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THE JEWS' RETURN

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Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · May 29, 1855

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 6, No. 30.

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THE JEWS' RETURN.

By J. B. Cook

THE following thoughts on the subject of the Jews' return, embrace several points not usually, if at all, noticed. They seem to me, important:
We may reach the subject of the Jews' return—through the analogy of nature, and the plain declarations of Holy Scripture. We may thus reach "the root of the matter." Through the first principles of nature and grace, we may obtain a conclusion which will stand; but a conclusion that does not harmonize with the rudiments of our holy religion, cannot be worthy of reliance, because not true.
We know that the natural laws, governing matter, extend to all matter. The law of gravity, for instance, governing one portion of the earth's surface, governs all other like portions, for the same reason, and for a like necessity.
If some convulsion of nature should throw off a portion of matter, beyond the earth's attraction, it might come within the attractive sphere of some other orb, and with that orb, it might travel on through trackless space; but it could never again exist, or move, within the earth's orbit, without being first restored to the action of the original law, from which it was wrested—the law which once bound it in harmonious movement, with the other matter of our globe.
There are primary moral laws, based on and growing out of our relations as accountable creatures to God and each other. These laws are, supreme confidence in, and love to God, and a subordinate love to every fellow creature with whom we associate, equal to that which we cherish for ourselves. By a moral conclusion, a portion of the intelligent creation may be thrown off, beyond the controlling law of love, which is essential to the harmony and happiness of an holy Universe, as gravity is to the continued union of the particles composing earth. The portion thus thrown off, cannot be restored, but by bringing each and every individual of it, back to the ruling influence of the original moral laws—faith and affection. The unhallowed, unnatural power that alienates sinful creatures from Jehovah, must be broken or they will proceed toward "the blackness of darkness forever." They must, from the necessity of the case, be brought back, under the sweet, divine law of love and reliance, or they cannot exist under the government of God, in harmony with his affectionate, obedient subjects. The redeemed of earth will think and feel, speak and act in perfect and eternal harmony with all righteousness. They will love the Supreme Being supremely, subordinate beings they will love subordinately, according to their several grades, or spheres of existence. The divine brotherhood is one, into which no mortal can be brought, or bound, without bowing, unhesitatingly and perpetually, in every fibre of his being, to the divine law of love and confidence.
The means ordained to bring fallen men into this blessed brotherhood, is the Gospel of Christ. It is "the power of God unto salvation, to every one who believeth." It is the powerful means, which he employs to restore men to the power of the original laws. They are absolutely essential to a holy universe. Thus Abraham was elevated and sustained above the mass of mankind. Gal. iii, 7, 9. He believed the gospel; he loved its Author. Faith, and holy affection became the leading elements of his moral being. Of his eight sons, only one enjoyed the distinction, conferred by "the promise." His children, after the flesh—his mere natural descendants, float down the stream of time, age after age, and constitute no part of the Israel of God. These children of the Father of the Faithful, may be compared to the old loose bark of a walnut tree, which falls off and constitutes no part of the whole. Year after year, a mass thus peels off, and is never more a component part of the tree. Just so in the history of Israel, we find the illustration verified in their several successive generations. Elijah was cheered, amid the apostasies around him, to learn that there were 7000 who were in "the good olive tree." All the rest peeled off, to perish.
The Apostle said, in his day, that there was "a remnant according to the election of grace." This election of grace, conveys the idea of sovereignty in human salvation; but the election is both wise, and worthy of God. It is his choice, through mere favor, of all believers, constituting them his people—his household—the children of promise. They are all those who may be attracted, by Jesus and his cross. Such, and such alone are His.
The reason for faith and affection is thus apparent. The necessity for these features of moral character in Abraham, and the seven thousand,—in Paul and the remnant according to the election of grace, is as imperious now, in relation to every descendant of Abraham, as to the Gentiles; for no man, nor angel of God, can live in harmony with the Divine government, without perfect and perpetual submission to the primary laws which are alike adapted to all intelligences, in all parts of the Divine dominion. It is in this respect that there is "no respect of persons with God." All must bend to the same eternal law of holy beings, or never share their blessedness.
Seeing that the "gospel (alone) is the power of God to salvation, to the Jews first, and also to the Gentiles"—then when Jesus comes, every one who loves Him will not be "accursed." 1 Cor. xvi, 22. This restoration by faith—the revival of faith and love must take place before He comes. This seems plainly typified in the old Covenant with Israel. They were all brought out from Egypt into the Divine presence at Sinai, and there the Covenant was established. Why shall not "all Israel," be brought back to the required trust and love, before our Lord shall (at his coming to "raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of Israel") make a New Covenant with them? The prophecy and promise of God relative to the New Covenant, both embrace "all Israel." Does it not follow that all of Abraham's posterity, and all others who are not, by the attractive power of Divine mercy, in the gospel of Christ, drawn within the sweet, heavenly law of love and confidence, must be left like Esau, with "no place of repentance?" Can they be the Israel with whom the New Covenant shall be established? Is not the New Covenant a confirmation of Israel in the love, the virtue or piety, to which they had been wooed and won by the Saviour's attraction? Will not their affection be from that point, perpetuated by the bands of everlasting confidence? Jehovah will be their God, and they shall be his acknowledged people. The cross being the attracting, restoring power, do we not perceive the greatest propriety, in the Divinely revealed purpose to the New Covenant, with all these drawn within the governing power of the divine law of love, "at the end of the age?" After ancient Israel had terminated their bondage in Egypt, Jehovah publicly entered into covenant with them—avouching them to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all people. So at the end of the world, the end of this dispensation, will not Israel's King and Lord establish with him an "everlasting Covenant?" Will he not declare them His, before the universe, and bring them to his throne by the sweet bonds of everlasting love and confidence? So much for the primary laws, which we can but briefly touch.
Next, we notice the first principles of revelation, relative to the restoration, or return of Israel.

