History Unveiling Prophecy by H. Grattan Guinness – Part III
CHAPTER VIII FURTHER CONFIRMATION AFFORDED, BY THE VISIBLE COMMENCEMENT OF THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS, AT THE CLOSE OF THE PROPHETIC PERIOD OF 1,260 YEARS FROM THE CONQUEST AND OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE BY THE SARACENS A. D. 637.
Contents
Are we truly living at the close of the prophetic “Times of the Gentiles”? Have we reached the final stage in the predicted course of the church’s pilgrimage? Is the fourth and last watch of the “night”of her appointed suffering history shortly to expire; and does the dawn of a new age, and a new world, already lighten with its early rays the eastern sky? We have seen and set forth clear and multiplied proofs that “the end of the age is near at hand “; that its last sands are swiftly running out; but are all the signs we might have expected of this fact fulfilled? Writing in 1861, correcting his fifth and last edition of the “Horae Apocalypticae,”Elliott said, “some signs are still wanting, especially the non-gathering as yet of the Jews to Palestine, and, predicted troubles consequent.”Forty-three years have elapsed since Elliott thus”wrote, and now we behold the commencement of the Jewish restoration so long foretold, and its commencement at the time indicated ages ago in the prophetic word. The sight is a wonderful one, and a glorious confirmation of our faith, and of the correctness of our interpretation of “the sure word of prophecy.”
On every stage of Jewish history prophecy has shed its antecedent light. Their four hundred years’ captivity in Egypt was foretold; their forty years’ wandering in the wilderness foretold; their seventy years’ captivity in Babylon foretold; their “seventy weeks,”or 490 years of restored national existence in Palestine ending with the advent of Messiah foretold; their dreadful overthrow by the Romans, involving the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Temple, foretold; their long subsequent dispersion, and unexampled sufferings, their falling by the sword, and being “led captive into all nations,”and Jerusalem’s being trodden down by the Gentiles until the “times of the Gentiles “are fulfilled, was foretold; 1 the “seven times “or 2,520 years, of their subjection to Gentile sovereignty, under the succession of the four Kingdoms of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, was foretold ; the “three and a half times,”or 1,260 years, of the last “scattering of the holy people”by the desolating power occupying “the Sanctuary,”whose “sacrifice “had been “taken away,”was foretold; 1 and the final reversal of all this oppression, dispersion, and misery was foretold; that He who had “scattered Israel”would “gather them”; 2 that He would assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth “; 3 that He would “gather them out of all the countries”where he had “driven them in His anger,”and bring them again into the “place”from which they had been exiled, and would “rejoice over them to do them good,”and “plant them in that land assuredly “with His “whole heart”and with His “whole soul”; 4 that He would make them “one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel,”and that they should be “no more two nations, neither be divided into two kingdoms any more at all “; 5 that “the children of Judah and the children of Israel should be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head”; 6 that the Lord would make “her that was cast off a strong nation,”and that He would “reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth and forever”; 7 that He would “make them a praise and a name whose shame had been in all the earth “; 8 that He would “pour upon them the spirit of grace and supplication,”and that they should “look”on Him “whom they pierced, and mourn for Him as one mourneth for an only son, and be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born”; that there should be “a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.”
That the Lord would “cleanse them from all their filthiness and idols,”and give them “a new heart, and a new spirit,”and “take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them an heart of flesh”; and put His “spirit”within them, and “cause them to walk in His statutes, and to keep His judgments, and do them”; and that they should “dwell in the land that He gave their fathers,”and be “His people,”and that He would be “their God”; and that “the land which was desolate”should be “tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all that passed by”; and that they should say “this land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden, and the waste, and desolate, and ruined cities are fenced and inhabited.”10 All this was foretold, and to confirm his declarations Jehovah had said “then shall the nations that are left round about you know that I the Lord have builded the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate: I Jehovah have spoken it, and I will do it.”
