A Passion for
the Coming Inheritance.
*
* *
Part 1
* * *
Part 2
INTRODUCTION
1. There is a Book which is different from all
other books - the writings of Moses and the prophets, evangelists, and
apostles, commonly called the Book, or Bible.
2. There is a Nation different from all other
nations, a peculiar people with a history wonderful from its beginning hitherto
- the Jews, or the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
3. There is a Man different from all other men, the
Man Christ Jesus - Son of the Virgin Mary, of the seed of Abraham, the King of
the Jews, and Light of the Gentiles, the Lord from heaven, and the Son of the Most
High, blessed for ever.
To these three I
would add one more fundamental fact: There is a Land different from all other
lands, which, hke the Book, and the Nation, and the
Man Christ Jesus, concerns the whole of humanity Palestine, The
Holy Land, or The Land, as it is sometimes emphatically called in the Bible to
distinguish it from all other lands - the cradle of Gods self-revelation and
the centre of Gods governmental dealings with all the nations of the earth.
These four - the wonderful Book, the peculiar Nation, the glorious
Man who is the sum and substance of the Book and the true centre and
culmination of the history of the People, and the Land, the home of the Nation,
where the Divine thoughts revealed in the Book found their human form of
expression so as to be intelligible to all nations of the earth, and where in
the fulness of time the Eternal Word himself became flesh and dwelt among men,
and which he forever consecrated with his souls travail and atoning death and
glorious resurrection, and from which he ascended - all these.
- DR. ADOLPH SAPHIR.
*
NOTE. It is probable that the passing of the Dome
of the Rock out of the hands of the Moslems will be one of the marks of the
ending of the times of the Gentiles.
by
James
Stephens, M.A.
* Mr Stephens,
was for 46 years pastor at Highgate Road Chapel,
-------
While there may be
a measure of blessedness in all nations during the millennial age, there will
be a special and distinctive blessedness in the nation of
The earth shall be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, the knowledge of the excellencies of Him Who is over all blessed for ever, and
Who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lords Peculiar Treasure
Of the nation of Israel it will continue to be said
during the whole of the thousand years, The LORD hath
chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that
are upon the earth (Deuteronomy 14: 2). The purpose which the Lord expressed in the
day when He avouched Israel to be His peculiar people, will come to complete
and abiding fulfilment, The LORD hath avouched thee this day to be
His peculiar people, as He bath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all
His commandments; and to make thee high above all nations which He bath made,
in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people
unto the LORD thy God (Deuteronomy 26:18-19).
The relationship between the Lord and His nation will
be according to His Word, I will betroth thee unto Me for ever"
(Hosea 2:19).
We read of some
members of other nations who will yield feigned obedience; and at the close of
the millennium, when Satan is temporarily loosed, there will be nations
deceived by him as will
Practical Righteousness will Characterise
Them
It will thus come
to pass that practical righteousness, practical holiness, will characterise the
entire national life of
It is not, of
course, that the nation will walk sinlessly and be without the need, all the
time, of the cleansing Blood; but it is that it will be, distinctly and
manifestly, a God-fearing nation, and that as compared with other nations it
will be pre-eminently so. To
Unparalleled Prosperity Theirs
God will make manifest
the blessedness that will be the portion of
God will keep on
fulfilling His words: I will
multiply men upon you, all the house of
The Lords Presence
God will own
Israel as His Own peculiar people by giving them to have throughout the
millennium, in Jerusalem their capital, a supernatural manifestation indicative
or expressive of His Own presence in their midst. The LORD will create upon every dwelling place (over the whole habitation) of
It will be similar
to what it was with Israel in the wilderness, on the coming out of Egypt: The LORD went before them by day in a
pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to
give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the
cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13: 21-22). In this it will be manifest to the world that
the LORD hath chosen
Zion, He hath desired it for His habitation; and that He hath said of it, This is My rest for ever; here
will I dwell; for I have desired it
(Psalm 132:13-14). Gods dwelling in
No doubt, it will be
in millennial days as it is in the
present time, wherever, among all nations, believers will be gathered together
in the Name of Christ He will be present in their midst - present
spiritually. Saints will then, as now,
be builded together for an habitation of God by the Spirit. But it will
not be true of any nation as nation that God is among them in continuous
manifest supernatural working. The Lord
Jesus Christ will not personally manifest Himself in the capital city of any
nation as He will in the capital of
In consequence of
this distinguishing favour to
May not this mean
that in Jerusalem, as in a Seat of Heavenly learning, there will be opening up
of the spiritual import of Levitical law such as at present obtains but little
among Gentile teachers; there will be an unfolding and explaining of the ways
of God, especially as these ways have been, and will be expressed in His
manifold and wonderful dealings with Israel; there will be taught in great
wisdom the application of the laws and principles of God to actual, practical
life in the multitudinous phases. If it
should be so, or if anything like this should be the case, then to
[* NOTE. These prophecies imply the bodily presence of Abraham
upon
this
earth after his resurrection.]
In that day it
will be said, Arise, shine;
for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee; and
nations shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising (Isaiah 60:1,3). Kings and
nations shall appreciate and seek the light that will be shining in
Christ Will be King
(2) When Christ comes
again it will be found to be, as God has predicatively said: I have set My King upon My holy hill of Zion (Psalm 16). Christ will be King of Israel, sitting on the throne of His father David. But the Lord,
the King of Israel, shall be
King over all the earth (Zechariah 14:9).
