CHRISTIANS THROUGHOUT HISTORY WHO BELIEVED ISRAEL WOULD BE RESTORED AS A NATION

I often refer to the great number of earlier Christians who predicted (on the basis of Bible prophecy) that Israel would be restored as a nation. Scores of "anti-millenarians" scoffed at such an idea for centuries. Yet, in 1948, they quit scoffing (so loudly) and had to think of another strategy! Israel was reborn. As requested, I have provide readers with a partial list of such quotes in order to document my statements and equip Christians for debating amillennialists, postmillennialists, etc. It should be mentioned here that I do not believe that the present restoration of Israel is a DIRECT fulfillment of Bible prophecy. It is rather an obvious "stage-setting" that had to take place in preparation for prophecy to be fulfilled in the coming Tribulation period (i.e. the Tribulation period opens with Jews ALREADY in their land. Therefore, as we approach that period, the restoration of the Jews is a necessary, preparatory event.). It is interesting that even Daniel Whitby himself (1638-1726), the very father of Postmillennialism, looked for the conversion and national restoration of the Jews right before his spiritual thousand-year reign was to begin! ("A Paraphrase and Commentary", p.688). Nevertheless, it was the vast multitude of Premillennialists that understood that the Jews would first be restored to their land in unbelief, suffer affliction, and then have a remnant converted to the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming. It is not possible to list the incredible number of Christians that foretold the Jew's national restoration. Hopefully, the following summary will suffice: 1760: "About the time of the fall of the Othman empire and of the Christian Antichrist, the Jews shall turn to the Lord, and be restored to their own land. Innumerable are the prophecies concerning the conversion and restoration of this people." (Thomas Newton, "Dissertations on the Prophecies", p.405, vol.3) 1832: "...their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.' Surely there is no ambiguity here; and no doubt after this should remain, that this commission and prophecy refers to the city Jerusalem and the Jewish people. Notwithstanding this, the chapter [Rev.11] has been allegorized: and so allegorized by some of the most eminent expositors as to exclude all reference or allusion to either the Jewish city or people!...at this time part of the Jewish nation will be found bewailing their apostasy after their return to their land...." (William Burgh, "The Apocalypse Unfulfilled", pp.98, 100) 1861: "The temple in Jerusalem will be yet rebuilt by the Jews in unbelief, and be the scene of wickedness greater than has ever appeared...While then the temple had been destroyed at the date of the writing of the Revelation, it was hereby predicted that it would be rebuilt...Till the Jew is brought back to his own land, and the temple and its sacrifices are restored, the prophetic part of the Apocalypse does not begin." (Robert Govett, "The Apocalypse: Expounded By Scripture", pp.497, 501) 1865: "Alford remarks on the passage [Rev.7]: 'By many, and even by the most recent commentator, Dusterdieck, these sealed ones are taken to represent Jewish believers; the chosen out of the actual children of Israel.' Among these we may note Irenaeus, Bullinger, Grotius, Bossuet, Bengel, Eichorn, Heinrichs, Maitland, Zullig, Hoffman, B.W. Newton, Kelly, 'Matheetees,' [i.e. Robert Govett], and others...What, then, is the implication, but that when this period is once reached, Jerusalem will have been largely repopulated by the children of its ancient inhabitants, its temple rebuilt, and its ancient worship restored..." (Joseph Seiss, "Lectures on the Apocalypse", p.409 -vol.1, p.161, vol.2) 18??: "In Scripture the glory and resurrection of the Church of the firstborn ones is always connected with the time when Israel (who will have returned to their own land in unbelief) 'shall know the Lord.'" (George Muller, "The Second Coming of Christ", p.64) 1869: "...a future restoration awaits this people [the Jews], and will be to the world a glorious demonstration of the truth of prophecy..." (Samuel Wakefield, "Theology", p.96) 1879: "...the nations of the earth might not improbably find it mutually advantageous to settle the Jews in their own land, thus removing occasions of jealousy and strife...The unbelieving Jews will have built themselves a temple, in which it is my full persuasion the idol infidel Antichrist will be set up and worshipped." (C.J. Goodhart, Mildmay Conference) 1884: "...let such inform us why the covenant does not yet specifically pertain to the Jewish nation...and why the prophecies, which declare that the fallen, ruined, scattered but still preserved nation