But not all at once, or by a single act, was this great restoration of the Jewish people to be accomplished. In his memorable vision the prophet Ezekiel portrays several successive stages in this work. He sees, representing figuratively the children of Israel, a valley filled with dry bones, and hears the question, “Can these bones live?” Then comes the command, “Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.”Then the prophet beholds the bones coming together, “bone to his bone,””but there was no breath in them.”Later on at the call “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live,””the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”1 In explanation of the vision the Lord said to the prophet, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, Behold O My people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live; and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.””Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all.”2 First the unification of the lifeless people of Israel should take place; then their national restoration to their own land; and lastly their spiritual quickening, with all its glorious results. Such was the foretold order. Not forever are the Jewish people to be a dispersed, despised, down-trodden race; not forever is their unbelief and rejection of Messiah to continue; for as Paul tells us “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved”; for this is God’s “covenant “with them; “for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” or irrevocable.
And now the thing foretold is taking place before our eyes. Tin- re is a stir in the Valley of Vision. The immobility and disjointed condition of the bleached bones, which had continued for ages, exists no more. Israel is still spiritually lifeless as a nation, but bone is coming to his bone. The Jews are unifying. They have proclaimed before the world the “solidarite”of Israel: and are beginning to return to their own land. And when did this movement commence? It began at the time of the French Revolution. Both events commenced at the close of the “seven times”of the four empires; at their first, or initial termination; the era of the seventh trumpet, with its seven vials of judgment on apostate Babylon. And the last 100 years which have witnessed the casting down of the Papal and Mohammedan powers, by the successive shocks of war and revolution, have seen the lifting up of the people of Israel from the depression of ages; their rapid emancipation, and national renaissance.
The first act in this marvellous modern movement was the enfranchisement of the Jews in England in 1753. In 1755 Moses Mendelssohn published the first of those writings which gave him a foremost place among the literary men of his time. In 1776 the United States of America embodied in their constitution the principle that Gentile and Jew were “equal”in right and privilege before the law. In the convulsion of the French Revolution “the chains fell from the limbs of Israel wherever the victorious armies of France appeared, and the Jews once more began to be accounted men.”In 1805 Russia revoked the edict of Jewish banishment. In 1806 the Jews were made citizens in Italy and Westphalia, as they had been previously in Holland and Belgium. In 1809 Baden, and in 1813 Prussia, and Denmark followed the example of other nations, and emancipated the Jews. Acts of Parliament were passed in England in their favour in 1830, 1833, and 1836; and in 1858 they were made eligible for election to Parliament. In 1866 Turkey had pledged herself to protect them from persecution; and in 1867 she gave them the right to hold real estate in the land of their fathers. In 1878 the Congress of Berlin made the fifll emancipation of the Jews in Roumania a condition of promised autonomy. And then in 1860 was formed the Universal Israelite Alliance, “an organization which has for its object the promotion and completion of the emancipation of the Jews in all lands, and their intellectual and moral elevation, as also the development of Jewish colonization in the Holy Land.”This great Jewish society has some three thousand branches widely scattered throughout the world. Beneath the device on the title page of its report representing the tables of the law illuminated with the glory of the Shekinah, two hands, are pictured, closely clasped in friendship and unity, with the motto ‘Toutes les Israelites sont solidaires les uns des autres.’ All Israelites are one!”
The aim of the Society, next to the realization of Jewish unity, is the cooperation of Jews throughout the world in efforts on behalf of their suffering and oppressed brethren, efforts to secure ” 1’emancipation de nos freres qui gemis-sent encore sous le poids d’une legislation exceptionelle.”Various associations are connected with the Alliance as national branches, as the Anglo-Jewish Association, under the presidency of Barori de Worms, Sir Barrow Ellis, Sir Julian Goldsmith, Sir Benjamin Phillips, Sir Saul Samuel, and Sir Albert Sassoon. Its records tell of efforts on behalf of suffering Jews in Morocco, Roumania, Russia, and Persia; of schools for neglected Jewish children established in Bagdad, Beyrout, Bombay, Constantinople, Corfu, Da-knaHciiK, Fez, Haifa, Jerusalem, Kezanlik, Philippopolis, Buliiiiica, Samacoff, Sophia, Tunis, and elsewhere. Jewish journal’s have been created or aided for the instruction and elevation of the Jews in various countries, and “to knit more closely the bond of union amongst the different Jewish communities.”But here the work of the Alliance stops. It has not sought to secure for the Jews a national position, or to bring about their restoration to Palestine.
