Yeshua Explored

27th February 2023

Identity theft

Why are some people not who they say they are?  

You shall not steal. The implications here are vastly underestimated and largely ignored. Also, as we saw with the previous two Commandments, there is said to be an equivalence between this Eighth Commandment and the Third Commandment, taking the Name of God in vain. Evidence is (rather loosely) presented in the form of Hosea 4:2:

There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

So, what about today. How do our modern-day equivalents to those Rabbis interpret this simple verse of Scripture?

You shall not steal.

There is, of course, an aspect of stealing unique to our modern culture. It is called identity theft and, as it is a form of kidnapping, albeit without much schlepping about, to many it should be a capital offence! It is an attack on what is perhaps the dearest commodity for the liberal middle-classes (who are adequately endowed with the real necessary commodities for living), one’s identity. It is defined asthe deliberate use of someone else’s identity , usually as a method to gain a financial advantage or obtain credit and other benefits in the other person’s name, and perhaps to the other person’s disadvantage or loss. The person whose identity has been assumed may suffer adverse consequences, especially if they are held responsible for the perpetrator’s actions. It’s a kidnapping of everything about the person apart from the person himself, so at least blood isn’t spilled.

There are around 100,000 victims of identity theft in the UK annually and it makes up around a half of all frauds. It’s brought about a meteoric rise in sales of paper shredders and has ensured that even simple commercial phone transactions can be a nightmare, as either party can’t always be sure they are speaking to who they are meant to be speaking to. Identity theft also has a sinister side, when we consider some spiritual manifestations of it, particularly in some parts of the Church. It is surely the biggest irony of history that the most reviled and hated people in history are the most prone to spiritual identity theft. Why anyone would want to be a Jew beats me, but many falsely claim to be so, adding a double whammy in some instances by declaring that many current Jews are imposters, despite tracing their ancestry and origins to the horrors of the pogroms and Holocaust. Here are a few examples:

There’s a group founded over a hundred years ago in the USA, comprising black people who insist they are the real Jewish people. They call themselves Black African Hebrew Israelites or various permutations of the same and one of their videos, Hebrews to Negroes, has over a half a million views. They tend to believe that the Biblical heroes, from Abraham to Jesus were all people of colour and that a large proportion of Jews are imposters, being descended from an Asian tribe of Gentiles called the Khazars in the Middle Ages (who admittedly did convert en masse to Judaism possibly due to their love of chicken soup). This, of course, is nonsense and has been refuted both by reputable historians and DNA evidence. This persistent meme crops up again and again though to underpin anti-Semitic theories, with a chief objective to invalidate any historical links that Jews may have to the Land of Israel.

British Israelism follows faulty historical and agenda-ridden theories, with the “ten Lost Tribes of Israel” morphing into tea-drinking, empire-building Englishmen! Then there are the door-knockers/commuter-muggers known as Jehovah Witnesses, who claim they are God’s ‘chosen people’, or at least 144,000 of their most elite followers. This number is taken from Revelation 7, in reference to those sealed from the tribes of Israel. It is interesting that JWs are very literalist when interpreting Revelation except when this disrupts their theology, so, instead prefer to steal the identity of these Israelites for themselves! Then we have the Supercessionists, following ‘replacement theology’ to also steal the ‘spiritual’ identity and destiny of the Jewish people and, sadly, at the other end of the spectrum, some Gentiles in the Hebrew Roots movement intent on stealing their physical identity, even to the extent of dressing up in Jewish ritual clothing, speaking pidgin Yiddish, renaming themselves with Hebrew names and, in extreme cases, even getting circumcised!

What on earth is all this about? What is their motive? Is it just an innate anti-Semitism compelling them to act in this way? Or is it fulfilling some sort of need, perhaps a dissatisfaction in their current status and identity? Either way it is a straight contradiction of some key Scriptures:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile (Romans 1:16)

… but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 2:10)

There are Jews and there are Gentiles. There aren’t any Jewtiles or Genews or any other mixture, it is black and white, or should I say, yiddische and goyische!

One thing is clear. Any whiff of real anti-Semitic persecution and those folk will be scuttling under the nearest carpet faster than you can say ‘Adolph Eichmann’. Fair weather Jews they may be but, let’s not forget that this is stealing, no question, and these people are one day going to be answerable to a Higher Power to explain their actions.

Finally, let’s get into the nitty gritty because, whereas the form of stealing is a straightforward shift of ownership from the legal owner to an illegal owner, whether it is goods, people or identity, it’s always the function that is the most revealing. We start off with a Biblical reality:

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? (1 Corinthians 4:7)

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; (Psalm 24:1)

… for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:10)

All that we have comes from God, whatever the World tells us. Whether it is money, good looks, family, or life itself, all has a single origin. This means that if we acquire anything unlawfully, outside the functioning of the laws of barter or commerce, then we are not stealing from a person … but from God Himself. And the consequences will ultimately be from God Himself! That is the function that lies at the heart of stealing, an offence against God.

Unfortunately this will not be reflected in the Sinner’s Charter, which firmly takes a human rather than a Divine perspective:

Stealing of possessions is an offence against society and should be duly punished. The stealing of human beings is also wrong and ought to be punished if possible.

This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp