Hebrew Israelism is a family of movements, mostly in the African American community and its diaspora, that teach that Black people (and in many camps, other peoples of the Americas) are the true descendants of the ancient Israelites. You may meet them as a friend who has been watching YouTube teachers, or as a group in robes and purple sashes reading the KJV loudly on a city corner. They are not one church: some are peaceful, Torah-keeping congregations; others are militant street 'camps' with sharply racial teaching.
This module asks you to do two things at once. First, take seriously what draws people in: the real horror of the transatlantic slave trade, the hunger for a lost history and dignity, and the hypocrisy of a Christianity that too often blessed racism. Second, answer the movement's claims from Scripture read in context, especially Deuteronomy 28, the meaning of 'Israel' in the New Testament, the place of the Law after Christ, and who Jesus is.
We state plainly at the outset: racism in every direction is sin. We reject the white supremacy that shaped slavery and segregation, we reject the teaching in some camps that white people or Jewish people are cursed, devilish or destined for slavery, and we reject antisemitism. Every human being bears the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and the gospel creates one new people from every tribe and tongue (Revelation 5:9).