of the French;
but there again, there are very divided opinions on the origin of this Celtic
people.
Who then were the Gauls? Where did they come from? What is their true origin? What were their characteristic traits, their
customs, their culture, and their religion?
This is precisely
their history that we are going to study in the light of the Bible. In doing this, we must “prove all things,”
in order to prove and reclaim the truth, according to divine
instructions, I Thessalonians 5:21.
Indeed, all scripture was given by divine inspiration, “to teach,
to convince, to correct, and to instruct,” II Timothy
3:16.
We must become as the
Bereans, who, having received the Word, eagerly “searched the scriptures daily,
to prove whether these things be so,” Acts 17:10, 11. But once the truth is revealed to you, you
must accept it honestly and without prejudice, in order to replace the
false doctrines you have believed before.
The history of the Gauls,
in the eyes of the world, begins around the seventh century B.C. — but the fact
is the Gauls existed long before this era! If their identity remains lost in history, it is because they
carried before a different name: a Biblical
Name.
As strange as it might
seem, the history of the Gauls — this people who lived under the rulership of
the Druids — begins at the same time as the history of Israel,
and that, so the Bible tells us with great precision, begins with Abraham.
To be able to really understand
this story, you must first attentively read and study the sensational
work of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, “The United States and British Commonwealth
in Prophecy.” This booklet, at once
astonishing and exciting, complements ours; in other words, the two form
a single study. We could not
overemphasize this, for without having read “The United States and British
Commonwealth in Prophecy” you will never be able to understand the direct
connection between the Celtic peoples and the Israelites. (If you have not read it, write us, and we
will send you a copy free of charge.
Not only because we often refer to this booklet, but it forms, we should
repeat, an essential and integral part of this study.)
In the first chapter
of his work, Mr. Armstrong explains in detail and with skill the promise the
Eternal made to Abraham. It proves
irrefutably that this divine promise has a double phase — a double
nature: one physical, the
other spiritual.
Mr. Armstrong also
shows that the physical promise pertained to Israel while the spiritual
promise was to Judah. The world
doesn’t understand this prophecy at all, and they think that Judah and Israel
are the same nation. As Mr. Armstrong
demonstrates, this grave error prevents people from understanding the truth.
The term “Jew” is only
a nickname given to the people of Judah. It refers only to that nation, the house of Judah — never
to the house of Israel. In fact,
the very first time the Bible speaks of the “Jews,” they were in a state
of war against Israel! II Kings 16:5-6. Under King Rehoboam, of the dynasty of David, the house of Judah
(including the tribe of Benjamin), struggled against the ten other
tribes, composed of, under Jeroboam, a separate, different nation! This alone is enough to show that the Jews
and the Israelites are two distinct, separate nations. But people don’t know this because they
don’t study the Bible.
In our time, some
places inhabited by the ten tribes of Israel, are not Jewish! So we must note that each time the Bible
prophesies on “Israel” or “the house of Israel” or even on “Samaria” it does
not refer to the Jews!
However, speaking of
the entire twelve tribes, the terms “Israel” and “children of Israel”
include the Jews, but they never refer exclusively to the
Jews. Certainly the Jews are
Israelites, but not all Israelites are Jews. We can better understand this question by saying that Parisians,
generally, are Frenchmen, but not all Frenchmen are Parisians.
The second time the
Bible makes mention of the name “Jew,” the house of Israel is already in
captivity, under the Assyrian empire, “distant from the face of the
Eternal.” Merely glance at a map of
Palestine to understand the reasons for an Assyrian invasion, who
carried out the long and miserable captivity of the children of Israel. Their country was a roadway to Egypt, whose
riches were greatly envied by other nations.
The success of the
Assyrian invasion was due not only to the power of their army, but especially
to the sad decadence of the Israelites who, “distant from the face of
the Eternal,” were weakened by corruption of their morals and internal
struggles.
It will be interesting
to briefly examine the history of this decadence, which began under the
reign of Solomon, when the two nations, Israel and Judah,
were still united and a single power.
