"O to see the sight, next to Christ's coming in the clouds, the most joyful! Our elder brethren the Jews and Christ fall upon one another; they will be kind to one another when they meet. O day! O longed for and lovely day-dawn! O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead, thee and thy ancient people in mutual embraces."
"I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this."
From first volume of Sermons, 1855, as cited in Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope, p. 256.
"The day shall yet come when the Jews, who were the first apostles to the Gentiles, the first missionaries to us who were afar off, shall be gathered in again. . . . Matchless benefits to the world are bound up with the restoration of Israel; their gathering in shall be as life from the dead."
*** "I don’t believe there has been a more valuable extra-biblical resource and tool than the Puritan Hard Drive." - Dr. Matthew McMahon, A Puritan's Mind. ***
The classic Reformation position on the restoration of the Jews, a "system of prophetic interpretation that historically furnished the Biblical basis for the most glorious future imaginable for the Jews!" (Reg Barrow, Hal Lindsey & the Restoration of the Jews, book: http://www.swrb.com/catalog/B.htm under “BROWN, DAVID”).
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, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Romans 11:26-29).
The bulk of this book consists of David Brown's classic work focusing on Romans 11, The Restoration of the Jews (1861).
This is the same David Brown that had a hand in the Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary and whose "most enduring work... Christ's Second Coming: Will It Be Premillennial? ...remains the classic evangelical polemic against premillennialism" (Dictionary of Scottish Church History and Theology, p. 97).
This book demonstrates that Scripture teaches (and the best Reformation theologians concur) that the future will be most glorious for the Jews -- when they, as a people, are drawn by God's irresistible grace to the Lord Jesus Christ.
200 pages -- the photocopy editions do not include either contemporary preface or any of the contemporary appendices, and are thus 113 pages long.
- WITSIUS, HERMAN The Restoration of the Jews: An Extract from Herman Witsius (1806) In the debate over Biblical eschatology, a central pillar of the postmillennial argument has been the prophesied future revival among the Jews. Romans 11, and other Scripture passages, point to an event where the Jews will finally turn to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. A number of Reformed theologians, however, have tried to "spiritualize" this event, so that in their view it is not referring to the Jews (as a people) at all. This frequently leads to the erroneous Amillennial view. Herman Witsius, the noted Dutch theologian of the seventeenth century, was a major proponent of the more natural interpretation of these passages, and in this booklet he strongly opposes those who spiritualize the interpretation.
Witsius notes that any other interpretation (i.e., other than "Israel" meaning the Jews in Romans 11) is wrong:
"From what we have said before, it appears, that they depart from the apostle's meaning, who, by all Israel, understand the mystical Israel, or the people of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, without admitting the conversion of the whole Jewish nation to Christ, in the sense we have mentioned" (p. 8).
In summary form, Witsius' position is that
"we are to expect the general conversion of the Israelites in time to come, not indeed of every individual, but of the whole body of the nation, and of the twelve tribes" (p. 16).
This is a great future event that Christians can look forward to. A major revival is yet to occur.
One of the most thoroughly documented historical books on eschatology & its connection to revival and missions.
Contains much related to the restoration of the Jews from the Puritan perspective.
So much so that in this book Iain Murray writes,
"From the first quarter of the seventeenth century, belief in a future conversion of the Jews became commonplace among the English Puritans" (p, 42).
This is a powerfully encouraging study of the biblical and Reformed teaching on the Christian's hope in this world & in the prospect of the triumph of the gospel.
This book shows how the optimistic eschatology of Scripture made the Puritans of old, mighty men of valour in battling for the kingdom and glory of God.
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