1. NATIONAL BLESSINGS ARE CONDITIONAL.

Do not start. Let us look at this point. In order to secure your confidence, I will admit my full belief in the promises made to Israel, Judah and Jerusalem. My only desire is to reach the loftiness of these promised glories, by the way of unquestionable truth. The movements of the mind are in one respect like those of the body, a step at a time. To see that the principle on which Jehovah administers His government over the nations, is stated correctly, read Jer. xviii, 9, 10. "And at what instant, I shall speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant, if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said, that I would benefit them." Thus far, the history of the world, Jew and Gentile, evinces the truth of this annunciation by the prophet of God. Deut. xxviii, 1-15. All blessings are promised on condition of obedience, all imagined curses are denounced on them, in case of disobedience, till they "should be destroyed."
The Jewish nation has most signally failed to obey God; consequently the nation has FORFEITED the promises made them in their national capacity. It is true, however, that Israel and Judah shall be restored; but not in defiance of this primary law of God's government. We must not make God contradict God! We can get an intelligible idea of these promises, from the scriptures, without supposing that Jehovah will forget this absolute declaration, the principle on which he has always acted.
2. The house of Israel to be restored, embraces, "all the seed"—"the whole house of Jacob," and not merely a portion of them. All the fullness of the covenant favors, shall be poured around them, at their restoration; therefore Israel needs be ALL there.
THE ISRAEL OF HISTORY, includes only the posterity of Jacob who may be alive, at the time contemplated, because history records the actions of living agents. The history of the Jews, given us in the Old Testament, does not relate to those who were unborn; to those who might live in after ages; nor to those who had lived. It relates to those THEN on the stage of life. But the ISRAEL OF PROMISE includes all who come within the scope of its merciful provisions, of all ages, down to the final restoration. "In the Lord shall ALL THE SEED of Israel be justified and shall glory;" Isa. xlv, 25; lix, 20; Rom. xi, 26.
3. "The tribes of Jacob" to be raised up, and "the preserves of Israel to be restored," are to be raised up and restored by Jesus. This merciful purpose of the God of Abraham, is not to be accomplished by a general Providence. It is to be done by a determinately revealed agency, by Jesus Christ; Isa. xlix, 6; John vi, 37, 45; Mark xiii, 26, 27; Gen. xlix, 10; 2 Thess. ii, 1; 1 Thess. iv, 13, 18; Dan. xii, 1; Eze. xxxiii; xxxiv; Joel iii, 16, 21; Jer. 23d and 33d chapters.
4. The gathering includes the resurrection at the second advent. The above passages prove this. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the REBUKE OF HIS PEOPLE shall be taken from off all the earth—and it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isa. xxv, 8, 9. This text is applied to the resurrection in 1 Cor. xv, 51, 56. The resurrection was the hope of the promise made of God to the fathers. Acts xxvi, 6, 7. The hope of Israel. Acts xxviii, 20. The hope of the apostle Paul. Acts xxiii, 6. If this be so, then no one can correctly apply the promises merely to the national Jews' restoration.
5. This "hope of the promise," is not applied to any, save those who sustain the character of Israel. It does not apply to mere natural descendants, for "THE JUST shall live by faith." "The righteousness of God without the law, is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets—Rom. iii, 21. "The CHILDREN OF PROMISE are counted for the seed;" Rom. ix, 6, 8; Gen. xxi, 14; xxv, 5, 6. The proper name, Israel, must comprehend all the descendants of Jacob, who like him, have had "POWER WITH GOD, AND HAVE PREVAILED." These come with the hope of promise. These are "accounted for the seed," all the rest peel off from "the good olive tree," like Ishmael and Esau, to perish.
6. To apply the term Israel and Judah to the natural descendants now living, we must leave out "the just"—"the election of grace," now resting in "hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers;" therefore that cannot be the true application of the term. Rom. iv, 11, 13; Gal. iii, 26, 29. All of Abraham's believing children, must be included in "the seed." They are "heirs according to the promise."
The theory which clearly conflicts with the above, or like plain, positive, first principles of revelation, cannot be true. Jehovah's servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, is the "righteous branch" of David. It is Jesus. Jer. xxxiii, 15; Luke i, 33. Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem dwell safely.