The centre and seat of government for
This will mean distinguishing honour for
While Christ will
be present bodily, according as His feet shall
stand upon the Mount of Olives, it is
not to be understood that He will be present bodily all the time, or be bodily
occupying a dwelling-house in
[* Hence the literal
fulfilment and reality of Jacobs dream at Bethel: I will
give you ... the land on which
you are lying ... All peoples ON EARTH will be blessed
through YOU ... I (the Lord) will
bring you BACK TO THIS LAND ...
(Gen. 28: 13-15).]
In this way it
will be possible for the risen saints of the heavenly city to reign with Christ
over the earth: at the same time it will remain that the earthly centre and
seat of Christs government over the earth will be
(3)
We are told in Ezekiel (chapters
40-44) that there shall be a restored temple, and restored sacrifices
and a restored priesthood of the sons of Levi.
As to the restoration of the sacrifices, it will at once occur to the
mind that this seems to be in conflict with the great statement concerning Christs
sacrifice By one offering He
hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10: 14). The apparent contrariety may disappear if we
consider the future sacrifices, not as formerly, typically anticipative of the
one great Sacrifice, but retrospectively, commemorative. Whatever sacrificing God will have maintained
in Jerusalem in the future, this will remain as a sure fact, that Christ, at
His first coming, appeared to
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself
(Hebrews 9:26).
At the same time,
this future sacrificing may, by way of memorial, vividly and impressively set
forth the One Sacrifice so that IT will be remembered with fuller
apprehension of its value and ever-renewed adoring gratitude. Allowing for the restoration of sacrifices,
the restoration of the priesthood presents no difficulty; for this is in line
with what is said in 1 Chronicles 23:13,
that Aaron was separated, he
and his sons for ever, that is, as long
as the nation as a nation should last.
The temple also, when it is restored, will be a house of prayer for all
nations.
The great feasts
of
We do not forget
how, when the woman of Samaria said to Jesus, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain (Gerizim); and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to
worship, Jesus answered her, Woman, believe Me,
the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem,
worship the Father ... the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to
worship Him (John 4: 20-24).
Our Lords words affirmed that all places, as well as
The Plenitude of the Holy Spirit
What a place of
joyful worship that city of holiness and truth shall be in those days to
come. Besides the visible glory, there
will be there in continuous plenitude of effusion the Holy Spirit in His mighty
grace. With one accord, all the lands
shall make a joyful noise unto
the LORD, shall serve the LORD with gladness and come before His presence with singing, shall enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts
with praise (Psalm
100).
We cannot tell how
much it will mean for
It is evident that
there will also be this most wonderful happening, that
When God makes of
Divine Grace, Faithfulness and Wisdom
When God makes of
And when God makes
of
* * *
SELECTED QUOTATIONS
1
It is evident
from Scripture that the Jews are determined, like their forefather Jacob, to
seize their birthright by hook or by crook.
They, too, will live bitterly to repent their folly. Our Lord told the Jews of His day: I am come in my Fathers Name and ye receive
Me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye
will receive. Their leaders will sell their souls for the
bauble of power. Daniel tells of a
coming prince, probably the Antichrist, with whom they make a treaty for seven
years. But their agreement with hell shall not stand.
The treaty is soon broken, and the great tribulation follows to subdue
the pride and smash the hardness of heart of stubborn Jewry. It
is only when the remnant repent and acknowledge their once crucified Messiah
that He can and will restore the Kingdom, and Israel will dwell in safety and
peace every man under his own vine and fig-tree. No
Peace Conference of the Allied Nations, or other man-made agreement, can ever
fulfil Gods purposes and promises for
-
Mr. Samuel F. Hurnard.
2
Ancient and modern Jewish writers recognize a time of
trouble before the beginning of the Messianic Age, to end with the complete
overthrow of the Gentile world power.
3
PRAYER FOR
1. Because of Gods command, with special promise of
blessing.
Gen. 12: 3; Ps. 122:
6; Isa. 62: 6, 7.
2. Because
3. Because it is Gods will that
Isa. 12: 1-6; Matt. 23: 37; Rom. 11: 23-32.
4. Because of the Tribulation testimony out of
Matt. 24: 9-14; Rev. 6: 9; 7: 1-8.
5. Because of the great multitude to be saved through
their ministry.
Matt. 25: 40;
6. Because no Millennial
blessings can come to the nations apart from
Gen. 12: 3; Acts 15:
16, 17; Rom. 11: 11-15.
7. Because of
Dan. 12: 1; Matt. 24: 4-8; Luke 21:
24-31; (See Dan.
9: 1-22).
4
THE JEW
FIRST
Why give the Gospel to the Jew first? (
Is it not a reason then, why the Gospel should first be preached to the Jew? They are ready to perish. The cloud of indignation and wrath that is
even now gathering above the lost will break first upon the head of the guilty,
unhappy, unbelieving
- ROBERT MURRAY MCHANE.
5
The writer (J.
