Summary The homeward journey of the Ten Tribes is from diverse locations, from the isles, (extremities / canfot),  and "lands found later" on the Earth. In these "corners," they were to forget their names and abide many days among the gentiles without their inheritance of the Torah. Their return paths Divinely "hedged with thorns," (Hosea 2:6), they were not allowed to return to their land till their "sentence" was served, (Isa. 40:2).  Now that sentence is up for some early returnees, and they are being released from their darkened spiritual prison houses, (Isa. 42:7, 42:22).  Hence, their ways of return are manifold, and carry the imprint of centuries of sectarian differences, fragmentation and confusion about spiritual matters, and an overall lack of knowledge of God, (Hosea 4:6). To facilitate a convergence unto the "straight paths of the Torah," the names of the last three sons of David born in Jerusalem carry the overall directives of how returnees are to find further instructions on how to find their way out of the "wilderness of nations," their religious ideas and concepts. These beginning concepts are basic reformatting instructions to guide them in their navigation homeward. These three steps are dynamic and entail active processes on and in each one of us. They are to guide us to return to "the straight, old paths of the Torah" (Isa. 42:16, Jer. 6:16), that we have cast aside centuries ago. These processes are to reformat us in our concepts of "being" and "doing." The core of this article is based on a revelation, (PR) received by the author after prayer on 1-6-1993.

The Three Basic Articles of Faith

We believe that as returnees of the exiled Ten Tribes, besides espousing the three main principles in the  “Declaration of Principles of the Fellowship of Gathering Israel,” we have to abide in the three initial  and ongoing processes into  which we have been divinely immersed.   We  hold that  these ongoing means  bind us together into  a  working  unity  before  the coming of the  Messiah of Israel.

We believe that ultimately only God sets free, gathers, unifies and saves the Tribes of Israel.  In this divinely-directed gathering we affirm the three main processes to go through.  We perceive that we initially encounter these three steps as we begin to respond to His calling.   We acknowledge that they are concurrent thereafter as they unfold in the lives of all returnees in the molding processes of repentance and “return” prescribed for the returnees of the Ten Tribes.  The meaning of these dynamics are encoded in the names of the last three sons of David born to him in Jerusalem, (II Sam. 5:16). 

Step One:  Eli-Shama, My God hearing, implies My God causes to hear.  The message in this name means that we are caused by God to hear God’s call to wake up from our centuries-long estrangement from the God of Israel  to our forgotten Israelite identity.   Moved by this implication, we profess that it is the Divine enlivening wake-up call, and not ourselves, which awakens us to spiritual consciousness. Therefore it behooves us to thankfully affirm the power and merciful agency of the Almighty Life-Giver who placed us in the early regathering of the Ten Tribes by causing us to stir to life from our spiritual death in the Valley of Dry Bones, (Ez. 37).  We perceive that  by the forces symbolized by this name, the God of Israel is calling His alienated people to begin their return to Him by abiding by the commanding meaning of the Shema, the declaration of the foundation of Biblical faith for all Israel: “Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” (Hosea. 1:9, Deut. 6:4).  We acknowledge that as returnees from centuries of exile from the Land, from our brother Judah and from our God, we are to confess the grievous offense of having broken the eternal Covenant we all  made with the God of Israel at Mt. Sinai, (Deut. 29:15).  We admit that we are now called to the prophesied renewing of the immutable Covenant in our lives that eventually all Israel is to make “in the latter days,” (Deut. 4: :23-31, Jer. 31-31-33, Hosea. 2:19).

Step Two:  Eli-Yadah, My God Knows, implies My God causes to know.  The message of this name means that at the end of days, when the lack of truth, mercy, and knowledge of God prevails, we are to gain Godly knowledge in deed and practice, about who we are and who we are to become in the light of the Torah and the Prophets.  Above all, we are to gain knowledge about and of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the obligations of our covenantal relationship to Him.  We acknowledge that this is what God wants us to do as He instructs us in the latter days, “For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 4:1-6, 6:1-6).  We believe that the continual seeking of this Godly knowledge furthers our repentance from wrong precepts of God, and places us into the right worshipful relationship with Him.  

Step Three:  Eli-Phalet, My God of Deliverance, implies My God causes to escape.  The message of this name implies that we are to implore God for mercy by actively living up to the individual and collective tasks we have been called to do.  We believe that by doing so, we do not become worthy, but by God’s mercies we might be accounted worthy to be gathered into His protective fold, (Isa. 10:20-22,  42:22).  We rely on the Keeper of Israel to continue to free us from the encrustations of wrong beliefs and to enable us to escape the confinement of our graves of the spiritually dead in the Valley of Dry Bones. We look to the Shield of Abraham and the Guardian of Israel who has preserved us in order to safeguard us with His protective mercies during the upcoming harsh wake-up calls slated to go out into the whole world, (Isa. 26:20-21, Ez. 22:31, Zeph. 2:1-3).