We review two booklets from Christians for Israel (CFI), ahead of the Balfour centenary.
A Nation Called by God: Britain’s Role in Israel’s Restoration (2017, multiple authors)
This booklet is an extended version of a previous booklet, published by Love Never Fails, which in turn was an expanded version of a recorded message given by Ken Burnett. This final edited and expanded version includes extra material from Burnett’s original sources as well as from additional sources. The result is a more comprehensive picture of the relevant history leading up to the Balfour Declaration as well as more details of developments that occurred in the 20th Century.
The booklet is set out simply and starts by referring to a little-known work by Franz Kobbler entitled The Vision Was There (published in 1956). The theme is clear from the beginning that God chose Britain as a ‘servant nation’, appointed to shepherd Israel under God’s overall sovereignty of history.
There are sections on the usual people and groups that were instrumental in this cause: the Clapham Sect, Spurgeon, Ryle, CMJ. By the halfway point of the booklet we have reached the Balfour Declaration, described as the culmination of the British movement for the restoration of Israel.
God chose Britain as a ‘servant nation’, appointed to shepherd Israel under God’s overall sovereignty.
The booklet continues by commenting that “Sadly, through our scarred history since 1917, Britain has done far more to obstruct Israel’s restoration than to assist it” (p14). A list of 11 examples of this ‘opposite policy’ occupies three pages (pp18-20) and the booklet ends with what is perhaps its main intention: a call to repentance.
The final word is given to Derek Prince, an adapted transcript of an audio recording of a message he gave in Jerusalem on 1 June 2003, a few months before he died there in September 2003. At the end there is a page of references for further reading which brings this well-produced and timely book to a helpful conclusion.
A Nation Called By God (26 pages) is available from CFI for £2.50.
90 Years On: Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights in the Mandate for Palestine (Roy Thurley, 2010)
This is a short but well-produced and glossy booklet (with colour maps), produced from material presented at the 90th anniversary conference commemorating the San Remo Agreement. As for its message, it makes a very worthwhile contribution towards a better understanding of the aftermath of the Balfour Declaration and the subsequent British Mandate.
Of particular interest are the key points listed concerning the British Mandate for Palestine. For anyone who has not studied the legal aspect of this before, this will be a revelatory discovery.
The conclusion is that the Jewish State draws its legality from the San Remo Agreement of 1920, a fact that counters much of the misinformation spread in recent times, especially that which uses the United Nations Partition Plan of 1947 (Resolution 181) as its basis.
This is a worthwhile contribution towards a better understanding of the aftermath of the Balfour Declaration.
The only modification to the Mandate for Palestine was the creation of the Emirate of Trans-Jordan in 1946 (now Jordan). Thus the provisions of the Mandate to the land west of the Jordan remain applicable to this day. It soon becomes clear that the expression ‘illegally occupied territory’ is totally inapplicable to Israel’s presence in what has become known as the West Bank as well as other areas that were assigned to Israel under the 1920 San Remo agreement.
The booklet concludes that those who would deny Israel’s right to the territories it recaptured in 1967 should be challenged, and the fallacy of such claims should be countered by the legal case set out in its pages.
90 Years On (10 pages) is available from CFI for £2.50.
