Sunday, May 6, 2018

CHAFF IN THE WIND - Communism versus Christian Freedom - article written decades ago, but still timely



CHAFF IN THE WIND - Communism versus Christian Freedom

This article was written decades ago, but is still timely today. 

Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume II) – C. R. Dickey



INTRODUCTION



                The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths.  We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.



                Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.



                Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.



                The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties.  We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday.  Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point.  From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.



                Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister.  Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation.  We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.



OTHER BOOKS AND BOOKLETS BY THE AUTHOR



One Man’s Destiny – recommended by Pastor Murray on 09/02/09

An Emerging Civilization – out of print

The Basic Principles in Bible Study – out of print

The Bible and Modernism

The Bible and Segregation

Facing the Sunrise

Origin and Transmission of the Bible

============================================================

CHAFF IN THE WIND



                As the world is being shoved steadily toward a full scale war, apprehension rises again to plague multitudes everywhere who are already weary of strife and uncertainty.  Christian people in particular have been slow to see the threatening clouds of another armed conflict gathering over the nations.  This is due to the fact that they are “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”



                After David escaped the wrath of King Saul, he confessed, “When the pangs of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.”  Our citizens, awakening belatedly to danger from “floods of ungodly men,” now confess that they are afraid.



                Unfortunately, many political and ecclesiastical leaders in Christian lands have been deluded into believing they can and ought to do business with totalitarian leaders, notwithstanding abundant evidence that they are tyrants, unmistakably evil, committed to a campaign of ruthless destruction in all nations.  These wicked planners operate in every country around the globe.  They are the real foes both within and without our borders.



                These scoundrels take the advantage of conspiring against fellow citizens who do not suspect their sinister conniving.  They are the hidden masters who train stool pigeons and place them in important government posts to carry on their business of treason, sabotage and deception.  For some years now they have seen to it that our enemies have been supplied with implements of warfare from our own stockpiles; they sidetracked war supplies which Congress appropriated for our friends in China and delivered them to the Russian and Chinese Communists; they are the schemers who maneuvered the escape of Gerhart Eisler; moreover, their unseen hands direct the activities of the Klaus Fuchs and Harry Golds in slipping to the Kremlin gangsters the know-how to produce our deadly new weapons, such as the atom and hydrogen bombs.



                Occasionally a Congressional committee, some energetic Senator or other investigator, succeeds in exposing a traitor, who invariably turns out to be only a tool of the secret conspirators.  When exposure comes, the stooge takes the rap.  Alger Hiss is an example.  Who, for instance, are the crafty planners who guided Hiss at San Francisco, at Yalta, and in the transfer of vital documents to our enemies?  Here, indeed, are the enemies to track down and expose.  It is dangerous business, to be sure, but men risk their lives on the battlefront; if they would risk them as courageously to crush despoilers at the home base, there would soon be no battles for our sons to fight at home or abroad.  One never conquers a serpent until he strikes at the head!



                Once in a while our courts manage to indict an Eisler or a Hiss --- though they rarely serve a sentence.  Why?  Who, or what group, is powerful enough to defeat justice with so much protection?  Eisler, you will remember, was gallivanting all over the country lecturing at Harvard and other educational institutions when he ought to have been behind bars in a federal prison.  The full story of these treasonable activities, and the identity of the instigators behind them, has yet to be told.



                Under what flag do these planners and their satellites operate, inasmuch as they are disloyal to the countries in which they live?  At a hearing before the House investigating committee in 1931, William Z. Foster was asked if Red followers in this country look upon the Soviet flag as their flag.  He answered:  “The workers of this country and of every country have only one flag and that is the Red Flag.”  Undoubtedly this ensign is the Red banner of Esau, whose bloody hand is still against every man who loves peace, freedom and righteousness.



                The trial of the eleven Communist party leaders charged with conspiring to teach the violent overthrow of the United States Government brought out some salient points which everyone ought to remember and ponder.  “Under this indictment,” one writer comments, “evidence was that the conspiracy was carried on by secrecy, false names and code language under the direction of emissaries of the Russian Communist Government.  The teaching and advocacy of violence was shown by textbooks, courses of study and accounts of lectures and classroom discussions, in all of which the violent overthrow of capitalistic government was presented as unavoidable in the setting up of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the United States.”



                For example, in their discussions and recommendations, revolution was defined as “an act in which one section of the population imposes its will upon the other by rifles, bayonets, cannon, etc., and the victorious party is inevitably forced to maintain its supremacy by means of that fear which its arms inspire in the reactionaries.”



                Here are some of the means proposed for subduing the United States:



1)      Invasion of the United States by Russia through Alaska and Canada.

