Reasons for Becoming a Jew

The following verse impressed my mind the first thing after entering the walls of Jerusalem.

WATCHMAN UPON MOUNT ZION DESCRIES

The "Light (or Lamp) that God would give, that David my servant might have always (or perpetually) put before him in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there." 1 Kings 11:36, and 15:4.

What can be this Light or Lamp, that was always, or perpetually, to burn before God in Jerusalem? Most Christian travellers and close observers have visited it, since and before the Temple was destroyed, and the precious Sons of Zion have been trampled in the dust, and have not discovered this LAMP, or CANDLE. Those who have been noted for their investigation and penetration--the ingenious and the curious--the wise and the simple, have also visited Jerusalem and Mount Zion, for more than a thousand years* Before Jesus. It cannot therefore be the Gospel, for there has been a period of many hundred years since the above prediction was given (from B.C. 984 to A.D. 1,) when its Light was not known in "the City of the Great King." What then can this LIGHT or LAMP of the Lord be?

* The prediction is dated in our Bibles 984 B.C.

I will tell the friendly reader. It is God's Righteous Law, which Christians tell us is entirely abrogated, fulfilled and done away with--but it is not nor ever will be; David says in his 119th Psalm and 105th verse, "Thy word is a Lamp (or Candle) unto my feet, and a Light unto my path." Solomon says in his 6th chapter of Proverbs, 23rd verse, "For the commandment is a Lamp and the Law is Light," and God has had his chosen depositories of his Holy Law, (his Israel,) holding up this CANDLE, or LAMP, in Jerusalem, ever since he has spoken the above prediction, and ever will. When thou art told this Holy Law is abrogated, believe it not; for it is a grand deception and LIE of the enemy of man's Salvation. Jesus declared himself most zealous for the Law, and professed to keep that most Holy Law in all things: he says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill, for verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall so and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:17, 18, 19: and again, "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all therefore they bid you observe, that observe and do." Matt. 23:2, 3. How could Jesus have destroyed the law of God and at the same time be God; for how could Jesus be the soul of God, or the divine nature in man's form (as Christians say he was), and destroy the law? The Law is the Life and Love of God conveyed to man as near as it can be in words, which are signs and sounds of certain ideas that make up or compose that divine character,* or compact of God's attributes that constitute God himself--how then could Jesus be the express Image or representation of God's mind, and destroy the law?

* The Law is the most perfect union and exhibition of the Divine Attributes that can possibly be given.

Impossible--the true thesis of God is, "without Body, Parts or Passions." "No man has seen God at any time," but those who know and obey the divine law, these know God, because they observe his Holy Law. Therefore we see, when Moses had a revelation, or an Oracle of his divine character, he caused his Glory to pass before him. Gave him the Two tables of the Law , and proclaimed the name of the Lord, "The Lord, The Lord God, Merciful and Gracious, Long-suffering, abundant in Goodness and Truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and fourth generation." Exod. 34:6 and 7. God then makes a covenant with him on Israel's behalf, forbids Idolatry, and any alliance with the inhabitants of the land; commands the observance of the Passover--the Redemption of the First Born--the observance of the Sabbath and the three Feasts, viz., the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of First Fruits, and Feast of Tabernacles; in which all the males were to appear before the Lord three times in a year. This revelation is an expression of the Divine will and mind, and of his attributes, or of those principles we attribute to him--a supernatural power that we call God; these are the law of his existence, and the sole constitution of his Divine Being.