The gist of the whole matter seems to be this. In the promised gathering and glory of Israel, national, as well as personal identity will be preserved. Abraham and the patriarchs individually will be personally present, because they were personally subjects of "the promise." Israel and Judah collectively, will be there, because they are in their collective capacity, subjects of "the promise," as we read of the Patriarchs, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, who are to be individually seen in the kingdom of God; so we read of the nations of them that are saved in the restitution. Israel is the prominent one in the promise, and in the prophecy of this blessed state.
Mark this! All the seed of Israel are to be justified and glory in the Lord. The children of the promise alone, are counted for the seed of Abraham. Now, how can we avoid applying the proper name Israel, to all the children of promise? It must apply to some one class or people, in distinction from all others. Why then, when speaking of the nations of the saved does it not apply primarily and properly, to the believing descendants of the friend of God?
Thus it is applied in Rom. ix, 6, 8. To them the glorious things spoken of Zion the city of God, primarily belong. They will inhabit that Jerusalem which will constitute the throne of Jehovah. Those who were Levites, will there officiate as we learn in Jer. xxxiii, 21, 26. That will be in the better, the heavenly country. Heb. xi, 12, 16. Believing Gentiles will be fellow-citizens of Zion with the saints. All the nations of the saved, will walk in the light, of this habitation of the Holy One; but identity, personal and national will be preserved.
No mortal can wrest Abraham from his promised seat, no more than Jesus from his throne. Abraham himself must fill it, or divine faithfulness will fail—the pillars of his throne fall! For the same reason, Israel in contradistinction from other nations of the saved, must inherit his promises. Those, like Isaac, who are the children of promise, are, in the purpose of Jehovah, counted for the seed.
Thus may we believe that the promises will be fulfilled, according to the true import of both the Old and New Testaments. Why need we so apply the promises to Israel in the Old Testament, as to contradict those in the New? Or so understand those in the New Testament, as to abolish those found in the Old? The terms Israel and Judah, are proper names, designating the subjects of a special divine Providence and promise. To them the promises will be fulfilled in their true import, embracing all Israel. Ephraim will not envy Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim. Peace and praise will be abroad; happiness, holiness and heaven will reign.
If this be the right application of the scriptures, we will not seek the last ten tribes to find Israel, nor the scattered Jews, to find Judah. The children of the flesh are not the children of God, nor of promise. This first principle of the oracles of God is not only asserted in the New Testament, but it is fully established in the fact that only one of Abraham's own eight sons, was counted for the seed.
Thus we avoid the necessity of contradicting the plain declaration that national blessings are conditional. We need not deny that if the unbelieving and disobedient Jews are, as a nation, blessed as if they were the people of God, it would be in apparently direct violation of Jer. xviii, 9, 10, and other scriptures already quoted. If thou wilt not hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his statutes, then, all these curses shall come on thee, in the family, field and city. Deut. xxviii, 15. Now seeing the Jewish people fall in this age, as they have in other ages, should God especially bless them? He would do just contrary to this expressed purpose.
These remarks do not apply to those characterised as Israel, the children of promise. They are of faith, and must be blessed with faithful Abraham. According to the same promise made to the Patriarch, and for the same reason they will be absolutely, unconditionally and eternally blessed. With them the New Covenant will be formally, gloriously established in the second advent. When he shall gather together the remnant according to the election of grace. For the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them that turn from transgression in Jacob. So, all Israel shall be saved. The reason is given; for the gifts and calling of God, are without repentance, or change of purpose. He has never wavered in his purpose, to pour the full blessings of his covenant of promise on the whole of the promised seed—the house of Israel. He has not repented that He let Ishmael depart with Hagar the symbol of old Jerusalem—nor that he let Zimran and Jokshan, and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah all go Eastward toward the East country—nor that he chose Isaac, and his believing posterity to be the children of promise. His gift or calling was to let all who treat the birthright as did Esau, from the good olive tree, peel off and perish. It is to take all, who love the blessings of promise as did Jacob—all who have power with God, and prevail, and enroll them as the church of the first born—as the chosen, the called and the faithful. Amen.
