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The Biblically correct regard Christians
must have for God’s chosen; the Jewish people:
It
is quite unsettling to me as a Christian to realize that various
churches today could be so uninformed of what the Bible (Old and
New Testament) teaches that they would dare say that God is
finished with the Jewish People. This very unbiblical teaching
leads to a false pride by Gentile Christians and the neglect to
share Messiah Jesus with the Jewish people for whom he originally
came to save.
This false teaching among Christians by scripture ignorant pastors
and leaders has lent a lame theological excuse to those
who actually are at heart anti-Semitic. This very same attitude
and mistaken belief gave rise to the horrors of the Crusades, the
monstrous Inquisition, and the outright murder of innocents during
the Pogroms, in which hundreds of thousands of Jewish men, women
and children were slaughtered by people who regularly attended
institutional "Christian" churches.
More recently, six million Jewish people were murdered by Hitler,
who was known to have quoted a certain anti-Semitic Reformation
"Christian" leader to "justify" the
Holocaust.
In my effort to refute these ungodly
anti-Semitic beliefs, and to bring awareness to the fact that
Christians that love God, study His Holy Word, and are guided by
His Holy Spirit could not possibly believe that God does not love
the Jewish people and Israel in particular.
God's promise to the people and nation of Israel:
Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless
you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Here you will find quotes of Christian
leaders, Reformers, Puritans and Evangelists, who read their
Bibles and despite diverse and foolish theologies common to the
era they lived in, recognized and taught God's
everlasting love and concern for His Jewish people. May these words spoken by our Christian brothers
and the prompting and guidance of God's Holy Spirit help you to
see the truth.
CHARLES HADDON
SPURGEON
"I think we do not attach sufficient
importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough
of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible,
it is this." Vol. 1 pg 214. "The day shall yet come when
the Jews, who were the first Apostles to the Gentiles, the first
missionaries to us, who were far off, shall be gathered in again.
Until that shall be, the fullness of the Churches' glory can never
come. Matchless benefits to the world are bound up with the
restoration of Israel; their gathering in shall be as life from the dead." Vol. 17
pgs 703,704. "The Restoration and Conversion of the
Jews" .
JOHN
OWEN
When preaching before the House of Commons in
1649, John Owen spoke of "the bringing home of his ancient
people to be one fold with the fullness of the Gentiles....in
answer to millions of prayers put up at the throne of grace for
this very glory, in all generations. Vol. 8 pg 266. Days of prayer
and humiliation were kept in Scotland, one particular object being "that the promised conversion
of His ancient people of the Jews may be hastened."
COTTON
MATHER
"This day, from the Dust, where I lay
prostrate before the Lord, I lifted up my Cries.... for the
conversion of the Jewish nation, and for my own having the
Happiness, at some time or other, to Baptize a Jew that should by
my ministry be brought home unto the Lord." The Theology of
Mission in the Puritan Tradition pg 247.
JOHN
PINCKNEY
"He ever discovered a most compassionate
concern for the Jews, and did upon all occasions pray for their
conversion with extraordinary earnestness. The Non Conformists
Memorial Vol 2 pg 17.
JOHN
CALVIN
"When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews
also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith;
and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of
God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that
the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first
born in God's family....as Jews are the first born, what the
prophet declares must be fulfilled, especially in them; for that
Scripture calls all the people of God Israelites, it is to be
ascribed to the preeminence of that nation, who God had preferred
to all other nations....God distinctly claims for Himself a
certain seed, so that His redemption may be effectual in His elect
and peculiar nation....God was not unmindful of the covenant which
He had made with their fathers, and by which he testified that
according to his eternal purpose He loved that nation; and this he
confirms by this remarkable declaration, - that the grace of
divine calling cannot be made void." Calvin's Commentaries,
Vol 19 , Epistle to the Romans, Baker House, pg 434 to 440.
