Throughout the Christian world, at the present time there is
probably more speculation over Palestine than over any other
spot on the globe. It seems all eyes are turned on Palestine.
There are multitudes who expect the Lord to set up a literal
kingdom in Jerusalem, make the Jews the earth's rulers,
subduing the Gentile nations under their domain. According to
these theorists, the land of Palestine is shortly to be the
center of the Lord's activities in the earth, and this tiny
country will comprehend his kingdom reign. In treating this
subject briefly, I will present a number of propositions, and
sustain them with the Word of God.
1. The promise of a great nation as
numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars of heaven in
the family of Abraham (Gen. 13:14-17; 15:5, 6.) reached its
literal fulfillment under the Old Testament dispensation.
"The Lord your God hath multiplied
you, and behold ye are this day as the stars of heaven for
multitude"—Deut. 1:10, 11). "Thy fathers went down
into Egypt with three score and ten persons; and now the Lord
thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for
multitude"—Deut. 10:22. "But David took not the
number of them from twenty years old and under: because the
Lord had said ~e would increase Israel like to the stars of
heavens"— l Chron. 27:23. "Their children also
multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven"—Neh. 9:23.
Hear King Solomon at the height of his glory: "And thy
servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen,
a great people, that can not be numbered nor counted for
multitude"—[Kings 3:8. "Now, O Lord God, let thy
promise unto David my father be established: for thou hast
made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in
multitude" 2 Chron. 1:8. Speaking of the whole
Israelitish nation from the birth of Isaac until the coming of
the Messiah, covering more than 1,500 years, the writer of the
Hebrew letter assures us, "Therefore sprang there even of
one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky
in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore in
numerable. These all died in faith"—Heb. 11:12, 13.
In the face of these plain scriptures,
why should we look for any future literal fulfillment? It is
folly to do so. To teach that the fifteen million Jews who are
now scattered all over the world, and are citizens of every
nation under heaven, must be gathered back to the bleak hills
of Judea in order to fulfill the promise made to Abraham, is
without reason, or any support whatever in the Scriptures. In
other words, to claim there must yet be a literal fulfillment
of that which the Bible so plainly declares has already been
fulfilled, is to build a theory upon a pile of sand.
2. The possession of the
literal land of Canaan by the Israelite nation in Old
Testament times fulfilled the covenant God made with Abraham
relative to the inheritance of the Jews.
Moses said to Israel, "The Lord
was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not
go over Jordan, and that I should not go unto that good land,
which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an
inheritance"—Deut. 4:21. "Behold, I have set the
land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord
sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give
unto them and to their seed after them"—(chap. 1:7, 8).
In Deut. 9:5 it is plainly said that Israel's possession of
Canaan was the performance of the word which God sware to
their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "And it shall
be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the
land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou
buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou
filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not,
vineyards and olive-trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou
shalt have eaten and be full; then beware lest thou forget the
Lord"—Deut. 6:10-12.
When Moses went to Egypt to deliver
Israel, God told him the time had come to fulfill the covenant
with Abraham (Exod. 6:1-7). To the Israelites the Lord then
said, "I will bring you unto the land, concerning the
which I did sware to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob; and I will give it to you for an heritage"—Exod.
6:8. Just before the children of Israel crossed over Jordan
into Canaan, the Lord said to Joshua, "Now therefore
arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people unto the
land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that
have I given unto you.... From the wilderness and this Lebanon
even unto the great river, the river Euphrates. ... For unto
this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land,
which I sware unto their fathers to give them"—Josh.
1:1-6. They went in and the land was divided to them for an
inheritance, and in Psalm 105 we read that this fulfilled the
promise to Abraham regarding the inheritance of the literal
seed. And we ask, "Why not"? Here is the decisive
answer: "Thou art the Lord the God who didst choose
Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and
gavest him the name of Abraham; . . . and madest a covenant
with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Amorites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the
Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast
performed thy words"— Neh. 9:7, 8. Here is the proof:
"Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of
heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which
thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in
and possess it. So the children went in and possessed the
land.... And they took strong cities, and a fat land, and
possessed houses full of all goods, wells digged, vineyards,
and olive-yards, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they did
eat, and were filled and became fat, and delighted themselves
in thy great goodness"—vs. 23-25. "Judah and
Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in
multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry. And Solomon
reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the
Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt"—1 Kings
4:20, 21. "He had peace on all sides round about him. And
Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and
under his fig-tree'' (vs. 24, 25). It would seem that language
could not be framed more clearly and definitely to teach that
the promises of the literal seed—Israel— as a nation were
all fulfilled in the Old Testament dispensation. Under the
gospel, "lands" and specially favored
"nations" are no longer recognized. The blessings of
this dispensation are "to all people" "in all
the world" among "all nations." And these
blessings are not literal, as under the law, but spiritual and
eternal.
