Letters to the Jews

Submitted by saltysteve on Sat, 05/30/2009 - 15:29

Joseph Priestly was a deist who did not believe in the divinity of Christ nor in the Virgin Birth; but in his "Letters to the Jews" (written in 1794) he makes an eloquent argument for recognizing the divine mission of Jesus.

Extract: To you, the posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God has promised the possession of the land of Canaan. But your greatest and honorable distinction is that, when all the rest of the world was fallen into idolatry, and the abominable and horrid vices connected with it, God instructed you in the knowledge and pure worship of himself, so that by means of your nation, the most important doctrine of the divine unity, has, together with the spirituality of his worship, been preserved in the world through even to this day. You have been the salt of the earth, and by the knowledge which has been diffused form you to other nations, it has been preserved from universal corruption. From your nation God has made choice of his prophets, by whom he has revealed his will, not to yourselves only, but to all his offspring of mankind. By Jesus Christ and his apostles, who were all Jews, he has taught his will to the whole world, calling upon all men everywhere to repent (Acts. 17:30), not that they may share in your peculiar privileges and honors here, but that they may obtain immortal happiness, together with all the virtuous of your nation, hereafter.

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