C. Van Gelderen) in The Jewish Missionary
Magazine quotes the only official statement ever issued by a Church that all
6
The Jewish Era gives a deeply significant quotation from a Jewish journal - The
Jews in the News. The miseries that have plagued us for two thousand years
have been marked signs of Gods disfavour.
All the curses that the prophets foretold would be our lot have come to
pass in a most remarkably accurate manner.
However, these great men of God also point us to the way of our
dilemma. We must turn to the words of
our holy prophets and study the current trend of events in the Jewish world in
the light of the Word of God which they delivered unto us, for in no other way
can a satisfactory solution be found to the present spiritual plight of Israel.
Back to the prophets! They were our inspired spiritual giants. They made the greatest contributions to our
spiritual life, not our philosophers, our Talmudic scholars, etc. The call of the prophets was to repentance
and it is the crying need of the hour, for
7
In one of the orthodox synagogues of Brooklyn, during
certain days of repentance and prayer, Jews were seen lying on their faces
before God, crying to Him for protection upon their persecuted brethren,
especially in
8
THE CRY OF
THE JEW
(Written by a Jew)
There is
no face in pity bent
When by the way I fall,
No anxious, loving Shepherd comes
In answer to by call;
There are no tender eyes to seek,
No gentle arms to hold,
No nail-pierced hands to take me up
And bring me to the fold.
And when
on naked, bleeding feet
To
And stagger, crushd,
beneath the Cross
Theres none to heed or know;
Theres none to lift the cruel weight,
Theres none to even share
O Thou Who climbd the Hill
before
Look down and help me bear.
9
HEBREW SIN
In an old volume there is a conversation between a
Christian and a venerable Jewish rabbi. The
Christian asks why the Jews, if they are Gods people, have suffered so greatly
throughout the many centuries of their history.
The rabbi replies that whom
the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and that
R. H. BOLL.
10
Walking down a narrow alley in
That wall of titanic hewn stones is all that is left
visible of the foundation platform on which the Temple stood, the Temple to
which in Jesus day at the Feast of Passover over a million worshippers came
from all round the Mediterranean world, the Temple that was to them the pulsing
heart that sent the life-blood through the widespread limbs of the nation;
indeed, that made the Hebrew people a nation.
That Temple was utterly destroyed over eighteen
centuries ago; but at this moment some of those men whom I saw on that day are
praying there to God to restore the Temple, and are beating their foreheads
against the stones now known all over the earth as the Wailing Wall.
- PROFESSOR BASIL
MATTHEWS.
11
Hitler, who once controlled half
the race - 8,000,000 Jews - embodies one world-plan of the end. He said (Times,
Feb, 25, 1941):- By this war, not Aryan mankind but
the Jew will be exterminated. Only after
the extermination of the parasites will the world know a long period of
collaboration between nations, and therefore a period of true peace. The Jew, however he may
reject
[* Support whole-heartedly today (as of primary
importance), all those regenerate souls who are seeking to carry the Gospel
message to Jews scattered throughout the world.]
12
Trusting and Toiling gives a lovely parallel between the Passover and
13
THE JEW
Who taught
you tender Bible tales
Of honey-lands of milk and wine?
Of happy, peaceful
Of
Who gave
your patient Christ? I say
Who gave your Christian creed?
Yea, Yea,
Who gave your very God to you?
The Jew! the Jew! the hated Jew!
- C. H. MILLER.
14
Every orthodox Jew repeats daily the thirteen articles
of faith which include this statement:- I believe in the
coming of the Messiah. Though He tarry,
yet will I wait for Him.
15
They are the tribes
of sorrow and for ages have been fed
On
brackish desert-wells of hate and exiles bitter bread.
They builded up fair
cities with no threshold of their own,
They gave their sigh
to
And have they not had
tears enough, this people shrunk with chains?
Must there be more Assyrias,
must there be other
-
Edwin Markham.
16
At a time when the fate of
636
- Wrested from
1099
- Crusaders captured
1244
-
1516
- Sultan of
1917
- Balfour Declaration, November 2.
1919
- Supreme Allied Council approved declaration as basis of British mandate. At same time gave 1,000,000 square miles as free territory to
Arabs.
1921
- Arab delegation to Peace Conference lays claim to
17
(This claim has
been issued by the Israel Office of Information)
It
was the capital of their first and second commonwealths, the object of their
prayers during the centuries of their dispersion. They returned to it uninterruptedly through
the ages until by the middle of the nineteenth century they formed the majority
of its population and began to build a new Jerusalem
outside the confining walls of the
The
New City of Jerusalem, founded ninety years ago by Jews and developed by them
ever since, is in every sense a Jewish city.
Almost all its 100,000 residents are Jews. No less than Tel-Aviv or
International
supervision of the Holy Places and of the right of access to them can be
assured without the imposition of an international regime upon the whole of the
18
So we read how the earth will be changed when the
Kingdom comes. The
Spirit shall be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest (Isa. 32: 15).