WALTER
TAIT
In a sermon preached in
Dundee
in 1811, Walter Tait gave 3 reasons why Christians should have a
particular regard for the Jews: " 1. Because their salvation
must be peculiarly honoring to God. 2. Because taking any peculiar
interest in the salvation of the Jews is only making a proper
return for the spiritual advantages we enjoy by them. 3. Because
their final restoration must have a favorable aspect on the
conversion of the whole Gentile world."
ROBERT
MURRAY M'CHEYNE
"To the Jew first. Converted Israel, he
declared, will give life to the dead world....just as we have
found, among the parched hills of Judah, that the evening dew,
coming silently down, gave life to every plant, making the grass
to spring and the flowers to put forth their sweetest fragrance,
so shall converted Israel be when they come as dew upon a dead,
dry world. The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many
people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that
tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men." Micah
5:7. Memoir and Remains of R. M. M'Cheyne - 1966 reprint pg 489.
In 1840 M'Cheyne went to
Ulster
to plead for the interest of the Jews. This stirred up great
interest. The following year the Irish General Assembly resolved
to establish work among the Jews. They established missions in
Syria
and
Germany
, believing "missionary enterprise is one of the means to
bring about the restoration of
Israel
in accordance with the Scriptures." * Minutes of the General
Assembly. 1840-1850 .
JOHN
MURRAY
"To the Jew first, and also to the
Greek...it does not appear sufficient to regard this priority as
that merely of time. In this text there is no suggestion to the
effect that the priority is merely that of time. the implication
appears to be rather that the power of God unto salvation through
faith has primary relevance to the Jew, and the analogy of
Scripture would indicate that this peculiar relevance to the Jew
arises from the fact that the Jew had been chosen by God to be the
recipient of the promise of the gospel and that to him were
committed the oracles of God...
While it is true that in respect of the privileges accruing from
Christ's accomplishments there is now no longer Jew or Gentile and
the Gentiles "are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the
body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus
throughout the gospel" (Eph. 3:6), yet it does not follow that
Israel no longer fulfills any particular design in the realization
of God; worldwide saving purpose...
Israel are both "enemies" and "beloved" at the
same time, enemies as regards the gospel, beloved as regards the
election..."Beloved" thus means that God has not
suspended or rescinded his relation to Israel as his chosen people
in terms of the covenants made with their fathers. Unfaithful as
Israel
has been and broken off for that reason, yet God still sustains
his peculiar relation of love to them, a relation that will be
demonstrated and vindicated in the restoration."*The Epistles
to the Romans, John Murray, Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Col, 1984,
Vol 1 pg 28 and Vol. II pp. 14-15 and 76-101, passim.
JOHN
"RABBI"
DUNCAN
"Our hands now became so full of work that
frequently we had not time so much as to eat bread; from early
morning until late at night we were occupied guiding, counseling
and instructing those who were inquiring earnestly what they must
do to be saved....for a time the whole Jewish community was deeply
moved wondering where unto these things would grow. * The Life of
John Duncan, David Brown pg 334.
RICHARD SIBBES
"The Jews are not yet come in under
Christ's banner; but God, that hath persuaded Japhet to come to
the tents of Shem, will persuade Shem to come into the tents of
Japhet, Gen. 9:27.. the fullness of the Gentiles is not yet come
in Rom 11:25...but God will gather all the sheep His father hath
given Him into one fold that there may be one sheepfold and one
shepherd John 10:16.... the faithful Jews rejoiced to think of the
calling of the Gentiles; and why should not we joy to think of the
calling of the Jews..*The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes by A.B.
Grosart Vol 1 pg 99. And when the fullness of the Gentiles is come
in, then comes the conversion of the Jews. Why may we not expect
it? they were the people of God. We see christ believed on in the
world. We may therefore expect that they will also be called, there
being many of them, and keeping their nation distinct from others.
