‘His Favourite People’: John Gill on the Jews, National Israel, and the Latter-Day Glory of the Church

ABSTRACT

This article examines the eschatological perspective of John Gill (1697–1771), focusing on his views regarding the future role of ethnic Jews in God's end-times plan. Gill, influenced by his Reformed predecessors, considered the church to be the “mystical spiritual Israel of God,” comprising both Jews and Gentiles. However, as a Judeocentric interpreter of the Bible, Gill also envisioned a distinct eschatological role for ethnic Jews. He argued that the present unbelief of the Jews, whom he referred to as “his favourite people,” was a continuing reality. This article explores Gill's theological framework, highlighting the spiritual reign of Christ within the church and the significant role played by the calling and restoration of ethnic Jews to the land of Canaan. First, Gill's eschatological perspective and his understanding of a latter-day glory are examined, emphasizing the visible manifestation of Christ's kingly office within the church. Gill believed that as the church returned to a baptistic model resembling the early church, this spiritual reign would be experienced. Secondly, Gill's understanding of God's relationship with ethnic Jews is discussed, focusing on their future conversion, inclusion in the church, and restoration to the land. Finally, the article explores Gill's geopolitical perspectives on the implications of the Jews' restoration, particularly in relation to the undoing of the antichrists of the East (the Ottoman Empire) and the West (the Roman Catholic Church). By delving into Gill's eschatological perspective, this article highlights the central role he assigned to ethnic Jews, suggesting a time of spiritual flourishing within the church. The analysis provides insights into Gill's theology and offers a nuanced understanding of his views on the future of the church and the significance of the Jews in God's eschatological plan.

KEYWORDS:

• Millenarianism
• Jews
• Jewish-Christian relations
• English Baptists
• Calvinistic
• Baptists

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 John Rippon, A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late Rev. John Gill, D. D. (London: John Bennett, 1838), 119.

2 John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, ed. and trans. John Owen (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1849), 437, on Rom 11:26.

3 For example, John Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity: Or A System of Evangelical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures, new ed. (London: Tegg & Company, 1839), 1:512, 515, 621, 629–30; 2:3, 282, 427–28.

4 Following Richard Cogley and Andrew Crome, I take ‘Judeo-centrism’ as referring not merely to the belief in future Jewish conversion – which was not an uncommon view throughout church history – but the additional belief that Jews would be politically restored to the Holy Land. See Richard W. Cogley, “The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Restoration of Israel in the ‘Judeo-Centric’ Strand of Puritan Millenarianism,” Church History 72, no. 2 (June 2003): 304–32; Andrew Crome, “‘The Proper and Naturall Meaning of the Prophets’: The Hermeneutic Roots of Judeo-Centric Eschatology,” Renaissance Studies 24, no. 5 (November 2010): 725–41; idem, The Restoration of the Jews: Early Modern Hermeneutics, Eschatology, and National Identity in the Works of Thomas Brightman (New York: Springer, 2014); idem, Christian Zionism and English National Identity, 1600–1850, Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

5 John Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1809), 2:541.

6 Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, 2:540. Elsewhere Gill refers to ‘[God’s] ancient people the Jews.’ John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810), 5:307. In tracing the history of philosemitism in England, the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper (1801–1885), is often credited with the appellation of the Jews as God’s ‘ancient people,’ but one should notice that this has an older pedigree that predates the earl and was in common usage centuries before. For an example of this common claim, see Himmelfarb, The People of the Book, Philosemitism in England, from Cromwell to Churchill (New York: Encounter Books, 2011).

7 Gill, An Exposition of the New Testament, 2:541, on Rom. 11:33.

8 For more on Gill’s eschatology in context, see Crawford Gribben, “John Gill and Puritan Eschatology,” Evangelical Quarterly 73, no. 4 (2001): 311–26; Barry H. Howson, “The Eschatology of the Calvinistic Baptist John Gill (1697–1771) Examined and Compared,” Eusebeia: The Bulletin of the Jonathan Edwards Centre for Reformed Spirituality 5 (2005): 33–66.