2)      Setting up of a Negro republic in the South by inciting and backing the Negroes in a revolt against the southern white population and the Government of the United States.

3)      Infiltration of labor unions and all other important organizations “for the purpose of sabotage and industrial paralysis of the country.”



At the trial of the eleven Communists an FBI man planted within the party testified that in 1948 at a secret meeting in Boston, a woman leader of the group declared that war between the United States and Soviet Russia would be an unjust war and in such an instance it was the duty of the Communist party to fight against such an unjust war, which would be an imperialistic war on the part of the United States.  “She said the imperialistic war should be converted into civil war.



                This same witness swore also that the party policy is to preach “peace” to the American public, while actually supporting the military aims of the Kremlin revolutionists.



                Another FBI observer within the Communist party, who kept active membership up to the time of his testimony in the trial, swore that at a secret meeting of underground Communists in Ohio it was estimated that the revolution in the United States would come within less than ten years from that date --- 1945.



                These fantastic aims are no figment of a lunatic’s imagination.  They are a mere fragment of an actual diabolical plan that is in the process of realization.  The present conspiratorial blueprint seems designed to involve the United States in a disastrous struggle in the Far East.  Beginning in Korea, the conflict may advance to include Formosa, the Philippines and the whole continent of Asia; then, with American men and equipment spread thinly over a vast area, the time would be at hand for an invasion of the United States via Alaska and Canada; and also for sabotage and revolution throughout our forty-eight States.  With this program well under way, the conquest of Africa and Western Europe might well proceed simultaneously with comparative ease.  It is quite a plan!  And the tragedy is that it is working --- for the time being --- with amazing precision.



                The following excellent summary of the situation appeared as an editorial in The Dallas News on July 14, 1950, under the title, “Movement Aimed at Weakening U.S.”:



                “Several letters recently addressed to The News have endorsed the world peace movement which has already gained several million signers, including quite a few in this country.



                “Whether they know it or not, they are lending their names to a Soviet effort to cripple the United States by limiting its preparedness program --- and especially by working up sentiment against the use of the atom bomb.  Here is the reason why:



                “The Russian cold-to-hot war strategy is now obvious.  Without using its own troops, it is in position to stir up war on many fronts, just as it is now carrying on war in Korea.  We have gone to the defense of Korea directly.  But can we afford to go to the assistance of Formosa, Indo-China, the Philippines, India, Iran, Arabia, Yugoslavia, Greece and Western Germany?  The Politburo is in position to start the brushfires of warfare in all of these places, using local man power except for top-bracket direction which would come from Moscow.



                “In the event of such a development, Russia would have the tremendous geographic advantage of sitting on the inside of the circle of conflict.  Russia would have the short lines of communication.   Ours would extend around the world.



                “Our only chance would be in striking directly at the seat of the trouble --- Moscow.  We would be able to do so primarily through the use of air power and, if necessary, the atom bomb.  So we have the Russian-sponsored ‘peace’ movement, aimed at arms limitation and outlawing the atom bomb, which is being supported by mass meetings in Madison Square Garden --- for which even some Texans seem to be falling.”



                Day by day the pattern of aggression is more clearly revealed.  Even the stouthearted among us confess to a sickening fear at the trend of events.  Again we are hearing the old wail, “too little and too late.”  And again American servicemen are dying in a distant land as the price of treachery and appeasement on the part of officials at the nation’s capital who are either disloyal or incredibly stupid.  “Floods of ungodly men” are not only behind the iron curtain, they are also in our midst to advise, to deceive, to betray --- and they make us afraid.



                Viewed strictly from the human angle, ungodly forces hold an advantageous position in the world today.  Thoughtful civilian and military observers are not so optimistic as formerly; there is an element of grave concern in their reports, a question as to whether or not Western civilization will be able to survive in a showdown with Communism.  Only those who place their trust in the Biblical promises of Divine intervention face the future with confidence.  Like the Psalmist, the trusting heart can say:



                The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?  When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.  Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear:  though war should rise against me, in this will I be confidant.  One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.  For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion:  in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.  And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me:….Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies:  for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.  I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  (Ps. 27:1-6; 12-13.)



