Jewish Hopes (1910)
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JEWISH HOPES
JERUSALEM
RESTORATION PROSPECTS
GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE "JEWISH HOPES"
JERUSALEM
AN EPITOME
"STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES"
ENTITLED
"THY KINGDOM COME"
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION 13-17 Hicks St., Brooklyn, N. Y. Publishers PASTOR RUSSELL is widely known as a Christian minister amongst religious people of all denominations.
Standing free from all denominational restraints in the liberty wherewith Christ would have all of his people free, he recognizes responsibility to God alone.
Because of these facts his sermons are being read with interest and profit by Christian people of all shades of belief and unbelief. The result seems to be a drawing together of people who reverence God and who desire to know his will and his Plan. Christians, Jews and Gentiles in all parts of the world are coming to understand the Bible better to sympathize with each other more, and to have greater reverence for God and greater faith in the ultimate glorious outcome of his gracious purposes outlined in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament. These are receiving nourishment for heart and head through the great newspapers of Christendom, more than 600 of which publish the sermons weekly.
Pastor Russell makes no compromises, but on the contrary, declares that compromise is unnecessary, so satisfactory is the Divine Program to all who come to a proper understanding of itJew, Gentile and Christian.
This little booklet was gotten out in response to requests from Hebrews who had become interested in Pastor Russell's discourse on "Jerusalem," and what he therein stated respecting the prophecies soon to be fulfilled in blessings upon Israel. We here give a brief summary of the discourse, together with a chapter from one of Pastor Russell's books, entitled "The Restoration of Israel." In another of his volumes the world's chronology from the standpoint of the Hebrew Bible is set forth with clearness and simplicity; also various prophecies which relate largely to Israel and incidentally also to Christian!' who are spiritual Israelites. All of his books are sold at absolute cost by the Bible and Tract Society, which publishes them: nor does Pastor Russell receive one penny of royalty. Further information may be obtained by addressing the
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE. STUDENTS ASSOCIATION,
13-17 Hicks St., Brooklyn, N. Y.
JERUSALEM Pastor Russell's Discourse. June 5th, 1910, at Brooklyn Academy of Music
"COMFORT ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her appointed time is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received from the Lord's hand double for all sins lsa. 40:1,2.
Pastor Russell of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, on his return from Palestine, preached in Brooklyn Academy of Music, because it was rightly estimated that the numbers desirous of hearing his discourse on Jerusalem would be too large for the Tabernacle. As it was, the Academy was crowded. Three hundred or more were seated on the stage behind the speaker. Every seat in the vast
Auditorium was filled. As many as the fire police would permit stood near the doors. It is estimated that about two thousand were turned away, unable to gain admittance, and that about four hundred stood in the Foyer for an hour and a half, mainly anticipating that some of the audience would leave the building and that they might take their seats.
A synopsis of the discourse was published by the leading journals of the United States. The Jewish journals of the City also published reports. It is estimated, therefore, that at least fifteen million families in the United States and Canada came in contact with the discourse.
It is no wonder, then, that hundreds of letters were received by the Bible and Tract Society of Brooklyn, New York, inquiring for further reading matter. Similarly, when Pastor Russell was in London a month ago, more than five thousand applications for further reading Jerusalem
matter were received within two weeks by the Bible and Tract Society there. Evidently the people, nominal Christians and Jews, are awakening to the fact that there is a possible interpretation to the Bible which brings harmony and beauty from its pages quite in conflict with the terrible doctrines recited in our creeds formulated in the Dark Ages. And this is, and ought to be, a ground for thanksgiving to God and for closer fellowship on the part of all who love righteousness and truth and who are looking to the Almighty God for demonstration of the fact that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than man's ways. (Isa. 55 :8, 9.)
Such are coming to realize more and more that God and his Word have been misunderstood, but that now is the due time for the opening of the eyes of our understanding and for a greater appreciation of the length and breadth and height and depth of the love of God which passeth all understanding.—Eph. 3 :18, 19.
THE PASTOR'S MESSAGE
More than thirty years ago I abandoned the teachings of all the Christian creeds respecting Jews, Mohammedans and heathen. I could no longer believe that the great Jehovah, our Creator, had destined all these thousands of millions to an eternity of torture because they had never accepted or Jesus as their Redeemer, the Savior of the world. On the contrary, my sympathy went out and still goes out to humanity in general, blinded by ignorance and superstition and the Adversary and confused by the jarring creeds. I believe that Divine sympathy for all of these is still greater than yours and mine. I found that others shared the same general sentiments, but abandoned faith in the Bible as a Divine message.
By God's grace I was not swept off in the current of unbelief, which more and more is overwhelming the intellectual portion of our race. On the contrary, I held fast to the statement of the Scriptures that "There is none other name given under heaven or amongst men whereby we must be saved" than the name of Jesus.
But deeper study of God's Word revealed the fact that for fifteen centuries Christendom has been misunderstanding the Scriptures in supposing that the present call of the Church, spiritual Israel marks the culmination of the Divine Plan. On the contrary, we find the Scriptures distinctly to teach that God has two salvations both to be accomplished through Jesus-through faith in the only name given. One of these salvations is to a heavenly nature in joint-heirship with Jesus on the spiritual plane: "Partakers of the divine nature"; "Far above angels, principalities and powers and every name that is named."
The other salvation is to be a human salvation—to earthly perfection by purposes of restitution uplifting enlightenment, etc. The perfection of the human salvation will be to bring mankind back to the image and likeness of God .. in which the race was primarily created in Father Adam.
Sin and its death penalty have gradually effaced from mankind much of the original godliness, bringing to man instead brutality, weakness, decay, death. It will be the work of the great Messiah to bless the redeemed world by the uplifting influences of the glorious Kingdom of God so long promised, for which we have so long prayed—"Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven."
