p. 19 | GATHERING OF ISRAEL by C. P. Bollman

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1888

GATHERING OF ISRAEL.

By C. P. Bollman

Two weeks ago in an article in these columns, it was clearly shown that the terms, "all Israel," and "the whole house of Israel" (Rom. 11:26; Eze. 37:11), refer to the redeemed out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, whether they are Hebrews by descent or not. But even when this is admitted, as it must be by all who accept the testimony of the Scriptures, there are some who still insist that there is yet to be a gathering of the literal seed of Abraham to the land of Canaan. This, however, the Scriptures certainly do not teach.

All the promises of the gathering of Israel made since the exode come under three heads: (1) Promises which were fulfilled in the return of the Jews from Babylon; (2) promises which were never fulfilled because the conditions were not met by the people; (3) promises of the final gathering of Israel when "the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting [not transient, or passing] joy upon their heads;" and when "they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

The promises which come under the first of these heads are much less explicit than are those which come under the second and third heads. In Jer. 25:11, 12 we read: "And this whole land [Canaan] shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon," etc. Here is an implied promise of the restoration of the Jews at the end of the seventy years; and so Daniel understood it, as we learn from his prayer recorded in the ninth chapter of his prophecy. Ezra and Nehemiah give a full account of the return of the Jews under this promise.

Jer. 17:24-27 clearly comes under the second head. By tracing the history of the Babylonish captivity, we learn that the people were not all carried away at the beginning of the captivity, B. C. 606; and five years later, B. C. 601, the Lord made this conditional promise that if they would serve him and hallow his Sabbath, then there should enter into Jerusalem "kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David," and the city should stand forever. But if they would not hearken unto God and hallow his Sabbath, he said: "I will kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched." The people did not turn from their wickedness and hallow the Sabbath, as God required, and the threatening was fulfilled, while the promise was forever forfeited. The people rebelled against the governor whom the king of Babylon had set over them, and in the year B. C. 588 the king of the Chaldeans came again against the city (2 Chron. 36:17) and "slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age," "and they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof." Never from that day forward was "Israel" an independent people; and never will they be again till He comes whose right it is, and then the kingdom will be given to Him; and He shall sit upon the throne of David, ruling, not over the literal seed of Abraham, but over the children of the promise.

There are other promises similar to the one just alluded to, but it will not be necessary to notice them in detail, for in the light of the hints already given almost anyone can, with a little study, determine to which class each promise belongs. We will therefore notice, somewhat hastily, some of the promises which come under the third head.

It will scarcely be necessary to more than remind the intelligent reader that the Hebrews were a typical people; they were not all people

of God, nor were they the whole people of God. Their offerings pointed forward to Christ, and their land—the land which God gave them—was only an earnest of the whole world, which was promised to Abraham and to his seed (Rom. 4:13), and which will be given to those for whom it is prepared, when the words of our Saviour are fulfilled, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Though often called the land of promise, Canaan was not all that was embraced in the promise; nor was its possession by the twelve tribes the fulfillment of the promise. The promise, as shown by Rom. 4:13, embraced the world; and from the eleventh of Hebrews we learn that it had not been fulfilled when the apostle wrote that epistle. After recounting the sufferings and the victories of the people of God in all the early ages of the world, the apostle says: “These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.” Heb. 11:39. What then? Has the promise failed? By no means; for God has promised to bring “the whole house of Israel,”—all who are Christ’s,—up out of their graves and bring them into the land of Israel, and that which he has promised he will surely perform.

But when will Israel be gathered? and when will the promise to Abraham be fulfilled? Verse 40 gives us a clew to the answer to this question. The apostle says: “God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect.” The apostle’s “us” means those who are alive when the Lord comes, and the making “perfect” clearly refers to the change which is to take place in the righteous at the appearing of our Lord and Saviour. Just what this change is we learn from 1 Cor. 15:51–53 and 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. In the first of these texts we learn that “we shall not all sleep,” that is, we shall not all die, “but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” In Thessalonians the apostle tells us a little more about this matter; he says: “The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” And it is thus that all the redeemed, “the whole house of Israel,” are together made perfect, made immortal.

It will be observed that the language of the apostle includes all the people of God, both living and dead. He says: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed;” not some at one time and some at another, but all shall be made perfect together, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.” And this event is clearly the same referred to by the Saviour when he said, concerning himself: “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24:31. As shown in a former article, the elect are Israel, and this is the only gathering of Israel yet to be accomplished, of which the Scriptures speak. This is the time when “many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven.” Matt. 8:11.

The apostle testifies (Gal. 3:29) that all who belong to Christ, no matter in what age they lived, “are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise;” but the great majority of these are dead, many of them have been dead for ages, and as their inheritance is an eternal inheritance, as they are to “inherit the land and dwell therein forever,” it is evident that they must first be “made perfect,” made immortal; and this we have seen takes place at the second coming of Christ, at the beginning of the thousand years spoken of in Rev. 20:4, 5. It is at this time that the angels are sent to gather the elect, who are then caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, to ever be with their Lord, and to reign with him a thousand years. But this part of the subject must be discussed in another article.

C. P. BOLLMAN.