read aright. “Through faith we under-
stand.”
“In the beginning God.” Here alone
can the mind in its eager questioning,
fleecing as the dove to the ark, find rest.
Above, beneath, beyond, abides Infinite
Love, working out all things to accom-
plish “the good pleasure of his good-
ness.”
“The invisible things of him since the
creation of the world are . . . perceive
through the things that are made, even
his everlasting power and divinity.” R.V.
But their testimony can be understood
only through the aid of the divine
Teacher. “ What man knoweth the things
of a man, save the spirit of man which
THE WATCHMAN
is in him? even so the things of God
knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”
“When he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you into all truth.” Only
by the aid of that Spirit who in the be-
ginning ‘“ was brooding upon the face
of the waters; of that Word by whom
“all things were made;” of that “true
Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world,” can the testimony
of science be rightly interpreted. Only
by their guidance can its deepest truths
be discerned.
Only under the direction of the Omnis-
cient One shall we, in the study of his
works, be enabled to think his thoughts
after him.
ISRAEL: THE RETURN OF THE JEWS. NO. 4
| J. S. WASHBURN
The Promises to Israel
T was clearly demonstrated
from the Scriptures in our
article last week that Israel
was the church of the living
God, a spiritual, and not a
physical or fleshly organiza-
tion. Therefore the prom-
ises to Israel are the prom-
ises to the church. The church (Israel)
being a spiritual institution, the prom-
ises to Israel are spiritual promises.
There is no promise in the Bible of any
blessing to any Gentile so long as he re-
mains a Gentile. No Gentile, as such,
will ever have a part in the kingdom of
heaven. Only Israel shall be saved, and
“all Israel shall be saved.” Rom. 11:
20.
Of Israel Paul says: “I could wish
that myself were accursed from Christ
for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh; who are Israelites, to whom
pertaineth the adoption, and the glory,
and the covenants, and the giving of the
law, and the service of God, and the
promises; whose are the fathers, and of
whom as concerning the flesh Christ
came, who is over all, God blessed for-
ever. Amen. Not as though the word
of God hath taken none effect. For
they are not all Israel which are of Is-
rael; neither, because they are the seed
of Abraham, are they all children; but,
In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That
is, they which are the children of the
flesh, these are not the children of God:
but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed.” Rom. g:3-8.
The children of the promise are
counted for the seed. Israel is the seed
of the promise, and the promises are all
to the seed of Israel. Gentiles are all
strangers from the covenants of promise,
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
having no hope, and without God in
the Read the 11th and 12th
verses of Fphesians, second chapter:
“ Wherefore remember, that ye being in
time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are
called uncircumcision by that which is
called the Circumcision in the flesh made
by hands; that at that time [that is,
while they were Gentiles] ye were with-
out Christ, being aliens from the com-
monwealth of Israel, and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no
hope, and without God in the world.”
Christ is the promised seed that should
bruise the serpent’s head. Gen. 3:15.
“Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not, And
to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And
to thy seed, which is Christ.” Hence
all the promises to the seed are promises
through Jesus Christ. “For all the
promises of God in him are yea, and in
him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”
2 Cor. 1:20. He who has not Christ
cannot receive the fulfilment of any
promise to Israel, for he is not an Israel-
ite. But it matters not of whatever
race or nation a man may be, if he be-
lieves in Christ, he is an heir of the prom-
ises of God to Israel. If it be said that
world.
53
the fact that the promises to Israel are
spiritual indicates that they are not lit-
eral, we would say that such a conclusion
is not justified by a true understanding
of the word spiritual. Because a prom-
ise is spiritual it is none the less literal.
The opposite of the word literal is figur-
ative, not spiritual. God is spirit, yet
he is a real being, dwelling in a real
heaven, sitting upon a real throne. A
description of the person of the great
Father in heaven is found in Dan. 7:9
and in other scriptures. The angels are
spirits, yet they were able to eat real
material food with Abraham and with
Lot. See Genesis, chapters 18 and 109.
Jesus rose from the dead a spiritual
being, and with the very body with which
he ascended up into heaven; and yet
when he appeared to the disciples, they
gave him to eat broiled fish and honey-
comb, which demonstrates that he had
a literal, personal existence, though he
had his spiritual body, for the resurrec-
tion body is a spritual body. First the
natural, then the spiritual. It is sown
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
body.
The promises to Abraham were the
promises to Israel, for he was the father
of Israel; and we read of him that “he
looked for a city which hath founda-
tions, whose builder and maker is God.”
A spiritual city, yet none the less a real
city with real foundations, a real coun-
try, yet a better, a heavenly country.
This was his hope. Those who have
limited the promises to Israel to dwell-
ing in the little country of Palestine,—
probably not larger than the state of New
Jersey, even at the time of its greatest
extension,— and to a return to that land,
have not understood the spiritual nature
of those promises.
Those promises meant eternal life, the
heavenly country, the new earth, the
New Jerusalem; for on the gates of that
city are the names of the twelve tribes
of Israel, and no one may enter that city
except as an Israelite. ‘This is the wide,
the high, the divine character, the spir-
itual nature, of the promises to Israel.
The definite nature of those promises
we shall study in our article next week.
Hg SX
“Ir does n’t take a very large intellect
to hold a good deal of conceit.”
LEE
Hy that loses his conscience has noth-
ing left worth keeping.—Isaac Walton.