FROM RABBINISM TO CHRIST
The Story of My Life
by
MAX WERTHEIMER, PH.D.Author of
“Why I Left Christian Science”
“Satan,” Etc.PRICE
Paper-Bound .......... .50
Cloth-Bound .......... $1.00Published by
WERTHEIMER PUBLICATIONS
Ada, OhioCopyright, 1934 by
Wertheimer Publications
DEDICATED TO
The eternal and intransmissible priesthood of Jesus Christ, “Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens”; and who is “able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb. 7:25, 26).
FOREWORD
Having known and loved Dr. Wertheimer for many years, I esteem it a high privilege to commend his writings.
His path from Judaism to Christian Science falsely so-called, and then to Christ Himself, has fitted Dr. Wertheimer to give expert testimony on matters concerning which God’s children in this time of spiritual darkness greatly need.
“Why I Left Christian Science” has already had wide circulation and has been greatly used of God for the warning and enlightenment of His children. I am confident that this book will be even more blessed and used in coming days if our Lord shall tarry.
A later book on “Satan” deals with a subject which is universally neglected and misunderstood, and deals with it Scripturally. Dr. Wertheimer has abundant reason for believing in the personality and reality of Satan, as will anyone else who gives Satan as much trouble as he has given him in personal conflict.
And now comes “The Story of My Life.” For a long time I have joined with other friends in urging the publication of Dr. Wertheimer’s testimony, giving the thrilling story of his conversion, first to “Christian Science” and then to Christ, and I am glad that this is now accomplished. It is almost like reading again the account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road. May God richly bless this book!
WILLIAM L. PETTINGILL.
Wilmington, Delaware, 1934.
CONTENTS
I. Childhood and Education
II. As a Rabbi
III. Perplexity
IV. In Christian Science
V. Questionings
VI. Seeking
VII. Searching the Scriptures
VIII. Finding
IX. Differences
X. My Public Confession of Christ
XI. My Wife’s Awakening
XII. My Wife Finds Christ
XIII. “Training”—Times of Testing
XIV. Witnessing
XV. Seminary Days
XVI. Ministering the Word of Life
XVII. Wider Fields
XVIII. Walking in Separation with Him
A Meditation on the Word of God
INTRODUCTION
For some years I have been urgently requested to print the story of my life, and have at last consented to do so. I write this story for only one purpose, and that is to exalt the Name and saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Omnipotent God and Father has manifold ways of dealing with those who are seeking to know Him. Let no one err in thinking that he must have these same experiences in order to be saved. “Look unto me and be ye saved” is the mind of the Lord, and that believing look is all that is necessary for the salvation of any needy soul.
I find also that God’s dealing in other lives, especially in that of my wife, at this same time, has been so inextricably bound up with my own experiences that I can not tell the story without having her relate her own—and so we have worked together on this life story, even as we have walked together for more than thirty years.
* * *
Let us read together a few verses from the 107th Psalm.
“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”The second verse of this chapter forms the basis of this testimony:
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.”
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATIONI was born on December 6, 1863, into a family of strict orthodox Jewish parents in Kippenheim, Baden, Germany. My earliest childhood impression was that of my father and mother rising early in the morning in order to spend a lengthy period reading their Hebrew prayer book. Even in winter before the fires were kindled for their own physical comfort these early devotions were faithfully carried on. (What a rebuke to us Christians who, in the full knowledge of God’s great love towards us in the Person of His Son, think first of ourselves and our own personal interests.)
Inasmuch as the Jews believe that Jesus was a false Messiah, we were taught from our earliest childhood to show disrespect to anything concerning Him. We were taught to show our utter contempt and disbelief by spitting out at the mention of His Name. We were even taught to turn our backs when a picture representing the Saviour was exhibited.
With all the defective knowledge concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, I thank God that my parents were devout and God-fearing so far as their knowledge of God was concerned.
At five years of age I was sent to a Jewish school, where for nearly ten years my training was continued in Orthodox Judaism. We read our Hebrew prayers four times each day. My father employed a scholarly Hebrew teacher to instruct me in the higher branches of Hebrew: the five books of Moses, the Pirke Ovoth, or the ethics of the fathers, which is the treatise of the Mishna.
In order to give me the advantage of classical learning, I was sent for several years to Ettenheim, about an hour’s walking distance from Kippenheim, in order to attend the Gymnasium (which course of training is equivalent to our own American High Schools).
Owing to my frail health, due to an injury received as a child, my father thought it advisable to send me from this institution of learning to the city of Strassburg,[1] Alsace-Lorraine, to fit myself for a mercantile career.
In Strassburg I was placed as an apprentice in a manufacturing plant doing office work. I also attended night school, taking a commercial course in Bookkeeping and Accounting. Companions with whom I associated led me into the pleasures of this world and its sinful practices. I indulged to the full in operas, concerts, and such worldly gayeties. Although I attended the Synagogue, and read my Hebrew prayers on Saturday or Sabbath, I was also required to work on that day. Thus early I drifted out of fellowship with the God of my fathers.
However, my desire was not along business lines but along classical lines. My health failed and I returned to my home. Fully aware that military training was compulsory in Germany, my parents decided, because of my physical condition, to send me to America where I could pursue my scholastic career.
Shortly after my arrival in Buffalo, New York, anxious to follow my studies, I began a correspondence with Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, who was president of the Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as the officiating Rabbi of the Plum Street Temple, at Cincinnati. The result of this correspondence was my matriculation in the Preparatory Course at the Hebrew Union College.
There were at that time two Rabbinical Seminaries in the United States; one in New York City which was Orthodox in its teaching; the other in Cincinnati for the training of Rabbis of the Reformed School. My entrance into this latter Seminary was a source of deep grief to my orthodox parents. Reformed Judaism was, to simple-minded orthodox Hebrew parents, the equivalent of the modernism in our so-called Christian colleges of today. My parents according to the light they possessed were simple-minded and God-fearing, but slaves, as it were, to Rabbinical laws and customs.
The Rabbinical course lasted eight years. I completed mine in seven, due to previous work. During this period I completed the required High School course and attended the University of Cincinnati from which I graduated in 1884, receiving my Bachelor of Letters degree. I also received my degree of Bachelor of Hebrew Literature in the Preparatory Course of Hebrew Union College, and four years later my Master’s degree, which was required of those wishing to qualify as Rabbi. During these years I also acted as tutor to Dr. Wise’s children, which helped me in a financial way, as well as gave me experience.
What subjects did we carry? First of all, we studied the Old Testament, of course from the Jewish standpoint. We translated the Old Testament from the Hebrew into the vernacular, we studied the history of the Jews from the times of the Hebrews to the present day, and we studied the oral laws.
Here I pause to make an explanatory remark about the oral laws of the Jews. “Oral” is not an English word, but a Latin word, from os—oris—mouth. The Jews had a saying that all laws were given to Moses to be written laws, but some were given to Moses which he was not to commit on any parchment but to transmit by mouth to a chosen few. Therefore a chosen few were the recipients of these traditions that were handed down from mouth to mouth. These traditions had a peculiar knack of increasing after the death of Moses—just like a snow ball rolling down a mountain: by the time it lands at the bottom of the mountain it is a snow ball no longer. When we think of Moses existing fifteen hundred years before Christ, plus one hundred and ninety years after Christ,[2] we can easily understand how, in such a long time, they came to lose their original meaning.
A man by the name of Rabbi Jehuda Hanasi (the Prince), also called Ha Kodesh (the Holy), seeing the bulk of these traditions were too many to be retained in the human memory, conceived the idea of committing them to writing, and he wrote down six volumes—big books. These six volumes comprise what we call the Mishna and they are all the oral traditions of the Jews committed to writing. These traditions became so sacred to the Jews that they superseded in power even the written law of Moses. Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees, “You keep the traditions of men in order that you may not keep the words of the Scriptures,” or, as in another translation, “You make of none effect the word of God in order that ye may keep the traditions of the elders,” as if they were of the greatest sanctity (Mark 7:6-13). So you see the traditions have had a great deal to do with my education. These six volumes of recorded traditions were deliberated, examined, and analyzed by the Rabbis, and the analysis and deliberation of these traditions are collected in twelve big folios called the “Gemara.” The Gemara and Mishna together are called the Talmud.
Well, we studied all that—never mind what it contained and what it didn’t contain. We also studied all the civil and criminal laws of the Jews; marriage and divorce; hermeneutics and homiletics. Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation according to the Jewish methods; homiletics is the science of preaching. It was a long course; we were glad when it was over.
After finishing the Rabbinical Course we were publicly ordained. The class consisted of nine, myself included, and the ordination took place in the Jewish Temple in Cincinnati. A number of visiting Rabbis were there. Someone gave the charge to the candidates, and the Senior Rabbi, who was the president of the Seminary, gave each one of them the Rabbinical kiss on the forehead, and the parchment or Rabbinical Diploma. Thus we were inducted into the Rabbinical office.
CHAPTER II
AS A RABBIThe first call that I received was to the Jewish Synagogue at Fourth and Jefferson Streets in Dayton, Ohio. I was there as officiating Rabbi for ten consecutive years. My income as Rabbi amounted to about $2000.00 a year, including fees from funerals and weddings.
When I entered upon the Rabbinical function at Dayton I naturally became acquainted with a number of people who played a very important part in my life—in my social life. I still prize a valuable gold watch which was given to me when I had been with the congregation about three weeks. They gave me this as a token of their friendship and appreciation. During those ten years many other tokens were given to me, and these have remained treasured possessions in our home through the years. They were good to me, and I simply mention these little things to let you know that I have nothing against the Jews. I think, commercially, they are just as shrewd as the Yankees are: my differences with them, as you will see, are on spiritual lines.
Someone may ask, “What all did you preach?” Precisely what all the other Reformed Rabbis preach today. We had Friday evening lectures and Saturday morning sermons. In my Friday evening lectures I spoke on social, industrial, and economic questions; on the burning themes of the hour—monotheism, ethical culture, and topics like these: “Is the World Getting Better?” or “The World Is Getting Better,” and lectures concerning the moral systems of the Jews. At times I had just as many Gentiles present as I had Jews. I speak advisedly: I say, Gentiles, not, Christians. There was a time I did not know the difference between a Gentile and a Christian. Be sure I know the difference today. The Jews think every Gentile is a Christian—not by a long shot! It means something to be a Christian. I make this statement because there are so many confused notions on this subject. In my Saturday morning addresses I would take weekly sections of the Pentateuch, followed by a corresponding section from the Prophets. I would also teach Sabbath School. On Sunday I would teach Sunday School, from eight in the morning to five in the evening, with one hour intermission for my dinner.
At this time I should like to relate one incident. I did not know about it at the time, of course, but the sequel is of more than passing interest. It should encourage every true child of God to pray definitely for those who walk in darkness, although they may be unaware of their need.
In November 1895, a series of meetings was held in the Christian Church, 6th and Brown Streets, Dayton. Each evening a pastor from a different church delivered an address entitled, “Why I am a Baptist,” “Why I am a Methodist,” each one according to his denomination. I spoke on Tuesday evening, November 5th, on the subject, “Why I am a Jew.” I stood before that audience composed largely of professing Christians and proudly told them why I was a Jew, why I could not and would not believe in their Christ as my Messiah and Saviour. There I stood glorying in a Reformed Judaism that acknowledged no need of an atoning sacrifice for sin, a religion of ethics which endeavored to quiet the qualms of conscience through a smug self-righteousness.
In that audience sat an humble, aged woman, a devoted Christian. She was deeply stirred as she listened to my address. “Oh, God,” she prayed, “bring Dr. Wertheimer to realize his utter need of that Saviour he so boastingly rejects. Bring him, if necessary, to the very depths in order to realize his need of my Lord Jesus Christ.”
What unseen forces were brought into action as a result of that unknown woman’s heart-cry! How perfectly satisfied was I with life as I stood before that large and interested audience. I had an attractive and accomplished young wife; was Rabbi of the B’nai Yeshorum Synagogue; had a beautiful home and a comfortable income. I occupied a place of prominence in the community; became an honorary member of the Dayton Ministerial Association; was a member of the Present Day Club; and was frequently invited to speak before Women’s Clubs, schools, civic organizations, and the like. Why should I not have been perfectly content and satisfied with my calling and position in life.