Already it is forecast in
19
Always the Jew has felt that
he must have a reason for continuing to live, a destiny, whether divinely
appointed, as held by the prophets, or the natural product of an inherent, ineradicable
folk-genius, as is now recently and popularly maintained. The worlds Jewish problem has been altogether
different. It has been how to rid itself
of the Jew. To the world the Jew has always been a source of discomfort,
of irritation, a mote in the eye, a
small, floating body, never, stable, never fixed, but moving rapidly about,
here and there, in the great, hulking carcass of the world, never soluble,
never assimilable, never understanding, never removable, and always disturbing,
aggravating and seemingly threatening. Forced
from one spot the Jew cropped up in another, equally irritating there, largely
because the world assumed and expected that he would irritate, largely perhaps because
the world was always over-conscious of the Jew. So
the world sought to rid itself of the Jew, this strange, foreign body, as,
though quite inexplicably, it seems to have regarded him.
Probably never before in all his long history has the Jew been so
deeply conscious of himself and of the problem which he presents to himself and
to the world, and likewise never as actively eager for a final, permanent
solution thereof, if permanent solution there be. And, strangely enough, Israel seems more and
more ready and eager to accept for itself one of the solutions which the
hostile, irritated world without has proposed, viz., that of voluntary
withdrawal, or self-imposed isolation, of conscious and purposed separatism, so
complete as is humanly and practically possible, of racial nationalism,
secular, racial nationalism, national existence, and national statehood.
I choose the old, hard, exacting, but true and eternal solution of
the Jewish problem; and, choosing it, I hear the eternal message of the great
prophet ringing in my ears, with its evangel of hope and deliverance and
attainment:- Behold,
days are coming, saith the Lord, when I shall make a new covenant with the
house of Israel. I will put My law in their inward parts and upon their heart will I
write it.
- DR. JULIAN
MORGENSTERN, in The
American Hebrew.
20
Up to the time of the dissolution of their national independence,
agriculture and handicraft were their chief occupations; only later, in
consequence of their dispersion and the narrow limits prescribed for their activity,
they became a people of traders and usurers which took the place of the old Phoenicians.
Handicrafts were so much developed, and
held in such esteem, that towns were celebrated for skill and success in some
branch. The Jews were in those days
anything but a nation of mere buyers and sellers. In the sixty-three works of which the Talmud
consists, there is scarcely a word in honour of trade; but much pointing out
the dangers of money making. Professional
usury was contrary to the spirit of Judaism; for the Talmud places usurers on a
level with gamblers, and declares both criminals unfit to bear witness in a
court of law.
‑
PROFESSOR
FRANK DELITZSCH.
21
It
is extraordinary how indestructible is the Jew. Six times have they been brought to the verge
of annihilation.
1. By the Pharaoh of
2. By the Assyrians. B.C. 1571
3. By Nebuchadnezzar. B.C. 588
4. By Haman. B.C. 510
5. By Antiochus Epiphanes. A.D.
170
6. By Titus. A.D. 70
Yet
the race survives this 3,800 years of deadly history. The seventh and last attempt, made by the
whole world, will be countered by Armageddon.
22
It
is extraordinary how indestructible is the Jew. Six times have they been brought to the verge
of annihilation.
1. By the Pharaoh of
2. By the Assyrians. B.C. 1571
3. By Nebuchadnezzar. B.C. 588
4. By Haman. B.C. 510
5. By Antiochus Epiphanes. A.D.
170
6. By Titus. A.D. 70
Yet the race survives this
3,800 years of deadly history. The
seventh and last attempt, made by the whole world, will be countered by
Armageddon.
23
The
Nobel prizes are considered to be the highest awards attainable in the World. These honours are conferred on those who have
really achieved great things in science, literature, and the cause of world
peace. It is interesting to notice that twenty-two
Jews have received Nobel Prizes since
their inception.
They are the following : Bayer - chemistry, 1905; Michelson
- physics, 1907; Ehrlich - medicine,
1908; Lippmann
- physics, 1908; Metchnikofi
- medicine, 1908; Heyse
- literature, 1910; Wallach
- chemistry, 1910; Asser - peace, 1911; Fried - peace, 1911; Barany - medicine, 1914; Wilstaetter - chemistry, 1915; Haber chemistry,
1918; Einstein - physics, 1921; Bohr - physics, 1922; Meyerhoff -
medicine, 1922; Franck - Physics,
1925; Hertz - physics, 1925; Bergson - literature,
1928; Landsteiner
- medicine, 1930; Warburg -
medicine, 1931; Loewi
- medicine 1936; Ossietsky
- peace, 1936. It is interesting to note
that fourteen of these Jews were German
Jews and four more Austrian Jews
which is practically the same thing. The
other four come one each from
The
agony of Israel is that we bear ourselves for the most part as if there were nothing to safeguard,
nothing more to cherish, nothing left to preserve, and as if there were to be
no future - this the end. Religion! Are we not becoming its destroyers rather than
its guardians? There is something which
calls itself religion current in certain smug circles of Jewish life here and
in other lands. For the most part it is
nothing more than a poor pulseless imitation or simulation of a decorously unvital mysticism. And
save for this there is little, if any, so-called religion in the household of
‑
RABBI
STEPHEN WISE.
24
If
we look into their long past history, truly God has given us a record of what
the gospel was as the power of salvation among the Jews. The first fourteen Bishops of the
- S. M. ZWEMER.
D.D.
