Giving the Message to the Jewish People by F. C. Gilbert

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 7, 1915

Giving the Message to the Jewish People

By F. C. Gilbert

ALTHOUGH for some time no report has been given through the REVIEW of the work among the Jewish people, I am glad to tell our brethren and sisters that the work is making some progress. This Jewish problem is a very hard and perplexing one, yet we know that the power of the Holy Spirit is more than equal to the perplexities involved in overcoming this difficult task. It should be borne in mind that this people of old times was regarded as a stiff-necked people, and yet the Lord has never cast them away. In many respects they are a marvelous people; and it is evident from the Word of the Lord and from the Testimonies of the spirit of prophecy that before this work is finished, hundreds, if not thousands, of them will accept this blessed message.

To those of us who are in direct touch with this work, it seems miraculous that such a thing should be possible; but with God nothing is impossible. We can clearly see omens today which can be easily interpreted as signs of great possibilities for a quick work to be done among these lost sheep of the house of Israel.

During the past year or two those who have accepted the truth have been mostly young people, especially young men. One Jewish young man took his stand this summer in connection with a tent effort in Cambridge, Mass.; another in connection with a tent effort in New York City; and still another in connection with the tent effort in Washington, D. C. Two of these young men are in our schools getting an education that they may fit themselves for a part in the work of God.

From the correspondence we have in the department work it is clear that a number of our workers who are interesting themselves in the Jewish people are finding a good many young people who are inclined to listen to the message, especially when they learn what the principles of our message are. One young woman is about to take her stand for the truth, which would mean a total separation from her people. Another young woman who has recently learned some of the message, principally by reading, is weighing the truths she has heard; and she is wondering what she will have to do if she takes her stand for the truth. A young man has offered himself for baptism, but has not yet taken this step. These are some of the cases we know about, and we are learning from time to time that our workers in different places find that quite an interest is springing up in the hearts of the Jews as they learn who we are and what we believe.

The fact that the Jewish young people are becoming interested in the message is very hopeful. Still there is a reason for this. Hardly a week goes by but that one or more of the Jewish periodicals or magazines lament the condition of the rising generation of Jewish people. The synagogues are practically empty of the young people, and the rabbi scarcely comes in touch with the lives of these young persons.

It is true that the leaders in Jewry are trying to make up for this loss by organizing young people's societies and so-called social clubs; but these organizations and institutions will not and cannot take the place of the religious and moral teaching the young people would secure if they went to the synagogue. So it is becoming evident to the Jewish leaders that the moral teaching among the young people is lacking, and they are at a loss to know what to do in order to make up for it. The young people are realizing more and more that the Jew in America does not have the religion of his forefathers; and naturally they think that if he does not have the same faith that his predecessors had, he does not have any religion.

The camp of Israel is so distinctly divided today between orthodoxy and reform that there is certainly a great gulf between the two, so that religiously the one cannot pass over to the other. Hence the young people realize that since the camp of the fathers is divided, there can be nothing concrete for them to accept.

The reform Jew says there is no place in modern enlightenment for the orthodox rabbi. It is repeatedly stated in some of the leading Jewish journals of this country that the orthodox rabbinism is not a thing wanted in the United States or in England. In other words, the reform Jew says that in modern enlightened times the old orthodox pious rabbi, with his rabbinical and Talmudical traditions, is decidedly out of date. There is no place for him. If this is true, the young people say, there can be no ground for rabbinical Judaism. But if there is no rabbinical Judaism, then what is there to Judaism? As a result, the young man and the young woman say there can be nothing in religion after all.

But when the Jew learns about a Gentile people who really accept the Bible as the word of God, the Bible as handed down from the days of Ezra and believed by the Jewish people for thousands of years, his interest is aroused. He does not know what it means. He cannot understand it. It seems hard for him to comprehend. To argue much with him with reference to the divinity of Christ and the incarnation is to arouse his antagonism at once. He is coming to believe that even the Saviour was not a real character. But when the Jew, especially the young man or the young woman, learns that the Sabbath, the law, the prophets, and other kindred truths of Old Testament teachings are believed and lived out by Gentiles, it sets him thinking, and to his great surprise he ascertains that these people really believe all that the Jew claims to believe, except that they do not receive the teachings of the rabbis.

To many of them it is good news; for after all, there is in many of their hearts a sincere feeling that the God of their fathers must still have his word preserved; and so the Lord Jesus has really given us as a people an open door to enter in among the Jewish people, and if we only enter this open door, the Holy Spirit will encourage their souls to believe that this denomination is God's people, and the message they bear is God's own message for today.

F. C. GILBERT.