THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

86 The Hope of Israel: What Is It?
writing to converted Jews (the diaspora, "scattered
throughout Pontus," and other provinces of the Roman
Empire), says "Ye also, as living stones are [being]
built up a spiritual house . . . Wherefore also it is contained
in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
corner stone," etc. (I Pet. 2:6), quoting Isaiah 28:16.
And the writer of Hebrews, addressing believers in
Jesus Christ, says, "For ye are not come unto the
mount that might be touched" the earthly mount
"But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto
Sinai;
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and
to an innumerable company of angels," etc. (Heb. 12 :
18-24).
So far as the writer has been able to find, there is
no prophecy of the later, or of the earlier prophets,
which foretells the return of the Jews to Palestine
and their re-possession of that land as their national
home, subsequent to the destruction of the nation by
the Romans. We have seen that there are, on the contrary,
many prophecies that seem to make such an
event an impossibility.
And, disregarding all Bible prophecies, it seems to
the writer that recent developments in connection with
the political movement known as Zionism, following
the mandate to Great Britain of the government of the
land of Palestine, and following the famous "Balfour
Declaration," make it more than ever unlikely that the
Jews will return to Palestine in a body, or in any considerable
numbers, or will ever re-possess that land as
their national home. For, according to the latest official
figures (June, 1929) the entire Jewish population
of Palestine is less than one hundred and fifty thousand;
and they are outnumbered by the non-Jewish
population more than five to one.