25
That
Jews are for the most part converted by Pre- millennial Christians was clearly seen years ago by Andrew A. Bonar and Robert
Murray McCheyne, who were appointed to examine
into the matter of the Jewish evangelization, and reported:- A missionary to the Jews ought to be
well grounded in prophecy, and he should be one who fully and thoroughly
accepts the principle of literal interpretation, both in order to give him hope and perseverance, and
in order to fit him for reasoning with the Jews. To the same effect the Bishop of Ripon, England, more than half a century ago stated that
there were then among the clergy of the Church of England more than three
hundred presbyters and four bishops who were converted Jews, every one of whom
was brought to the reception of the truth under the influence of Christian
teaching according to the literal interpretation of the prophecies. And what was
true then is still true to-day. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a
converted Jew who is not a Pre-millennialist himself, and converted by
Pre-millennial teaching.
- M. A.
26
Christianity is completed Judaism, or it is nothing. Christianity is incomprehensible without Judaism,
as Judaism is incomplete without Christianity. What has
- LORD
*
* *
THE UNIQUE MAN
The challenge of Christ is
inescapable. One outstanding fact, among
many, completely isolates Him. It is
this:- that one Man only in the history of the world
has had explicit details given beforehand of his birth, life and death; that
these details are in public documents given to the public centuries before he
appeared, and that no one challenges, can
challenge, that these documents were widely circulated long before his birth;
and that anyone and everyone can compare for himself the actual records of his
life with those old documents, and find that they match one another to a n icety.
The challenge of this pure miracle is that it has happened concerning
one Man only in the whole history of the world.
But let us pause for a moment to see how a divine
document can become an accomplished fact.
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin once in
Now
we take up one of the old documents. The Prophet Isaiah writes this:- The Lord
himself shall give you a sign: A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel (Isa. 7: 14). Now see
the words that Gods Angel spoke to
the Virgin Mary:- The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the
Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that which is to be born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of God (Luke
1: 35); and the Apostle Matthew (1: 22)
adds,- All this
came to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through
the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin
shall be with child. The Lord will grant a sign
- that is, a miracle: the miracle shall be conception by a virgin: the birth
shall be the birth of God - Immanuel, God
with us. There is the document in Isaiah, a book in
every Jews hands long centuries before Jesus was born.
But
we look again. Where was
this to take place? Nothing is more
dangerous to false prophecy than the fastening down of an event to a date or a
place. Here is another document:- Thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, out of thee shall come forth one whose
goings forth are from everlasting (Mic. 5: 2). Now what did the Rabbis say? And gathering together all
the chief priests and scribes of the people, Herod inquired of them where the
Christ should be born. And they said
unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written, and then they quote Micah. Now look again. Herod sent them to
We
turn now to another old document. It is another fragment of Isaiah, and runs
thus:- The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up
the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Isa. 61: 1). Now the child Jesus had grown to mans
estate. He is on the banks of the
We
turn to another ancient document. It is
one of Davids psalms; and it
reveals someone - the someone who is Messiah - dying
an awful death, under very peculiar circumstances. This ancient document says:-
The assembly of evil-doers
have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones; they look and stare upon me (Ps. 22: 16). Now crucifixion in Davids time was
unknown among the Jews: yet the piercing of hands and feet, together with the
partial stripping telling all the bones -
obviously means crucifixion: the crucified are pierced only in their
hands and feet, and are stripped for exposure.
Would a
false Messiah have chosen
that passage for fulfilment? But that old document goes into fuller,
circumstantial details. Immediately
after the piercing and stripping, it says:- They part my garments among them, and upon
my vesture do they cast lots. Now hear the
Apostle John. The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus - that is, after piercing His hands and His feet took his garments, and made four parts - divided them into four portions - to every soldier a part; and also the coat - the tunic or vesture: now the coat was without seam, woven from
the top throughout. They said therefore
one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be. These things therefore the soldiers did (John
19: 23), as foretold centuries
before. Nay, this old document holds the
very crucifixion cry, for the psalm opens with it My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Ps.
22: 1).
So centuries later the Evangelist writes:- And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a
loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Matt. 27: 46). Not a jot or
tittle of the psalm has miscarried: exactly as in the birth, and in the
ministry, so also in the death - but more so - the ancient document is a
photograph of the fact, fulfilled in flawless detail.
The last old document we select is once more from a
psalm, and runs thus:-
Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One - the Messiah - to
see corruption (Psalm 16: 10). Here,
therefore, is a point supremely critical
for the revelation of the Messiah: resurrection [out] from the dead - without the slightest touch of decay: Neither will thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption - is the stupendous miracle that is
finally to reveal the Lord. This is
simply impossible to a false Messiah.
Now we turn to the Gospel
document. And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his
raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the watchers did quake, and became
as dead men. And the angel answered, and
said unto the women, Fear not ye; He is not here; for He
is risen, even as He said (Matt. 28: 2). The fact is
established with ample evidence. He appeared to Cephas;
then to the twelve; then He appeared to
above five hundred brethren at once; then He appeared to James; then to all the
apostles; and last of all He appeared me also (1 Cor. 15: 5). A scarred body, yet a germless body, leaving an empty
tomb; living, eating, conversing, ascending;
miraculously conceived, divinely anointed, crucified, incorrupt - the cycle is complete.