                Psalm 1 is appropriately placed first in the collection because its subject forms a suitable introduction to the Psalms which follow.  Its theme is the final destiny of man --- a topic that recurs constantly in the Psalms.  It contrasts the happy state of the righteous with the misery of the wicked and names the attributes, which determine a man’s character and destiny.  Note the simplicity and beauty, the irrevocable truth, of these imperishable words:



                ”Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scournful.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.  The ungodly are not so:  but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.  Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.  For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous:  but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”



                “The ungodly are not so.”  Theologian Delitzsch tells us that the word used in the original for “ungodly” signifies the “loose man, the man loose from God.”  And W. L. Watkinson adds:



                “We see here that ungodliness is the source of all evil; ‘becoming loose from God,’ is the point of departure to positive and universal unrighteousness.  This great truth is often forgotten; and where actual sin would be denounced, ungodliness is often regarded with indulgence.  Indeed, that temper of mind which is loose from God is by many considered the most philosophic and desirable condition of the mind; the morality loose from God, the truest morality; the science loose from God, the wisest science; the character loose from God, the most sound and noble character.  The Psalmist in this place indicates the profound error of such reasoning.  Looseness from God, ungodliness, is the original and fertile source of all transgression.  Enmity with God is enmity with righteousness.”  (Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary.)



                “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counse of the ungodly.”  Evil men have attached themselves like leeches to presidents, premiers, kings and cabinet members to guide them in the ways that lead to destruction; and, as a rule, these wicked counselors are more powerful in establishing national and international policies than the acknowledged heads of governments because they are backed by the resources and coercive machinery of international conspirators.  It is the influence of such advisers that has created the difficulties within the nations, and between the nations, which now exist.



                If a man is blessed when he walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, it follows that he is accursed if he does heed the advice of ungodly men.  “Cursed in his counsels, cursed in his actions, cursed in his end,” as one expositor puts it.



                “The ungodly…are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.”  Considering the power of established evil as we see it today, and its tyrannous hold upon multiplied millions of citizens in many countries, one is tempted to question the truth of the Psalmist’s statement.  Surely nothing is more worthless and ineffective than chaff; how, then, can floods of inexpressibly cruel despots be likened to chaff?  Yet Israel’s inspired poet-king is not alone in making such a comparison.  The prophet Isaiah was led of the Spirit to portray a dramatic episode which might well describe the last act in Communism’s battle against the Lord God Almighty.  We quote Moffat’s version of Isaiah 17: 12-14:



”Ah, the booming of many a people,

Booming like sea breakers!

Ah, the thunder of great nations,

Thundering like the surge of the ocean!

But the Eternal checks them,

And they are chased afar,

Driven like chaff before the wind,

Like dust whirled by the hurricane –

At evening a terror,

And gone by morning!

Such is the fate of those who ravage us,

Such is the lot of those who rifle us.”



Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment.”  A commentator with keen insight writes as follows on this point:



                “Although the ungodly are in similar circumstances with the righteous, yet they derive no profit from this favourable circumstance.  They are spiritually dead and withered.  That which has matured in them has faded prematurely; for they have not appropriated to themselves the nourishment of life, and they have not formed in themselves the faculty for this appropriation.  Without root and without sap, they have not attained any vigor, nor brought forth any fruit (Matt. 21:19).  Thus they have [i]ripened only for destruction;[/i] unsubstantial and worthless as chaff, the sport of the wind until scattered by the storm, they go to destruction, and leave no trace behind.”  (Homelitic Com.)



                It is written in Matthew 3:12, that the Lord’s fan is in His hand and “he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”



                Psalm 37 inspires confidence and patience for such a time as this:



                Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.  For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb….The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.  The Lord shall laugh at him:  for he seeth that his day is coming….I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.  Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not:  yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.”



                Since the fate of the wicked is thus sealed by Divine decree, the question arises, Why are they permitted to flourish and threaten the safety of the Christian nations as they are now doing?  Perhaps our question can best be answered by quoting the Rev. W. I. Watkinson:



                “History relates that Redwald, King of East Anglia, built a church, at one end of which was an altar for the sacrifice of the mass, and at the other end an altar for sacrifice to the old British idols.  How frequently the Church is in danger of making analogous compromises, allowing certain evils to exist within its borders for the sake of gold, or popularity, or peace.  It must not be, or God will not dwell with us.  And we must remember this in our personal life.  ‘Rest assured, Christ will not live in the parlor of our hearts if we entertain the devil in the cellar of our thoughts.’  (Spurgeon)  God does not tolerate wickedness.  It is no part of His pleasure, no part of His policy, that evil should be found in the human heart or in the world.”  (Homiletic Com., Psalms, Vol. I, p. 18.)