About the year 1000
B.C., Solomon was at the apex of his glory! He dominated all the
countries from the Euphrates to the frontiers of Egypt (I Kings 4:21; II
Chronicles 9:26). Becoming rich and
powerful, he was allied by marriage with the Egyptian Pharaoh (I Kings 3:1)
and maintained excellent relations with Hiram, the Phoenician king of
Tyre and Sidon (I Kings 5:1, 12).
Under the reign of Solomon the famous temple of Jerusalem was built.
At this time the
riches and prosperity of the country was such that silver had become “as common
in Jerusalem as stones” (I Kings 10:27).
However, what
interests us in the present work, is the alliance Solomon made with
the Phoenicians who helped him not only to build the temple, but also in foreign
trade. Solomon, rich and powerful,
furnished the ships and ports, while his ally, Hiram, put at the disposition of
the King of Israel his famous Phoenician sailors, who traveled the entire
world, returning every three years “bringing gold, and silver, ivory,
monkeys, and peacocks,” I Kings 10:22; II Chronicles 9:21. Peacocks originated in India; thus it
was there the Phoenicians went. At that
time, such a voyage at sea, round trip, took about three years.
According to the
Bible, the center of commerce by transit was Tarsis. The “Petit Larouse” says the Phoenicians
founded numerous branches in North Africa, “notable at Carthage, which
must have eclipsed them later. In Spain,
they established themselves strongly, founding cities, such as Cadiz,
Malaga, Adra, and Elche. They exploited
the rich mines of copper of Tharsis, in Andalousie” (New Little Larousse, 1960 Edition,
article: “Phoenicia”).
Another famous port
they founded is actually known under the name of Marseille (France). Ruined after the downfall of Phoenician
power, this city was rebuilt, about the year 600 B.C., by a colony of
Phoenicians.
What historians don’t
know (or was it merely rejected by them?), is that this great exploitation of
enterprise by the Phoenicians was done in direct alliance with Solomon
and Israel. As we will see further on,
the Israelites and the Phoenicians, by royal marriages or political claims, maintained
good relations on both sides during several centuries.
Even under Herod, king
of Judea, the Phoenicians desired peace, because their country still took
their subsistence from that of the Jews, Acts 12:20. In the end, when Israel went out of
captivity, the route of retreat was totally cut off to the south by the
forces of the powerful Babylonian Empire.
So it is perfectly natural that the Israelites, at the end of their
captivity, turned towards the North, to be near their ancient
colonies.
In spite of his
brilliant successes and the immense riches that he had accumulated, Solomon imposed
a rude servitude on the people. At
his death, the Israelites demanded of Rehoboam, his son, that he alleviate the
heavy judgment imposed by his father.
Rehoboam refused them, and the twelve tribes dispersed in two groups. Ten of them united to form a distinct
kingdom, I Kings 12:19, under Jeroboam, one of
Solomon’s servants, while the two others (the tribes of
Judah and Benjamin) remained faithful to King Rehoboam.
Jeroboam, striving to
keep the two kingdoms separate, followed the pagan example of the Egyptians,
and instituted the cult of the calves. This pagan holiday would replace the Holy Days of the
Eternal. “Jeroboam established
sacrifices for the high places, for the groves, and for the idols he had made,”
II Chronicles 11:15.
The Levites who were
found throughout Israel quit their dwellings to join Judah, II
Chronicles 11:13-14. Israel had
turned to paganism.
There were, in the
tribes of the North, nineteen kings who then succeeded to the
throne; each of them committed himself
to the worship of the golden calves!
Some also worshipped Baal, the god of the sun. Israel had become pagan. So for this reason the ten tribes, once
liberated, were easily lost in
the world as they already followed its ways, that is, its pagan customs!
It is thus that Israel lost the sign that identified it as the
people of the Eternal (Ezekiel 20:12).
The dynasty of
Jeroboam was set up with his son and followed by a series of evil kings,
whose sole preoccupations seemed to be idolatry and war — notably the war against
Judah, and against Syria.
