C. A. L. Totten and the American Rise of British Israelism

Charles Adiel Lewis Totten was a professor of military science at Yale University and a self-styled prophet[1] who played a significant role in the development and popularization of British Israelism in the United States. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Totten became widely known for his apocalyptic interpretations of history and scripture, helping to popularize end-times speculation among American audiences. As the first prominent British Israel advocate in the United States,[2] his work laid an intellectual foundation that later contributed to the emergence of the Christian Identity movement.

Totten’s first major publication promoting British Israelism appeared in 1883 and achieved considerable circulation. When the work was reprinted in England, it attracted the attention of C. Piazzi Smyth, a Scottish astronomer and pyramidologist associated with pseudo-scientific interpretations of biblical chronology. Totten and Smyth subsequently developed a close association, and Smyth provided the introduction to Totten’s book The Order of History.[3] In later years, Totten published multiple works advancing British Israel themes, including a cryptographic interpretation of the Bible that argued the zodiac and celestial movements were divinely aligned with biblical prophecy.[4] Totten claimed these conclusions were affirmed by “the most profound and confirmed astrologist the world has ever seen,”[5] a statement generally understood as a reference to Smyth.

Totten was also a prolific doomsday predictor, employing pyramidology, numerology, and mathematical calculations to forecast wars and the end of the age. In 1892, he declared that the millennium would occur within seven years,[6] at which point the “times of the Gentiles” would conclude. His use of numerical formulas to support apocalyptic timelines established a model that later prophetic figures would imitate, particularly those who framed end-times predictions as mathematically demonstrable.

The 2520 years of "the times of the Gentiles (7@360) are within five and three-quarter years of their full solar termination. Jerusalem, which has been "trodden down," of them during this era, shall, at the end thereof, be rebuilt upon her heaps, and he who cometh, according to his promise, will save the tents of Judah first.[7]
- C. A. L. Totten

Totten’s reputation expanded when he predicted a war with Spain more than a year before it was widely considered likely, leading many observers to view his earlier speculative claims with increased seriousness.[8] By 1900, Totten was predicting a future “Universal War” involving all major nations, complete with detailed descriptions of alliances and outcomes. He asserted that England, the United States, and Germany would ultimately defeat all other powers and divide global dominance among themselves.

Russia against England, America and Germany, with a complete wiping out of Russia. Believe it or not, the end of it; America will be in it as much as England. Undoubtedly her interests are bound up with those of England. {...} England represents Israel, America, Egypt, and Germany represents Assyria and these three great Powers are equally concerned in events so weighty as I have enumerated. If the Bible is true, then these three Nations are to divide the world between themselves.[9]
- C. A. L. Totten

Totten’s influence extended into the formative years of Pentecostalism. A number of early Pentecostal leaders were converts to British Israelism, and Totten’s writings circulated widely within those circles. John Alexander Dowie, leader of the Christian Catholic Church and a prominent cult-of-personality figure, publicly discussed Anglo-Saxon Christian plans to reclaim Jerusalem in preparation for the Second Coming.[10] Frank Sandford, founder of the Holy Ghost and Us Society, encountered Totten’s works and described Totten as being “to Bible study what Galileo was to astronomy.”[11] Sandford incorporated Totten’s apocalyptic calculations into his own end-times expectations and communal preparations.[12]

In 1900, two of Sandford’s Bible students visited Pentecostal leader Charles Fox Parham, and Parham subsequently spent a month studying at Sandford’s communal compound in Maine before founding his own Pentecostal commune.[13] Parham also visited Dowie’s Zion City, and after Dowie’s loss of authority, Parham later declared himself to be the “Biblical Elijah,”[14] echoing the prophetic self-conceptions of both Dowie and Sandford during his attempt to seize control of Zion City.[15] Parham’s followers, known as the “Parhamites,” claimed to be the first group to speak in tongues and went on to train William Joseph Seymour, whose leadership at the Azusa Street Revival marked the beginning of modern Pentecostalism.