Christian Heritage Edinburgh

Christian Heritage Edinburgh Our vision is to inspire and challenge today’s generation by bringing the extraordinary spiritual history of Edinburgh to life.

This may take the form of a walking tour of the famous Royal Mile, or through an exhibition, or lectures, debates, DVDs, literature, or through the arts, such as music, theatre and dance. We seek to engage with our culture here in as many ways as we can. http://christianheritageedinburgh.org.uk/

Week 210: Scotland, Where Are We Going?As we come close to completing the first quarter of the twenty-first century, it ...
07/08/2025

Week 210: Scotland, Where Are We Going?

As we come close to completing the first quarter of the twenty-first century, it is time to briefly assess where Scotland is today in its spiritual journey. If we could somehow bring some of the great Christian leaders back to life from previous centuries, and place them in a city like Edinburgh or Glasgow, they would probably be paralysed with shock and disbelief. The freedoms that they won for us, often in their own blood, came with God’s boundary stones. Democracy for them in church or state was under God; human rights were not about people getting whatever they want, but about God’s rights first, followed by human rights under his order. When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, he replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40, NKJV). Scripture says, “Cursed is the one who moves his neighbour’s landmark [boundary stone]. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’” (Deuteronomy 27:17). By removing God’s standards, which protect people, we have inherited a curse which is destroying Western civilization.

As we progressed into the twenty-first century, we discovered that the Christian faith had become irrelevant to the majority of the people of Scotland. The Christian voice has been largely drowned out by atheism and hedonism. Christians had mostly retreated to the corners of our culture. Liberalism, the darling child of the Enlightenment, gave birth to political correctness; political correctness gave birth to woke, and in turn, woke gave birth to extreme woke. Christians found themselves not just ignored, but facing a new era of persecution as LGBTQ+ took centre stage. Christians found themselves becoming cancelled in the so-called “culture war”; some had bank accounts, or Facebook accounts closed down for expressing traditional Christian beliefs about marriage and s*x. Others began losing their jobs, or were not allowed in some public buildings. Street preachers started to be handcuffed by the police, and pro-life activists began to be arrested for thought-crimes, of praying in their heads near abortion clinics.

Everything in our culture began to be shaken. Corruption in politics, banks, the church, and in all areas of life started to come to the surface. The pandemic of 2020-2021 was replaced by war between Russia and Ukraine. This was followed on its heels by the atrocities of Hamas on 7 October, 2023. We began to see a new movement erupt, not just in Scotland and the UK, but across the whole of Western civilization: the pro-Palestine marches began to dominate the news, alongside tensions between locals and multitudes of illegal, mostly Muslim immigrants. A strange alliance between woke people, Marxists and Muslims began to grow in strength. It seems as if this force would tear Western civilization apart, bringing self-destruction to our culture. We have now entered a different era: for decades we experienced general apathy, now polarization is happening across Scotland and the UK. Those who dare to question, or challenge extreme woke or Islam, are labelled “fascists”, or “far right”, or “Islamophobic”, even if such people are actually moderate people, or liberals.

We now live in a culture which is crumbling down in every part of society, from government to education, healthcare and family. The very things that had been pioneered over centuries of sacrifice and hard work, seem to be falling to pieces. It is as if the glue binding everything together has been removed. The curse is consuming our culture. Some people began to wonder where we had gone wrong. At first, few could connect up the dots and realise that the glue was the Christian faith, and that the very structure of our civilization had been largely built on Christian values. As far as the majority was concerned, Christianity, like the sea on a sandy beach, had gone far out beyond sight, leaving only traces of its influence in rock pools.

Sometime in 2023, some Christians began to feel the onshore wind from the sea. After a period of slack water, when nothing much seemed to be happening, the tide began to turn, imperceptibly, at first, and then others also began to notice it. We began to hear and read of brave individuals, who not only were sounding the trumpet to alert the nation and Western civilization about the coming internal dangers, but also began calling people back to a Christian worldview. The extraordinary thing about this, is that most of these trumpet-blowers are not Christians! And then this year (2025) we began to hear of the “Quiet Revival” in the UK. We have also discovered during conversations with Christians who visit our Christian Heritage Centre, that the same movement is growing all over Europe and in America. Generation Z is on a quest to find God, and they are discovering Christ through the internet, and by reading the Bible on their mobile phones.