                As a nation of nominal Christians we have not put evil away from us as Israel was commanded to do.  If we are an Israel nation and a body of Christian believers, as we say, then we are under God’s mandate to cleanse both State and Church from the works of unrighteousness.  “Thou shalt put evil away from among you” is the command as stated in Deuteronomy in chapters 13, 17, 19, 22 and 24.  If one objects to the teaching in these chapters because they are in the Old Testament, let him turn to I Corinthians 5:11-13 and read:



                ”But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?  Do not ye judge them that are within?  But them that are without God judgeth.  Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”



                Israel was disobedient in the days of old; Israel is disobedient now --- it is a stubborn family trait.  Surely Christ will not punish His bride whom He loves so much, some say.  But the bride must be prodded awake, lest her Lord should come at midnight, and find her sleeping.  She has not made herself ready.  She dallies irresponsibly --- not realizing that the hour is late.  Even now the bride ought to be attired in the wedding garment of righteousness, waiting for her Lord.



                Thinking of the unspeakably horrible fruits of evil --- the enslavement and torture of helpless human beings, the snatching of 25,000 little children from their homes in Greece alone, the fate of American lads forced into combat with demon-possessed monsters --- one is led to understand what our Lord meant when He said we should pray, “Deliver us from evil.”  We understand, too, the burden of Israel’s king when he prayed:



                ”Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation:  O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.  For thou art the God of my strength:  why dost thou cast me off?  Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?  O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth:  let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy Holy Hill, and to Thy Tabernacles.”  (Ps. 43:1-3.)



                These lines from an old hymn challenge our faith:



“The storm may war without me,

My heart may low be laid;

But God is round about me,

And shall I be afraid?”



                There is no man living in the world today who can save us from the terror and destruction which floods of ungodly men plan to bring upon the Christian nations.  But the apostle Peter points us to One --- the only one --- who can save us:  “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment, to be punished” (II Peter 2:9).  Thanks be unto the Lord our Christ, who knows how to deliver us from evil!


Thursday, May 19, 2016

A Backward Look by CR Dickey "What is Anti-Semitism?


article page 124 from "Biblical Treasures (Volume I)" written by CR Dickey What is Anti-Semitism?

Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume I) – C. R. Dickey

 

INTRODUCTION

 

                The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths.  We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.

 

                Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.

 

                Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.

 

                The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties.  We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday.  Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point.  From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.

 

                Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister.  Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation.  We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.

 

A Backward Look

 

                Everyone who drives an automobile knows that safety depends upon the backward look as well as the forward look.  Disaster may result quite as often from not knowing what is behind as from not looking ahead.  And so it is in guiding the course of nations.

 

                An illustration now much in the news is the Palestine situation.  Only a few people, comparatively speaking, realize how quickly the flame smoldering in that region may explode in the face of the world, involving our country in the deadliest war of all time.  The danger is all the more imminent because our leaders of State, uninformed and even misinformed by leaders of Church, do not know the background of the issues involved.  They boldly move to portion out the land of sacred history to Jews and Arabs, because they have never looked back to determine the real ownership of the land, and the origin of the conflicting participants in the Palestine struggle.

 

                Speaking to His servant nations of Israel, after their redemption by Christ and their lapse in forgetfulness of their very origin, God said through the Prophet Isaiah:

 

                "Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.  Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled:  who among them can declare this, and shew us former things?  Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified or let them hear, and say, It is truth.  Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen."  (Isa. 43:8-10)

 

                Who indeed can "shew us former things," and bring forth witnesses able to declare the truth and justify their words?  In Isaiah 51:1-2, the Lord commands us to wake up and take a backward look in order to find out who we are, and from whence we came.

 

                "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord:  look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you:  for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him."

 

                This message is clearly addressed to Israelites of the Abrahamic covenant:

 

                "Awake,  awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old."  (Isa. 51:9.)

 

                However, they are a very different people from the Jews, who are now generally regarded as Israel.  The Israel people addressed in this chapter are ignorant alike of their past and their future; consequently, they have lost direction both as to their origin and their destiny.  They are urged to study their beginning and trace their ancestry to Abraham and Sarah, because they no longer remember their genealogy or their ancient history.

 

                Now what Jew ever forgot his Abrahamic lineage -- or permitted anyone else to forget it?  Although usually maintaining silence on the subject, orthodox Jews are aware of the fact that many present-day Jews are not of Israel-Judah stock.  They are Jews only by religious or political affiliation with Judaism; yet these proselytes, in company with the posterity of those Jews who Christ condemned for unbelief, claim descent from Abraham and Jacob, and clamor for all the special privileges divinely promised to a redeemed and regenerated Israel.

 

                Let us look further in the characteristics of these latter-day Israelites of Bible prophecy.  They are people "that follow after righteousness...that seek the Lord."  Thus they have already been the recipients of the Gospel, as stated in Isaiah 51:5:

 

                "My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth."