It was not until the
dynasty of Omri, 50 years later (around the year 920 B.C.), that Israel recovered
a little of her former prosperity. Omri
moved his capital to Samaria, a city which was centrally located and more
easily defended. Omri’s reputation was
so great among the neighboring peoples that even today, we find his name
on several historical documents, notably on “the stone of the Moabites” as well
as on some Assyrian inscriptions. After
the death of Omri, for some years, the Assyrians still called Israel
by the name of “Bit Khumri,” meaning “the house of Omri.”
This also explains why
the fact that a number of Israelites who appeared later, in Europe, were
under the general name “Kymri” or
“Cimmerians.”
As for Omri, in spite
of the success he carried off on his neighbors, his conduct, in the eyes of the
eternal, was worse than that of all the monarchs who had ruled before him! (I
Kings 16:25).
Ahab, son of Omri,
acted even worse than his father had!
Not only did he worship the golden calf, but he took for a wife a
Phoenician princess, Jezebel, and served the pagan gods, especially Baal
the sun god (I Kings 16:31).
More, he made an idol to Ashtaroth, the Phoenician goddess of the sky,
from which name the English have derived the term “Easter.”
It’s no wonder Ahab
had so irritated the Eternal! To the
list of all the abominations he had committed, even could be added “human
sacrifices”! We will see later that the
Druids, priests to the Gauls, practiced in turn this cult based
on “human sacrifices.”
And so on, the list of
abominations continues without lapse.
After the death of Ahab, his son Ahaziah associated himself with the
King of Judah and strove to rebuild the ships of Solomon, but this was a lost
cause. The damages (II Chronicles
20:37) caused by a storm were such that it was impossible to repair them.
During the reign of
Joram, second son of Ahab, one of the captains of the army, named Jehu, set
himself against the house of Ahab and killed all those of that house who
remained. He also exterminated Baal
from the midst of Israel (II Kings 10:18-28), but even he did not
abandon the golden calves which were at Bethel and Dan. Thus “the anger of the Eternal was kindled
against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael, King of Syria,
and into the hand of Ben-Hadad, son of Hazael, all the time these kings lived”
(II Kings 13:3).
It wasn’t until during
the reign of Jeroboam II (822-781 B.C.) that there was a momentary restoration
of Israel. However, the reign of
Jeroboam, followed by that of Zechariah, the last of the dynasty of Jehu, also
marked the “beginning of the end” for Israel. Wars multiplied; anarchy had become almost total. It is through this state of affairs that
Israel had finally been taken into captivity.
Assyria abandoned
itself to pillage! During his reign,
King Menahem succeeded in safeguarding some small portion of the independence
of Israel, by buying the alliance of the king of Assyria. But when his successor, king Pekah allied
with Syria, attacked Judah, the latter asked help from the king of
Assyria. From then on they were
beaten. The Assyrians were glad to
help, since the enemy pillaged as well.
They would conquer at the same time Israel and Syria,
and would take their inhabitants into captivity.
It is important to
notice here that, among the captives were not only the inhabitants of Galilee
but also those of Gilead (II
Kings 15:29), about which we will speak later in this article.
Hoshea, the last king
of Israel, did reign nine years, but he also was subject to Tiglath-Pileser, king
of Assyria, and paid him a tribute.
This situation ended when the king of Assyria discovered a “conspiracy”
by Hoshea, who had sent messengers to Egypt.
This dealt a mortal blow to Israel.
The king of Assyria scoured the entire country and took Israel into
captivity. He sent them “to Halah,
and on the Habor, river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes (Persia)”
(II Kings 17:6).
According to their
custom, the Assyrians did deport at the same time other peoples and
established them in the cities of Samaria, in place of the children of Israel (Halley’s Handbook, p. 164).
So doing, they hoped to speed up the denationalization of their
prisoners.
After this conquest,
the Assyrian Empire continued to be powerful for a hundred years, before
being destroyed in turn by the Babylonians and the Medes. Always we must remember that, due to the
gradual and continuous weakening of the Assyrian Empire — this Empire that
had so much under its grasp — a part of the Israelites, as history records,
liberated themselves from under the yoke of their conquerors several years before
the definite destruction of the Assyrian Empire.