"TO THE JEW FIRST"
When we read in the Bible of the Divine favor bestowed upon Israel for centuries as God's chosen people we are to realize that Jehovah has a right to bestow his blessings and favors as he wills. When God, therefore, declares that it is his design that in all his dealings with our race the blessings shall come to the Jew first, it is not for us to rebel, nor to refuse Divine favors through whatever channels they may come. Nor docs this recognition of Israel's primacy in the Divine Plan necessarily signify a superiority in that race.' For does not God expressly term them a stiff-necked race, a disobedient people?
And does he not declare in so many words that his use of Israel has been and will be gradually with a view to showing forth his own glory and the power of his grace to take of the mean things of the world and, by the transforming power of his Truth, to use them in their own blessing and in the blessing and uplifting of others?
Such was God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the nation of Israel. It is a common mistake amongst Christian people to suppose that those promises have been revoked by the Almighty God. It is another mistake to suppose that Christians have inherited those promises. Quite to the contrary, the promises made to Abraham and his natural seed were earthly promises. Not a heavenly promise or suggestion is made in the Law and the prophecies, from Genesis to Malachi. Take, for instance the promise to Abraham, "Lift up now thine eyes
and look to the North and the South and the East and the West. For all the land that thou seest will I give to thee and thy seed after thee." Israel has not yet received this great blessing, nor has it entered upon the work outlined for it in the Scriptures, namely, that through God's Covenant with Israel all the Gentiles shall receive the blessings of Divine favor and everlasting life. All those promises are as true and as sure today as when they were given. As St. Paul declares, The gifts and calling of God are things he never repents of.—Rom. 11:29.
How then shall we understand Israel's present condition and the favor of God that has reached us Gentile?
In this way: God had a secret plan respecting the spiritual Israel, which he did not disclose to Abraham or to the prophets of the past. When Israel perceived that their Law Covenant did not bring them everlasting life and that its mediator Moses, was not fully capable of cancelling their sins, but that these needed to be atoned for every year on the tenth day of the seventh month, then God gave them an explanation. His message to them through Jeremiah the prophet (31: 31) was, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt .
. . but I will make a New Covenant with them and will take away the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh," etc. Already David the prophet had foretold that a greater King than himself would exalt Israel to a place of prominence in the world and that Messiah's Kingdom exercised through Israel would be the Divine blessing to all nations. Thenceforth the hope of Israel turned not from the Law Covenant but from its Mediator, Moses, to the greater Mediator, Messiah.
Thenceforth the hope of Israel has been that Messiah is the Son of David and the great King would do .for them what their great Lawgiver, Moses, had been unable to do—would bring them to that harmony with God that would give them eternal life and then would use them as Divine channels of mercy and instruction towards the world of mankind.
That hope was a sound one, and is still a sound one. That very hope will be realized, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
THE HIDDEN MYSTERY.
When now we point out the fact that Israel's great Messiah, the antitype of Moses is indeed a great King of Glory who is about to take the rulership of the world and about to receive Israel back again into Divine favour and about to establish a Kingdom through Israel which will last for a thousand years and effectually bless all the families of the earth—the living and the dead—we are but stating Israel's great hope. But, like all of God's doings, this hope is greater and grander than either Jew or Gentile or Christian ever imagined. We may see the matter now in its true beauty, because the "due time" for the uncovering of the Mystery to all is at hand.
CHRISTIANS AND JEWS MISUNDERSTOOD
Let it be remembered that the great Messiah hoped for by Israel is to be a vastly greater King than David or Solomon, because it is written in the Psalms, "Jehovah said unto my Lord, "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Psalms 110:1.) Does not this imply that the Messiah at Jehovah's right hand will be much greater than David, Israel's great King? Assuredly so! Similarly as a priest he will occupy a higher position than did Aaron, for again it is prophesied, "God hath sworn an oath and will not repent. Thou art a priest of the Age after the order of Melchisedec"—a high priest, a kingly priest, to whom Abraham bowed down and gave tithes and from whom Abraham received a blessing. And yet Melchisedec was only a foreshadowing type of that great Messiah who shall be Israel's King and Priest.
Let us remember again that great as Moses was as a man of God, he was merely a man and not a Messiah he was merely a type or illustration of the Messiah, even as the Law Covenant which he instituted merely foreshadowed the New [Law] Covenant to be introduced by the greater Mediator. "after those days." Moses foretold that he was merely a type or foreshadow of the antitypical
Moses saying to the Israelites, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from amongst your brethren like unto me [a type or likeness on a small scale]. Him shall ye hear in all things. And the soul that will not be obedient to that Prophet [Teacher] shall be destroyed from amongst the people." Israel's great Messiah, the King of Glory on the spiritual plane, the express image of Jehovah's person, is about to take the Throne of earth and about to establish the Kingdom of Israel. He is the antitypical Moses, David's Son and Lord, and the antitypical Melchisedec and Priest upon his throne.
The hidden Mystery is that this great .Prophet, Priest and King is not a man, but a Son of God on the spirit plane; and further this great Messiah is composed of many "members," of which he is the "Head," And these members were first gathered from the Jews and subsequently all nations.
In the symbology of the Bible Messiah is Jehovah's Son, and appointed to establish the Divine Kingdom in the earth and to overthrow sin and Satan and death. And his elect members are symbolically styled his Bride. This work of selecting the Bride of Messiah has been quietly done and neither Jews nor Christians nor heathen understand this feature of the Divine Plan, although it was all written in the holy Scriptures.
To all of us it was a hidden Mystery until God's "due time" for opening the eyes of our understanding.
Now, as fast as we come into harmony of heart with God, into full submission to him, we are granted a knowledge of this Mystery the opening of the eyes of our understanding.
This work of electing or selecting the Bride of Christ is nearly completed. These constitute the spiritual Seed of Abraham of whom it is written, "In thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea." The spiritual Seed is represented in the stars of heaven; the earthly seed is represented in the sand of the seashore. God's promises are sure to both seeds. Heb. 11:12.
