I have heard world renowned Reformed preachers use the casual phrase: “Saul got converted and became Paul.” It’s a neat and convenient concept, except it’s theologically wrong! Read Acts 13:1-2. What name did the Holy Spirit used for converted Saul?—well, Saul! Or have you read in your Scriptures that verse in James 2:2 about not showing favoritism? It speaks of someone who comes into your “meeting place/congregation.” But the Greek word is synagoge. This word is used 56 times in New Testament. 55 times it is translated synagogue but in James 2:2 it is translated “meeting place”. Why? Well maybe it’s a little difficult for us as evangelical Christians to imagine that James would actually be in the synagogue. But, he was! His name was Jacov (translated James), and the early church was a corner group of the synagogue in those early decades. If this is a new thought for you, it may be that you have imbibed a very Gentile narrative of early church life.
Or consider that when some preachers and scholars talk of the land in Jesus’s day, they often use the term “Palestine.” Is this an anti-Jewish slant? Should we not instead refer to Judea, or Samaria, or the Decapolis, or Galilee? The name Palestine was given in 135AD by the Romans who called it Syria Palestina for the purpose of annoying the Jewish people by including the Philistines in the name. As a man of Northern Irish upbringing, I would have major issues if someone were to say that Belfast was in the Republic of Ireland. Texans remember the Alamo! But what if some today were to call parts of Texas, Mexico? Whatever the aspirations of Mexico, Irish terrorists, or Arabs living in ‘disputed areas’, scholars, and preachers should know better than using a loaded term.
Replacementism is alive and well (and not just in the Roman Church). In the Pre-Reformation period, under Roman Catholic dominance and theological heresy, we can see a lost gospel and a lost mission to the lost sheep of the House of Israel and a lost Gentile world. So what will God do in His grace to restore, reform, and even ultimately refresh the lost world of European Romanism, and the New World of paganism? Well, I might say (perhaps too sweepingly) that the next few hundred years could be summarized as – Reformation, Awakening, and Expectancy.
Reformation
In the early 16th century, Reformed theology was sweeping over the European countries of France and Switzerland, particularly through the influence of John Calvin. We could speak much of Calvin’s influence and impact on the Reformation, but for the purposes of this article, it is to his views on Israel that we must turn our attention.
Switzerland
One Calvin scholar wrote, “Calvin’s views on the Jewish people are maddeningly complex.” That might very well be an understatement! Nonetheless, I want us to note that Luther, Calvin and others that we shall look at, certainly possessed individual views on the Jewish people. It was a theological issue for reformational thinking. It was not that they were just another nation among all the nations. There were views to be ‘had’ on the Jewish people. Luther may have seen them in eschatological terms. Calvin did seem to see them in theological terms and—as a man of his time—in sociological and societal terms also.
Calvin’s Geneva, considered by John Knox to be “a perfect school of Christ,” was still however off-limits to Christ’s blood brothers. There were no Jewish people there when Calvin arrived, as they had been expelled in 1491, 45 years earlier. Calvin did, however, support the Italian Jewish man Tremellius, who translated the Genevan Catechism into Hebrew, even writing an introduction on Jewish evangelization!
As we read Calvin on the Psalms, unlike Augustine and Luther, Calvin did not treat the Jewish people as God’s enemies. Yet he did hold to the biblical principle that “the greater the privilege, the greater the judgement if wasted.” So we may summarize that he was kindlier, but really he had very little contact with any Jewish people during his life which may have played a role in his spiritualizing of Romans 11. On the other hand, Calvin’s reformational successors—men such as Wolfgang Capito, Theodore Beza and Martin Bucer–all saw a future salvation of the Jewish people, and Calvin must have played his part in the development of this thought post-Luther. So Beza, who was Calvin’s successor in Geneva, wrote, “As for myself, I gladly pray every day for the Jews.”
Holland
In the 1500’s, Holland was proving itself a place of refuge for Jewish people. Holland was also (under God’s divine order) colonizing the New World through Maritime trade. In the mid 1500’s there was a small Jewish community in Recife, Brazil, which at that time was under the governance of Holland. Indeed in 1641 the Jewish community in Recife built the first synagogue in the New World.
