J. H. Allen

John Harden Allen (1847 – May 14, 1930) was an American minister. He was associated with the Church of God (Holiness), and is also heavily associated with British Israelism. He came from Illinois, later moving to Missouri in 1879. Originally a pastor in the Methodist Episcopal Church, he later became a pastor in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in California. He was one of the co-founders of the Church of God (Holiness) in 1883. He “evangelized throughout the West and eventually moved to Pasadena, California, where he died”. Around 1917 he produced a publication entitled Stone Kingdom Herald.

Allen is best known for his book titled Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, which many have claimed formed the foundation for the teachings on British-Israelism of Herbert W. Armstrong. While the works of Allen and Armstrong are by no means identical, with Allen's work being much earlier, much longer and in hard-back book format, the core of Allen's work does appear to have served as inspiration for Armstrong, and Allen's book was not unknown to Armstrong's students at Ambassador College. There are many similarities between the two works, and in some places they are nearly word-for-word the same.

Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright states that it is: "An Analysis of the Prophecies of the Scriptures in regard to the Royal Family of Judah and the Many Nations of Israel, the Lost Ten Tribes."

A review in the Baptist Messenger reported:

When this book first appeared, "Britannia" still ruled the waves and the sun was shining on the British Empire, which is why many came to believe that the British were "God's People" and an introduction to the book claimed that:

Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright is divided into three parts:

Part one addresses the claim that God made a promise Abraham that his descendants would become many nations. The chapters are:

Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright; Race Versus Grace; The Sceptre and The Birthright; Jacob's Seed Divided Into Two Kingdoms; All Israelites Are Not Jews; The Broken Brotherhood; Ephraim-Samaria -- Israel's Idolatry; Samaria-Israel Cast Out And Cast Off; The Jews Go To Babylon And Return; Joseph-Israel Lost.

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