History

Kimpa

In the early 1700s, in the heart of Central Africa, a young woman named Kimpa Vita also known as Dona Beatriz, rose up with a powerful message.

Kimpa Vita believed that Jesus and the Israelites were Black, and that they were the ancestors of the Congolese people. Kimpa was a Prophetess that taught her people they should reconnect with their own heritage in keeping the commandments of God instead of following European lies from Catholic missionaries that erased their identity. She taught against the belief that holiness looked European.

But her teachings also made powerful leaders uncomfortable. She spoke out against both colonial influence (Catholics) and the authority of leaders like Pedro IV, who saw her as a threat. European missionaries, inclusivity ding Bernardo da Gallo, opposed her movement and called the true teachings of God & Jesus Christ color and that they were the descendants of the Israelites as heresy.

On July 2, 1706, she was burned ALIVE with her baby in hand!! executed for teaching the truth of God and her people, standing up against the workers of iniquity and evil doers.

Kimpa Vita’s story is one of bravery. She stood up for truth AS IT IS WRITTEN, even when it cost her life and her babies life. Though her life was cut short, like Jesus Christ who died at the age of thirty three, her message did not die.

Today, Kimpa Vita is remembered as a symbol of strength, faith, and the power of standing firm in who you are for the truth of God. Let us remember that she taught that God and Jesus are Black Men and that the Congolese people are the Israelites that the Bible speaks of.

Gabriel Prosser

Gabriel Prosser is one of the first and strongest images of Black resistance in U.S history. He was born in Virginia approximately 1775 as a slave. He was skilled, educated, and had a trade as a blacksmith; which provided him not only with freedom of movement but also with insight into miserable conditions of enslavement. He was inspired by the Bible, and planned to lead a revolt against slavery in Richmond, VA, in 1800.

Like most leaders of American slave re-volts, Gabriel was a deeply religious man. The Old Testament, particularly the blood and doom passages, fascinated him. In the dying days of the eighteenth century, Gabriel meditated on the Bible and dreamed dreams of a black state—not in the Carib-bean, but in Virginia, the land of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. (excerpt from “Before the Mayflower” by Lerone Bennett Jr.) 

He envisioned that he and his followers would seize weapons, confront their oppressors, and establish a future in which Black people should be free because we were God’s people and should rebel against the tyranny of America.

What makes Gabriel Prosser so inspiring is not that he failed to succeed in his revolt; rather, he was able to conceptualize, a way to gain his freedom. He understood that slavery was a construct of society, not a natural state, nor a permanent condition for his people, and he refused to live by the confines of it.

Denmark Vessey

1822 -Denmark Vesey’s life represents a powerful vision of resistance shaped by intellect, faith, and an unyielding demand for freedom. Born into slavery, Vesey later purchased his own freedom after winning a lottery, yet he refused to accept liberty for himself alone while others remained in chains. Living in Charleston, South Carolina, he became a respected leader in the Black community. In 1822, Vesey organized an ambitious and carefully planned uprising involving thousands of enslaved people across the region. The plan called for coordinated resistance, the seizure of weapons, the burning of Charleston, and an escape to Haiti, a nation born from a successful slave revolt.

There burned in Vesey's breast a deep and unquenchable hatred of slavery and slaveholders. A brilliant, hot-tempered man, had served for some twenty years as the slave of a slave trader. In this work he traveled widely and learned several languages; Vesey reached a point, it is said, where he could not bear to have a white person in his presence. The conspiracy this firebrand conceived is one of the most elaborate on record. For four or five years he patiently and persistently played the role of an agitator, telling slaves their lives were so miserable that even death would be an improvement. Vesey buttressed his arguments with quotations from abolitionists, Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Bible! He would read to the slaves "from the Bible how the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt from bondage." But he warned that God helped those who helped themselves. Vesey threw himself into the task, holding nothing back. When slaves bowed to whites in the street, he would rebuke them, When the slaves replied, "But we are slaves," Vesey would comment with biting sarcasm, "You deserve to be slaves." (Excerpt from Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennet Jr.)

Though meticulously arranged, the uprising was ultimately betrayed before it could be carried out, leading to swift arrests and a harsh crackdown by white authorities. Vesey was tried in secret proceedings and executed by hanging in July 1822, along with dozens of others accused of involvement. Despite this, Denmark Vesey’s legacy endures as a symbol of collective courage and strategic resistance. His vision of liberation extended beyond personal freedom to that of a broader hope for his nation as the Bible teaches.

Nat Turner

1831 -Nat Turner stands as one of the most resolute and spiritually driven figures in the history of American resistance to slavery. Born into bondage in South hampton County, Virginia, Turner was deeply religious and believed he was chosen by God to lead his people out of oppression and eventually earned the nickname "The Prophet".

