Joseph Is Yet Alive - Truth in History

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Joseph Is Yet Alive

Israel Was to Become Christian and Evangelize The World
JOSEPH IS YET ALIVE

By Charles O. Benham

"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadeth Joseph like a flock..." Psalm 80:1

Introduction by Charles A. Jennings

INTRODUCTION

During the first half of the twentieth century, it was by divine providence that there appeared many spiritual giants on the American religious scene. One such man that God divinely called, anointed and sent forth to proclaim His Word was Evangelist Charles Orville Benham. He was born on March 4, 1891 in Green County, Indiana. As a young lad of only nine years old, C.O. Benham experienced the saving power of Jesus Christ during a Methodist revival near his home. It is reported that he was the only convert in that country church revival, but from there his Godly influence would touch the lives of multiplied thousands of people throughout his lifetime. Not long after his conversion, he felt the call of God into full-time Christian ministry. In 1914 he attended Moody Bible Institute in order to further his education in the Scriptures. One of his fellow students that same year was Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

As a young man, Benham was active in evangelistic work with some of the early Pentecostal pioneers of the twentieth century. Early on, he learned to play the cornet and banjo which he used throughout his evangelistic career. He also wrote several gospel songs. With his musical ability coupled with his spiritual zeal he was a real asset to prominent evangelists of his day. For a while he served as an assistant to Fred F. Bosworth in his evangelistic crusades and was for a time the song leader and music director for the famous evangelist Billy Sunday.

In 1919, Benham attended an historic meeting of Assemblies of God leaders at the Stone Church in Chicago, Illinois. Among such well-known leaders attending were Stanley Frodsham, E.N. Bell, and J. Roswell Flower with whom he remained friends for many years. In 1924, while engaged in evangelistic crusades in the Northwest he met and married a young eighteen year old church soloist, Helen Mason. From this union God honored them with ten children.

The people of Eugene, Oregon were blessed with the preaching and faith-filled ministry of Dr. Charles S. Price during the years of 1923-1924. Also during 1924, Evangelist Benham set up a large Gospel tent and proclaimed Jesus Christ as both Savior and Healer. His 1200 seat capacity tent was filled each evening as the people crowed in to hear this young anointed preacher. He was still then associated with the Assemblies of God and was supported by a Christian and Missionary Alliance group of young musicians and workers from Seattle, Washington.

During those early twentieth century days when God’s healing power was so prevalent in the land, many miraculous events took place. It was not uncommon for the healing power of Jesus Christ to be manifested in a tangible and visible way in the ministry of many pastors and evangelists. This was also true in the ministry of Evangelist Benham. Many miracles of healing took place in that 1924 Eugene, Oregon revival meeting. Fortunately, one of those testimonies of divine healing is recorded for us in Robert B. Mitchell’s book, "Heritage and Horizons–The History of Open Bible Standard Churches." On pages 62 and 63 he records the following account.

"One of the outstanding healings in the Eugene campaign was that of a young woman, Alice Goddard, whose family belonged to the 7th and Pearl Street Chapel. She had been injured by a fall on the slippery floor of the Eugene Cannery where she was employed. One hip was dislocated and the other injured so that she was unable to control either limb and had to walk with two crutches, dragging and swinging her legs along. Fourteen doctors engaged by the State Compensation Commission had examined her and pronounced her permanently disabled for life. For about two years many people had been praying for her healing. She was healed on a Friday night in July 1924. Attorney Alta B. King, who later became Lane County District Attorney, 1929-1933, was present at the time because he had a part in handling legals details for her compensation and was also interested in the meetings. His wife, Eva C. King... gives the details of the miracle excerpted here:

That thin little slip of a young man, Evangelist C. Orville Benham, found that crippled girl painfully making her way up to the platform and into the healing line, standing until her turn came...My husband walked to the edge of the platform to be near her when the evangelist would anoint her with oil, lay his hands on her and pray the prayer of faith for her complete recovery...He stood by and saw her prayed for and saw her yield to the power of God; saw her body shake and shake until it was uncanny. They laid her prostrate on the floor of the platform, covered her with a blanket for warmth and went on praying for others in the line. The after-meeting went for an hour or more. When this young woman arose, she walked away on her own two good legs. Her crutches were hung on a centerpost in the front of the tent to testify to all who came to see, that God had come forth in the midst of His people and "made the lame to walk."

