CHAPTER XII. Back
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FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES
THE main stream of prophecy runs in the channel of Hebrew history. This
indeed is true of all revelation. Eleven chapters of the Bible suffice to cover
the two thousand years before the call of Abraham, and the rest of the old
Testament relates to the Abrahamic race. If for a while the light of revelation
rested on Babylon or Susa, it was because Jerusalem was desolate, and Judah was
in exile. For a time the Gentile has now gained the foremost place in blessing
upon earth; but this is entirely anomalous, and the normal order of God's
dealings with men is again to be restored. "Blindness in part is happened to
Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel
shall be saved, as it is written." [1]
The Scriptures teem with promises and prophecies in favor of that nation,
not a tithe of which have yet been realized. And while the impassioned poetry in
which so many of the old prophecies are couched is made a pretext for treating
them as hyperbolical descriptions of the blessings of the Gospel, no such plea
can be urged respecting the Epistle to the Romans. Writing to Gentiles, the
Apostle of the Gentiles there reasons the matter out in presence of the facts of
the Gentile dispensation. The natural branches of the race of Israel have been
broken off from the olive tree of earthly privilege and blessing, and, "contrary
to nature," the wild olive branches of Gentile blood have been substituted for
them. But in spite of the warning of the Apostle, we Gentiles have become "wise
in our own conceits," forgetting that the olive tree whose "root and fatness" we
partake of, is essentially Hebrew, for "the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance."
The minds of most men are in bondage to the commonplace facts of their
experience. The prophecies of a restored Israel seem to many as incredible as
predictions of the present triumphs of electricity and steam would have appeared
to our ancestors a century ago. While affecting independence in judging thus,
the mind is only giving proof of its own impotence or ignorance. Moreover, the
position which the Jews have held for eighteen centuries is a phenomenon which
itself disposes of every seeming presumption against the fulfillment of these
prophecies.
It is not a question of how a false religion like that of Mahomet can maintain
an unbroken front in presence of a true faith; the problem is very different.
Not only in a former age, but in the early days of the present dispensation, the
Jews enjoyed a preference in blessing, which practically amounted almost to a
monopoly of Divine favor. In its infancy the Christian Church was essentially
Jewish. The Jews within its pale were reckoned by thousands, the Gentiles by
tens. And yet that same people afterwards became, and for eighteen centuries
have continued to be, more dead to the influence of the Gospel than any other
class of people upon earth. How can "this mystery," as the Apostle terms it, be
accounted for, save as Scripture explains it, namely, that the era of special
grace to Israel closed with the period historically within the Acts of the
Apostles, and that since that crisis of their history "blindness in part is
happened" to them?
But this very word, the truth of which is so clearly proved by public facts,
goes on to declare that this judicial hardening is to continue only "until the
fullness of the Gentiles be come in;" and the inspired Apostle adds, "And so all
Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the
Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant
unto them." [2]
But, it may with reason be demanded, does not this imply merely that
Israel shall be brought within the blessings of the Gospel, not that the Jews
shall be blessed on a principle which is entirely inconsistent with the Gospel?
Christianity, as a system, assumes the fact that in a former age the Jews
enjoyed a peculiar place in blessing:
But the Jews have lost their vantage-ground through sin, and they now stand
upon the common level of ruined humanity. The Cross has broken down "the middle
wall" which separated them from Gentiles. It has leveled all distinctions. As to
guilt "there is no difference, for all have sinned;" as to mercy "there
is no difference, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call
on Him." How then, if there be no difference, can God give blessing on a
principle which implies that there is a difference? In a word, the fulfillment
of the promises to Judah is absolutely inconsistent with the distinctive truths
of the present dispensation.
This question is one of immense importance, and claims the most earnest
consideration. Nor is it enough to urge that the eleventh chapter of Romans
itself supposes that in this age the Gentile has an advantage, though not a
priority, and, therefore, Israel may enjoy the like privilege hereafter. It is
part of the same revelation, that although grace stoops to the Gentile just
where he is, it does not confirm him in his position as a Gentile, but
lifts him out of it and denationalizes him; for in the Church of this
dispensation "there is neither Jew nor Gentile." [3]
Judah's promises, on the contrary, imply that blessing will reach the Jew
as a Jew, not only recognizing his national position, but confirming him
therein.
The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable, that before God can act thus, the
special proclamation of grace in the present dispensation must have ceased, and
a new principle of dealing with mankind must have been inaugurated.
