The Doctrine of the Last Things (Christian Classics) by W. O. E. Oesterley

Author:W. O. E. Oesterley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, novel, book, bestseller, top10, interactive media, urban romantics
Publisher: The Big Nest
Published: 2016-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

One of the main ideas which come to the fore in connection with this subject is that the Israelites scattered all over the world are to be brought together to the Holy Land for the purpose of enjoying the time of bliss which is to follow the signs of the 'last times'; but, as will have been seen in the preceding section, the Apocalyptic writers realise that the fact of being an Israelite is not in itself sufficient to save him from the divine wrath in the 'last times' if in other respects he is not worthy to be a partaker of the bliss to come; and therefore they divide men into the righteous and the wicked, not into Israel and the Gentiles; and the object, then, of the ingathering of Israel is that they should be differentiated, the faithful being destined to life, the wicked to destruction. It is worth while recalling in this connection the words of the Baptist in Luke iii. 7 ff. Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. This thought is, without doubt, based upon the prophetic teaching of the need of national purification; only the righteous, even among those of the seed of Israel, may look forward to happiness when the 'last times' are past. But a further thought, already noticed in passing in the preceding section, in connection with this subject is that the ingathering of Israel is to serve as a means whereby the righteous among the Gentiles may also be brought in. This, as we have seen, is also to be traced to prophetic influence; and it reveals an intermediate position between the Particularist and Universalist attitudes. These three thoughts must now be briefly illustrated. It will be obvious that the first thought referred to—that of the ingathering of Israel for the purpose of insuring their bliss after the 'last times,' without a consideration of their worthiness but simply because they are of the seed of Abraham—is not one that we should expect to find prominently expressed in the Apocalyptic literature; it came to the fore in somewhat later times, as we shall see in the next chapter; but the Apocalyptists were too Universalistic and too much influenced by the spirit of the prophets to express this thought unconditionally. Perhaps the pious writer of the ninth psalm in The Psalms of Solomon comes nearest to it, but the passage to be cited is preceded by words which show the writer›s conviction that repentance is indispensable to those who would have final recognition from God: 'And now, Thou art God, and we are the nation that Thou lovest; look upon us and have mercy, oh God of Israel, for we are thine, and turn not away Thy compassion from us, that they (i.

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