Search
In the last one hundred years, the United States has been able to assimilate all kinds of peoples into one culture. The Jews are an exception. This is a miracle. Had it not been for the fact that it is so difficult for them to be assimilated, after more than twenty-five hundred years of exile they would have become the same as the Gentiles. But God has promised through the Old Testament prophets that He would gather the Jews back to their country again. If they had been assimilated, how could they return? This is why God has preserved their national distinctiveness for more than two thousand years! This is a proof of the reality of the biblical prophecies.
During the past two years, someone has considered building a British-style college on the Mount of Olives with $250,000. The reality of this college is the present British College in Jerusalem.
The United Hadassah Society, the American Zionist Women's Association, and the American Medical Association are prepared to spend one million dollars to build a few hospitals in Palestine. The medical department of the Hebrew University will be incorporated into this project.
The Jewish settlement office has agreed on a plan to make Tel Aviv (a fast-developing city close to Jaffa) the hub of a railway network in Palestine. Ludd (about ten miles from Tel Aviv) was originally the crossroads for the Kantara-Haifa and Jaffa-Jerusalem line. Now the crossroads will be transferred to Tel Aviv. In this way Tel Aviv and Jaffa will be greatly rewarded, because the office has agreed to build the harbor in Haifa and not in Jaffa.
The work of building waterways and roads around Haifa harbor has already employed six to seven hundred Jews.
Recently, Mr. ______ has a report in the World Report concerning the progress of the work in Palestine. He wrote the following:
Every aspect of the work in Palestine is amazing. Everyone is busy, and no one is idle. Progress in building can be seen everywhere throughout the country. Residential houses are going up in hundreds, as are shops and factories. Jerusalem has some very tall buildings, and one twelve-story office building is being constructed which looks like an Egyptian palace. Wages are high, and, in short, the people are happy and satisfied.
However, five years ago when the land was taken back by the British from the Turks, it was a bankrupt and deserted country. At that time very few cities had escaped the damage of the war. All arable fields were left untilled. Areas where the Turkish armies had passed through were even more devastated. Riots and lawlessness were rife, and there were always robberies by nomad Arabs. Not one aspect of Palestine, including its finances, industry, social order, and politics, was left undamaged.
At present, the cleanliness and orderliness of Jerusalem surprised me. It has been found out that the mortality rate is the same as that in London. The health department is also doing its best. The narrow streets are being cleaned regularly. One thing that the British government paid attention to was to clean out the small ponds and to cover them up. There were about six thousand of them, and some of them had not been cleaned for more than a hundred years. Now mosquito-borne malaria and the suffering of fevers caused by the summer months in Jerusalem are all removed.
We believe that more changes will come. The faithful Zionists said that they will turn Palestine into another Eden. This reminds us of Joel 2:3 which says that the Holy Land will be as Eden. But it also mentions a great army coming in to destroy and to lay the land waste to desolation once more. This fact will indeed be fulfilled. After the Zionists have accomplished their enterprises, the nations will come up to devastate the land again. But by that time, the Lord will come and deliver the remnant among the Israelites who fear the Lord. The prosperity of Palestine is nothing but a sign to us that our days are about to end.
Archaeologist Professor Sellin was satisfied that he had unearthed the altar of Abraham and the tomb of Joseph in Shechem.
The traveling archaeologists from the University of Chicago had hoped to discover evidences of ancient traffic between Egypt and Palestine. At present they are digging at a hill twenty-five miles southeast of Haifa. They bore such hope because the ancient Meggido fortress guarded the pass at Mount Carmel, and the ancient Hebrews collected taxes from the traveling merchants who traveled between Egypt and Damascus. On the ancient site of Meggido, they found a synagogue built at the time of the Roman reign. It could have been one of the synagogues mentioned in the New Testament.
Most of the third wall of Jerusalem has been unearthed and exposed.
The World Council of Churches has completed its plan for convening at Geneva, Switzerland in 1930. Members of this committee comprise all kinds of people — Christians, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Greek Orthodox believers, and representatives of heretical groups. Those who are familiar with Bible prophecies will not be surprised at such councils. It is only one of the councils mentioned in Psalm 2. This council will convene in 1930 and will focus on religious issues. As Psalm 2 says, "The kings of the earth take their stand, / And the rulers take counsel together, / Against Jehovah and against His Anointed" (v. 2). In other words, this council is a conference of atheists. The purpose of the conference is to try to remove Judaism and Christianity from the earth. In reading the Bible, we can see that at that time there will be human institutions set up. Within this institution the spirit which operates is "the man of lawlessness...the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or an object of worship, so that he sits in the temple of God, setting himself forth, saying that he is God" (2 Thes. 2:3-4). The report of this conference goes: "The World Council of Churches has been formed and will convene in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1930. There are sixty-nine executive members, four of whom are Jews. Other executive members include Catholics, Protestants, Greek Orthodox, and even Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Confucians, Shintoists, Taoists, and so forth."
