"Israel was evidently in the minds of the apostles themselves. On the day of the ascension they asked Him:—
"'Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?' (Acts i. 6.)
"A restoration of the kingdom of Israel with the kingdom of Judah had been promised. The apostles did not confuse the kingdom of Israel with that of Judah, for they said, 'Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' St. Paul devotes thirty-six verses in Romans xi. to prove that God has not cast away His people, but that "blindness in part is happened unto Israel until the fulness of the nations be come in," so that all Israel shall be saved.
"Lastly, the final word must be that of our Lord. In Acts i. 7, 8 Christ said:—
"'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power, but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth'—which refers to the 'regions beyond'—an expression that was fully understood to mean the dispersed among the Gentiles."With much pain one has to say that this reveals either lamentable ignorance of the plainest and simplest truths of New Testament Scripture on the part of an otherwise educated man, or a clever adaptation by which a lawyer would seek to support a preconceived theory.
I have already dealt with some of these perversions in the first part of this pamphlet, so need only refer to them again in the briefest possible manner.
(a) It is indeed "perfectly clear" to any reader of the New Testament that Israel "was much in our Lord's mind during His three years' ministry upon earth"; but as clear and evident is it to any candid reader that the only "Israel" of whom He thought and spoke were the people among whom He lived and moved, and to whom His blessed ministry on earth
