Sir Henry Finch: Early Christian Zionist
Dr. Thomas Ice
Forerunners
to some of our prophecy beliefs today can be found in a group of British
Protestants in the early 1600Õs.
Specifically we look to the Puritans as our prophetic forefathers,
especially in relation to our beliefs about the future of Israel. These spokesmen began pursuing the questions
of what does God have in store for national Israel, the Jewish people as a
nation? One such person was Sir Henry Finch (1558-1625) who wrote a seminal book
on the topic. His life underwent a dramatic
change after the release of his book about Israel.
Background
The path
that led to the widespread belief in the end-time restoration of the Jews to
Israel started with the study of the Bible, first in the original languages,
followed by the influence of the newly acquired English translations.[i] When both scholars and laymen alike, for
the first time in the history of the church, had the text of Scripture (both
Old and New Testaments) more readily available, it led to greater study, a more
literal interpretation and a greater awareness of the Israel of the Old
Testament. This provided the
atmosphere in which a major shift occurred in England (also on the Continent to
a lesser degree) from medieval Jew-hatred, which led to the expulsion of all
Jews from Britain in 1290, to their invitation under Cromwell to return in
1655. ÒFrom such a context and from
among this people,Ó notes Douglas Culver, Ònow growing more and more intimate
with things Jewish, the early millenarian protagonists for the restoration of
the Jews to their Palestinian homeland arose.Ó[ii] However, it would be a tough road to get
to the point where belief in a Jewish restoration to their ancient homeland
would become so widespread.
It wasnÕt
just any group of English Protestants that provided a fertile soil for Jewish
Restorationist doctrine it was out of the English Puritan movement that this
belief sprung. ÒStarting with the
Puritan ascendancy,Ó notes Tuchman, Òthe movement
among the English for the return of the Jews to Palestine began.Ó[iii] Why the Puritan? Puritans were not just dissenters, they were a Protestant sect that valued the Old
Testament to an unprecedented degree in their day. Tuchman tells us:
They began to feel for the Old Testament a preference that showed itself in all their sentiments and habits. They paid a respect to the Hebrew language that they refused to the language of their Gospels and of the epistles of Paul. They baptized their children by the names not of Christian saints but of Hebrew patriarchs and warriors. They turned the weekly festival by which the church had from primitive times commemorated the resurrection of her Lord, into the Jewish Sabbath. They sought for precedents to guide their ordinary conduct in the books of Judges and Kings.[iv]
Thus,
we see Òby the turn of the seventeenth century, some exegetes began to accept
first the eventual conversion of the Jewish people to Christianity and then
even their Restoration to the land of Israel. Emblematic of this new hermeneutic is
Sir Henry FinchÕs 1621 work . . . in which he argued against allegorical
interpretations of Israel and linked the return and calling of the Jews with
the salvation of Gentiles.Ó[v]
Sir Henry Finch
A key proponent
for IsraelÕs future restoration was Sir Henry Finch who wrote a seminal work on
the subject in 1621, called The WorldÕs
Resurrection or The Calling of the Jewes.
A Present to Judah and the Children of Israel that
Ioyned with Him, and to Ioseph (that valiant tribe of Ephraim) and all the
House of Israel that Ioyned with Him.[vi]
Finch was born in
England in 1558 to Sir Thomas Finch who had attained the rank of Knight in the
Army.[vii] Sir Henry was educated at Oxford
University, admitted to the Bar at GreyÕs Inn at the young age of 25. He was elected to Parliament in 1593 at
the age of 35.[viii] The king often sought out legal advice
from Finch. ÒFrancis Bacon retained
Finch for the exacting, labor of codifying the Ôconcurrent statutes heaped one
upon the other into one clear uniform law.ÕÓ[ix] Finch was the greatest legal mind in
England at that time. Finch was
also an excellent theologian and student of the Bible.
Before
writing his well-known work on the future of Israel, Finch has also contributed
two published works in the field of theology. The first was The Sacred Doctrine of Divinitie, Gathered out of the Word of God,
Together with an Explication of the Lordes Prayer,[x]
while the other work was a commentary on the Song of Solomon.[xi] Culver tells us, ÒThe same cultivation
of logical consistency that marked FinchÕs
Law was equally employed in the interest of Bible study.[xii]
FinchÕs Restoration
Views
In
essence, FinchÕs tightly argued book of 247 pages argues that there will be a
national conversion and regathering of the Jews in the last days. Jewish faith will pave the way for a
great time of Gentile blessings throughout the world, but through the Jewish return
to their Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth. Finch systematizes the biblical teaching
of a time of future blessing to Israel as Israel, although he believed that
Israel would still be a part of the present Christian Church. Finch did not make a sharp distinction
between Israel and the church, as J. N. Darby would do about 200 years
later. However, he did see a
literal fulfillment of the Old Testament promises to Israel during this present
age. Finch taught that the biblical Òpassages which speak of a return of
these people to their own land, their conquest of enemies and their rule of the
nations are to be taken literally, not allegorically as of the Church.Ó[xiii] Finch says the following:
Where Israel, Iudah, Tscon, Ierusalem, etc. are named in this argument, the Holy Ghost meaneth not the spiritual Israel, or Church of God collected of the Gentiles, no, nor of the Iewes and Gentiles both (for each of these have their promises severally and apart), but Israel properly descended out of Iacobs loynes[xiv].