 

                They are not a scattered people without a country; they are Christian nations, some of them dwelling in the Isles, who recognize and employ -- though imperfectly at the present time -- the principles of Divine law as the foundation of stable government:

 

                "Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation....The isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust....Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law."  (Isa 51:4-7.)

 

                In the fourth chapter of Romans, the Apostle Paul explains the relation existing between redeemed Israel and Abraham.  In part he says:

 

                "For what saith the scripture?  Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness....For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith....Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all;  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.  Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken,  So shall thy seed be....Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."  (Rom. 4:3-25.)

 

                Hebrews 11:11-12 confirms the faith of Sarah also as a vital part of Israel-Christian heritage:

 

                "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.  Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable."

 

                Now it is this faith and righteousness of Abraham and Sarah which distinguishes the latter day redeemed Israelites of Isaiah's prophecies from faithless, unbelieving Jews.  The numerical expansion of Israel in the Christian era is also not applicable to Jewry.  The prophets visioned Israel as being a nation and company of nations forever, with the Lord's throne in their midst, occupied in every generation by a regent from the line of David, until the return of Christ as King.  Bible prophets including our Lord, saw the Jews cast out of the Kingdom and continuing as a scattered remnant, few in number, without a nation or a throne.

 

                Jeremiah saw latter-day Jewry as "evil figs, which cannot be eaten," that is assimilated.  He describes them exactly as the world has known them for almost two thousand years, in this remarkable prophecy:

 

                "And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them."  (Jer.24:9.)

 

                These are the people who are laying claim to Palestine, presumably on scriptural grounds.  It is in their interest -- and because of their domineering pressure -- that our government officials have foolishly intervened to effect the partitioning of the land to Jews and Arabs.  The twofold results of this folly are clearly stated by the prophets.  First, the Jews will not succeed in establishing a Jewish State and homeland in Palestine.  Their failure is written in Jeremiah 24:10, which concludes his vision of the "evil figs":

 

                "I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers."

 

                This fate was pronounced against Jews who once held an inheritance in the land.  How much more severely will it apply to usurpers who "Say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan" (Rev. 2:9).

 

                A second result of meddling in Palestinian affairs concerns the United States.  The course our politicians have taken will be the direct cause of untold distress and tragedy for our own people.  Writing of catastrophic events immediately preceding the return of Christ, Zechariah states that Jerusalem will be the storm center of contention and confusion.  Then, in following declaration, he warns the nations to refrain from interference in the dangerous situation:

 

                "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel....Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.  And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people:  all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it."  (Zech. 12:1-3.)

 

                Through Isaiah God points out that Israel's leaders are responsible for the consequences.  They betray the people into the hands of treacherous conspirators.  The Prophet writes:

 

                "His watchmen are blind;  they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber."  (Isa. 56:10.)

 

                Blind, ignorant, dumb, asleep!  What a charge against the national and spiritual leaders of God's Israel who He redeemed by the blood of His Son on Calvary's cross!  No wonder the Prophet calls us to wake up and look back -- to our birthright in Joseph.  (See Genesis 48 and I Chronicles 5:1-2.)

 

                Nothing would do more at this moment to clear the atmosphere of mental fog than for citizens of this country to take a look into the past and find out the actual meaning of anti-Semitism.  What a bugaboo it has become through deceptive use!  When all the camouflage is removed, the term "anti-Semitism" simply means "against Semites."  Who, then, are Semites?  Semites are the descendants of Noah's son Shem.  Therefore, anti-Semitism, meaning literally antagonism toward all the descendants of Shem, cannot be applied honestly to a small segment of people called Jews, many of whom are not even of Semitic origin, as we shall see.  It is true that Abraham was a Semite, being in the direct line of Shem; but there were ten generations from Shem to Abraham --- all of them Semites.

 

                Furthermore, Abraham himself was the progenitor of several distinct racial strains besides the Israelites.  First, there was Ishmael, son of Abraham by Sarah's maid Hagar, whose descendants have been identified as the Arabs of today.  Next there was Esau, Jacob's twin brother, who became the father of the Edomites, known also as Idumeans.  Then another separate line resulted from Abraham's six sons by Keturah.  All these Abrahamic peoples and their descendants to this day are Semites, although they are not Israelites.  Thus in waging their campaign of hate against the Arabs, the Jews themselves are really anti-Semitic in a big way.

 

                Arabs know about their Semitic background and claim Abraham as their father.  They are taught in the Koran that Abraham built the city of Mecca for Ishmael.  This seems credible when we consider Abraham's deep concern for Ishmael's welfare.  Actually, Arab leaders are amazed by Anglo-Saxon stupidity on the subject.  Jewish leaders, too, are much better informed on these racial origins than Christians; but the success of their plans for world domination depends upon keeping Christendom blindfolded and sympathetic toward their aims, by sending out a steady stream of unholy propaganda regarding the Holy Land.

