ANTI SEMITISM
The term "Anti-Semitism," as commonly used to denote active opposition to the Jewish race, is a misnomer. From ancient times the Semitic branch of our human family included Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Arabians and other descendants of Shem, son of Noah (Gen. 5:32) and probably his firstborn. Today, this would include the peoples of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as Jews.
That the term "Anti-Semitism" is used to describe race-hatred of the Jews in particular clearly indicates that the world regards the Jews as the pre-eminent descendants of Shem!
Historically, racial hatred has arisen within an ethnic group as a result of a threat, real or imagined, from an alien culture. Apart from other malign racial influences, man has all too often been unable to ward off the evil effects of plain provincialism — which fears anything "strange" or "exotic" — and the automatic reflex in all societies is to look for a scapegoat when anything goes wrong. A product of fear, ignorance and often jealousy, the effect of Racism is always to breed hatred, to degrade and to brutalize. It is particularly virulent where the vulnerability of immigrants is heightened by retention of distinctive features of their origin, such as skin-color, or culture, which inhibit their assimilation. In the case of the Jews, their hold on Judaism as a religio-social system, together with their aversion to intermarriage, clearly distinguishes them from their host populations.
This, however, does not account for the persistence and extreme malevolence which has marked hatred and persecution of the Jews over the years of their exile. Deeper reasons must be sought, which explain why that hatred reaches genocidal proportions.
Today, race-hatred is directed against the Jew from many different sources, even as it arises from many different causes. An examination of the most prominent of these will show how little hope of any permanent security the Diaspora Jews can count on.
EXTREME NATIONALISM
Strong feelings are aroused when immigrants with alien cultural influences appear to pervade and threaten a nation's traditional way of life, or to gain a disproportionate share of social, political or economic advantage. Extremists seek to short-cut any long-term political solution by taking direct action to eliminate the supposed threat.
Existing, hard-line "patriotic" organizations support the cause and others arise, all of which attract not only those with genuine fears, but many from the more brutally ignorant levels of society who seek merely an outlet for their natural violence. Such movements, in other circumstances, lead nations into expansionist wars, as in the Germany of the 1930s.
The Jewish way of life encourages hard work in its adherents, many of whom are shrewd in business and ambitious in social circles. To these talents must be added a cultural genius. These all result in Jews being prominently represented in the various worlds of business, finance, politics, law, medicine, science, the arts and entertainment. As an immigrant population, therefore, they inevitably meet with envy and opposition from Extreme Nationalism. Our world, both currently and historically, abounds with evidence of this human situation and its terrible consequences, "… man's inhumanity to man".
To the Extreme Nationalist, International Zionism represents world-wide support for a supposed enemy in his midst. It becomes a target for his invective and, where unrestrained, the Jews themselves become targets for his physical abuse. As today's clamour and tide of hatred rise in demonstration and counter-demonstration, law and order become increasingly difficult to maintain. Minority groups, especially "colored" people, are exposed to attack, and the Jews also become vulnerable in outbreaks of violence. Where an extreme Nationalist movement succeeds in securing political power, persecution enters a new and very dangerous phase. The Nazi party was such a successful movement, with bad results known to all.
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM
This enemy of Zionism arises from the imperial form of Communism developed in post-revolutionary Russia, that implacable front-runner in the battle for world domination. It has a strong political theory, received from Karl Marx's analysis of nineteenth-century European capitalist society and his ideas on class warfare as the Juggernaut of change. Its weakness lies in its metaphysical sub-structure, which is a vague and narrow philosophical mixture of historical determinism and dialectical materialism.
So narrow is that metaphysical base, that it leaves untouched wide ranges of human experience and observation. Suppression, therefore, is the only defence against anything beyond its accepted spectrum of reality; which explains Russia's sensitivity to the activity of Individuality, Conscience and Will among her subjects (this is clearly demonstrated in her treatment of Dissidents). Religion itself is seen as a drug, the usage of which must be abolished before Man's real happiness can be achieved.
At one time, the world influence of Christian Catholicism was seen as the greatest obstruction to International Communism's ambitions. The Papacy was, and still is, the bulwark of that obstruction. In more recent times, however, the infiltration of Marxism into the ranks and leadership of provincial Roman Catholicism, has brought about a revolutionary spirit against aristocratic and capitalist rulers who traditionally, from the days of the Holy Roman Empire, had been the Papacy's allies in ruling the nations. This has greatly weakened the central authority of the Pope.
In lands where the Reformation has brought a rejection of Papal power, Socialist principles are bringing about a less marked, but very real, similar change, as they infiltrate the world of Protestantism and Nonconformity. The Ecumenical movement, the hope of many for building up a united front against the growth of Communism, is not seen by Communists as a real threat since the divisions within the Christian World, apparent to all, are increasing in number with each step in that direction. The Papacy therefore is no longer the one great challenger for that world-wide authority desired by the equally dogmatic and centrally (Russian) controlled authority of International Communism. Instead, another threat is seen as arising from the historic and religious past which the wisest of political visionaries could not have foretold.
The political and religious wings of the modern Zionist movement have lifted the Jews to nationhood and to such international prominence as brings their family name "Israel" (Gen. 35:10) nearly 4,000 years forward in time and into the forefront of current world affairs. In 1896 when Herzl produced his work "Judenstaat" (literally "The Jew's State"), he and others of the early political Zionist movement had no knowledge of the influence of the Christian, Charles Taze Russell's teachings, which had awakened in men's minds the consciousness of religious Zionism. That consciousness, together with the effect on Jewish thinking of the Holocaust in Europe, was to help power the movement Herzl had started to achieve nationhood in the State of Israel as we know it today. That State is now seen by Russia as a potentially powerful opponent of International Communism.
From the standpoint of Communism, the enemy is not the Jew according to his blood, since many of Jewish extraction have been leading theoreticians and militants in Communism's ranks, e.g. Marx (otherwise, Mordechai) and Trotsky (otherwise, Bronstein): rather, the enemy is the Jew as Capitalist, and the Jew as Zionist. However, Capitalism is but a temporary threat and will vanish, Communism teaches, in the Historical Process as in a great dialectical interplay between the enslaved workers (Marx's "proletariat") and their harsh, money-controlled economic environment, contact will lead to continual abrasive encounters. The succession of such painful experiences, with their eventual awakening effect on the masses, would lead to growing calls for Justice, and for political organization as a means of enforcing change. A series of progressive, revolutionary steps toward emancipation would then occur, like marching feet, moving society inexorably forward into a new world order (Joel 2:7 describes a certain degree of success which will attend this "march"), leaving broken Capitalist institutions, kings, aristocracies and clergy as mere references in the pages of history. Marx believed that in such a situation, his early exposé of the nature of the Capitalist world would serve to hasten its inevitable, historically determined overthrow. Such a speeding up of events would shorten the period of suffering for all concerned. And so, the Jew as Capitalist is seen as a real, but temporary opponent in man's progress toward Marx's dream of a free society, toward which Communism is but an essential, preliminary step.
The Jew as Zionist is, however, another matter. Religious Zionism, in particular, lies outside the span of Communism's metaphysical substructure. There is no answer, in the philosophies of Materialism and Determinism, to the religious claims of Zionism. Furthermore, there is enshrined within Zionism a promise of world influence (Gen. 22:17, 18), coveted by Russia. That this influence will be of God and toward the world peace of Marx's dream, carries no weight with atheistic, power-hungry men fed on a materialistic philosophy, such as lead Russia today.
