After the shooting death of Michael Brown and the resulting
media firestorm, old racial wounds between African Americans and law
enforcement quickly resurfaced. Israel United in Christ, however, was there in Ferguson,
Mo., trying to quell the frustrations that African Americans were feeling by
spreading “the word of God.”
Israel
United in Christ is not your average Protestant church, where worshippers sing traditional
and contemporary gospel songs. It also is not a church where a charismatic
preacher delivers the sermon using pulpit theatrics and the age-old practice of
“call and response.”
“It’s a
(faith-based Christian) church/school. And we focus on the laws, statues and
commandments of the Bible,” said Michael McVay, a 31-year-old mental health
case manager calling himself Michael Ben Israel, a surname the members adopt meaning
“son of Israel.”
The church/school
also recognizes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, said McVay, who once
worshipped in the Baptist faith with his mother and sister. His grandmother, he
said, is a member of the Church of God in Christ.
“I’ve done
my research and I felt the teaching I was getting in the Christian church
didn’t touch me as a person,” said McVay. “I left the Christian church in 2010,
and was studying (the word of God) on my own since that spring.”
McVay
joined the church/school last year in November after surrendering the tenets of
the Baptist church for a “black” focus taught by Israel United in Christ, which
is located at 1661 Lamar in the Glenview community. Members meet on Saturday
for worship and/or study sessions.
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| Members of Israel United in Christ. |
Bishop
Nathanyel Ben Israel, the principle teacher, founded the church/school in New
York 12 years ago. Within that time span, he’s planted other church/schools in
Ohio, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, North
Carolina, Louisiana, California, Virginia, and Tennessee.
“We’re working on getting schools in
Canada, the United Kingdom, and Jamaica,” said Hoshaiah Ben Israel, one of the
top “officers” overseeing the Midwest region – about eight states total,
including Canada.
“As the truth becomes widespread, more schools
will be opened,” said McVay, subscribing to the ideology and tenets that black
people are “the chosen people that the Bible speaks of.”
“We teach everybody to learn the
truth for himself or herself,” said Ben Israel, 31, an entrepreneur and recent
convert who was around 8 years old when he last attended Mississippi Boulevard
Christian Church with his mother.
“When I started following the commandments,
I got an understanding,” he said. “It changed my life when I applied the laws
to my life.”
Before Ben Israel committed to the
church/school, he trekked to Orlando, Fla., to meet the church/school elders. “I
read the entire Bible and watched a video that showed we are the true
Israelites,” he said, and embraced the teachings with a determination to teach
others.
Although the Bible refers to the
Jewish nation of Israel as God’s people, both Ben Israel and McVay surmised
that today’s Jews are not descendants of ancient Israel.
“They do not fit the prophecies
concerning Israel and they do not suffer the curses that
were placed upon Israel by the Most High,” said McVay, motivated by
self-study and the “knowledge” that he’s acquired since he first joined the
church/school.
“It’s
important to my faith,” he said, adding, “In grade-school were taught that
we’re African-American. But we’re taught in the Bible that we’re Israelites. We
can’t be two people from two different continents.”
McVay
pointed out Deuteronomy chapter 28, verses 15-28 to support his argument. He
said black people and brown people throughout world history have suffered
through slavery and degradation because of their disobedience.
“We are
here to wake up the so-called blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos to our true
heritage – Hebrew Israelite,” he said. “The one way for the so-called blacks,
Native Americans, and Latinos to identify with our true heritage is to turn to
the Holy Bible.”
Referring
to the King James Version and the “1611 King James Version,” McVay said members
of the church/school derive knowledge from the latter version because it
includes the “Apocrypha,” or “the missing books of the Bible.”
Although Israel
United in Christ is fairly new to this area – about 2,000 members total across
the country – Ben Israel said the church is growing.
“We got a lot of young men with us,”
he said. “We got the solution to change people. Young men catch on to this
quickly because they’re looking for a solution.”
For more
information, visit wakeupisraelites.org.
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