Arno C. Gaebelein

Arno Clemens Gaebelein (August 27, 1861 – December, 1945) was a Methodist minister in the United States of America. He was a prominent teacher and conference speaker. He was also the father of educator and philosopher of Christian education Frank E. Gaebelein.

In the Nov-Dec 1896 issue of "Our Hope" one of the best statements of Hebrew Christians (Messianic Jews) was written under the heading, The Principles of the Hope of Israel Moment.

"The Hope of Israel Movement aims to bring the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ to His brethren according to the flesh. We hold that Scriptural – not Talmudic or Rabbinical, still less Reformed – Judaism is as much as divine revelation as Christianity. The canon of the New Testament has no higher Dicine authorith than has that of the Old. Neither is complete without the other. Salvation is from the Jews, John iv:22. And the gospel is “to the Jew first,” Rom. i:18. The Jew is not a Gentile. The term “proselyte,” therefore, can never apply to the Jew. The promice of God are Israel’s Rom. ix:4, 5. Gentile believers are the real “proselytes,” once far off, now made nigh, Eph. Ii:12, 13. The root of God’s good olive tree, Israel, bears us; not we the root, Rom. xi:17, 18. To “proselyte” the Jew, then, is to ignore and to reverse the Divine order.

The Jew has no need whatever of the organizations or instutitions of historical (i.e. Gentile and denominational) Christianity. All he needs is personal, saving faith in his own Jewish Messiah, the Christ of God, nothing more. And all that was Dicinely given him through Moses he has full liberty to retain and uphold as far as possible when he becomes a believer in Jesus Christ. This to us clearly follows from these Scriptual considerations: 1. Abraham – the Divine pattern of the true Jew, as well as of the believing Gentile, Rom. iv:11, 12 – received circumcision as an everlasting covenant after he had believed God unto ustification, Gen. xvii:9-14. God Himself added circumcision to Abraham’s faith. And thus Paul writes: “Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised,” I Cor. Vii:18. This was the ruling of the apostle to the Gentiles in all the churches. (Compare Ezek. xliv:7, 9) 2. The natural seed of Jacob shall not cease to be a nation before the Lord forever, Jerem. xxx:11, xxxi:35, 37; xlvi:28; Rom. xi:1, 29. This is God’s eternal purpose and the secret of Israel’s preservation. Even so at this present times – through the gospel – a remnant of the nation is being saved, according to the election of grace, Rom. xi:5. These saved Jews, to be a true remnant, should not surrender any of the Divinely appointed marks of the nation Israel. Thhey should not be taught to un-Jew themselves. 3. The Lord Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God. (Israel’s national election). Rom. xv:8. He came not to destroy, but to fulfill, the law. Jewish disciples of Christ, by the word of the Lord Himself, should not be taught to break or disrecard one of these least commandments, Matt. v:17, 19. They should walk and live even as He lived among His own people, i.e. as true, conforming Jews (barring, of course, mere traditions of the elders and the commandments of men), 1 John ii:6. 4. On and from the day of Pentecost myriads of Jewish believers were by the Holy Spirit baptized into fellowship with the glorified Christ. He did not cause or direct either the apostles or other Jewish believers to “forsake Moses.” Apostolic teaching and practice throughout the New Testament only show Jewish Christians “walking orderly and keeping the law.” Acts ii:46, 47; iii:1; vi:7; x:9; (chap. Xv:28, 29 by implication, clearly makes observance of all the laws and ordinances of Moses for Jewish believers a matter pleasing to the Holy Goast); xvi:3; xviii:18; xx:16; xxi:17-26; xxiii:1; xxv:8. 5. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is also Son of Abraham and the Son of David. He is at once Head over all things to the church (built up of Jews and Gentiles), and the rightful and coming heir of David’s throne, which He will restore and occupy at His return from heaven, Luke i:32, 33; Acts xv:16; iii:21. Jesus has not surrendered or forfeited His distinctive claim to the thorn of His (Jewish) ancestor, David, by ascending on high and becoming the glorified Head of His body, the church. No more should Hewish believers in Christ, being living members of His body, be made or taught to surrender anything which is Divinely ordered and appointed for Israel as God’s and Christ’s age-lasting and peculiar people."

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