ISRAEL AND THE NEW COVENANT, by Mr. Roderick Campbell (Price 3\$ 75 cents): The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 147 North 10th Street, Philadelphia 7, Pa.
“Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh,” is the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, and is corroborated in human experience in a day when the printing presses of the world are pouring forth their ever-increasing floods of literature of various kinds. We would, however, take it as a token for good if more books of the kind under review made their appearance. Mr. Campbell, in this well-written and beautifully printed book of 326 pages, deals, as he tells us in his preface, with the more practical and historical aspects of “the two great covenants which are associated with the points in history known as Sinai and Calvary,” and “which are the two great mountain peaks of history, of revelation, and of the one true faith.” The book is divided into six principal parts, as follows:—Our Hebrew Christian Heritage; Problems of Interpretation; All Things New; Promise and Prophecy; The New and Better Covenant; War, Victory and Peace.
In a review, which must of necessity be short, it is impossible to give a fair idea of the most interesting and instructive subject-matter of these parts further than to state that it clearly and convincingly shows that what the Jews had under the Old Covenant, in a dark and symbolic manner, is what the Israel of God, out of every kindred and tongue, has under the New Covenant, by the clearest revelation which shall be given in this world. After reading the book through, we have not come across a single statement advanced which cannot be proved from Scripture. In giving an explanation of how widespread is the rejection of the Christian message to-day, we heartily agree with the writer when he says, “Perhaps the humbling truth is that Christendom has, in large part, abandoned the kind of Christianity which the Bible proclaims, and that those who turn away from the thing which they know as Christianity are wholly ignorant of what true Christianity really is.” While many things are to-day offered as a panacea, by religious leaders of various shades of belief, for the sad condition of
the world, our author knows of only one remedy, and that is, an acknowledgment of Christ’s kingly power and authority. “The world needs to see men and women who are bound together under a sacred oath-bound covenant to God, men and women who really believe that Christ is now King in the fullest sense of universal sovereignty, such as is implied in His own parting words, ‘All power (authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth'” (p. 11).
It is refreshing, in a day when many, in otherwise evangelical circles in Britain hold, with almost fanatical enthusiasm, the pre-millenarian view of the Second Coming of Christ, to find Mr. Campbell adhering to the view which was most commonly accepted by the Church of Christ in its best days, and proclaimed by the most eminent of our divines in both Britain and America, that is, that Christ would appear the second time when He would come to judge the quick and the dead at the last day. Neither does he hold the A-millenarian view, so much in vogue in certain religious quarters in America, which denies that there will be a Millennium at all, for towards the end of the book, he says, “But history and time on earth will continue until every promise of God applicable to men on earth will have been fulfilled. This, as has already been noted, includes world-wide social and political salvation, as well as personal, spiritual regeneration. No less than this can be considered as a generous fulfilment of God’s covenant promise to the patriarch Abraham. No less can be considered as an adequate fulfilment of many promises to the faithful Remnant in Israel. No less can be considered as the appointed goal of the missionary task of the Church” (p. 325).
Mr. Campbell, however, calls no man “Master” with respect to the human authorities whom he quotes, except to show that their views are in accordance with the most natural interpretation of the Word of God. He himself goes to the fountain-head of Scripture, and, in the clearest and most logical manner, draws his conclusions, after comparing Scripture with Scripture. He puts the matter of the second Coming of Christ in a clear and concise manner when he says, “The New Testament makes this much clear about Christ’s still future coming: it will mean for believers and the Church, that the efficacious (redemptive) power and presence of Christ on earth will then come to an end. The completed and perfected ‘body’ of the redeemed will then be transferred to its eternal home. In the case of the finally impenitent, it is equally clear that the second coming will mean for them the belated recognition of the Messiahship of Christ. It will mean a sight of the risen and glorified Redeemer ‘revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God . . .’ ” (II Thes. i. 7-10).
We are firmly of the opinion that if the most ardent advocates of the pre-millenarian view would read this book, it would give them something to think of, and, perhaps, lead them to see that all that they
speak and write about the Second Coming of Christ to reign personally on the earth, is based on an unbalanced view of the Word of God, and wholly inconsistent with the mind of the Spirit. Our author quotes no fewer than 146 authorities, ancient and modern, as the index of authors at the end of the book shows, and a perusal of the book reveals an amazing knowledge of these authorities. Not only so, but he has indicated that there are many other authorities on his bookshelves, which consideration of space prevented him even mentioning, but which he will place at the disposal of those seeking further proofs of what he has advanced. We wish the book a wide circulation, and trust that it will prove a blessing to many.
It may be mentioned that Mr. Campbell is well-known to those of our ministers who have acted as the Church’s deputies to Canada and the U.S.A., and is a son of the late Mr. James Campbell, a respected elder of our Inverness congregation.—J. Colquhoun.