ISRAEL'S NEW COVENANT NEAR
Immediately that the spiritual Seed of Abraham shall have been completed, God's New Covenant will forth with go into effect towards Abraham's natural seed, Israel. The favor of God was to the Jew first in ancient times, when that nation alone for centuries was recognized as God's people. The favor of God came to the Jew first in respect to the spiritual Seed, the first members of which were selected from Israel after the flesh.
The favor of God is to come to the Jew first in the times of restitution of all things, which will begin promptly when Messiah shall be revealed in power and great glory.
I feel great sympathy for the Jews in their unbelief in Jews.
With their minds filled with thoughts of the glory of the great Messiah who would conquer the world and establish the Divine standard in all the earth and would uplift all the people using Israel as his agency or channel, how unreasonable it seemed that Jesus of Galilee, surrounded by his fishermen apostles, should be that Messiah. They saw not that the prophesies that both of the sufferings and of the glory of Messiah—that he must redeem his people before he would deliver them from the power of sin and death: that to this end he must be the Passover Lamb slain for their deliverance; that he must be the atonement sacrifice, the anti type of their bullock of sin-offering: and that he must make-satisfaction for sins for Israel and the whole world before the Plan of God could go forward and the blessed time begin.
Not only must Messiah suffer as being the antitypical serpent reared upon the pole and the better sacrifice than those of the Law of the Mosaic system, but additionally those to be associated with him must likewise as antitypical priests and Levites share with him in the sufferings and sin-offerings before they would be tested and proved worthy to share with him the glories on the spirit plane and the work of blessing and saving the world in general on the earthly plane. All this was clearly foretold through the prophets, but our eyes were holden and we saw them not. For instance, through the prophet Malachi (3:1.2) the Lord declares that he will send Messiah, "even the Messenger of the Covenant that ye delight in[ the mediator of the New Covenant in which now their hopes rest] . But who shall abide the day of his coming, for he is as Fuller's soap and as a refiner's fire; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver that he may purify the sons of Levi that they may offer unto the Lord an acceptable sacrifice." All of these spiritual Israelites must be priests and Levites antitypical of Aaron and his sons and his house of Levi. Not until this work of finding and fulfilling the spiritual Israel shall be completed will God's time come for bringing back Fleshly Israel into his favor, to be used as his channel for pouring Out blessing upon all the families of the earth, in harmony with his Covenant made to Abraham.
So far, then, from thinking of our Jewish neighbors as being in torture we must learn the Bible teaching on the subject, that they, like the remainder of the race are simply dead until Messiah shall establish his Kingdom and call forth from the prison house of death the sleeping thousands of millions. The "first resurrection." the Scriptures tell us will consist of the royal priesthood, who will be associates with Messiah on the spirit plane following this will come Abraham. Isaac and Jacob and all of the prophets of the past to be resurrected to human perfection, of which they were counted worthy for obedience to the faith. These, the Bible tell us, Messiah will make princes and rulers in all the earth. And associated with these Divinely appointed princes under Israel's New Covenant will come all true Israelites, who, with their eyes of understanding. will rejoice in Jehovah and in his glorious Son and Redeemer and Mediator, and in his glorious Kingdom and its righteous requirements. Such will have the privilege of uplifting out of sin and death to perfection and life eternal. And more than this the hope of all the world of every nation, people, kindred and tongue lies in that same New Covenant which God will consummate with Israel as taking over or displacing the Mosaic Covenant. All nations, in order to share the blessings of that New Covenant will be required to become "Israelites indeed." Thus at the conclusion of Messiah's reign of a thousand years the seed of Abraham will have become as the sand of the sea. As it is written, "I have constituted thee, Abraham, a father of many nations."
Thus eventually only Abraham's seed will remain, because all nations shall flow unto it to share the Divine blessing promised.
THE MESSAGE IN JERUSALEM
When recently in Jerusalem I had pleasure in responding to an invitation to address Jews, Mohammedans, Catholics and Protestants, I took for my text the words of Isaiah's prophecy (40:1, 2), "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her appointed time is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
My heart went out in sympathy for all of them, as I realized that the barriers of the various faiths were chiefly of the Adversary and along the lines of misunderstanding the Divine character and plan, rather than of opposition to God.
GLAD TIDINGS
To them all I gave the message which God sent eighteen centuries ago by the angels, saying: "Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people because unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior (life-giver) which is Christ the Lord."I pointed them to the fact that they had all been looking forward in anticipation to a better day, however they expected it to come. When that day shall arrive as God, through the prophets has foretold, it wilt be "the desire of all nations"—what all nations, peoples, kindreds and
tongues are desiring, hoping for, praying for—a better day—the Golden Age. Thus we found a common ground of agreement.
Having in mind chiefly the Jews, God's chosen people, I pointed out that the glorious Kingdom of the Messiah, for which they had so long waited and prayed is surely near; even at the door. I pointed out that the hopes of Israel were built upon divine promises and must surely be fulfilled; that God's blessings would surely come to all nations through the Seed of Abraham, and the privilege be granted to all nations of coming in under Israel's New Covenant, of which the Messiah in glory will be the great Mediator, Prophet, Priest and King. I pointed to the fact that they had not followed fables but the sure promises of the Bible, and that all of its good promises would have fulfillment.
Then I proceeded to point out to them from the Prophets the cause of the delay of their hopes from the text which I have taken for this occasion, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received at the Lord's hand DOUBLE for all of her sins."—Isa. 40:1, 2.