The
core of FinchÕs book is laid out in a series of Ò46 propositions, each
developed by turn, he demonstrates a comprehension of the subject that is
surprising.Ó[xv] Finch not only taught a restoration of
Israel to their land, he took many of the details of a Jewish millennium
literally. A regathered Israel
Òshall inhabite all the parts of the landÓ and Òshall continue in it for euer.Ó[xvi] Finch also taught, that all twelve
tribes will be united and Òall nations shall honour them.Ó[xvii]
The Reaction to
FinchÕs Book
ÒFinchÕs
argument may be considered the first genuine plan for Restoration.Ó[xviii] ÒThe book had been published for a
matter only of weeks when the roof caved in on the authorÕs head,Ó notes
Culver. ÒIn the persecution which
ensued, Finch lost his reputation, his possessions, his health—all
precipitated by his belief in Jewish national restoration.Ó[xix]
King James of England was offended
by FinchÕs statement that all nations would become subservient to national
Israel at the time of her restoration.[xx] Finch and his publisher (William Gouge
of Cambridge University) were quickly arrested when his book was released by
the High Commissioner (a creation of King James), and examined.[xxi]
ÒBoth men lost everything. Houses and possessions were
confiscated. Reputations were
destroyed. Separation from former
friends, associates and family was enforced by threat and fear. Licenses to practice their professions
were lifted and physical incarceration broke their health.Ó[xxii]
Finch died a few years latter in
prison (1625).
ÒThe
doctrine of the restoration of the Jews continued to be expounded in England,
evolving according to the insight of each exponent, and finally playing a role
in Christian Zionistic activities in the latter part of the nineteenth and in
the first of the twentieth centuries.Ó[xxiii] It was men like Finch who began to lay
the groundwork needed within Protestantism that would later result in the
modern reestablishment of the nation of Israel. Maranatha!
ENDNOTES
[i] See Douglas J. Culver, Albion and Ariel: British Puritanism and the Birth of Political Zionism (New York: Peter Lang, 1995), pp. 51–70.
[ii] Culver, Albion and Ariel, p. 60.
[iii] Barbara W. Tuchman, Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour (New York: Ballatine Press, 1956), p. 122.
[iv] Tuchman, Bible and Sword, p. 125.
[v] Stephen Snobelen, ÒÕThe Mystery of This Restoration of All ThingsÕ: Isaac Newton on the Return of the Jews,Ó in James E. Force and Richard H. Popkin, editors, The Millenarian Turn: Millenarian Contexts of Science, Politics, and Everyday Anglo-American Life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), p. 96.
[vi] Culver, Albion and Ariel, p. 101.
[vii] Douglas Joel Culver, ÒThe Contribution of Sir Henry Finch (1558–1625) To British Nonconformist Eschatology: A Study in the Organic Character and Significance of the Doctrine of National Jewish Restoration to Palestine in the Historical Context of TimeÓ (ThM thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1973), p. 43.
[viii] Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 43.
[ix] Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 43.
[x] Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 46.
[xi] Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 47.
[xii] Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 45.
[xiii] Peter Toon, ÒThe Latter-Day Glory,Ó in Toon, editor, Puritans, the Millennium and the Future of Israel: Puritan Eschatology 1600 to 1660 (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1970), p. 32.
[xiv] Finch, The Worlds Great Restauration etc., p. 6. Cited in Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 53.
[xv] All 46 propositions are quoted by Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó pp. 54–58.
[xvi] Cited in Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 56.
[xvii] Cited in Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 57.
[xviii] Lawrence J. Epstein, ZionÕs Call: Christian Contributions to the Origins and Development of Israel (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984), p. 8.
[xix] Culver, Albion and Ariel, p. 101.
[xx] Culver, Albion and Ariel, pp. 102-03.
[xxi] Culver, Albion and Ariel, pp. 116-17.
[xxii] Culver, ÒContribution of Sir Henry Finch,Ó p. 67.
[xxiii] Carl F. Ehle, Jr., ÒProlegomena to Christian Zionism in America: The Views of Increase Mather and William E. Blackstone Concerning the Doctrine of the Restoration of Israel,Ó Ph.D. Dissertation at New York University, 1977, p. 61.