John Wilson, 1877
FORTY-FIRST. "The Scriptures were
composed by the Jews; to whom we are indebted for those sublime compositions
which have delighted and instructed the world in all succeeding ages, and to
which, we ourselves owe our superior civilization."
REPLY. - True, several of those employed in
penning the inspired volume were Jews. Others doubtless were Israelites; but
whether the one or the other, neither can be allowed that honor which belongs
alone to the Divine Spirit - the production of the Word of God.
If the Bible be the Word of God, it cannot
be regarded as proceeding from "Jewish genius," which nearly overlaid
it by vain traditions (Mark 7:10-12), and was not infrequently exercised for
the destruction of those whom God employed in the utterance of Divine
Revelation for their reproof, correction, or instruction. If the Bible had been
of the Jews' own making most probably there would have been more self-laudation
in it, and less of the truth with regard to both themselves and others (Jer.
38:3, 4).
Did the Jews appreciate the Scriptures, or
discern their true import even after they were produced? They did not. Even
till this day they "do err, not knowing the Scriptures"
(Matt. 22:29). The very first of the sacred writers [Moses] is not understood
by them with regard to the most important subject of which be wrote. Even after
fulfilling the Prophecy for eighteen hundred years, they do not discern the
humbling cause of their being so long trodden under foot; although they had
been so pointedly forewarned of the danger of not hearing "THAT
PROPHET" which should be raised up unto them (Deut. 18:15). See also
Stephen's testimony (Acts 7:51-53).
FORTY-SECOND. "We are under
obligations to the Jews, because we have received the Gospel from them. The
Apostles were Jews."
REPLY. - We did not receive the Gospel from
the people who are now called Jews. And as to their ancestors, did they not
forbid the Gospel to be preached to the Gentiles? (1 Thess. 2:16.) Were they
not "filled with madness" when they heard that a message of
mercy had been sent to us which, were "afar of"? (Acts
22:21, 22). The apostles and all employed in a work so distasteful to the Jews
had become CHRISTIANS, and their posterity were not left among the people now
called Jews, but among the followers of Christ. If we wish to express
thankfulness for the labors of the apostles, it should be in striving to do
good to their descendants, whom it is useless to seek among those who would
have hindered their work, but may be found among those who endeavor to follow
in the footsteps of the Lamb of God. This consideration will not hinder us from
doing good to the Jews; but we should act from right principle, - out of
gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ...
FORTY-THIRD. "The Jews are to be in
such repute that ten men out of all languages of the nations even shall take
hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew."
REPLY. - This passage (Zech. 8:23), when
examined with its context, shows that the prophet speaks of coming before the
Lord in prayer. [ABCOG: This also applies physically after the return of
Christ, see Zech. 12.] Now there is One who sprang of the tribe of Judah, under
the covert of whose robe of righteousness we can draw near to God with
acceptance. It is as laying hold of the skirt of "the Man" (Heb. Ish),
the Companion Husband that is a Jew, that "ten men out of all the
languages of the nations," among whom Ten-tribed Israel were cast out and
scattered abroad, are able to approach the Father. Around the skirts of the
High Priest's garment were golden bells, which represented the utterance of the
Word of God in all languages of the nations. The Word of God is laid hold upon,
so as to draw men together in the worship of God. It is only as being clothed
with Christ's "robe of Righteousness" that we can come before God,
and say to those who have been speaking by the power of the Spirit, "We
will go with you; for we have heard," we have listened to the voice of
"God with you."
The JEW spoken of is certainly the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Companion Husband of Israel whom the Jews rejected, and to
whom Israel were to be united according to New Covenant mercy revealed by Him
who speaketh from heaven by His Holy Spirit of promise. It is as being united
with Jesus and His followers that we come into blessing. Apart from Christ
there is no Immanuel "God with us."
FORTY-FOURTH. "But are not the JEWS
the Kings of the East,' to prepare the way for whose return the waters of the
river Euphrates are being dried up"? (Rev. 16:12).
REPLY. - Certainly the Jews are NOT
"the Kings of the East," and if they are to obtain this advancement,
it must be at the expense of the English who are in actual possession of
sovereign power in the East. [ABCOG: This happened in 1947 with the founding of
the state of Israel!] Our own abode being in the West, it is important that we
should have the power of traversing the intervening countries between the coast
of Syria and the Persian Gulf.
On the banks of the Euphrates arose those "waters
great and many" (Isa. 7:8), that swept Israel forth of their land.
