There are actually over 100 documented examples of postulated people groups who have been claimed to be the "Lost Tribes" of Israel. The problem is, that there are serious theologians and historians who, like Cotton Mather for example, believed that God preserved His memory throughout the diaspora and may have mixed the Israelites with the native peoples of America, for example. He is claimed in support of some of the wack job proponents of "lost tribe - ism" but anyone who has actually READ Cotton Mather (rather than simply assumed the proof texting was honest)will know that he believed no such thing. (he did, however, predict the end of the world in 1697). He did cite favorably some of the works of Thomas Thorowgood ("Jewes in America"), who had "Christianized" the works of Manasseh ben Israel, a Jewish Rabbi who declared that the American Indians were "lost Israel."
Despite this, most of the "lost tribe -ism" advocates are amazingly ignorant of anything other than some tract they have picked up somewhere which, of course, receives no academic review/approval/criticism because "they" control all the processes. It is just the same group of UFO bugs, paranormalists, trilateralist/John Birchers, and a whole group of other clunks, except this time they are Christian.
"There are actually over 100 documented examples of postulated people groups who have been claimed to be the "Lost Tribes" of Israel."
To me, this just shows that there is validity to the subject. There is a reason they search and perhaps one of the searchers is correct.
There are so many references to the "house of Israel" and the "house of Judah" in the Bible. Do you not believe that they are separate? If so, where are they, who are they, what happened to them, why does God tell us He will gather them again? If you don't believe they are separate then what can those references to the 2 houses mean?
I said I wouldn't do it but here I am for I cannot allow OPINION to override SCRIPTURE. FOUR TIMES God told Abraham his descendents would be as the sand and the sea. God repeated this PROMISE to Isaac and then went on to tell Jacob the same PROMISE 3 times and adding in Gen. 35 that Jacob's seed would becaome A NATION AND A COMPANY OF NATIONS.
NINE TIMES THIS PROMISE WAS REPEATED. Also when Jacob blessed Ephraim and Mennasah he told Eprhaim his decendents would become the melo goyim or the fullnes of the gentiles.
There is a whole picture here that I could write volumnes on. I have hundreds of scriptures to prove that there are two seperate houses, the House of Israel and the House of Judah, two seperate peoples, and the end time prophetic movement is to unite the two houses restoring the Kingdom of Israel. This was the last question the deciples asked Jesus before He ascended. "When are you going to restore the Kingdom of Israel." Proving the northern House of Israel was NOT UNITED WITH JUDAH AT THAT TIME and is not today but will be in the future.
Restoration of Israel Outline
Genesis
12:1-3 (Gen 12:1 KJV) Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:
(Gen 12:2 KJV) And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
(Gen 12:3 KJV) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blesse
13:16 (Gen 13:16 KJV) And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
15:1-6 (Gen 15:1 KJV) After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
(Gen 15:2 KJV) And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
(Gen 15:3 KJV) And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
(Gen 15:4 KJV) And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
(Gen 15:5 KJV) And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
(Gen 15:6 KJV) And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
*Galatians 3:29 (Gal 3:29 KJV) And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 4:28 (Gal 4:28 KJV) Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Genesis 17:1-7 (Gen 17:1 KJV) And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
(Gen 17:2 KJV) And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
(Gen 17:3 KJV) And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
(Gen 17:4 KJV) As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
(Gen 17:5 KJV) Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
(Gen 17:6 KJV) And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
(Gen 17:7 KJV) And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
*Romans 4:17-22 (Rom 4:17 KJV) (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
(Rom 4:18 KJV) Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
(Rom 4:19 KJV) And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:
(Rom 4:20 KJV) He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
(Rom 4:21 KJV) And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
(Rom 4:22 KJV) And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
Genesis 22:17 (Gen 22:17 KJV) That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
(Gen 22:18 KJV) And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Genesis 24:59-60 (Gen 24:59 KJV) And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men.
(Gen 24:60 KJV) And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
Genesis 26:3 (Gen 26:1 KJV) And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
(Gen 26:2 KJV) And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
(Gen 26:3 KJV) Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;
(Gen 26:4 KJV) And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
Genesis 28:3-5 (Gen 28:3 KJV) And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
(Gen 28:4 KJV) And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
(Gen 28:5 KJV) And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
1 Chr 16:14-17 (1 Chr 16:14 KJV) He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
(1 Chr 16:15 KJV) Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations;
(1 Chr 16:16 KJV) Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac;
(1 Chr 16:17 KJV) And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
Hebrews 11:9 (Heb 11:8 KJV) By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
(Heb 11:9 KJV) By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
Genesis 28:13-14(Gen 28:13 KJV) And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;
(Gen 28:14 KJV) And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 35:9-12 (Gen 35:9 KJV) And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
(Gen 35:10 KJV) And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
(Gen 35:11 KJV) And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
(Gen 35:12 KJV) And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
Genesis 48:1-19 (Gen 48:1 KJV) And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
(Gen 48:2 KJV) And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.
(Gen 48:3 KJV) And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
(Gen 48:4 KJV) And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.
(Gen 48:5 KJV) And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.