 

                As a matter of fact, neither Jews nor Arabs hold an exclusive right to Palestine.  To whom, then, does Palestine belong?  We shall not take time to quote all the terms of God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as stated in such passages as Genesis 12:1-3; 13:14-17; 17:1-8, 15-21; 22:15-18; 26:1-5; 28:1-4; 35:9-12; however, anyone not familiar with these passages should study them carefully.  This perpetual, unconditional covenant guaranteed that Abraham would father many nations and kings through Sarah's son Isaac, and that "all the land of Canaan" would be included "for an everlasting possession."  Their posterity would also become an innumerable multitude and possess the gates of their enemies.  In confirming the covenant to Jacob at Bethel, God changed his name to Israel, and added this significant decree:

 

                "A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land."  (Gen. 35:11-12.)

 

                It is just at this point in the progress of God's covenant with Israel that both Christians and Jews need particularly to take a studious and unprejudiced backward look.  This is the spot where we lose the key to Israel's history, especially in its relation to the greatest nations of our own day.

 

                For more information on the development of the "nation and a company of nations" promised to Jacob-Israel in Genesis 35, we must turn to Genesis 48.  In that important document the dying Jacob confers his Israel name and birthright upon the two sons of Joseph, declaring that Manasseh would become a "great people" and Ephraim would become "a multitude of nations."  Furthermore, Jacob states (v. 16) that the future nation and company of nations of Manasseh and Ephraim will carry the name Isaac in fulfillment of Genesis 21:12, "for in Isaac shall thy seed be called," which they do at the present time in calling themselves Saxons; i.e., sons of 'Saac.

 

                Two points stand out clearly in studying the terms of God's covenant with Israel:  a) the birthright included a title deed to all the land granted to Abraham in the original charter, which comprised Palestine and probably a considerable portion of land east of the Jordan; b) at the end of Jacob-Israel's life the birthright was conferred exclusively upon the House of Joseph.  This tremendously important fact is established not only in Genesis 48, but in Genesis 49:22-26, and in I Chronicles 5:1-1.  The latter leaves no room for doubt in this declaration:

 

                "For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's."

 

                Thus the land of Palestine was mandated by the Lord God Himself to the nation (great people), and company of nations, to issue from Joseph's two sons.  To them also was committed a sacred trust and responsibility, namely, the administration of God's laws for Israel, that through their obedience and righteousness all the nations of the earth might be guided and blessed.  Ephraim is destined to take the lead in administration, but Manasseh must share the responsibility under God's plan and direction (Gen. 48:20).  An unbiased review of history will show that the United States and Great Britain are the only nations that meet all the specifications for the House of Joseph mentioned by Moses and the prophets.

 

                The question now arises, If the foregoing statements are true, do the Arabs have any claim to Palestine as a homeland?  While Arabs hold no covenant deed to the land, they have two valid claims to live in it:  one is the right of conquest and continuous residence for 1300 years; the other is a right based on the promise made to their forefather Ishmael that he should be permitted to "dwell in the presence of all his brethren" of Israel, since, he, too, was Abraham's son (Gen.16:12).  The Lord said to Abraham:

 

                "As for Ishmael, I have heard thee:  Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.  But my covenant will I establish with Isaac."  (See Gen. 17:18-21; 25:16.)

 

                Arabs, therefore, are not to be deprived of their right to live in the Holy Land.  In fact, they have a stronger claim to that privilege than the aggressive Zionists who are determined to dispossess them.  What about the racial background of these internationalists -- now calling themselves Zionists and claiming to represent the whole House of Jacob-Israel -- who are responsible for the present upheaval in Palestine?  Lest we should be accused of prejudice, we shall let a Jewish industrialist answer the question.  His answer needs wide publicity and constant repetition until the truth begins to take root in Christian thought.  The following paragraphs are quoted from a letter originally written to the National Economic Council, Inc., and reprinted in DESTINY Magazine for January 1948:

 

                "Popular ignorance of the real basis of political Zionism is beyond calculation.  Vaguely most Christian Americans have the idea that the Jews claim Palestine because it was the 'Promised Land' in which they lived for a period of a few centuries that ended 2,000 years ago.  And the thought of a people returning to its 'homeland' seems emotionally satisfying and good.

 

                "But here are facts most Americans do not know:  Political Zionism is almost exclusively a movement by the Jews of Europe.  But these Eastern European Jews have neither a racial nor an historic connection with Palestine.  Their ancestors were not inhabitants of the 'Promised Land.'  They are the direct descendants of the people of the Khazar Kingdom, which existed until the 12th century.