shall ultimately be restored...shall not be fulfilled..." (George N.H. Peters, "The Theocratic Kingdom", p.244, vol.3) 1889: "The language therefore relating to Israel's gathering we treat as literally as that relating to the scattering...Will the elect nation of Israel ever return to the land of the fathers? Many Christians say, No; many other Christians say, Yes....The scattering was of the national Israel; shall not the gathering be the national Israel also?" (John Wilkinson, "Israel My Glory", pp..xi, 48) 1889: "The postmillennarian assumption, that Israel is nationally cast away forever, that God has no national future for Israel restored, and that Israel is now the 'Church,' is the one fundamental and false postulate that blinds so many to the true interpretation..." (Nathaniel West, "The Thousand Years", p.105) 1905: "Let there be a time and place for the restoration of Israel, and for the fulfillment of prophetic testimonies concerning them, and much of the darkness which has hitherto obscured the book of Revelation will be banished...Israel's restoration involves, as we have already seen, the restoration of temple service." (Ford C. Ottman, "The Unfolding of the Ages", p.264) 1908: "...perhaps, you say: 'I don't believe the Israelites are to be restored to Canaan, and Jerusalem rebuilt.' Dear reader! have you read the declarations of God's word about it? Surely nothing is more plainly stated in the Scriptures." (W.E.B., "Jesus is Coming", p.162) 1909: "...when, at length, this appalling discipline should have done its work, should have broken their [the Jews] proud spirit...then He would lead them back to their own Land..." (G.H. Pember, "The Great Prophecies", p.3, Vol. 4) 1909: "God has not yet done with His people Israel. They are already, though in partial blindness...feeling their way back to their land, and to a restoration of their national Polity.....the movement will rapidly develop and issue in the re-settlement of the Jews in their Land and City in partial independence, but in unbelief." (E.W. Bullinger, "Commentary on Revelation", p.348) 1914: "The Jews as a nation are restored in unbelief...They then proceed to build their temple, and restore, so far as they can, the Mosaic ritual..." (Walter Scott, "Exposition of the Revelation of Jesus Christ", p.228) 1919: "...that is for the last three and a half years of the final seven that compose Daniel's 70th week, which, as we have seen, has not yet been fulfilled, nor can be until Jerusalem and the people of the Jews are again owned by God as His own. It is very evident that already God is over-ruling events with a view to this restoration." (H.A. Ironside, "Lectures on the Revelation", pp.188, 189) 1919: "The Temple that the Jews will build on their return to Jerusalem will probably be destroyed by the Earthquake..." (Clarence Larkin, "The Book of Revelation", pp.84, 85) 1923: "Gathering back thither of the whole people of Israel, not from some Tribes only, but from all. This does not mean that every individual Israelite from all over the world will come there, but that the Israelite population will represent all the Twelve Tribes...However numerous they may be as a population, they are not a Nation until they have the proper organization of national existence." (E. P. Cachemaille, "Palestine and the restoration of Israel", pp.9, 10) 1924: "It is manifest that the granite Jew is being reserved for a gigantic destiny which slowly unfolds before our eyes: for the Jew is God's dial; and when he is in the Land, the Dawn will be in the sky...Rabbi Levy, of Tremont Temple, New York, says: 'The Temple at Jerusalem will be rebuilt, or possibly the Mosque of Omar which now stands upon that site, will simply be cleansed and rededicated to Jehovah; for according to Jewish Law, any place of worship may be transformed into a Jewish synagogue or temple by removing all idols...It is more possible that the very religious will insist upon tearing down this Mosque and erecting a Temple much like Solomon's as is now possible.'.." (D.M. Panton, "The Panton Papers", pp.51, 52) 1932: "The 144,000 must be literal Israelites. From other Scriptures we learned their return to the Land...They arrive in unbelief (Ezek.37:7,8)...Israel means Israel, unless expressly stated otherwise." (William Frederick Roadhouse, "Seeing the Revelation", p.82) 1935: "Other Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, have abundantly prophesied a restoration or returning of the Jews to their land in unbelief, with not only a racial, but a national consciousness; and the construction of a temple such as John is told to measure..." (William R. Newell, "The Book of the Revelation", pp.147, 148) 1936: "Israel will be re-gathered to the land of Palestine." (Louis T. Talbot, "God's Plan of the Ages", p.67)