ISRAEL'S DOUBLE
And I said to them, so now I say to you, that the Bible distinctly informs us that the people of Israel are God's special heritage. He has not permanently cast away his people, whom he foreknew; he has merely hidden his favor from them for a season and for a purpose. That season of disfavor is distinctly declared by the prophets, as we shall see. Israel's history as a nation began at the death of Jacob, and the entire period since down to the establishment of the nation and God's earthly representative in power and great glory is divided into two equal parts. During the first of these divisions God showed that nation special national privileges and favors. During the second part he has shown them no national favors. These matters our Hebrew friends freely acknowledge. Let us note this "double" of Israel's experiences as foretold by three of their most prominent prophets:
(1) Through Jeremiah the Lord declared that because of Israel's unfaithfulness be would ultimately cast them off and scatter them amongst all nations, and after they had received a time of disfavor equal to that of their preceding favor he would bring them back and fulfil to them all the gracious promises made to the fathers Jeremiah, xvi., 13-18.
(2) Through the prophet Zechariah (ix., 9-12) the Lord announced the very day which would mark the turning point of their "double." That day was April, A.D. 33, when Jesus fulfilled that prophecy riding upon an ass.
(3) In our text ( Isaiah, xi., 1, 2) the Lord marks the end of Israel's "double" or secondary experience of disfavor.
These "doubles" refer evidently not to a "double" severity 'or "double" of what was justly due, but to a "double" of time.
To our understanding of the Word, Israel's "double" of time was reached in 1878 A. D .. from which time thirty-seven years of rising in favor will bring them to the year 1915 A.D.. to New Covenant conditions promised them through Jeremiah xxxi .. 31, compare Romans, xi., 25-32.
PREACHES IN JERUSALEM
On the occasion of our previous visit eighteen years ago, we sought opportunity to make known this message of peace, but found no ears to hear, but rather, a strong resentment. This time we were requested to give a public discourse and a Hebrew put at our disposal free of cost the best public hall in Jerusalem. We had the closest attention from Hebrews, Arabs and Catholics and Protestants.
Amongst our auditors was Dr. Levy, the Treasurer and General Business Manager of the Zionists, He expressed himself freely as deeply appreciating our message, and inquired, "Why do not other Christians give us a word of encouragement, and recognition as a people of God ?" He and other Hebrews regretted that our message was not heard by all their co-religionists as an
encouragement and stimulus to faith. Learning that we would deliver our present address, Dr. Levy volunteered to communicate with prominent Hebrews of this city urging them to be present.
The. Zionist movement had not been begun at the time of our previous visit Now Hebrews all the world over are agog—the fire of patriotism begins to burn At the last meeting of the Zionists it was determined to transfer all the business of the Association to Palestine as headquarters, and that at future conferences only the pure Hebrew should be spoken by delegates-the Yiddish Jewish Hopes
is under the ban as unpatriotic and non-progressive. Palestine, and particularly Jerusalem, is arising from the ashes of the dead past. New hope is coming into the hearts of many who had almost ceased to hope for the consolation of Israel.
CROOKED STICK TO GANG PLOW
At one bound agriculture is passing from the stage of ploughing with a crooked stick drawn by an ox or a camel, and sometimes by donkeys, to the latest improvements in agriculture—a twelve-gang plow, drawn by a traction engine. The Oriental Trading Company, at Jaffa, have just imported and set up this piece of machinery, whose capacity is forty acres per day of ploughing,
harrowing and seeding complete. Following comes the reaping and threshing apparatus, operated by the same engine. The Arabs are selling their property and the Jews are buying from them. A recently passed law requires that taxes hereafter shall be paid in money and not in a share of the crop. This means that whoever holds the title must cultivate the land, and signifies in turn that the waste places must be made productive and that the non- progressive Arabs must give place to the Jews who are purchasing and improving.
Inside the city walls matters have made little improvement, but on the outside much money has been spent, and many fine buildings, public and private, have been erected.
The outside is modern Jerusalem. The extension is in the direction which ruins of ancient walls indicate was once enclosed.
We should not be understood as recommending that all Jews go to Palestine, nor as expecting that many of the eight millions of that people will leave their homes of great comfort for the land of promise. Our understanding of the Scriptures is that the door to Palestine, which has now been opened to the Jews, under the new Turkish Government, will be entered by the most earnest and faithful of the Jews, and that the persecutions in Russia and elsewhere will make the land of promise attractive to them.
A little later some of the more wealthy Hebrews, foreseeing troublous times elsewhere, will go to Jerusalem as the City of Peace. These are not our speculations, but interpretations of Hebrew prophecies. During our tour the Russian Government ordered the departure of twenty thousand Hebrews from Kieff, and others will doubtless be commanded. Thus the Lord opens the door, attracts the attention of his people and then pushes them out of other lands and makes them long for their fatherland.
THE NEW JERUSALEM
Pastor Russell reminded his audience that Christians have a deep interest in all these matters because the period of Jewish disfavor and rejection has been the period of Christian favor. While natural Israel has been outcast the gathering of spiritual Israel has been in progress, and the returning of favor to Abraham's natural seed will signify that the Spiritual Seed has all been selected. This has a momentous significance to us, and but a little time remains in which to make our calling and election sure as Abraham's Spiritual Seed (Gal. iii., .20).
We are interested in the earthly Jerusalem and the prosperity about to come to it, when, under Messiah's Kingdom, it shall become the capital of the world. However, we have a deeper interest in the heavenly Jerusalem, symbolically, the glorified Church, the spiritual Seed of Abraham, Mount Zion, for "The law shall go forth from Mount Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
None of the nations of Christendom will constitute the New Jerusalem, nor alt or any of its sects. The Lord is choosing a saintly little company out of all nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues, sects and parties. To these he says: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." As soon as this little flock shall have been found, completed, tested, glorified, the time will come for the establishment of Messiah's Kingdom under the whole heavens.
For a thousand years it will rule the world for the overthrow of sin and death, and for the uplifting of humanity out of degradation to full human perfection into the image and likeness of God.
ANCIENT WORTHIES OF ISRAEL.