But let us focus in on the leading light of the Dutch Second or Further Reformation—Wilhelmus à Brakel. À Brakel was born in Friesland, North Holland in 1635. Following several shorter ministries he served for almost 30 years in Rotterdam, until his death in 1711. Why is À Brakel important, and why don’t we know about him? Well, he has largely been unknown in the English-speaking world until recently (we have Reformation Heritage Books to thank for the translation and reprint of his magnus opus, The Christian’s Reasonable Service). Speaking recently with our missionary in Amsterdam he told me that every self-respecting reformed Dutch family will have a full set of The Christian’s Reasonable Service.
À Brakel was greatly influenced by the English Puritans of his day, being a young contemporary of the Westminster Divines (to which we shall come in a moment). His Reformed doctrine was experiential and warm. Now for our purposes, what had he to say concerning ‘Israel’, or even our Christian Witness to Israel? To wit, at the conclusion of the 2,500 pages of The Christian’s Reasonable Service, we have 30 pages pertaining to this particular subject, which he obviously considered important. But even more, he considered it dear to his heart:
“Pray for their redemption. How they have prayed for the salvation of the Gentiles! How they rejoiced in the prophecies that one day the Gentiles would be redeemed! Therefore, you ought to do likewise for their salvation, for you can pray this in faith, since they will certainly be saved.”
And concluding his final section giving ‘Reasons’ for focusing upon Jewish redemption:
“Their national redemption will not occur in our day, but it will indeed come to pass. At His time the Lord will cause it to come to pass suddenly. May the Lord be gracious to His people of old. Oh, that the Redeemer would come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob! Israel would then rejoice and the Gentiles would glory, and together they would render the Lord honor, glory, and thanksgiving. Hallelujah!”
Through Calvin’s successors and À Brakel, we can see that Reformed doctrine in Europe was displaying a warm affection towards, and redemptive desires for, the seed of Abraham. Furthermore, À Brakel’s writing and Reformed theology on Israel would be warmly received and applied in Dutch life.
England / Britain
John Knox’s son in law John Welch wrote in 1602 acknowledging that Romans 11 foretold the general conversion of the Jewish people. In 1618, the Church of England minister Elnathan Parr commented the following on Romans 11:26:
“The secret is this, that when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in, there shall be a famous notorious universal calling of the Jews… the end of this world will not be until the Jews are called, and how long yet after that none can tell.”
Puritan William Gouge published a paper in 1622 entitled The World’s Great Restoration: Or the Calling of the Jews and with them of All the Nations and Kingdoms of the earth, to the Faith in Christ. Gouge would later be a leading member of the Westminster Assembly. One of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly (1642), Robert Baillie, wrote:
“We grant willingly that the nation of the Jews shall be converted to the faith of Christ… But that the converted Jews shall return to Canaan to build Jerusalem, that Christ shall come from heaven to reign among them for a thousand years, there is no such thing intimated in the Scriptures in hand.”
And Samuel Rutherford from Anwoth, Scotland, wrote in 1635:
“O to see the sight, next to Christ’s Coming in the clouds, the most joyful! our elder brethren the Jews and Christ fall upon one another’s necks and kiss each other. They have been long asunder; they will be kind to one another when they meet. O day! O longed for and lovely day dawn! O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead, Thee and Thy ancient people in mutual embraces.
I could stay out of heaven many years to see that taking into his kingdom the greater Sister, the Jews… Oh what joy and what glory would I judge it, if my heaven should be suspended till I might be a witness of Christ’s last marriage love on earth; when he shall take in the Elder Sister, the Jews, and the fullness of the Gentiles”
Praying to be kept out of heaven, that he might see the ingrafting of the natural branches? How different is this from the early church fathers! What would Chrysostom and Bernard say?
Further, consider these 17th century heavy weights.
Congregationalist divine John Owen said: “of the raising up a kingdom unto the Lord Jesus Christ in this world… it is either expressed, or clearly intimated, that the beginning of it must be with the Jews.”