The Jewish State, supported by resources of wealth, influence and intellect from the vast pool of the Western, Capitalist Diaspora and largely directed by the World Zionist Organization, is now emerging as a significant, long-term obstacle to International Communism's drive for world domination. Battle cannot be fought on Zionism's home ground, which is largely and increasingly religious, since anything which stirs the world's religious consciousness, threatens Communism at its weakest point. Historically also, the weight of argument is on the Jewish side, especially as archaeological finds in Israel prove rights based on ancient association with the Land. The slogan, "Zionism is Racism", is therefore an invented proposition aimed at forcing the battle into a modern political arena where Communism thrives, and where Zionism can be attacked.
Assuredly, International Communism fears Zionism and will suppress it, even eradicate it and the State of Israel with it, if opportunity can be found.
EXTREME SOCIALISM
The spectrum of "Socialism" is so wide, reaching from "Right-wing Labour", with its Utopian social schemes based on reform rather than revolution, to those ill-defined but highly revolutionary regions where Anarcho-Syndicalism works away at its political theory, that a common view of Zionism does not emerge. It is nevertheless true that the further "left" the stand, the greater the degree of Anti-Semitism displayed. Socialist movements which represent pluralist interests afford a certain degree of shelter to alien cultures, permitting their survival. In moving further to the political "left", however, these give way to totalitarian regimes where "The State" is given the almost deified standing of an arbitrary, external power dominating society. To this power, sectional and individual rights must be subjugated. Further still to the "left", lurks Anarcho-Syndicalism and the stateless, leaderless group. Such mob-like groups are prominent and vociferous in anti-Semitic demonstrations today.
To the extreme political Left, the world-wide influence of the Jews, especially their prevalence in the sphere of Capitalism, is a menace to hopes of revolutionary change. World Zionism is seen as an organization of the Diaspora's resources behind the State of Israel in order to perpetuate the Capitalist system and to strengthen the Jews' position in it. Furthermore, Zionism's teachings that the Jews are a "special" people, and that the World, for its blessing, will be subjected to a descendant of the ancient Hebrew King David, ruling from Jerusalem, are violations of the basic tenets of extreme Socialists' beliefs. Hence the stridency of their borrowed slogan, "Zionism is Racism", and their loud support of territorial claims of the Palestinian Arabs to possess at least a part of the "Promised Land".
ISLAMIC EXTREMISM
Islam is by no means an "Arab" religion. On the contrary, it claims Universal relevance, and has pretensions to world domination, the quest of which is permitted by force of arms in the doctrine of Jihad (Holy War).
Although Islam first took hold among the Ishmaelites (Abraham's descendants by the Egyptian woman, Hagar) in the Arabian Peninsula, its founder, Mohammed, was probably not an Ishmaelite. His parents were of the Hashemite family, of an Arabian tribe, the Koreish, which according to some authorities claimed descent from Joktan, son of Eber, and not from Ishmael, son of Abraham who came from Peleg, Joktan's brother (Gen. 10:25-29; 11:16-26; I Chron. 1:19-23). All authorities agree that Arabian genealogies were never committed to writing before the spread of Islam, and only in exceptional cases were they remembered. Rarely indeed would they be likely to be historical for more than two — or at most three — generations before the founding of Islam.
Following Mohammed and the early Caliphs, Islamic rulers have included various nationalities, such as Caucasian, Mamelukes, Kurds and Turks, while nations from the Punjab to the Atlantic Ocean have bowed before the onslaught of fanatical Muslim warriors. Many indeed are the races conquered then, and most bow still to Mecca.
In recent times, attempting to arouse again the spirit of Islam, Iran and others have sought to promote a world-wide militancy, and have even spoken of declaring a Jihad (Holy War) against Israel; while some, in opposition to other Islamic leaders, have contemplated peace with Israel. Moreover, nations of the Muslim world are divided in many ways, including sectarian squabbles and mistrust; border threats, skirmishes and even open warfare where the cause of Unity gives way to policies of self-interest; revolutionary activities of Marxists against the old order of autocratic rulers, and by deep differences between advocates of a rigid, authoritarian Islamic culture and those who favor a more open, tolerant, democratic, "Western" culture. Under such pressures, it seems inevitable that further changes to the political scene will occur.
Islamic Extremism does not, therefore, have a stable base upon which to build unity and support in the Muslim world, in consequence of which a concerted, massive campaign against Israel, using the full potential of Islamic resources, has not been possible. This appears to be Providential, since were it otherwise, in wealth, in numbers and in weight of armaments, the odds favoring Israel's enemies would be overwhelming, and Israel's very survival would be at stake.
The new Islamic opposition to Zionism centers on the authority with which the Jews have re-established their presence in the Middle East as a nation in the heart of the old Islamic empire. This presence includes control of the City of Jerusalem, and the growth of militant Judaism (which Islam has bitterly opposed since 622 C.E., the year when at Medina, the Jews spurned Mohammed as a prophet of God).
And remember when Moses said to his people, "O my people! call to mind the goodness of God towards you when He appointed Prophets among you and appointed you kings, and gave you what never had been given before to any human beings: Enter, O my people! the holy land which God hath destined for you. Turn not back lest ye be overthrown to your ruin." (KORAN Surah 5:20)
Islamic militants today, as is common with extremists, permit their own rules of conduct and belief to be ignored, twisted or "tailor-made" to suit the occasion. Otherwise, for instance, the just, wise, Divinely ordained provision of the Holy Land for the Jews, acknowledged in the Koran (Surah 5), together with their security of person and property as "the people of protection", provided under the "Covenant of Omar" in the year 637, would be honoured.
It was, in fact, an imperfect knowledge of the "Old Testament" which provided Mohammed with most of his religious understanding in pre-Medina days, and the Jews were his first-sought love after the Hegira (flight from Mecca to Medina, 622 C.E.). It was Judaism's arrogance in spurning his teachings and himself as a prophet of God, which inflamed his feelings against them. In like manner, "… Israeli conceit and arrogance" (Anwar Sadat, 25 April 1972) infuriates the zealous Muslim today, so that he joins with feverish enthusiasm the chorus begun in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution of 10 September 1957, "Zionism is (a form of) Racism".
Jews may hope for some kind of mercy from Islam only while the "stamp" of "humiliation and abasement" remains upon them, according to the Koran's teachings. The time is now due, however, as we have shown from the scriptures, for the repeal of that historic condition, and for the elevation of the Jews to nationhood and to eventual security and world-wide influence in the new World-Age now being ushered in. Messiah will reveal Himself to the Jew first, and then to all mankind, with power and authority bringing Peace to this troubled world. Devotees of Islam (submission, surrender, obedience) will then bow before the teachings of another book, the New Covenant, and together with Earth's other millions, they will come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads (Isa. 35:10).
PALESTINIAN ARAB NATIONALISM
Nationhood was never sought by the Palestinian Arabs until it was put into their minds by Muslim neighbors, when Israel agreed to the U.N. Partition Resolution of November, 1947. The terms of that Resolution were recommended by an international committee appointed by the U.N. General Assembly, and accepted by the Jews but not by Arabs.
Aware of mounting Arab opposition to the Resolution, the British, embarrassed by their alliances, announced their decision to withdraw from their Mandate, giving 15 May 1948 as the effective date. David Ben Gurion announced the Independence of the State of Israel on the 14 May, and the surrounding Arab states immediately stepped up their wordy opposition into open warfare by launching an invasion against that land granted to the Jews by the U.N. Resolution. 600,000 Arabs, previously living peaceably enough with the Jews, left the disputed territory voluntarily. There was no dispossession, there were no enforced refugees. Assuming that the new State of Israel would be throttled at birth by the near-encircling Arab armies, they awaited the time of their return to what would then become, in direct opposition to the U.N. Resolution, an entirely Arab Palestine. Their hopes were dashed however as the Arab armies met with military defeat. The Palestinian Arabs who had left their homes were stranded.