In India there is a kind of spiritualist organization. It is a product of heresies. One Mrs. ______, a British woman, is their leader. A few decades ago she saw two handsome Indian brothers, and she adopted them as her sons. One of them was supposedly the coming great world Teacher, the reincarnation of the Messiah. The father of the two boys thought that the sons belonged to him and that Mrs. ______ had no right to take custody of them. The two fought for a long time. Eventually the court ruled that the two boys should belong to the lady, and that the father had no right to interfere with them. The British lady provided them with the best education. One of them was called ______, and was claimed by Mrs. ______ to be the so-called Christ. He has now graduated from Oxford University. According to the lady, last October the "spirit of Christ" had already descended upon him and had ordained him as the unique Teacher of the world, and before October the "spirit of Christ" had used him a few times already. Now this new "Christ" has traveled from England to America. We will quote a report from Our Hope in America:
When the new Messiah ______ arrived in the U.S., every newspaper reported concerning him and called him God-among-men. Some reported that he was a handsome young man, with bright dark eyes. We can predict his prosperity, for hundreds of foolish young women and ladies will follow him. They will love to hear his foolish talk, in the same way that they admire film stars that they see in the movies.
When this Indian reached America, he said, "I wish to see a fundamental change in American religion. I expect that by my coming, you will have a new religion." The bald seventy-nine-year-old Mrs. ______, who had claimed to be the leader of all the deceiving spiritualists throughout the world, stood by him and smiled. The manager of a newspaper, Mr. James B. Pond, was smiling also.
One reporter asked if he would weep for New York City, in the same way that the Lord Jesus wept for Jerusalem. He answered, "I am not here to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins. I believe that the most important thing is to live happily, to not do anything that will harm others, to love, and to forbear." Some asked, if he were the Messiah, why he would not live as frugally as Gandhi. He said, "I am very frugal. I do not take meat or drink. I do not marry or dance. However, I swim and I play tennis."
Mrs. ______ claimed that this Indian young man is the "voice of God," and the "great world Teacher." These are words of blasphemy. Will such claims produce any result? Well, many, many foolish women and feeble-minded men will follow him.
The Bible predicts that before the Lord Jesus comes to earth, the old Roman Empire will be revived. We know that the old Roman Empire was quite large and that its empire has now disintegrated into many powerful nations. The many great nations in Europe are but small parts of the Roman Empire. The Bible tells us that these nations will eventually become a federation of ten nations. The head of this federation will be Antichrist. We believe that the League of Nations now is the forerunner of this federation. Those who study prophecy should pay attention to the League of Nations. Mr. Panton has pointed out that although England has rejected the proposal in Geneva, this rejection will not succeed, because all the nations in the League were under the former rule of the Roman Empire. Russia, Germany, and America were not under the rule of the old Roman Empire. At present, the nations that rule over Rome are Italy, Greece, France, Spain, and England. All these are main parts of the Roman Empire.
The whole of Europe is turning more and more toward dictatorship. Mussolini is the originator. It seems to be working for him to cover up the economic crisis with personal politics. Belgium has allowed its king to dictate its finances. Its government has handed over control of its finances to its king, and it is about to hand over absolute control to him, just as Italy has done to Mussolini. France is doing the same thing, and other nations are following suit. The deposed Greek ruler liked to call himself "the Greek Mussolini." All these things are rapidly fulfilling the prophecies in the Bible. One day a great dictator will come and will rule over the finances, politics, and commerce of the whole of Europe. This dictator will be the small horn in Daniel 7. How soon will he appear?
The archbishop of ______ said that he was shocked at the condition of the believers in continental Europe. Mr. ______ of Manchester University has written us, saying:
This summer I went to a Protestant parish. There was a Protestant church there. Every day it pulled the bell twice, once at 11 o'clock before noon, and once at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. But I did not see anyone entering the church or coming out of it. I asked the supervisor what this meant. He told me that the bell was for the villagers. I asked, "Does this not also mean that there is a service?" He said, "No. Before the War, there might have been one. But not anymore." At present, the Roman Catholic Church is getting stronger and stronger. The Thames reported on July 31, 1926, the words of Mr. ______ saying, "Men are interrogated and punished in Spain for singing in their own homes; they are not allowed to preach or to mention the Bible in public."