It may be in the UK and in Scotland, that we are poised to see a huge harvest of people coming into the churches, not just from Gen Z, but also from people of all age groups and walks of life. But will the churches be ready? Will their nets hold? Are the biblical structures in place to cope with the return of the sea? Time will tell. Whatever happens during the next quarter of the century, we know that Christ has promised to build his church, but it will be purified through trials and persecution. Christians will either be loved or hated, but we must remain true to our Lord, whatever the cost, and encourage ourselves by the great crowd of witnesses in Scotland who have gone before us.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2, NKJV).

Image: Chris Fenning, 8 April 2020.

Week 209: Our Amazing Scottish Christian HeritageA few years ago, we began this series of short articles and are nearing...
31/07/2025

Week 209: Our Amazing Scottish Christian Heritage

A few years ago, we began this series of short articles and are nearing the completion. What a journey it has been! Beginning from the earliest times of Christianity in Scotland among the Britons in about AD 200, we have progressed chronologically almost up to this century. As I close this particular series for the 20th century, we can look back over the centuries and try to briefly pull it all together.

We followed the early British Christians – Ninian, Patrick, Gildas and Kentigern, and moved through the period of the Scottish Christians – Columba, Moluag, Aidan and others, and then walked with Cuthbert and the Anglo-Saxons. We discovered how the gospel became rooted in this nation, often through horrendous periods of suffering. First the Britons received the faith, then they were persecuted by the Romans; in their turn the pagan Picts and Scots were converted to Christ, after massacring the British Christians; the Scots and Picts were then brutally treated by the Anglo-Saxons, who in turn became Christians and were massacred by the Vikings, who later also fell before the cross.

As we journeyed through the Middle Ages, we discovered some key Christians, such as Adomnan, Queen Margaret and King David. We were dismayed at the corruption of the church, and saw the growing reforming movement, firstly through John Wycliffe’s Lollards, some of whom were burnt at the stake in Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries, and then through Patrick Hamilton, George Wishart, John Knox, and many others. We followed the Covenanters in their terrible ordeal in the dark 17th century, and into the light of their freedom. We explored the Christian characters during the Enlightenment, both locals like Alexander Webster, John Erskine, John Witherspoon and Sir Walter Scott, and visiting preachers, like George Whitefield and John Wesley.

Following this, we entered the world of Christian revivals in the nineteenth century, when Scotland was called the Land of the Book. Great luminaries shot up, such as Thomas Guthrie and Thomas Chalmers, and Christians transformed our nation through a Christian worldview in law, democracy, human rights, social reforms, abolition of slavery, science, medical advances, nursing, healthcare, the arts and other things. Out of this, the missionary movement erupted, as Christians impacted and shaped many nations, taking their worldview with them. A wave of missionaries passed before us: David Livingstone, Robert Moffat, Mary Slessor, George MacKay, John Paton, and a host of others. We finally arrived close to our own times and struggled through the war years, and into the time of the Hebrides revival, Billy Graham’s crusades, and Eric Liddell.

It has been a long journey of 209 weeks, but our hope and desire are that many of you will have been inspired and challenged since we began over four years ago. We really do have a very special Christian heritage in Scotland, and our story needs to be told again, and again, and to become widely known. It is our joy to tell this story through these short articles, and through our Christian Heritage Centre, which runs during the summer months in St Columba’s Free Church, where we have welcomed over 180,000 visitors since we began. You are welcome to visit our website at christianheritageedinburgh.org.uk and see our videos, and read the short articles (and other, longer ones). We aim to have all of the short articles up by the autumn. There are also over 1,000 Christian heritage-related photos, which you can freely use (as long as you attribute them to Christian Heritage Edinburgh as the source).

“Then they said to one another, ‘We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent’” (2 Kings 7:9, NKJV).

Image: Christian Heritage Edinburgh banner

Week 208: Eric Liddell (1902-1945), the Flying ScotsmanWhenever I take groups to St Andrews for a Christian Heritage Tou...
23/07/2025

Week 208: Eric Liddell (1902-1945), the Flying Scotsman

Whenever I take groups to St Andrews for a Christian Heritage Tour, inevitably there are two other things my guests would like to see: the old Swilcan Bridge, a small structure made famous by champion golfers, and the West Sands, now remembered as an iconic scene for the film, Chariots of Fire. This classic film centres around the lives of three Olympic sprinters: Harold Abrahams, Lord Andrew Lindsay, and Eric Liddell. It is the Scotsman, Eric Liddell, however, who steals the show.

Eric Liddell was a rugby player for Scotland and the famous sprinter who won the Olympic gold medal for the 400-metre race in Paris, in 1924. He had turned down his favourite race, the 100-metre sprint, because of his Christian conviction of not wanting to run on Sunday. “No athlete,” wrote Dr Neil Campbell in The Story of Edinburgh University Athletic Club, “has ever made a bigger impact on people all over the world, and the description of him ‘as the most famous, the most popular, and the best-loved athlete Scotland has ever produced’ is no exaggeration.”