"A week later The Eugene Morning Register noted:

There was a lively Friday evening when a young woman who had discarded her crutches gave her testimony. The local attorneys substantiated her statements, as also did her mother, her grandmother, a trained nurse and others who knew the case.

"In a telephone interview over fifty-six years later, Alice said, "Brother Benham looked at me in the choir and said, ‘Alice, this is your night, come!" Many people were saved and others healed as a result of this revival."

Evangelist Benham went on to conduct many successful revival meetings in the Northwest. He was associated with many prominent ministers including Charles F. Parham. In 1926, Benham started producing a publication called "The Overcomer." This was the beginning of his Gospel publications which lasted throughout most of his life. Later, he was responsible for publishing the "National Forecast" and the "National Revivalist" as monthly publications. In these papers he dealt with many issues, such as; the Cold War and the Communist threat to America, Bible prophecy, American racial tensions and many other sensitive subjects. He also authored many books during his ministerial career such as; "101 Evidences Proving the Divine Origin and Destiny of the English-Speaking Peoples", "101 Signs of Christ’s Coming–X-Raying Today’s Chaos" and "101 Proofs that the Bible is True."

During his lifetime, Charles O. Benham was a personal friend with and sometimes ministered with the most prominent and well-known religious leaders of the twentieth century. His friends included Aimee S. McPherson, Billy Sunday, F. F. Bosworth, T.L. Osborne, William M. Branham and several prominent Assemblies of God leaders. In recognition of his outstanding contribution, Benham was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Divinity degree from Oberlin College in Ohio. After a long and successful career of ministry for his Master, Charles O. Benham entered the presence of His Lord while residing in Topton, North Carolina in October of 1974.

The following article written in 1958 is excerpts of his edited and expanded commentary which Benham wrote on a sermon given by his friend, F. F. Bosworth. He entitled his commentary "Joseph Is Yet Alive" in which he affirms his long time belief in the Christian Anglo-Israel message of the Bible. (See Truth In History tract #41 - "The Bible Distinction Between the House of Israel and the House of Judah" by F. F. Bosworth).

JOSEPH IS YET ALIVE

Israel Was to Become Christian and Evangelize The World

Rev. Joseph Wild, D.D., in his splendid book, The Ten Lost Tribes, published in 1879, emphatically states: "Nine-tenths of the Old Testament is a material history about one people, and that through them God’s special providence was to flow to all other nations: and the New Testament plants the life and prosperity of the Gentile world upon the course and progress of Israel. God said to Abraham, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed"; and more, "and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

Israel, being scattered and cast off, became a blessing to the world. They gave to the surrounding nations the only true idea of God, for in their lowest condition they preserved the name and knowledge of Jehovah, and Christ sent His disciples after them through one of their own tribe - namely Benjamin - telling them not to go into the way of the Gentiles, ‘but go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.’

To these sheep Christ declares He was sent. Where were these sheep? They were scattered about in Central Asia and Europe ... From these very regions came the Saxons and kindred races; from here they spread North and West, being the most Christian of any people on the face of the earth then, as well as now. Their reception of the Gospel gave them power over the surrounding nations, to whom they were – as it had been foretold – witnesses of Jesus Christ...

God’s Purpose Fulfilled

It is well always to remember that God is not dependent upon the harmonious co-operation of His creatures for the accomplishment of His purposes. He can gain His ends through our hate or love, resistance or co-operation. When the Jews had crucified Christ, they naturally thought that they had destroyed His career and cut off His influence, for so it would appear by all human reasoning. Even His close disciples did not see how He could be the Messiah and also the Deliverer of Israel, when He allowed Himself to be crucified.

The hope of Israel was buried with the dead Christ. They had hoped that it had been HE who should have redeemed Israel; but this hope was then dead. However, by His resurrection they saw through the secret of Providence, and they saw that God was faithful in devising a way to escape, and able to bring to pass His own glorious purpose. So Peter voices their experience when he says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

The Jews soon found out that they had made a mistake in crucifying Jesus, for the risen Christ was mightier than the teaching Jesus. They had crushed a seed to the earth which sprang forth in renewed beauty and grace; whose death was life and whose loss was gain. They had been outwitted. They slew a man and he rose a God. They in wrath offered a sacrifice once and for all, even for the very sin in which they were indulging. They unknowingly abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light.