Let me say right here, I was just as sincere then as I am now, but sincerity alone cannot save a person. If you are on the right track sincerity is a very good thing, but if you are on the wrong track and sincerely stick to it you are doomed to disappointment and disillusionment.
While I was an officiating Rabbi I preached in the Raper Methodist Church in Dayton; in the Congregational Church; in several United Brethren Churches; to the students of the United Brethren Theological Seminary at Miami City, a suburb of Dayton, and in the Roman Catholic Academy when young women from my congregation were graduated.
If you had come into my library at that time, you would have found books of every description. I think that every book that Bob Ingersoll had written you would have found there, not for decoration or ornamental purposes but for educational reasons. I read his books and corresponded with the author. I was attracted to his writings and read them avidly.
One day I heard that Bob Ingersoll was to speak in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is a distance of fifty-two miles from Dayton. The instant I heard that he was to be there and deliver a lecture in the Grand Opera House, I made it my one aim to hear him. I attended his lecture. The affair cost me ten dollars. Someone will say, “What did you want to spend ten dollars for, just to hear Bob Ingersoll?” Because early in my college life I had been influenced by a motto that I had seen in an Independent paper. I took that motto for my own. This is the motto: “Hear the other side.” I have a better motto now. But that one played a great part in my life. I was willing to pay ten dollars to hear what the other side had to say. Mr. Ingersoll’s deliberations were theoretical. There was nothing tangible on which to stand.
One day in conversation with the secretary of my congregation, this discussion ensued: “Rabbi, you ought to be a better mixer.” I thought probably he was talking of whiskey or cocktails, and I said: “What do you mean?” “I don’t mean mixing what you are thinking of, I mean mixing among people—the Gentiles.” I said: “I have no prejudice against the Gentiles, I went to High School with the Gentiles; I went to the University with Gentile boys and girls; I am not prejudiced.” He did not want to speak plainly on the subject, but finally blurted out: “Why not join the lodge?” “That is where I draw the line,” I said. “I, as a conscientious Jew, cannot join the lodge.” “Why not?” he said. “You have to believe on Jesus Christ.” “The lodge I belong to does not require you to believe on Jesus Christ; I am a member of the Masonic Lodge.” “You may hand in my name,” I said. Consequently I became a member of the Masonic Lodge, and served as chaplain.
During the later years of my Rabbinate I was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Affelder, the cultured and attractive daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Affelder of Peru, Indiana. My wife was musically inclined, being a concert pianist and an accomplished organist. We often went to hear dramatic performances, musical symphonies and oratorios. We lived very happily together, having a large comfortable home, two servants, and a beautiful baby boy. All of a sudden, however, there came a change.
My wife took sick, very seriously ill. I called the family physician. He himself could not cope with the case and I called in other physicians. Later I called a specialist from Indianapolis to see her and diagnose her case. But he could do her no good. After three months my wife died, leaving me a widower with two children, the oldest one, Lester, two and a half years, and a baby girl, Rose, aged three months.
Her death occurred on October 27, 1897. We had lived together a little over three and one-half years. She was about twenty-two years of age. We buried her in her wedding gown. After the funeral the great question that confronted me was this: “What shall I do; shall I give up keeping house or shall I board?” I gave my baby Rose into the care of my wife’s mother. For the sake of the little boy I thought we ought to have some semblance, some appearance of a home. I advertised in the paper for a housekeeper.
One of the first who answered the advertisement was a refined lady of about fifty-five or sixty years of age. I thought she, being matronly inclined, might be of benefit to my child. I engaged her as housekeeper. May I describe to you a little scene at supper? There were three of us in the dining room. The usual stillness of the house under such circumstances can be better imagined than pictured. There was the housekeeper, the little boy sitting in a high chair, and myself opposite. Up speaks the little boy: “Papa, where is mamma?” I didn’t say anything. The little fellow left his high chair, walked to the front staircase, and called: “Mamma, mamma! come down, supper ready.” But mamma did not come down. (Won’t you breathe a prayer for the motherless boys who have never known a mother’s love from infancy?)
My housekeeper proved to be a very religious woman. Sometime later, while seated at the dining table, she said to me, all of a sudden: “Doctor, if your wife had had Christian Science treatment she would not have died.” I said, “What? Christian Science treatment?” “Why, yes. Don’t you know what Christian Science treatment is? I always carry with me little leaflets,” and she gave me a Christian Science leaflet. I saw some printed matter, glanced over it and put it aside. She said, “Of course, if you are really interested, I have other leaflets.” Then she gave me a pamphlet, next a booklet, then a big book to read, and before I knew it I had Christian Science for breakfast, dinner, and supper. This, then, gives you an idea how Christian Science came into my home.
I need not tell you I was miserable and unhappy after my domestic calamity. I could not sleep. I simply walked the streets trying to forget the void, the vacancy in my life and heart, walking the streets from day to day. I would walk miles into the country simply for the purpose of becoming so tired and exhausted that I might sleep when I returned home. Have you ever been like this—tired out bodily but the sleep wouldn’t come, sleepy but could not sleep? We call that insomnia. For many months I suffered from this malady.
One afternoon as I was walking down Main Street, a man old enough to be my father—a very tall man—stopped me on the street. That man had been a Judge on the bench. He was a well educated, refined gentleman, and, I believe, a member of the Presbyterian Church. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he said: “Rabbi, I am so sorry for the domestic affliction that has befallen you; now, if you don’t mind coming to my house tonight I think I can brace you up. I have some comfort to offer you.” I said, “All right.” I went to the Judge’s house that night. He took me from his house to a Spiritualistic Seance. He said: “Twenty years ago my baby girl died. I was so miserable I did not know what to do. A man stepped up to me just as I have stepped up to you, and putting his hand on my shoulder, he said: ‘You can hear your girl speak to you; she is not dead.’” Thus this former Dayton Judge introduced me to the Spiritualistic Seance.
Now, I saw and heard many strange things in these seances. I went again and again and again. I heard them speak in tongues. I heard them scream and yell. I heard them use all sorts of incantations; I saw them impersonate, saw them mesmerize; I saw them even appear in visions. Let me go back to the very first night; after the first seance was over, the Judge and I walked part of the way home together. I arrived home with a lot of conflicting feelings. I locked the door and went upstairs. In my room there was also the bed where my little boy slept. After kissing the boy goodnight I turned off the gas, and retired. No sooner had my head touched the pillow, than round about my bed I heard raps and noises. “What’s that?” I said. “Stop!” I cried. But the more I said “Stop!” the worse the raps grew. This continued not only for a few hours but for nights, weeks, and months, making the nights hideous. And yet I was an officiating Rabbi.
My housekeeper occupied a room at the opposite end of the hall. She said to me a few days later, “Doctor, did you hear anything in the night?” I said, “What?” She said, “Do you know, Doctor, the last few nights I thought I heard someone walking upstairs. I could hear the rustle of her dress; a young woman stepping very lightly, coming from the front staircase, walking upstairs, through the hall and then to the back staircase and down; and then walking from the dining room, repeating this process again and again. Although I am a Christian Scientist I have not had nerve enough to demonstrate. I brought this iron club along. I couldn’t demonstrate over it, you see.” I was a little bit hard of hearing, so I hadn’t heard any of that, she heard it all. This put our house into a topsy-turvy state.
My dream of a successful career, with a serene domestic life, had been suddenly shattered. Where was my comfort to be found? When I cried to the God of my Fathers, the heavens were as brass. How could I officiate as Rabbi and speak words of comfort to others, when my own sorrow had brought me to the verge of despair? My investigation of the tenets of Spiritism had convinced me of its utter fallacy. But my fevered mind was driven to seek an answer to my heart-cry—“Where, oh, where was peace and comfort to be found?” Surely there must be some surcease for my sorrowing soul! I attended meetings of a Theosophical Society, read their literature, only to find an aching void.
Could that little old lady of the Christian Church meeting have had but one glimpse of my broken, hungry heart, surely she would have seen the first part of her prayer answered: “Lord, if necessary, bring him down to the depths, that he might see his need of Thee.” My experience at that time could be likened to Job, when he cried, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope” (Job 7:6).
CHAPTER III
PERPLEXITYThe ten years of my Rabbinical office were drawing to a close. I decided not to accept a re-election and sent in my resignation. I stepped down and out. My purpose was to think. I had plenty of time to think now, and to study, and, would you believe it—I began to study on topics I never thought of studying before. I would study about the things of the here-after. I was thinking, “What has become of the spirit and soul of one who was such a gifted concert pianist, one who gave charm and music in the home, who made life sweet? Where is that lovely countenance? What has become of all the faculties, the intents and purposes of that active mind? Where, where is she?” You see, my mind was attracted from the things of earth to the here-after. Well, I began to study in the Bible here and there about Judaism, but it didn’t quite answer the cravings of my heart.
The housekeeper laid on my study table the book, “Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy. I began to read, and I found that they had a motto, “Hear, O Israel! The Eternal our God, the Eternal is one.” I said, “This is like Reformed Judaism pure and simple; that is what they believe in.” Then I noticed as I read and studied in “Science and Health,” that they healed the sick. “Now,” I said, “if my life could be some sort of benefit to suffering humanity, it would be of some purpose.”
CHAPTER IV
IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCEIn my troubled state of mind Christian Science came as an answer to some of my questions. Had not our housekeeper assured me that Christian Science treatment would have restored my dear wife to me? Now she was gone, but at least I would have something to offer to others who were on the verge of losing their loved ones.
I began conscientiously to study “Science and Health” as well as “Miscellaneous Writings.” In fact I read everything Mrs. Eddy had published, and which it was possible for me to procure. I believed I had found the answer to all my questions, and I accepted everything from her pen as if it had been inspired of God.
Now there faced me a perplexing situation—that of confessing my new-found faith. What would it mean in my home city where I had been a respected Rabbi for ten years; where I counted my friends among the Jews, Gentiles, and Christians, as well? The association with my Jewish parishioners had been most pleasant and gratifying. In 1900 the followers of Christian Science in Dayton were a small, unimportant group, nevertheless I felt that there was but one alternative, and that was publicly to cast in my lot with theirs. Never shall I forget that Wednesday night when in their weekly testimony meeting I publicly accepted Christian Science teaching. What a furor it aroused! Not only the Dayton newspapers, but the press all over the country gave it wide publicity.
Before I leave that Wednesday evening meeting, however, I must refer to another incident of importance. I had a Gentile friend in Dayton, whom I had known for some years, Mr. George A. Jewell. Mr. Jewell had been interested in Christian Science for some time because of the claims it made of bodily healing. His youngest daughter, Ruby, was attending Steele High School at this time. The family had for some years been members of the Trinity Reformed Church. It was a source of real embarrassment to Ruby when her father became interested in Christian Science. This new cult did not enjoy a popular following in those days, and this girl, who craved the plaudits of the world, was exceedingly antagonistic to her father’s friendly attitude toward this new religious system.
On this Wednesday Mr. Jewell had urgently requested his daughter to attend this testimony meeting, assuring her that one of the well known educators of Dayton would that night publicly confess his faith in the tenets of Christian Science. Ruby attended the meeting out of curiosity, rather than in deference to her father’s wishes. As she listened to my address, many conflicting thoughts raced through her mind. “How could it be possible for a man of Dr. Wertheimer’s intelligence to really find anything worth while in this new and unknown religion? But surely there must be something in it, or Dr. Wertheimer would not take such a stand.” At the close of that meeting this young woman was introduced to the man whose influence should prove to be of greater import in her life than that of any other individual.
When a very young girl the first wedding ceremony that Ruby had ever seen had been in the Jewish Synagogue with myself officiating. She had heard the whispers before the entrance of the bridal party, “Here comes the Rabbi’s wife,” and looking down from her seat in the gallery, she had seen that young attractive wife walk slowly down the aisle. How dainty and pretty she was in her long flowing gown!