9 For a helpful overview, see Peter Toon, “The Latter-Day Glory,” in Puritans, the Millennium and the Future of Israel: Puritan Eschatology 1600 to 1660, ed. Peter Toon (London: James Clarke, 1970), 23–41. This paragraph is indebted to Toon’s chapter.

10 Stephen G. Burnett, Christian Hebraism in the Reformation Era (1500–1660): Authors, Books, and the Transmission of Jewish Learning, Library of the Written Word 19 (Boston: Brill, 2012), 11–47; Frank E. Manuel, The Broken Staff: Judaism Through Christian Eyes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), 29–65.

11 For example, ‘Many understand this of the Jewish people, as though Paul had said, that religion would again be restored among them as before: but I extend the word Israel to all the people of God, according to this meaning, – “When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first-born in God’s family.” This interpretation seems to me the most suitable, because Paul intended here to set forth the completion of the kingdom of Christ, which is by no means to be confined to the Jews, but is to include the whole world. The same manner of speaking we find in Gal. 6:16. The Israel of God is what he calls the Church, gathered alike from Jews and Gentiles; and he sets the people, thus collected from their dispersion, in opposition to the carnal children of Abraham, who had departed from his faith.’ Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, 437. It is worth noting here that Calvin envisions a future return of Jews to belief in their Messiah (‘the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith’) even as he extends the ‘Israel of God’ to both Jews and Gentiles.

12 Iain Murray, The Puritan Hope: A Study in Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1971), 41.

13 The Bible and Holy Scriptures Conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament (Geneva: Rowland Hall, 1560), note on Rom. 11:25.

14 The Bible that is the Holy Scriptures Conteined in the Old and New Testament (London: Christopher Barker, 1599), note on Rom. 11:25.

15 Murray, The Puritan Hope, 42. Puritans like William Perkins and Hugh Broughton were influenced by this emphasis on Jewish conversion. For more, see Christopher Hill, “Till the Conversion of the Jews,” in Millenarianism and Messianism in English Literature and Thought 1650–1800, ed. Richard H. Popkin, Clark Library Lectures 1981–1982 (New York: E. J. Brill, 1988), 16–17; Murray, The Puritan Hope, 42–8.

16 John Gill, Body of Divinity, 2:261.

17 For an overview of Brightman’s thought on Rev 2–3, see Andrew Crome, The Restoration of the Jews: Early Modern Hermeneutics, Eschatology, and National Identity in the Works of Thomas Brightman (New York: Springer, 2014), 69–76.

18 Thomas Brightman, The Revelation of St. John Illustrated with Analysis and Scholions. Wherein the Sense is Opened by the Scripture: And the Events of Things Foretold, Shewed by Histories. Together with a Most Comfortable Exposition of the Last and Most Difficult Part of the Prophecy of Daniel. Wherein the Restoring of the Jews, and their Calling to the Faith of Christ, after the Utter Overthrow of their Three Last Enemies, is Set Forth in Lovely Colours (Amsterdam: Thomas Strafford, 1644), 167–77.

19 John Gill, The Glory of the Church in the Latter Day. A Sermon Preached to the Society Which Supported the Wednesday’s Evening Lecture in Great East-Cheap, December 27, 1752 (London: J. Chalmers, 1793), 15–17.

20 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:630, on Hab. 3:2.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid, 5:355, on Isa. 60:14.

23 John Ryland, The Work of Faith, the Labour of Love, and the Patience of Hope Illustrated; in the Life and Death of the Reverend Andrew Fuller (London: Button & Son, 1816), 175. Gribben likewise names Perry in Andrew Fuller, The Expository Discourses on the Apocalypse (1815), ed. Crawford Gribben, The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2022).

