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Overland Monthly / OV108 - God's Chosen People (X. Zionism is God's Call)
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OV108 X. Zionism is GodÂ’s Call
BY C. T. RUSSELL Pastor Brooklyn Tabernacle
THOU SHALT arise and have mercy upon
Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, has come; for thy
servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof. Then
shall the Gentiles fear the name of Jehovah and the kings of the earth
thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his
glory."—#Ps 102:13-18.
The above Psalm is recognized as
prophetic, both by Christians and Jews, each applying the matter to
himself. We agree that there is a spiritual as well as a natural
Israel. But we hold that Christian people have erred in applying all
the Scriptures to themselves and in not discerning that a large
proportion of the promised coming blessings belong to natural Israel.
Failure to recognize this has worked injury and confusion to the minds
of many Christian Bible students.
Appropriating to themselves promises that
belong to natural Israel, Christians have been led to turn and twist
and spiritualize the Word of the Lord, until they have destroyed much
of their own faith in it, as, for instance, the Scriptures declare that
in MessiahÂ’s Day the wilderness shall blossom as the rose and the
solitary place be glad and that the people shall build houses and
inhabit them and plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, and long
enjoy the work of their hands; and that "they shall sit, every man
under his vine and under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid."—#Mic 4:4.
An attempt to spiritualize these promises
and make them appear to apply to spiritual Israel has been robbing
natural Israel of his portion of GodÂ’s favor, and has caused darkness
and perplexity amongst Christian Israelites in their endeavor to
harmonize these Scriptures with others which assure us that "Flesh and
blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God" (#1Co 15:50),
and that ours is the heavenly calling and that the saints must be
changed in a moment from human conditions to spiritual conditions, in
order to enter into their reward. St.
Paul urges upon followers of Jesus that they "Rightly divide the Word of Truth." (#2Ti 2:15.)
This admonition we have neglected, to our loss. From Genesis to
Malachi, the Jew found not a suggestion of a change of nature from
earthly to heavenly, from fleshly to spiritual. To whatever extent he
has learned to spiritualize the teachings of the Law and the Prophets
he has been swerved by outside influences. For instance, GodÂ’s promise
to Abraham was, "Lift up now thine eyes and look to the East and to the
West and to the North and to the South. All the land that thou seest
will I give to thee and to thy seed after thee." Abraham must get that
land first, and from him it must pass to his posterity. He never
possessed
OV109 one foot of it, according to the Genesis account, which is confirmed by St. Stephen, who declared (#Ac 7:5)
that Abraham received not so much of the land as to set his foot upon.
This promise contains nothing whatever respecting a spiritual land or a
change of nature, either to Abraham or to his posterity. This promise
and others like it belong to AbrahamÂ’s natural seed, and properly they
should wait and hope for its fulfillment. It will be fulfilled when,
shortly, Father Abraham and the other saintly ones of the Jewish family
shall, with him, be resurrected from the dead to the glory of human
perfection. Thus is it written, "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy
children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth."—#Ps 45:16.
These princes amongst mankind will be the
visible rulers and teachers of the world. To them first will be drawn
the Jews. Then, as the remainder of the world will perceive the
blessings resulting to Israel they will realize that this new order of
things is advantageous for all, and will submit themselves to this
Semitic government. The Jews are gradually coming to see that no human
being could possibly fulfill all the glorious predictions made
respecting their Messiah. They are quite prepared, therefore, to note
the force of DanielÂ’s prophecy (12:1) that Messiah will be one like
God. It will not be difficult, therefore, for the Jew to comprehend
that this God-like Messiah, who will combine in himself the qualities
of Moses, the great teacher and law-giver, of David and Solomon the
great kings, and of Melchisedek, the great priest—all on a bigger
scale—antitypical—must be a spirit being and not a human being. And if
a spirit being like unto the angels, his Throne and glory will not be
earthly nor visible to men except by the eyes of their understanding.
Abraham, Moses, David, the Prophets, etc., will be the earthly
representatives of this great invisible spiritual Prince—Michael—who as
God shall rule the world in righteousness and lift up the poor and the
needy and humble the proud and dispel ignorance and superstition and
cause the light of the knowledge of Jehovah to fill the whole earth as
the waters cover the sea.
Dominion of Sin to Be Overthrown.
Satan is Scripturally designated the Prince of this age who now worketh in the hearts of the children of disobedience. (#Eph 2:2  .)
The promise of the Scriptures is that his usurpation of earthÂ’s
dominion will cease. It has been carried on through ignorance,
superstition and deception. Because of it we read, "Darkness covers the
earth and gross darkness the people." The distinct promise is that when
MessiahÂ’s reign shall begin, Satan shall be bound and the reign of sin
and death shall be at an end. Instead, Messiah and his saintly Bride on
the spirit plane shall reign, promoting righteousness and everlasting
life. Abraham and the other ancient worthies will be the honored
earthly representatives of this glorious spiritual Empire. The object
and work of MessiahÂ’s reign will be not only to estop the reign of sin
and death, but, more than this, to lift up poor, fallen humanity out of
ignorance and superstition, out of sin and death, out of weaknesses and
frailties.