From that time it has been a ploy of the Arab nations to retain those "refugees" as a separate entity and in conditions of privation, as an object of pity to be used politically, especially in the United Nations, against Israel. There is no justification for the continuance of those privations, bearing in mind the colossal wealth at the disposal of the oil-rich "brethren" of the Arab or Islamic world.
Militants arising among Palestine nationalists are sworn to uphold a Covenant, the Palestine National Covenant formulated by the Palestine Liberation Organization and recognized by all Arab governments but one. This Covenant denies the Jews a national identity (Article 20). It terms the return of the Jew to his internationally agreed homeland, a "Zionist invasion", and calls it an Arab duty to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine (Articles 15 and 16).
Zionism is there declared to be a fanatical, aggressive, imperialist, colonialist, expansionist and racist movement (Article 22) and a majority of the U.N. member states uphold the P.L.O. as the legitimate representative of the Arab Palestinians (although their leader and spokesman, Yasser Arafat, born in Cairo, has dubious claims to Palestinian nationality).
In view of the foregoing, the activities of extremists among Jewish religious parties, in seeking to apply unilaterally their own interpretation of Biblical promises to the Jew outside of any historical context and in violation of Justice to others, has merely served to exacerbate the situation and to play into the hands of Israel's enemies. God unfolds His own plan in His own time: He is not "upstaged" by men.
THE CHRISTIAN WORLD
That the Christian world should be found among those who have misrepresented and persecuted the Jews, is particularly shameful. It is nevertheless true that from the onset of the Dark Ages, atrocious crimes have been committed against the Jew as a race, in the name of Jesus! Indeed, trapped as so many Christians still are in Dark Age errors, with the best of intentions they are led to believe, and teach, horrible misrepresentations of a great deal of what the name of Jesus stands for.
While followers of those Godless social and political philosophies earlier described are benighted in their understanding and limited in their responsibility by sheer ignorance, having neither knowledge of nor belief in God's plan, with the Christian world this is not so. In Apostolic days the Truth was well known and clearly taught (Acts. 20:27), but as Europe declined, then collapsed in anarchy and warfare, that Truth gave way to Dark Age errors. With the advent of the Holy Roman Empire, Christendom emerged, and within its borders the plan of God for the salvation of Man was distorted and largely lost, and God Himself was terribly blasphemed by such false doctrines as the Consciousness of the Dead and Eternal Torment. Thus was error built up around man's understanding of God, His people, character, works and purposes.
Among these perversions the once-held Truth on the nature and office of Jesus was lost, as the erroneous doctrine of the Trinity was introduced some three hundred years after Jesus' death. For centuries, Trinitarian teachings have led men to believe that God Himself died on the cross at Calvary. How foolish! As if mortal man could kill God, the Immortal (i.e., death-proof) One! Calm reflection on this illogical proposition should be enough to send every Trinitarian back to the Bible in meditation and prayer, seeking the spirit of a sound mind and the truth on the Unity of God (Deut 6:4; Isa. 46:9), even as Jesus taught it (Mark 12:29).
Unfortunately, the error not only survives, but thrives, and gives the deluded Christian a seeming justification for believing that the Jews killed God! Deicide! Is there any wonder that such a one has a distorted picture of the Jew? Moreover, where Pride or Avarice could benefit from decrying, exploiting or expropriating the exiled Jew, an excuse to do so was ready-made with popular support assured. And so it was that in the Christian world Jews were subjected to terrible injustices and persecutions by those who claimed to serve the God of Love.
In more recent times, the growing threat of Marxist Philosophies and of revolutionary ideas, has led Christendom's hierarchies to draw together, seeking to heal the Reformation's rift so as to combine their flocks and consolidate their powers into a position of unity and strength. Ecumenicalism is really a means of conscripting Christendom's resources against the Day of Battle (Prov. 21:31; Jer. 50:22). Fear and the need to muster support is causing Christendom's leaders to run to and fro (Dan. 12:1, 4) seeking allies.
In a blaze of publicity they have visited and spoken of "Forgiveness", and "Peace", even among those formerly deemed to be outcasts, damned forever. Such peace is not real peace (Jer. 8:11, 15). Let the Jews beware the pontiff's smile, remembering that it hides centuries of unrepented, unadmitted persecution. Let them bear in mind that the hands now raised to bless (?) were at one time raised to strike — and into their present raised position they are forced by circumstance, not by love or understanding!
Away from Christendom, and among those of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" sect, the position remains hard, and no hope is held out to the Jew since Jesus' day. The "J.W.s.", having rejected the teachings of the one they claim (quite wrongly) to be their founder, i.e. Pastor C.T. Russell, now teach that the Jewish nation as such has been condemned in a final judgment and that there is for that nation no hope of redemption and restoration to God's favor. Floundering in dogmatically asserted error, the "J.W." leaders follow the course of the Papacy in its early development, claiming to be God's only representative and mouthpiece here on Earth. Of this particular enmity, which again lays the foundation for religious persecution, the Jews are well aware.
Even among those Messianic Millenarian Christians who uphold the Restoration of Israel as part of God's plan, errors creep in to disrupt the good work otherwise done. The erroneous belief that the Jews must be converted to Christianity before Messiah comes stimulates unwise zealot missionaries to harry Jewish communities and individuals in feverish attempts to obtain converts.
The truth of the matter is that the Jewish nation will never be brought into the Christian fold, for such is not part of God's plan. On the contrary, we believe that as the organizations of Christendom founder and sink in the great Time of Trouble now upon us (Zeph. 1:14-17; Dan. 12:1; Jer. 25:33), the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel will survive in relative prosperity. One final wave of trouble will roll toward that nation, however, as the remnants of the Gentile nations seek its destruction. Those marauding armies will nevertheless be broken as God miraculously delivers Israel (Ezek. 38:18–39:29; Jer. 30:7-11). The people will then recognize their true Deliverer as the long-awaited Messiah, and will in accepting Him, turn to God with their whole heart (Zech. 12:9, 10; Jer. 24:5-7) and take up their position in God's plan for the blessing of all the nations.
Let Christians, therefore, as they recognize their high privilege, cooperate in this great work of speaking words of comfort to Jerusalem (Isa. 40:1, 2). Let them urge the Jewish people to have faith in God's wonderful promise for their high destiny in the Land which He gave them so long ago (Gen. 17:1-8; 35:9-13).
TRADITION
Much of what is necessary to the proper and orderly running of the affairs of men and of nations, is received from traditional thought and behavioral patterns. Such reliance is placed upon this source, that all too often it is not seriously questioned as the young succeed their elders.
Good traditions are a worthy heritage, bequeathing noble concepts, just and compassionate precepts and healthy practices to each new generation. Seeds of future evils are sown, however, where ignoble precepts and base practices, born of fear, pride, avarice or any other disreputable characteristic enter the traditions to live on unchallenged, a corrupting influence rooted in the folk-lore of a population. "… if you let in but one little finger of Tradition, you will have in the whole monster — horns and tail and all." Thus was it seen by the English historian, Thomas Arnold.
In our day, the prevalence of degrading impressions of the Jew is a malign influence in nations that have allowed this historic injustice to remain unexpurgated from their traditions. Even their everyday language is tainted, and many dictionaries, in fact, still include viciously insulting meanings of the word "Jew", when giving the figurative and colloquial meanings. The effect of this is to promote all forms of denigration and persecution by suggesting universality of such views and the social acceptability of such word usage.
By this means, errors and injustices from a benighted era in European and other histories are perpetuated. In such an environment, unreasonable suspicions and instinctive dislike flourish, which all too often have been whipped up into bitter hatred leading to acts of barbarity. Even in this present "enlightened" day, and in the streets of our most "enlightened" cities, men and women march and cry against the Jew just because he is a Jew.