On one of our tours in Edinburgh I met a retired church minister who told me that a former member of his congregation in America, had been the young woman who had nursed this Christ-like man in the Weihsien Japanese concentration camp during World War II. In the film Chariots of Fire Eric Liddell’s faith shone, for when he ran, he felt God’s pleasure, but far away from the applause and accolades of a worldly race, he lay dying from a brain tumour as a missionary in China. Scotland went into mourning for the death of its favourite son, but we forget that his best race was in China as he lived and died for the Chinese, that they might hear the gospel.

In 2015 a statue in honour of this man was put up in the city of Weifang, in East China's Shandong province, out of respect for a national hero. His daughter Patricia unveiled the statue before Chinese officials, and told the Times of London that she found it “extraordinary that a statue has been raised – the Chinese don't really raise statues,” she said, “maybe just for Mao Zedong.” Liddell had been born in China, grew up there, and returned to bring Jesus to his people in a selfless way. When the Japanese had overrun China in the war, his wife and daughters fled to safety, but Liddell remained to care for the needy. It was revealed in 2008 that Winston Churchill had brokered a deal with the Japanese to free him, but he chose to give up his place to a pregnant woman instead.

When Eric Liddell studied science at the University of Edinburgh, he would have been familiar with the Christian heritage of this city, with its Reformers and Covenanters, but he would have also been very aware of Scotland’s rich missionary history. He had been born in Tianjin of missionary parents, and they had trodden on the path of many Scots who had gone before them in this vast country of China. In this article I will leave you with some quotations from Eric Liddell.

“I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I run, I feel his pleasure.”

“It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals.”

“God uses the law [the Ten Commandments], like a skilful physician, to bring my sore to a head in order that he might heal. The law was not a means of salvation, but only a means to show the need for salvation.”

“Every Christian should live a God-guided life. If you are not guided by God, you will be guided by someone or something else.”

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,2 looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-12, NKJV).

Image: Eric Liddell (1902-1945) at the Paris Olympics in 1924. With permission from the family archivist.

Week 207: Billy Graham: All Scotland Crusade (1955)Just over halfway down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, there is a plaque...
17/07/2025

Week 207: Billy Graham: All Scotland Crusade (1955)

Just over halfway down the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, there is a plaque on the wall of Carrubbers Christian Centre commemorating Billy Graham (1918-2018) preaching there in 1948. Only one year before this, the young preacher had launched his career as a crusade evangelist. Nobody would have predicted that this lanky, good-looking farm boy from Charlotte, North Carolina, would impact the world like no other person in the last two centuries.

After his death in 2018, his researchers worked out that he had preached the gospel to over 215 million people in over 185 countries, through 417 crusades. If we include the impact he has had through television, radio and his books, then the number of people must reach over a billion. The Billy Graham Library alone has welcomed over 2 million visitors since it opened in 2007. Over and above this, his ministry has motivated and equipped thousands of other evangelists who have impacted the nations worldwide.

It was decided, after a promising tour in England in 1954, that Billy Graham and his team should cross over the border and run the “All Scotland Crusade”. Beginning on 21 March, 1955, he preached for six weeks wherever a door opened for him, including Aberdeenshire. During this time, he shared the gospel with over 2.5 million people, resulting in over 52,000 people accepting Christ. The crusade was broadcast by the BBC with a viewing audience larger than at the Queen’s coronation. “We reached a half-million more people in our six weeks in Glasgow… than the 2 million we had touched in twelve weeks in London,” he said. Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, which was rearranged to seat 13,000 people, was too small and an overflow area was made to cater for an extra 3,500. Tynecastle football stadium in Edinburgh and Ibrox in Glasgow were bursting at the seams. His last rally at Hampden Park was watched by 100,000 people through the BBC, and it was said that 30 million people worldwide saw his Good Friday broadcast.

Sceptics have said that once the emotional high had died away, those who had been “converted” would also disappear. There are always those that evaporate when the cost of following Christ becomes real, but Billy Graham’s legacy was thousands of genuine new converts in Scotland. I recall being trained at London City Mission and our lecturer asked the missionaries to put up their hands if any had been converted to Christ through Billy Graham’s preaching: over a third of the missionaries put their hands up.

