Kenya: How the Group Was Formed And Its Activities Worldwide

The Nation, Nairobi/September 18, 2006
By Mburu Mwangi

The activities of the House of Yahweh have not resulted in a loss of life, but it appears to be a high-risk group. There have been some negative media reports on it though, including a Newsweek article of April 1997.

It was started by Jacob Hawkins, an American who had gone to Israel in 1967 to work on a kibbutz. While there, he heard of an archaeological discovery of a first century building that had "House of Yahweh" in Hebrew over the entrance. He believed this was the name of a group specially selected in ancient times by God, and returned home to build a sanctuary in Odessa, Texas.

Members worshipped Yahweh (Elohim) and Yeshua, his son. They were Sabbatarians who hold church services on Saturdays. They celebrated the main Jewish festivals of Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles, and rejected Christmas, Easter and Halloween as pagan inventions.

The leadership did not keep membership records, but reported in 1980 congregations in the US, Israel, India, South Africa, West Africa, Burma, Australian and Belgium. Following Hawkins' death, the group became defunct. His brother Yisrayl was originally part of the Odessa group, but he left in 1980 to form a second House of Yahweh in Abilene, Texas.

The brothers had disagreed over the proper name for God. Yisrayl is the High Priest and is assisted by elders and deacons and deaconesses. They celebrate the various Jewish feast days specified in Leviticus 23. Yisrayl Hawkins has written a number of books and articles about biblical prophecy. In 1983, he correctly predicted that the Middle East peace accord would be signed in 1993.

Among the books is Can We Avoid The Next Holocaust? about massively disruptive events in the immediate future. Some of their beliefs are that Satan is a female who has been in indirect control of all of the world's governments and religions and that Catholicism and Protestantism are evil faiths symbolised by the two horns of the beast mentioned in Revelation 13:11.The group issued a news release in August stating that a nuclear war would begin around the Euphrates river on September 12. Hawkins said the countdown began with the signing of the Oslo accords on September 13,1993.