It
is now possible to sum up with mathematical certainty. In our hands are the ancient documents,
written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. They are publicly in everybodys hands. So are the facts of our Lords life recorded
in the Gospels. The two can be compared
side by side. The tallying of the Old
documents with the new facts is provable by anyone at any time throughout all
eternity. Ours can only be the cry of Philip:- WE HAVE FOUND HIM
OF WHOM THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS DID WRITE. We have found the
Messiah, which is,
being interpreted, CHRIST (John 1: 41).
- D. M. PANTON.
* *
*
THE WAILING WALL
By CLARENCE D.
WISEMAN (1947)
In
company with a group of British service men, I visited the Wailing Wall in Jerusalern,* on a Hebrew Holy Day. The wall is about
seventy-five feet long, and is held in highest veneration by pious Jews who
believe it to be a surviving portion of their ancient temple. Though not
actually part of the temple, archaeologists say that it most certainly dates
from the time of Herod, and probably was part of the wall that surrounded the
temple area.
On this day hundreds of Hebrews were
weeping pitifully at the sacred spot. Women cried bitterly as they beat
their foreheads against the stones. I ran my fingers over the surface of
one of the huge blocks from which the wall is constructed and found that it was
worn quite smooth by the presence of a million hands and lips down through the
long weary centuries since the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70.
The Wall is 156 feet long and 59 feet
high, and is probably the only remaining portion of King Herods
In the interstices between the blocks of
stone were little slips of paper bearing written prayers, placed there by
simple souls who consider that if God should forget their spoken words He
surely would not fail to remember their written petitions if left in such a
holy place. I also noticed a few rusty nails driven into the cracks many
years ago by Jews who were bent on fastening
their prayers in a sure place. This custom is no longer observed, for the
authorities have banned it lest it weakened the wall.
I saw many people kiss the stones
passionately. At one time, at the far end, a
man began to chant in a high-pitched monotone, and the crowd took up the
refrain. This went on for some time, and the atmosphere was so charged
with a sorrowful sense of despair and frustration that it sent a chill through
my soul.
Gathered from all nations, these Jews
were lamenting the loss of their land and the destruction of their temple,
pleading piteously to Jehovah for their restoration. Women wept with
honest tears perhaps they were thinking of loved ones slain in the gettoes of
- The War Cry.
* *
*
THE
The
size of
‑The Religious Digest.
[*
Note. This tract was written in October, 1937.]
2
There
is to be a competition for space in
- DR. MAX NORDAU.
3
The
orthodox Jews of Tangier interpret Gods promise for
- DR. S. M. ZWEMER.
4
What
about
MARK KAGAN.
5
Just
after the disastrous earthquake in
6
On
the banks of the rivers of
- DR. ISAAC HERTZOG, Chief Rabbi of
7
Lo, these shall come from
far: and these from the
A
colony of people descended from some Israelitish
settlers came to the Western Borderland of China several hundreds of years
before the time of Christ. The writer * for many years laboured as a missionary in
* Chinas First Missionaries: Ancient
Israelites, by Rev. T. Torrance, F.R.G.S. Thynne & Co., Ltd., Whitefriars
Street, Fleet Street, London, E.C.4.
-The
Bible League Quarterly.
8
Is
it not a grand fulfilment of prophecy to see to-day how the
- LT. COL. G. F. POYNDER.
9
The
The
Fellows of the
May
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem add new lustre to the enduring fame and
immemorial glory of the
In
fraternal comradeship with scholars and scientists throughout the world, may
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem advance the welfare of the human race, and
above all, through Knowledge, help forward the realization of the Psalmists
praise of all-transcending Wisdom. The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. - Address of the
The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, inaugurated by Lord Balfour in 1925, now has over 100 academic members on the staff,
100 technical and administrative assistants and nearly 700 undergraduate
students.
* *
*
THE CONFESSION OF A JEW*
* This confession of an unnamed Jew is a most wonderful forecast of the
revelation which will break at last, like lightning, upon hunted
* * *
WE are not in Goluth
because we have been such good and willing missionaries to the Gentiles.
This farce has been spread among us Jews that we are missionaries of the
faith of the one God among idolatrous Goyim. Gentiles do not set a foot in our
synagogues, except in rare cases, and that for curiosity sake, to see how we
perform our religious rituals; and when they come there, we do not often offer
them a seat or welcome. Yea, whenever one does venture within the holy
precincts of our prayer-houses, we look at him as if he were a bit of poison who would make us Posul.
It must be some gross sin that drove us out of Erets
Israel. If the Most High had any intention of using us as His
servants to the other peoples in the world, He would not have driven us
wholesale out of the land of our Fathers. He would have left us in the
possession of the land, and selected a spiritual army to go out and conquer the
nations for His faith. But we have been sent as a body from our glorious
land, driven by the sword of the enemy from our hearths, and drowned in rivers
of blood. And from that day on, we have known little but sorrow upon
sorrow, as our own Moses foresaw: The Lord shall give
thee a trembling heart, a failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind. No
goodness on our part, no willingness to serve God in the capacity of
missionaries among the nations would have been rewarded with such pay from the
Almighty God.