The children of Christian families are particularly vulnerable to this insidious attack on their developing sense of social tolerance and justice, receiving from such evil traditions an early predisposition toward racial hatred. Surely we should root out all such pernicious matter from our literature, and from the heritage of custom we leave to future generations!
Summary and Conclusion
Wherever the Jews have settled in their Dispersion, sooner or later they have been persecuted. The insistence of the Jews (other than assimilationists) on the practice of their own unique culture, Judaism, within the social and religious framework of the host group has served to isolate them, and to expose them to suspicion, envy and calumny, leading to persecution. Each host nation or city has "discovered" its own peculiar justification for harassment, expropriation, expatriation and even the slaughter of its Jewish population. Such is the number and diversity of these various "justifications", and yet such the similarity of the end result, that one common source of Jew-hatred must be suspected. And such, we find, is the case when viewed from the Biblical standpoint.
The Bible teaches that the rehabilitation of the Jew in his own land heralds the blessing of all the nations (now under the curse, Gen. 3:8-19; Isa. 24, esp. verse 6), in the fulfilment of God's promise in Gen. 22:18. We hold also, that the blessing of the nations heralds the end of Satan's "reign of terror" in the Earth.
Orthodox Judaism teaches that there is no personal Satan — that there is but a principle of evil, called "The Adversary" (Job 1:6) or "Satan". We teach, however, that there is not only a "principle", but a PRINCIPAL, even a PRINCE OF EVIL, called Satan! And he it is who has raised up, continues to raise up now and, we fear, will yet raise up such opposition to Zionism as would, without Divine intervention, destroy the nation of Israel and thereby thwart God's purposes in the Earth.
Satan knows full well that the Restoration of Israel will, according to God's eternal purposes, mark the end of his own, evil dominion over Man. Hence, the underlying intelligence, the bitterness, the continuity, the universality and the coordination in our prophetic day, of hatred of the Jews and of Zionism in particular; and of such events as the Holocaust in Europe, which was a Satanically provoked, systematic attempt at Genocide.
Even in defeat, Hitler's Germany had taken toll of six million Jewish lives, one third of all the world's Jewish population. Had Germany won the victory, then Hitler's "Final Solution", the vast, inhumanly cruel genetical sterilization program against the Jews, already launched, would have completed his fell purposes (Satan's, really!) by reaching across the world in the wake of his armies to destroy that "seed of Abraham", and to deny the Land of Israel its only true inheritors.
Yet such is God's care over the Jews, that come what may He will preserve them from extinction and raise them up to fulfil His purposes in them, in His due time (Jer. 46:27, 28). The dead will rise to join the living as their graves are opened (Ezek. 37:12-14; Hos. 13:14), and in the outworking of God's eternal purposes not only Israel, but Earth itself and all its peoples shall emerge from under the veil of evil (Isa. 25:7, 8) for all creation to rejoice together in the sunshine of God's love (Psa. 148; Psa. 150:6).
Fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid." Jer. 30:10.
THE ISRAEL COMMISSION
The Governments of the world naturally and rightly require a name, a title, for all corporate works done on an international scale, so that the affairs of nations can be orderly and the interests of their people safeguarded. The "ISRAEL COMMISSION" is such a title, used by an association of Christian Bible Students who, by study of the Bible and relating its teachings to the times and conditions in which we live, have come to understand and believe prophecies concerning the Restoration of Israel. As such they are Philosemitic, Christian Zionists.
The Commission has no clergy, there is no hierarchy, no roll of membership. It is neither a sect nor an organization; it is a Movement, which draws support from individuals in all walks of life who hold a common belief. It is affiliated to another Christian movement, the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement (L.H.M.M., or more commonly, Bible Standard Ministries) which has a similar constitution, but a somewhat different work, in that it directs its message, which is unsectarian and interdenominational, toward the Christian and the uncommitted Gentile world.
The L.H.M.M. is "Missionary", not in the usual "Conversionist" sense, but in the sense of being entrusted with a duty, a work, a mission. It has returned to the very source of Christianity, the Bible in its two parts, the Old and New Testaments, for the articles of a believer's faith, and for the rule of conduct both for the individual Christian and for assemblies of Christians, of "Ecclesias". Religious doctrines and practices not fully in harmony with the Bible's teachings, are not accepted.
Arising from studies of the remarkable way in which Bible prophecies and chronology, together with attested histories both ancient and modern up to the present time, combine to focus attention on Israel today, the Movement accepts the directions in Isa. 40:1 and 2, as a Divine Commission to speak now. It has, therefore, vested all its efforts to help and comfort the Jews in a separate work, using its own resources to set up the "Israel Commission" to accomplish these purposes.
The work of the Commission is, in consequence, not to seek converts from among the Jews to any of the Christian sects or churches, but, "to speak (comfort) to the heart of Jerusalem and call unto her that her time of sorrow is accomplished" (Isa. 40:1, 2; Leeser). We who support the Movement believe that particular scripture to be addressed to us, as to all others who understand and accept its message. We believe that God's favor, withdrawn from the Jews for nearly two thousand years (and who could reasonably claim that He favored them during those years of exile?) has been returning to them for the past hundred years. Particularly so, in that the year 1914 with its outbreak of war among the nations of Christendom, marked the end of that time during which God permitted Gentile nations to hold universal dominion and to rule over Jerusalem. Thus Luke, a Jewish writer in the New Testament, tells us "… and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled".
The 1914-18 war, we believe, marked the end of these "Gentile times," as subsequent events attest in a most emphatic way. The Commission's work, therefore, is to draw attention to the Scriptures and to show, by reviewing the generalities of world history, by analyzing the worldwide social, political, economic and religious crises of these present times, and by pointing to the significance of the founding of the modern State of Israel, how Bible prophecy has foretold these things, and what it portends for the near and distant future for the blessing of Man and his home, the planet Earth.
The Commission's aims are legitimate, honest, open and aboveboard. Its message is quite clear. God's favor is returning to Jews in the Holy Land AS JEWS. The Nation of Israel will never come into the Christian fold, but will be used as a Jewish Nation, in the blessing of the whole World of Mankind even as stated away back in Abraham's day (Gen. 22:16-18) where the foundations of Zionism were laid. Isaiah 40:1 and 2 bids all of those who believe this to announce it, be they Gentiles (Isa. 11:10 and 60:3) or Jews. We of the Israel Commission believe it, and so we speak.
Not for the first time does God speak to the Jewish people through other agencies than their own. Isaiah 40:2 is as direct a charge to the thinking Christian today as was Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1 to Cyrus. It is interesting to turn to the first and seventh chapters of Ezra the Priestly scribe, and read there how believing Jews were glad of help and acted upon direction from Gentile Kings whom Jewish prophets had bestirred in the years of Exile. Thus, the Second Temple was build
TO THE JEW FIRST
We commend the attention of all Christians to the fact that the New Covenant belongs to the Jew first, not the Gentile. No, not even to the Christian alluded to by Paul in Romans 2:28, 29, does it belong or even apply. Jeremiah 31:31-34is explicit that it will be negotiated with that people with whom God made the first covenant when He brought their fathers out of the Land of Egypt. This should lead Christians who have believed otherwise to examine the articles of their faith, for if they are not now under that New Covenant, where do they stand in relation to God? We shall be glad to help them out of their dilemma.
By the Grace of God, our work continues. The Nation of Israel will be saved out of her troubles, and in due time The Lord will, by that same New Covenant, use her in bringing such peace and prosperity to pass for the blessing of this whole groaning creation, as shall make of the greeting, "Shalom", not merely a heart-felt good wish for the future, but a universal acknowledgement of God's present and everlasting favor.
"The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isa. 35:10).