24 Ryland, The Work of Faith, 175. In 1810, Ryland Jr. preached at the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. ‘And I might be expected, by all who had any knowledge of my late honoured father, to enter the more readily into the views of the Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, as it may very safely be affirmed, that no minister has deceased within these twenty years who paid more eager attention, for thirty of forty years before his death, to the prophecies concerning the future conversion of the Jews, and their restoration to their own land; or who more frequently introduced that subject into the pulpit.’ John Ryland, Eight Characteristics of the Messiah, Laid Down by the Prophet Zechariah; and All Found in Jesus of Nazareth; Evinced in a Sermon Preached on Dec., 26, 1810, at the Jews’ Chapel, Church Street, Spitalfields (London: B. R. Goakman, n.d.), –4.

25 For Gill’s whole treatment of this Christ’s spiritual reign, see Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:636–44.

26 It should be noted that when it comes to Christ’s second coming and millennial reign, Gill refuses to set any dates: ‘So that it seems impracticable and impossible to know the time of the second coming of Christ; and therefore it must be vain and needless, if not criminal, to inquire into it.’ Gill, Body of Divinity, 2:242.

27 Ibid., 2:240.

28 Ibid., 2:241. Gill still expresses uncertainty with these dates given the dates in Dan. 12:11, Dan. 12:12, and the book of Revelation.

29 Gill, Body of Divinity, 2:241.

30 Gill, Old Testament, 5:354, on Isa. 60:11.

31 Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:637, 639–40.

32 Ibid., 1:638.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid., 1:639.

36 Gill, The Glory of the Church in the Latter Day, 8.

37 Ibid., 9.

38 Ibid., 22.

39 Ibid., 23.

40 For the broader conversation, see David Mark Rathel, “Was John Gill a Hyper-Calvinist? Determining Gill’s Theological Identity,” Baptist Quarterly 48, no. 1 (2017): 47–59. Rathel rightly concludes, ‘Gill’s final position  …  accords well with the theology that many of his critics label hyper-Calvinism.’ Rathel, “Was John Gill a Hyper-Calvinist?” 59. While outside the purview of this paper, any discussion of Gill’s view of the free offer of the gospel must not only reckon with Gill’s soteriology (eternal justification) but also his eschatology (the spiritual reign of Christ and the latter-day glory). Understanding Gill’s eschatological timeline helps explain, in part, why the church could be in a period of stagnancy or even decline and why missionary zeal would not take priority during Gill’s day. In describing the future spread of the gospel in Christ’s spiritual reign, Gill explains that ‘at present [the gospel] lies in a narrow compass, chiefly in the isles, very little on the continent; and in the countries where it is, it is but in few places there; but hereafter [in Christ’s spiritual reign] many will run to and fro, and knowledge, evangelical knowledge, will be increased.’ Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:637–38.

41 Gill, The Glory of the Church in the Latter Day, 23.

42 Ibid.

43 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:523, on Amos 9:14.

44 Ibid.

45 Ibid., 6:630, on Hab. 3:2. Gill believes no revival will match the thoroughness of this in the latter day.

46 Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 2:533, on Rom. 11:15.

47 Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:638.

48 Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 2:533, on Rom. 11:15.

49 Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:639. According to Gill, ‘this will be universal; all Israel will be saved, the whole nation shall be born at once.’

50 Gill, The Glory of the Church in the Latter Day, 27–28.

51 Ibid., 28.

52 Ibid., 30.

53 Ibid., 29–30.

54 Ibid., 29.

55 Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 2:538, on Rom. 11:26.

56 Ibid.

57 Joseph Mede, The Works of the Pious and Profoundly-Learned Joseph Mede, B.D. Sometime Fellow of Christ’s Colledge in Cambridge (London: Roger Norton, 1677), 892.

58 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 3:712.

59 Ibid., 3:787.

60 Ibid., 5:290.

61 Ibid., 6:569, on Mic. 4:6.

62 Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 2:533–4, on Rom. 11:15.

63 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:569, on Mic. 4:7.

64 According to Gill, Jer. 30:20 ‘respects the restoration of the Jews in the latter day, but not their old ecclesiastical polity, which shall not be established again, but their civil liberties and privileges.’ John Gill, A Collection of Sermons and Tracts (London: George Keith, 1773), 2:358.

