AS this work is about to be concluded, it will be of importance to the
reader that a comprehensive view be taken of the mission of Christ to
the Jewish nation. In doing which, an opportunity will be given to such
of my readers as may hitherto have been afraid to doubt the truth of the
Divine authority of the Bible, to see, at one glance, its absurdity.
In the four Gospels, which contain the sayings and doings of Jesus
during his ministry among the Jews, and also in the Epistles of the
Apostles, it is uniformly declared and enforced, that the main purpose
of Christ's (_the anointed of God_) coming into the world was, to die.
And this death was required by the Father as an atonement for the sins
of mankind, that whosoever believed in and obeyed him, their pardon
should be sure, not for any thing which they had done as it related to
justice, chastity, or humanity, but for the ransom paid for their sins
by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. An apostle, in speaking on this
subject, says--"_He (Christ) being delivered by the determined counsel
and foreknowledge of God, ye have, by wicked hands, crucified and
slain._" This decree, then, was absolute, and every movement then made
by Jesus, and also his preaching and conversation with the Jews, was so
arranged, that die he must, to save a lost and ruined world.
This, according to the Scriptures, was the divine arrangement between
the Father and the Son. This doctrine is taught in the New Testament.
And in such a lost condition were the human race, that Jesus _freely
gave himself as a ransom to be completed in due time_. If the New
Testament does not teach this, it is not possible to know what it does
teach. To die, then, as a sacrifice for sin, included the sum and
substance of the Gospel, or good news.
Having laid down the ground-work of human redemption, we proceed to
carry through the plan said to be the work of mercy and goodness flowing
from the mighty God, the author of all things. In the examination of
such an arrangement, it appears impossible to conclude that the Author
of the Universe can be considered as the God of the Jews and Christians.
The Jews had always been taught to believe that they were God's favorite
people, and they retain the same faith to the present day. For ages
before the Christian era, they not only expected the coming of the
Messiah, but also, that no nation but their own would be interested in
that glorious event. It never entered their minds that he would come in
any disguise, for many impostors had appeared, who, being discovered,
their Messiahship procured them certain destruction. The Jews,
therefore, inferred, that when the proper time should arrive for the
long-expected and ardently-looked for Messiah to appear among them,
their nation would be raised to more than its former greatness, and
God's chosen people would be held up to the nations of the earth as
confirming the truth of what their ancient prophets had foretold of
their future prosperity.
It could never, therefore, have entered the minds of the Jews, as a
nation, that the Messiah would come in any disguise. And it must have
been far from their thoughts to expect that he, when he should arrive,
would load them with violent abuse, and reproach them as being too low
to be considered as any thing else than a nation of hypocrites. If Jesus
came into this world to die, then every thing which he taught, and also
all the intercourse which he had with his own people, was preparatory to
that event. That the Messiah would come to the Jewish nation to dwell
among them, to be their leader, to exalt them above all other nations,
was what they had been taught to expect. Instead of which, he calls them
"_a generation of vipers!_" and pronounces terrible things against the
heads of the nation, commencing his denunciations with "_Woe unto you,
scribes and pharisees, hypocrites!_" Such violence and abuse surprised
them, coming from one who said "_he came to seek and to save that which
was lost._"
Again, Jesus said that "_he came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance._" But Jesus gave them no quarter, but sent them head and
heels to the Devil. The Jewish rulers must have been more than human to
have quietly taken such vulgar abuse. Sometimes, Jesus seemed to soften
down in his conduct, as when he says, "_O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! how
often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, but ye would not._" So erratic is Jesus
depicted, in the account we have transmitted down to us, that we are at
a loss as to forming an opinion concerning his manner of treating his
own people. But as it was "_by the determined counsel and foreknowledge
of God_" that he was to be a "_sacrifice for the sins of mankind,_" his
mode of addressing the rulers of Israel was calculated to bring about
the "_will of his Father._"
Admitting, for the sake of argument, that Jesus was the true Messiah,
the Jews were in a worse state than if he had not appeared among them.
The statement made by Jesus of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of his
second coming, confounded all their ideas of the Messiah's kingdom. In
the twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters of Matthew, after having
pronounced a number of dreadful predictions against them, he winds up in
chapter twenty-third as follows, "*YE SERPENTS! YE GENERATION OF VIPERS!