The term "Anti-Semitism," as commonly used to denote active opposition to the Jewish race, is a misnomer. From ancient times the Semitic branch of our human family included Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Arabians and other descendants of Shem, son of Noah (Gen. 5:32) and probably his firstborn. Today, this would include the peoples of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, as well as Jews.
That the term "Anti-Semitism" is used to describe race-hatred of the Jews in particular clearly indicates that the world regards the Jews as the pre-eminent descendants of Shem!
Historically, racial hatred has arisen within an ethnic group as a result of a threat, real or imagined, from an alien culture. Apart from other malign racial influences, man has all too often been unable to ward off the evil effects of plain provincialism — which fears anything "strange" or "exotic" — and the automatic reflex in all societies is to look for a scapegoat when anything goes wrong. A product of fear, ignorance and often jealousy, the effect of Racism is always to breed hatred, to degrade and to brutalize. It is particularly virulent where the vulnerability of immigrants is heightened by retention of distinctive features of their origin, such as skin-color, or culture, which inhibit their assimilation. In the case of the Jews, their hold on Judaism as a religio-social system, together with their aversion to intermarriage, clearly distinguishes them from their host populations.
This, however, does not account for the persistence and extreme malevolence which has marked hatred and persecution of the Jews over the years of their exile. Deeper reasons must be sought, which explain why that hatred reaches genocidal proportions.
Today, race-hatred is directed against the Jew from many different sources, even as it arises from many different causes. An examination of the most prominent of these will show how little hope of any permanent security the Diaspora Jews can count on.
EXTREME NATIONALISM
Strong feelings are aroused when immigrants with alien cultural influences appear to pervade and threaten a nation's traditional way of life, or to gain a disproportionate share of social, political or economic advantage. Extremists seek to short-cut any long-term political solution by taking direct action to eliminate the supposed threat.
Existing, hard-line "patriotic" organizations support the cause and others arise, all of which attract not only those with genuine fears, but many from the more brutally ignorant levels of society who seek merely an outlet for their natural violence. Such movements, in other circumstances, lead nations into expansionist wars, as in the Germany of the 1930s.
The Jewish way of life encourages hard work in its adherents, many of whom are shrewd in business and ambitious in social circles. To these talents must be added a cultural genius. These all result in Jews being prominently represented in the various worlds of business, finance, politics, law, medicine, science, the arts and entertainment. As an immigrant population, therefore, they inevitably meet with envy and opposition from Extreme Nationalism. Our world, both currently and historically, abounds with evidence of this human situation and its terrible consequences, "… man's inhumanity to man".
To the Extreme Nationalist, International Zionism represents world-wide support for a supposed enemy in his midst. It becomes a target for his invective and, where unrestrained, the Jews themselves become targets for his physical abuse. As today's clamour and tide of hatred rise in demonstration and counter-demonstration, law and order become increasingly difficult to maintain. Minority groups, especially "colored" people, are exposed to attack, and the Jews also become vulnerable in outbreaks of violence. Where an extreme Nationalist movement succeeds in securing political power, persecution enters a new and very dangerous phase. The Nazi party was such a successful movement, with bad results known to all.
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM
This enemy of Zionism arises from the imperial form of Communism developed in post-revolutionary Russia, that implacable front-runner in the battle for world domination. It has a strong political theory, received from Karl Marx's analysis of nineteenth-century European capitalist society and his ideas on class warfare as the Juggernaut of change. Its weakness lies in its metaphysical sub-structure, which is a vague and narrow philosophical mixture of historical determinism and dialectical materialism.
So narrow is that metaphysical base, that it leaves untouched wide ranges of human experience and observation. Suppression, therefore, is the only defence against anything beyond its accepted spectrum of reality; which explains Russia's sensitivity to the activity of Individuality, Conscience and Will among her subjects (this is clearly demonstrated in her treatment of Dissidents). Religion itself is seen as a drug, the usage of which must be abolished before Man's real happiness can be achieved.
At one time, the world influence of Christian Catholicism was seen as the greatest obstruction to International Communism's ambitions. The Papacy was, and still is, the bulwark of that obstruction. In more recent times, however, the infiltration of Marxism into the ranks and leadership of provincial Roman Catholicism, has brought about a revolutionary spirit against aristocratic and capitalist rulers who traditionally, from the days of the Holy Roman Empire, had been the Papacy's allies in ruling the nations. This has greatly weakened the central authority of the Pope.
In lands where the Reformation has brought a rejection of Papal power, Socialist principles are bringing about a less marked, but very real, similar change, as they infiltrate the world of Protestantism and Nonconformity. The Ecumenical movement, the hope of many for building up a united front against the growth of Communism, is not seen by Communists as a real threat since the divisions within the Christian World, apparent to all, are increasing in number with each step in that direction. The Papacy therefore is no longer the one great challenger for that world-wide authority desired by the equally dogmatic and centrally (Russian) controlled authority of International Communism. Instead, another threat is seen as arising from the historic and religious past which the wisest of political visionaries could not have foretold.
The political and religious wings of the modern Zionist movement have lifted the Jews to nationhood and to such international prominence as brings their family name "Israel" (Gen. 35:10) nearly 4,000 years forward in time and into the forefront of current world affairs. In 1896 when Herzl produced his work "Judenstaat" (literally "The Jew's State"), he and others of the early political Zionist movement had no knowledge of the influence of the Christian, Charles Taze Russell's teachings, which had awakened in men's minds the consciousness of religious Zionism. That consciousness, together with the effect on Jewish thinking of the Holocaust in Europe, was to help power the movement Herzl had started to achieve nationhood in the State of Israel as we know it today. That State is now seen by Russia as a potentially powerful opponent of International Communism.
From the standpoint of Communism, the enemy is not the Jew according to his blood, since many of Jewish extraction have been leading theoreticians and militants in Communism's ranks, e.g. Marx (otherwise, Mordechai) and Trotsky (otherwise, Bronstein): rather, the enemy is the Jew as Capitalist, and the Jew as Zionist. However, Capitalism is but a temporary threat and will vanish, Communism teaches, in the Historical Process as in a great dialectical interplay between the enslaved workers (Marx's "proletariat") and their harsh, money-controlled economic environment, contact will lead to continual abrasive encounters. The succession of such painful experiences, with their eventual awakening effect on the masses, would lead to growing calls for Justice, and for political organization as a means of enforcing change. A series of progressive, revolutionary steps toward emancipation would then occur, like marching feet, moving society inexorably forward into a new world order (Joel 2:7 describes a certain degree of success which will attend this "march"), leaving broken Capitalist institutions, kings, aristocracies and clergy as mere references in the pages of history. Marx believed that in such a situation, his early exposé of the nature of the Capitalist world would serve to hasten its inevitable, historically determined overthrow. Such a speeding up of events would shorten the period of suffering for all concerned. And so, the Jew as Capitalist is seen as a real, but temporary opponent in man's progress toward Marx's dream of a free society, toward which Communism is but an essential, preliminary step.
The Jew as Zionist is, however, another matter. Religious Zionism, in particular, lies outside the span of Communism's metaphysical substructure. There is no answer, in the philosophies of Materialism and Determinism, to the religious claims of Zionism. Furthermore, there is enshrined within Zionism a promise of world influence (Gen. 22:17, 18), coveted by Russia. That this influence will be of God and toward the world peace of Marx's dream, carries no weight with atheistic, power-hungry men fed on a materialistic philosophy, such as lead Russia today.
