THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

112 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
mighty Breath of God. God began then to breathe upon
those who had been dead in their sins ;
and they lived,
and "stood upon their feet." And the work begun that
clay has been going on ever since, until the company
of the regenerated ones has become "an exceeding
great army," an innumerable multitude (Rev. 7:9).
It is not to be wondered at that the Jewish rabbis
should have interpreted this vision as a prophecy of
the revival of their nation ;
for they were grossly carnal
in their thoughts (God's thoughts were not their
thoughts, Isa. 55:8), and they were, moreover, narrowly
selfish and exclusive as regards their expectations
of Divine blessing. And furthermore, they were
ignorant of the "mystery" of the true "Israel" (Eph.
2:12, 13; 3:1-6), namely, "That the Gentiles should
be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of
His promise in Christ, by (means of) the gospel."
But it is a cause of wonderment that any of those to
whom that "mystery" has been revealed, and who have
learned moreover, how the 0. T. prophecies are fulfilled
in these days of the Holy Spirit's presence on
earth, should discard what has been the accepted
Christian interpretation of these prophecies for nineteen
centuries, in favor of that held by those "blind
leaders of the blind," whose leadership brought about
the ruin of the Jewish nation.