HOW CAN YE ESCAPE THE DAMNATION OF HELL?*" In the twenty-fourth chapter
of Matthew, Jesus gives a long account of his second coming. How was it
possible for the Jews to understand what he there describes? Their
desire was, to know if he was the Messiah promised by the prophets; and,
if so, what steps he would take for the exaltation of their nation, so
that they might enjoy all they had been induced to expect when the "_sun
of righteousness should arise with healing in his hands_."
For Jesus to tell his disciples and the Jewish nation what would be the
signs of his second coming, before they under-stood what his object was
in coming the first time, must appear very strange. From the particular
account which Jesus gave of his second coming, the Jews must have
understood him to mean, that although he professed to be the true
Messiah, yet his stay was but short with them. As yet, his time for
operation was not come. The discourses of Jesus to his countrymen, were
all calculated to mislead and confound them. In his sermon on the Mount,
he claims an authority of his own superior to the law of Moses. Matthew,
chapter v., verse 33--"_Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by
them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself but shall perform unto
the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all_" Verse
38--"_Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but
whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheeky turn to him the other
also._" What could the Jewish rulers think of a man, who, without any
ceremony, set up laws in direct opposition to the laws of Moses, when,
at other times, he declared himself a follower of Moses, and that he
came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it? Such inconsistent
teaching as this, will not admit of Infinite Wisdom's being the author.
In Matthew, chapter xiii., 10, it reads--"_And the disciples came and
said unto him, Why speaketh thou unto them in parables? He answered and
said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." Verse
13--"Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing, see
not; and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand." Verse
14--"And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By
hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see
and shall not perceive." Verse 15--"For this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with
their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be
converted and I should heal them_"
Now this mode of treating the Jewish nation is perfectly in character
with the plan, in accordance with which, Jesus came to lay down his life
for sinners; for had he convinced the Jews that he was the expected
restorer of Israel, no Jewish arm would have been raised against him;
nor would it have been possible to have prevailed on the national rulers
to have attempted his life; since although the priests and Pharisees
might, in a moral point of view, have been wicked in the extreme, still
their veneration for, and their earnest expectation of the coming of,
the Messiah, would have prevented any hostile feelings against "_the
anointed of the Lord, the Holy one of Israel._"
But if the preaching of Christ, and his arrangements, were of such a
nature that the Jews supposed the whole to be an imposture, then the
case took a different turn altogether. Instead of the Jews refusing to
receive Jesus as the sent of God, they put him to death from the hatred
which they had towards any one who they supposed had fabricated his
authority and office. If the main object of Christ's coming to the Jews
was to die for the sins of mankind, both Jew and Gentile, and thus
become a willing sacrifice for sin,--if this was the plan of human
redemption, it then follows that the Jews did that part which, in the
divine arrangement, was allotted for them to do. Then the conduct of
Jesus was consistent in keeping them ignorant, so that their part might
by them be carried out. If he had convinced them, that he was, in truth,
the sent of God, but that they must hang him on a tree, the plan of
human redemption would have failed, for they, immoral as they might be,
never would have put him to death.
There could be no other way of bringing about the death of Christ, but
by keeping the Jewish nation ignorant that he was the Messiah. The
course that was pursued by Jesus, would imply that his orders were to so
act among them, that their condemnation would be just for rejecting him;
but on no account to perform miracles sufficient to convince them, for
in that case the Jews would not have condemned and put him to death as a
blasphemer and an impostor. Again, if Jesus came on earth to die, and
without shedding his blood there could be "_no remission of sin_" what
mockery for him to exclaim "_O Jerusalem! Jerusalem I how oft would I
have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not_!" For if the Jews had sheltered
themselves under the wings of Jesus, how was he to die as a sacrifice
for sin? But he was not put to death, they knowing him to be the Christ,
but on the contrary, they condemned him for pretending to be the very
anointed of the Lord. And although the story was propagated that Jesus
arose, after his descent from the cross, the Jews as a nation did not
give credit to it, nor have they till this day. If, therefore, "_there
is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved,_" but by
believing in Christ and in his dying for the sins of mankind, then the
Jews, ever since the death of Christ, and also the present race, are
lost and forever shut out from that pardon which was procured by the
death of Jesus, which was brought about by the instrumentality of the
Jews by the condemnation of the Messiah.
