THE “RETURN OF THE JEWS.”
In our studies on the “Return of the Jews,” we found that the Scriptures, and the whole principle of the gospel, are directly against it. We found also that those who claim and advocate a return of the Jews as a people—a nation, to be re-established in the land of Palestine—are, by their claim, obliged to find another order of things from that of the true gospel as it is in Christ—another long period of time, indeed, an “age to come,” this “age” including the “millennium.” In the studies on the Millennium, we have found, by the straightforward story of the word of God, from the present day entirely through to the creation of the new earth and its everlasting occupation by the saved, that there is no possible place for any such long period of time, or “age, to come,” and, therefore, no possible place for any such return of the Jews as a people, a nation, to be re-established in the land of Palestine, as is claimed by those who advocate the return of the Jews. And even so saith the Scripture. How often in the New Testament there stands the expression, “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” But what can be the force of any such expression when there is to be manifested such an enormous difference as is involved in this claim of the return of the Jews,—that they must be gathered from all the nations of other people, to that one particular place; and blessings, bounties, and favors be showered upon them, and not upon other people? It is true that the claim contemplates that these shall be made the means of conveying these things to other people; but this does not relieve the scheme from the charge that it does make a decided difference between the Jew and the Greek—the Jew and the Gentile. This, because the claim is that the Jews are to be gathered thus simply because they are Jews, without any reference whatever to character. It is true that God uses those who receive his blessing, his light, his truth, to convey all these to those who have them not; but all his blessing, all his light, and all his truth are equally open and free to all people alike to be received. And those who receive them are used to convey his blessings to others, not because they have been especially chosen from among all other people, without regard to character; but solely because of the character they have obtained in the accepting of these things from God, which were equally open to all. This is the gospel call and the gospel work, always and everywhere. But such is not in any sense the claim as to the return of the Jews. In that scheme a man is to be drawn to Jerusalem simply because he is a Jew, without reference to what his character is. Then, when these Jews have been gathered there, it seems that the claim is that the Lord is to manifest himself to them in such a stupendously impressive and open way that they simply can’t refuse to believe in him and to receive him as the Messiah. And, surely, that can be nothing else than the making of a boundless difference between the Jew and the Greek. For if the Jew is thus to be gathered there simply because he is a Jew, and without reference to character, and, after he gets there, the Lord is to be so astonishingly revealed to him that he simply can not refuse any longer to believe, would not the same plan be equally effective in bringing any other man, and, indeed, EVERY other man, to the same point? And to do it for one man, or for one set of men, and not for all alike, could not possibly be anything else than putting a difference between those and others. But there stands the Scripture forever: “God is no respecter of persons.” “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” Therefore it is certain that every Jew must believe in and receive Christ, and what he has to give, precisely as every Gentile must believe in and receive him. “Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision [the Jews] by faith, and uncircumcision [the Gentiles] through faith,” it follows that for both alike the means of justification, of salvation, is faith—not faith for the Gentile, and sight for the Jew; but faith alone for both alike. For “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”