Now,
comes the great question: Why are we then in exile? If we
ask the average of our people, the answer is: We do
not know. And truly, our trouble is of such long standing, and we
have become so accustomed to our Exile, that very few, if any of us, have given
any thought to the matter; and because we scarcely think about it any more, we
have not searched out the cause of our estate of 2,000 years of misery. The Rabbis, our leaders, generalize
away the causes, by stating that our sins must be the reason, but they leave it
there. They do not search for these causes and look for any specific sin
which might have aroused the fire of the Almighty. And yet it must be, it
cannot be otherwise, that there is something outstanding in our national
history that has caused the wrath of the Almighty to be provoked, and that with
such terrible results.
Again,
what did we do to our brother Joseph? The finest boy of our father
Jacobs family! Because he was a dreamer, we hated him, we intended to
kill him, we threw him into a pit, and then sold him
to Ishmaelites who in turn sold him to the Egyptians. From this treatment
of our brother Joseph comes the bitter cause and the
weight of all our sorrows. For all our captivities are but punishment for
the treatment given to our own flesh and blood, our noblest blood. Our
tribal fathers charged each other:‑- We are guilty concerning our brother; therefore is this
distress come upon us. And Reuben answered them, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not
sin against the child; and ye would not hear? Therefore, behold,
also, his blood is required. (Gen.
42: 21, 22).
What
about this present captivity of nearly two millenniums?
What brother did we betray to
reap this long exile? Whom did we see nearly two thousand years ago in
the anguish of his soul? And we would not hear! Whose blood was required
then? In all our history since the return from
Our
fathers who perpetrated that crime against their own flesh and blood, called
upon themselves and us the curse that Reuben said that our earlier fathers
reaped when they had sold little Joseph: His, blood be
upon us and upon our children. It has indeed been so, the blood of Jesus has been required of us now for
nearly two, thousand years. We have bled for His blood in rivers.
We
Jews must let our eyes be opened, that we may see the truth of these matters:
We surrendered Jesus to be crucified, we stood at that
ignoble tree and watched him in His pain, and our hearts remained stones, and have been stones ever since, so far as Jesus
is concerned. We
slandered our own mothers son, we cursed him, spit on him, we
called out, when His name was mentioned: Yemach, Shemou. And in the meantime we suffered, and suffered, and
suffered, and we said to ourselves that we did not know why we suffered. We blamed it to the intolerance, the
stupidity, the blood-thirstiness, the Jew-hatred of the nations. Indeed these are the second causes, but they
are mere co-incidents.
Yet
there is something miraculous in all this.
For it is a miracle of mercy that we are still in
existence. We, had we received our due reward, would have perished
from the earth long before this. If God
had fully followed up His indignation for those wrongs, we would have sunk into
the sea of oblivion. Yet we are still here and still have precious promises
of a great future.
What is the secret of this
strange phenomenon: punished, but
not perished? For the
continuation of existence we have to thank these very
maltreated brethren!
It
was Joseph who kept us alive when we almost starved in Canaan and furnished us
a place of refuge in
And
there came a day in Josephs life that he made himself known to our fathers,
clothed with kingly robes and acting with the authority of a king. And
there will yet come a time when our people will see Messiah-King, Jesus, who
was cut off. For as our prophet Zacharia said:‑They will see Me Whom they
have pierced, not on a cross, but as a King with authority and honour.
He will reveal Himself unto us and unto our children in his own appointed
time. He may even quote the words of Joseph:- I
am Jesus, your brother, whom you surrendered to the Romans. Now therefore
be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you surrendered me to them: FOR GOD DID SEND ME BEFORE YOU TO PRESERVE YOUR LIFE.
However,
before this moment of revelation takes place in the future, we as individuals
must acknowledge our grossest of all sins, and if we do, God will for Jesus
sake pardon us, even now!
*
* *
We, Jewish students of the
-
-------
Fellow-citizens of Roumania, for centuries have we lived
with you on this soil. There have never
been any differences of interests or ideals between us. In time of peace we rejoiced with you over the
fruits of our united labours; in time of war, we shed our blood with yours on
the battlefield to secure our common rights. During the past few years we have been the
victims of a campaign of hatred and slander. This campaign has been spread over the length
and breadth of the land, among all sections of the people.
Old documents show that we have been domiciled for centuries in all
districts of Roumania, some of which were formerly severed, but now have been
re-united, thanks to our joint sacrifices.
We are not strangers. We belong to the country just as our parents and grandparents did. We are not enemies; we present no danger. Had it been otherwise, then the law would have
long ago exacted the severest punishment from us.
We do not bear the responsibility for the prevailing difficult
conditions, for we have not brought them about. We have always been dutiful
subjects, fully obedient to the laws, governments, and official authorities. We have suffered with you from bad laws, and
incompetent administrations, just as we have enjoyed with you the advantages
bestowed by good laws, wise governments, and conscientious administrations.
Those who disregard the heavenly command, - Love thy neighbour as thyself, cannot be propagators of religion, for
neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament claim that that people should
be exiled and despised who gave the world the Book of Love and Fraternity, the
Bible.
-The Central
Council of Roumanian Jews.
