Other Articles 
on Zionism

The Time to Favor
Zion Is Come
 

The Timing and Significance of the
Balfour Declaration

Those living in the new state of Israel need no convincing of the importance of the Balfour Declaration. It was the only constructive outcome of World War 1. The Balfour Declaration was overshadowed by the Bolshevik Revolution, but often truly great events go unheralded. The violent always captures world recognition.

The Balfour Declaration was made November 2, 1917. It was not a world-shaking event, but a small political concession at a time when the world was on fire. It excited no one except a few men with Zionistic hopes. But even here, it was only a conversation piece, because few Jews took seriously any thought of returning to Palestine. However, per-secuted Jewry in Russia was coming to the end of its rope. The plight of the Jews in Russia was the main argument by which the faint heart of the British were finally persuaded to give the Jew his homeland. The war had brought an end to the emigration of Jews from Russia to other lands and in view of their pitiful plight, the British gave their consent for a homeland in Palestine.

November 7, 1917, five days later, the Bolshevik Revolution erupted and invalidated the main argument of the Balfour Declaration. The Revolution sealed the Jewish population within Russia where they remain until this time. Needless to say, despite the claims of comradship, the Jews are still identified as Jews in Russia and they are discriminated against. Zionists in Russia must wait until the Lord fulfills His promise to bring them "from the land of the north." (Jer. 16:15) The important thing is that the Russian Revolution came five days too late to prevent the Balfour Declaration. Nor can the children of Abraham be detained within the boundaries of Russia very much longer. The Lord will regather His people from the land of the "north."

The Bolshevik Revolution unleashed a force in the world that will help bring the nations to an end, while Israel rises to shine. A destructive force is at one hand and a building force at the other. We are living at this transition time. At ancient Israel's decline, the Gentile powers, by divine grant, were given dominion. The Babylonian captivity ended God's kingdom nation and gave rise to universal Gentile dominion. Daniel's concern was for his people. Daniel saw Babylon devour his nation. He then saw Babylon fall and Medes and Persians assume dominion. He knew Israel must wait. His interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream indicates that four successive empires would hold world dominion. As long as the Gentiles held dominion it would not be Israel's. But there was hope. Summing up the vision, Daniel said: "And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; nor shall the kingdom be left to another people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, but it shall stand for ever." — Dan. 2:44

"7 Times" (Years) — There is a scriptural parallel in Israel's punishment and Nebuchadezzar's madness both involve "7 times." The Lord punished Nebuchadnezzar with madness 7 literal years for his pride and failure to acknowledge His sovereignty. (See Dan. 4:16, 23, 25, 32; in Masoretic Dan. 4:13, 20, 22, 29) God threatened Israel with "7 times'' of punishment if they disobeyed Him. (Lev. 26:21, 24) What meaning is there in these time parallels'? in Ezekiel 4:6 is found the basis for figuring time: "forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it unto thee.''

The degradation of Nebuchadnezzar was typical of human degradation under the four beastly governments during seven symbolic "times" or years — a year for a day, 2520 (7 x 360 = 2520) literal years. It is interesting to note that this time period parallels the period when the crown was taken away from Israel and it ceased to be an independent kingdom nation. The last king of the two-tribe kingdom of Judah was Zedekiah. Upon removing him the Lord said: "O wicked one, that art to be slain, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of iniquity of the end; thus saith the Lord God: The mitre shall be removed, and the crown taken old: this shall be no more the same: that which is low shall be exalted. and that which is high abased. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, will I make it; this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him." Ezek. 21:25-27

The removal of the crown marked the end of a kingdom nation identified with God. This was forecast at the very outset when God outlined the possibility of blessing and the alternative of cursing that might befall His people. In Leviticus 26, after speaking of the possible blessings, God warned: "And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins." In vs. 21 and 24 the Lord repeats the same threat of 7 times of punishment for sin. If the clue of Ezekiel is followed, the 7 symbolic times (7 x 360 = 2520) comes to 2520 actual years. The period of Gentile rule is depicted by Nebuchadnezzar's madness, the time also of Israel's punishment and humiliation. Gentile dominion starting with Babylonian conquest of Israel under Nebuchadnezzar to World War I measures 2520 years. The figures being correct, we could expect 1914 to be the beginning or the end of Gentile dominion and the beginning of Israel's ascent. And so it was As the Gentile dominion crumbled with all its ruling houses of splendor, so the Balfour Declaration lighted the star of David in Palestine. The Bolshevik Revolution guaranteed the continued consumption of Gentile power.