Years later I learned how this girl’s heart was stirred when in just a few short years after seeing that wedding, they had said, “The Rabbi’s wife is dead.” A few months after that another member of her family returning from a car ride had announced, “We saw such a pitiful sight tonight as we rode on the electric car from the Soldiers’ Home. We saw Dr. Wertheimer looking so sad and lonely, with his little boy asleep in his arms.” Does it not seem strange that this young, carefree girl, whom they called “Butterfly,” should have felt such deep sympathy for one whom she had never met until that Wednesday night at the close of the testimony meeting?
Of course I received many letters as a result of the publicity following my public acceptance of Christian Science. This marked the beginning of a correspondence between the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and myself. She was at that time living in Concord, New Hampshire. She directed me to go under the instruction of one of her greatest students, Mr. Edward A. Kimball of Chicago. Mrs. Eddy paid the tuition, which was one hundred dollars, and my railroad fare both ways. I went through a class with twenty-five students. While studying with Mr. Kimball, I went to the Drexel Boulevard Science Church in Chicago.
Later I returned to Dayton and began the practice of Christian Science. Sometime later I received another letter from Mrs. Eddy, this time summoning me to come to Boston and enter the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, of which Mrs. Eddy herself was the president and Mr. Kimball of Chicago the teacher. She again paid the fare as well as the tuition. We studied how to demonstrate over malicious animal magnetism and demonology, class teaching and things of that nature. I went through two such series and they gave me a certificate of C. S. B.
A short time after again returning to Dayton I became the First Reader in the Second Church of Christ, Scientist. Later on I served as First Reader of the First Church, Scientist; also introduced lecturers on the platform and taught Christian Science. I contributed to the Christian Science Weekly and Quarterly and wrote articles on this subject for the Dayton Evening Herald every week. Mrs. Eddy said she designed me as one of the future members of the Board of Christian Science Lecturers.
And now I want to enlarge upon one of the incidents relative to that Wednesday night meeting in which I publicly accepted Christian Science. How far-reaching is the influence of our lives upon the lives of others whether for good or for evil. Could we but see, in the light of eternity, the impression we are making upon the lives and conduct of others who are unconsciously watching us, how carefully would we order our steps.
As I have previously stated, Ruby Jewell, although antagonistic to Christian Science, was present at that service in which I played so large a part. She had confidence in my judgment of the truth or error of Christian Science, even though our personal acquaintance had not occurred until that night. She left that meeting convinced that there must be something in it or why would I take such a stand. If I could see anything in it, surely it must be all right.
Up to this time, although a member of the Reformed Church, her life apart from her high school studies had been spent in a constant whirl of social pleasure. How alluring was the dance and the card table! Surely nothing could be quite so thrilling. But now she was greatly impressed by the claims of Christian Science. She would conscientiously apply herself to become a sincere follower of its teaching, and so she willingly gave up her worldly, social career.
In those early days, its teachers and students lacked the tact and judgment which characterize many of its followers and exponents today. To those within “the inner circle,” marriage was frowned upon as not being the most conducive environment for making successful demonstrations. In Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Questions and Answers,” we read, “Which is better, marriage, or celibacy?” She answers, “Celibacy, nevertheless for this present time ‘suffer it to be so now.’” An indelible impression was made upon the mind of Miss Jewell. She was going to be a full-fledged Scientist, and she informed her father that as far as she was concerned, marriage was taboo. Mr. Jewell, regardless of his interest in Christian Science, felt that a woman’s place was in the home. In his dilemma he consulted me, and asked if I would not endeavor to prove to Ruby that she was becoming too extreme in thus allowing the teachings of Christian Science to mold her life and conduct.
I soon discovered that this woman had a mind of her own. Through hearing my testimony her opposition to Christian Science had been broken down, and she had begun to study the subject herself. Now that she had accepted its teaching, she was going to follow out the premise to its logical conclusion. She thought, “If there is no life, truth, intelligence, or substance in matter, why should one crave for the fellowship and union of the marriage relationship? Why should a man and woman be instrumental in bringing into the world more matter in the form of a helpless babe? That would simply be more matter over which to demonstrate, and to deny that it really existed. Human sympathy,” she argued, “is erroneous. If a little child comes to its mother with a cut finger, that mother should not sympathize with the child, for in so doing she is acknowledging an error which does not exist.” This high school girl had become my Christian Science student, and although in her late teens, our discussions certainly gave me plenty of food for thought. As she heard of the magnificent Christian Science Churches that were being erected in the larger cities, she wondered why such lavish expenditures should be made on these structures. Why, when matter didn’t exist, should these folks seek to make such an impression on the people of the world? Why did the women, who occupied the position of First or Second Reader in these churches, bedeck themselves with magnificent diamonds, which didn’t really exist?
I think she rather put to shame those who claim a living, personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet are unwilling to make Him Lord of their lives by separating from that world system which has ever been at enmity with Him (John 15:19; James 4:4). She had come out of the world and its pleasures because she was sure she had found the truth. But she had become enmeshed in a web of thought from which only the power of God could ever deliver her.
I was successful along one line, however. I finally convinced my young friend that I needed her “spiritual love,” and after a courtship of about eighteen months, Miss Ruby Jewell and I were united in wedlock on July 10, 1902. On the following Sunday morning, when we entered the church, I was congratulated in the following manner, “Doctor, I hope you will give birth to many spiritual ideas.” Could that friend today meet our three husky sons, Paul, Max, and Joe, and devoted daughter Grace, he would be satisfied that they are vastly more than mere “spiritual ideas.”
Another whose friendship and encouragement meant so much to me in those days was an elderly woman who had been a devoted Christian Scientist for fifteen years. This woman exerted a marked influence over my life at that time. She was a most noble as well as cultured woman. What delightful hours I spent in her lovely home and extensive library. Happy were the hours of fellowship that she, my wife, and I spent together. One day while in conversation she confided, “Doctor, I want to tell you that in all these years I have been in Christian Science I have never been able to heal a single case of sickness.”
CHAPTER V
QUESTIONINGSThis assertion startled me and set me to thinking. Was I not just as conscientious as my friend? I must face the issue. I, too, had been troubled because I did not find any remarkable cures among those who came to me for healing. I was convinced of one fact however, that if a woman of the integrity of my friend, who had been a devout and intelligent student of Christian Science for so long, had never had a single case of healing while others were making the most extravagant statements as to their success as healers, “Then,” I thought to myself, “there is a screw loose somewhere.” I determined to find it out.
This caused me no end of heart searching and grief at the time. But how gracious was the dealing of our Father God in my life. Had I been “successful” in my “demonstrations,” I might have gone on complacently unaware of the error into which I had fallen. Again I want to impress upon my reader the fact of my sincerity, but to what dangers and extremes a mistaken sincerity can lead us! How often do we hear it said, “As long as we are sincere, that is all that matters.” Indeed the prophets of Baal were absolutely sincere as they cried out that day on Mt. Carmel, “O Baal, hear us.” They wanted Baal to send down fire to consume their sacrifice and prove that he was the true God, but no fire fell, and they were destroyed. Mistaken sincerity!
Never shall I cease to be grateful for this apparent lack of success. My motto of college years served me well at this crisis: “Hear the other side.” I had accepted Christian Science with all the ardor of my soul, and had conscientiously followed its teachings. I had without reservation accepted Mrs. Eddy’s interpretation of the Scriptures. Now I thought, “Why not allow those Scriptures to speak for themselves.” “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine (or teaching), whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17). I made up my mind to allow God to speak to me out of His Word. I was reminded of the little girl whose mother was “spiritually” interpreting God’s Word to her child. Looking up into the mother’s face the little one said, “Mother, if God didn’t mean what He said, why didn’t He say what He meant?” I had at last reached that place. I came to Him in my utter helplessness, and for once I was ready to “hear His side,” and come what may, I would obey Him at any cost. I knew only too well what it meant to disregard public opinion—would not the charge of turn-coat be heaped upon my head? But I would walk in the way of His choosing if only He would give to my heart and mind His complete revelation.[3]
At this time there occurred an incident for which I was wholly unprepared. There lived in Dayton an aged Hebrew Christian, Moses Nye. How that old man had suffered because of his simple faith in Christ as Israel’s rejected Messiah! But what cared he as long as he could witness to others, both Jew and Gentile, the story of redemption. Surely that man’s prayers had much to do with my own conversion, though I did not know it then. In my diary of Wednesday, April 29, 1903, I find that Moses Nye attended a testimony meeting at the First Church of Christ, Scientist. After testifying to the saving power of the Lord Jesus he was forcibly ejected, and was arrested. “This episode will be the turning point in my career.” (Quotation from my diary.)
CHAPTER VI
SEEKINGOne night as I returned home down-hearted, melancholy, and perplexed, I went to my room, locked the door, and went down on my knees. I cannot quote the very words that escaped from my lips. I must have given expression to words like these: “O God, if there is anything crooked in Christian Science, reveal it to me.” As I was down on the floor, crushed, a failure, two thoughts came to my mind: the holiness of God, and my own wretched and discordant condition. Often in the Temple I had preached on the holiness of God and the wretchedness of somebody else; but this time it gripped me. Mind you, I saw no vision; I heard no voice. The thoughts came this way: “How can I, wretched as I am, ever stand before that God Who is so Holy, before Whom sinless angels have to veil their faces?”
As I was meditating on this, there came into my mind a line from Mrs. Eddy’s writings: “The blood of Jesus, when it was shed on the accursed tree, had no more power to cleanse from sin, than when it was flowing in his own veins, as he went daily about his Father’s business.” (Chapter on Atonement and Eucharist.) As I thought of this statement, an Old Testament scene came to my mind. I saw no vision, I heard no voice. This was the scene: When the Children of Israel were in Egypt as slaves, plague upon plague came upon Egypt, and yet Israel remained in slavery until God said to Moses: “Moses, tell every family to take a lamb without blemish, without spot, and kill that lamb—shed the blood of that lamb and sprinkle it upon the door posts of the house, the two side posts and on the upper door post. I will pass through Egypt this night to judge Egypt and its gods, but when I see the blood I will pass over you.” I said to myself, “Then this is the way the Children of Israel got out of Egypt. God makes something of the blood. Mrs. Eddy says the blood is a false belief of mortal mind, a lie, nothing, only a delusion. ‘When I see the blood’—God does not say, ‘When I see you demonstrate Christian Science,’ but ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over you’” (Ex. 12:12, 13).
A second Old Testament scene came to my mind. The judicial laws, including the Ten Commandments, are declared in Exodus twenty to twenty-three, but, there was no covenant relationship established between the holy Jehovah and Israel until God said to Moses, “Take oxen and bring them as burnt-offerings to the Lord,” as you find recorded in Exodus twenty-four. He was commanded to kill these oxen and take the blood of the oxen in two big basins; one basin of blood he sprinkled upon the temporarily constructed altar and the twelve pillars of stone, and the other basin of blood he sprinkled upon the people in front of him and upon the document or scroll, which he held in his own hand. When the sprinkling of the blood was over, God entered thus into covenant relationship with Israel. I said to myself, “God makes something of the blood.” Mrs. Eddy says, “Blood is a belief of mortal mind; it is error, a delusion; it is nothing.”
While still in meditation, a third Old Testament scene came to my mind. I heard no voice; I saw no vision. This was of the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. “How did he enter?” I wondered. “Did he take a Turkish bath, a Russian bath, and anoint himself with aromatic perfumes? Did he bring with him a beautiful bouquet to offer to God? No. If he had entered the Holy of Holies that way he would have been a dead man; that isn’t the way to come into God’s presence. No, sir. He had to bring the blood of his own substitutional sin-offering from a ceremonially clean bullock . . . and that blood he brought into the Holy Place and sprinkled it on the veil that separated the sanctuary from the Holy of Holies. Then, and not until then, was he allowed to lift the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. He took that blood and sprinkled it in the Holiest of Holies on the east of the Mercy Seat once and seven times before it. Upon the sprinkling of the blood upon the Mercy Seat came the voice of Jehovah, “I have pardoned thee according to thy word,” and I said, “God makes something of the blood.” Mrs. Eddy says “that blood is a belief of mortal mind; it is error, delusion; it is nothing.”
