The Millennial Hope; A Phase of War-Time Thinking (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II HEBREW AND JEWISH HOPES The Hebrew people were particularly sensitive to the presence of hostile forces in their world. The pressure of life's ills was felt by them even more keenly than by many of their gentile neighbors. They also believed that a final triumph for humanity would be secured only through the special intervention of Deity. In fact, rarely or never did any neighboring peoples hold so tenaciously as did the Jews to the hope of a glorious divine deliverance. Throughout a long period of years they suffered repeated misfortunes, but each new calamity seemed only to strengthen their confidence in the coming of a better day when their present unhappy condition would be completely reversed. I By the beginning of the Christian era Jewish hopes had passed through a long period of growth. The beginnings of this process are veiled in obscurity, but very possibly there had 48 been a time when the ancestors of the Jews, like most other peoples in that ancient world, had depicted their fears and hopes in the form of myths reflecting a dread of nature's elemental forces and a hope of victory to be secured by the help of Deity. In historical times the Hebrews were unique in their efforts to bring all supernatural activities under the control of their own national god, Jehovah. Consequently at an early date he assumed the allembracing r61e of both destroyer and deliverer. Jehovah is frequently associated with the terrors of thunder, lightning, and storm. When angry, he speaks in the roaring tempest or in the crashing thunder, and the flaming lightning is the breath of his nostrils. He is also the god of earthquake and volcanic fire. He causes the earth to tremble and shakes the mountains to their very foundations. At times his...