The account of Judas, in what is called betraying his Master, is strange
indeed. In speaking of that circumstance, Jesus says, "_It would have
been better for that man if he had never been born_." Now if Jesus came
to die, Judas, by informing the authorities where he was to be found,
did no more than bring to pass what was before ordained should take
place. Judas, then, was but the instrument to accomplish the plan of
human redemption, by informing the Jewish authorities when and where
they could secure the object which they sought after. The very idea of
betraying Jesus, proves two things:--first, that Jesus was but little
known to the Jews, except from report; and, secondly, that although he
held often said he came to lay down his life for sinful man, yet he
intended to evade death as long as possible. It was owing to this
obscure method of teaching, that his disciples, although always with
him, could not understand fully what his objects were; and though he had
so often told them of "_the kingdom of heaven being at hand,_" they
understood him not.
To bring the position of the Jews nearer, at the time of Christ's
appearance in Judea, let us suppose ourselves to have been Jews, then
living, and expecting and desiring his coming. At length, it is said,
"he is arrived." The first inquiry would very naturally be, is he the
true Messiah, or is he an impostor? If, then, to our inquiries made to
him on that point, we had received in return nothing positive, but the
vilest abuse, and threatenings of damnation in a future world, could we
be expected to view him as the promised deliverer? When the Jews heard
him denouncing them as hypocrites, and, at the same time, assuming an
authority over Moses, and the laws of Jehovah given by Moses, and
calling the Temple (for which they had so high a veneration) a den of
thieves, it must have had a tendency to shut up their minds against his
divine mission. If Jesus wished the Jews to be convinced of his being
the personage whom they had long expected, he should, in the first
place, have attended to their inquiry, "_Art thou he which should come,
or are we to look for another?_"
This question being settled, by indisputable evidence, Jesus would have
had a foundation for correcting what was wrong, and exposing their base
conduct. But he began at the wrong-end, by upbraiding them for their
evil doings before he had 'convinced them of his being appointed to
abrogate, or, in any way, to alter, the law of Moses. We may then safely
conclude, if Jesus was divinely commissioned to the Jews, that it was
not intended they should believe in him. But who, for a moment, can
think, that, if the Almighty Ruler of the Universe had sent him, his
mission would have been marked with trickery and deception, and have
failed, and the Jews have been left in a state far worse than if he had
never been among them? Can we reasonably conclude, that a Being of
infinite wisdom and goodness would have sent his Son to the Jewish
nation, without giving them any evidence of his being the Messiah, and
then have taken advantage of their unbelief to deal out judgments
against them?
If Jesus was sent into the world to die, and by dying, became "_a
sacrifice for the sins of mankind,_" then the Jews, by putting him to
death, brought to maturity what God had ordained should come to pass. In
that case, then, it is clear, that Jesus was so to act, that the Jews
must not be convinced that he was the true and real Messiah, for had
they believed in him as the restorer of their race, whom they had long
expected, they would not have slain the "_Lord of life and glory_."
Then, how would he have paid the "_ransom for lost sinners_"? But, on
the other hand, if Jesus was sent by God to the Jewish nation, and
gifted to perform signs and miracles to convert them, how did it happen
that they remained in sin and unbelief;--their whole race, the seed of
Abram, remaining in that state until the present time? The Jews have
surely been an unfortunate people. To the Jews, then, 1 must say, "I
know not which demands the most pity--you, or your God; for, after all
the attempts to subject you to his will, you are a race of outcasts, and
have been plundered by all the Christian nations on earth. After all the
pains taken by the Lord of Hosts to convert you, every one has failed;
but the last failure is the most to be deplored. From the time Jehovah
is said to have called Abram, your progenitor, and selected him from the
rest of the human race, and promised him and his seed forever, blessings
from which the rest of the world were excluded, Jehovah and your
generations have ever been on bad terms. You are spoken of in Scripture
as a stiff-necked, rebellious people. On the part of God, he has always
appeared as if he was angry with your conduct. Forty years together, he
says, he has been _grieved with your disobedience_. To such a height has
been his displeasure, that thousands and tens of thousands of your
nation have been cut off by the terrible judgments of the Lord. You have
been led into captivity and sold as slaves, time after time, and Jehovah
has even threatened to destroy your whole race.
"Jehovah, in his anger, has raised heathen kings against you, and the
slaughter has been dreadful. But when you have turned to the Lord, and
humbled yourselves, he has attended to your cry, and delivered you out
of their hands. Jehovah has, at times, inspired prophets who have
foretold that you should one day have a personage appear among you,
restore you to your former greatness, be to you a God, and you should be
to him a people. This personage is said to have been among you, but _you
knew him not_. You, then, from obedience to Jehovah, rejected Jesus as
an impostor, and considered him as arrogating to himself Divine honor,
and finally put him to death. And, for eighteen hundred years, you have
suffered the most cruel treatment from every nation among whom you have
dwelt. You have been the most unfortunate people on earth; but you still
cling to your prophets, and are looking for the coming of the Messiah.
