A Golden Vein
A Golden Vein
There is a golden vein of theology which runs unambiguously from the Reformation (the beginning of the End Times?) to the present. It concerns Israel's destiny in the Last Days. If mankind (and Christians in particular) paid more serious attention to this apostolic plumb line, the history books could record a vastly different and less tragic story concerning the Jewish People.
Many of those who are (quite rightly!) pro-Israel would be spared the embarrassment of behaving as if they alone had very recently discovered something novel; their pastors would be spared pressure from people who want their particular "Israelology" to be the beginning and the end of local church life and theology.
Much more importantly, we would all be spared the nauseating complacency and patronising smugness of Christians who hold that the Church has completely replaced Israel in God's plan of salvation. Such leaders are so arrogant in their position that they do not hesitate to employ their ecclesiastical and political power to stomp into silence Bible teachers who are simply appealing for a Biblical consideration of the subject.
From the days of God's 16th C Reformation of the Church in Europe, pious and scholarly preachers have dynamically equated in their teaching three ultimate truth-events.- The 2nd Coming of Christ; the national revival of Israel; a final, global "harvest" of mankind to the Lord through the Gospel.
For the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters in particular, it was a sacred and evident truth that the return of Jesus to be this world's King of kings, would be immediately preceded by an unprecedented and universal spiritual awakening of the People of Israel. This they saw described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans,
"For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.'" (11.15 and 25-26)
From this conviction has grown a centuries-old, rich tradition of Christian love for the Jews, unflinching support for the existence of the State of Israel, and unrelenting prayer for the protection and the salvation of God's Old Testament People.
I earnestly invite you to study this apostolic continuum, perchance it humble us all to become more Christ-like in all of our dealings with one another.
- "The world will be restored from death to life again, at that time when the Jews should also come and be called to the profession of the Gospel." (Theodore Beza - 16th C - John Calvin's "successor".)
- "The end of the world shall not be till the Jews are called, and how long after that none yet can tell." (Elnathan Parr - 16th C - English Puritan scholar.)
- "O to see the sight of Christ's coming in the clouds and our elder brethren the Jews and Christ fall upon one another's necks and kiss each other. They have been long asunder. O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead; Thee and the ancient People in mutual embraces." (Samuel Rutherford - 17th C - Scottish Presbyterian commissioner to the Westminster Assembly.)
- "The Jews shall return to their own land. They shall enjoy it for a quiet and everlasting possession, their adversaries being destroyed. They shall also be filled with the light and knowledge of the will and worship of God." (John Owen - 17th C - Puritan pastor and member of Cromwell's Parliament.)
- "Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews in Romans XI." (Jonathan Edwards - 18th C - Congregational pastor, revivalist and theologian.)
- "Are you longing for a revival to the churches, now lying like dry bones; would you fain have the Spirit of life enter into them? Then pray for the Jews. 'For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world; what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead.' That will be a lively time, a time of a great outpouring of the Spirit, that will carry reformation to a greater height than yet has been." (Thomas Boston - 18th C - Scottish Presbyterian pastor.)
- "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." (Charles Hodge - 19th C - Principal of Princeton Theological Seminary.)
- "Let this be settled. Israel is yet to be restored. Israel is to have a spiritual restoration or a conversion. Matchless benefits to the world are bound up with the restoration of Israel. Their gathering in shall be as life from the dead." (C.H. Spurgeon - 19th C - English Reformed Baptist pastor.)