Richard Sibbs vol 5 pg 517
INCREASE
MATHER
In his work the Mystery of Israel's Salvation
Explained and Applied says the following : "That there shall
be a general conversion of the tribes of Israel, is a truth which
in some measure hath been known and believed in all ages of the
church of God, since the Apostles' days....only in these late days
these things have obtained credit much more universally than
herefore." "There is a veil of miserable blindness upon
their hearts that they cannot, they will not, see the truth ; but,
sayeth the Apostle, "this shall be taken away". And (sayeth
he) "it shall turn". What is this? I answer;
"it", there may note the body of the Jewish nation, or
the words may be read, "they shall turn" (i.e. the
blinded minds of the Jews shall turn) "unto the Lord".
RICHARD
CAMERON
"The Lion of the Covenant" Cameron
preached on May 30, 1680 from the text "and ye will not come
to me, that ye might have life". In the midst of this sermon
which has been described as one of the most remarkable blessed of
the Lord preached in
Scotland
, Cameron fell into a "rap of calm weeping", and his
hearers wept with him. Compelled for the moment to stop, he
"prayed for the restoration of the Jews". John Herkless
tells us that 200 years later, the memory of those services, had
not died out among the people of the districts where Cameron
spoke. Richard Cameron, John Herkless, 1896, pg 109
THOMAS
GOODWIN
"There will come a time when the
generality of mankind both Jew and Gentile, will come to Jesus
Christ. He hath had but little takings of the world yet, but he
will have before he hath done. " Sermon 34 Vol 1 pg 520.
"There may be some prayers which you must be content never
yourselves to see answered in this world, the accomplishment of
them not falling out in your time; such as those you haply make
for the calling of the Jews, the utter downfall of God's enemies
and the flourishing of the Gospel...all which prayers are not yet
lost, but will be answered."* Works of Thomas Goodwin Vol 3
pg 365,366.
JONATHAN
EDWARDS
"Jewish infidelity shall be
overthrown...the Jews in all their dispersions shall cast away
their old infidelity, and shall have their hearts wonderfully
changed, and abhor themselves for their past unbelief and
obstinacy. They shall flow together to the blessed Jesus,
penitently, humbly, and joyfully owning him as their glorious King
and only Savior, and shall with all their hearts, as one heart and
voice, declare his praised unto other nations..
Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion
of the Jews in Rom 11. Besides the prophecies of the calling of
the Jews, we have a remarkable providential seal of the
fulfillment of this great event, by a kind of continual miracle,
viz. their being preserved a distinct nation...the world affords
nothing else like it. There is undoubtedly a remarkable hand of
providence in it. When they shall be called, that ancient people,
who alone were so long God's people for so long a time, shall be
his people again, never to be rejected more. They shall be
gathered together into one fold, together with the
Gentiles..." *The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol 1 Banner of
Truth Trust, 1976, pg 607.
JOHN BRAIDWOOD
A Scottish missionary to the Gentiles in
India
he also remembered
Israel
's place in the unfulfilled promises of Scripture. He spoke on The
Conversion of the Jews; and Its Bearing on the Conversion of the
Gentiles. His address was published posthumously in
Edinburgh
in 1853. In a Preface, Braidwood writes, "We could not but
express our conviction that the circulation of it was fitted to
edify the body of Christ generally; while it would prove to all
how strongly the missionaries to the Gentiles sympathize in
efforts for the conversion of the Jews." And he closes his
Preface with these considerations "to stir up our hearts to
faith and prayer for
Israel
":
1.
The national restoration of the Jews, and its blessed effects on
the world. For what have they been preserved, but for some
wondrous end? If their lapse is the world's wealth, and their loss
the wealth of the Gentiles, how much more shall their
replenishment be all this? Rom 11.12.
2.
"The Jews are the whole world's benefactors. Through Jewish
hands and eyes God has sent his lively oracles of truth to us.
They penned, and they preserved the Bible.
3."
Our Redeemer - the God-man- who has all power in heaven and earth,
is their kinsman. "He took on Him the seed of Abraham."
4."Viewed
nationally, the Jews are the most miserable of all nations. The
Messiah wept over Jerusalem, their capital, before the curse fell on it: ought not we to weep
over the accumulated progressive woe springing from the curse, and
drinking up the nation's spirit for eighteen centuries?