"Joseph is Yet Alive"

Now if Jesus Christ accomplished that work of salvation, where is Israel today? We must look for Israel, holding in our hands the record of her identity. For if He came to save them from their national as well as their individual sins in order that they might continue to fulfill their national functions in the earth, surely then Israel must be identified in these latter days when catastrophe threatens Christian civilization. If not, the work of Christ has failed, and Israel cannot be saved. But, on the other hand, if we identify Israel as a national entity functioning today, the English-speaking nations being the Joseph nations, it becomes unnecessary to question the veracity of the Holy Bible or to doubt the efficacy of the atoning work of our Lord in fulfilling His appointed task in coming to the earth.

Proper interpretation of the Prophetic Scriptures puts the skeptic on the spot and leaves him no place from Genesis to Revelation to cast suspicion on the truth of the Bible.

During the height of the battle of Britain in 1940, at a time when in the eyes of the world the destiny of that nation seemed at stake, a Belgian doctor who had taken refuge there exclaimed: "Why are you people so certain that you will not be defeated when all the evidence is to the contrary?" There was but one answer. Previous to World War II that people – including Sir Winston Churchill – had been strongly evangelized with the message of their identity as descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, then when deep national affliction came, their faith strengthened for the ordeal and the adversary in all his fury could not beat it down.

Our faith, as inheritors of the Israel Covenants, is made rational and reinforced by Bible Prophecy and is fulfillment which demonstrates that as the prophecies of God regarding the past have been literally fulfilled, we can now look with assurance to the fulfillment of His promises for the future.

The transfer of the geographical center of Israel from Palestine to the West, for the furtherance of this destiny, is also confirmed in Holy Writ: "Moreover, I will appoint a PLACE for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as before time." II Samuel 7:10

That the fact of Israel’s deportation into Assyria, and her emergence later under a new name after the migrations across Europe, would not retard but hasten the progress of the Divine Plan, is demonstrated in the New Covenant made with the House of Israel "forever", which proclaims the perpetuity of the nation Israel in the following dramatic words.

"Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon, and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of Hosts is His name: if those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a NATION before Me forever. Thus saith the Lord: if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord." Jeremiah 31:35-37

As we pass to the New Testament we find our Lord confronting the Jews, who at that time were the only official remnant of God’s people left in Palestine. He told them plainly:

"The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a NATION bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Matthew 21:43-44

Here we come to an important parting of the ways inasmuch as the Jews rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior, while the cast-off Israel people accepted Him and became Christian. This was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Hosea:

"Yet the number of the Children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people. there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." Hosea 1:10

Herein lies the explanation of the fact that the light of Christianity has spread throughout the world from western Europe and North America, and that today all the free world looks to the English-speaking and kindred nations as the nations bringing forth "the fruit" of the Kingdom of God. This does not mean that they are perfect nations, but it does mean that under the guiding hand of God this group of Israel nations will press on toward that goal. The international idealist and the small independent nations of our day which are quaking with fear of losing their freedom as the Russian steam roller approaches, are sound in their instinct when they look to America for deliverance and guidance in this the world’s day of peril. It must be remembered that when famine came Joseph alone had bread. As all the world then looked to God’s Joseph, so all the world now looks to God’s Joseph nations.

Our Identity is Important

There is every indication that in our own generation some of the crowning prophecies of all time are to be fulfilled – prophecies which tell of occurrences so momentous in their import, that the life of every person in the world will be affected. The greatest events ever witnessed by mortal man are now almost at hand! What are these events? The Bible has the answer; and the key fact to be remembered in the study thereof is the proper identification of Israel.

The people of Moses’ day cried out for deliverance and God started His program through Moses by first challenging the orthodoxy of a situation which was keeping God’s people ‘hide-bound." His first task was to prove to these enslaved millions their own identity and the great heritage that was theirs though faith in the Divine Covenant made with their fathers, which their identity substantiated. These were the very things that the Egyptian hierarchy wanted to suppress. It was to their interest to keep God’s Israel working for them, which made their world conquest worth while and guaranteed its permanency.

