THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 7, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 39.

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD.

AN article appears in a recent number of the Independent (September 16) which is worthy of more than a passing notice. It is written by Addison Ballard, D.D., and is entitled "Christianity, a Return to Judaism." By "Judaism" Dr. Ballard means the Judaism of Christ. He says (Italics his, the bold face ours):—

Jesus tells us that all the world needs in the way of either devotional or ethical religion is that it keep perfectly the Ten Commandments, epitomized so long before by Moses himself as whole-heart love to God and equal love to our neighbor. Jesus gave no new, either heart-law or life-law. He added not one jot to that which had already been given. There was nothing to be added. He declares, therefore, in effect that to say the "religions" of the world is to use a false plural; that there is but one religion—that of love. By saying that "on these two commandments hangs all the law," he declares them to be the one and only religion of the past. By saying that on these hang all the prophets, he proclaims that they are the one and only religion of the future; that, in short, there never has been, is not now, and never will be any other religion—the religion for all men and for all time; and, we may add, for all eternity.

What is this but to say that all the world needs in the way of ethics or religion is that it be thoroughly Judaized?

Himself a Jew, no other Jew was ever so perfectly loyal to Judaism as Jesus was. He not only affirmed and reaffirmed the law; he kept it; the only Jew who ever did keep it wholly. He was always pre-eminently and consistently Judaistic in both his teachings and his life. He needed not to return to Judaism; he had never departed from it.

He was thoroughly loyal to the Judaic way of return for those who had proved themselves disloyal to their one acknowledged Head. That way was through sacrificial offering. The ark, which held the law, was kept in the "holy of holies," the presence-chamber of Jehovah. There was no way of reaching the ark but by the altar of sacrifice. Altar, victim, and ark were inseparably connected.

The writer then goes on to show that the Jews in the days of our Lord had departed from their organic law, even as the United States had departed from its organic law in the days of Lincoln; and that as true Americanism was to be judged by its basic principle, the equality of man as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, so Judaism should be judged, not by what it was held to be by the Pharisees in Christ's day, but by its basic principles.

The Hebrew nation, too, was "conceived in liberty" and brought forth from bondage; but it was dedicated to the much broader and deeper proposition, that "supreme love to God and equal love to our neighbor is the full sum of universal human duty." But it was another and an altogether unique element in Judaism that it provided for the forgiveness of individual transgression against its organic law and for a return to it, through a suffering and sacrifice other than those of the offender himself. And just this, as I understand it, Christianity means and is.

Then coming to the basis of true conversion, the broken heart and contrite spirit, Dr. Ballard asks, "Where is this broken and contrite heart to be found?" And he answers:—

For myself, I find it only at the feet of Him who is at once for me both ark and altar, both priest and sacrifice. Here, "cut from the olive tree which is wild by nature," I find myself "grafted contrary to nature" into that "good olive tree" which the greatest of Christian apostles tells me is Judaism—the still firm, immovable "root," not upborne by the ingrafted Gentile branches, but itself upbearing them. Here, here only, do I find myself returning through penitent, grateful love to whole-heart love to God and equal-heart love to my neighbor. Here, and only here, do I find the clue which leads me safely and rejoicingly out of, and past, the whole bewildering labyrinth of tangled traditions, theologies, catechisms, sects, and creeds; and out of the darker and more bewildering labyrinth of my sins.

When, speaking in metaphor, all the true Israel of God shall meet at length in one common assembly, the meeting-place will be again on the broad plains about the base of Sinai. Thither, to this "one fold," is the Good Shepherd pointing ever his one flock. But it will be far otherwise than it was when his people were first led thither by Moses. The same two tables of the Law will indeed be there. They will still stand high aloft, crowning the summit of the once awful mount, but no longer shooting lightnings through black, enveloping smoke-clouds followed by peals of affrighting thunder. They will shine, rather, from afar and to all nations with a mild and winning luster; for instead of the old and terrifying "Thou shalt not," the two tables are now turned toward one another and are become one in the changed figure of a cross; and on its extended arms is now seen emblazoned "Love to God and Love to man"—an "ideal to draw the nations to higher and higher reaches of civilization and progress."

Here, too, will be solved at last the now perplexing question of Christian unity; and not that only, but of Christian and Jewish unity as well. For when, gathered out of all nations, we shall meet in concert on the heavenly plains, what will our one song be but the "Song of Moses and the Lamb"? And what is that song but the blended song of the "way" and of the lost way found?

Such is the law of God to him who finds Jesus Christ. Such is God's message at this present time, to this present generation. With the love of infinity, God sends that message to "heal Babylon," to bring unity. "Fear God, and give glory to HIM; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship HIM that made heaven, and earth and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

Then follows in this message the result of rejecting it, the fall of Babylon. And then God's solemn warning against all false worship and false religions epitomized in the worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark. And then God gives us a description of the characters of those who receive this message, who return to the Judaism of Christ Jesus: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." See Rev. 14:6-12. This is God's message of "the everlasting Gospel" to draw the men of all nations, not merely to "higher reaches of civilization," but to higher reaches of God-likeness, to the glory and blessing in Christ Jesus. Truly the hope of the world is a return to the Judaism of Christ Jesus.