Then, there came an impression to me that I tried to dispel from my mind. It was Calvary’s Cross. The reason I tried to shut my mind to it was because of my Jewish prejudices against the Cross. Due to my Hebrew upbringing I had no use for the sacrifice of the cross to begin with. When I came into Christian Science I believed on Jesus Christ as the greatest Prophet of Israel, as the Great Way Shower, but not as the only begotten Son of God Who came into this world to pay the penalty of the sin of the world by the shedding of His sinless blood. Consequently I thought to myself, “To believe on Him Who hung on that Cross would be contrary to the Word of God as recorded in Jeremiah 17:5 where it states: ‘Cursed be the man that trusteth in man.’” I considered the One Who hung on the Cross as a mere man, not as the God-appointed Sacrifice for sin (John 3:16). So I reasoned that to believe on Him I would be under a curse.
CHAPTER VII
SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURESI began to study in the New Testament, and to compare it with the Old Testament here and there. Many passages were read, studied, and meditated upon. One of the passages that made a very colorful impression on me, was a verse in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. It may be some would not have thought of stopping to analyze that verse. It was the eleventh verse, the last clause: “By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” Now, here is the only mention of that word “my righteous servant”; it is found no where else in the Word of God, neither in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament. We have for instance, “David, my servant”; “Moses, my servant”; “Isaiah, my servant”; “Daniel, my servant”; but here it is “My righteous servant.” “Righteous” is attached to Jehovah’s servant, so I said: “Who is that righteous servant? To whom does it refer?” Of course I knew what the Jewish thought on that subject was, for I had been educated in a Rabbinical Seminary. They say the “righteous servant” is Israel. They certainly do not have a very bad opinion of themselves. And so I said: “Is the ‘righteous servant’ Israel?”
“Isaiah must have been a great man,” I thought. “The book of Isaiah has sixty-six chapters. I think this is the longest prophetic utterance of any kind. I wonder how it begins.” I went back to the first chapter and read: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores” (Isa. 1:2-6). I said to myself, “This is the description of a leper, full of leprosy. Whoever that ‘righteous servant’ of Jehovah is, of one thing I am sure, he can never be Israel.” Why not? He declares Israel to be a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a leprous nation. A leper could never be righteous—the righteous servant of Jehovah. The righteous servant of Jehovah is one that is Holy. If it isn’t Israel, who could it be? I though it must be Isaiah. I began to read the sixth chapter of Isaiah (verses 1-5): “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, exalted and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: ... and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah, after seeing this vision of the holiness of God, cried: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Whoever that righteous servant of Jehovah is, he can never be Isaiah, for he confesses himself to be a guilty sinner and a man of unclean lips in God’s holy sight. I know it isn’t Israel; I know it isn’t Isaiah.
“My righteous servant”—who could he be? I went back again to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and began to study the context, and I said: “I wonder what is in the chapters around this fifty-third chapter,” and I just turned the page and began to read in Isaiah fifty: “Thus said Jehovah .... is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness.” I asked myself, “At whose rebuke is the sea dried up? It says here, ‘Thus saith Jehovah.’ Jehovah is the only speaker. It is at the rebuke of Jehovah that the sea is dried up.” I asked myself, “Who maketh the rivers a wilderness? Jehovah is the only one speaking in the chapter. It is Jehovah that maketh the rivers a wilderness, or that drieth up the rivers.” “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.” I asked myself, “‘Who clothes the heavens with blackness’? It is Jehovah. Who makes ‘sackcloth their covering’? It is Jehovah speaking. It is Jehovah Who makes sackcloth the covering of the heavens.”
In Isaiah fifty, six, I read, “I gave my back to the smiters.” I said to myself, “Who gave His back to the smiters? ‘Thus saith Jehovah,’ Jehovah is the only speaker. Jehovah gave His back to the smiters. Has Jehovah a back? Was that back ever smitten? If so, when?”
Reading further: I gave “my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair,” and I asked myself, “Who gave His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair? It says at the beginning of the chapter, ‘Thus saith Jehovah.’ Jehovah is the only speaker all through this chapter. It is Jehovah who gave His cheeks to them. Has Jehovah a cheek? Has Jehovah hair? If so, who plucked off the hair?”
I read, “I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” I asked myself, “Who did not hide His face from shame and spitting? Why it says here, ‘Thus saith Jehovah!’ It is Jehovah that hid not His face from shame and spitting. Was Jehovah’s face spit upon? Was Jehovah’s face put to shame? If so, when?”
These are some of the questions that confronted me. I studied more and more, various prophetic utterances. I studied them over and over again. Among the prophetic utterances that I read was one in Daniel the seventh chapter, the thirteenth verse: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Here the prophet is speaking of the Son of Man Whom he saw in heaven! In Psalm 110:1 it is written, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” In Matthew 22:42-46 is our Lord’s last question to the Pharisees, “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.” Here then we find that David himself, in speaking of his own seed according to the flesh, calls Him “Lord,” which in the Hebrew is the equivalent of Jehovah. And He is the same one whom Daniel in his prophetic vision calls the “Son of man” in heaven.
All this is in the Old Testament! I began to read Ezekiel, which is a contemporary of Daniel. I read from the first chapter, the twenty-sixth verse: “And above the firmament that was over the heads of the cherubim was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above it.” Ezekiel, like Daniel, saw in prophetic vision the Son of Man in glory. In reading over Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand,” these questions came to me: “How did He get up there? Why didn’t God specify? Why didn’t He speak to Israel so plainly that the Jews could understand?” I went back again to the beginning of Isaiah, and read and read until I came to the ninth chapter. I read these words: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” I said, “What’s that! A babe is going to be born, is going to be called ‘mighty God’; can I trust my eyes?” I read from the Hebrew Scriptures: “A babe is called ‘The mighty God’—El Gibbor”—mighty God, not mighty hero, as some translate that word, but mighty God! Unto us a babe is to be given called “The everlasting Father,” “The Prince of Peace.” “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” “Oh, I see! I see! I see! ‘The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.’ Now,” I asked myself, “if that is the case, then why didn’t Jehovah say plainly that He would come down from heaven and shed His blood, so that we could understand; so that every Jew could understand it? Why didn’t He say it?” I asked myself, “Now, Wertheimer, are you sure that He didn’t say it?” I read next in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, verses twenty-five to twenty-seven: “And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which Jehovah will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s passover.”
“Oh, well,” we might say, “we just had a little lamb that we killed, and we sprinkled the blood all over the door.” “Oh, no; that ceremony typified the Sacrifice of Jehovah. It is the sacrifice of Jehovah’s passover. My! My!” I exclaimed, and the light began to dawn upon me. “Jehovah ‘passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.’”
Why did the people bow their heads and worship? Because of the overwhelming, stupendous thought that Jehovah would condescend to come down and become the sacrifice! And because the Jews refused to tell this to their children, this is why they never recognized the Messiah when He did come.
Then I read the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters of Leviticus. Therein we have the ritual of the Atonement Day. In those chapters Jehovah is speaking to Moses. We read: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” Jehovah is the speaker here. “I (Jehovah) have given it (the blood) to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.” (For it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life.)
I used to think that meant turning over a new leaf. No! No! It is the blood of Jehovah that makes atonement for the soul. I had thought a little act of charity would make atonement for the soul. No, sir! It is the blood of Jehovah. I used to repeat the popular phrase, “Do the best you can, make as many resolutions as you can.” No! No! It is the blood of Jehovah that makes atonement for the soul. I had it in black and white in the Old Testament!
Now, another question stared me in the face. “If it be true that He Who was on the Cross was Jehovah, then who was in heaven? If God was on the cross, who was in heaven? The Jews have a watchword which they repeat all through their lives. If a dying Jew cannot repeat it, ten Jews stand around the couch and repeat it seven times as the soul departs: “Hear, O Israel, the Jehovah our God, the Jehovah is One.” I am going to repeat it in Hebrew, in order to call attention to one word of Hebrew, and I trust it will remain printed upon the tablet of your memories: “Sh’ma, Israel, Adonai, Eloheynu, Adonai, Echod.” Echod is the word. Echod is one. Upon that word the unity of God is rooted and grounded; the entire philosophy of Judaism rests upon that word. We were taught by the Rabbis, and have been taught for ages that that word echod means absolute unity, and I always took it for granted that it meant absolute unity. Now I could not believe it. I began to study it. I found that the word echod in the Hebrew does not mean an absolute unity, but a composite unity.
I want to give you two or three illustrations where that word echod occurs. For instance: God created Adam and Eve, and the two became one flesh. The Hebrew word for ‘one flesh’ is bosor Echod. Instead of being an absolute unity it is a composite unity. The composite unity is the opposite of absolute unity. Composite means composed of more than one.
Moses, in order to stop criticism, and at the permission of God, sent twelve spies into the Promised Land, then awaited their return. When they returned, you remember, they brought back fruit of the land. They brought pomegranates and figs; they also brought a gigantic cluster of grapes, so heavy that it had to be carried on a stick between two men. That cluster of grapes is called in Hebrew “Eschol-Echod.” Yet how many berries were on that branch? There may have been a few hundred, or a thousand. It could not have been an absolute unity. Those thousands of berries are called an Eschol-Echod, “One cluster.”
I will give you the third illustration. When there was an uprising of the tribe of Dan, and they assembled, their carnalities disgraced the God of Jehovah and His Name and Character. The other tribes rose up and consulted Jehovah as to who should go forth first to fight the tribe of Dan, and God said: “Let the tribe of Judah go first.” This is the word I want you to see. At that time the tribe of Judah, composed of seven hundred thousand fighting men, stood up as “one man”—Ish Echod in Hebrew. Here again the word Echod is a composite unity of seven hundred thousand men. They acted as “one man.” Then Echod must not be an absolute unity. I said, “If that is the case, there must be more than one Jehovah!”
I looked at the eighteenth chapter of Genesis. When Abraham received three visitors dressed like men, two were angels, and the third was addressed fourteen times as Jehovah. In other words, Jehovah came there in human form accompanied by two angels in human form. After Abraham had entertained these three messengers, two of them went away, and Abraham communed with the third, who was Jehovah. This person then says to Abraham, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? I am going down now (to Sodom and Gomorrah) and see whether they have done altogether according to the report of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. I am going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.” And Abraham interceded with Jehovah to save the cities, saying, “If there be fifty righteous men, wilt thou destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?” And Jehovah said, “No, if there are fifty righteous men, I will spare the place for their sakes”.... “Then,” said Abraham, “suppose you find only thirty righteous men, would you destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?” “If there are thirty, Sodom and Gomorrah shall stand.” Abraham was not quite sure whether he could find thirty or not, and asked, “Suppose there should be twenty, would you destroy them?” “No, sir.” “Suppose you could find ten, would you destroy them?” “No, sir. For the sake of ten righteous men, Sodom and Gomorrah shall not be destroyed.” The Lord went His way and Abraham went back home. In the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, we find Jehovah inspecting the moral condition of Sodom and Gomorrah. Ten righteous men could not be found, therefore the cities must be destroyed.