The Jewish State, supported by resources of wealth, influence and intellect from the vast pool of the Western, Capitalist Diaspora and largely directed by the World Zionist Organization, is now emerging as a significant, long-term obstacle to International Communism's drive for world domination. Battle cannot be fought on Zionism's home ground, which is largely and increasingly religious, since anything which stirs the world's religious consciousness, threatens Communism at its weakest point. Historically also, the weight of argument is on the Jewish side, especially as archaeological finds in Israel prove rights based on ancient association with the Land. The slogan, "Zionism is Racism", is therefore an invented proposition aimed at forcing the battle into a modern political arena where Communism thrives, and where Zionism can be attacked.
Assuredly, International Communism fears Zionism and will suppress it, even eradicate it and the State of Israel with it, if opportunity can be found.
EXTREME SOCIALISM
The spectrum of "Socialism" is so wide, reaching from "Right-wing Labour", with its Utopian social schemes based on reform rather than revolution, to those ill-defined but highly revolutionary regions where Anarcho-Syndicalism works away at its political theory, that a common view of Zionism does not emerge. It is nevertheless true that the further "left" the stand, the greater the degree of Anti-Semitism displayed. Socialist movements which represent pluralist interests afford a certain degree of shelter to alien cultures, permitting their survival. In moving further to the political "left", however, these give way to totalitarian regimes where "The State" is given the almost deified standing of an arbitrary, external power dominating society. To this power, sectional and individual rights must be subjugated. Further still to the "left", lurks Anarcho-Syndicalism and the stateless, leaderless group. Such mob-like groups are prominent and vociferous in anti-Semitic demonstrations today.
To the extreme political Left, the world-wide influence of the Jews, especially their prevalence in the sphere of Capitalism, is a menace to hopes of revolutionary change. World Zionism is seen as an organization of the Diaspora's resources behind the State of Israel in order to perpetuate the Capitalist system and to strengthen the Jews' position in it. Furthermore, Zionism's teachings that the Jews are a "special" people, and that the World, for its blessing, will be subjected to a descendant of the ancient Hebrew King David, ruling from Jerusalem, are violations of the basic tenets of extreme Socialists' beliefs. Hence the stridency of their borrowed slogan, "Zionism is Racism", and their loud support of territorial claims of the Palestinian Arabs to possess at least a part of the "Promised Land".
ISLAMIC EXTREMISM
Islam is by no means an "Arab" religion. On the contrary, it claims Universal relevance, and has pretensions to world domination, the quest of which is permitted by force of arms in the doctrine of Jihad (Holy War).
Although Islam first took hold among the Ishmaelites (Abraham's descendants by the Egyptian woman, Hagar) in the Arabian Peninsula, its founder, Mohammed, was probably not an Ishmaelite. His parents were of the Hashemite family, of an Arabian tribe, the Koreish, which according to some authorities claimed descent from Joktan, son of Eber, and not from Ishmael, son of Abraham who came from Peleg, Joktan's brother (Gen. 10:25-29; 11:16-26; I Chron. 1:19-23). All authorities agree that Arabian genealogies were never committed to writing before the spread of Islam, and only in exceptional cases were they remembered. Rarely indeed would they be likely to be historical for more than two — or at most three — generations before the founding of Islam.
Following Mohammed and the early Caliphs, Islamic rulers have included various nationalities, such as Caucasian, Mamelukes, Kurds and Turks, while nations from the Punjab to the Atlantic Ocean have bowed before the onslaught of fanatical Muslim warriors. Many indeed are the races conquered then, and most bow still to Mecca.
In recent times, attempting to arouse again the spirit of Islam, Iran and others have sought to promote a world-wide militancy, and have even spoken of declaring a Jihad (Holy War) against Israel; while some, in opposition to other Islamic leaders, have contemplated peace with Israel. Moreover, nations of the Muslim world are divided in many ways, including sectarian squabbles and mistrust; border threats, skirmishes and even open warfare where the cause of Unity gives way to policies of self-interest; revolutionary activities of Marxists against the old order of autocratic rulers, and by deep differences between advocates of a rigid, authoritarian Islamic culture and those who favor a more open, tolerant, democratic, "Western" culture. Under such pressures, it seems inevitable that further changes to the political scene will occur.
Islamic Extremism does not, therefore, have a stable base upon which to build unity and support in the Muslim world, in consequence of which a concerted, massive campaign against Israel, using the full potential of Islamic resources, has not been possible. This appears to be Providential, since were it otherwise, in wealth, in numbers and in weight of armaments, the odds favoring Israel's enemies would be overwhelming, and Israel's very survival would be at stake.
The new Islamic opposition to Zionism centers on the authority with which the Jews have re-established their presence in the Middle East as a nation in the heart of the old Islamic empire. This presence includes control of the City of Jerusalem, and the growth of militant Judaism (which Islam has bitterly opposed since 622 C.E., the year when at Medina, the Jews spurned Mohammed as a prophet of God).
And remember when Moses said to his people, "O my people! call to mind the goodness of God towards you when He appointed Prophets among you and appointed you kings, and gave you what never had been given before to any human beings: Enter, O my people! the holy land which God hath destined for you. Turn not back lest ye be overthrown to your ruin." (KORAN Surah 5:20)
Islamic militants today, as is common with extremists, permit their own rules of conduct and belief to be ignored, twisted or "tailor-made" to suit the occasion. Otherwise, for instance, the just, wise, Divinely ordained provision of the Holy Land for the Jews, acknowledged in the Koran (Surah 5), together with their security of person and property as "the people of protection", provided under the "Covenant of Omar" in the year 637, would be honoured.
It was, in fact, an imperfect knowledge of the "Old Testament" which provided Mohammed with most of his religious understanding in pre-Medina days, and the Jews were his first-sought love after the Hegira (flight from Mecca to Medina, 622 C.E.). It was Judaism's arrogance in spurning his teachings and himself as a prophet of God, which inflamed his feelings against them. In like manner, "… Israeli conceit and arrogance" (Anwar Sadat, 25 April 1972) infuriates the zealous Muslim today, so that he joins with feverish enthusiasm the chorus begun in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution of 10 September 1957, "Zionism is (a form of) Racism".
Jews may hope for some kind of mercy from Islam only while the "stamp" of "humiliation and abasement" remains upon them, according to the Koran's teachings. The time is now due, however, as we have shown from the scriptures, for the repeal of that historic condition, and for the elevation of the Jews to nationhood and to eventual security and world-wide influence in the new World-Age now being ushered in. Messiah will reveal Himself to the Jew first, and then to all mankind, with power and authority bringing Peace to this troubled world. Devotees of Islam (submission, surrender, obedience) will then bow before the teachings of another book, the New Covenant, and together with Earth's other millions, they will come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads (Isa. 35:10).
PALESTINIAN ARAB NATIONALISM
Nationhood was never sought by the Palestinian Arabs until it was put into their minds by Muslim neighbors, when Israel agreed to the U.N. Partition Resolution of November, 1947. The terms of that Resolution were recommended by an international committee appointed by the U.N. General Assembly, and accepted by the Jews but not by Arabs.
Aware of mounting Arab opposition to the Resolution, the British, embarrassed by their alliances, announced their decision to withdraw from their Mandate, giving 15 May 1948 as the effective date. David Ben Gurion announced the Independence of the State of Israel on the 14 May, and the surrounding Arab states immediately stepped up their wordy opposition into open warfare by launching an invasion against that land granted to the Jews by the U.N. Resolution. 600,000 Arabs, previously living peaceably enough with the Jews, left the disputed territory voluntarily. There was no dispossession, there were no enforced refugees. Assuming that the new State of Israel would be throttled at birth by the near-encircling Arab armies, they awaited the time of their return to what would then become, in direct opposition to the U.N. Resolution, an entirely Arab Palestine. Their hopes were dashed however as the Arab armies met with military defeat. The Palestinian Arabs who had left their homes were stranded.