The channel through which this spiritual and invisible kingdom will operate amongst men will be the ancient worthies of Israel. "Ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom." In close association with these, first to be recognized will be the Jews, natural Israel. God's favor to them will open the eyes of their understanding, and the ears of their hearts, and they will receive the necessary instructions and the blessings of restitution, which will begin with them according to God's covenant with them. All who would enjoy Divine favor and restitution blessings will gladly gather to their standard and by circumcision of heart and consecration of will they will become Israelites, proselytes, children of Abraham. Ultimately all who will not come into accord with the divine arrangement then established will die the second death"destruction, and all who will obey that glorious Kingdom of God's dear Son, the Kingdom of Messiah, will be blessed as Abraham's seed and be lifted up, up, up to perfection and to everlasting life. During this reign of Messiah's Kingdom the earth, too, shall be blessed and shall yield her increase and become Paradise restored, the footstool of God, which he declares shall be made glorious. Then in the end the entire race will be Abraham's seed, whose number shall be as the sands of the seashore; while spiritual Israel, as foretold, will be, as the stars of heaven. Then God's will shall be done on earth as it is now done in heaven, Thenceforth "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away."
Jerusalem
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them I heard saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever."— Rev. xxi., 4; v., 13.
COPIES OF SERMONS
Seemingly thousands of New Yorkers are interested in topics treated by me in past discourses, as indicated by requests for copies of same, therefore I desire to announce that I will upon receipt of postcard request. Send to any address, free of charge, printed copies of any or all of the following sermons:
"Where Are the Dead?" "The Thief in Paradise," "The Rich Man in Hell," "What Say the Scriptures About Hell?" "Jerusalem."
FOLLOWING WE REPRINT ONE CHAPTER FROM
PASTOR RUSSELL'S BOOK, "THY KINGDOM COME" 400 pages, 35c. postpaid Cloth binding The same volume contains a chapter on "THE GREAT PYRAMID"
Showing that its internal passage ways are so arranged that they teach by illustration in full accord with the Bible, the downward course of sin, the upward course of the Mosaic Law and of the Gospel, and the grand finale of the divine nature for spiritual Israel and of earthly restitution for natural Israel and through her for the world.
This volume is published at cost price, by THE BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY.
STUDY VIII.
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ISRAEL IN PALESTINE, AN EVENT TO BE EXPECTED WITHIN THIS HARVEST PERIOD. — HOW, AND TO WHAT EXTENT, AND WITH WHAT CLASS, WE SHOULD EXPECT THIS RESTORATION. — DATE OF ITS BEGINNING, AND EVIDENCES OF ITS ACTUAL PROGRESS SINCE. — WHY MILLENNIAL BLESSINGS, INTENDED FOR ALL MANKIND, WILL REACH AND REVIVE THE JEW FIRST. — THE REVIVAL OF JEWISH HOPES. — OBSERVATIONS OF LEADING JEWISH AND GENTILE WRITERS. — THE HARMONY OF THESE WITH PROPHECY. — ISRAEL'S BLINDNESS RESPECTING CHRIST ALREADY TURNING AWAY. — THE SPREAD AND MOMENTUM OF THE MOVEMENT. — GOD WILL HELP THEM.
"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." — Amos 9:11,14,15.
AMONG the relics of antiquity that have come down to our day, there is no other object of so great interest as the Jewish people. The searchers after ancient lore have untiringly questioned every inanimate object that could give a mite of historic or scientific information. Monuments, altars, tombs, relics of public and private edifices, paintings, sculptures, hieroglyphics and dead languages have all been appealed to; and some have even endeavored patiently to discover the line of actual truth which probably inspired the many fanciful traditions, legends, songs, etc., that have come floating down the centuries, in order to learn all that it is possible to know of human origin, history and destiny.
But the most interesting relic, and the one whose history can be most easily deciphered and understood, is the Jewish people. In them we have a monument of antiquity of inestimable value, upon which are recorded, in clearly legible characters, the origin, progress and final destiny of the whole human race a living and intelligent witness of the gradual outworking of a wonderful purpose in human affairs, in exact conformity with the predictions of their divinely inspired prophets and seers. As a people, they are marked as distinct and peculiar by every circumstance of their history and by their common religious faith, as well as by every element of their national character, and even by their physiognomy and their manners and customs. The national characteristics of many centuries ago are still prominent, even to their fondness for the leeks and onions and garlic of Egypt, and their stiff-necked obstinacy. As a people, they truly had much advantage every way, in having committed unto them the oracles of God, developing among them poets, lawyers, statesmen and philosophers, and leading them up step by step from being a nation of slaves to be as in the time of Solomon, the zenith of their glory a people distinguished and honored among the nations, attracting the wonder and admiration of the world. Rom. 3:1, 2; 1 Kings 4:30-34; 10:1- 29.
That the re-establishment of Israel in the land of Palestine is one of the events to be expected in this Day of the Lord, we are fully assured by the above expression of the Prophet. Notice, particularly, that the prophecy cannot be interpreted in any symbolic sense. It is not a Canaan in heaven to which they are appointed, but a Canaan on earth. They are to be planted upon "their land" the land which God says he had given them, the land which he promised to Abraham, saying, "Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land WHICH THOU SEEST, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. [An intimation of a then far distant period, giving ample time for such a multiplication of his seed.] Arise, walk through the land, in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee." "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger all the land of Canaan, for an EVERLASTING POSSESSION." (Gen. 13:14-17; 17:8.) It is a land into which they were once privileged to enter, and in which they dwelt for centuries. But during that time they were many times plucked up and carried into captivity in other lands, while strangers wasted their cities, drank the wine of their vineyards, and ate the fruit of their gardens. And finally they were completely rooted out, their cities laid waste and desolate, and they were driven as wanderers and exiles from country to country the world over. But when replanted in their land according to this promise, "they shall no more be pulled up out of their land," which God gave them; and "they shall build the waste cities [cities in which they had formerly lived], and inhabit them." A scattered, homeless, desolate and persecuted people, they are still a distinct and homogeneous people. United by the strong ties of blood relationship, by common hopes inspired by a common faith in the wonderful promises of God, though they have but dimly comprehended those promises, and still further bound together by the bond of sympathy growing out of their common sufferings and privations as exiles, they, to this day, look and long for the hope of Israel.