In the same chapter of Genesis we have these words in the twenty-fourth verse: “Then the Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Jehovah out of heaven.” Why, there was one Jehovah walking the streets of Sodom and there was another Jehovah in heavenly places! Are there not two Jehovahs? Why, bless your soul, there are three Jehovahs. When the Aaronic High Priest blessed Israel on the Day of Atonement, he said, “Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee: Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Why, then, do they sing, “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah”? I see! I have it now! Jehovah the Father; Jehovah the Son; Jehovah the Holy Ghost. The three are compositely One. So there could be the man, Jehovah on the cross, the invisible Jehovah on the throne in heaven, and Jehovah the Holy Spirit as their executive.[4]
CHAPTER VIII
FINDINGI was confronted with another difficulty: “Why is it that the name of Jesus is never mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures?” I began to study on that subject and found that two hundred and seventy-five years before Christ, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek by the order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, the great king of Egypt. It was during his administration that he summoned men from Palestine and had them placed in seventy rooms, so the tradition says, and gave them the Hebrew Scriptures to be translated into the vernacular of Greek. So they took the five books of Moses and translated them into the Greek. When they came to the book of Joshua they translated it the “Book of Yesous.” It is written with a circumflex over it, and when thus written it shows there has been a suppression of Hebrew which could not be expressed in the Greek. Yes, that is the way it reads in the Greek—not “Jesus” but Yesous, for Jesus is a Greek word. I said to myself, “What does that word Joshua mean?” You will remember that before Joshua went into the promised land with the other eleven spies he was called Yehoshua (Numbers 13:16). What does that word Yehoshua mean? “Jehovah is the Saviour.” And that is exactly what Jesus means. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hast made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). I said, “Lord, I believe that thou, O Lord, as Jehovah Yesous hast made the atonement for me! I believe that Jehovah Yesous died for me! I believe that Thou hast made provision for me! I believe that Thou hast the ability to do it! From now on I am going to publicly confess Jehovah Yesous as my Saviour and Lord!”
Thus after weeks and months of searching I was convinced that Jehovah indeed gave His back to the smiters, and was spit upon. “And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified .... And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.” “Because Christ also suffered for us, ... Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray” (I Peter 2:21-25; cf. Isaiah 50; Isa. 53).
“By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities .... Because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa. 53:11, 12). Verily, Jehovah Jesus is the “righteous servant,” Jehovah-tsidkenu—“The Lord our Righteousness” (Jer. 23:6; I Cor. 1:30).
“I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (II Timothy 1:12).
CHAPTER IX
DIFFERENCESI took out my pencil and began to write down wherein the teachings of Christian Science differ from the Bible. The following are a few of the most outstanding:
1. Christian Science says that the Jehovah of the Old Testament was a mere tribal god, subject to jealousies and wrath. The Word of God says of Jehovah that He fills heaven and earth; that He is the King of the nations and the Judge of the world; and that He is Gracious, Merciful, and Holy, Just and without iniquity (Exodus 34:7; Deut. 32:4; Ps. 103:13).
2. Christian Science says that Jesus is one material concept and Christ is the Divine idea. Jesus was mortal and transitory, and Christ an Idea of the Divine Principle lives on. Mrs. Eddy says that Jesus is not the Christ. The Word of God records that Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom say ye that I am?” and then Peter, inspired by God, declared: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus approved this avowed confession and said, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it”; therefore any body, institution or church which claims that Jesus is not the Christ of God is not a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (I John 2:22; Matt. 16:15, 16:18).
3. Christian Science says there was and there is no atoning sacrifice for sin, that Jesus was not an atoning sacrifice for our sins. The Word of God says: “Jesus Christ died for our sins” (John 1:29; Isaiah 53).
4. Christian Science, although having a long chapter in the text book, “Science and Health,” on the Atonement and the Resurrection, virtually denies the resurrection, for it maintains that Jesus let His disciples think that He was dead, when in reality He was not dead. He pretended to be dead; in reality (it says) He was in the tomb demonstrating the power of mind over matter for three days and nights. Well, if He was not dead, then there can be no resurrection, for a resurrection presumes that a death has taken place, but, First Corinthians fifteen is very explicit on this subject. “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once: Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
5. Christian Science denies the personality of the Holy Spirit, for Christian Science says that the Holy Spirit is “Divine Science.” Mrs. Eddy claims to be the discoverer and founder of Divine Science, therefore she practically asserts that she is the discoverer and founder of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit was here ages before Mrs. Eddy. She was not the founder of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is not a principle, an it, or a she, but the Person HE. “He will teach you all things.” “He will show you all things.” (Read the sixteenth chapter of John.)
6. Christian Science or Divine Science claims to be the second coming of Christ. The second coming of Christ is personal, not an influence, or a science. And as Jesus was taken up from them into heaven, “behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10, 11).
I was of course only a young believer and I had much to learn of the things of God, but I wrote down fourteen points of difference. As a Rabbi coming out of Judaism into a so-called Christian faith, I had with certain reservations believed on Jesus Christ. I had believed that He was Israel’s greatest Prophet. As a follower of Mrs. Eddy I believed that he was the “Great Exemplar”—that as all men came to a spiritual understanding of Mrs. Eddy’s teachings they should eventually be able to make the “perfect demonstration,” as Jesus Christ had made in healing the sick, raising the dead, multiplying the loaves and the fishes; and finally if they should “have a belief of death” as he had when he lay in the tomb, that eventually they would be able to make a “complete demonstration over the belief of death,” and arise from the dead even as he had done after three days. (Mrs. Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, has now had the “belief of death” for a good many years and thus far she has not made the demonstration over death as many of her followers believed she would be able to do.)
I might state here that some years later the godly wife of a prominent Dayton physician said to my wife, “Ruby, when Dr. Wertheimer was a Rabbi I used to go and hear him. I always knew his heart was hungering for something (he did not know how greatly he needed Christ). Well, when I read in the Dayton papers that Rabbi Wertheimer had publicly espoused Christian Science, I said to myself, ‘This is but the swing of the pendulum to the other extreme, he will yet find his happy balance through a simple heart faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”
CHAPTER X
MY PUBLIC CONFESSION OF CHRISTNow I felt that “the redeemed of the Lord should say so.” If my mistaken step into Christian Science had been heralded, why not the fact that I was redeemed, saved, a truly believing child of God with a heart faith in the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ my Lord? There was no choice, for “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9, 10). I must let the matter be known and give at least a few outstanding reasons for leaving Christian Science. James M. Cox (ex-Governor of Ohio) was at that time editor of the Dayton Daily News. As he was living in our neighborhood I walked to his home in the evening and gave him my manuscript for publication.
That night the very powers of darkness waged one last battle for the control of my spirit, mind, and body. God alone knows what I endured. My wife had gotten into Christian Science as the result of my stand. Her friends and associates were drawn largely from its ranks. In fact she still looked with secret pity and condescension on those who did “not know the truth as it is in Science.” Consequently she was not very sympathetic toward me in my new found hope that meant more than life itself to me. The night wore on and the conflict waged heavier upon my soul. My wife, sensing so little of the crisis through which I was passing, said indifferently, “Never mind, wait until morning, get your manuscript back, and that will be the end of it.” But, thank God, with the breaking of a new day came complete victory. Yes, no matter what the cost, the world should know that I had found the Lord of Life, the Christ of God, the sinner’s Saviour, and that with Thomas of old I could shout triumphantly, “My Lord and my God.”
The Dayton Daily News of June 13, 1903, published the reasons for my withdrawal from Christian Science. Other newspapers gave the matter wide publicity, with the result that I received many letters and telegrams both of commendation and disapproval of my step. Many visitors came to our home to rejoice with me in my new found faith.
CHAPTER XI
MY WIFE’S AWAKENINGUp to this time my wife had assumed rather a neutral attitude. She later acknowledged that come what may she had determined to respect my convictions, at least outwardly, regardless of how sympathetic she might be in her attitude towards Science. The coming into our home of these new Christian friends presented an altogether unexpected problem to her. One day several hitherto unknown women came to tell me how they were rejoicing over my new found faith in Christ. They related their own personal experiences, emphasizing the unbounded joy that had been theirs at the time that they had become Christians. In fact, I believe that one of them stated that it seemed as if a veritable light had shone around her when she had been saved. My wife became intensely interested in the conversation. She secretly longed to have just such an experience. How often I had endeavored to show her God’s plan of salvation through His Son, that she might see in Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection, her complete salvation.
I learned one lesson then. We may speak much to seeking souls about how to be saved, but the Spirit of God alone can give to the sinner the faith to believe on Christ unto salvation. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (faith is) not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9).
My poor wife wanted an experience above everything else in the world. She did not seem able to realize that it was not an experience that she needed, but the Lord Jesus Christ, Who so freely offers Himself to all who will but receive Him. For some days she continued in this agony of soul, secretly hoping that if only she might see a light or hear a voice, she too might then know that God had made her His child. But she saw no light and heard no voice. How prone we are to keep from those nearest and dearest to us the secret longing of our hearts! Why did she not tell me all that was oppressing her? How speedily might have been her deliverance. How strange that I, the one who was longing for her salvation, and praying so earnestly for her redemption, should have been kept in complete ignorance of the travail of soul through which she was passing.
CHAPTER XII
MY WIFE FINDS CHRISTOne day when she was all alone, with this one desire uppermost in her heart, she opened her Bible to John’s Gospel, the first chapter, the eleventh verse, and began to read: “He (Jesus) came unto his own (the Jews), and his own (the Jews) received him not. But as many as received him (Jesus), to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” There she sat thinking of that offer, “as many as receive him.” What did that mean, to receive Him? What does it mean if anyone offers you a gift? Why just to accept the gift and say, “Thank you.” Is that what it meant to receive Him? “Dear Lord,” she prayed, “just as far as I know how, I now open my heart to receive Jesus as my own personal Saviour and Lord.” Feelings? No. Light shining? No. Thrilling experience? No. Just simple child-like trust in what God had to say in His Word, and in believing what He said. Do we not make God a liar when we doubt what He has spoken? How our hearts are torn when our word is doubted! How great then is the sin of unbelief, or doubting what the Eternal God has promised in His Word.
And so in the days that followed, if ever a doubt dared enter her mind as to whether or not she, too, had been born again, she immediately fled to God’s Word, and stood upon the authority of what He had to say, not upon how she felt about it.
One such time the thought came to her, “You don’t know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are saved. What if at this moment you were called to stand in the Holy Presence of God Himself, and He should ask: ”What right have you to be here?” “None, Father, no right have I to stand in Thy Holy Presence, but I stand here because of what Jesus Christ has done for me. He shed His precious blood for me. I have fled to Him for refuge, and He has promised: ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out’” (John 6:37). The battle was won. Ever during the years she has rested upon the authority of God’s eternal Word.
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.”Thus, my young wife began to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. She dated her new birth from that moment when alone in our home she simply believed what God had to say about His Son. You may ask, “Did she ever have any feelings, any wonderful experiences similar to those related by the visitors of whom you have spoken?” Yes, she has had very wonderful experiences. Do you know why? Because she has opened the Word of God and has found out His secrets. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Psalm 25:14). Is it not wonderful that the Lord of Glory has secrets of which the world knows nothing? One of the marks of real friendship is the confiding of our secrets in those we love. Is it not amazing that our Father God should reveal His secret plans to those who walk in close fellowship with Him? And so she has had thrills that have far surpassed anything that the pleasures of this world ever could offer. If ever a girl had been dazzled by the tinsel of this old world, she had; but how often she has spoken of the ache and the hunger that was in her heart as she returned home after some brilliant social affair.
One time she heard Dr. R. A. Torrey use an illustration which fit her case exactly. A young girl was exceedingly fond of jewelry. Since she could not afford the genuine article, she purchased paste stones from the ten cent store—imitation diamonds and pearls in abundance. After some days, a young man of wealth and affluence fell in love with her. One evening he presented her with a jewel case. As she opened it she beheld the most beautiful pearls and diamonds. “Now,” said Dr. Torrey, “can you imagine that girl continuing to wear ten-cent paste jewels since she had become the possessor of the genuine article?” No, not for an instant would any girl of intelligence display such ignorance. Isn’t it strange that when we are the recipients of God’s most precious Gift we are still prone to hold on to the tinsel of this world?
