What is the Jew?

The Jew is the symbol of eternity. … He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity.

Leo Tolstoy, What is the Jew? printed in Jewish World periodical 1908

The Immortal Jew

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendour, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in the twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?

Mark Twain, Concerning the Jews, Harper’s Magazine, 1899

What About the Jews?

Question: Are the Jews automatically saved? Without going into a lot of detail, can you explain the relationship between Jews, Gentiles, and the “church” as we get closer and closer to the End Times? 

Response: Judaism is as invalid for automatic salvation as Islam. No one is saved simply because he is Jewish. The gospel “is to the Jew first,” so the Jew must need to be saved through the redemptive work of Christ just like the Gentile. That’s basic. 

The church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles who have been made into one new man through the cross of Christ. But again, that does not do away with either Jews or Gentiles, so Paul reminds us that there are now Jews, Gentiles, and the church of God. 

On the other hand, as a nation the Jews remain God’s chosen people—with a special place in God’s plan and special promises to them that pertain to the land of Palestine and the coming kingdom. Jesus was born King of the Jews, and, as the Messiah of Israel, He must reign upon the throne of His father David, as Gabriel stated to Mary. This didn’t happen when He was here the first time, and it will be fulfilled when He returns. Read Zechariah chapters 12-14. Christ returns to this earth, not to Washington, DC or London or Paris, but to Jerusalem, where His feet come down on the Mount of Olives. 

Why? To rescue His people Israel, not to rescue the church! Those who survive to this moment (about two-thirds of Israel will have perished) will see Him whom they have pierced and will realize that He is indeed the Messiah for whom they have waited, and will believe that He died for their sins, and be saved and enter into the Kingdom—and He will rule that Millennial Kingdom from Jerusalem. 

Granted, some have said it is nonsense to maintain that there is some kind of special provision for the Israelites as a nation and as a people, even when they continue to reject the gift of the cross, but anyone who says that obviously needs to read the Bible more carefully. Israel has had a long history of rejecting God, all through the wilderness and even in the promised land, and God has had to judge them for it, but He has not repudiated His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob concerning their land, and He has sworn that He will not.

The Berean Call newsletter, May 2022.