"And what appears more unfortunate than all your past evils, is, you
have put to death, through mistake, your last refuge, the true Messiah.
There are, at the present time, upwards of one hundred millions of
Christians who maintain and believe that the same Jesus whom _ye slew
and hanged on a tree, is in truth both Lord and Christ,_ the same whom
your nation so long and so earnestly looked for. If, then, faith in that
Christ whom you rejected, has opened the kingdom of heaven to the
Christian world, while your whole race is shut ont, the Christians owe
you a debt of everlasting gratitude, for by this sacrifice they are to
enter into the Supper of the Lamb, and your unfortunate race have the
door closed against them. But do not despair, for the Infidels of the
present day are your friends. They will make all right They will, if you
attend to them, convince you that your forefathers were imposed on, when
in a state of ignorance, by some artful impostor, who persuaded them
that the seed of Abram was chosen by God to the exclusion of all other
people and nations.
"In the infancy of your nation, Moses, or some other artful leader, took
advantage of your inexperience, and by antedating miracles said to have
been performed in behalf of your ancestors by Jehovah, but which never
were performed, and which at the time was incapable of refutation, your
nation imbibed the reality that the seed of Abram was the _chosen of the
Lord_. This conviction for thousands of years has been received, and has
been handed down from father to Son till the present time. Yes, ye seed
of Abram, (by this name I address you,) by considering yourselves the
chosen people of God, this conviction has been your perpetual curse.
Your faith in the ancient accounts of those miracles and wonders,
wrought in your behalf by Moses, has been your fatal delusion. You
consider it not possible for your fore-, fathers to have been deceived;
for, say you, the miracles and wonders were performed before your whole
nation.
"In this consists your error. There is no certainty as to who wrote the
history of the wonders, said to have been wrought in your behalf, nor at
what time they were first recorded. But the internal evidence of the
books ascribed to Moses, fully prove him not to have been the author.
The same evidence also proves that the first five books were not written
till after the reign of the first kings of Israel. So that, by
antedating the wonders recorded to have taken place in the infancy of
your nation, and then by a cunning impostor to have been subsequently
presented for the first time to the Jews, giving them an account of
those wonders of old, an ignorant nation would be likely to believe
them; and in that case a whole people would be converted at once, giving
credit to an absurdity producing an influence in the world which has far
exceeded any imposture that ever has been Saddled on the human race. The
dreadful error into which your forefathers fell, and by handing down to
their posterity the foolish story of your being _a chosen people_, the
greatest curse which could befal you, you have, without doubt, been the
most unfortunate people on earth; for by considering yourselves _God's
chosen people_, you have despised the rest of the human race, and you
have in return been persecuted and plundered. You have been treated by
all nations as outcasts.
"On the ground-work of your having been chosen by the supposed God of
the universe, the world has assumed an appearance very unlike to what it
would have had, if no such imposition had been practised on your
progenitors. Wars innumerable have taken place, and rivers of blood have
flowed through the earth, occasioned by theological strife. Religious
quarrels, ending in the application of the rack and torture, and
persecutions in quick succession, have been the result, and thousand of
horrid cruelties have taken place in every age, all in consequence of
that curse of all curses, the belief that _God has a chosen people_.
Although it had doubtless been thought by your nation the highest
possible honor to be chosen by the Lord, this has proved your greatest
misfortune; for from this source, Christianity has been produced. You
may exult in the idea, that you have in your sacred books, the doctrine
of but one God, notwithstanding your religion and its Christian
offspring has been more cruel and intolerant than any on earth.
According to your own books, your nation and the God who chose them,
were forever at war; your people continually rebelling and receiving
chastisement, till, at last, you are to appearance forsaken. But as has
been before mentioned, the Infidels are your friends; for, by means of
free discussion, and the diffusion of useful knowledge, they will
ultimately destroy that intolerant spirit which has been the earth's
greatest curse, and you will eventually, with the rest of the human
family, open your eyes, and discover the folly and absurdity of
believing in a God "partial, vengeful, and unjust." And then you will be
no longer _Jews_, but will become men."