When my wife came into Christian Science, she gave up her worldly associations, for she felt that her worldly friends could not sympathetically enter into its line of teaching. During those months of study in Christian Science—although she had endeavored conscientiously to abide by Mrs. Eddy’s teaching, having taken class instruction and daily “made demonstrations”—she had never had the faintest idea of the existence of the joy and peace that now had become hers. She was beginning to realize why folks related the experiences that are frequently heard at Christian Science testimony meetings. She remembered, how, as a girl of thirteen, she had been confirmed in the Reformed Church in Dayton. She had attended the Catechetical class from week to week, finally appearing before the church for examination. She had answered her pastor’s questions while her heart was utterly blinded to the truth as it is in Christ. How easily such can become ensnared by that which Christian Science has to offer. I realize that there are, in the churches today, multitudes of individuals who have their names on the church roll. Many are members because their parents or grandparents belonged. Many others join for social, business, or political influence. Can you not see how easily those who have not a vestige of spiritual life are carried away by the teachings of Christian Science? Science and Health says that health, vitality, and prosperity are our inheritance. What hungry soul would not be interested in such a promise? Those who become ensnared by Christian Science have never known what a vital, personal, satisfying trust in the living Christ of God really means.
What a tragedy that Christendom has become so permeated with formalism. Its followers are free to confess that they have never before known what practical Christianity was until they had “taken up Science.” One thing is certain, very few of those who have truly been born again through a living, personal faith in Jesus Christ as the sinner’s only Saviour, have ever remained in Christian Science for any length of time.
I am happy to state that as a result of my personal convictions, as well as my subsequent withdrawal from the Christian Science movement, those who considered me their Christian Science “teacher” were also brought into the light as it is in Christ Jesus, even though they had been conscientious followers of Mrs. Eddy for from fifteen to twenty years. And during the years that have come and gone since I first published “Why I Left Christian Science” (which is now in the eleventh edition), many have been the letters that have reached me, thanking God that through this testimony they too have been led out of this system into the glorious liberty that is to be found in our All-sufficient Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”
CHAPTER XIII
“TRAINING”—TIMES OF TESTINGNow began the period of child-training through which every child of God must pass. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6). We were no exception to the rule.
False religious systems of today promise to their followers health, wealth, affluence, and position—and that in a world that is not the abiding home of the Christian. Of the Christ of God it is written: “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” (John 1:10). He had no where to lay His head. Our Lord said: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.... The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:19, 20). “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
The apostle Peter speaks of the “trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth” (I Peter 1:7). “The very fact of trial proves that there is something in us very precious to our Lord; else He would not spend so much pains and time on us. Christ would not test us if He did not see the precious ore of faith mingled in the rocky matrix of our nature: and it is to bring this out into purity and beauty that He forces us through the fiery ordeal.” (From Tried By Fire.) In the midst of trials and tribulations, even though sore-pressed, we can rejoice, because our Lord is with us. He Himself has told us to be of good cheer. Paul admonishes us to “follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness,” and to “fight the good fight of faith” (I Timothy 6:11, 12).
While Rabbi, I had been generously supported by the Jews. In Christian Science I had been a practitioner teacher and First Reader in the Christian Science Church. Now I had come out before the world, confessing my simple faith in the Christ of God, my new-found Saviour. Folks in Dayton were under the impression that because I had received a comfortable income as Rabbi, I surely must be quite well off. They could not know that as a result of the heavy expenses incurred during my first wife’s illness and death that I had nothing left now, except my household furniture and my library. Therefore I must speedily find some occupation in order to support my family. My knowledge of languages would have entitled me to teach in a high school or college, but every door was closed. I applied to the United Brethren Publishing Company where I had bought thousands of dollars worth of books, but to no avail.
My wife delights to relate one incident that occurred at this time. Like most young girls, she had always hoped to own at least one genuine diamond. Her joy was unbounded when we became engaged and I presented her with a three quarter carat blue-white diamond ring. How delighted she was with it during those three years she had been its proud possessor. But now we were face to face with the most trying circumstances. No one, not even my wife’s parents who lived in the same block, must know of the financial trials we were facing. The rent had to be paid. One day my wife came to me and said, “Doctor, we must meet our obligations. We have each other; we have the greatest of God’s gifts, even our wonderful Lord Jesus. God has graciously permitted me to own this lovely diamond for the past three years. Lately I have come to an apprehension of how rich we really are when we have Him; now let us dispose of our diamonds, thereby making it possible to meet our obligations.” Some years previously I had bought for myself a diamond ring, and so at my wife’s urgent request I disposed of both of those valuable stones. You may possibly wonder why I should have granted this request, but when a few years later I was called to minister to a people who were indeed poor as far as this world’s goods were concerned, my wife and I were fully persuaded that neither of us would have felt at ease to have worn diamonds into the homes of those humble folk. How good of our Lord to have permitted my dear wife to own that ring long enough to convince her that, after all, the mere possession of this world’s goods cannot be compared to the riches that are ours in Christ.
One of the most precious friendships formed at this time was that of Pastor J. W. Icenbarger, who was for many years the faithful minister of Central Baptist Church in Dayton. How blessed was the influence of his life and ministry upon our lives! One day he said to me: “Brother Wertheimer, remember from now on, others will be influenced by your conduct. You will be called upon to go through financial testings, but never go into debt if you cannot see your way out. Many a pastor’s influence has been shattered because of the burden of debt from which he could not free himself.” How very grateful we have been through the years for the advice of this man of God. How helplessly entangled have many of God’s servants become as a result of this practice.
If we didn’t have, we did without; and yet never were we allowed to go hungry. One market day my wife said to me: “Doctor, you had better go to market this morning.” I replied, “I have only twenty-five cents.” That was all I possessed. Just then the postman came with a letter. Opening it we found enclosed a two dollar bill—not another word! Together we fell upon our knees to thank and praise our Father for thus graciously supplying our daily needs.
Several weeks later our store of provisions was almost exhausted. Hearing a knock, I went to the kitchen door. There stood an elderly man, who said: “I am looking for a man by the name of Wertheimer.” When I told him that was my name, he then said, “The Lord sent me here; at five o’clock this morning the Lord laid it on my heart to bring you a basket of provisions.” That man was a Dunkard. I had never seen him before. I remember his round face, his white hair, and his broad-brimmed soft hat. In that basket were six or seven pounds of meat, butter, eggs, and cottage cheese. Do not tell me that our God is not a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God! We have tested His promises and have found them true.
It was at this time, too, that we were joyfully anticipating the coming of our firstborn. While I was in Christian Science, it would be declared, whenever anyone for a longer or shorter period would show an interest in Science and then withdraw, “Never mind, they will have to meet it; they will be beaten back.” That would mean suffering, and plenty of it. Now I knew that this was the attitude of my former Science friends concerning me. Consequently from day to day I cried unto our Lord to very tenderly overshadow my dear one in the ordeal through which she was about to pass. Our confidence was in the Living God, not in any man-made system. Would He not lay bare His mighty Arm in her behalf? Our trust was in Him alone. May I state for the glory of God and of His Christ, that in the birth of our little one the travail through which every mother must pass was almost entirely absent. My wife, in relating this incident to her friends at that time, was advised not to tell these facts to others because her statements would be doubted. During the intervening years she has borne three sons, but never with an experience comparable to the birth of our first child. We had previously chosen another name for our little one, but when I saw the power of God so signally manifested in that hour of crisis, I said, “Ruby, we will call the baby ‘Grace,’ for she has been given to us by the grace of God.” Our godly friend and physician, Dr. Webster Ensey (who has since gone to be with Christ), arrived at our home just as our babe gave her first cry; my wife and I had been all alone. Before he left that morning the two of us knelt in my library and thanked God for His wonder-working power. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”
CHAPTER XIV
WITNESSINGI now began to receive invitations to witness before different churches. Pastors of several denominations presented to me books and pamphlets explaining to me their various doctrinal beliefs. I wanted to be very cautious as to my next step. One day in conversation with Pastor Icenbarger, I said, “What is the creed of the Baptists?” “They have no creed, they stand for an open Bible,” he replied. “That just suits me exactly,” I said. “From henceforth my one desire shall be to declare the whole council of God as revealed in His Word.” After much prayer and waiting upon God, we decided to follow our Lord in baptism. However, one difficulty presented itself. Those who were baptized and received into the membership of the Central Baptist Church were required to give their personal experience before the church. My wife said to me: “Doctor, I am a Christian, but never shall I be willing to give a public testimony or to pray in the presence of others.” “Ruby,” I replied, “have you stopped to think just what your Lord has done for you—how He left the glory of Heaven, was born into this world as a helpless babe, had no place to lay His head, died in your guilty place on Calvary’s Cross, arose triumphant over death, and is today interceding for you at God’s right hand? Do you think that after all He has done for you, that you should hesitate to confess Him before men?” “Oh, no, no,” she replied. “I see it all. I shall gladly tell to others just what Jesus my Lord has done for me.” And from then on until the present time it has been her particular joy and delight to tell that matchless story of Jesus and His love (Luke 12:8, 9).
On the night of March 30, 1904, we were baptized by Pastor Icenbarger in Central Baptist Church. Although we did not know it at the time, that night was peculiarly opportune for us to have publicly confessed our faith in Christ. It was, according to the Jewish calendar, Passover Eve. Among the Jews it is the commemoration of that night so long ago when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. God visited the Egyptians in judgment, smiting the first-born. He judged Israel substitutionally through the slain lamb which took the place of the first-born. Either the lamb or the first-born had to die.
At the close of the baptismal service an old lady warmly shook my wife’s hand and said: “Mrs. Wertheimer, my heart is overflowing with joy and gratitude tonight. Some years ago I attended a Congress of Religions in the Christian Church. Your husband spoke on ‘Why I Am a Jew.’ That night I prayed that the Spirit of God might open Dr. Wertheimer’s eyes; that if need be, he might be brought to the very depths in order that he might come to a realization of his need of Christ.”
How marvelously did God answer that humble woman’s prayer! Events had shortly begun to happen which completely changed the course of my life. Suffering, yes; more than I thought I could bear, and yet God used that suffering to turn my eyes heavenward. He set my feet upon a rock—the Rock Christ Jesus. “For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (I Cor. 3:11).
CHAPTER XV
SEMINARY DAYSI had been licensed to preach the Word of God, and doors began to open for the ministry of that Word. Within a few months my dear pastor prevailed upon me to enter the Southern Baptist Seminary at Louisville, Kentucky, from where, after a year of study, I was graduated. My wife and baby accompanied me. Because of the care of our little one my wife could not attend classes. However, that year proved to be a time of spiritual growth for her. We made our temporary abode in two furnished rooms, giving her much time for study and meditation. One day a seminary student gave me a copy of a little book entitled “Jesus Is Coming” by W. E. Blackstone. I took it home, gave it to my wife, and said, “Ruby, a student sent you this book.” As she turned to the first page this sentence caught her attention: “Reader, do you know that Jesus is coming again? Acts 1:11.” She gave me an astonished look and said: “Why, Doctor, I never thought of this before. I remember one time, while we were in Science, I asked you about the second coming of Christ, and you told me that Christian Science was His second coming. But it isn’t. Isn’t it marvelous that Jesus is really coming back again to this earth?” Those days spent, not only in the study of that little book, but in carefully searching out every Scripture reference (of which there were hundreds), proved to be days of Heaven upon earth to my wife. Humble indeed were our surroundings, yet as a young but growing Christian she was beginning to search out and to find some of those secrets which are hidden away in God’s Word. Many times has she compared that little abode to an ante-room of Heaven itself. Now she was coming more and more to the realization of the riches that are ours through Christ, and the glory that was some day to be revealed when He should come, Whose right it is to reign. What a pity that so many of us go through this world poor and starved, remaining babes in Christ, when He would have us grow into the full stature of our inheritance as sons and daughters of God! We have our Bibles in our homes, wherein are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and yet so many of us spend our lives in utter ignorance of the inheritance that is ours for the asking. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:5, 6).
Ordination
After my graduation from the Seminary in Louisville I requested Mr. Icenbarger to call a council of the Baptist pastors of the Dayton Association. Thirty-five pastors assembled in the Central Baptist Church, and there for three consecutive hours I was interrogated on subjects relative to my faith and doctrine. That evening the ordination ceremony took place. I was charged to be faithful to the trust that was reposed in me, to study the Word of God, and “contend earnestly for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.” It was a solemn moment in my life.
