First call for notice among items of interest would surely be the news that is receiving keen and wide-spread attention amongst our community. For three years, or more, reliable sources of information have reported that a situation was evolving that would make the Middle-East the scene of the world’s most serious military crisis. Recent information has been stated more emphatically, and substantiated with details to confirm the view that “Decisions have been taken to invade Israel. . . . The pattern is quite clear”.
The Israeli leaders are well aware of a continued massing of military equipment, held in readiness by their enemies for the opportunity to carry out their intention to “exterminate” the restored State of Israel.
Reference is made by others to the significance of this critical situation, which undoubtedly portends the intervention of Christ in human affairs: and that is certainly how we should all view it.
Our main concern here is to reflect upon what underlies that keen interest in all matters affecting the Jews and their land that has always been so evident amongst Christadelphians.
It is now one hundred and sixteen years since Brother John Thomas defined his convictions on religious beliefs as a result of his independent search for Truth that could be confirmed by the closest comparison with the Scriptures. In the propositions then produced to state the basic first principles of the Gospel as preached by the Apostles, the fulfilment of the Promises to Abraham concerning the future of his descendants was shown to constitute the “True Hope of the Gospel”.
The endorsement of these Statements of Faith by the test of comparison with all Scripture was so complete that they have remained, practically unchanged, as the recognised statements of our belief. It is there shown that “The promised eternal Inheritance” is related to the destined future of Abraham’s race—the Jews—and is defined by the Scriptural term as “The hope of Israel”, which would find complete fulfilment in the establishment of the Kingdom of God by Jesus Christ at his return.
Wherever, then, these Truths are known and accepted, there are found those enlightened people who will watch with close attention for any change in conditions affecting the land of Palestine and the Jewish people that might indicate a move towards the accomplishment of their destiny. This has been the consistent attitude of all believers in the Truth, because their eternal destiny is also bound up with the future of that nation in the purpose of God.
Since the inception of the organised Christadelphian brotherhood the “Hope of Israel” has always been prominent in our literature and public speaking. It is a unique position, not known, as far as we are aware, to apply to any other religious body; although there may be individuals holding the same belief.
In the first issue of “The Christadelphianmagazine, the editor—Bro. Robert Roberts —wrote
“The apostolic testimony gives us to understand that Jesus finds a people alive at His coming . . . It is fitting that Christ should have a people contemporary with the developments of the end.
. . . A loving, zealous people, familiar with the historical situation, institutions and customs of the age, may not be without their special function in the day when Christ makes use of His household.”
Now, over a hundred years later, we can review the development of a people” and see how significant the history of the Truth has been, in that the same principles of belief and practice, with the sustained, consistent interest in the Jews, has been maintained unto this day. It will be reasonable therefore to identify a people of that description with those depicted as “Watchmen”—
Upon your walls, O Jerusalem,
I have set watchmen;
all the day and all the night they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest,
and give Him no rest
until He establishes Jerusalem
and makes it a praise in the earth. (Isaiah 62:6 (RSV))
The way that “watching” has been done during the revival of the Truth in our age is most interesting reading. This was no mere theoretical, detached, impersonal interest, intent only on research and discussion of the past and possibilities of the future: and it is evident that it was this people who showed a practical expression of belief in the Word of God by their understanding and contact with the Jews, in moral support and monetary help in their undertakings—always with prayer unceasingly on behalf of Israel.
It may not be without some significance to find a parallel in the development, during the same period, of a people who, by their faith and separateness, constitute “the spiritual Israel”, and the coming together of “the dry bones of a scattered national Israel”. For in the years 1834-47, when, through the instrumentality of Brother Thomas the Truth was revived in the U.S.A., there were also the first faint moves, taking shape for the re-settling of the dispersed Jews in their own land of Palestine. Some enlightened interest in the prophecies concerning the future of the Jewish people existed in England long before that date; finding expression in many written works, and statements by leaders of the people, often coming from members of Parliament.
Sir Moses Montefiore—a rich, influential English Jew—visited the Land and took a personal interest in the needs of his people. There followed, in 1838, a move by Britain that was virtually the beginning of that nation’s aid towards the re-gathering of the Jews, when a British Vice-Consul was established at Jerusalem with an unofficial but active agreement to recommend more equitable treatment for Jews who are or who may after settle in Palestine”, which led Lord Shaftesbury to say, “England is the first of Gentile kingdoms to cease the treading down of Jerusalem”.
Many long, difficult years were to pass before all Jewry was able to rejoice in the recognition of Great Britain as the Mandatory Power for Palestine. To commemorate an historic occasion, a great meeting was held in London on July 12th, 1920. In the audience, listening and watching, were some Christadelphian representatives.
If then, as it certainly seems, there is a parallelism for one hundred and thirty years, what end does it lead to: a divergence and complete loss of all contactor convergence, until the lines meet and identity is firmly and finally established? There may yet be some surprising developments in which all who have kept a faithful watching during the dark hours will see and share.
For those of His people living in the final period of Gentile times, Christ sent a special message:
“Lo—I am coming like a thief,
Blessed is he who is awake…” (Rev 16:15 (RSV)
And all history shows how much more sensible it is to be with these “Witnesses” for the Truth, than be out—unprotected in the storm about to break.
The Borders of the Land of Israel