MARCH, 1946
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join me in fighting all -forms-of anti- Semitism in this country. I want Christians to learn the true facts about the Jewish people, that they may know that many charges hurled against them are to a large extent untrue. A man once asked a Doctor of Med icine if he thought that life was worth living. The M.D. replied, “It all de pends on the liver.” He then went to a Doctor of Divinity and again asked, “Is life worth living?” The man of God answered, “It all depends on the liver.” The words used by both doctors were the same, but what a difference in viewpoint was revealed by their replies! The M.D. was partly right when he asserted that the worth whileness of living depended upon that glandular organ of vertebrates, which secretes bile, and is of great impor tance in metabolism, known as the liver. But the D.D. spoke the whole truth when he declared that it was all up- to the one living whether life was worth living or not. -Is life really worth living for Jew ish people today? Recently I was impressed with this quotation from The Mediator entitled, “As Jew to Jew.” “I am a Jew, a Jew despised, mis trusted and feared, living in every clime, yet nowhere at home. Jew! a name the very sound of which spells derision. My enemies hate me for the name I bear; my friends subcon sciously shrink from me. “Oft in the still night the echo of my name awakens me, and, like a hunted deer, I pant for breath—then realize that it was but a nightmare. : A nightmare? Next morning may make it as real as -life. “But—I am a Jew! Listen, brother Jew, I am a Jew and so are you. You and I belong to the race, scat tered-and peeled, hunted and harassed, despised and rejected. Yet you and I belong to the race of patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, the priestly people. Do you not feel the stirring of your blood at. the very men tion of. the name—JEW? “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, were of the same race. So were Isaiah, Jeremiah and the rest of the mighty seers. And so, were Peter, John, and Paul. And Jesus — what blood coursed through the veins, of His holy Being, but that which courses through y o u r s - and mine, my brother Jew? Not the blu est blood .of the most exalted king is as blue as that which flows in you, though you be a Jew.” U I Were a Jew We admit times are dark for Israel, and according to the Old Testament Scriptures, these things were foretold thousands of years ago, with assur ance that conditions would only grow worse and worse until the return of
the King^Messlah- to deliver His .own. So it is not because I minimize Jewish hatred and' persecution that I insist that, in spite of all these things, life is still worth living for a Jew. I am not a Jew, but if I were, I should be proud to be a member of the greatest people who ever lived. Ah, to be of the seed of that great patriarch, Abraham, who was called “the friend of God” ! (James 2:23). He was the man who dared to change his religion because God told him to. Israel is the people whom God loves with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3); those to whom He refers as “the apple of his eye” (Zech. 2:8). They are the people whom He claimed would never be annihilated until the solar system was destroyed (Jer. 31:33-37). God declared that they would go through these awful times, and even greater tribulation (Jer. 30:7). He stated they would be refined as silver, as a result of these troubles (Psa. 66:10-12). These are the ones being “stirred up” in all countries to get back to their
the. truth, t o ' the New Testament. There I would find the Jewish Scrip tures unfolded and fulfilled: there I would come face to face with God manifest in the flesh: there I would sit at the feet of that Prophet, spoken of by Moses (Deut. 13:15, 18; Acts 3:20- 23), “the teacher come from God” (John 3:2). He would show me some thing far more important than being born of my parents. He would say to me: “Except a man be, born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). He would reveal to me that, unless I am born again it were better for me if I had never been born at all. He would say to me so tenderly and lovingly, “For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He would show me that by believing in Him, God’s Lamb, Christ my Passover, sac rificed for me—by receiving Him as my Saviour-Messiah, I would be eter nally saved (John 1:29; 1 -Cor. 5:7). “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power [authority or right] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1: 11-13). If I were a Jew, I would be a believing Jew. I would believe in the Christ of God, who died for my sins (1 Cor. 15:1-3). I would receive Him as my personal Saviour, for I would see that He is the Stone set at naught of the builders, arid that there was salvation in no one else (Psa. 118:22; Acts 4:11,12). Being saved by His-matehless grace, I would hear Him, the Holy One of Israel, my Saviour (Isa. 43:3), saying to me: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have: tribula tion: but be of good-cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). I believe with all my heart that we, Jews and Gentiles, were bofn so that we might have the opportunity, to be bom again, bom from above, If we go through life without being born again, we miss the purpose for which we were bom. Therefore, my Jewish friends', be glad you are bom: be glad you are living. Whether or hot it is worth while depends upon you. God is on the throne arid is silently planning for you in love. Remember, “Trib ulation makes a man,” and it can make you, as you believe in the Christ who died that you might have life, and that you might' have it more abundantly (John 10:10; Luke 12:15).
“He that Asketh” An insurance salesman who had topped all others in the amount of insurance that he wrote was asked by a Chris tian worker, "What do you have that the other men haven't?" With a grin, he replied, "Nothing. I just ask them, that's all." Do we fail to lead others to Christ because we are not interested enough to "ask them"?
own . land (Deut.. 32:11; Jer. 23:7-8), .fo r they are the people to whom a fountain will be opened for sin and .uncleanness. (Zech. 13:1)—the people who one day will.be saved as a nation, and bring much honor and glory to the Lord God (Rom. 11:26); the people of whom the Lord of hosts has. said: ‘‘In those days it shall come to pass, ■that ten men shall take hold out of •all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew,, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you” (Zech. 8:23), .: Baiter Mot to Be Born, Unless Born Again Yes, .if I were a Jew, I would be proud of it. I would search the Scrip- tures on my knees and ask my God to. reveal to me .the true way of know ing Him. Like Abraham, I would be lieve God, even t h o u g h it meant changing my religion. I am certain that God would lead me on in my quest for Him, and the knowledge of
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