Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 101:401 (Jan 1944)
Article: Judaism: A Restatement Part 1
Author: Alfred Martin

BSac 101:401 (Jan 44) p. 108

Judaism: A Restatement
Part 1

Alfred Martin

The concept of an elect nation is not wholly foreign to the world’s thinking. The Japanese, for example, consider themselves divine in origin and destiny, while the Germans speak of themselves as the Master Race (Herrenvolk), superior to all other nations. Even the Americans like to assume a condescending attitude toward other peoples. All such ideas as these, however, are only grotesque Satanic counterfeits of the true teaching of the Scriptures.

For the Scriptures do declare that there is an elect nation through which God from all eternity has purposed to bring to final consummation His plan for the earth. This nation is Israel-Israel, that despised race against which the hatred of devil, demons, and men has been concentrated for centuries; Israel, in ancient times living in a land not to be compared in size and influence (from the human viewpoint) with those great empires which supposedly have turned the course of history, and now scattered and persecuted. Yes, Israel is presented in the Bible as a special object of the electing love of Almighty God. The Scriptures tell of the origin of the nation, sketch its history, define its present status, and describe its future glory.

The term Judaism is perhaps somewhat ambiguous, but has come to be a comprehensive word encompassing the whole of Israel’s national life, centering, of course, in its religion. The present paper will consider the nature of Judaism, its history, its present condition, and its future prospect.

I. The Nature of Judaism.

Usage or convenience, rather than etymology, determines

BSac 101:401 (Jan 44) p. 109

in most cases the meanings of words. It is useless for purists to insist that Judaism concerns only the tribe of Judah. Throughout the centuries the term Jew has come to be applied to anyone from any of the twelve tribes of Israel, and Judaism is the title given by constant custom to the religion of Israel.

There is very little connection, however, between the true Judaism of the Bible and the rabbinical Judaism which is in existence in the world today. The latter system is not in view in this treatment of the subject.

Judaism is more than a religion in the ordinary sense of the word. It is also a system of civil government, it is a code of law, it is a social order-in short, it is a theocracy, imperfectly administered for a while in the past by weak and sinful men, now in abeyance, but someday to be restored in perfection by the Messiah King, as the sequel will show. All the various elements-religious, legal, civil, social-combine to form a complete rule of life prescribed and ordere...