national rejection of Israel, as it was not entire, so neither was it to be final. It was to continue until the bringing in of the Gentiles. God had made a covenant with Abraham that his posterity should be his people ; and " the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Therefore, although broken off from the olive-tree for the present, they were to be grafted in again. (4.) Thus "all Israel shall be saved." Whether this means the Jews as a nation, or the whole elect people of God including both Jews and Gentiles, may be doubtful. But in either case it is, in view of the context, a promise of the restora- tion of the Jews as a nation. There is, therefore, to be a national conversion of the Jews.
Second, this conversion is to take place before the second ad- vent of Christ. This the Apostle teaches when he says, that the salvation of the Gentiles was designed to provoke the Jews to jealousy, verse 11; and that the mercy shown to the Gentiles was to be the means of the Jews obtaining mercy, verse 31. The rejection of the Jews was the occasion of the conversion of the Gentiles ; and the conversion of the Gentiles is to be the occasion of the restoration of the Jews. On this point Luthardt says : " As our Lord (Matt, xxiii. 39) said : ' Ye shall not see me hence- forth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ' — so it is certain that, when Jesus comes, who will be visible to all the world, as the lightning which cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, whom all eyes, even of those who pierced Him and all kindreds of the earth shall see (Rev. i. 7 ; Zech. xii. 10), — the Jews must have been converted
and have become a Christian nation And further when
Peter (Acts iii. 19-21) exhorts to repentance and conversion until the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord shall come ; so it appears to be to me beyond all doubt that the con- version of Israel is to precede the Second Advent of Christ." 1
Are the Jews to be restored to their own Land ? According to one view, the Jews after their conversion are to be restored to the land of their fathers and there constituted a distinct nation. According to another, their restoration to their own land is to precede their conversion. And according to a third view there is to be no such restoration, but they are to be amalgamated with the great body of Christians as they were in the times of the Apostles.
1 Lehre von den letzten Dingen, pp. 71, 72.
808 PART IV. Ch. m.— the second advent.
In favour of a literal restoration it is urged, —
1. That it is predicted in the Old Testament in the most ex- press terms. Luthardt says a man must " break" the Scriptures who denies such restoration. To him it is certain and undeniable that the Jews are to be brought back to their own land and re- established as a nation.1
2. It is argued that the promise of God to Abraham has never yet been fully accomplished. God promised to give to him and to his seed after him all the land from the river of Egypt (under- stood to be the Nile) to the river Euphrates. They were, how- ever, during all their national history pent up in the narrow strip between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, except for a while when the two and a half tribes dwelt on the eastern side of Jordan. As the promise cannot fail, the time must yet come when the whole region granted to Abraham shall be occupied by his descendants.
3. A presumptive argument is drawn from the strange preser- vation of the Jews through so many centuries as a distinct people. They have often been compared to a river flowing through the ocean without mingling with its waters. There must be some purpose in this wonderful preservation. That people must have a future corresponding to its marvellous past.
4. Reference is also made to the fact that the land promised to the Jews is now empty, as though waiting for their return. It once teemed with a population counted by millions ; and there is no reason why it may not in the future be as densely inhabited.
The arguments against the assumed restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land are, —
1. The argument from the ancient prophecies is proved to be invalid, because it would prove too much. If those prophecies foretell a literal restoration, they foretell that the temple is to be rebuilt, the priesthood restored, sacrifices again offered, and that the whole Mosaic ritual is to be observed in all its details. (See the prophecies of Ezekiel from the thirty-seventh chapter on- ward.) We know, however, from the New Testament that the Old Testament service has been finally abolished ; there is to be no new temple made with hands ; no other priest but the high- priest of our profession ; and no other sacrifice but that already offered upon the cross. It is utterly inconsistent with the char- acter of the Gospel that there should be a renewed inauguration of Judaism within the pale of the Christian Church. If it be said
1 Lehre von den letzten Dingen, p. 71.