There also the Turks rose into the power which they have since used
for desolating the Land, [ABCOG: the Turkish Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine until
1917] and for preventing free communication between the East and the West;
while our own people have risen to the dominion of the East, on whom also will
ere long be forced an occupation of the great highway between the East and
West.
Let us look unto Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. The blessing was to come through faith upon the
children of promise. Not as Jews was the blessing to come upon them, but as
"Gentiles," or "Nations." Let us be thankful to God for the
privileges we enjoy, and endeavor to make a right use of them; that
disappointment may not result from our promise of fruitfulness, as in the case
of the Jews, of whom it was said, "They will reverence My Son."
This was no more than might have been reasonably expected. But they
said, "This is the Heir: come, let us kill Him."
So surely as the Inheritance was
taken from the Jews, will it be given to us, if we be found bringing forth the
FRUITS thereof (Matt. 21:43). The fruit expected from us is the doing good unto
all as we have opportunity, seeking in all things to glorify Jesus by obedience
to His great law of love. Let us contemplate our privileges for humiliation,
considering the misuse we have made of the many favors bestowed upon us -
natural, spiritual, and providential, - and the power of influencing the
happiness of all nations in all parts of the earth. Correspondently great is
our responsibility, not to leave the duties of the firstborn to be attended to
by another people, to whom "the birthright" was not promised, and has
not been given (I Chron. 5:3; Jer. 31:9); for in so doing we are quite as blind
and perverse in our own way as the Jews have been in continuing to reject the
Messiah. [ABCOG: Amen!]
FORTY-FIFTH. "But was it not said
respecting the Jews, 'Blessed is he that blesseth thee; and cursed is he that
curseth thee'?"
REPLY. - These words in the prophecy of
Balaam (Numb. 24:9), and others of the same import, spoken by the Lord to Abram
(Gen. 12:3), have been understood by many as having reference to the merely
natural seed of Abraham, without any regard to their spiritual condition...
[ABCOG: Wilson's argument at this point becomes irrelevant to the topic of
Israelitish Origin.]
FORTY-SIXTH. "Who, then, ARE the
Jews?"
REPLY. - Genealogically, a Jew is a
descendant of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. When. the Ten Tribes revolted
from under Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and chose Jeroboam the son of Nebat to
be their king, the tribe of Benjamin, descended from the youngest son of Jacob,
remained with the house of David and these two tribes, with individual families
from the others, constituted the kingdom of Judah, as distinct from that of
"All Israel." This latter title remained with the great body of the
people, who dwelt along the whole eastern and western frontiers, and also
possessed the main portion of the land north of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:12).
TIRZAH appears to have been chiefly the
royal residence among the revolted tribes till the time of Omri, who built
Samaria (1 Kings 16:23, 24), which was their capital till the time of their
deportation by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17.).
The greater number also of the priests and
Levites, as well as individual godly families "out of all the tribes of
Israel," cast in their lot with the kingdom of Judah, of whose royal
family it had been predicted that Christ, the Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, was
to come; unto whom was to be the gathering of "the people of the God of
Abraham" (2 Chron. 11:13-17; Gen. 49:10 Psa. 47:9).
Jerusalem, which had been the capital of All
Israel for seventy-three years, during the reigns of David and Solomon, and in
which was the Temple of the Lord, the place of sacrifice for All Israel, lay on
the confines of Judah and Benjamin, and continued to be the capital of those
who adhered to the house of David (1 Kings 2:11; 11:42; 2 Chron. 7:11-16).
Thither they still went up to worship; although the other house -that of Israel
- had abandoned the worship of God, according to the Mosaic ritual, from the
very time of the revolt.
In the Books of Kings we are given the
parallel histories of the kings of Israel and Judah. In the Books of Chronicles
is given the history of Judah mainly, and that of Israel only incidentally,
down until the captivities: first Of ISRAEL, near the end of the eighth century
B.C. (2 Kings 17); and that Of JUDAH at the very end of the seventh and
beginning of the sixth centuries B.C. (2 Kings 24, 25.).
The JEWS were restored from BABYLON after
seventy years' captivity, many of whom appear to have settled in the north part
of the land, previously inhabited by their brethren of the house of ISRAEL, and
which subsequently was called Galilee. During their captivity in Babylon, much
of their own district of country to the south of Jerusalem had been seized by
the Edomites. About B.C. 129, these [Edomites] were conquered by John Hyrcanus,
who gave them their choice of either becoming Jews, or of leaving the country
(Josephus, B. X111., c. ix., § 1). They preferred to become Jews; and the
result was, that Herod, an Edomite, had intermarried with the family of even
the high priest, and was king of Judea when our Saviour was born (Matt. 2:1).
