The expected headache arrived within two weeks of the consultation, its onset announced by the familiar optical zigzagging and blurring of vision. Daniel drank his medicine, prepared a poultice and climbed into bed; blinds down and curtains drawn. His wife, Sarah, ministered the dosages over the following days and was about to pour another five millilitres draught at the start of the seventh and final day of the headache, when Daniel walked carefully into the kitchen and announced that the headache had gone! The duration of each subsequent headache shortened, sometimes by as much as a full day, as on this first occasion, but more often by a half day. Within eighteen months, and after ten consultations, the headaches had disappeared altogether, and Daniel was placed on a defensive regimen of one five millilitres dosage of Bottle 1 every two months.
The British Israelites
Daniel and Arthur Annandale struck up a friendship. It wasn’t purely feelings of gratitude that drew Daniel to Arthur’s company – he genuinely liked the man. Similarly, it wasn’t just a genuine liking for Daniel that drew Arthur to him, or encouraged him to share with Daniel his long-held personal conviction that the leprosy germ was located in the pieces of black found at both ends of a banana. More importantly, Arthur recognised in Daniel a person who had been sent to him by God for a reason, and that reason was to further the cause of British Israelism.
Arthur deemed the time right to share the ideas of British Israelism with Daniel and intimate the role he believed God intended for him to play, shortly after he noticed Daniel biting off the end of a banana and depositing it in a waste receptacle. He started by lending Daniel a handful of carefully chosen books, well-thumbed hardbacks published early in the previous century with titles such as A People No One Knew, Our Descent from Israel, Israel and Orthodoxy, Empire in Solution, and The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy.
In a variety of formats and with varying degrees of emphasis, the books told the same story: that the peoples of Great Britain and the United States were the lineal descendants of the House of Israel.
The Kingdom of Israel had originally comprised twelve tribes, and in its entire history had only three kings: Saul, David and Solomon. When Solomon died, the ten northern tribes rebelled and established a kingdom of their own: the House of Israel, or the Ten Tribes. These tribes were taken into captivity by King Sargon II of Assyria, and on release moved to the Black Sea area of Scythia and intermarried with people already living there. Subsequently, they lost their Hebrew identity and passed into obscurity: the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
It had always been God’s intention that these tribes would one day live in their own safe haven – a group of islands located north-west of Jerusalem – and from there dominate the world. Over the centuries and millennia that followed, God led the Ten Tribes from Scythia, through Europe to the British Isles. They arrived variously as Cymry, Angles, Danes, Saxons, Normans, Walloons, Scots, Irish, Celts, and Gaels. All that remained was for the Davidic kingship (retained by the House of Judah or the Two Tribes) to be transplanted to these same islands.
After the Two Tribes were themselves captured and taken to Babylon, the surviving member of the Davidic line, a young girl called Tea Tephni, escaped to Northern Ireland. She was accompanied there by Jeremiah, who brought with him the oblong stone used by Jacob as a pillow. The Stone of Destiny came to symbolise the direct descension of the royal house of Great Britain from the royal house of King David, and all British monarchs were crowned on it.
Great Britain grew in prosperity and power, and its reach spread out across the Old World and into the New. Britons founded and settled colonies in North America, and these colonies grew and matured into the United States of America. As God had foreordained, this one-time daughter of Great Britain and lineal descendant of the House of Israel became the greatest and wealthiest single nation in earth’s history – and also home to Arthur Annandale.
Daniel read the first book with little more than cursory interest, as much curious as to why the history of the House of Israel was littered with the names of so many champagne bottles as to its actual migration to the British Isles. (He couldn’t help but remember that a Jeroboam was four times the size of a regular bottle of the sparkling wine, a Rehoboam six times the size and a Nebuchadnezzar, a whopping twenty times the size.) Daniel also noted that the books Arthur had loaned him were all seventy to eighty years old; if the message they contained was as important as Arthur indicated, why weren’t the publications more recent? But here he caught himself and remembered that the Bible itself was more than two thousand years old! And there was also the fact that it had been Arthur who’d given them him to read: the man who’d cured his headaches when medical science had failed. If Arthur had been right about his headaches, then he was as likely right about this.
In this new frame of mind Daniel read on, and increasingly found himself drawn to the message of the books. He finished the last page of the final book and felt the Spirit move him. He placed the book carefully on the table, fell to his knees and proclaimed himself a British Israelite.
The conversion happened in the early hours of a Thursday morning, barely a week after Daniel had first taken receipt of the books. He retired to the family bed, careful not to wake Sarah, but too excited to sleep more than fitfully. He looked forward to the day breaking and the opportunity to phone Arthur. At breakfast the next morning he said nothing of his new-found beliefs to Sarah, and called Arthur only after he’d reached his campus office.
Rather than the restaurant-cum-coffee house where the two men usually met, Arthur invited Daniel to meet him at his home that evening: a large two-storey house in one of the town’s wealthier suburbs. The first thing to strike any first-time visitor to the Annandale household was the number of books that lined the lounge and hallway walls: history books on Assyria, Babylonia, Britain, Egypt, Israel and the United States; books on astronomy, ethnology, gematria, genealogy, hieroglyphics, linguistics, numerology and philology; books on Christianity, Judaism and Islam; books on archaeology, particularly relating to the Pyramids and Stonehenge; books on the Greek, Hebraic and Latin languages; and, naturally enough, books on herbalism, herbs, medicine and pharmacy.