3. Israel and Canaan were but types
and shadows of the Christian church and its spiritual
inheritance.
The law dispensation was but a
"shadow of good things to come." This includes
Israel, its land of inheritance, its tabernacle, sacrifices,
and services, and they all stand in a typical and shadowy
relation to the gospel. If this fact is clearly understood, it
will do away with all the vain speculations of these last days
in which the Jew is set before us as a "special, chosen,
and favored seed" above other nations; and that he must
travel clear back to the barren hills of Judea in order to
find Messiah. The more I study the Bible as a whole, the more
I am led to the settled con. elusion that under the gospel
such a thing as distinction of nations and places is not
recognized. The Jew is no more to God than is one of any other
people, and he stands upon the same plane with the rest; and
Palestine, which was once his home, holds no more sacredness
to the Almighty than does America or any other spot of the
earth. The literal city of Jerusalem is, under the gospel, no
more to the Lord than are London and New York. People there
are no nearer heaven than are those in any other part of the
earth; for the mere place gives them no special privileges
over others. Jesus forever settled this point at Jacob's well,
"The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain
[Gerizim], nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father," but
in all the world, as prophesied by Malachi, "in every
place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure
offering" —Mal. 1:11, when men worship the Father
"in spirit and in truth"—John 4 :21-24. How
contrary to the spirit of the gospel to teach that the Jews
must be gathered back to a certain defined spot of earth in
order to find Christ! etc.; and the blessing of the gospel
under the metaphors "Canaan," our "own
land," etc. The reason for this is apparent.
Israel were a type of the church, and their inheritance a
shadow of our spiritual blessings of full salvation in
Christ. In the present dispensation we have "come l to
Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the l heavenly
Jerusalem"—Heb. 12 :22, and this is not the literal l
of Palestine, but "the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven" (v. 23). It is the universal
church made up of saved Jews and Gentiles in the world.
Most of the prophecies which speak of the return of God's
people back to Zion and Jerusalem have a ritual
fulfillment in the church, and do not refer to a literal
gathering of literal Jews to a literal land. Those texts
which do refer to a literal gathering were fulfilled in days
of Ezra and Nehemiah.
As truly as literal Canaan was the
inheritance of the Jew under the law, entire sanctification,
or perfected holiness is now the inheritance of the
"saints in light," who constitute the spiritual seed
under the gospel. This inheritance is not deferred to a
millennium age, but is now. "In Whom [Christ] also we
have obtained an inheritance." Eph. 16; "Giving
thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light"—Col. 1:12. What is this inheritance?
"Inheritance among all them which are
sanctified"—Acts 20:32. "Inheritance among them
which are sanctified by faith that is in "—Acts 26 :18.
God swore to Abraham that his seed should be saved from, and
possess the gate of their enemies"" and receive
Canaan for an "everlasting posses." Here is the
complete fulfillment. "Blessed be the d God of Israel;
for he hath visited and redeemed his pie, and hath raised up
an horn of salvation for us in house of David; . . . we should
be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of them that hate
us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to
remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our
father Abraham, that he would grant UNTO US, that we being
delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him
without fear, in HOLINESS and RIGHTEOUSNESS before him, all
the days of our life"—Luke 1:68-75.þHoliness is our
"everlasting possession," the land promised in which
the seed were to "dwell forever."
"Far down o'er the ages a promise
divine
Descended to us in the fulness of time:
A seed should appear as the stars of the heaven,
And they should inherit a land to be given.
"Oh, we are the seed, so happy and
blessed,
That dwell in the land of Canaan's holy rest:
Here streams of pure love are flowing along,
And anthems of glory are sounding in song.
"This land is salvation and holiness
pure;
We find it in Jesus, our title is sure.
A sweet land of Beulah, thy glory divine
Forever and ever unclouded shall shine."
"And if ye be Christ's, then are
ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the
promise"—Gal. 3:29. "Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: . . . that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith"—vs. 13, 14. Here Paul positively
declares that "the promise of the Spirit" is the
"blessing of Abraham," and that it has "come on
the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." This he identifies
with the "inheritance" given to Abraham by promise
(vs. 14-18). There was no inheritance promised in the covenant
but "Canaan" and the "blessing" which the
apostle by the authority of heaven interprets to be "the
Spirit." "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be
by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the
seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also
which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us
all"—Rom. 4:16. This shows conclusively that the Canaan
here promised has a spiritual signification, and meets its
complete fulfillment under the gospel in the grace of God
bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus. We receive it "by
faith."
