TO TAKE A STAND
It May Cost You
by James G. Matthews
More than thirty years ago it was my privilege to sit under the
preaching and teaching of Dr. Henry J. Stough, one of the most
brilliant speakers I ever heard. I consider him and Dr. William
Pascoe Goard as two outstanding exponents of the Israel Identity
message of their era.
At one time Dr.Stough was one of America's truly great
evangelists, and it has been said his organization was second
only in size and importance to that of his contemporary, "Billie"
Sunday. I heard Dr.Stough tell what he was forced to sacrifice
that he might continue preaching the Israel message. His time as
an evangelist had been booked solid for two years in advance, he
said, when he became acquainted with and started to preach the
Identity message. As he preached, the engagements were cancelled
one by one.
[As things got tough]"I sold my library, the sale averaging a bit
more than ten cents per volume. Then we sold the rugs on the
floors, household furnishings, and finally the house itself," (in
Wheaton Illinois). Then he added, "And now I carry my possessions
in two suitcases in the trunk of an automobile."
Nor did opposition cease when he entered upon this new phase of
his ministry. I recall that I was privileged to cover a series of
his meetings as a reporter. Almost daily his previous night's
public utterances were given front page space, arousing no envy
and opposition among members of the local exponent clergy. One
minister assured me that Dr.Stough was "preaching heresy".
Clergymen protested to the newspaper editor but neither he nor I
were convinced.
Dr.Stough was no ordinary person. Well-educated, experienced, and
possessing an extraordinary intellect, his biography was
contained in that elite publication, "Who's Who in America"
(Marquis, Chicago) for many years. In the later years of his life
he spent considerable time in Washington D.C., where he hoped for
greater accomplishment in behalf of the Kingdom of God. It was
while there that he sent a compilation of questions to me,
questions with which he had challenged and apparently confounded
the opposition.
Dr.Stough wrote: "The following questions were first propounded
to a Futurist Pre-millenarian Radio preacher in the U.S.A. and
were prompted by his threat to attack the teaching that the Ten
Tribes of Israel, the present Anglo-Saxon-Celtic nations, not
Jews, are the nations through whom the prophecies of national
restoration are to be fulfilled. Although these questions were
asked several years ago, no reply as yet has been received."
(Editor's Note: Space prevents recording all 28 questions but
here is a sampling).
1. Do you teach that Abraham was a Jew? If so, how do you
distinguish between him and the descendants of Ishmael, the
modern Arabs? Also those sons of Keturah and his concubines
mentioned in Genesis xxv, 1-5?
4. In your teaching do you distinguish between the "Birthright"
Jacob bought from Esau and the "blessing" he stole from Esau by
deceiving his father? Just what do you understand to have been
meant by each?
6. When Jacob blessed the twelve sons, each of whom received his
portion, did he mean that ultimately these blessings of every
character were to go to Judah? If so, why did he give a
particular blessing to Judah as if he were to have but his own?
Genesis 49.
7. Just what did Jacob mean when he adopted the two sons of
Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, into his family by crossing his
hands and giving the younger this blessing --"His seed shall
become a multitude of nations", and to the elder, "He also shall
become a people and he shall be great"? Did all these blessings
go to Judah? If so, how could the Jews ever become a "great
nation" and a "multitude of nations" also?
11. Do you teach that all the tribes returned under Ezra and
Nehemiah from Babylon? If so, when did they get together, since
they went into captivity more than one hundred years apart,
Israel going to Assyria about 721 B.C., Judah going to Babylon
about 604 B.C. and in widely separated territories?
12. If so, how does it come that Zechariah (10:6-9) who wrote
eighteen years after the Jews had returned, said, "I will
strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the House of
Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them and they shall
remember me in far countries"?
13. How does it happen that Josephus in four places in his
"Antiquities", written in A.D.70, limits the return to Judah and
Benjamin with a number of Levites?
16. How does it come that in the genealogical lists of Ezra you
have only those of Judah and Benjamin? Would you not expect that
those of the other ten tribes would be included if they returned
with Judah?
21. What did Jesus mean when He said in Matthew 21:43, "The
Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof" Has the church ever been a
nation? Did the Roman Empire bring forth the fruits thereof?
22. Just what did Jesus mean when He said, "I am not sent but
unto the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel"? Who were those
mentioned by the Jews in John 7:35? Who had Peter and James in
mind when they addressed their letters to the "Diaspora"?
25. How then can Judah include all when again Judah is
distinguished in the Millennial Age as simply one of the Tribes?
27. What did the disciples have in mind when they asked Jesus,
"Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?", when
they had heard Him say some time before to the Jews: "The Kingdom
shall be taken from you and given to (another) nation"?
Could they have meant Jews when He had clearly stated that their
house was "left unto them desolate"?
Mr.Stough concluded, "These are some of the questions which I
have been compelled to ask and answer. Since you and I are pulpit
teachers, it is of vital importance that we really do what we so
often tell the people we are doing 'rightly dividing the Word of
Truth'. I try to remind myself of the famous Dr.Paley's
statement: 'There is a principle which is a bar against all
information, which is proof against all argument, and which
cannot fail to keep man in everlasting ignorance. That principle
is, contempt prior to examination.'"
May I prayerfully ask you to go over each and every one of these
questions with the Bible and an open mind?
..........
Note:
Ah indeed, the prophecies of Genesis CANNOT be answered with the
silly idea that all Israelites are Jews, or that the Ten tribes
returned to the Holy Land with the Jews after the Jews' 70 years
captivity in Babylon. Nor with the argument that the multitudes
of the Ten tribes of the House of Israel just evaporated away
after they were taken captive by the Assyrian armies and deported
out of Samaria.
Is it just happenstance, a fluke, that in the last days (as the
NT uses it can mean from the start of the NT church to the coming
of Christ), we have a BROTHER peoples that have inherited the
physical blessing of this earth, and have formed themselves into
a "nation and a company of nations"?
I maintain a child will have little difficulty in reading the
book of Genesis and looking around on the world stage of nations,
and seeing the promises given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
Joseph, fulfilled in the greatest and riches Empires the world has
ever seen - the British Commonwealth and the United States of
America.
Let me say and remind you, if you have forgotten during these few
years of recession, even with the USA under the gun, that nation
is STILL the greatest economy on earth; Europe, China and Japan
are still in ... whatever place; they are NOT in first place. The
number ONE world economy as of March 2010 (when this was entered
on this Website) is still the USA!
When Bible prophecy speaks of Egypt, China, Russia, Ethiopia,
Judah, and other nations in the last days, it is the folly of
silliness to proclaim, as most Protestant prophets do, that the
British Commonwealth and the USA are not mentioned in Bible
prophecy. Nothing could be further from the truth of the matter.
When you understand and believe the prophecies of Genesis, then
you will know the British Commonwealth and the USA are mentioned
MORE TIMES in Bible prophecy than ANY other nation on earth.
..........
To be continued from time to time
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