From that time it has been a ploy of the Arab nations to retain those "refugees" as a separate entity and in conditions of privation, as an object of pity to be used politically, especially in the United Nations, against Israel. There is no justification for the continuance of those privations, bearing in mind the colossal wealth at the disposal of the oil-rich "brethren" of the Arab or Islamic world.
Militants arising among Palestine nationalists are sworn to uphold a Covenant, the Palestine National Covenant formulated by the Palestine Liberation Organization and recognized by all Arab governments but one. This Covenant denies the Jews a national identity (Article 20). It terms the return of the Jew to his internationally agreed homeland, a "Zionist invasion", and calls it an Arab duty to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine (Articles 15 and 16).
Zionism is there declared to be a fanatical, aggressive, imperialist, colonialist, expansionist and racist movement (Article 22) and a majority of the U.N. member states uphold the P.L.O. as the legitimate representative of the Arab Palestinians (although their leader and spokesman, Yasser Arafat, born in Cairo, has dubious claims to Palestinian nationality).
In view of the foregoing, the activities of extremists among Jewish religious parties, in seeking to apply unilaterally their own interpretation of Biblical promises to the Jew outside of any historical context and in violation of Justice to others, has merely served to exacerbate the situation and to play into the hands of Israel's enemies. God unfolds His own plan in His own time: He is not "upstaged" by men.
THE CHRISTIAN WORLD
That the Christian world should be found among those who have misrepresented and persecuted the Jews, is particularly shameful. It is nevertheless true that from the onset of the Dark Ages, atrocious crimes have been committed against the Jew as a race, in the name of Jesus! Indeed, trapped as so many Christians still are in Dark Age errors, with the best of intentions they are led to believe, and teach, horrible misrepresentations of a great deal of what the name of Jesus stands for.
While followers of those Godless social and political philosophies earlier described are benighted in their understanding and limited in their responsibility by sheer ignorance, having neither knowledge of nor belief in God's plan, with the Christian world this is not so. In Apostolic days the Truth was well known and clearly taught (Acts. 20:27), but as Europe declined, then collapsed in anarchy and warfare, that Truth gave way to Dark Age errors. With the advent of the Holy Roman Empire, Christendom emerged, and within its borders the plan of God for the salvation of Man was distorted and largely lost, and God Himself was terribly blasphemed by such false doctrines as the Consciousness of the Dead and Eternal Torment. Thus was error built up around man's understanding of God, His people, character, works and purposes.
Among these perversions the once-held Truth on the nature and office of Jesus was lost, as the erroneous doctrine of the Trinity was introduced some three hundred years after Jesus' death. For centuries, Trinitarian teachings have led men to believe that God Himself died on the cross at Calvary. How foolish! As if mortal man could kill God, the Immortal (i.e., death-proof) One! Calm reflection on this illogical proposition should be enough to send every Trinitarian back to the Bible in meditation and prayer, seeking the spirit of a sound mind and the truth on the Unity of God (Deut 6:4; Isa. 46:9), even as Jesus taught it (Mark 12:29).
Unfortunately, the error not only survives, but thrives, and gives the deluded Christian a seeming justification for believing that the Jews killed God! Deicide! Is there any wonder that such a one has a distorted picture of the Jew? Moreover, where Pride or Avarice could benefit from decrying, exploiting or expropriating the exiled Jew, an excuse to do so was ready-made with popular support assured. And so it was that in the Christian world Jews were subjected to terrible injustices and persecutions by those who claimed to serve the God of Love.
In more recent times, the growing threat of Marxist Philosophies and of revolutionary ideas, has led Christendom's hierarchies to draw together, seeking to heal the Reformation's rift so as to combine their flocks and consolidate their powers into a position of unity and strength. Ecumenicalism is really a means of conscripting Christendom's resources against the Day of Battle (Prov. 21:31; Jer. 50:22). Fear and the need to muster support is causing Christendom's leaders to run to and fro (Dan. 12:1, 4) seeking allies.
In a blaze of publicity they have visited and spoken of "Forgiveness", and "Peace", even among those formerly deemed to be outcasts, damned forever. Such peace is not real peace (Jer. 8:11, 15). Let the Jews beware the pontiff's smile, remembering that it hides centuries of unrepented, unadmitted persecution. Let them bear in mind that the hands now raised to bless (?) were at one time raised to strike — and into their present raised position they are forced by circumstance, not by love or understanding!
Away from Christendom, and among those of the "Jehovah's Witnesses" sect, the position remains hard, and no hope is held out to the Jew since Jesus' day. The "J.W.s.", having rejected the teachings of the one they claim (quite wrongly) to be their founder, i.e. Pastor C.T. Russell, now teach that the Jewish nation as such has been condemned in a final judgment and that there is for that nation no hope of redemption and restoration to God's favor. Floundering in dogmatically asserted error, the "J.W." leaders follow the course of the Papacy in its early development, claiming to be God's only representative and mouthpiece here on Earth. Of this particular enmity, which again lays the foundation for religious persecution, the Jews are well aware.
Even among those Messianic Millenarian Christians who uphold the Restoration of Israel as part of God's plan, errors creep in to disrupt the good work otherwise done. The erroneous belief that the Jews must be converted to Christianity before Messiah comes stimulates unwise zealot missionaries to harry Jewish communities and individuals in feverish attempts to obtain converts.
The truth of the matter is that the Jewish nation will never be brought into the Christian fold, for such is not part of God's plan. On the contrary, we believe that as the organizations of Christendom founder and sink in the great Time of Trouble now upon us (Zeph. 1:14-17; Dan. 12:1; Jer. 25:33), the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel will survive in relative prosperity. One final wave of trouble will roll toward that nation, however, as the remnants of the Gentile nations seek its destruction. Those marauding armies will nevertheless be broken as God miraculously delivers Israel (Ezek. 38:18–39:29; Jer. 30:7-11). The people will then recognize their true Deliverer as the long-awaited Messiah, and will in accepting Him, turn to God with their whole heart (Zech. 12:9, 10; Jer. 24:5-7) and take up their position in God's plan for the blessing of all the nations.
Let Christians, therefore, as they recognize their high privilege, cooperate in this great work of speaking words of comfort to Jerusalem (Isa. 40:1, 2). Let them urge the Jewish people to have faith in God's wonderful promise for their high destiny in the Land which He gave them so long ago (Gen. 17:1-8; 35:9-13).
TRADITION
Much of what is necessary to the proper and orderly running of the affairs of men and of nations, is received from traditional thought and behavioral patterns. Such reliance is placed upon this source, that all too often it is not seriously questioned as the young succeed their elders.
Good traditions are a worthy heritage, bequeathing noble concepts, just and compassionate precepts and healthy practices to each new generation. Seeds of future evils are sown, however, where ignoble precepts and base practices, born of fear, pride, avarice or any other disreputable characteristic enter the traditions to live on unchallenged, a corrupting influence rooted in the folk-lore of a population. "… if you let in but one little finger of Tradition, you will have in the whole monster — horns and tail and all." Thus was it seen by the English historian, Thomas Arnold.
In our day, the prevalence of degrading impressions of the Jew is a malign influence in nations that have allowed this historic injustice to remain unexpurgated from their traditions. Even their everyday language is tainted, and many dictionaries, in fact, still include viciously insulting meanings of the word "Jew", when giving the figurative and colloquial meanings. The effect of this is to promote all forms of denigration and persecution by suggesting universality of such views and the social acceptability of such word usage.
By this means, errors and injustices from a benighted era in European and other histories are perpetuated. In such an environment, unreasonable suspicions and instinctive dislike flourish, which all too often have been whipped up into bitter hatred leading to acts of barbarity. Even in this present "enlightened" day, and in the streets of our most "enlightened" cities, men and women march and cry against the Jew just because he is a Jew.
