THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 26, 1878

THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

One of the most striking prophecies of the Old Testament is that relating to the calling of the Gentiles,—to the extending to them of the gospel invitation. Every reader of the Bible is aware that the Jews became exceedingly exclusive and bigoted. They thought that no one outside the Jewish nation could be saved; hence they had little communion with the outside world. When Jesus Christ came and began to unfold the gospel plan, teaching that it would reach the Gentiles and gather them in, even his chosen apostles could not be made to comprehend him; and after his ascension to Heaven, though he had told them his gospel was for all nations, yet their prejudice was so strong that it seemed to them a mistake; hence Luke says of the apostles that they traveled everywhere, “preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.” Acts 11:19.

It will be remembered that the Lord gave Peter a vision from Heaven to prepare him to offer the gospel to the Gentiles. After he had been shown the sheet containing all manner of beasts, God sent to him the Gentiles, who begged him to come and preach the gospel to them. Even then he went doubting in himself what would come of it (see Acts 10); and as soon as he returned to his Jewish brethren they called him to an account for his conduct. “And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him. Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.” Acts 11:2, 3. So even Peter had to give a full explanation.

It will be remembered also what an outcry the unbelieving Jews raised against Paul, when he told them that God had sent him to the Gentiles: “And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live.” Acts 22:22.

These facts, with many others that might be given, show the prejudice that existed on the part of the Jews against the Gentiles, and how adverse even the disciples were to the idea of introducing the gospel to them. Nothing short of the miraculous power of God compelled them to do it.

Now let us turn to the Old Testament, and there we find that ages before this time the prophets had plainly predicted the calling of the Gentiles. Even as far back as the days of Abraham, about nineteen hundred years before Christ, the Lord said to Abraham, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Gen. 22:18. Notice, the Lord told Abraham that in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed. He did not simply say, All the nation of Israel, but all the nations of the earth. This is a plain intimation that the gospel was to be preached to the Gentiles.

Isaiah, seven hundred years before Christ, said, “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious.” Isa. 11:10. And again: “I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” Isa. 42:6, 7. These are very plain predictions that the Messiah was to gather the Gentiles to the Lord.

The next prophecy is still more interesting: “One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.” Isa. 44:5. Here it is predicted that the Gentiles shall call themselves Israel, and take upon themselves the name of the God of Jacob, as they have done, and be called after him.

Here is another touching prophecy of the gathering in of the Gentiles: “The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold I was left alone; these, where had they been? Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.” Isa. 49:20-22. When the Gentiles are thus gathered in as children of God, the prophet represents the Saviour as saying, Who are these, and where have they been all this time? The Lord answers that they are those that shall be gathered out from among the Gentiles.

Take one more text, which must suffice,—one of the many: “For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal. 1:11.

The Lord promised that the day should come when his name should be great even among the heathen who at that time knew nothing of him. Now look at the fulfillment of this prophecy. While the Jews, the people of God at that time, are rejected, and the Lord hardly has a faithful servant among them, the name of the God of Israel is held in reverence all over the earth, and among every nation of the Gentiles. Thousands bow to him, and hundreds of thousands are called by his name. How remarkably these prophecies have been fulfilled, and how forcibly their fulfillment shows that they were given by inspiration of God. D. M. CANRIGHT.