MessiahÂ’s Kingdom, therefore, is properly termed the times or years of restitution (#Ac 3:19-21) and it is properly symbolized by IsraelÂ’s Fiftieth Year of Jubilee.
The Hindrance Will Be Removed.
The question properly arises—If God
intended so glorious a future for His Chosen People, why was it
necessary that there should be so long a delay? Why did he not at once
exalt them in the days of Moses or in the days of David or Solomon? Why
did he not at once bring in these great blessings which the Scriptures
foretell? The answer is a simple one which meets all requirements:
(1) Nearly two thousand years was
consumed in finding the saintly few of Israel who with Father Abraham
would be worthy to be MessiahÂ’s Princes in all the earth during his
reign of a thousand years.
(2) Additionally, God purposed that
Messiah should have companions on the spirit plane with himself and
sharers of his nature, glory, honor and power—his Bride, even as
Abraham sought a bride for the typical Isaac to be associated with
OV110 him in conferring the blessing. For
nearly two thousand years this "little flock" of saintly people from
every nation, people, kindred and tongue, Jews, French, Swedes,
British, Germans, etc., a saintly few, will by a share in the First
Resurrection be changed from earthly nature to heavenly. Thus we see
that GodÂ’s great Plan for the worldÂ’s salvation by MessiahÂ’s Kingdom
has been in preparation ever since the flood, but the preparation is
not yet quite completed. The Princes of Israel have been found, have
been approved, and are merely sleeping in the dust of the earth (#Da 12:2),
waiting until the other small elect class shall be completed, whom we
shall designate the spiritual Princes or MessiahÂ’s Bride. This work
complete, the blessing of all the families of the earth will be ushered
in with power and great glory. And although its introduction, it is
declared, will come through a great time of trouble such as never was
since there was a nation, nevertheless that trouble cloud has such a
glorious silver lining of hope and joy and blessing for Israel and for
the world that all who see it in its true character may really welcome
it. Short, sharp and decisive, it will make the rough places smooth. It
will overthrow the pride and arrogance of man. It will humble all. It
will break many hearts and overthrow many ambitions, but the eventual
results will be "The desire of all nations."—#Hag 2:7 .
Yea, the Set Time is Come.
So many are haphazard and thoughtless
themselves that they naturally think of the Almighty from their own
standpoint—as conducting a haphazard plan of dealing with humanity—a
plan devoid of wisdom, justice, love and power—a plan which would
reflect dishonorably on any human architect, on any human ruler, on any
human statesman. Let us be through with such childish misconceptions of
God. Otherwise, like the Higher Critics, we would soon esteem ourselves
superior to the God of the Bible, and, correspondingly, our reverence,
our worship, our obedience to Him would diminish. It is when we begin
to get the proper focus upon the Holy Scriptures that we begin to
realize our own littleness and the greatness of the Creator—the
insignificance and absurdity of our human theories and creeds and the
sublime majesty of the Divine arrangement for the children of men. We
have just seen the selection of two companies of saintly characters for
the Divine purpose of the worldÂ’s blessing. Should it surprise us to
find that the Almighty has set time ordained from before the foundation
of the world controlling every feature of his great Plan of the Ages?
It should not. Should we expect that fallen and imperfect humanity will
see the advisability for chronological exactness and that the Almighty
God should ignore such a matter? Have men manufactured clocks and
watches so that they regulate the affairs of life to the very moment in
respect to the starting of a train or in respect to the hour in which a
timelock would release the treasures of a safe, and shall we, then, be
surprised to find that the Almighty Creator has times, yea, set times,
connected with the ordering of his great.Plan of the Ages? Surely not.
Hence our text is quite reasonable in this declaration that God has the
time, yea, the set time, for remembering his promises to Israel and for
bringing about their fulfillment? Rather this should encourage us,
should stimulate our faith and make us more and more obedient to him
who speaks from heaven and who tells us that the great clock of the
universe is about to strike the hour which will end this present age
and introduce the reign of righteousness, the Kingdom of GodÂ’s dear
Son.
Zionism the First Call.
It is not by accident, but of Divine
foreknowledge and clearly foretold in the prophecies that the nation of
Israel has suffered shamefully at the hands of many Christian nations.
And, alas, to our shame it must be said that many of the atrocities
practiced against them are by Christians falsely so-called—Christians
in name, but not in fact. Note, for instance, the recent disorder in
Romania, which, fortunately, did not result to the Jews in great loss
of life. But note its malevolent misrepresentation of Christ and his
teachings; the so-called Greek Catholic Christians
OV111 went to the cemetery ghoulishly,
dug up recently interred Jews, and flung the corpses on the doorsteps
of their relatives. Alas, that such things are possible in the name of
Christ! Alas, too, that there is no general protest from so-called
Christian nations against such disorders, nor against the pogroms so
common of late in Russia! But what does this prove? It demonstrates
what all sensible people should know, namely, that there are no
Christian Governments in the world—that the name Christendom is a sad
mistake! When ChristÂ’s Kingdom shall really be established amongst men
no such brutalities will be permitted in any name or under any pretext.
