The Labor Movement in Prophecy

Some brief notes on Efraims Budbärare (Messengers of Ephraim). 

I don´t know where Swedish, Scandinavian or Northern European Israelism originally comes from, but I suppose some truly baroque author from the 17th or 18th centuries might be the culprit.

Efraims Budbärare (Messengers of Ephraim) or Efraims söner och döttrar (Sons and Daughters of Ephraim) were formed around 1870 by Swedish-American ex-Adventist preacher Charles Lee (Carl August Lindqvist). Their peculiar sect had followers in both Sweden, Norway, the United States and Canada. Most were Swedes or Norwegians. (In Norway, the group called itself Messengers of Manasseh.) Attempts to evangelize in England, Scotland and Ireland failed. Lee died in Chicago in 1926, and his wife Julia - who took over the movement - in 1927. 

The finer points of the Lee couple´s Bible exegesis need not concern us here. Suffice to say is that they considered Swedes to be the lost tribe of Ephraim, while Norwegians were the lost tribe of Manasseh. The international workers´ movement (sic) represents the return of the lost tribes of Israel onto the world scene. When Jesus returns, a literal millennium will be established on Earth, in which Swedes and Norwegians will play a central role. So will the working class. It´s not clear from the material I´ve read if "working class" or "international workers´ movement" refers primarily to the workers in the Germanic nations, but it certainly sounds like it.

During the Cold War, Efraims Budbärare "supported" (after a fashion) the Soviet Union, since they identified the Soviets with Assur. If I understand them correctly, they believed that the Soviet Union will smash world capitalism ("Babylon"), but then somehow themselves be destroyed by God! 

Efraims Budbärare believed that God has a physical body and that Jesus was "the incarnated Word" (not sure how his relation to God was supposed to have looked like). No immortal soul exists. Nor does hell. Those unworthy of entering the millennium will simply be destroyed. The resurrection is physical. The Messengers were disestablishmentarian, and hence rejected military service and politics (including socialist politics). Baptism was also rejected, and so was communion, and all Church holidays and Sabbaths. No church buildings existed. The main enemies of this sect were the Adventists and the Salvation Army! The total membership is unknown, due to the (seemingly?) amorphous and un-organized character of the group, but in 1969, about 300 people in Sweden were believed to support Efraims Budbärare. Henry Åhlander, who exegeted Lee´s writings, died in 2020, suggesting that perhaps "the lost tribe" still has a few supporters left...