5."
Their covenant prospects are bright beyond all conception. On the
grand day of their realization, will anyone of us all regret that
we pitied
Israel
apostate and outcast?"
CHARLES HODGE
"The second great event, which, according
to the common faith of the Church, is to precede the second advent
of Christ, is the national conversion of the Jews ...that there is
to be such a national conversion may be argued from the original
call and destination of that people. God called Abraham and
promised that through him, and in his seed, all the nations of the
earth should be blessed...A presumptive argument is drawn from the
strange preservation of the Jews through so many centuries as a
distinct people.
As the rejection of the Jews was not total, so neither is it
final. First, God did not design to cast away his people entirely,
but by their rejection, in the first place to facilitate the
progress of the gospel among the Gentiles, and ultimately to make
the conversion of the Gentiles the means of converting the
Jews...Because if the rejection of the Jews has been a source of
blessing, much more will their restoration be the means of
good...The restoration of the Jews to the privileges of God's
people is included in the ancient predictions and promises made
respecting them...The plan of God, therefore, contemplated the
calling of the Gentiles, the temporary rejection and final
restoration of the Jews...
He
shows that the rejection of the Jews was not intended to result in
their being finally cast away, but to secure the more rapid
progress of the gospel among the heathen, in order that their
conversion might react upon the Jews, and be the means of bringing
all, at last, within the fold of the Redeemer...
The
future restoration of the Jews is, in itself, a more probable
event than the introduction of the Gentiles into the
church
of
God
. This, of course, supposes that God regarded the Jews, on account
of their relation to him, with peculiar favor, and that there is
still something in their relation to the ancient servants of God
and his covenant with them, which causes them to be regarded with
special interest. As men look upon the
children
of their early friends with kinder feelings than on the children
of strangers, God refers to this fact to make us sensible that he
still retains purposes of peculiar mercy towards his ancient
people.
As
the restoration of the Jews is not only a most desirable event,
but one which God has determined to accomplish, Christians should
keep it constantly in view even in their labors for the conversion
of the Gentiles."**Systematic Theology V3,James Clark &
Co. 1906, p 805 and A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans,
Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1836, pp 270-285 passim. Now
Published by Banner of Truth Trust.)
MATTHEW
HENRY
"Now two things he exhorts the Gentiles
to, with reference to the rejected Jews: - to have a respect for
the Jews, notwithstanding, and to desire their conversion. This is
intimated in the prospect he gives them of the advantage that
would accrue to the church by their conversion, Rom. 11:12, 15. It
would be as life from the dead; and therefore, they must not
insult or triumph over those poor Jews, but rather pity them, and
desire their welfare, and long for the receiving of them in again.
Another
thing that qualifies this doctrine of the Jews rejection is that
though for the present they are cast off, yet the rejection is NOT
final; but, when the fullness of time is come, they will be taken
in again. They are not cast off for ever, but mercy is remembered
in the midst of wrath.
The
Jews are in a sense a holy nation (Ex. 14:6) being descended from
holy parents. Now it cannot be imagined that such a holy nation
should be totally and finally cast off. This proves that the seed
of believers, as such, are within the pale of the visible church,
and within the verge of the covenant, till they do, by their
unbelief, throw themselves out; for, if the root be holy, so are
the branches...though grace does not run in the blood, yet
external privileges do (till they are forfeited), even to a
thousand generations...The Jewish branches are reckoned holy,
because the root was so. This is expressed more plainly (Rom.
11:28)
Though
particular persons and generations wear off in belief, yet there
having been a national church membership, though for the present
suspended, we may expect that it will be revived...It is called a
mystery (Rom 11:25), that which was not obvious, and which one
would not expect upon the view of the present state of that
people, who appeared generally so obstinate against Christ and
Christianity that it was a riddle, to talk of their unanimous
conversion. Alas! who shall live when God doeth this?"
*Matthew Henry's Commentary, V 6, MacDonald Publishing Company, pp
448-453.