The second thing to strike a first-time visitor to the house was the neat row of handmade hooves-cum-boxes that were Arthur’s shoes. Arthur was sockless this particular evening and wearing open-toed sandals. Daniel could see his hammer toes clearly, and noted there were only four toes on Arthur’s left foot. Daniel tried hard not to stare at the deformity, but it proved difficult, especially after Arthur’s dog started to lick the feet of his master. He did, however, make a mental note not to mention them. No one was more surprised than Daniel, therefore, when, once comfortably seated in an armchair, the first words out of his mouth were: ‘You have an impressive collection of toes, Arthur.’
A look of abject horror crossed Daniel’s face as he stammered his apologies. He explained to Arthur he’d meant to say books, and had no idea why his words had become so mangled; instantly regretting his use of the word mangle.
Arthur came to his rescue and even apologised for wearing sandals rather than his usual shoes. He explained that the muscle imbalance was the result of flat feet, aggravated by wearing shoes as a child that hadn’t fit properly. Unfortunately, by the time his parents had noticed and taken him to a chiropodist, the toes had become fixed in their hammer settings.
‘And would you believe it, Daniel; it’s one thing herbs can’t cure!
‘But you’re right about the books,’ he continued. ‘They are a good collection. Fortunately, my wife is understanding. She doesn’t like having to dust them, but she does appreciate their importance.’
They settled into two facing armchairs separated by a glass-topped table on which sat a pot of coffee and a plate of cookies. Daniel started to speak enthusiastically about the books Arthur had loaned him; how at first he’d started to read them with a detached interest, but then recognised their truths. He wanted to know more, much more.
How, for instance, had Arthur come to British Israelism, and why had he never heard of it before? Also, why had Arthur decided to share the ideas of British Israelism with him?
The smile on Arthur’s face said it all. This was the reaction from Daniel he’d been praying for.
‘My father believed in it, Daniel,’ he said. ‘In fact, most of the books in this room belonged to him. For me it was a natural progression. A person can read the Bible and be forgiven for thinking that God turned his back on the world two thousand years ago, but this is just nonsense. God didn’t stop being God and lose interest in the people He’d chosen to bring about His rule on earth. The Ten Tribes didn’t disappear, and I also think it’s apparently clear that they’re not living in Israel today. The House of Judah lives in Israel. It was the House of Judah that crucified Jesus and chose not to believe – not the Ten Tribes.
‘It’s no secret that the Ten Tribes have had their shortcomings. They turned away from God, but also came back to Him and, more importantly, accepted that Jesus was His son and the living Christ. And it’s also important to remember that the Ten Tribes aren’t Jews. They never were. They’re us now: you, me, the United States and Great Britain. We are the chosen people, Daniel, and consequently we have great responsibility placed upon our shoulders.
‘When we first met, I knew it was no coincidence. It was the time frequency of your headaches that alerted me. Seven in a year, each one lasting no more than seven days.
‘What I’ve come to learn over the years is that no number in the Bible is ever used without good reason. Each number means something different. The number three, for example, is associated with completeness or resurrection: Jonah spent three days and nights inside the belly of a whale; Peter denied Christ three times after His arrest; Christ was buried in a tomb for three days before He was resurrected; and Paul, after his conversion on the road to Damascus, was blinded for three days.
‘It’s the same for other numbers. Forty is always used to denote testing or temptation: Jesus spent forty days and nights in the wilderness after he was baptised by John, and after His resurrection spent another forty days on earth before ascending to Heaven. And don’t forget that when the Israelis escaped from their captivity in Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years.’
On a numerical roll, Arthur continued to explain the meaning of other numbers. Twelve was the number of governmental perfection; thirty related to blood; and thirteen denoted apostasy and disintegration. At long last, Arthur got to the number he’d first mentioned – the number seven.
‘Even today, Daniel, the number seven is considered a lucky number. It’s used in the Bible to signify spiritual perfection and completeness. God created the seven-day week, remember, the perfect unit of time. And did you know that Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene when he first met her?
‘So when you came to me with all those number sevens in your life, I couldn’t help but be curious, especially when you were born in July, the seventh month of the year. I knew then that you’d been sent to me for a purpose, and if I’d been left with any doubts then your name was the clincher – Daniel, Daniel Gole.’
Arthur explained that the name Gole originated in the north-west of France, where the tribe of Reuben had settled. It was not so much his last name, however, as his first: Daniel. In the migration of the Ten Tribes across Europe, the tribe of Dan had played an elemental role and left its mark on many of the names in use today: Danmark (Denmark), Swedan (Sweden), Londan (London), Danzig and the Danube. More importantly, it was the early Danite settlers in Northern Ireland who had prepared the ground for the transplantation of the House of David to the British Isles and been there to welcome Tea Tephni.
