RECENT NEWS ABOUT THE JEWS
(1) A new shipping company: A Jewish Forum Paper said that recently a new organization called the Palestinian Shipping Company has been formed. It has six commercial liners that will travel between New York, Haifa, and the Mediterranean Sea. The director of the company is William Jordan, the chairman of the American Shipping Association. The ships will bear the American flag and the Zionist flag as well.
(2) The return of the Jews: A certain Jewish organization claimed recently, "During the past six years, we have helped eighty thousand Jews to return to Palestine...They have been redeemed and are now in the work of redeeming many thousands and hundreds of thousands of other people. Because there were over eighty thousand who have migrated to Palestine during the past six years, one thousand Jews were able to leave Poland at one time and join the increasing crowd...Although eighty thousand is only one percent of the total Jewish population in Europe..yet this is only a beginning. Six years ago we could never have imagined that there could be three to four thousand Jews returning to Palestine every month. But now the fact is before our eyes!" The New Palestine News said, "July 21st of last year saw the greatest number of Jews returning from Poland to Palestine in one day. One thousand people migrated on that day to Palestine. In addition, six hundred others were preparing themselves to go." It is said that when they left, there was a big farewell party which expressed their zeal and desire to return to Palestine. All those who returned were filled with joy and satisfaction.
The London Christian Paper said, "In 1914 there were seventy thousand Jews in Palestine. Today, there are one hundred ten thousand. During the European War, Jews left Palestine by the thousands. Today, not only are the former deserted places filled, but new arrivals are pouring in like a flood...The recent return of the Jews was not only motivated by lofty nationalism, but was a result of the economic and political oppression in their respective countries. Last March, thirty-three hundred returned." Our Hope magazine in America said that within the past month over four thousand Jews returned, and that during the past five years the Jewish population increased by one percent.
The population of China is so large that we do not consider these numbers very impressive. But to a place as small as the Jewish land, this number is not small. The fig tree has brought forth its shoot, and summer is near!
(3) The arrival of the new governor: The last governor was ______. The Jewish Forum Paper said that the new governor ______ has arrived in Jerusalem, and that there were a lot of officers at the welcome party that day. The director of Jerusalem affairs ______ first gave a speech in Arabic, which was later translated into Hebrew and English. Mr. ______ followed with a speech in response. The new governor swore his allegiance to the Palestinian Constitution that day.
(4) The rising cost of land in Palestine: The Hebrew Daily News in Jerusalem reported that buyers of land have increased day by day and were as numerous as the locusts. They based themselves in ______ and were gradually buying land within the city. This caused an upsurge in the price of the land. It is already difficult to secure an inch of land in Tel Aviv. The paper said that the price of land became shockingly high. Another news item reported that at present there are over two hundred thousand acres of land registered under Jewish names.
(5) Even the Jewish religion is modernized: We know that the Jews are the most conservative of all people. Their faith in the Old Testament is very firm. But now things have greatly changed! Just as some in Christianity have been deceived by Satan and have called themselves modernists, in the same way there are the same kind of people in Judaism. Recently, ______ wrote a book called The Liberated Liberal Judaism. He said that liberated Judaism recognizes the existence of God and the existence of man after death. Yet the book questioned why this kind of faith was not able to gain the heart of the young ones! It said that there is no such thing as a Messianic people. It is said that their tone echoes that of the Trinity Theological Seminary in New York.
Rabbi ______ thinks that there should be a "simplified Bible." He said that the unessential and repetitious parts should be removed. He also said that "the twentieth century Bible should recognize that divine revelation can be found everywhere in the world, and that the moral teachings of Buddha and Confucius and their deep devotion to God and man, should be included in the Bible, as an example of the brotherhood of all mankind."
Those who have not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and who have not experienced the power of the Bible will, of course, consider many parts of the Bible "immaterial, unimportant, and repetitious." But what is it to us who love the truth? The Lord’s Word is sweet as honey and precious as gold. How can we remove one word of it? If the Jews who return to their own country are now in such unbelief, no wonder that in the future they will make a covenant with Antichrist and will recognize him as king! Although they are now boasting of their intellectual capacity, from the Scripture we can see their end already!
The Jewish World said the following concerning the modernistic influence of Zionism and the true belief of Judaism: "The greatest and most urgent need of today is to try our best to plant Jews in Palestine who are proper in their faith. If there are a hundred places like ______ and ______, which are colonies of firm believers in Judaism, it will be of immeasurable value to the development of the proper religion."
In spite of this, orthodox Judaism does not believe that the Lord Jesus is the Christ! In the future they will also be deceived by Antichrist. We should pray much for the Jews. May the Lord deliver their souls, and may many of their "remnant" be kept in the great tribulation after we have been raptured by the Lord.
(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 07: The Christian (5), Chapter 3, by Watchman Nee)