"With maturity and increasing recognition came a feeling that he was destined to lead his people out of bondage. Like Gabriel, like Denmark Vesey, Turner found food for insurrection in the Bible. He immersed himself in religion; he even prayed at the plow. He saw visions and heard voices. One day he had an unusual vision: he saw black and white spirits wrestling in the sky; the sun grew dark and blood gushed forth in streams.
Ordinary things appeared to the mystical slave in a strange light. While plowing the field, he saw drops of blood on the corn.
While walking in the woods, he found hieroglyphic characters and blood on the leaves." (Excerpt from Before the Mayflower by Lerone Bennet Jr.)

In August 1831, he organized and led a powerful uprising that began with a small group of enslaved men and grew as they moved from plantation to plantation. Over the course of roughly two days, Turner and his followers killed around 55 white slaveholders and their families, striking fear into a system built on brutality and control. This is beautifully portrayed in Nate Parkers 2016 movie release of Nat Turners life called "Birth Of A Nation".

Though the rebellion was eventually suppressed by local militias and federal troops, Turner's actions sent shockwaves across the South and forced the nation to confront the reality of enslaved people’s resistance. Turner evaded capture for nearly two months before being found, tried, and executed by hanging in November 1831. His body was subjected to desecration, reports indicate that his skin was flayed, parts of his remains were kept as grotesque souvenirs, and his body was dismembered as a warning to others who might dare to resist.

Despite this horrific end, Nat Turner’s legacy endures as a symbol of courage, conviction, and the unyielding human desire for freedom. His uprising was not merely an act of violence, but a declaration of humanity in the face of systematic dehumanization and a reminder that even in the darkest conditions, the Bible inspires revolution in the people it was written to, the Israelites.

William Saunders Crowdy

1896- William Saunders Crowdy in Lawrence, Kansas. He established “The Church of God and Saints of Christ.” Although he taught that Blacks were God’s people, he mixed a lot of Christianity into his teachings.

Prophet Enoch Mgijima

1907- Enoch Mgijima (1868 – 5 March 1928) was a Xhosa prophet and evangelist. He formed his own church, known as the Israelites, a breakaway from the Church of God and Saints of Christ, established by William Saunders Crowdy in 1896. He led them through a clash with the white Union of South Africa government, which left 163 Israelites dead, 129 wounded, and 95 taken prisoner, in what became known as the Bulhoek Massacre.

F.S. Cherry

1915- Frank S. Cherry claimed to have had a vision that African Americans are the descendants of the ancient Israelites during his time abroad. He then established and led a congregation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1886, where he preached that white people were inherently evil and hated by God. He later attempted to spread this belief in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he established the Church of God in 1915.

Rabbi Wentworth Matthews

1920 - Wentworth A. Matthews worked with Caucasian Hasidic Jewish people and was eager to join their organization to become a member of the New York Board of Rabbis, but he was consistently denied. Matthews believed that African Americans were the original Jews, descended from the Lost Tribes. Black Hebrews spoke of regaining or returning to Judaism. However, Caucasian Jews did not agree with this theory and believed that people either had to be descended directly from Caucasian Jewish mothers or undergo a recognized conversion under Jewish authorities to be considered Jews. Matthews eventually concluded that Black Jews, or Black Hebrews in his congregations, would not be accepted by the Caucasian Jewish community. He and his congregation became strongly influenced by the pan-African philosophy of Marcus Garvey from Jamaica, his black nationalist organization—the Universal Negro Improvement Association—and Rabbi Josiah Ford. Matthews established The Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation and taught from the Old Testament and the Kabbalah.

Israel ben Newman and Mordecai Herman

1929 - Israel Ben Newman and Mordecai Herman founded the Moorish Zionist Temple in Harlem in 1921, one of the earliest Hebrew Israelite congregations in New York City. The Congregation of the Moorish Zionist Temple of the Moorish Jews in Harlem blended the belief that Black people were the descendants of the Biblical Israelites with aspects of traditional Judaism, elements from Christianity, and influences from pan-Africanism. Herman was also a member of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford

1930 - Born in Barbados, Arnold Josiah Ford became a member of Marcus Garvey’s U.N.I.A. (Universal Negro Improvement Association). However, following Marcus Garvey’s arrest and conviction, Ford founded the Beth B’Nai Israel Synagogue in a Harlem storefront and declared himself a Rabbi.

Rabbi Arnold Josiah Ford was the spiritual advisor to Wentworth A. Matthews of the Commandment Keepers. He was never recognized as such by the Edomite Jewish community.

In 1930, he and a small group of Black Jews traveled to Ethiopia, where they participated in the coronation of Emperor Haile Selassie. They established a school and acquired 800 acres of land with the goal of uniting Black Jews of the Diaspora with their brethren in Ethiopia. Ford passed away there in 1935.

Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement came to national prominence in the United States during the mid-1950s and continued to challenge racial segregation and discrimination through 1969.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Provisions of this act forbade discrimination based on sex as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing.

