January 1932
12
T h e K i n g s
B u s i n e s s
THE JEWISH CHALLENGE . . . By J. A. VAUS, * Los Angeles, Calif.
transformations of the greatest magnitude and far-reach ing consequences. Centuries have passed since the world-wide dispersion o f Israel, and no movement of outstanding importance or of special prophetic significance has occurred. A World War breaks out and, when the smoke o f battle clears away, we find the Jew occupying the center o f the stage, the cynosure of all eyes. A National Jewish Homeland is established in Palestine, and the restoration of Israel to the land of her fathers—a movement begun in a small way some years previous—assumes gigantic proportions. Apparently a new day of un
he world , and even the church, is in a large measure better acquainted with the Jew of popular prejudice, as set forth, say, in Shakes peare’s Shylock, than with the Jew of the Bible; yet the Jew is the key that unlocks the door of divine revelation. To correctly understand the history of the world and the interpretation of the prophecies of Scripture, it is necessary for one to be informed concerning the impor tant place which Israel occupies in the divine program. That revelation finds its center and circumference in a Jew—Jesus Christ. “When the Most High divided
wonted political, social, intellectual, and religious liberty has dawned for the Jews, particularly for those of eastern and c e n t r a l Europe. The ghetto is a thing of the past; restrictions in citizenship, residence, vocation, and worship have been withdrawn; racial and religious minority rights are now guaranteed under the League of Nations. The social status of Jew ish women is undergoing transfor mation, while increasing cultural and educational advantages are now being enjoyed by many. Kaleidoscopic c h a n g e s are proving disastrous to Judaism, which is seriously threatened with disintegration. Centuries-old bar riers of prejudice against Christ and Christianity are being broken down, while Jews in increasingly large numbers are throwing off
to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the peo ple according to the number o f the children o f Israel” (Deut. 32:8). Israel has been referred to as God’s barometer, and g r e a t changes in God’s dispensational calendar are frequently indicated in advance by certain outstanding movements in Israel. The present age is no exception in this regard, for the great national movement for the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land, together with the world-wide spiritual awakening throughout the ranks of Israel, is indicative of the rapidly approach ing end of the present age and the early return of our Lord. Thoughtful students of the Word of God, as they observe the fulfillment of prophecy in the pres
The Agony of Israel C J ? he agony of Israel is that we bear ourselves for the most part as if there were nothing to safeguard, nothing more to cherish, nothing left to preserve, as if there were to be no future— this the end. Religion! Are we not becoming its destroyers rather than its guardians? There is something which calls itself reli gion current in certain smug circles of Jewish life here and in other lands. For the most part, it is nothing more than a poor pulseless imitation or simulation of a decorously unvital mysticism. And save for this, there is little, if any, so-called re ligion in the household o f Israel — *ortho doxy being almost as dead as reform. ■ —R abbi S tephen S. W ise .
the shackles of traditional Judaism. Growing indifference toward the ritual of the synagogue and the multiplied cere monies of the home, the diverting effect of worldly ambi tion, the deteriorating influence of liberal Judaism, dimin ishing Jewish prejudice against Christianity, the inroads of various cults, the melting-pot influences of America, to gether with the failure of Judaism to satisfy and the subse quent search for spiritual satisfaction elsewhere, are some of the many forces responsible for the present widespread apostasy from the Jewish faith and the abandonment of the synagogues by the Jewish masses. The present Jewish situation, while replete with great spiritual possibilities for Israel if taken advantage o f by the forces of Christianity, shows a perilous tendency for the Jewish religious pendulum to swing from the one ex treme of rigid, uncompromising Jewish orthodoxy to the other extreme of frankly avowed skepticism, agnosticism, atheism, and infidelity. The present spiritual plight of God’s ancient people, Israel, is nothing short of tragic. In discarding the chaff of fallible human tradition, she is in danger of committing the error of rejecting with it the
ent-day “ signs o f the times,” in the social world, in the political world, in the natural world, in the religious world, and in the Jewish world, cannot escape the conviction that the curtain is about to fall upon the closing scene o f the present dispensation. As the times of the Gentiles draw to a close, there is increasingly evident a stirring among “ the dry bones” of Israel. Gradually the Gentile picture is fading out, while with each passing day, the Jewish picture grows brighter and clearer in outline. A C risis for I srael That the nation of Israel has arrived at a momentous spiritual crisis in her long and eventful history is daily be coming more apparent even to the casual observer. Pro found, sweeping, and drastic changes within the ranks of the Jewish nation are occurring with bewildering rapidity. Not only hag Israel’s national interest been profoundly af fected by changes subsequent to the World War, but coin cident with these national changes have occurred religious
*Director of Jewish Angeles.
Missions Course, Bible Institute o f Los
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