The Jews Realize Their Religion is Waning by Frederick C. Gilbert

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 30, 1916

The Jews Realize Their Religion is Waning

By Frederick C. Gilbert

THE following is a portion of an article which appeared in the Jewish magazine, Tageblatt, some time ago, and it should encourage our people not to slacken their efforts to make known to the Jew the true principles of the gospel. The reader will also appreciate the resentful feeling the Jew has toward missionaries and missionary work, as noted in the article; at the same time it will be seen that the poor Jew realizes that the day of rabbinical Judaism is about gone. What a call to the people of God to do all in their power for the lost sheep of Israel!

The article in the Tageblatt, just mentioned, is entitled “Missionaries,” and the writer, Gedaliah Bublick, speaks as follows:—

“The missionaries complain that they have no success. But they need not be so perplexed, and we should not be so happy at their failure. They have very favorable chances for success in the future. The work for Christianity’s propagation in the ghetto is accomplished slowly but surely, and it is done, not through hired missionaries, but by the Jews themselves. “I wish to speak plainly but clearly. We ourselves drive a large proportion of our children to the church. We are forcing them into the way of Christianity, and we are doing it every day, seven days in the week, three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. Christianity in the near future will reap the crop which we Jewish parents are sowing.

“Many Jews will not wish to tolerate such candid remarks, and many will be wrathy; but the truth stares us in the face, and we must meet it. Our children and grandchildren will not remain Jews of their own accord. Judaism is not a thing that comes without any effort. One becomes a Jew only when he learns. One cannot be a Jew without learning. A Jew who has not studied is in no way attached to Judaism, and he remains a person without a faith. But it is folly to think that the children and grandchildren of those who are without a faith will also remain without a faith. That is impossible. The American has his faith, and the Jew in the future will search for a religion; and not having his own, he will accept another. Not being attached to the synagogue, he will go to the church.

“Our great grandchildren in America will be believers. If we are not solicitous enough about them to have them whole-hearted Jews, they will become full-fledged Christians. The first generation will still feel that it is somewhat connected with the Jewish people. That is the effect of the Jewish environs in which he has been reared. But how will this generation be able to influence the future, if it does not know what Judaism is? What heritage will it leave to its children, and what will remain with the

third to transmit to the fourth generation? If there are still some left who feel as if they were Jews, not knowing what it means, it will not be so in the future. Then a Jew will be a Jew, or he will be a Christian.

“If you wish to, you may already see the beginning. Jewish children marry Christians, and take part in church work in the community in which they find themselves. They are looking for something spiritual, and if they cannot find it at home, they will look for it somewhere else. Regardless of how optimistic you may want to be, you cannot expect that there will be generations of lukewarm Jews. Lukewarm Jews later become Christians.

“The missionaries understand this. This is what one missionary said: ‘The Jews of America are fast forsaking the faith of their parents. Others are hungering for truth. There has never been a better opportunity. Will the church hear the cry?’ They feel that we furnish them good material.

“Why should the truth not be told? The father who does not send his children to school, prepares his great-grandchildren or others of his family for the church. He is doing a good work for the missionaries, and he is to be pitied if in his blindness he does not perceive it.

“Our anger against the missionaries and all our struggles against the missionaries will not answer the question. The enemy is not outside, but inside. The church is preying upon us, and we can defeat her only at home. It is said that a saint was informed that a Jew in the village became converted. ‘It is a lie,’ said the saint. ‘A Jew is not converted. He has been a non-Jew quite a while.’ If our future successors will be Jews, they will not fear the missionaries. If they will not be Jews, they will eventually become converted without missionaries.”

Dear brethren and sisters in present truth, is this not a loud call to us all to work as never before for the Jews? Years ago the Spirit of prophecy told us, when the Lord brought among our people an educated Jewish young man, that “his knowledge of Hebrew would have been a help to the office in the preparation of publications through which access could be gained to a class that otherwise could not be reached.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. III, p. 206. At the General Conference held in Takoma Park, D. C., in 1905, the following was given to us through the Spirit of prophecy: “The time has come when the Jews are to be given light. The Lord wants us to encourage and sustain men who shall labor in right lines for this people; for there are to be a multitude convinced of the truth, who will take their position for God.”—Review and Herald, June 29, 1905.

Is it not therefore clear to us that God has outlined how we should labor for the Jews? We should circulate the literature among them. We should place in their hands our publications. There is nothing that can appeal to the Jew more than the third angel’s message, when he understands it in its true light. This is what will satisfy his hungry heart. It is the real gospel; and it will cause joy to his soul when he sees that it is just the thing he has been looking for. May God help us to do this work now, as we have opportunity.

F. C. GILBERT.