Examples of civil rights include:

• The right to vote
• The right to a fair trial
• The right to government services
• The right to an integrated public education
• The right to gainful employment
• The right to housing
• The right to use non-segregated (apartheid-free) public facilities
• Freedom of religion

Some memorable figures and groups during this era include:

• Dr. Vernon Johns
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party
• Stokely Carmichael
• Malcolm X
• The Young Lords
• The Brown Berets
• American Indian Movement (A.I.M.)

Jan. 21, 1969: New York Representative Shirley Chisholm is sworn in as the first Black woman elected to Congress.

Abba Bivens

1960 - Eber Ben Yamyan, also known as Abba Bivens, was initially taught that he was an Israelite by an ex-slave many years earlier in the South. Bivens believed in the Black Christ, and during his journey to New York, he visited many Native American reservations. Through scriptural study, he concluded that the so-called Indians were also Israelites.

Upon arriving in New York, he joined the Commandment Keepers under Wentworth Matthews but rejected Matthews' teachings of Old Testament-only doctrine and Kabbalah. Bivens later founded the Torah School of Knowledge and became the first to teach that Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans of the Americas are Israelites.

While in New Jersey, he was assaulted by members of the Nation of Islam because he publicly and biblically denounced Islam as the false religion of the Arabs. As a result, he contracted a severe case of pneumonia. Before he passed away, he declared Masha and Yaiqab as the school leaders. However, jealousy led many members to reject the new leadership.

Ben Ammi

1963 - Ben Carter, also known as Ben Ammi, led 300 Israelites from Chicago to Liberia and then to Dimona, Israel. He established the “African Hebrew Israelites” in an attempt to deliver his people from the curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and escape the oppressive hand of America. However, he soon discovered that oppression followed him to Dimona.

Due to their lack of Israeli citizenship, the group faced difficulties in obtaining proper medical and dental care. As a result, Ben Ammi agreed to support the Jewish Israeli military, allowing their young men to fight against the Palestinians in exchange for much-needed supplies for their community.

Yahweh ben Yahweh

1970 - Hulon Mitchell Jr., also known as Yahweh ben Yahweh, established the “Nation of Yahweh” and proclaimed himself God, the Son of God.

He and many of his followers were arrested for crimes including murder, racketeering, and arson, which they committed to establish themselves in various states. In 1991, he was found guilty of these charges and later died of colon cancer while in prison.

Masha and Yaiqab

Moshe ben Chareem, also known as Masha, founded the "Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge" and was chosen to continue the teachings of Abba Bivens alongside Peter Sherrod, also known as Yaiqab. Later in the 1970s, they were assisted by five other men, forming a group known as "The 7."

Ahrayah (Yaiqab's son), Lahab, Yashiyah, Shar, and Chaazaq taught from the KJV 1611 version of the Old and New Testament, including the Apocrypha, as well as the ancient Hebrew language known as Lashawan Qadash. They taught that Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans are part of the 12 Tribes of Israel, and Ahrayah identified their modern-day locations.

They also proved that Caucasians descend from Esau/Edom based on Genesis 25:21-30, Malachi 1:1-4, and the book of Obadiah. They identified the Table of Nations and upheld God's high holy days according to Leviticus 23. A biblical dress code was also introduced.

The Rosicrucians offered them several million dollars to teach a more Christian-Jewish message of unity for all humanity and to alter their teachings on the identities of the 12 Tribes. Masha and Yaiqab refused, believing that a Christian/Jewish message would keep the Negro at the bottom of society and prevent the full truth from being taught.

In 1994, Lahab was excommunicated for accusations and heretical teachings.

Many years later, the Rosicrucians returned and again offered millions of dollars to alter and change their teachings. Masha and Yaiqab rejected the offer once more, but some higher-ranking men accepted it, causing a split in 1995. Confusion, hatred, and debates over the Rosicrucian money led Masha to leave and establish another school, House of David (HODC), in early 1996.

The remaining leaders established The Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ (ICGJC) at 1941 Madison Avenue in Harlem, New York.

Ahrayah, Yashiyah, Shar, and Chaazaq introduced the Twelve Kings Doctrine, later called The Apostolic Succession. This doctrine, which included several "generals" from the current UPK, proposed that the leaders of the Catholic Church had inherited authority from the original twelve apostles and sat in the Apostles’ seats, making them second to Christ.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was also introduced. A young man named Jermaine Grant, also known as Tazadaqyah, was elevated to the role of The God-Sent Comforter / The Holy Spirit.

In 2018, Tazadaqyah and Tazapawan of the ICGJC were arrested for tax evasion involving $5.3 million.

Jermaine Grant passed away in April of 2020.

MATTHEW 13:31

Matthew 13:31-32

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: 32: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.”

The Mustard Tree represents the **Law and Testimony**, and the birds that lodge in its branches symbolize the **Israelites**.

Jeremiah 12:9

"Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird,…”