As a people they still have faith in God, though in their blindness and pride of heart they have stumbled over the humility of God's appointed messenger for the world's salvation; so that, instead of receiving him, they crucified the Savior, the Lord of glory. And yet the apostles and prophets show us that even this flagrant crime, to which their pride and self-will drove them, was not one which could never be forgiven them. Because of it, they have been punished, and that severely. When they condemned the Just One and said, "His blood be upon us and upon our children," they little expected the fearful recompense which followed.
The terrible trouble and loss of life, the destruction of their holy city and temple, the full end of their national existence, and the scattering of the surviving remnant as exiles into all nations, completed the work of their harvest period. It began in factious civil strife and was completed by an invading Roman army. Fire, sword and famine accomplished upon them a fearful recompense. And since that time Israel has truly been a nation scattered and peeled. Driven as exiles from country to country, and from province to province, they have been deprived of almost every right and privilege which other men enjoyed. Rejecting Christianity, as well in its corrupted as in its pure form, they became the objects of the contempt and relentless persecution of the Church of Rome. Says the historian: —
"In Germany, France, England and Italy, they were circumscribed in their rights by decrees and laws of the ecclesiastical as well as the civil powers, excluded from all honourable occupations, driven from place to place, compelled to subsist almost entirely by mercantile occupations and usury, overtaxed and degraded in the cities, kept in narrow quarters, and marked in their dress with signs of contempt, plundered by lawless barons and penniless princes, an easy prey to all parties during the civil feuds, again and again robbed of their pecuniary claims, owned and sold as serfs by the emperors, butchered by mobs and revolted peasants, chased by monks, and finally burned in thousands by the crusaders, who also burned their brethren at Jerusalem in their synagogues, or tormented them by ridicule, abusive sermons, monstrous accusations and trials, threats and experiments of conversion.
. They could own no land, belong to no guild of mechanics and engage in no form of art; they were shut up almost exclusively to trading. And, finding all mankind at war with them, their national pride and arrogance were by no means softened, and the breach consequently widened between the Jews and their Gentile neighbors everywhere."
Thus estranged from God and from their fellow-men of every nation, sad and pitiable indeed has been their miserable condition. During the relentless Papal persecutions, they have suffered in common with the saints and martyrs of Jesus, — the Christian for his rejection of Antichrist, the Jew for his rejection of both Christ and Antichrist. While God has permitted these afflictions and persecutions to come as a penalty for their national crime of rejection of the gospel and crucifixion of the Redeemer, he will nevertheless in due time reward the constancy of their faith in his promises, to which they have so long and so perseveringly held. God foreknew their pride and hardness of heart, and foretold it as well as the evils which have come upon them; and no less pointedly has he foretold a departing of their blindness and the ultimate fulfilment to them of all the earthly promises declared long ago to Abraham and repeated by one after another of the holy prophets.
As the time for the promised restoration of God's favor to Israel draws on, we see a preparation being made for it. Within the present century a sifting and separating process is manifest among them, dividing them into two classes, the Orthodox and the Non-orthodox Jews.The former still hold to the promises of God, and still hope that God's set time to favor Zion may soon come.
The latter are losing faith in a personal God, as well as in the Abrahamic promises, and are drifting toward liberalism, rationalism, infidelity. The Orthodox include most of the poor, oppressed Jews, as well as some of the wealthy and learned, and are vastly more numerous than the Non-orthodox; though the latter are by far the more influential and respected, often merchants, bankers, editors, etc.
The following is a brief summary of the faith of the Orthodox Jews: —
"I believe with a true and perfect faith (1) that God is the creator, governor and maker of all creatures, and that he hath wrought all things; (2) that the Creator is one, and that he alone hath been our God, is, and forever shall be; (3) that the Creator is not corporeal, not to be comprehended with any bodily properties, and that there is no bodily essence that can be likened unto him; (4) that nothing was before him, and that he shall abide forever; (5) that he is to be worshiped and none else; (6) that all the words of the prophets are true; (7) that the prophecies of Moses were true; that he was chief of all wise men that lived before him or ever shall live after him; [We may consider them somewhat excusable for this overestimate of such a noble and worthy character.] (8) that all the law which at this day is found in our hands was delivered by God himself to our master, Moses; (9) that the same law is never to be changed, nor any other to be given us of God; (10) that God understandeth all the thoughts and works of men, as it is written in the prophets — 'He fashioneth their hearts alike, he understandeth all their works; (11) that God will recompense good to them that keep his commandments, and will punish them who transgress them; (12) that the Messiah is yet to come; and, although he retard his coming, yet I will wait for him till he come; (13) that the dead shall be restored to life when it shall seem fit unto God, the Creator, whose name be blessed and memory celebrated without end. Amen," Since the destruction of their temple and their dispersion, the sacrifices have been discontinued; but in all other respects the Mosaic requirements are still observed among the Orthodox Jews.
Their worship, as of old, consists in the reading of the Scriptures, prayer and praise. On the second day of their feast of trumpets they read the account of Abraham's offering of his son Isaac and God's blessing on him and his seed. Then they blow the trumpet and pray that God would bring them to Jerusalem.
The Non-orthodox or Reformed Jews, "Radicals," differ widely from the Orthodox: many of them are avowed atheists, denying a personal God. They deny that any Messiah is to come; and if they do not deny prophecy entirely, they explain that the Jewish nation is itself the Messiah and is reforming the world gradually, and that the sufferings predicted of Messiah are fulfilled in their persecutions and sufferings as a people. Others of them declare that civilization is the only Savior of the world they expect.