But here the difficulties only seem to multiply and grow. For, it may be asked,
does not the dispensation run its course until the return of Christ to earth?
How then can Jews be found at His coming in a place of blessing nationally,
akin to that which they held in a bygone age? All will admit that Scripture
seems to teach that such will be the case. [4]
The question still remains whether this be really intended. Does
Scripture speak of any crisis in relation to the earth, to intervene before "the
day when the Son of man shall be revealed "?
No one who diligently seeks the answer to this inquiry can fail to be impressed
by the fact that at first sight some confusion seems to mark the statements of
Scripture with respect to it. Certain passages testify that Christ will return
to earth, and stand once more on that same Olivet on which His feet last rested
ere He ascended to His Father; (Zechariah 14:4; Acts 1:11, 12) and others tell
us as plainly that He will come, not to earth, but to the air above us, and call
His people up to meet Him and be with Him. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17) These
Scriptures again most clearly prove that it is His believing people who shall be
"caught up," (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17; 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52) leaving the
world to run its course to its destined doom; while other Scriptures as
unequivocally teach that it is not His people but the wicked who are to be
weeded out, leaving the righteous "to shine forth in the kingdom of their
Father." (Matthew 13:40-43) And the confusion apparently increases when we
notice that Holy Writ seems sometimes to represent the righteous who are to be
thus blessed as Jews, sometimes as Christians of a dispensation in which the Jew
is cast off by God.
These difficulties admit of only one solution, a solution as satisfactory as it
is simple; namely, that what we term the second advent of Christ is not a single
event, but includes several distinct manifestations. At the first of these He
will call up to Himself the righteous dead, together with His own people then
living upon earth. With this event this special "day of grace" will cease, and
God will again revert to "the covenants" and "the promises," and that people to
whom the covenants and promises belong (Romans 9:4) will once more become the
center of Divine action toward mankind.
Everything that God has promised is within the range of the believer's hope;
[5]
but this is its near horizon. All things wait on its accomplishment.
Before the return of Christ to earth, many a page of prophecy has yet to be
fulfilled, but not a line of Scripture bars the realization of this the Church's
special hope of His coming to take His people to Himself. Here, then, is the
great crisis which will put a term to the reign of grace, and usher in the
destined woes of earth's fiercest trial — "the days of
vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." (Luke 21:22)
To object that a truth of this magnitude would have been stated with more
dogmatic clearness is to forget the distinction between doctrinal teaching and
prophetic utterance. The truth of the second advent belongs to prophecy, and the
statements of Scripture respecting it are marked by precisely the same
characteristics as marked the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah.
[6]
"The sufferings of Christ and the glories which should follow" were
foretold in such a way that a superficial reader of the old Scriptures would
have failed to discover that there were to be two advents of Messiah. And even
the careful student, if unversed in the general scheme of prophecy, might have
supposed that the two advents, though morally distinct, should be intimately
connected in time. So is it with the future. Some regard the second advent as a
single event; by others its true character is recognized, but they fail to mark
the interval which must separate its first from its final stage. An intelligent
apprehension of the truth respecting it is essential to the right understanding
of unfulfilled prophecy.
But having thus clearly fixed these principal landmarks to guide us in the
study, we cannot too strongly deprecate the attempt to fill up the interval with
greater precision than Scripture warrants. There are definite events to be
fulfilled, but no one may dogmatize respecting the time or manner of their
fulfillment. No Christian who estimates aright the appalling weight of suffering
and sin which each day that passes adds to the awful sum of this world's sorrow
and guilt, can fail to long that the end may indeed be near; but let him not
forget the great principle that "the longsuffering of our
Lord is salvation," (2 Peter 3:15) nor yet the language of the Psalm, "A
thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch
in the night." (Psalm 90:4) There is much in Scripture which seems to
justify the hope that the consummation will not be long delayed; but, on the
other hand, there is not a little to suggest the thought that before these final
scenes shall be enacted, civilization will have returned to its old home in the
east, and, perchance, a restored Babylon shall have become the center of human
progress and of apostate religion. [7]
To maintain that long ages have yet to run their course would be as
unwarrantable as are the predictions so confidently made that all things shall
be fulfilled within the current century. It is only in so far as prophecy is
within the seventy weeks; of Daniel that it comes within the range of chronology
at all, and Daniel's vision primarily relates to Judah and Jerusalem.
[8]
.