Never in all history was the knowledge given by the prophets so needed as today. This is true because we are the people of that generation to whom the prophets addressed their message, and the scenes about us are those they so clearly described. It is plainly revealed that a free government is the agency of the teachings of Christ, the basis of the Christian civilization which created Great Britain and the United States of America. Only as the processes of government actually are infused with the Christianity upon which their tenets are based, can our nation overcome the Pagan "New Order" now threatening the world. Little progress can be made in the present struggle until this great truth is embraced by our leaders. Not until then could God consistently come to our rescue in a supernatural way. Such a matter as God "blowing with His winds" and upsetting the "invincible" Spanish Armada in 1588 A.D. would prove comparatively trifling compared with what God would then be willing to do.

Moses had to begin by challenging the obstinate narrow minded orthodoxy of his own brethren whom he loved and yearned to liberate. John the Baptist was such a man. Wycliff, Huss, Luther, Wesley and Finney were all such men. God’s heroes usually run contrary to the conventionalities of their day. God’s message for the hour is seldom orthodox and this Israel message is no exception.

God’s Word Does Not Fail Us

Why should so many people be surprised that the old Book actually contains the vitally needed enlightenment for human happiness and welfare and carries within its sacred pages the authoritative solution for every problem we now face as a nation?

The continued existence of Israel, as a nation, is absolutely essential to the whole structure of the plainly outlined purpose of God. If Israel is not in existence today as a "nation and a company of nations" and a people as numerous as "the stars" and "the sand", then the veracity of Jehovah God, is open to question. His own plan is a failure. And we know that if Genesis fails the whole Bible breaks down. If Israel cannot be identified as foretold, then we have no hope for the consummation of God’s plan.

Study Zacharias’ statement upon the occasion of the presentation of John the Baptist in the temple (Luke 1:67-79). Let us stand in the house of Joseph and Mary when the Angelic Visitor announces: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew1:21). If He came to save "His people" (Israel) from their sins, why THAT people? Why Israel? They were not better than other people. Yet, for His own sake and for the sake of the whole world, God must save them. They were to be His instrument to carry out His plan for all mankind. We see here that Old Testament Israel is the key to His ministry. The honor of the Almighty depended upon the existence of and development of Israel. And this continuance of Israel was fully dependent upon the act of God through GRACE, because sin had disqualified them for continued existence as God’s Chosen.

"When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." (Galatians 4:4).

Now, of all the people in the world, none can be designated as "under the law", other than Israel. Their redemption was therefore necessary, for they had broken the law and incurred the penalties of disobedience. So Jesus came to "save His people (Israel) from their sins" because their salvation was imperative to the fulfillment of His purposes in the earth.

"O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord." (Isaiah 2:5). It is imperative, therefore, that the need for a national return to God and His Word be proclaimed throughout the land.

God’s Holy Spirit is careful to reiterate the fact many times that Christ died not only as Savior of the world but as "the Redeemer of His people Israel."

"This shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people." (Jeremiah 31:31)

So by the power of His Sacrifice we are a redeemed nation, a people soon to be brought back into full Covenant relationship with God. Prophecy makes plain that America is soon to nationally repent and awake to its great responsibilities. At present we are, as a nation, unrepentant and blind to our identity, but our triumphant destiny will be fulfilled and we shall acknowledge ourselves to be the servant nation of God on earth. "Men shall call you the Ministers of our God." (Isaiah 61:6)

Joseph’s Mission will be Fulfilled

Emerging after all these centuries of obscurity, we discern the hidden House of Joseph engaged upon the secret purpose of the Almighty, in leading the final fight against the Anti-Christ, and it is coming in our generation. We are now witnessing precisely those phenomena which Prophecy identifies with the end of the age. The Apostle Paul tells us that the revealing of Israel would be life from the dead:

"For if the casting way of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead" (Romans 11:15).

Only by the work of the Spirit can Israel’s blindness be removed, and the people know of their God-given origin and destiny.

"So will I make my holy Name known in the midst of My people Israel...and I will set My glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them. So the House of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward...Neither will I hide My face any more from them: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the House of Israel, saith the Lord God." (Ezekiel 39:7, 21, 22, 29).

THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH

"And of Joseph, he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."

Deut. 33:13-17

JOSEPH’S BIRTHRIGHT

"And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Issac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Issac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: And he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father, No so, my father: For this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it; He also shall become a people, and he shall also be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: And he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: But God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

Genesis 48:15-22

"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall...Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb:"

Genesis 49:22, 25

"For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s:"

I Chronicles 5:2