The writer of the letter to the
Hebrews, in chapters 3 and 4, draws an analogy between Israel
in the wilderness and children of God not yet wholly
sanctified; also between literal Canaan and the glorious
spiritual "rest" "we which have believed do
enter." God had promised the children of Israel rest in
the land of Canaan, 'from all their enemies round about'
—Deut. 25:19. "My presence shall go with thee, and I
will give thee rest"—Exod. 33:14. This was fulfilled
under Solomon's reign (1 Kings 4:20-25). The first generation
did not enter this land of rest, "because they believed
not." Of them he swore, "They shall not enter into
my rest." "So we see that they could not enter in
because of unbelief"—Heb. 3 :19.
By exterminating all the Canaanites who
were born and bred in that land, the children of Israel were
to possess the land and have rest. How clear this foreshadows
the complete redemption we have in Christ Jesus!
The various bents of evil—pride,
selfishness, jealousy, covetousness, carnal anger, etc.—are
born in us. These are inward enemies. Christ "condemns
sin in the flesh," and "destroys the works of the
devil" out of our hearts; that is, he saves us from these
"inward foes," and we enjoy a sweet, perpetual
soul-rest—a rest that gives "quietness and assurance
forever." This is the land of Beulah. Here "peace is
extended like a river," and the soul is enabled to
"rejoice evermore," and "in everything gives
thanks." In this spiritual Canaan of holiness we feast
upon "fat things" and are "satisfied."
This so far surpasses the experience of the majority of
professors, that they naturally suppose it can be obtained
only in a future millennium, or in heaven. But, thank God, the
redeemed have found it in this life. Believers now "do
enter" by faith into the Canaan "rests."
Oh, how dark and how far from the truth
to teach that all this is yet to be fulfilled within the
confines of a territory not larger than the State of New
Jersey—the land of Palestine! How foolish to suppose that
God will confine himself to the bleak hills of Judea!! The
scope of the gospel includes every nation under heaven. Jew
and Gentile alike may share in these blessings, which are no
longer literal, but spiritual.
4. The only Jews recognized under the
gospel is the spiritual seed through Christ. There are no
promises to the literal Jews that do not include the Gentiles.
Abraham was not only the father of the
literal "nation" (Israel), but the promise said,
"Thou shalt be the father of many nations." This is
fulfilled in the Christian dispensation. "For the
promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to
Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the
righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be
heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect: . . . Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by
grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed;
not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which
is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (as
it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations)
" (Rom. 4 :13-17). Nothing is plainer than the fact so
clearly stated in this text, that the promise of God to make
Abraham a father of many nations has a spiritual fulfillment
in the New Testament dispensation. God is making all nations
children of Abraham by bringing them into the faith of the
gospel. I desire the reader to note that Paul shows clearly
that "if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is
made void, and the promise made of none effect." This
most decisively proves that since the passing of the legal
age, the Jew enjoys no privilege above the Gentile. All this
modern talk about "the chosen seed," "Jehovah's
covenant people," "his own elect,"
"Zion" "Jerusalem," etc., and the
application of all this to the literal nation of the Jews, is
squarely against Paul's teaching. These terms applied to
Israel under the law but never under the gospel. In this
dispensation, "he IS NOT a Jew, which is one
outwardly"—Rom. 2:28. That is, the literal seed counts
for nothing. The only Jew now recognized is he "which is
ONE INWARDLY"—v. 29. This the apostle defines as
"that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the
letter"—(ibid.). A moral change wrought in our hearts
by the Spirit of God makes Jews of us all, and all such
constitute the "Israel of God"—Gal. 6:16.
"For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all
children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
They which are the children of the flesh, these ARE NOT the
children of God: but the children of the promise are counted
for the seed"—Rom. 9:6-8 Who are the children of the
promise? Here is l Paul's answer, "Even US, whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles"—vs. 24.
Under the law, the Jews were the Lord's
peculiar, chosen people, his holy nation (Exod. 33 :16; 34
:12-14; Deut. 14:1, 2). Since the passing of that
dispensation, no nation enjoys this privilege except the
"spiritual house" of God, which is the church,
called out from among all nations (1 Pet. 2:5); and of the
Christian church it is said, Ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; . . .
which in time past were not people, but are now the people of
God"—vs. 9, 10.
National distinctions ceased at the
cross of Christ. Then and there Israel ceased to be God's
nation. The seventy weeks determined upon the Jews and the
sacredness their city, foretold in Dan. 9:24, had been
numbered, and since that time "they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham" (Gal. 3 :7).
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus" (v. 26). "And ye be Christ's, then are ye
Abraham's seed, and heirs cording to the promise" (v.
29). "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of
promise" (chap. 4:28). every convert of the cross, from
the dawn of this dispensation to its close, helps to
constitute the great spiritual family of Abraham.
The spiritual seed of Abraham under the
gospel greatly outnumber the literal seed under the law (see
Gal. 4:27). in other words, the new covenant church composed
of Jews and Gentiles who are "born of the Spirit,"
are more numerous than were the old covenant church "born
after the flesh."." "After this I beheld, and,
lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all
nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before
the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and
palms in their hands" (Rev. 7:9).
"Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the
scripture, reseeing that God would justify the heathen through
faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In
thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of
faith are blessed with faithful Abraham" (Gal. 3: 7-9).
"That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith" (v. 14). How can men mistake these
plain statements? Christ is the seed through whom the nations
of earth were to be blessed. All the children of faith (both
Jews and Gentiles) are the seed to whom the blessing was to
come. The Christian dispensation is "the times of the
Gentiles." The preaching of the gospel to the heathen or
Gentile nations during the current age, the apostle clearly
declares to be the fulfillment of the promise "In thee
shall all nations be blessed." The numberless millions
who have been saved through the blood of Christ during this
Holy Spirit dispensation— saved from heathen nations as well
as from Jews—are "the children of faith," and
"are blessed with faithful Abraham."
Full salvation is the blessing
promised. "Unto you first God, having raised up his Son
Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you
from his iniquities" (Acts 3:26). A turning away from
iniquities signifies the obtaining of grace to live a sinless
life; hence, God's oath to Abraham vouchsafes to us, through
Christ, grace to "serve him without fear, in holiness and
righteousness before him, all the days of our life" (Luke
1: 74, 75). Paul says that the blessing of Abraham that was to
come on the nations through Christ is "the promise of the
Spirit through faith." This has been fulfilled since
Pentecost. We are living under the superior blessings of the
Holy Spirit dispensation.
5. The conditions of
salvation are the same to Jew and Gentle
"Repentance toward God, and faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ" is the one universal
requirement (Acts 5:31; 11:18; Rom. 3 :30). Both Jew and
Gentile stand upon the same plane, for "there is no
difference" (Rom. 3:22-30). Both must accept and believe
the gospel (Rom. 1:16); both must enter the kingdom of heaven
by the same door (Matt. 18 :13; John 3 :5). "God is no
respecter of persons: but in EVERY NATION he that feareth him,
and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him" (Acts
10: 34, 35). In the beginning of the Christian era, "as
many as RECEIVED HIM" were born of God (John 1:12, 13).
This was said of "his own"—the Jews—and the
conditions remain the same. Unless this people accept and
believe on Christ, just like the Gentiles, they will remain in
blindness and darkness, and will never be saved.
This modern idea that God
providentially and by a overeign decree is going to gather all
the Jews to Palestine and there save them, has no place in the
New Testament teaching. Their past, present, and future hope
is all conditioned on an "IF." "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. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved"
(Rom. 10:12, 13). You see, the responsibility of their
salvation rests upon their own heads. Why were they
blinded and broken off ? "Because of UNBELIEF
they were broken off" (chap. 11:20). On what
conditions will they be grafted in again? "And they also,
IF THEY ABIDE NOT STILL IN UNBELIEF, shall be grafted in: for
God is able to graft them in again" (v. 23). God will not
remove the veil from their hearts that they may turn to be
Lord, as millennialists teach, but "When IT [Israel]
SHALL TURN to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away" (2
Cor. 3:16). This has been God's attitude towards them
all through the Christian era, and it will never change. In
this manner "all Israel shall be saved" (Rom.
11:26), on the same conditions that "all the ends of the
earth shall remember and turn to the Lord" among the
Gentile nations.. After stating that all Israel shall be
saved, Paul quotes Isa. 59:20, saying, "There shall come
out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob." Christ is referred to; and modern
teachers, without referring back to the prophecy, conclude
that at some future time he will unconditionally "turn
away ungodliness" from the whole Jewish nation, but they
must return to Palestine to enjoy this privilege. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. Here is the text Paul
quoted: "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto
them that TURN FROM TRANSGRESSION IN JACOB." The idea is,
the Lord will come and save them when they turn from their
transgressions, just as he does for the Gentiles.
That many Jews will yet be saved we
have no doubt. In fact, many leaders of this people in
different parts of the world are now accepting Christ as their
Messiah. I am personally acquainted with many of these. In
America a number of leading Jews are Christians, as Maurice
Reuben and his wife, Pittsburg, Pa., and Preacher Silvestine
and his wife, Philadelphia, Pa. It is an undeniable fact that
there is a growing sentiment among a great many Jews in
different parts of the world towards Christianity, and I
believe, as a church, we should show a greater interest in
them, "that through your mercy they also may obtain
mercy" (Rom. 11:31). But to teach that they must be
gathered back to the little land of Palestine, to the barren,
bleak hills of Judea, in order to find Christ, and to teach
that providentially God will save them wholesale as a nation
different from the Gentiles, is rank heresy, and the whole
tenor of New Testament truth is against it. Both "the
fall and rising again of many in Israel" (Luke 2:34) is
all conditioned on unbelief and faith. If any number of Jews
accept Christ, it will not follow his second advent, as
millennialists claim, but precede his appearing (Luke 13:35).