The children of Christian families are particularly vulnerable to this insidious attack on their developing sense of social tolerance and justice, receiving from such evil traditions an early predisposition toward racial hatred. Surely we should root out all such pernicious matter from our literature, and from the heritage of custom we leave to future generations!
Summary and Conclusion
Wherever the Jews have settled in their Dispersion, sooner or later they have been persecuted. The insistence of the Jews (other than assimilationists) on the practice of their own unique culture, Judaism, within the social and religious framework of the host group has served to isolate them, and to expose them to suspicion, envy and calumny, leading to persecution. Each host nation or city has "discovered" its own peculiar justification for harassment, expropriation, expatriation and even the slaughter of its Jewish population. Such is the number and diversity of these various "justifications", and yet such the similarity of the end result, that one common source of Jew-hatred must be suspected. And such, we find, is the case when viewed from the Biblical standpoint.
The Bible teaches that the rehabilitation of the Jew in his own land heralds the blessing of all the nations (now under the curse, Gen. 3:8-19; Isa. 24, esp. verse 6), in the fulfilment of God's promise in Gen. 22:18. We hold also, that the blessing of the nations heralds the end of Satan's "reign of terror" in the Earth.
Orthodox Judaism teaches that there is no personal Satan — that there is but a principle of evil, called "The Adversary" (Job 1:6) or "Satan". We teach, however, that there is not only a "principle", but a PRINCIPAL, even a PRINCE OF EVIL, called Satan! And he it is who has raised up, continues to raise up now and, we fear, will yet raise up such opposition to Zionism as would, without Divine intervention, destroy the nation of Israel and thereby thwart God's purposes in the Earth.
Satan knows full well that the Restoration of Israel will, according to God's eternal purposes, mark the end of his own, evil dominion over Man. Hence, the underlying intelligence, the bitterness, the continuity, the universality and the coordination in our prophetic day, of hatred of the Jews and of Zionism in particular; and of such events as the Holocaust in Europe, which was a Satanically provoked, systematic attempt at Genocide.
Even in defeat, Hitler's Germany had taken toll of six million Jewish lives, one third of all the world's Jewish population. Had Germany won the victory, then Hitler's "Final Solution", the vast, inhumanly cruel genetical sterilization program against the Jews, already launched, would have completed his fell purposes (Satan's, really!) by reaching across the world in the wake of his armies to destroy that "seed of Abraham", and to deny the Land of Israel its only true inheritors.
Yet such is God's care over the Jews, that come what may He will preserve them from extinction and raise them up to fulfil His purposes in them, in His due time (Jer. 46:27, 28). The dead will rise to join the living as their graves are opened (Ezek. 37:12-14; Hos. 13:14), and in the outworking of God's eternal purposes not only Israel, but Earth itself and all its peoples shall emerge from under the veil of evil (Isa. 25:7, 8) for all creation to rejoice together in the sunshine of God's love (Psa. 148; Psa. 150:6).
Fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid." Jer. 30:10.
THE ISRAEL COMMISSION
The Governments of the world naturally and rightly require a name, a title, for all corporate works done on an international scale, so that the affairs of nations can be orderly and the interests of their people safeguarded. The "ISRAEL COMMISSION" is such a title, used by an association of Christian Bible Students who, by study of the Bible and relating its teachings to the times and conditions in which we live, have come to understand and believe prophecies concerning the Restoration of Israel. As such they are Philosemitic, Christian Zionists.
The Commission has no clergy, there is no hierarchy, no roll of membership. It is neither a sect nor an organization; it is a Movement, which draws support from individuals in all walks of life who hold a common belief. It is affiliated to another Christian movement, the Laymen's Home Missionary Movement (L.H.M.M., or more commonly, Bible Standard Ministries) which has a similar constitution, but a somewhat different work, in that it directs its message, which is unsectarian and interdenominational, toward the Christian and the uncommitted Gentile world.
The L.H.M.M. is "Missionary", not in the usual "Conversionist" sense, but in the sense of being entrusted with a duty, a work, a mission. It has returned to the very source of Christianity, the Bible in its two parts, the Old and New Testaments, for the articles of a believer's faith, and for the rule of conduct both for the individual Christian and for assemblies of Christians, of "Ecclesias". Religious doctrines and practices not fully in harmony with the Bible's teachings, are not accepted.
Arising from studies of the remarkable way in which Bible prophecies and chronology, together with attested histories both ancient and modern up to the present time, combine to focus attention on Israel today, the Movement accepts the directions in Isa. 40:1 and 2, as a Divine Commission to speak now. It has, therefore, vested all its efforts to help and comfort the Jews in a separate work, using its own resources to set up the "Israel Commission" to accomplish these purposes.
The work of the Commission is, in consequence, not to seek converts from among the Jews to any of the Christian sects or churches, but, "to speak (comfort) to the heart of Jerusalem and call unto her that her time of sorrow is accomplished" (Isa. 40:1, 2; Leeser). We who support the Movement believe that particular scripture to be addressed to us, as to all others who understand and accept its message. We believe that God's favor, withdrawn from the Jews for nearly two thousand years (and who could reasonably claim that He favored them during those years of exile?) has been returning to them for the past hundred years. Particularly so, in that the year 1914 with its outbreak of war among the nations of Christendom, marked the end of that time during which God permitted Gentile nations to hold universal dominion and to rule over Jerusalem. Thus Luke, a Jewish writer in the New Testament, tells us "… and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled".
The 1914-18 war, we believe, marked the end of these "Gentile times," as subsequent events attest in a most emphatic way. The Commission's work, therefore, is to draw attention to the Scriptures and to show, by reviewing the generalities of world history, by analyzing the worldwide social, political, economic and religious crises of these present times, and by pointing to the significance of the founding of the modern State of Israel, how Bible prophecy has foretold these things, and what it portends for the near and distant future for the blessing of Man and his home, the planet Earth.
The Commission's aims are legitimate, honest, open and aboveboard. Its message is quite clear. God's favor is returning to Jews in the Holy Land AS JEWS. The Nation of Israel will never come into the Christian fold, but will be used as a Jewish Nation, in the blessing of the whole World of Mankind even as stated away back in Abraham's day (Gen. 22:16-18) where the foundations of Zionism were laid. Isaiah 40:1 and 2 bids all of those who believe this to announce it, be they Gentiles (Isa. 11:10 and 60:3) or Jews. We of the Israel Commission believe it, and so we speak.
Not for the first time does God speak to the Jewish people through other agencies than their own. Isaiah 40:2 is as direct a charge to the thinking Christian today as was Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1 to Cyrus. It is interesting to turn to the first and seventh chapters of Ezra the Priestly scribe, and read there how believing Jews were glad of help and acted upon direction from Gentile Kings whom Jewish prophets had bestirred in the years of Exile. Thus, the Second Temple was build
TO THE JEW FIRST
We commend the attention of all Christians to the fact that the New Covenant belongs to the Jew first, not the Gentile. No, not even to the Christian alluded to by Paul in Romans 2:28, 29, does it belong or even apply. Jeremiah 31:31-34is explicit that it will be negotiated with that people with whom God made the first covenant when He brought their fathers out of the Land of Egypt. This should lead Christians who have believed otherwise to examine the articles of their faith, for if they are not now under that New Covenant, where do they stand in relation to God? We shall be glad to help them out of their dilemma.
By the Grace of God, our work continues. The Nation of Israel will be saved out of her troubles, and in due time The Lord will, by that same New Covenant, use her in bringing such peace and prosperity to pass for the blessing of this whole groaning creation, as shall make of the greeting, "Shalom", not merely a heart-felt good wish for the future, but a universal acknowledgement of God's present and everlasting favor.
"The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isa. 35:10).
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