The unity and emancipation of the Jews at which this Alliance aims, however desirable, fails to satisfy the heart of the Jewish people, which naturally turns to Palestine, the land of their fathers, with longings for restoration to their national position, and their original divinely-given inheritance and home. And hence the various attempts which have been latterly made to found Jewish colonies in Palestine; attempts to a considerable degree successful; and the large number of Jews who have returned to, and are settled in that land. But beyond these efforts a further movement was needed to bring about the reconstruction of the Jews as a nation in their own land. Was it possible that such a movement, vibrating far and wide throughout the scattered people, could arise? This is a prosaic and practical age. For long centuries the Jews have been domiciled in Gentile lands. Palestine has long lain desolate, and exists at the present day under the misgovernment of the Turks. Was it likely chat the Jews, already to a considerable extent emancipated from Gentile oppression would undertake the gigantic work of restoring their people to the land from which they had been exiled so long? It is true that the scriptures of the prophets had said that this would come to pass. But how could this thing be? How could the Jews be brought, in any wide and general way, to entertain the thought of such a restored national existence in Palestine? And how could they be led to attempt its practical realization?
Difficulties vanish in the presence of infinite, eternal power. Had not God brought forth the Jewish nation from Egypt; had He not restored them from captivity in Babylon, and could He not bring them again to their own land from the ends of the earth? “Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.”And now, lo! as the foretold period of 1,260 years from the Saracenic conquest of Palestine in A . D . 637, expires, as the year 1897 arrives, a new movement among the Jews springs into existence; Zionism arises, with its clearly defined aim “to procure for the Jewish people an openly recognized and legally assured home in Palestine.”
The first “ Zionist”Congress was held at Basle, in 1897. Each year since that date the annual Congress has increased in numbers and influence.
I have before me a description from the pen of an intelligent Christian eye-witness, Mr. Schonberger, of the fifth Zionist Congress, held at Basle. Three hundred Jewish delegates, and about a thousand Jewish hearers, crowded the large hall of the Stadt Casino. The delegates were highly-educated men, speaking a great variety of languages. “The three great speeches were those of Dr. Hertzl on the opening day, of Dr. Nordau on the second day, and of Mr. Israel Zangwill, of Ghetto fame, on the evening of the fourth day. Dr. Hertzl’s address which was most eagerly looked forward to, and listened to with profound interest, had all the soberness, earnestness and statesmanlike character which mark the commanding personality of the rcipccted and honoured founder of the movement. There was no brilliancy of diction, nor any attempt at oratory in its delivery; but its principal points, as well as the whole filing testified of the man who had undertaken a great task, and felt the full weight of his responsibility. It gave in a most concise and telling way the whole story of Zionism, its achievements and prospects; and described the spiriti and means by which it strives to attain its end. An altogether different thing was Dr. Nordau’s great address on the ‘Physical, economical, and intellectual amelioration of the Jews.’ Dr. Nordau is a masterful orator and most gifted word-painter, who brings to his task all the abilities of a savant, a writer and a journalist combined. His personality, and his gifts are alike striking. He is a veritable giant, and his strokes go home to friend and foe alike. His addresses are characterized by sweeping assertions, ana-tomicaL and pathological laying bare of Israel’s diseases, woes, and miseries; searching analysis of the deplorable physical and economic condition of the great masses of Jews, and their causes; a fiery denunciation of the rich— especially the ‘ lost’ Jewish millionaires. Israel Zang-will’s task was to expose the Jewish Colonial Association, and the Trustees of the Baron Hirsch Fund, on account of their standing aloof from Zionism.”