CHAPTER XVI
MINISTERING THE WORD OF LIFEMy First Pastorate
My first call was to become the pastor of the Baptist Church at Ada, Ohio. I received other calls, but I accepted the one at Ada. My wife did not accompany me when I went to Ada to preach that first Lord’s Day. She was most anxious to know about the little church and the parsonage. I never meant to paint such a dark picture, but for some reason or other, she received the impression that the parsonage was little better than a tumble-down shack. She had fully decided, however, to make the best of things, and to say nothing to me of any disappointment she might feel. The furniture had previously been shipped, and I had preceded her by a few days in order to preach on the Lord’s Day. After boarding the train she watched for the most barren, dilapidated houses along the way, and each time she passed one she would say to herself, “I don’t care if it looks like that, I’m going to make the best of it and make things just as cozy as I possibly can.” When I took her to our new home and she found it so much better than she had ever dared hope, she was simply overjoyed. We had few conveniences but we were comfortable and happy; in fact we learned to love that little parsonage and those friends to whom we ministered the Word of Life.
Our second child, Paul, was born during this time. Our every need was met. Souls were brought to Christ. Gracious were God’s dealings in our lives.
Some of the Jews and some of the Gentiles said that undoubtedly there must be some money in it, or a man like Wertheimer would not have taken such a step. Well, I will let you into the secret: there was some money in it. I tell you confidentially, but don’t give it away—they fixed me a salary of $500.00 a year. Out of this five hundred dollars we counted it our privilege at least to tithe our income.
On several different occasions my wife’s father, Mr. Jewell, visited us in the parsonage. My wife enthusiastically told him of the privilege that was ours in giving at least a tithe of our little income back into the Lord’s work. He was heartily disgusted (since at that time he was not a Christian), and said to her, “Ruby, that’s all foolishness. What you need to do is to lay away a nest egg for a rainy day.” “Father,” she replied, “you’ve been laying away a nest egg for lo, these many years, and just as soon as you think you have it hidden safely away, along comes some one or other and snatches it out of your nest.” Little did we realize that the last four years of his life should be spent in our home. He became a humble-minded believer in our Lord Jesus Christ some years ago. His death was not a time for mourning, but a season for rejoicing, for he fell asleep with the light of Heaven on his face. Surely in that moment of passing he had been given to see the glory that awaits those who are redeemed by the blood of the Son of God.
I was pastor of that church in Ada for five years. Then I was called to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to become the Pastor-Evangelist of the New Covenant Mission, of which Maurice Ruben was founder and superintendent for many years. “Oh,” I hear someone say, “but surely there must be something in it!” Of course there is. Fellowship with God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and the peace of God that passeth all understanding (Rom. 11:33; Phil. 4:7; I Pet. 1:8). That is what is in it!
I was oftener outside of Pittsburg than in it, teaching and preaching the Word of God. Mrs. Wertheimer assisted in the Jewish missionary work, visiting in Jewish homes, teaching in the children’s meetings, helping in the open air services where she counted it a real privilege to testify from week to week.
CHAPTER XVII
WIDER FIELDSMy two and a half years’ ministry in Pittsburg convinced me that our Lord was opening for me a wider field, wherein I should be enabled to preach to both Jew and Gentile the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I informed my wife of my decision, and told her that I felt led to go out in Bible teaching, waiting only upon the Lord for our support. That night she was somewhat disturbed, for she realized the expense involved not only in the maintenance of our home and children, but the added expense incidental to the coming of another little one into our home. Her anxiety was soon dispelled when she recalled how graciously our needs had been supplied at the time of our conversion, when, as babes in Christ, we had experienced the supernatural care of our loving Father God.
We decided to return to Ada, the scene of my first Christian pastorate. How dear to our hearts was that little flock over which I had been under-shepherd for five years! In March, 1913, my wife and children returned to Ada. I had been invited to Toronto and other Canadian points, covering a ten weeks’ period of Bible teaching. When my wife reached Ada she was informed that the furniture had already arrived. As she walked down the street, seeking a house and asking the Lord for guidance in this matter, she met a friend who told her that their home was to be sold. And so it was that within two days my family was settled in the little home that we have occupied for more than twenty-one years.
In Toronto I was entertained in the home of the late head of Toronto Bible College. His dear old mother became a warm sympathetic friend during my sojourn in their home. When I told her how I had determined to go out wholly trusting the Lord for our support she endeavored to dissuade me. Had she not known of regular pastors who had not been properly supported? I told her that I was resting on the sure promise of God’s Word. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). He does not promise to supply all our wants, but our needs, and never has He failed us in all these years.
After a fruitful ministry of ten weeks in Canada, I returned to Ada and beheld for the first time the little home which we had purchased by faith. How I have thanked our Lord through the years for this cozy earthly abode where, after a busy ministry of weeks and months, I could return for a period of rest and recuperation. And how graciously have our needs been met.
I determined to enter, when possible, each door that should open for me. When requested to state my terms I have replied that I would come in the name of the Lord, trusting Him for my support. “Freely ye have received, freely give” is the order of the Captain of our souls. “But have you not been imposed upon at times?” I have been asked. Probably so, but I have noticed this, that when I have laboured among those who are poor in earthly goods and have received a proportionately small offering, invariably our Lord Who knows our every need has multiplied the little, and perhaps in my very next meeting I have received more than I had expected. He is a good Bookkeeper, and blessed indeed are those who put their trust in Him.
CHAPTER XVIII
WALKING IN SEPARATION WITH HIMOur Lord has given to us a very wonderful promise in Mark 10:28-30, which some who take an extreme dispensational view are apt to lose sight of, but which I can say to the glory of God, has been literally fulfilled in my own life. “Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed, thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
When I came to Christ it meant the forsaking of my own dear mother, brothers, and sister, and apparently of every earthly means of support. But literally I have received in place of these, my own according to the flesh, hundreds of brothers and sisters in Christ, whose love and gracious hospitality have cheered and encouraged me as I have gone from state to state and from city to city, proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ.
If I were to write down all the wonderful manifestations of our Heavenly Father upon me and mine for the last twenty years, I would have to record many additional pages. God has been very gracious unto me. He raised me up from critical surgical operations several times and brought me back to normal health. He touched hearts, unsolicited on my part, to give unstintedly of their means for my support, and for the publication of my books. He has given me real friends of people whom I never knew before.
He has brought about great events out of the most insignificant circumstances. It has indeed been a blessed period of service for the Lord. “Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, ... And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:19-21).
Those earthly aspirations and pleasures which I have felt led to forsake for Christ’s sake, seem so little and trivial compared to what He has given to take their place. Judaism with its man-made ordinances offered me no deliverance from sin, nor comfort in my sorrow. On Rosh Ha Shona, or Jewish New Year, and on every annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the Jews confess their sins from a Hebrew prayer book; not individually, but collectively. It takes the grace of God to confess “I am a sinner.” When I was a child, my father would swing a rooster over his head, and say, “This rooster goes to death, but I go free.”
God says nothing in His Word about a rooster atoning for our sins. In Leviticus 17:11 we find God’s remedy for sin under the law. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.” In Leviticus 16 we find God’s revealed plan for the atonement of sin to those who were under the law. We find nothing whatsoever about a rooster on the Day of Atonement. The Hebrew word Geber means “rooster.” It also means “man.” As a consequence it was rabbinically devised to unite the two, using a rooster to make atonement for man’s sin. But let us not forget that that is a man-devised plan—not the revelation of God. How vastly different is God’s plan for His believing children today. We do not have to wait until Yom Kippur in order to ask forgiveness for our sins. Jesus Christ our Lord is God’s perfect atoning sacrifice for sin. Upon the authority of His Word do we know that. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). And this at any time or any place.
In Christ I have found the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world, and Who has taken away my sin as an individual (John 1:29; I John 1:9).
In Christ I have found my only abiding comfort for every time of sorrow. As a Rabbi how I longed to give those bereaved of their loved ones some hope on which to lean. But I could not give to others that of which I myself was ignorant. I gave them my sympathy, but sympathy in the time of great sorrow is not sufficient comfort to those whose hearts are breaking. But how satisfying, how glorious, is the word of our wonderful Lord and Christ, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25, 26). Again He said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath (possesses now) everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). There is just one eternal life, and that life is in God’s Son (I John 5:11; John 14:6). How great and glorious is the message we, as His redeemed ones, are commissioned to deliver today.
My driving into Spiritism left me in a maze of doubt and fear. I fully appreciate now why God’s Word expressly forbids us to have anything to do with familiar spirits (Lev. 19:31; Deut. 18:9-12). It behooves us to obey. Whenever we consult those who profess to communicate with the dead we may be sure that we are getting onto the devil’s territory. Deliverance came into my home, when in the Name of Jesus Christ I commanded those demonic spirits to leave, for He it was Who said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.”
While Rabbi, I had become a member of the lodge because I was assured that I would never hear the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ mentioned. Therefore when I became a Christian I was constrained to withdraw from the lodge for the same reason that I had first become a member thereof. I realize that the lodge is a charitable and beneficent institution. I think it is as good an institution as the world has to offer. Its greatest danger lies in the fact that many of its members are deluded into believing that by following its precepts they will be saved. In like manner many have become members of the church, believing that the mere inscription of their names on the church roll entitles them to become children of God.
Thus countless thousands have been deluded into believing that through a system of charitable works or regular attendance at church that they have eternal life. God’s Word is very explicit: “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:10). How frequently do we hear that passage in Galatians misquoted—“ye are all the children of God,” but please take note that that sentence is incomplete. Let us be as specific as is God’s own inspired Word. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). No earthly organization, no matter how humane or charitable, has the right to promise its adherents an entrance into the Father’s Heavenly Home. Any institution that is not rooted and grounded on the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross is not Christian.
Ecclesia is a Greek word from which we get our word church. Ecclesia means “to be called out.” Thus you will note that the believer is called out from this present world-system. The true ecclesia or church is comprised of those individuals whose faith is centered in the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. They are members of the Body of Christ of which He Himself is the Head. “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Col. 1:18-20). “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22). How blessed and satisfying has been this relationship with brethren of like blessed faith. I have found them both among believing Jews and believing Gentiles. The middle wall of partition has been broken down (Eph. 2:14). Behold we have become one in Christ Jesus.
I can never cease to marvel at the majestic plan of God. How He should have taken us unlovely, unjust ones and have translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Potentially we are identifed with Christ right now, and thus He becomes the center of our hearts’ worship and adoration.
“I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.
“How marvelous! how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
How marvelous! how wonderful!
Is my Saviour’s love for me!”[5]Why should we love Him so, why make Him the object and center of our worship? Consider II Corinthians 8:9, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich.” Think for just a moment how Christ was rich. “For by him (Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Col. 1:16). Can it be that all the marvels of this vast universe were created by Him and for Him? Yes, we do believe this testimony of God’s Word. How rich then was He in all the past ages of eternity, not only in the vast possessions of His Father, but also in His Father’s love. But, alas, He Who was rich and heir to all His Father’s possessions became poor. How did He become poor? He laid aside the glory that had always been His, and “took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:7, 8). To think that He Who had received the worship of angelic hosts should have laid aside His glory, and suffered the ignominy and shame of the cross. Why? “He the just one, suffered for us unjust ones, in order that he might bring us to God.” There at last we have the answer. In order that we, beggars as it were, might be made rich. We who had nothing in ourselves to commend us to God, have, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, been made co-heirs or joint-heirs with the Eternal Son of God. Meditate with me upon the marvel of that fact. It isn’t so difficult to think upon Christ Jesus our Lord as being Heir of all that the Father possessed. The almost unbelievable fact is that He should have made us who believe on Him, joint-heirs with Himself. Oh, that the revelation of such a high calling might transform us so that our daily walk and conduct would indeed be worthy of the Son of God.
Is it any wonder that the pleasures of the world should have lost their hold upon me? As the years have come and gone, I have had abundant opportunity to find that there is a void, a heart hunger in the heart of man, regardless of how successful he may have been in his chosen profession. He may have devoted all his talents to the cultivation of the arts and sciences; he may have experienced the realization of his wildest dreams, yet, if he has never drunk from the fountain of life which is in Christ Jesus, he cannot be truly satisfied.
