Comfort For the Jews

Here is an original Rare book entitled Comfort for the Jews published in 1925 by Watchtower. It is 128 pages long and was written during the period when it was thought that Bible prophecies concerning restoration applied to natural Jews instead of Spiritual Israel. This book is very hard to find!

*** w66 2/15 pp. 117-118 Identifying the Present-Day Beneficiaries ***

At that time Bible Students thought that the new covenant as foretold in Jeremiah 31:31-34 did not apply to the 144,000 spiritual Israelites but was to be made with the natural Jews after the battle of Armageddon. Lectures were given to large public audiences on “Jews Returning to Palestine,” and in October of 1925 the book Comfort for the Jews was published. Under the subheading “The New Covenant,” pages 97-103 discussed this covenant and reserved it for the natural Jews regathered to Palestine. The third paragraph from the end of the book said: “The day of jubilee is come; the good news must be given to the people of Israel and then to all the peoples of the earth.—See Psalm 89:15.”

*** jv chap. 10 p. 141 Growing in Accurate Knowledge of the Truth ***

Would God Restore the Jews to Palestine? The Bible Students were well aware of the many prophecies of restoration that were delivered to ancient Israel by God’s prophets. (Jer. 30:18; 31:8-10; Amos 9:14, 15; Rom. 11:25, 26) Down till 1932, they understood these to apply specifically to the natural Jews. Thus, they believed that God would show Israel favor again, gradually restoring the Jews to Palestine, opening their eyes to the truth regarding Jesus as Ransomer and Messianic King, and using them as an agency for extending blessings to all nations. With this understanding, Brother Russell spoke to large Jewish audiences in New York as well as in Europe on the subject “Zionism in Prophecy,” and Brother Rutherford, in 1925, wrote the book Comfort for the Jews. But it gradually became evident that what was taking place in Palestine with regard to the Jews was not the fulfillment of Jehovah’s grand restoration prophecies. Desolation came on first-century Jerusalem because the Jews had rejected God’s Son, the Messiah, the one sent in Jehovah’s name. (Dan. 9:25-27; Matt. 23:38, 39) It was becoming increasingly obvious that as a people they had not changed their attitude. There was no repentance over the wrongful act committed by their forefathers. The return of some to Palestine was not motivated by any love for God or desire for his name to be magnified by fulfillment of his Word. This was clearly explained in the second volume of Vindication, which was published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1932. The correctness of this position was confirmed in 1949, when the State of Israel, then recently formed as a nation and as a homeland for the Jews, became a member of the United Nations, thus showing that its trust was not in Jehovah but in the political nations of the world.

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