Richard Sibbes: “the faithful Jews rejoiced to think of the calling of the Gentiles; and why should we not joy to think of the calling of the Jews.” You can see the kind of theology that would be behind some of the Westminster Assembly’s statements pertaining to the Jewish people. The Westminster Directory for Publick Worship (1644) calls us to pray for “the conversion of the Jews, the fullness of the Gentiles, the fall of Antichrist, and the hastening the Second Coming of our Lord.” And more pointedly, Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 191:
“… we pray that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, and the fullness of the Gentiles brought in…”
These Westminster documents form the constitution (either loosely or specifically) of all Presbyterian churches worldwide. In Reformed independency, the Savoy Declaration (of which John Owen wrote the Preface), goes even further than Westminster:
“…we expect that in the latter days Antichrist being destroyed, the Jews called, and the adversaries of his dear Son broken…”
Just as an aside, the Jewish people were admitted to England in 1656 under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, and there is no doubt that this was a means to bring them under the sound of the gospel. Theology not only drove missiology, but in the 17th century it also somewhat drove politics!
Could I also refer you to Matthew Henry on Romans 11:26, or Mathew Poole’s commentary? What of Particular Baptist commentator John Gill? In short, as the Reformation continued, these doctrines were gripping people and theologians concerning the kingdom, the growing kingdom, and even the expectancies of that kingdom.
Now this will lead into some aberrations, misconceptions, and even (at times) into heresy, but there was at least a renewed interest, and even expectation, in the Divine Hand of Mercy once again coming upon that Elder Sister the Jewish people. We will come back again to Britain in a moment, but going semi-chronologically, I want to turn to the New World, and how this Reformed theology is shaping missiology on these shores.
Awakening
The Colonies of the New World
We should endeavor to see how theology in the New World was being shaped by Reformed instruction from the Old World, and particularly so with regard to this new post-Reformation interest in the ancient people—as a people not replaced, but rather to be embraced with the sound of the gospel.
Increase Mather, a Puritan minister and major player in the history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and president of Harvard College 1681-1701 said “that there shall be a general conversion of the tribes of Israel, is a truth, which in some measure hath been known and believed in all ages of the Church of God since the Apostle’s Days…”
In the 1700’s the major player was Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) who said: “Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews in Romans 11. There are also many passages of the Old Testament which cannot be interpreted in any other sense… When they shall be called, that ancient people, who alone were so long God’s people for so long a time, shall be his people again, never to be rejected more.” Jonathan Edwards (Works Vol 1, Banner of Truth, p607) He was fervently of the optimistic post-millennial position.
At this time there was much correspondence across the Atlantic to the puritans and reformed theologians in England and Scotland. Edwards corresponded with John Erskine (1721- 1803), of the Church of Scotland. Erskine had a strong missionary interest, and thought the revivals of Whitfield were precursors to the return of Christ.
We must also note the politics of the times. The American War of Independence 1776 and the French Revolution 1789 brought into even the most sober mind thoughts of the overthrow of antichrist, the conversion of the Jews, and widespread gospel triumph in the world. Concerning the Great Awakening(s), it is fair to say that theologians (of good and not so good caliber) saw this obvious work of God as having eschatological implications. Add “Israel” into the mix and certainly there would be some supra-Scripture claims and expectation. But those who remained solidly Reformed nonetheless had an expectant interest in Israel and her salvation.
In brief, it is fair to say that, in the 1700s, the Pilgrim fathers and Puritans grew in prayerful expectancy of the kingdom advancement, and in particular, the restoration of the Jewish people to their Messiah.
The ‘Old World’ and The Beginnings of Modern Jewish Mission
Let us place our thoughts now in the late 1700s. Divine awakenings were bringing forth kingdom optimism and expectancy for world evangelization. The first Baptist Missionary Society was formed in 1792 (by William Carey and a few friends). Three years later the London Missionary Society came into being (initially called The Interdenominational Missionary Society). And in 1799 The Religious Tract Society was founded, followed quickly by The Bible Society in 1804.
Who were the theologians driving this? We might think of Charles Simeon (Cambridge Anglican). Simeon was heavily involved in the support of missions and acted as advisor on chaplains to the British East India Company. But it was Jewish mission that was dearest to his heart. Some felt he was too passionate about Jewish evangelism and they challenged him concerning the world population at the time—“Six millions of Jews, and 600 millions of heathen—which is more important?” To which Simeon replied with obvious reference to Romans 11: “If the conversion of the six is to be life from the dead to the six hundred, what then?”
