The House of Yahweh, Part II- A History

The House of Yahweh: Part II- A Brief History

The following history of the cult can be found on the following website: http://www.letusreason.org/sacna1.htm

Since the cults' website is pretty sketchy on the origin of the cult I've included this history from the Let Us Reason website to give an outsider's understanding on how the cult started. The Let Us Reason website quotes where they got some of the info from the House of Yahweh literature...unfortunately I was not able to get a copy of it from their website.

Notice that the cult is said to have really been started through an extra-biblical revelation in a dream to Mr. Hawkins. We see again that when someone departs to the doctrine of "Sola Scriptura" that all kinds of doctrinal heresies result. God's Word should be the only rule of faith and practice for the believer...the only source of truth. When someone claims that "God told me..." and the following discussion is outside of Scripture this should be a big warning.

Our story begins with the Hawkins brothers- Bill and Jacob from Oklahoma who started a “religious” radio broadcast in the early 1950's out of Eastland, Texas. The broadcast was called “The Question and Answer Program.” It concentrated on Bible Prophecy and the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament.

Hawkins had been receiving a recurring dream which gave him his mission direction in life: “From memory, I think it was about 1951 that I had my FIRST DREAM that my brother Yaaqob and I were the Two Witnesses spoken of in Revelation 11. My dream went something like this: I knocked on the door of a WHITE HOUSE next to a sanctuary. My brother answered the door, and I asked him, 'Are you ready to go Israyl and do what we have been called to do?” (The Prophetic Word, 7 June 1991, p. 766).

The year 1969 J.G. Hawkins accepted the dream as divine direction. Immigrating to Israel in 1967 with his family and two other couples. While in Israel Yaaqob worked on a kibbutz in the Negev and heard of an archaeological discovery of a 1st century building that had a door mantel with the Hebrew title, “BAYIT YHWH” (House of Yahweh). Both brothers became convinced that this is the true name of God's true work. It was at this same time he began calling himself Jacob or Yaaqob in Hebrew.

Yaaqob Hawkins decided to return home to the United States in 1973 to build a sanctuary that began in 1975 at Odessa Texas. Eventually the brothers divided over the issue of the true name of the Creator. Yaaqob chose to use the title Elohim. Bill (Yisrayl) disagreed stating that Elohim was the title for pagan deities. In 1980 Yisrayl began to hold Sabbath service in his mobile home in Abilene. Yisrayl left to form a second House of Yahweh in Abilene TX. which he dedicated December 2, 1980. He taught that the original house with his brother in Odessa was the stirring by Yahweh. He became convinced to establish this true one according to Micah 4:1-2 in Abilene, which was due west of Jerusalem. Fulfilling the prophecy of the house of the Lord would be established on the mountain tops in Mic.4:1-2. This was to prepare the world for the 2nd coming of Yashua just as Biblical Abilene had been the starting point of John the baptists preparing for the 1st coming.

“The House of Yahweh is the ONLY place where Yahweh's Complete Truth is taught, including Yahweh's Truth about The Place He has CHOSEN to Establish HIS NAME in These Last Days!”( What Yahweh's Feasts Mean to You. p. 77). Hawkin believes his group he is in command of is the only place and avenue of truth to be found here on earth. In 1998 Hawkins identified Abilene as Jerusalem, which is synonymous with the House of Yahweh.

In Part III we will begin to examine the major doctrinal errors of the cult and its leader. The first doctrine that will be examined will be Bibliology. Talk to you next time!