THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 157
therein. And beyond all doubt Paul would have mentioned
it in the eleventh chapter of Romans, where he
speaks distinctly of the future of Israel. Moreover, he
would surely have proclaimed it when put on trial as
to his teaching concerning this very matter, first
before
the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and then successively
before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. We have seen that
on all those four occasions the apostle maintained, and
at the peril of his life, that the "hope of Israel" was
a radically different thing from what the Jewish leaders
supposed.
For those who accept the teaching of Paul this
should be decisive of the question we are now exam-
But we propose to go further than this, and to
ining.
show that the doctrine of national restoration for the
Jewish nation at the beginning of the next dispensation,
is directly contrary to the plain teaching of the
New Testament as a whole.
And if we can show this,
then it must be contrary to the 0. T. also; since there
can be no disagreement between the two.
The present writer received the doctrine of the future
restoration of "Israel after the flesh" as part of
a system of teaching which he accepted in bidk because
of the soundness and excellent reputation of
those who sponsored it.
But, having now learned to
his sorrow and mortification that he has held and
taught error of a serious kind, it is his duty thus to
confess it, and also to do what in him lies to establish
the truth of the matter.
No SECOND CHANCE
In the first place then, we affirm with all possible
emphasis that for those who now reject the offer of