65 Gill, Body of Divinity, 2:260.

66 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:195, on Ezek. 37:24.

67 Ibid., 6:443, on Hos. 12:9.

68 Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 3:838, on Rev. 19:7.

69 Ibid., 3:816, on Rev. 16:12.

70 Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:638.

71 Brightman, Revelation of St. John, 173.

72 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:195, on Ezek. 37:21.

73 Gill explains that ‘the Jews will be converted in the last days seems manifest from Hos. 3:5; Rom. 11:25, 26 and other places; and that they will return to their own land is suggested in abundance of prophecies, particularly in Ezek. 37:21 and Amos 9:14, 15.’ Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 3:838, on Rev. 19:7.

74 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:192, on Ezek. 37:7.

75 Ibid., 6:193, on Ezek. 37:11; cf. 5:365–66, on Isa. 62:8.

76 Ibid., 6:195–6, on Ezek. 37:25.

77 Ibid., 6:195, on Ezek. 37:22.

78 Ibid., 6:530, on Obad. 19.

79 Ibid., 6:477, on Joel 3:8.

80 ‘they were his people still, and he had a covenant-interest in them, and they in him, though in such a low estate; and which was the ground of his care of them, and concern for them, and of doing all the good things to them after mentioned; all proceeded from his covenant, and the grace of it, and their relation to him.’ Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:193, on Ezek. 37:12.

81 See David Mark Rathel, “John Gill and the History of Redemption as Mere Shadow: Exploring Gill’s Doctrine of the Covenant of Redemption,” Journal of Reformed Theology 11 (2017): 377–400.

82 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:195, on Ezek. 37:23.

83 Ibid., 6:196, on Ezek. 37:26.

84 Ibid., 5:574, on Jer. 31:18.

85 Ibid., 6:196, on Ezek. 37:28.

86 Ibid., 5:576, on Jer. 31:23.

87 Ibid., 5:353, on Isa. 60:9.

88 The Full and Final Restoration of the Jews and Israelites, Evidently set Forth to be Nigh at Hand: With their Happy Settlement in their Own Land (London: M. Cooper, 1753), 14, cited in Andrew Crome, Christian Zionism and English National Identity, 1600–1850, Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 158.

89 Lucien Wolf, ed., Manesseh ben Israel’s Mission to Oliver Cromwell: Being a Reprint of the Pamphlets Published by Manasseh ben Israel to Promote the Re-admission of the Jews to England 1649–1656 (London: Macmillan and Co., 1901), 28.

90 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 5:354, on Isa. 60:9.

91 Ibid., 5:354, on Isa. 60:10.

92 Ibid., 6:194, on Ezek. 37:14. Similar expression in Ibid., 6:196, on Ezek. 37:26.

93 Henry Finch, The Worlds Great Restauration, or The Calling of the Jewes, 2nd ed. (London: Edward Griffin, 1621), 4, cited in Nabil I. Matar, “The Idea of the Restoration of the Jews in English Protestant Thought: From the Reformation until 1660,” The Durham University Journal 78 (December 1985): 34.

94 Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:523, on Amos 9:14.

95 Ibid., 194, on Ezek. 37:12.

96 Ibid., 6:523, on Amos 9:15.

97 Ibid.

98 Stephen G. Burnett, “Jews and Judaism,” in Martin Luther in Context, ed. David M. Whitford (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 179–86; Gregory J. Miller, “The Turks,” in Martin Luther in Context, 152–9.

99 Burnett, “Jews and Judaism,” 184.

100 See Nabil I. Matar, “The Idea of the Restoration of the Jews in English Protestant Thought, 1661–1701,” Harvard Theological Review 78, no. 1–2 (January 1985): 115–48.

101 Lucien Wolf, ed., Menasseh Ben Israel’s Mission to Oliver Cromwell, 85.

102 To see the developing arguments, both for and against restoration, see Nabil I. Matar, “The Controversy over the Restoration of the Jews in English Protestant Thought: 1701–1753,” The Durham University Journal 80 (1988): 241–56.