On these the blessings of the covenant concentrate. To them the Divine gifts and calling are unchangeable, He will say when the earth casts out the dead, Come my people enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee for a little moment, till the indignation be overpast, for, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. This divine visitation in judgment and mercy, will be, saith God, to Israel, according to the days of thy coming out of Egypt, I will shew unto him marvelous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might. The weak shall be as David, and David as an angel of God; thus the nations will be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of Israel. Thus said the prophet of Jehovah, thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old. Micah vii, 15, 20.
This scriptural view is adapted to dissipate the prevailing notion that we shall be spirits, or ghostly, in the resurrection. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and all indicated by the proper name, Israel, will be there. Matter of fact persons, not lost in the living mass of "the General Assembly and church of the first born;" but each, with perfect and perpetual identity, filling the place for which natural and moral endowment, and Divine discipline, may have qualified them. All the promises belonging to Israel and Judah, will to them, be eternally verified. Jerusalem shall dwell safely under the dominion of David their prince, Jehovah will be their God and they will be his people. The blessings in reserve for the Gentile believer must be learned definitely from those promises, or prophecies, which name them distinctly. The vague notion that they will all be mixed up like a dish of chowder so that no soul can tell who is who, or what is what, should be given to the winds. The scriptural view must be cherished, if we would as commanded, grow in knowledge and in grace.
This view of perfect identity, enables us to understand what is revealed, as to the agency of both the just and the unjust amid the scenes of final judgment. Each class will act their part; each will act fearfully or gloriously in their proper characters, the nations will see God's favors to Israel, and to all the righteous. The righteous will see when the wicked are destroyed. Thus it was at the deluge—in the judgment on Egypt, and also on Jerusalem.
One word on time. The world was warned of impending judgment at the period when the wise and worthy of this and other countries believed prophetic periods would end. God by his Providence concurred to give the warning most marvelously. Now we have had several periods of definite expectation—the watches, the writing out of the vision, going forth of a people who believed, tarrying, midnight cry, dispersion of the virgin band, and their subsequent exclusion from access to the community, and the closing up of most hearts as well as houses to this crowning event of revelation, and thus the snare set for all them that dwell on the earth, at least we have had events just like those, and we must be marvelously sceptical, who do not recognize God's providence, fulfilling his word, amid the closing scenes of prophecy. *
To look for and love the Saviour's glorious appearing—to wait, watch, pray and groan for redemption, is to come up on ground occupied by holy men of old. The awful grandeur, the terrible splendor of the day of God, cannot be lightly regarded except by the profane. Those who watch the events of Providence, in the light of revelation, and see what scripture has been fulfilled in the advent movement, giving out the truth in its season, and striving to be ready to stand before the Son of Man, live as they are required by their coming Judge to live. Such will not incur Jesus' withering frown. Of all the thoughtless myriads of earth, they will rejoice to open to Him immediately, and say, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Amen.
P. S. One objection has reached my ear. If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Certainly, Abraham is the father of many nations; but it does not touch the fact that Israel and Judah are proper names, and apply to a class of people exclusive of all others, viz., the believing descendants of Jacob and Judah. Rom. ii, 28; ix, 6-8. In Rom. iv, 17, Abraham is a father to believers of other nations than the Jews, even many nations. Israel must certainly be one of them. Rom. xi, 25, 26.—Voice of Truth, Nov., 1846.

