The Oldest Known Black Hebrew Church Was Called The Church of the Living God, in 1886
The oldest known Black Hebrew organization is the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations. The group was founded by Frank Cherry in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1886, and it later moved to Philadelphia.
The Hebrew Israelite movement originated at the end of the 19th century, when Frank Cherry and William Saunders Crowdy both claimed to have received visions that African Americans are descendants of the Hebrews in the Bible; Cherry established the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations in 1886 and Crowdy founded the Church of God and Saints of Christ in 1896
Consequently, Black Hebrew groups were founded in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Kansas to New York City, by both African Americans and West Indian immigrants
In the mid-1980s, the number of Black Hebrews in the United States was between 25,000 and 40,000
n the late 19th century, their followers propagated the claim that they were the biological descendants of the Israelites,
and during the following decades, many more Black Hebrew congregations were established. After World War I, for example, Wentworth Arthur Matthew, an immigrant from Saint Kitts, founded another Black Hebrew congregation in Harlem, claiming descent from the ancient Israelites. He called it the "Commandment Keepers of the Living God."
Similar groups selected elements of Judaism and adapted them within a structure similar to that of the Black church. He incorporated it in 1930 and moved the congregation to Brooklyn, where he later founded the Israelite Rabbinical Seminary, where Black Hebrew rabbis have been educated and ordained.
Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations
The oldest known Black Hebrew organization is the Church of the Living God, the Pillar Ground of Truth for All Nations. The group was founded by Frank Cherry in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1886, and it later moved to Philadelphia.
Cherry, who was from the Deep South and had worked as a seaman and for the railroads before his ministry, taught himself Hebrew and Yiddish. Theologically, the Church of the Living God mixed elements of Judaism and Christianity, counting the Bible—including the New Testament—and the Talmud as essential scriptures.
I will talk about The Church of God and Saints of Christ established in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1896 by African-American William Saunders Crowdy.
The Commandment Keepers
Wentworth Arthur Matthew founded the Commandment Keepers Congregation in Harlem in 1919.
The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem Ben Ammi Ben-Israel established the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem in Chicago, Illinois, in 1966, at a time when black nationalism was on the rise as a response to the Civil Rights Movement.
I just wanted to established THE FACT that the Black American knew about our connection as Black Hebrews long before the 60's.
Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Friday, June 26th 2020 at 3:11PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