Portions of other neighboring nations were
from time to time incorporated with Judah and Benjamin; and from all these
together are descended the people we call Jews. The name "Jew" is in
itself a glorious title. Literally it means praise or confession,
and appears to have been given with a reference to Him unto whom "every
knee shall bow, and every tongue confess" (Phil. 2:10; Gen. 49:8). At the
birth of Judah his mother had said, "Now will I praise the, Lord"
(Gen. 21:35); and Jacob seems to have recognized both the humanity and divinity
of our Lord when he said, "Judah, thou art He whom thy brethren shall
praise." David, who so directed the praises of Israel to the coming
Saviour, was a JEW in the right [accurate] sense of the word.
In the very beginning of the epistolary
writings of the New Testament this title is claimed for the true worshippers of
God (Rom. 2:28, 29): "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; but
he is a JEW which is one inwardly, whose PRAISE is not of men, but of
God."
So, also, near the beginning of the
Apocalypse [Book of Revelation] a caution is repeatedly given against looking
only on the outward appearance (Rev. 2:9): "I know the blasphemy of
them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of
Satan." "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which
say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee"
(Rev. 3:9).
It should not be forgotten that in the,
apostolic age the Jewish people were parted into two great portions; that of
those who believed, and took the name of Him in whom they believed, the
Expectation of Israel from the beginning. THESE held to the faith, did the
works of Abraham, and were called CHRISTIANS after Christ, the object of their
praise.
But the others, who remained under the curse
of their broken law [i.e, having broken the law], and were verily guilty in
rejecting and speaking against the Holy One of God - "that Prophet,"
- have in common parlance been called Jews; although they have no true claim to
the blessing of either Judah or Israel, until found in that "One
Seed" unto whom the promises were made (Gal. 3:16-29; John 8:24). It
is only in Christ that all the promises are "Yea" and
"Amen" (2 Cor. 1:20). From the time of that generation which
rejected the Saviour, the Jews have been left "wanderers among the
nations," witnesses to all men of the impotency of mere natural descent to
procure the blessing. And in proportion as our people [the natural House of All
Israel] have been gathered unto Shiloh, and have submitted themselves to Him,
hath "the blessing of Abraham" come upon them, although bearing the
name of Gentiles.
FORTY-SEVENTH. "What do the Jews
say about this theory of the Israelitish origin of the English? Are they
willing to allow the place of the Firstborn to another people than
themselves?"
REPLY. - A Jewish writer once undertook, in
"The Scattered Nation," to reply to the query, "WHERE ARE THE
TEN TRIBES?" But the real question was ignored - that of the Birthright,
the heirship to "the promises made unto the fathers," which were to
be fulfilled to a people in Christ whom our Lord distinguished from the Jews,
saying, "The kingdom shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21:43).
Many are the prophetic Scriptures which make
a similar distinction between Israel and Judah; recognizing the fact that the
people lost as Israel were to be found in Christ (Isa. 54:5); that the people
made "Lo-ammi" [Not a people] were to be made "the
people of God," "being born [ABCOG: begotten] again of the
incorruptible seed of the word" (1 Pet. 1:23; Hose 1:10); and that
they would ultimately be made the means of evangelizing the world, and of
converting the Jews (Jer. 31:7). When "the dispersed of Judah"
are gathered together, it will be as being added to "the outcasts of
Israel," who Will have been previously "assembled"
(Mic. 5:3; Hos. 1:11).
When "Jacob, by faith, blessed both
the sons of Joseph" (Heb. 11:21), under Divine guidance, he spoke
words which the God of truth intended to fulfil, by actually bestowing upon
them the inheritance of blessing promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen.
15:5; 48:16-19). The people appointed to inherit this Birthright therefore are
not to be looked for among the people called Jews, but among those who are
uncircumcised [ABCOG: Circumcision is irrelevant - 1 Cor. 7:19] as Abraham
himself was when God entered into covenant with him, as recorded in Gen. 15.
Indeed, when "Jacob, by faith, blessed both the sons of Joseph"
with the fullness of the blessing promised to him and to his ancestors, he
recognized those who should especially heir these promises as being, "a
multitude of GENTILES " (Or Goyim).