 

                "The Khazars were a non-Semitic, Turko-Finn, Mongolian tribal people who, about the 1st century A.D., emigrated from Middle Asia to Eastern Europe.  There they created one of the largest kingdoms of their time.  At its greatest extent it covered an area of about 800,000 square miles.  About the 7th century A.D., the King of the Khazars adopted Judaism as the state religion, and the majority of inhabitants joined him in the new allegiance.  Before that date there was no such thing as a Khazar whose ancestors came from the Holy Land....

 

                "In view of this fact, what becomes of the cry for 'repatriation' to the 'homeland'?  These Eastern European, Yiddish-speaking Jews have no historic or racial connection with Palestine, or, for the matter, with the other Jews who existed in other countries for thousands of years prior to the Khazar conversion.

 

                "At best, the cry of truly Palestinian-descended Jews for a return to the 'homeland' would be highly dubious....And if the claim of Palestinian-descended Jews is so dubious, what of the claim of Khazar-descended Jews?  Would a single Christian support their trek back to the 'homeland' or want to oblige them by expelling the Arabs, if it were known that these Eastern European Yiddish-speaking Jews who form the Zionist group practically in toto, have neither a geographic, historic nor ethnic connection with either the Jews of the Old Testament of the land known today as Palestine?

 

                "If the Jewish claim to Palestine is tested as the only other remaining ground, the religious, it may be summarily and finally replied that religiously both Christians and Moslems also have religious roots there.  The reason it is called the 'Holy Land' today is because Jesus of Nazareth lived and died there.  To Christians He is the Son of God and Saviour.  To Mohammedans He is a great prophet.  To official Jewry, He is an executed blasphemer."

 

                There were other non-Israel infiltrations into Jewry besides the Khazars of European Russia; among them were the black Jews of Malabar and Abyssinia, and the Mongoloid Jews of China.  Perhaps the most important of these infiltrations, from the standpoint of influence, is the intrusion of Esau's descendants into Jewry.  As David Davidson says in a lecture titled Palestine:  Esau Claims Possession:

 

                "The people of Jacob exist today in the English-speaking peoples.  Today, the race of Esau survives and persists, absorbed in that remnant of the Israelitish tribe of Judah known as the Jews.  The latter fact of history is disclosed by the Encyclopedia Biblica, and is acknowledged by the Jewish Encyclopedia....

 

                "The race of Esau were the Edomites of Old Testament history and the Idumeans of New Testament times, and included the marauding Sinaitic tribe of Amalek.  The dominant physiognomy and aggressively intrusive characteristics of the race were derived from the native stock of North Syria through the 'Hittite' wives of Esau. and by subsequent intermarriage between the Edomites and 'Hittites."  After the Edomites (or Idumeans) were absorbed into the remnant of Judah, after 130 B.C. but mainly in the dispersion following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the Edom-'Hittite' physiognomy eventually emerged as the European Jewish type of physiognomy -- falsely called 'Semitic."...

 

                "Herod the Great was an Edomite and became the first Idumean 'King of the Jews."  As such he sought to destroy our Lord at birth.  At that time the Idumeans had been comprised in the Jewish state and had been Jews in religion for over a century.  They dominated the whole of Jewish life and our Lord, in revealing the nature of the Herodian or Idumean Domination, refers to the 'leaven of Herod' as the antithesis of the 'leaven of the Kingdom of God.'  In the 'Revelation of Jesus Christ' (Rev. 1:1) the effect of the intrusion is referred to as 'the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan' (Rev. 2:9).

 

                "The Idumean intrusion has brought a blight upon true Jewry and has placed an undeserved stigma upon the name Israel.  Behind the mask of Idumean physiognomy neither Jew nor Christian can discern what is true and what is false in Jewry, except by their respective works....Josephus, in describing the conditions internal to the Roman siege of Jerusalem, reveals how the race of Esau (as the Idumeans) were mainly instrumental in inflaming the hatreds of the three internal factions of disintegration, which three factions have their counterparts in the three politico-economic world factions today."

 

                From such reliable evidence we may safely conclude that Zionists, for the most part, are a nondescript mixture of races masquerading as Israel.  They did not originate in the tribe of Judah and their ancestors did not belong to the Kingdom of Judah which disintegrated at the time of the Babylonian captivity.  Zionists are denounced as impostors by such prominent orthodox Jews as Benjamin H. Freedman and Dr. I M. Rabinowitch, who see in political Zionism a false, alien element working toward the destruction of everything stable, decent and spiritual in human society.  It is this contradictory element in Jewish history which is so confusing to Christians.  C. F. Parker calls attention to it in a recent article in which, after referring to modern Idumean-Hittites and their claim to be the seed of Israel, he says:

 

                "It is remarkable that pogroms against the Jews have constituted seeming contradictions.  If the first Jesuits were Jews, as indicated, why should they persecute their own people?  If, however, they were Edomites masquerading as Jews, their desire to eliminate Judah is easily understood....

