The Lost tribes of Israel: Around 745 BC Tiglath-Pileser III came to the throne of the Assyrian Empire. His predecessors had not made great attempts to expand the empire but Tiglath-Pileser III was different. Conquests marked his reign. For a hundred years the Assyrian empire had been growing, but had been held back, around 850 BC, by an alliance of nations which had created a combined army to repulse the Assyrians. There was at this time a kingdom of northern tribes of the Israelite people, under a king named Ahab. For the coming century from 850 to 750 BC this kingdom, called the Kingdom of Israel, was prosperous but was swinging like a pendulum between the biblical God and a Canaanite god they called Ba'al. Ahab had a sequence of short-reigned successors during this time. In biblical terms this was a time of prophecies of warnings against the unfaithfulness of these northern tribes towards their founding God who had led them out of Egypt. Assyria had been gaining strength as an empire, since the 850 BC alliance against Assyria had failed to completely stop it. Tiglath-Pileser III had enough power to overthrow the Kingdom of Israel, which he did around 740 BC. This was a time heralded in many prophecies, and the Book of Enoch records a prophecy from more than two thousand years earlier, which told how there would be angels put in power over these Israelites, (the Israelites are called the sheep in the prophecy), as shepherds, who would punish the unfaithfulness by allowing a sequence of conquests and oppressions lasting over what appears to mean 2800 years or 70 successive angelic shepherd terms of office (apparently 40 years long, considering the other prophesied events). The tribes of the north, in the Kingdom of Israel, were conquered by the Assyrians and the tribes were dispersed deliberately through the Assyrian empire which later spanned most of the Middle East. Some of these people remained in the countryside but those from the conquered cities were taken away and never returned in their lifetimes. Their descendants merged with other peoples, although some groups might have survived as intact groups of Israelites (for example some think that the Bene Israel people long established in India might be such a group, many of whom have who have now moved away from India and settled mainly in Israel, plus some in the UK and some in Canada). The judgment from the 2800 years of shepherd rule from heaven is nearing completion. We seem to be in the last term of the seventy terms of office, with what might be the last angel in charge out of the seventy. The last twelve such angels, the Book of Enoch foretold, will permit so many excess deaths during their terms that these excess deaths will outnumber any of the previous terms. The last few centuries have seen many persecutions and genocides but this next few decades will be no exception. Then the time will be over. The Lord will return in wrath and will judge the sheep and destroy those who are still spiritually blind. The blindness, the prophecy tells us, is due to their original historical forsaking of the temple, back in the ninth and tenth centuries BC, and the lack of faithfulness to God since that time. A champion will have arisen before the Lord returns, who though opposed by the oppressing nations, will stand firm and be helped by the returning Lord from heaven. In the last times of the oppression before the Lord returns, the prophecy says that what the prophecy calls the eagle will instruct the oppressing people. The prophecy designated these oppressive nations as predators and as birds of prey. None of the predators and birds of prey will defeat the champion, called the 'billy goat' in the prophecy. A sword, it foretells, will be given to the 'billy goat'. Then the Lord will come. In Early Church teachings such as the Revelation and the Epistle of Barnabas, this marks the beginning of a seventh millennium of civilised human history when the Christ will rule, like a sabbath millennium. So it seems the merging of the prophecies all points to this millennium starting at Christ's return and that it would be 2800 years after the time of punishment began with the Assyrian conquests around 740 BC, so this means around 2055 to 2065 as a rough estimate. No precise time can be given, as Christ Jesus himself taught: nobody, not even the Son, nor the angels of heaven, knows the exact time, only God the Father.