It will be the former class, no doubt, that will be re-gathered and blessed when Messiah comes a second time, in glory and power; who will say, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." (Isa. 25:9.) And in the clearer light of Messiah's teachings all faith in the vain traditions which they still hold as valuable additions to the law of God will vanish away. The time is fast approaching when God will speak peace to Israel and comfort them and fully turn away their blindness. We do not by this mean to intimate that those who have wandered far off into infidelity will never have their blindness removed. God forbid. The blind eyes of all, and of every nationality, will be opened; and all the deaf ears will be unstopped. But no special favor will come to these infidel Jews at the time of the returning favor; for "he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly" merely by family relationship and facial expression.
The Jews recognized by God as children of Abraham are those who hold to the faith of Abraham and trust in the divine promises.
ANGLO-ISRAELITES.
And here we must express our dissent from the views of those who claim that the Anglo-Saxons are the Israel of promise, in the Scriptures. Briefly stated, they claim that the Anglo-Saxons, the people of the United States, etc., are the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel which separated from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, after Solomon's death, and which are often termed "the ten lost tribes;" because, after the captivity (of the entire twelve tribes) in Babylon, the ten tribes never re-established themselves in the land of Canaan, as "Israel," but became scattered as tribes and as individuals among the various nations. Those whose theory we criticise claim that they can trace their journey toward Great Britain, and that the greatness and influence of the English speaking peoples of the world are traceable to the fact that they belong to Israel, and are inheriting the promises made to Israel.
To this we answer: Some of the evidences offered in proof that they are of the "lost tribes" seem far from strong; but if we should admit all they claim in this, it would not prove their position, that the greatness and influence of the Anglo- Saxon race are attributable to their being Israelites by natural generation, any more than to their being "lost." Their greatness is attributable to their freedom and intelligence, which are traceable, not to their being lost, nor to their being born Israelites according to the flesh, but to the doctrines of Christ - to the light which some of the spiritual seed of Abraham let shine among them. The fact that the ten tribes strayed away from the two is not to their credit, but otherwise.
It is an evidence that they were disposed to reject God's promises: it is a sign of infidelity, of unbelief; for they well knew that God had predicted that the Lawgiver, the Savior, the Deliverer, the King, in whom and by whom the promises were to be fulfilled, was to come out of Judah. The tribe of Benjamin was the only tribe, therefore, aside from Judah, which, at the time of the revolt, manifested faith in God's promises. But at the time of the return from the Babylonian captivity, though those who showed their continued faith in God and his promises, by returning to the land of Canaan, were mostly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, yet all who came back were not of these two tribes. Among them were some from the various tribes, who loved the Lord and sought him with repentance, still relying upon his promises. However, the vast majority of the ten tribes, as well as of the two tribes, did not avail themselves of the opportunity to return to the land of promise, preferring Babylon and other lands, many among them having fallen into idolatry and lost their respect for God's promises.
We must remember that but a few of those who returned to their land under the lead of Ezra and none of those who returned under Nehemiah were of those who had been taken captive, the vast majority having died years before in Babylon. These were their children, in whose hearts the faith of their fathers still burned, who still hoped for the blessings and honors promised to Abraham's seed. Thus the returning little band of less than fifty thousand were all the Israelites then remaining, of all the tribes, who by the act of returning to the land of promise showed that they still held to the faith of Abraham. It was to the descendants of these fittest ones, sifted out of all the tribes of Israel though principally of the two tribes, and all called Jews, after the royal and predominating tribe that our Lord presented himself and the Kingdom, at the first advent, as representing the holy nation, Israel entire.
Our Lord referred to them as Israel, and not as a part of Israel, not as Judah merely. He speaks of even those who had clung to the promises, and to each other, as the "lost sheep of the house of Israel," in that they had wandered far from the truth, after the traditions of false shepherds who had led them in their own way and not as God directed. He says: "I am not sent save [except] to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." To the house of Israel consequently his ministry was confined, in harmony with the foregoing, showing that the Jews of his day were the only recognized representatives of the "house of Israel," as the terms, "all Israel," "our twelve tribes constantly serving God," and many similar expressions of our Lord and the apostles indicate. And it will be remembered that our Lord, in connection with this statement, that his ministry was to Israel, forbade his disciples going to any outside the Jews of Palestine. — Matt. 10:5, 6; 15:24.
Notice also how the apostles used the word "Israel," and not "Judah," when speaking of those who were living at that time in Palestine (Acts 2:22;3:12;5: 35;13:16;21:28), and how they apply the words of Isaiah concerning the remnant of Israel to the comparatively few who received the gospel (Rom.9:4, 27,29,31-33;10:1-4;11:1,7-14,25,26,31), and speak of all the rest as stumbling and being blinded. So, then, even if it could be demonstrated that the Anglo-Saxon peoples were part of "the ten lost tribes," we see clearly that no favor could have come to them upon that score, under that covenant; for they deserted the Israelitish covenant and became idolaters, unbelievers, and practically Gentiles. Besides, as already noted, * all recognized as the natural seed of Abraham, who would continue to reject Christ, were cast off from all favor from the time of Christ's death to the year 1878, when, chronologically, divine favor was due to return to them, and their blindness to begin to be removed.
Consequently, the prominence of the Anglo-Saxons for the past centuries could in no sense have been Israel's returning favor. Those from whom the favor was taken for the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord are the ones to whom the favor is to return now. At that time, and ever since, Israel has been represented by "the Jew" (Rom.2:9,10), and it is the Jew that will now be restored to favor as the natural "seed of Abraham." These, with the spiritual "seed" (selected during the Gospel age a remnant from Israel, Jews, and the remainder gathered from the Gentiles), are to be God's agencies for blessing all the families of the earth.
