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Prophetic Expositions, vol. 1

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    CHAPTER II. THE JEWS

    I. ARE THE JEWS, AS SUCH, TO BE RESTORED TO THE LAND OF PALESTINE?

    This question is of so great moment, in the estimation of many people, that, until it is met and fully disproved, no argument can avail with them in proving the speedy coming of Christ. I shall endeavor to meet the question in as brief a manner as possible and do it justice.PREX1 55.1

    1. They will not go back to Palestine as a nation, because they have no good title to the land.PREX1 55.2

    The Jews profess to be the proprietors of that land, first, on the ground of the title given by promise, to “Abraham and his seed.” This, of course, is a good title, if they can prove themselves the subjects of it. If they cannot do this, their title to the land fails; it is null and void.PREX1 55.3

    Let us test this question. Genesis 17:8: “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Abraham and his seed are the heirs, and the undoubted heirs of that land. We will now turn to Galatians 3:15, 16: “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made: he saith not and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” If there is any strength or point in the argument of the apostle, it is, that Christ, not the Jews, is the heir to the inheritance of Canaan.PREX1 55.4

    If man had made and confirmed the covenant, it could not be altered; but it was God who did it; how much less, then, can it be changed. It was made to and confirmed in Christ; then Christ must possess the inheritance it gives, and not the Jews. But Christ is not the alone heir, but all the members of his body are a part of himself, and will share his glory and his inheritance. “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; but ye are all one in Christ Jesus; and if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:27-29.PREX1 56.1

    Every Christian, is, therefore, a rightful heir to the land of promise, with Abraham and Christ.PREX1 56.2

    But, secondly, the Jews claim a right to the soil, on the ground, that, under the law of Moses, God brought them in, and put them in possession of the land of promise. This, Paul also meets as he did the other claim. He shows that if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. And having given it to Abraham and Christ by promise, the law which came four hundred and thirty years after the promise was made, could not break or disannul that promise, by taking the promised inheritance from Christ to give it to the Jews.PREX1 56.3

    But the Jew again asks, Wherefore then serveth the law, if it does not confer a title to the inheritance? Why was it given? See Galatians 3. Paul answers, “because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” The true heir had not come, and God placed the Jewish nation in possession of the land until he should come. When he came, the husbandmen said, this is the heir, come let us kill him; and they cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. What shall the Lord of that servant do unto those wicked husbandmen? He will miserably destroy those wicked husbandmen, and let out the vineyard to other husbandmen. The Pharisees saw that he had spoken this against them. If there is any point to this parable of the vineyard, it teaches the doctrine of the forfeiture of the possession of that land by the Jews. The true seed has now come, and it belongs to him, and all who are in him by faith, and are thus Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. But as yet, Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles, and will be until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Abraham, in his life-time, never had enough of the land that be could call his own, by virtue of the promise, to set his foot on. Acts 7. Christ, the true seed of Abraham, while on earth, had not where to lay his head. Abraham, together with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise, by faith sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country. These all died in the faith, not having received the promises. They looked for a city, the New Jerusalem, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. They sought a better country, that is a heavenly; wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. The new earth and the New Jerusalem will be their portion, and Christ and his saints will have it with them.PREX1 57.1

    The land of Palestine belonging to Christ and his saints, and not the Jews,-all the unfulfilled promises of a return of Israel to their own land, or the land God gave to Abraham, must refer to the true Israel, in the resurrection, as they most clearly do in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. There, God has promised to bring up the dry bones, “the whole house of Israel,” from their graves, to bring up flesh and sinews upon them, to cover them with skin, and to put his spirit into them and they shall live; and he will bring them “into the land of Israel,” “their own land.”PREX1 58.1

    Then, in the resurrection, Abraham and all his seed will come in possession of the land together; and they will possess it for an everlasting possession: a thing they cannot do while death reigns.PREX1 58.2

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