-------
Herr X had been living in a small village in
It
was an easy matter to verify all the details in
- DR. HANNA
EISFELDER, formerly on the staff of
the Municipal Child-Welfare Office in
*
* *
It
is most wonderful to see the critical and supreme encounter between Christ and
the official heads of Gods chosen people, officials who were acting, with
unchallenged power and authority, on behalf of the only nation in the world
that stood for Jehovah. The nation that
possessed the Temple, and the Priests of Jehovah, and a line of Prophets for
centuries, was face to face with One claiming to fulfil all the prophecies of
the Messiah who was to come; and we see the marvellous encounter, step by step
and word for word, as Israel made official and (for two millenniums) final
contact with the Son of God.
First we see the Court before
which our Lord was brought. The
Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy leaders of
Now
the lawlessness of the trial at once provides a startling background for the
radiant form of Christ. The Law decreed
that no trial must occur before sunrise; the accused must have an advocate, and
be allowed witnesses; and no death-sentence must be passed on the day of trial:
here, the court sat before sunrise; the Accused was given no advocate, and
allowed no witnesses; and the death sentence was passed on the day of trial. No star-chamber was more lawless.
The heart of the
whole scene at once reveals itself. For
the High Priest, after various suborned witnesses had failed to establish a
case, conceives a master-question which, he believes, will compel the Prisoner
to incriminate Himself. It was a question which centred its whole weight on the
heart of the claims of Christ: the High Priest had a perfect right to put it:
it was, in his person, the whole of
But
the matter is still more momentous. The
High Priest, deliberately and of set purpose, puts our Lord under oath - which
he had a perfect right to do as the official representative of Jehovah; and no
oath was ever uttered under circumstances so solemn, or on a question of fact
so momentous. So also our Lord, who had
been hitherto silent, instantly responds; and by doing so accepts the
alternative of either the truth or perjury. Four times Jesus had been silent - once
earlier before Caiaphas, once before Herod, and twice before Pilate: now, when
it is no longer a matter of false accusations, but the challenge of the
greatest of all truths, He speaks. Caiaphas says:- I
put you under oath by the
living God - the most solemn conceivable
oath - that thou tell us
whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God
(Matt. 26: 63). The Law said:- If anyone sin, in that he heareth the voice
of adjuration - he is put under oath if he do not utter it - his witness then he shall bear his iniquity
(Lev. 5: 1) - silence is guilt. So the High Priest, solemnly and officially,
forces a confession, under oath, which will settle the controversy for ever: he
directly charges home the fearful question, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
The
answer of the Lord could not be more explicit.
And Jesus said - returning Messiahs official answer to the
official challenge of Gods People, and speaking to the official leaders of
The
effect of our Lords utterance it is impossible to exaggerate. And the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What
further need have we of witnesses? Ye
have heard THE BLASPHEMY. The Jews had
plainly asserted (John 10: 33) that in
saying He was the Son of God - Thou, being a man, makest thyself God. They now can
scarcely trust their ears that He, so deeply humiliated and already death-sentenced,
could make such an assertion. We little
realize the fearful issues at stake. And they all condemned him to be worthy of
death, and in passing the death-sentence
on blasphemy, they were acting strictly according to the Law, if blasphemy
had been committed. He that blasphemeth the name of Jehovah, he
shall surely be put to death; all the congregation
shall certainly stone him (Lev. 24: 16). So therefore if our Lord could have denied
Caiaphas challenge; or if He could have so softened down the High Priests
expressions Messiah, the Son
of the Blessed - that they should not
imply Godhead; it would not only have saved His life to do so, but if He was not God, it was
the only truthful, honourable, righteous answer to give. On the contrary, the sole count on which our
Lord was condemned was nothing witnessed against Him, but His own simple
statement of the truth of His Deity.
So
now we face the outstanding consequences in all their fearful import. (1) The whole scene proves in what sense
Caiaphas used the expression the
Son of God, on his own testimony - he
had it carefully in mind when he put his challenge; and therefore it equally
proves in what sense our Lord also uses the expression, for He is deliberately
answering him: both meant Godhead, or it would not have been
blasphemy. And (2) there is an even more fearful consequence. If our Lord is not
God, He was guilty of blasphemy;
but, on the other hand, it equally follows that if He was not guilty of blasphemy,
He is God, and therefore everyone to-day who either praises Him or disparages
Him, but who at the same time denies His
Deity, is doing exactly what the Sanhedrin did - charging Him with blasphemy; and,
in consequence - since our Lord spoke the truth - is guilty of actual (though
unintentional) blasphemy himself.
A
symbolic action of the highest significance closes the scene. The High Priest did that which was strictly
forbidden to a priest - he rent his clothes. The command to priests was:-
Neither rend your clothes, that ye die not, and the Lord be not wroth
with all the congregation (Lev. 10: 6): that is, it endangered the death-penalty.
The Old Testament symbolism depicted the
High Priests robes as a picture of a perfect righteousness under the Law; and
to tear up the robe was to despair of justification under Law, and to confess oneself a lost sinner. This is
exactly what Caiaphas unconsciously did; and what we all, sooner or
later, must do; for Grace robes where Law makes naked. Our very doubt was blasphemy, and our
righteousness was tattered rags. But this is
our salvation. HE hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, HE
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61: 10).
It
is amazing to find
And
the iron hand of the Sanhedrin once more threatens the
-------