Reader, I beseech you to heed the Holy Spirit’s voice. If you have never yet yielded your will to Him, will you not let this be the time of decision in your life? “Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.” Look up into His face and say, “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Just as I am without one plea, but that Thou bidst me come to Thee, Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
* * *
I have entitled this story of my life From Rabbinism to Christ. I have endeavored to relate those incidents that, looking back over the years, were used of God to open my eyes to see first of all, my own great need of a Saviour, and that Saviour Israel’s only Messiah and Redeemer, Jesus the Christ.
I would earnestly plead with every son of Abraham who reads these pages, to pause and earnestly weigh the evidence as presented. Never again can you be the same. Moses warned the children of Israel that God would raise unto them a Prophet like unto himself, and “whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 18:18, 19).
Many false prophets have arisen down through the ages claiming to be the Christ. How were the people to judge whether they were true or false? “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken” (Deut. 18:22). But what about the words that our Lord Jesus Christ has spoken? “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:36). “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (John 5:26). When Israel’s last and greatest prophet, John the Baptist, looked upon the Messiah, he declared: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Christ came into the world to die as the sacrificial Lamb. Isaiah declared: “He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter” (Isa. 53:7). Isaiah again and again prophesies of Messiah as the atonement for Israel’s sin. “He (Messiah) is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we (Israel) hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our (Jews’ and Gentiles’) transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we (Jews and Gentiles alike) like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him (Jehovah Jesus) the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:3-6).
Was He not fulfilling to the very letter every prophecy concerning Israel’s Messiah? Isaiah wrote of Him seven hundred and fifty years before His incarnation. He prophesied that Messiah would die for the sins of His people. “He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death” (Isa. 53:8, 9). The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified between two thieves, and was buried in the tomb of the rich Joseph of Arimathaea.
“When thou shalt make his (Messiah’s) soul an offering for sin, he (Messiah Jesus) shall see his seed” (Isa. 53:10). How numberless must be His seed, the company of the redeemed, both in heaven and on earth, since our Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood on Calvary’s Cross in order to make atonement for sinful man. Truly such redeemed ones have become Christ’s seed. For if any man be in Christ, he has become literally a new creature or a new creation. “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4, 5).
The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). The only one who ever came from the seed of the woman is Christ the Son of God. “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). God gave this sign to distinguish His Son from an ordinary son (Matt. 1:23).
Again note another literal fulfillment of prophecy: “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16). “And they crucified him” (Matt. 27:35).
Even as these prophecies were fulfilled at the first coming of Christ, so there are an even greater number relating to His second coming, which are yet to be fulfilled. “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, ... afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God ... and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:4, 5). “I will pour upon the house of David ... the spirit of supplications: ... and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10). This is yet to be fulfilled when Messiah Jesus shall come again in power and great glory.
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13, 14). “Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God” (Isa. 40:9)!
The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Christ of the New Testament. He was indeed rejected by those He came to save (Isa. 53:3; John 1:11). Nevertheless, He is The Redeemer, of Whom the New Testament declares: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
THE END
A MEDITATION ON THE WORD OF GOD
I can hear some one say, “Why do you so often quote what the Bible says? How do you know it reliable and trustworthy?” To which I would reply, “God Himself says that the Bible is the infallible Word of God.” “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:14-17).
The Lord Jesus Christ said to His Father, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).
Thus we may infer that the Word of God emancipates from traditional and man-made theories and slavery. We learn therefrom that the Word of God separates and antagonizes the “world which lieth in the evil one” (I John 5:19).
The Word of God sanctifies and directs our minds into God’s ways. Psalm 119:104, 89. It must be studied and meditated upon for spiritual strengthening. II Tim. 2:15; Psalm 1:2; 119:97.
Job said: “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). “The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Psalm 119:72).
Man is to live not by (material) bread only, but “by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” That is why the Lord Jesus resorted to the Word of God when tempted by the devil in the wilderness. “It is written” (Mt. 4:1-11).
We read in Psalm 12:6, “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89).
The words of the apostle Paul, as he gave his last pastoral advice to the Elders of the church at Ephesus, who came to him at Miletus, are noteworthy. He appealed to them finally “to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
“Verily the word of our God abideth forever,” and this word that is abiding is the Gospel message. “Being born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you” (I Peter 1:23-25).
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).
We are to “search the Scriptures”; they “searched the scriptures daily” (John 5:39; Acts 17:11).
The Bible is the book of God’s doctrine. I Tim. 6:1. It exposes the doctrine of demons. I Tim. 4:1.
In order to be a God-approved workman that needeth not to be ashamed we are to “hold fast the form of sound words, ... in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 1:13; II Tim. 2:15).
As we receive the engrafted word into our lives, we are cleansed and restored to normal living. James 1:18, 21; Psa. 1:1, 2; James 5:19, 20.
In Psalm 19:7-11, we have the Holy Spirit’s teaching concerning the Word of God in the Old Testament. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.”
A few years ago Dr. Howard Kelley of Johns Hopkins declared in the American Magazine, in relating his own remarkable Christian experience: “I was early struck with the wording of John 7:17: ‘If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.’ Why, I exclaimed, that’s a challenge! Clear enough in English, even more forceful in the original Greek, where the word is Thelo, in the sense of the Latin Volo—willeth, or is ‘desirous of doing’ His will. A challenge to stop speculations and prove the doctrine by putting it in one’s own life! Surely nothing could be more scientific and reasonable. Indeed, all science is built upon just that experimental basis. God our Father asks us to use the same faculties and methods we employ in our common mundane affairs.”
And like Dr. Kelley and untold thousands of others, I too accepted that gracious challenge. I allowed God’s Word to testify of itself. The result has been the conviction that this Book is just what it claims to be—the very Word of God. Mankind cannot escape that fact.
The conviction that the Lord Jesus Christ, Whom I was taught to reject, is none other than the Incarnate Son of God Who was promised in Eden thousands of years before He ever was born of a Jewish virgin, and Who fulfilled to the very letter all that the prophets had written concerning Him, and Who is yet to come in power and great glory, grows upon one as they truly study the Word of God.
That Word had a purifying effect upon my life and conduct. I have related what a hold the pleasures of this world once had upon my life. But now, “in thy presence are pleasures forevermore.”
It is remarkable, too, how sensitive the Word of God makes us as to our attitude toward right and wrong. Those things which formerly we could do “with a clear conscience” now have become an offence unto us. How glorious and beautiful is the transformed life which is the privilege and heritage of every true child of God.
This Book claims hundreds of times to be the Word of God. “And God said,” “And Jehovah spoke,” “And the word of the Lord came unto .... ”
The Word of God claims to be a living Book. “For the word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). It speaks to its hearers with the force and finality of God Himself. Only those who have searched its pages with an open mind and a willing heart can fully appreciate this assertion. Its message comes forth giving its hearers the definite conviction that the Spirit of the living God is speaking.
Do we need comfort, admonition, rebuke, warning, exhortation? Every occasion and experience of human life finds its satisfying portion within its pages. Its continual freshness is a source of constant wonder to those who will daily take time to find their satisfying portion therein. It is ever new. As we grow in stature and knowledge so it ever continues to unfold its message. To the little child its stories are thrilling. To stalwart youth its admonition is inspiring. To those handicapped its message is ever comforting, while to the man of learning its pages are supremely gratifying and amazing. No other book in all this world can ever lay claim to having such a hold upon the hearts and lives of all classes, ages, types, and nations. There can be but one answer—it is God’s own message to man, and as such it meets the need of every son of man.
There is a profound responsibility upon us of heeding the precepts of the Word of God. Behold, God hath spoken, it behooves us, as His creatures, to hear and heed His message. We dare not deliberately turn a deaf ear to His pleading without suffering the dire consequences of such an act.
Israel, in the past, was set apart to show forth to the godless nations around her the wonders of that nation whose God was Jehovah. Instead of fulfilling her mission she turned from following the true and living God. She slew His prophets, whom He sent in warning, and finally when He sent His Son she rejected Him. Her history has been that of suffering. Why? Because she stubbornly refused to heed the pleading of her Jehovah God. He is not through with dealing with Israel by any means. She will yet cry out for deliverance to her rejected Messiah and Deliverer. How many centuries of suffering might have been avoided, had Israel been willing to listen.
I would plead now in one final word of warning, not only to Israel as a nation, but to every individual whose eyes may fall upon these pages, be they Jew or Gentile, black or white, sinner or saint, ignorant or learned, rich or poor. Remember, you can never again plead ignorance. I have endeavored to lay clearly before you your great need. “For all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). God’s only and all-sufficient Remedy for sin is Christ, and He alone. What will you do with Jesus which is called the Christ? “How shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation?”
“Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Won’t you say yes right now? “He that hath the Son of God hath everlasting life, and he that hath not the Son of God, the wrath of God resteth upon him.”
Endnotes
[1] Strasbourg, now French Alsace-Lorraine.
[2] When the Mishna was written.
[3] This subject is further enlarged in my book, Why I Left Christian Science, obtainable from my publishers.
[4] A few years ago an illuminating item on this word Echod was printed in the S. S. [Sunday School] Times of April 1927 which may be of interest to the reader: “The Jews formerly believed in the Trinity, and the Talmud is said to teach it. God revealed Himself to Abraham as Almighty ... which in Hebrew is Shaddai. The first letter of this word is Schin. It has three strokes joined together into one. (The reader may find it in Psalm 119:161, at the head of that section.) The Jews took this letter as symbolical of the Godhead, because it had three strokes, one for each person of the Trinity but joined together to show unity.
“The change to Unitarianism came when the Jews were persecuted so much by a perverted Christianity, that, in order to deny the deity of Christ they denied the Trinity. Every orthodox Jew is supposed to recite the creed ... in Hebrew every day. This creed was prepared by Moses Maimonides, a Spanish Jew, about the time the Jews were driven out of Spain by the Spanish Inquisition, in the twelfth century. The first article, translated, reads: ‘I believe with a perfect heart that there is one God, and there is no unity like His.’
“In writing this article Moses Maimonides did not use the Hebrew word that Moses, the lawgiver of Israel, used. That is, he did not use the word echod for ‘one,’ but yacheed. Considering the Jewish reverence for the Hebrew Bible, and their usual care in reproducing every word and letter in quoting it, this alteration is very remarkable. And it led, practically, the whole of Judaism into Unitarianism, and they have been Unitarians ever since. Most Jews are not aware how they have been cheated.”[5] “My Saviour’s Love”—Charles H. Gabriel.
“SATAN”
By Max Wertheimer, Ph.D.A Scriptural Exposition of the exalted being (formerly Lucifer) and his present realm of action on earth.
“Satan” deals with a subject which is universally neglected and misunderstood, and deals with it Scripturally.
The author is a converted Jewish Rabbi, a Christian Scholar and a recognized authority in dealing with both the Hebrew and Greek texts of the Scriptures.25 Cents Postpaid in U. S. A.
“WHY I LEFT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE”
By Max Wertheimer, Ph.D.The author is the first American ordained Jewish Rabbi to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. He lapsed into Christian Science, studied under Mrs. Eddy’s foremost students in Chicago and Boston, from which school he holds diplomas.
Dr. Wertheimer is peculiarly qualified to deal with the subject because he became acquainted with it not as an antagonist but as a devoted adherent. Consequently his book has been used under God to lead numbers out of darkness into the light of God’s Unerring Word.
“WHY I LEFT CHRISTIAN SCIENCE” now in its 11th Edition. Enlarged and Revised.25 Cents Postpaid in U. S. A.
WERTHEIMER PUBLICATIONS
Ada, OhioSee also the following related pages: How a Rabbi Found Peace | Max Wertheimer: Rabbi, Evangelist, and Bible Expositor | Dr. Wertheimer’s obituary | Dr. Wertheimer’s diploma, Hebrew Union College | Photo of Dr. Max Wertheimer | home