CHARLES SIMEON
Once at a missionary meeting Simeon had seemed
so carried away with the future of the Jews that a friend passed
him a slip of paper with a question, "Six millions of Jews
and six hundred millions of Gentiles - which is the most
important?" Simeon at once scribbled back, "If the
conversion of the six is to be life from the dead to the six
hundred what then? W. T. Gidney The History of The
London
Society For Promoting Christianity Among The Jews. 1908 pg 273
ELNATHION
PARR
The casting off of the Jews, was our calling;
but the calling of the Jews shall not be our casting off, but our
greater enriching in grace, and that two ways: First in the regard
of the company of believers, when the thousands of Israel shall
come in, which shall doubtless cause many Gentiles which now lie
in ignorance, error and doubt, to receive the gospel and join in
with them. The world shall then be a golden world, rich in golden
men. Secondly, in respect of the graces, which shall then in more
abundance be rained down upon the church." The Works of
Elnathan Parr, 3rd ed. 1633 pg 175
SAMUEL
RUTHERFORD
"O to see the sight, next to Christ's
Coming in the clouds, the most joyful! Our elder brethren the Jews
fall
upon one another's necks and kiss each
other! They have been long asunder; they will be kind to one
another when they meet.
O day! O longed for and lovely day - dawn! O sweet Jesus let me
see that sight
which will be as life from the dead, thee
and thy ancient people in mutual embraces."
O
that there were nations, kindred, tongues, and all the people of
Christ's habitable world, encompassing
his throne with cries and tears for the
spirit of supplication to be poured down
on the inhabitants of Judah
for that effect.
Letters of Samuel Rutherford Bonar's edition, pg 122-3 and early
letters of Samuel Rutherford
THOMAS
BOSTON
" There is a day coming when there shall
be a national conversion of the Jews or Israelites. The now
blinded and rejected Jews shall at length be converted into the
faith of Christ, and join themselves to the Christian Church," Have you any love to, or concern for the church, for
the work of reformation, the reformation of our country, the
reformation of our world? Any longing desire for the revival of
that work now at a stand; for a flourishing state of the Church,
that is now under a decay? Then pray for the conversion of the
Jews." Sermon in 1716 "Encouragement to Pray for the
Conversion of the Jews."
JAMES
ROBE
" Me thinks I hear the nation of the Jews (
for such is the cry of their case) crying aloud to you from their
dispersion, We were once the Church of God, beloved, while you
were not; we have now been rejected of God for more than sixteen
hundred years, because of our unbelief, and for this long, very
long while, wrath to the uttermost hath been lying upon us! There
are many promises and predictions that we shall be grafted in
again...Pray therefore, and wrestle with God, that he may,
according to his promise, pour forth upon the Spirit of grace and
supplication, that we may look upon him whom we have pierced, and
mourn"... Help us with your prayers." A Second Volume of
Sermons 1750 xvi-xvii
Author's
note:
Finally, what could I possibly add to
these grandly spoken words by some of history's greatest Bible
scholars and Christian teachers? I dare say I am not worthy to add
even one further line here for fear I might sound ignorant and
unschooled in these matters. But yet, I must speak of that which I
know in my heart of hearts; that being; Almighty God does love the
Jewish people and His loving hand has not and shall not ever be
entirely removed from them. If history has shown that God chose to
allow the Jewish people to suffer and even die by the millions in
such horrors as the Holocaust,
it is for His purpose, and His reasoning is not our own. It is
not for us to add to the burdens of the Jewish people, but instead
to lift them up in prayer and supplication before God.
To
the foolish proponents of the "replacement theory",
which is merely scarcely cloaked anti-Semitism, and to those
of you that would dare attempt to speak for the Holy Lord God in
stating that He has current or future plans to abandon the
nation of Israel, I remind you again of God's words in Gen 12:3 in
which he promises to Israel that He will "curse him that
curses you".
God will not abandon the nation of Israel and the Jewish people,
but He clearly states that He WILL curse those that turn against them! Be it individuals,
groups, or nations.
Barry
L. Brumfield
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