World War 11 ended with the atomic holocaust, leaving the world frightened as it looked on the awesome powers poised to destroy the human race. The second war brought the world into an inescapable whirlpool drawing them to Armageddon. The only good that came of the World War 11 debacle was the subsequent partition of the land of Palestine and the birth of Israel in 1948. For the rest of the world the loss was staggering and ended forever the dream of returning to the status quo. The consuming process will continue upon the Gentile powers. The nation of Israel can only ascend in influence. In Jeremiah 30:11 the Lord's intentions concerning Israel are declared as well as his intentions concerning those nations wherein His people have been dispersed: "For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end Of thee; for I will correct thee in measure, and will not utterly destroy thee."

The Balfour Declaration and the Bolshevik seizure of power, dissimilar though they were, have special lessons for world Jewry today. Joel Carmichael, in an article in the Jerusalem Post, Nov. 2, 1967, said:

"In terms of human material the kinship between the Russian revolutionaries and the Zionist activists was striking . . . The relationship between movements, was, indeed, a sort of intellectual rivalry. This was heightened all the more because of the great preponderance of Jews in the Russian revolutionary movement, at least before 1905. Restless Jewish youths, infected by enlightenment and wide open to all the ideas of world reform currently corroding traditional society, very naturally tended to slip into the Russian movement. Since traditional Jewish society was also being attacked by the new ideas, any Jew abandoning traditional Jewish values without becoming assimilated had a very natural set of alternatives—socialism, or the new Jewish nationalism called Zionism.... The tug of war between cosmopolitan socialism—which gradually came to be predominantly Marxism—and Zionism for the souls of Jewish youth was thus a very natural, as it were organic, development. It was also a tug of war in which the major forces appeared to be on the side of the socialists, or more particularly the Marxists.... Yet it was intellectually often difficult for Zionist debaters to withstand the sweeping claims made by socialists and especially by Marxists. The Marxists, who after all took all human society and all human history as their arena, naturally tended to look down on Zionists. ... it required great character and devotion for early Zionists, the debates that raged between the two movements for so many decades, to insist on the really quite simple-minded proposition that they chose to remain Jews.... Zionism in its essence really did no more than proclaim the fact of Jewish identity, the significance of Jewish continuity, and the determination to restore that identity and continuity in a certain way in a certain place. One can easily visualize the painful condescension the early Zionists had to put up with from their Marxist adversaries...."

He goes on to observe the contrast in results: Marxism, on the other hand, which in its prostate days did have valuable things to say, has been simplified, institutionalized and dogmatized, i.e., made compulsory. It has been, in fact magicalized, and its magic has been made an accessory of sanctified authority....

"It is probably Zionism and its offspring, the State of Israel, that now provide ... the sole rallying-point for the whole of the Communist world, now divided on so many other issues. It must be deeply embittering for the many Jews living in Israel to be forced to contemplate the perversion of all the ideals of the Russian Revolution, forced to witness not merely the anti-Israel political tactics of the Soviet Government but the recrudescence of vulgar anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union itself. It may be a consolation for them to reflect that many of the ideals of the Russian revolutionary movement, what may in fact be called its human core, have been transplanted to the soil of Israel."

The Jewish people have always been amenable to ideals, high ideals, but all too often they have been trying to give themselves to the world, thinking it too parochial to give themselves to Zionism and its embodiment—the State of Israel. They overlook the fact that the more they have tried to give themselves to the world the less they have endeared themselves with the world and, in the end, the more they have contributed to the suffering of their kinsmen.

Their heritage is a parochial one. Abraham, their father, was the heir of a parochial promise—"in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." The end result would embrace all men, the promise was parochial only in designating the seed.

Abraham forsook Ur of the Chaldees for the parochial promise of God. Moses forsook the world embodied in Egypt and chose to identify with the descendants of Abraham. These did not give themselves to the world, but through God's providence, they gave the world some of its great treasures. In like manner, all who are of the line of Abraham, marked with the pen of Moses, need not give themselves to the world— but the world shall seek them. "Ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew saying: we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."—Zech. 8:23

While the day has not yet come when the world seeks Israel, neither has the day come when Israel's people seek the Lord with all their heart. But, the day of God's favor has already dawned upon this nation. The fulfillment of prophecy is unfolding before our eyes—moving progressively toward the fulfillment of God's promise to bless all the families of earth.