By the permission of these severe trials upon the Chosen People, God
has not only, we believe, been chastening them, but, additionally, he
has been keeping them together as a people, separate from all others.
Had they been without persecution, doubtless they would have been
swallowed up like the other peoples of the world. As it is, they are a
living monument to the truthfulness of God’s Word—they are a miracle.
And now when prophecy shows that GodÂ’s time has come for remembering
and executing his gracious promises to Israel, his first move toward
their recovery to his favor comes through Zionism. Not that Zionism was
started as a religious movement; quite the contrary. It is a spasm of
national pride, however commendable such a pride may be. Weary with the
persecutions of centuries, the Jew hoped that by their re-establishment
as a nation they would command a greater respect throughout the world
and be saved from racial hatred and persecution.
They hoped, also, that the land of their
fathers would furnish an asylum for the Russian outcasts of their race.
The enthusiasm of Zionism spread, especially amongst the poorer Jews.
Meantime other hopes and aims were set forward. Some said that
Mesopotamia was the proper place, and the British gave rights of
colonization; others urged Argentine Republic, and millions of dollars
were spent in seeking to place Russian Jews there. Others thought to
make Jewish colonies in New Jersey, and still others favored similar
schemes in Texas. But none of these flourished. Colonies in Palestine
alone seemed to prosper even moderately.
Meantime other hopes arose—the Russian
douma promised to be favorable to the Jew and to permit his maintaining
his home in Russia, inducing bands of Russian Jews to remain in the
land of their adoption. But this hope has also failed them.
Persecution and evictions in Russia
continue as before. The Jew is, therefore, more heart-sick than ever.
His greatest prosperity has been in London and in New York City. In the
latter place reside twelve hundred thousand of them. Now fear is taking
hold upon their hearts that even in this land of liberty and
enlightenment they may not be safe from accusations and persecutions
leveled against them on account of race prejudices. Alas, poor Jews!.
The Voice—"Die Stimme.
It is at this juncture and under these
conditions that GodÂ’s Chosen People to-day are awakening and listening
to the voice of prophecy, which the writer has had the privilege of
bringing to their attention. Zionism, we believe, is about to take on a
new form. Instead of being any longer a movement of race pride and for
race protection it seems evident that it will shortly be a religious
movement. Back to the prophecies! Back to the Word of God! Back to the
promise made to Abraham and repeatedly confirmed! Back to the
oath-bound promise that AbrahamÂ’s seed shall yet bless all the families
of the earth! The tide of Jewish sentiment is turning, and swiftly,
too. Long centuries of training in religion have marked the Jew as a
religionist as well as a money-lover. He loved his money and labored
for it, because his heart had no spiritual ideal for which to labor.
But the message of the prophets is now ringing in the hearts of many:
"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 of the LordÂ’s hand
double for all her sins."—#Isa 40:1-2 . At first, of course, the movement will only be amongst the poor, those not saturated with unbelief, Higher Criticism,
OV112 Evolution, etc. Gradually it will
take hold—we believe—upon those more intelligent and those of wealth.
When that moment shall arrive, there will be a sufficiency of funds to
forward a great movement Zion-ward. Not that all Jews, nor that even
the majority of them, will go to Palestine, but surely the sympathy of
all who are Jews indeed must shortly go thither, and that will mean the
aid and comfort of co-religionists who will be seeking an asylum.
Moreover, the great time of trouble which is nearing will be recognized
by the Jews as soon as by others, and Palestine will be considered one
of the best places of safety for personal property.
Moreover, the Scriptures indicate that
the persecutions of the Jews are not yet ended. These also will tend to
drive them home. This great time of trouble will not only prepare
Israel, but all the nations, to welcome MessiahÂ’s glorious Kingdom of
righteousness, joy and peace.
.
THE ROSE.
WITHIN my hand I gently hold the
Garden’s Queen, a rose, —The softly-sighing summer wind about it
faintly blows, And wafts its wondrous fragrance out upon the evening
air.
And as I gaze upon the rose, so
perfect and so fair, In memoryÂ’s halls there wakes, the while, a
legend, quaint and old, How once upon a time, one day, a sage picked
up, weÂ’re told, A lump of common clay, so redolent with perfume rare,
He marveled, and the question wondering asked, "Whence dost thou bear
Such fragrance, O, thou lump of clay?" In tones of deep repose There
came the sweet reply, "I have been dwelling with the rose."
The while the legend stirs my soul,
within my hand still lie The petals of the rose, and from my heart of
hearts I cry, "Thou lovely Rose of Sharon, may I ever dwell with Thee,
So closely that the fragrance of Thy love shall cling to me!
Oh, fill me with the spirit of Thy
sweet humility, Then all shall see and know, dear Lord, that I have
learned of Thee; And let mine earthly pilgrimage, until its blessed
close, Each day and hour bear witness, IÂ’ve been dwelling with the Rose!"
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