Daniel chipped in here, and said that he’d been struck by other names: the similarities for example between Jute and Jew, and Saxons and Saac’s sons. The latter, he presumed, related to Isaac.
‘You’re right, Daniel,’ Arthur said. ‘But don’t think that any of this is coincidence. It’s not! Did you know, for instance, that Gael, as in Gaelic, means the Nation of God in Hebrew, and that there’s a great similarity between ancient Cornish and the Hebrew language? And the word British is derived from two Hebrew words: Bryth meaning covenant, and ish meaning man. Covenant Man!’ he exclaimed: ‘The inheritors of the covenant God first made with Abraham!
‘And it just doesn’t stop there: it goes on and on, never ending. When St Paul went to Britain, he met with Druids and found similarities between their beliefs and Christianity; he also considered that the rites and ceremonies they practised were descended from the Jews. And Joseph of Arimathea, he went to Britain too. Soon after the crucifixion he went there with Jesus’ mother and took with him some sacred relics, the most famous of which was the Holy Grail.’
Daniel sat in his chair mesmerised by the facts that rolled effortlessly from Arthur’s tongue, and felt flattered that Arthur had chosen to impart this information to him. But he had one question that interested him more than any other: ‘Why me Arthur? Why do you think God sent me to you?’
Arthur smiled at Daniel as a father would to a son. ‘You came to me because you had headaches; if you hadn’t had these headaches, it’s doubtful we’d have met. But God gave you those headaches just so that we would meet. He planned it this way. He wanted me to talk to you because He has a role for you. But before I tell you what that role is, I’d like you to read one more book.’
He then handed Daniel a slim brown hardback entitled The Great Pyramid – Its Construction, Symbolism and Chronology.
The Great Pyramid
Daniel was familiar with the Great Pyramid at Giza. It was a characteristic example of Old Kingdom architecture, built as a tomb for the Pharaoh Khufu and completed in 2560 BC. More than 480 feet high and containing more than two million limestone blocks, each block weighing two and a half tons, it was thought to have taken 100,000 men twenty years to complete, and was now the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World.
What Daniel read in the book Arthur had given him consequently came as a surprise. The opening sentence stated categorically that the Great Pyramid was not built as a tomb for royal burial. Rather than being a sarcophagus, the coffer in the King’s Chamber was merely a lidless stone box intended to be no more than a measure of capacity – four British quarters of wheat, to be exact.
Furthermore, although the Great Pyramid had been erected in Egypt, it was not of Egyptian origin: the involvement of Pharaoh Khufu and his subjects had been purely logistical – to supply the necessary labour force. The pyramid had, in fact, been built by members of another civilisation altogether, a nation of builders called Barats or Brits, whose symbol was the year circle. This circle had a circumference of 3,652.42 inches and was unknown to Egyptians; in later years, however, it would reappear as the mathematical basis for the construction of Stonehenge. Neither were the other units of measurement employed in the construction of the pyramid native to Egypt: the polar inch (almost identical to the Anglo-Saxon inch), and the Hebrew or sacred cubit (twenty-five Anglo-Saxon inches).
If the pyramid hadn’t been built as a tomb to house a dead Pharaoh and hadn’t been built by Egyptians, then why had it been built? To the author of the book the answer was obvious: it had been built under divine inspiration for the purposes of prophetic chronology. He had no doubts that this pyramid was the very same sign and witness unto the Lord in the land of Egypt described in the Book of Isaiah. That the pyramid was of a divine nature also explained the suppression of paganism in Egypt during the time of its building, and why the pyramid itself was totally free of hieroglyphics and pictures.
The key to deciphering this prophetic chronology, the author continued, was in understanding its geometrical design and measurements. The internal construction of the Great Pyramid was unique. No other pyramid contained similar passages and chambers, and it could therefore be assumed that the chronologic record was enclosed within them, and that major events in mankind’s history were defined by structur
al changes.
On completion of the book, Daniel summarised its key arguments in a journal: (1) The Great Pyramid was built more than 4,500 years ago; (2) It enshrined the message that Christ was the Saviour and Deliverer of mankind, and detailed the circumstances of His return; and (3) The pyramid provided a record of mankind from Adam through Biblical times to present day Great Britain and the United States – the countries where God’s chosen people now resided.
Three days after finishing the book, Daniel returned to Arthur’s house. Arthur had invited two other people: Donald Baker, a Baptist minister, and Ted Snellgrove, a property developer. All were interested in hearing Daniel’s thoughts on the book, and any questions he might have.
‘I was quite overwhelmed,’ Daniel told them, ‘and I fully appreciate the author’s arguments. I do, however, have a couple of questions. The first has to do with the scales of measurement used: I don’t understand why the scale suddenly jumps from one pyramid inch representing a solar year to the same inch representing just one month.’
‘That’s from the Gallery onward, and after the crucifixion of Jesus, right?’ Snellgrove said. Daniel nodded. ‘The design of the pyramid,’ Snellgrove continued, ‘was intended to give greater detail to modern times, because the pyramid’s message is specifically addressed to modern times – to the British peoples in particular. No one before then was supposed to decipher the pyramid.’
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