It is a significant fact, indicative of Jewish progress that the delegates at the Congress “total at more university degrees than the House of Commons, though the membership is not half that of the mother of Parliaments.”These delegates “come from everywhere, from Dawson City and Stockholm, from Astrachan and Tetuan; from Morocco, from Anatolia and the Argentine. In less than five years the movement has run through the British Empire, Russia, Roumania, and Galicia, and is making headway in Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland, and has its advocates for the return among the returned in Palestine.”
“The movement is distinctly liberal. The central authority is the Vienna executive, but each country has independent power within the framework of the movement. The most marked liberality of thought exists on religious matters. At one end is the rabbi, in fur cap, gabardine and side curls; at the other the rank Freethinker. Every shade of political thought is represented, and differences ignored in favour of the main idea of the return, and blood kinship of Israel. Nearly half a million of Jews have become interested Zionists. Next to no one is paid; volunteers do nearly everything except the sheer routine work. Its zeal has given birth to Neo-Hebrew. The old tongue lives again. It has its newspapers, magazines, novels and poetry, and ‘ Daniel Deronda’ or Byron’s Hebrew Melodies may be picked up in the tongue of Isaiah and the Talmudic Rabbis. Even London has its Hebrew newspaper, and a new Hebrew encyclopedia is being issued. Zionism has made Hebrew the language of instruction in the Jewish colonies in Palestine. The Zionists have managed to arrest the attention of the German Emperor, to obtain an audience of the Sultan, and raise £300,000 from 126,000 shareholders.”They are opposed by a certain set of rabbis under the influence of the more wealthy and worldly Jews, but as Dr. Hertzl said, “The poor and the wretched understand us; they have the imagination created by distress. They know from the experience of today and yesterday what the pangs of hunger will be tomorrow. In this condition there are many hundreds of thousands of our people. Judaism is an immense hostelry of misery, with branches throughout the world. Of the ‘Protest-Rabbis’ of the west who oppose the movement Dr. Max Nordau said, ‘with them we have already settled, and I hope that soon the whole Jewish people will have si’ttled with them.’ ”
This eloquent Jew, Dr. Max Nordau, addressing the delegates to the Congress said, “It seemed as if we were witnessing a miracle which affected ourselves, and all around us. We felt ourselves part and parcel of a fairy tale, in which we saw our brethren, thousands of years buried, again become flesh and blood. We wanted in the joy of this reunion to rehearse the sad history of the hundreds of years in which we had been dead in our tomb, in a grave which lacked the peace of a grave.””We have honestly striven everywhere to merge ourselves in the social life of surrounding communities, and to preserve only the faith of our fathers. It has not been permitted to us. In vain arise loyal patriots, in some places our loyalty running to extremes; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property as our fellow citizens; in vain do we strive to increase the fame of our native land in science and art, or her wealth by trade and commerce. In countries where we have lived for centuries we are still cried down as strangers; and often by those whose ancestors were not yet domiciled in the land where Jews had already made experience of suffering. We are one people — our enemies have made us one in our despite, as repeatedly happens in history. Distress binds us together, and thus united, we suddenly discover our strength. Yes, we are strong enough to form a State, and a Model State.”