 

                "Central Europe has been a prolific source of contradictory elements in Jewry, and this can only be explained through a duality within that people:  the false seeking to destroy that cherished by the other.  Communism, the product of Marx, and allied teachings, promulgated and supported by numbers of Jews, are odious to the Orthodox....The two elements are quite incompatible; and it is only with the pious, religious element of Jewry that Christians have anything in common in their acceptance of the Old Testament, and their belief in a Divine, as distinct from a Herodian, Messiah."  (The National Message, London, England, January 3, 1948.)

 

                Zionists, therefore, have no claim -- scriptural or otherwise -- to the land of Palestine.  Arabs have no ownership in the land, but they do hold a scriptural right to live there in peace, as we have seen.  Even orthodox Jews, who stem from Judah hold no scriptural mandate over Palestine.  Far from being the whole of Israel, they are only a small portion of the one tribe of Judah.  Furthermore, the birthright -- carrying with it the Israel-Saxon name and mandate over the covenant land -- did not go to Judah, but to Joseph's two sons.  Therefore, by Divine edict, mandatory powers over the Holy Land belong solely to the "nation and company of nations" of Ephraim and Manasseh or, in other words, to Great Britain and the United States.  And there are no Arabs, Zionist Jews, or Judah Jews in the House of Joseph.

 

                The tragedy now arising out of the situation lies in the fact that Christians in Britain and America do not realize that the mandate belongs to them.  We cannot escape divinely-imposed responsibility, however, nor will we escape the tribulation which is sure to follow willful disobedience.

 

                We accept erroneous ideas with alacrity because we do not take the time or trouble to find out the truth.  A case in point is the Balfour Declaration.  Most of our people have been convinced by Zionists, and even by Christian leaders, that its terms have been violated by the British Government.  But have they read it to find out?  Anyone who investigates for himself will know that the Archbishop of York declared the truth when he said:

 

                "No pledge was ever given by the British government that Palestine should be handed over to the Jews.  The pledge of the Balfour Declaration was that within in there should be established a national home for the Jewish people without prejudice to the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.  This promise has been faithfully observed.

 

                "Palestine today is the home of over 600,000 Jews....Without the good will and the active protection of the British government, it would have been impossible for the Jews to have made this home....

 

                "When I visited our Forces in Palestine last March (1946), the country was like an armed camp in which everyone was incessantly on the alert.  By unscrupulous and violent propaganda many of the Jews, especially the younger men and women, have been worked up to such a condition of hysterical fanaticism that they have been brought to believe that Great Britain was responsible for the awful sufferings of their race in Europe."  (From report of the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry, in York Diocesan Leaflet.)  *In 1948 Israel became a state!  Fig Tree?

 

                In like manner many high government officials have been sold on the partition plan for Palestine.  Perhaps we should say that some of them are not convinced that the plan is necessary, fair or feasible, but they are consenting to it under the pressure of political expediency.  Will they be tricked and pushed into sending U. S. troops to Palestine?  If not, they will be squarely up against the alternative of leaving the gate wide open for Russia to take over the Middle East and its vast resources when Britain withdraws from that area.  Either course threatens disastrous results.

 

                Informed people in all nations wait with apprehension to see the outcome of United States participation in the Palestine debacle.  It is truly a colossal blunder on the part of irresponsible politicians which promises nothing but dire consequences for the world.

 

                "Blind, ignorant, dumb, asleep" -- so the Prophet described the national and spiritual leaders of latter-day Israel  nations!  If United States government officials had been standing by Britain in upholding our share of responsibility in the Palestine mandate, instead of bargaining for Jewish votes, the present crisis could have been averted.  If the Church leaders had been teaching this generation the truth about God's plans for modern Israel, we would have enlightened and courageous statesmen guiding the nations toward peace instead of war.

 

                We now begin to see why it is so important for Christian-Israel nations to know their origin.  No wonder God commanded us to examine our racial beginning in Abraham and Sarah.  Today our very existence as free peoples is jeopardized by wholesale ignorance on this vital subject.  If Anglo-Saxons should suddenly come to a realization of their Israel-Joseph origin, the vehement flame of Zionism would be extinguished swiftly by a mighty wave of righteous indignation.