THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

156 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
gospel, wi^.h its "one hope" for all mankind, the only
gospel and the only hope preached or recognized by
the apostles, has been so far set aside in our day as to
make room for the very same hope which the Jewish
teachers held in Paul's day. And not only so, but our
modern teachers support this radically different "hope
of Israel" by the very same process of carnalizing the
O. T. prophecies and promises which Paul denounced
and refuted in his day. It was for this cause that he
suffered persecution and imprisonment; for it is certain
that, had Paul preached the same "hope of Israel"
that is now commonly preached from orthodox platforms,
and taught in orthodox periodicals, he would
have been honored by his fellow countrymen, rather
than persecuted.
NOT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
It is admitted by those who teach a distinct hope for
the Jewish nation apart from the "one hope" of the
gospel, that there is nothing in the N. T. to support
that doctrine. They admit that the N. T. will be
searched in vain for any statement to the effect that,
when the day of grace is ended and the Lord Jesus
Christ is revealed from heaven in flaming fire, He will
convert the whole Jewish nation then on earth, and reestablish
them in Palestine.
This admission that the doctrine we are discussing
is not found in the N. T. is fatal to it. For the prophecies
concerning the second coming of Christ, recorded
in the Gospels, Epistles, and Revelation, are so full and
detailed that, if the national restoration of the earthly
Israel were part of the program of the second advent,
it would most certainly have been clearly set forth