BRITISH-ISRAEL FEDERATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23857, 11 July 1939, Page 14

BRITISH-ISRAEL FEDERATION

LECTURE BY REV. J. S. PATE An interesting and instructive.lecture was delivered last evening in the Returned Soldiers' Association Hall. The lecturer was the Rev. J. S. Pate, and the subject was "The Bible, the Jews, Palestine, and the British Empire." Mr Pate referred to four things as constituting a four-fold problem which, if properly approached, were just one problem.—"ls the Bible true when understood by following the rules of interpretation as laid down by all Homiletic authorities." The lecturer contended that in the realm of sport Rugby football would cease to be a game at all if the rules govern, ing it were jettisoned. Cricket and tennis would become farcical games if the rules were not adhered to. Likewise, if the rules for the interpretation of any literary composition were aside, it would never be understood as the writer intended it to be. This applied to the Bible, which had largely become to many people a book of contradictions, but this was due entirely to throwing overboard the rules of interpretation'. "In regard to the question, 'Who aie the Jews?'" the speaker continued, "many students look to the New Testament for the answer; but it cannot be found there, because it is a matter of ethnology, and this study takes us to the Old Testament. Many people make the mistake of confusing a permanent nation called Israel and a temporary nation of Jews which terminated in A.D. 70. They confuse a fragmentary nation with the main body of Israel. The usually accepted theory of 12 Jewish tribes in the nation of Israel requires as a foundation that the 12 sons of Jacob be Jews. Only on this ground is there any possibility through marriage of 12 Jewish families developing into 12 Jewish tribes to form a Jewish nation. "There is not one verse in all the Bible to prove that Jacob's sons were Jews; therefore, a Jewish-Israel theory is without any ethnological basis. The opponents of British-Israel teaching should, first of all, justify their own Jewish-Israelism on ethnological grounds before attacking other people's beliefs. "Furthermore," said the speaker, "there is not one verse in the Bible to prove that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were Jews. Orthodox belief concerning the nation of Israel wasbuilt upon an ethnological absurdity. The speaker then dealt with Palestine, showing that as a land it was never promised to the Jewish nation. There was not one verse in all the Bible to prove such a promise; and this was very important to know in connection with the trouble in Palestine at the present time. The Jews had never inhabited any other place than the province of Judah. To know the answer to the question "Who are the Jews?" goes a long way towards knowing the solution to the Palestine problem. ~ , The British Empire at the present day was fulfilling all the promises and prophecies concerning the nation of Israel, while the Jews were fulfilling the small part mapped put for them. The speaker'contended that the place the British occupied to-day in the world and the influence they exerted in world affairs were a better proof of the inspiration of the Bible than the Jews.