Nor will the coming favor to Israel be exclusive. All believers in the covenant promises may share those returning favors with the natural seed, just as during the Gospel age any Jew who accepted Christ was eligible to all the spiritual blessings and advantages offered during the Gospel age. As only a small remnant believed in and accepted the gospel favors at the beginning, so, aside from the Jews, only a small number of mankind will be ready for the new laws and conditions of the Millennial age, under the righteous administration of the glorified Lord and his glorified Church; and hence, at first, few but Jews will be blessed under it.
The Jew, long accustomed to striving to do, and to trusting to works of obedience to the Law to secure for him the divine blessing, stumbled over the first feature of the Gospel dispensation — the remission of sins, without works, to every one that believeth in Jesus' perfect work and all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. But the Jew's respect for the Law will turn to his advantage in the dawn of the Millennial age, and none will be more ready for the strict requirements and laws of that age than he, after his blindness, relative to Christ and the value of his sacrifice for sins, shall have passed away; for works are required after faith in Christ, though not accepted before.
And the Jew, in accepting the love and favor of God in Christ, will not be so inclined to lose sight of God's justice as are many others of to-day. Others, on the contrary, will be blinded for a time and unready to recognize the rules of the Kingdom, in which justice will be laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet.
As the Jew was blinded by a false view of the Law, which was made void through false teachings, so now, many Gentiles will be hindered from taking hold of the conditions of favor during the Millennial age, by reason of the false presentation of the doctrine of grace in the forgiveness of sins, made by false teachers of the present time, who make void the gospel of the grace of God through sophistical reasonings — "even denying that the Lord bought them" (2 Pet. 2:1), and that there was any ransom-price given or necessary for man's recovery. They claim that to err is human, to forgive, divine; and hence, inferentially, that occasional sin is quite excusable, and that strictness of punishment, a ransom, etc., are not supposable, since if there were no sins to forgive it would take away God's pleasure and office of forgiving. Losing sight of God's justice, they fail to see the philosophy of his plan of reconciliation through the blood of the cross, granting remission of sins through a ransom-sacrifice, to such only as accept Christ and strive against sin. Blinded by their lax ideas of God's justice and strictness, few will be so well prepared as the Jew for that strict obedience according to ability, which will be required of all in the next age.
As an illustration of the preparation of the Jew to recognize Christ Jesus' death as his ransom — corresponding price — the legal atonement for man's sin, we quote below, from the pen of a young Hebrew converted to Christ, an account of the yearly commemoration of the "Great Day of Atonement," as observed at the present time by Orthodox Jews.
The article appeared in The Hebrew-Christian, as follows:
"Yom Kippur, or the Great Day of Atonement, was a remarkable day with my father; for he not only fasted, prayed and mortified himself on this holy day of expiation, but he actually spent the whole night at the synagogue in devotion. I have often seen my devout parent weep on this great day, when he repeated the pathetic confession following the enumeration of the sacrifices which were appointed by God to be offered up for the sins of omission and commission; and many a time have I shed sympathetic tears as I joined him in lamenting that we have now no temple, no high priest, no altar and no sacrifices. The day before that solemn day, he, in company with the rest of the Jews, took a cock; and, during the repetition of certain forms of prayers, he moved the living fowl round his head three times, repeating these words: 'This be my substitute, this be my exchange, this be my atonement; this fowl shall go to death, and I to a blessed life.' Then he laid his hands on it, as the hands used to be laid on the sacrifices, and immediately after it was given to be slaughtered. This is the only blood that is shed in Israel now. The blood of bulls and goats no longer flows beside the brazen altar.
"My father took the greatest pains to procure a white cock, and avoided a red one altogether; and when I asked him his reason for doing so, he told me that a red cock is already covered with sin, for sin itself is red, as it is written: 'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' (Isa. 1:18.) He continued: 'You will find that the Rabbis have laid it down in the Talmud, if the cock be white, he is infected with no sin, and can therefore bear the sins of the Jews; but if he be red, he is altogether covered with sins, and is unfit for bearing our iniquities.' "The reason why they use a cock rather than any other creature is this. In Hebrew man is called gever. Now if gever (man) has sinned, gever must also sustain the penalty thereof. But since the punishment is heavier than the Jews can bear, the Rabbis have substituted for them a cock, which in the Chaldee dialect is called gever, and thus the divine justice is assumed to be satisfied: because, as gever has sinned, so gever, i.e., a cock, is sacrificed.
"This vain invention may be viewed as a remarkable evidence of a most striking fact, that, while many among the Jews at the present day deny the atonement altogether, the body of the nation still have some feeling of the absolute necessity of a sacrifice for sin, and that without an atonement repentance is of no avail for salvation. If, instead of reading Rabbinical fables, the Jews would study the Bible, they would find that the Lord Jesus, the true Messiah, in His own blessed person made that very atonement for sin which they in their ignorance imagine may be made by the sacrifice of a cock. Gever (man) has sinned, and gever (man), even the man Christ Jesus, has made his soul an offering for sin. Isa. 53:10."
TO THE JEW FIRST.
We see, then, that God's prediction, that Israel (except the faithful few) would be blinded by their Law (Rom. 11:9), was fulfilled in a natural way; and also that his further prediction, that the favors and conditions of the Millennial age will bless many of them more quickly than others, is also to come about in a perfectly natural way and to result from reasonable causes.
Thus the Millennial favors will be to the Jews first, even as by reason of the covenants, etc., the gospel favors were offered to them first. And so it shall be finally as Simeon prophesied: "This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel." And the time for raising up that nation, so long fallen from favor, is at hand.
But let us guard against a too common mistake, made by many who see something of these promises, of supposing that the statements should be taken literally, which say: "After this 1 will return, and will build again the tabernacle [house] of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up."
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