ZION THE CAPITAL OR A JEWISH NATION
In his account of the International Zionist Congress at Basle in August last Richard Gottheil says, “A full seven years of service and work have passed by since a little band of one hundred and fifty enthusiasts met in the small hall of the Stadt Casino of that city in the year 1897. This year nearly six hundred delegates crowded to its utmost capacity the large meeting hall in that building; and these were little more than one-half of those that have been elected to represent Zionist constituencies. In 1897 the delegates came from only a few European states—notably Austria, Russia, Germany, France, and England. In 1903 there was hardly a corner of the globe in which Jews reside which was not represented. In Europe, from northern Scandinavia to southern Italy, from Ireland to the confines of Asia; and from North and South America, from far ofF Australia and South Africa; even from the Russo-Chinese frontier, these delegates came to meet their brethren and to sit in the Jewish Congress. The telegrams of greeting which poured into Basle showed that the Zionist organization is as far reaching as is the present day dispersion of the children of Israel. Even China proper was heard from in a communication from the Shanghai Zionist Association. It was not out of idle curiosity that these representatives had come to Basle; it was not the excitement of a moment that prompted these messages. Both men and messages bespoke, not only an underlying sentiment in the heart of the Jewish people, but also definite work in this great Jewish movement. The meeting in 1897 was largely tentative. That of 1903 was evidence of a fixed institution. The growth in members is paralleled by the growth in internal organization, and in other work of a most varied character. So large has become the number of delegates that a change has been found necessary in the method of representation, the basis of that representation being now two hundred in place of one hundred for each delegate.“
Within the Congress itself various parties have been formed. There is the government party, led of course by Dr. Hertzl, and the central committee at Vienna. There is the strictly orthodox party, called the Mizrachi, led by a Russian Rabbi in the long caftan of his own country; there is the young Zionist party, made up largely of former and present Russian students at German and Swiss uni- versities. Though not opposed to one another, and all working for one and the same end, they differ as to the means by which this end is to be reached; and these very differences show that the movement is pulsating with life — that it is not dead formalism, but the expression of the soul of Judaism.
“At the meeting in 1897 the question discussed was the eternaj one—to be, or not to be. At the Congress of 1903 definite propositions were made which demanded in their treatment the wisdom of experience, and the restraint of calm judgment. The road traversed by the Zionists between 1897 and 1903 was not only strewn with many obstacles, but covered by almost impassible barriers. A way had to be cleared through the jungle, and the undergrowth which centuries of neglect had allowed to arise in the path of the Jews. Opposition, more especially Jewish opposition had to be overcome at every point; for attacks had been made upon the Zionists in the open, and from behind ambushes. ‘ The rich ones among us, those who have gained fame and wealth in the international market of the world, have held severely aloof. Those who believed they would be looked upon as better citizens by crying out loudly their allegiance to the country in which they lived, fought us with all the weapons of satire and detraction. But a movement which is of the people, and for the people, which has its roots firmly set in the conscience of that people, will not down even at the insistence of the mighty, or at the satire of the garrulous. The movement progressed, and indeed gained strength from the opposition which it provoked. A Jewish Congress had been hailed as an impossibility. It was ‘shown to be a fact. A Jewish bank for strictly Jewish purposes had been decried as an anomaly. Yet the Jewish Colonial Trust was founded in London; a branch, the Anglo-Palestine bank, was founded in Palestine, and branches are now in the process of formation both in Russia and in America. A Jewish national fund was laughed at as the dream of enthusiasts. Yet such a fund has been founded and bids fair to give the material resources to Zionism without which of course it cannot work. But more than this, the Zionist movement is responsible for a great awakening of the Jewish conscience; for a return of many of our best and most intelligent Jews to Judaism; for a tremendous advance of culture among the Jews along Jewish lines in philosophy, in literature, in art. If the Jews have still a message to the world it is through this reawakened conscience that this message is spoken.’ “1
Our beloved brother David Baron of London who has as a converted Jew, deeply interested in the welfare of the Jewish people, attended the Zionist Congress, says in The Scattered Nation, “I am of the conviction that if Zionism does not as yet sufficiently represent the wealth and material resources of the Jewish nation, it does certainly represent a large proportion of its head and brain; and as I looked upon those hundreds of earnest, intelligent faces, gathered from all parts of the earth, and listened to the able, and often impassioned speeches made in different languages, I felt in my soul that Israel is God’s great reserve force for the future blessing of the world; and my heart goes out in yearning for the time when ‘the spirit shall be poured upon us from on high,’ and when these remarkable gifts, and this zeal and ability, shall be consecrated to the service of making known their long rejected Messiah and King among the nations.”