In 1801 a German Jewish believer named Joseph Samuel Christian Frederick Frey came to London under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. In 1809, with much support from Simeon, Samuel Frey and several others formed The London Society for the Promotion of Christianity Amongst the Jews on an interdenominational basis (though it was obviously Anglican). William Wilberforce was a member. In the space of three years, 41 Jewish adults had been baptized. However, church politics sometimes gets in the way of the kingdom! Two years later the Anglicans refused the nonconformists permission to officiate at baptisms. Thus the missionary society became what is today CMJ (Church’s Mission to the Jews), a specifically Anglican mission to the Jews. So it was that for the next 30 years the nonconformists with an interest in Jewish mission could either support the Anglicans or work towards something new.
Now let’s place ourselves in the 1820-1830s in Scotland. Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843) was a young man noted for personal holiness and a particular love for the Jewish people. His beliefs were riding on the back of experiential Calvinism of the Scottish Commissioners of Westminster days. Along with M’Cheyne, we should also have in mind the Bonars (Andrew & Horatius) and John Duncan. From these Scottish Presbyterians there was a strong interest in what Charles Simeon had started, though tempered by the frustrations of church politics. In the 1930s in Scotland there was a desire for a true interdenominational ministry to the Jewish people. The Church of Scotland had a local congregation in London, England, and they saw that as key in reaching the Jewish community of London.
Robert Wodrow, an elder from Glasgow, petitioned the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1837 that they might begin a mission work to the ancient people. Many other preachers were now taking up this call, preaching and writing on it (Chalmers, Candlish, Alexander Moody Stuart). The impetus for the Church of Scotland to do something was growing.
In Oct 1838, Joseph Frey came to Dundee to preach for M’Cheyne. The 24-year-old M’Cheyne wrote in his diary:
“A Jew, Mr Frey, preached in my church to a crowded house. Felt much moved in hearing an Israelite after the flesh.”
With this growing ‘expectancy’ and interest in the salvation of the ancient people, the General Assembly appointed a Committee of Inquiry, and further planned a Mission of Inquiry that would take M’Cheyne, Bonar, and two older ministers (Dr. Black and Dr. Keith), to the Holy Land and back. The elder from Glasgow who first petitioned was also originally included but dropped out due to health reasons. You can read the diary of this 1839 mission trip in the book, Mission of Discovery, Journal of M’Cheyne & Bonar. And you can read the fuller story of Scottish Missions to the Jews at this time in Time for Favour by John Ross.
Following this ‘inquiry’ and the report, along with continued interest in the subject, in May 1842 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland received and approved a request from James Hamilton, minister of the Scotch Church in Regents Square, London, to establish an interdenominational Jewish mission in London. In November 1842, James Hamilton invited his friend Robert Murray M’Cheyne to London to do his communion season. And he took advantage of having M’Cheyne present, in the forming a new Missionary Society, with nine London ministers. Thus, 28-year-old M’Cheyne prayed the opening prayer of the meeting, and so began The British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews, now known as The International Mission to Jewish People, the parent body of Christian Witness to Israel (N America).
A final quote from M’Cheyne:
“…the whole of Scripture shows that God has an exceptional love for Israel… therefore, shouldn’t we be undifferentiated from God in this exceptional attachment… shouldn’t we participate with God in his exceptional affection for Israel?”
Expectancy
It is fair to say that while the Reformation and Reformed doctrine greatly impacted Jewish mission, and the divine awakenings of God stirred into being intentional Jewish mission, the growing expectancy for the ingathering, and for eschatological climax did lead some into strange expectations, which actually did damage to the work of Jewish mission. It was Luther’s expectancy of the imminence of the end that turned his initial evangelism of the Jewish people into an anti-semitic rant.
I hope I am not stepping on toes here but I must make my personal understanding known. I personally believe that Radical Dispensationalism has served to cause many to ignore our Reformed historic theology on Israel and avoid the controversy altogether. Brothers, this must not be! Radical Dispensationalism has led some to hold a Dual Covenant Theology which considers Jew and Gentile being saved by two different methods: Christ for the Gentiles, and Torah for the Jews. Radical Dispensationalism also has led some to an eschatological indifference to Jewish evangelism, since in the ‘Time Chart’, presently it is not ‘their time’. Any theology that makes the practice of Jewish evangelism either not necessary, or not now, must be challenged, whether it is Reformed or Dispensational! Historically, Reformational theology has had an embracement of Jewish mission, and Reformed churches (and countries) have always prayed for and sought Jewish redemption through their Messiah. The Puritan Hope was Reformational re-embracement. May we go and do likewise.