The Jewish and the Christian Sabbath.

WE have often had occasion to refer to the most remarkable distinction made by our First-day brethren between the character of the institutions observed by us respectively as weekly Sabbaths. And now again we refer to it, in view of an article in a recent number of the New York Chronicle, which has the following sentence: "It includes only those who keep Saturday, or the Jewish Sabbath, rather than Sunday, or the Christian Sabbath, called Seventh-day Baptists," &c. We will not complain of the distinction which our neighbor draws between the Sabbaths which in the observance distinguish us, but we suggest the propriety of calling things by their right names. If we must have such a distinction as Jewish for the seventh day, let us have Pagan or Papal prefixed to Sunday, to denote its origin; then we shall have the Jewish Sabbath and the Pagan Sabbath, and we insist that the one is as consistent as the other; for it is just as true that First-day Christians observe the Pagan Sunday (Dies Solis) as their Sabbath, as that the Seventh-day Christians observe the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath; and the stigma would be practically no more severe in reference to the editors of the Chronicle, should we say of them, that they observe the Pagan Sunday, than that which is sought to be inflicted upon us by the use of the term Jewish Sabbath.
We have often complained of the injury so commonly inflicted upon our cause by the use of the descriptive epithet referred to. We say descriptive, because we are aware that the use of it is sometimes sought to be justified from an alleged necessity, as though an intelligible distinction could not be expressed without the terms Jewish and Christian. But something is nevertheless involved in this distinction, which it would be well to look at for a moment.
We are to understand, of course, that there is nothing Jewish in the Sunday festival. Well, then, are we to infer that it is all Christian? Let us look at it in this light. To be purely Christian, it must be an institution of the Christian church. It must have been made for the church, adapted to the wants of the church, to the principles of the church, and not to the heathens, or unbelievers, or the profane; for if its sphere be extended beyond the limits of the church, it may apply to all mankind, and then it ceases to be strictly Christian. It is claimed to be Christian by its observers, as the Lord's Supper is a Christian institution. If the claim be just, then only Christians may keep it, or if any others do presume to keep it, they only secure to themselves damnation, as in its kindred institution. What right, then, have ministers, or others, to charge unbelievers with the sin of Sabbath-breaking? For the Christian Sabbath is made for the church, as it is said, as a memorial of Christ's resurrection, and not for infidels, who have no part in the thing signified. Will it be insisted, then, that the Sunday is the Christian Sabbath?
Let us look again. Where is the law of a weekly Sabbath for the Christian church? Was it instituted by Christ? If so, where is the law to be found? Those who keep the "Christian" Sabbath must of course discard the claims of the Jewish Seventh-day Sabbath, or they would not be consistent. The Jewish Sabbath is alluded to in the fourth commandment; it must not be honored by Christians, however, for then they would become Jewish. Again, if the seventh day be Jewish, and the first day be Christian, what day shall those have who are neither Jews nor Christians? If they have no law, then are they not transgressors; they can break no Sabbath, for to them there is no Sabbath law! Poor souls, why should they be so imposed upon as to be made to yield obedience to a law to which they are under no obligation? It would not be difficult to follow out this idea, and show the utter inconsistency of the Jewish and Christian Sabbath, for there is neither of them recognized in the Bible. There is but one weekly Sabbath, and that was made for man; it is man's Sabbath, and all men are under its penal force when violated, as well as its salutary influence when observed. The distinction of Jewish and Christian, then, has no more force of law than the Mohammedan Friday. God's Sabbath is over all, and for all, and it was and is and ever will be de facto the seventh day, for on the law reads, and Christ himself said not a jot or tittle of the law shall fail. O. R. L.—[Sub. Recorder.]