103 See Cogley, “The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Restoration of Israel in the ‘Judeo-Centric’ Strand of Puritan Millenarianism,” 304–32.

104 So Richard W. Cogley, “‘The Most Vile and Barbarous Nation of All the World’: Giles Fletcher the Elder’s The Tartars Or, Ten Tribes (ca. 1610),” Renaissance Quarterly 58, no. 3 (Fall 2005): 798. See Samuel Lee, Israel Redux: Or the Restauration of Israel (London: John Hancock, 1677), 70–72; Thomas Weld, A Further Discovery of that Generation of Men Called Quakers (London: S. B., 1654), 12.

105 After surveying various interpretations of Gog, Gill concludes, ‘I rather think the Turk is here meant, the eastern antichrist, in whose possession the land of Judea now is; and which, when recovered by the Jews, will greatly exasperate him, and he will gather all his forces together to regain it, but in vain.’ Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 6:197, on Ezek. 38:2.

106 Ibid., 6:663, on Zeph. 3:19.

107 Ibid., 6:471, on Joel 3:2.

108 Ibid., 6:472, on Joel 3:8.

109 Matar, “Restoration of the Jews  …  Reformation until 1660,” 25.

110 Matar points to Mede’s chart showing the similarities between the apostle Paul and the Jews (‘The Mystery of S. Paul’s Conversion: or, The Type of the Calling of the Jews’), but nowhere does Mede indicate that the unconverted Jews will engage in military conflict with Turkish forces. Joseph Mede, The Works of the Pious and Profoundly-Learned Joseph Mede, B.D. Sometime Fellow of Christ’s Colledge in Cambridge (London: Roger Norton, 1677), 891–2. So Jeffrey K. Jue, Heaven Upon Earth: Joseph Mede (1586–1638) and the Legacy of Millenarianism (Dordrecht: Springer, 2006), 192.

111 Thomas Brightman, A Most Comfortable Exposition of the Last and Most Difficult Part of the Prophecie of Daniel from the 26. Verse of the 11. Chap, to the End of the 12. Chapter. Wherin the Restoring of the Iewes and their Callinge to the Faith of Christ, after the Utter Overthrow of their Three Last Enemies, is Set Forth in Livelie Coulours (Amsterdam: G. Thorp, 1635), 55.

112 For example, Samuel Lee observes that the Turks possess much of the same land as the ancient Assyrians who captured the ten northern tribes. He therefore argues that ‘Israel is to Captivate those in the latter day, that had led them Captives in former times. Now this hath never been fulfilled to this moment, and therefore rests under the veracity of God to accomplish to his Ancient People. They shall possess them in the Land of the Lord for Servants and Hand-Maids, and they shall take them Captive, whose Captives they were, and shall rule over their Oppressors.’ Lee, Israel Redux, 73–4.

113 For an overview of the various Judeo-centric views of Armageddon, see Richard W. Cogley, “The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Restoration of Israel in the ‘Judeo-Centric’ Strand of Puritan Millenarianism,” Church History 72, no. 2 (June 2003): 319.

114 Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:640.

115 Ibid.

116 Ibid.

117 So Gill, The Glory of the Church in the Latter Day, 14.

118 Giles Fletcher, Israel Redux: Or the Restauration of Israel (London: John Hancock, 1677), 23.

119 Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 3:815–6, on Rev. 16:12.

120 Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:642. Gill lists ‘Tartary, Persia, China, and the countries of the great Mogul.’ Giles Fletcher the Elder had had viewed the lost ten tribes of Israel as being his contemporaneous Tartars, whom he referred to as ‘the most vile and barbarous Nation of all the World.’ So also Gill, The Glory of the Church in the Latter Day, 17. See Cogley, “Fletcher’s Tartars.”

121 Gill, Body of Divinity, 1:642.

122 Ibid., 1:642.

123 Ibid., 1:641.

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Ivan E. Mesa

Ivan E. Mesa is a PhD candidate at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is writing a thesis on English Baptists and the Jews. He serves as editorial director for The Gospel Coalition.