The blessing of Abraham was to come upon the
GENTILES, through faith (Gal. 3:14), who were to be literally descended from
Jacob through his long-lost son Joseph. They might not be known to the Jews any
more than Joseph was known by Judah when he came down to buy corn in Egypt, and
found his brother in the very circumstances predicted by those dreams, on
account of which, and his truth-telling tendency, Joseph was hated by his
brethren, and sold by them into the hands of the Ishmaelites. Joseph was
certainly not known as a Jew, or even as an Israelite, when his brothers met
him in Egypt. He was regarded by them as a mere Gentile; and it is clear that
his descendants, who were especially to inherit the Birthright, were to be
"a multitude or fullness of GENTILES" (Gen. 48:19).
Such being the case, where are we to look
for these heirs of blessing? Of course not among those who are known not to be
"Goyim," who have always distinguished themselves from the Gentiles,
... The people of promise were to "be known among the Gentiles"
(Isa. 61:9), not by the curse [of Deut. 28], but by the blessing; not
by the reputation of Israelitish descent, but by their being "born [ABCOG:
begotten] again of the incorruptible seed of the Word" (1 Pet. 1:4); by
their being found "sons of the living God" (Hos. 1:10). Not as common
Gentiles, worshipping idols dumb that cannot save, they were to be found a
living, life-diffusing race. "All that see them shall acknowledge them
that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed." Those who have not
found blessing in Jesus and all who do not wish to be a blessing "in the
midst of the nations," and to "the ends of the earth," we do not
claim as worthy of an Israelitish origin.
FORTY-EIGHTH. "A pretentious volume
[Wilson's Our Israelitish Origin] has been written to demonstrate that the
Anglo-Saxon race, are alone entitled to this honor, although the Irish and
Welsh have been found to dispute their claim."
REPLY. - The author of the magazine article,
"WHERE ARE THE TEN TRIBES?" like the rest of our opponents, seems to
have been too wise in his own conceit to prepare himself for rightly reporting
on the subject. So far from claiming, an Israelitish origin for "the
Anglo-Saxons alone," the book recognizes "THE ISRAELITISH ORIGIN
OF THE MODERN NATIONS OF EUROPE." We never even thought of all
the tribes as being comprehended in the Anglo-Saxons, nor of setting up their
claim as opposed to that of the Welsh, or to those of our people in Ireland,
America, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape of Good Hope, or other "ends of
the earth," whither they have been spread out. The claim of the English
was not made to the exclusion of either the Nestorians or any other
Christianized portion of ancient Israel on the Continent.
Neither was a claim put up for the
Anglo-Saxons as being descended from the lost tribes generally, but only from
that tribe from which "a
multitude of Gentiles" were to proceed, who, for Christ's sake, were to be found in the position
occupied by the English, from whom light and salvation were to go forth to the
nations generally, and who were to be so manifestly favored of God, that when
men asked blessing for other tribes, they would ask it after the pattern of
blessing given in this people, saying;, "God make thee so-and-so. God give
you the privileges of British citizens. God give you an open Bible, liberty of
worship, a free press, free trade, constitutional government, an asylum at home
for the oppressed of all nations, and free development by colonization to all
the ends of the earth" (Gen. 48:20).
We perfectly agree with the writer alluded
to that "blindness in part has happened to Israel." And so
it was to be "until the fullness of the Gentiles" promised
to Ephraim should have "come in; and so all Israel" shall be
blessed along with him. Why? Because the more Ephraim comes to the knowledge of
his true position as the Firstborn will he imbibe the spirit of the Great
Redeemer in yearning for the Recovery of the Lost.
Jacob made a clear enough distinction
between the children of Joseph and the other tribes of Israel. But this author
conglomerates them into one confused mass under the curse [of Deut. 28]. Does
he doubt that God will prove true to His promise? (Lev. 26:40-45). He
recognizes the wondrous accuracy of prophecy in regard to the Jew, and quotes
Deut. 28:37: "Thou shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a
byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee." The
echoes of these denunciations are caught up after the lapse of centuries, and
in 1 Kings 9:7 we find it written, "Israel shall be a proverb and a
byword among all people."
FORTY-NINTH & FIFTIETH: [ABCOG:
These address aspects of Jewish history irrelevant to "Our Israelitish
Origin"]
from Sixty
Anglo-Israel Difficulties Answered. Chiefly from the Correspondence of the
late John Wilson, compiled by his daughter. London: S. W. Partridge and
Co., 9, Paternoster Row. 1877
John Wilson, 1877. Sixty Anglo-Israel
Difficulties Answered