Having experienced the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte with my wife and a friend, we were overcome with gratitude for this passionate evangelist who refused to compromise on the gospel. Some have said that it was “the singer and not the song” that caused people to go forward to accept Christ; but this is clearly not the case, for having heard Billy Graham live several times, apart from his newsworthy introduction, his message was always the same. When asked why he always preached that people must be born again, he said, “Because people must be born again!” It was not the man, but the grace of God, much prayer, and the simple gospel message that drew multitudes – and still does.

One of the enduring characteristics of Billy Graham was his humility. Whether he was sharing the gospel with the Queen and the Royal Family, or with world presidents, he was the same as when he shared the gospel with the man on the street, or at his huge crusades. Despite being given 12 honorary doctorates and numerous awards, an honorary knighthood from the Queen in 2001, and being given the title of the “Greatest Living American”, who had consistently been in the list of the top ten most admired people since the awards began in 1948 (61 times), his faith and humility stood fast.

As dignitaries and leaders from all over the world paid their respects to Billy Graham at his funeral, it was often reflected on by many, what God can do with a person who submits to Christ and lives for him. I shall leave you with a few quotes from Billy Graham himself:

“You have inherited a deadly disease, and it’s going to kill you. That disease is called sin… There’s only one possible cure, one total cure. That’s why Jesus Christ came down to this earth.”

“When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”

“We are the Bibles the world is reading; we are the creeds the world is needing; we are the sermons the world is heeding.”

“God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.’”

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2, NKJV).

Image: Billy Graham (1918-2018) preaching at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, in 1955. From the Billy Graham Library.

Week 206: Professor F.F. Bruce: The Scholar who Defended ScriptureDr Jim Packer once wrote: “Frederick Fyvie Bruce (‘Fre...
10/07/2025

Week 206: Professor F.F. Bruce: The Scholar who Defended Scripture

Dr Jim Packer once wrote: “Frederick Fyvie Bruce (‘Fred’ to his friends, ‘F.F.’ to his students) became the midwife of the present-day renaissance of evangelical biblical scholarship. Bruce was a very Scottish Scotsman…” During a time in which extreme liberals stalked the corridors of Bible colleges, and dominated Western theology with their scalpels in hand, ready to dissect and destroy faith in God’s Word, barely a whisper of academic defence of Scripture was heard. One of the lonely voices that appeared for the evangelical cause was F.F. Bruce (1910-1990), the John Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester in England. Packer goes on to say that Bruce “supervised more Ph.D. students in biblical studies, both Old and New Testament, than any other theological teacher in British history.” His clear insight, academic integrity, and adherence to the historical Christian faith, was like a stone being dropped in a pond: the ripples he caused have literally impacted the world, inspiring generations of students to take the Bible in their hands and accept it as God’s Word.

F.F. Bruce was born in Elgin in Scotland in 1910, during the year of the great Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. His father, Peter Fyvie Bruce, was an itinerant evangelist with the Plymouth Brethren, but he encouraged his son to test all things and hold on to that which is good. F.F. Bruce studied Latin and Greek at the University of Aberdeen where he excelled in the Classics, and went on to receive his master’s degree. From there he continued his studies in the Classics at the University of Cambridge, and pursued training in Indo-European philology at the University of Vienna. He was appointed as an assistant lecturer in Greek at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a stint at the University of Leeds. His academic prowess was recognized, so that in 1947 he was invited to become Professor of Biblical History and Literature at Sheffield University. From 1959-1978 he was the Ryland Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester.

Well-known for his unusual combination of humility, academic excellence, and integrity, Bruce sought to challenge the ultra-liberalism of his time. His special expertise was the New Testament. When his book, The New Testament Documents: Are they Reliable? first came out in 1943, it was like a breath of fresh air to evangelicals, bringing them renewed confidence, and a means of challenge to the liberals. My copy in 1982 shows that this little, powerful book, has been in such demand that it had been reprinted 18 times up until that date. This book itself was the catalyst for many works by other scholars during the last 43 years, showing that his pioneering work has impacted the world. Here are some quotations from F.F. Bruce about the reliability of the New Testament, taken from the above-mentioned book:

“The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.”

“The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the 'Christ-myth' theories.”

F.F. Bruce died in Buxton, Derbyshire, in 1990. Although the “Dean of Evangelical Scholarship” had passed away, he was a seed sown in fertile soil that produced a harvest of thousands of evangelical scholars, for the enrichment of churches worldwide.

“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3, NKJV).

Image: Professor F.F. Bruce (1910-1990), from the cover of one of his books

Week 205: The Lewis Revival (1949-1952)One afternoon in our Christian Heritage Centre in Edinburgh, two enthusiastic Ame...
26/06/2025

Week 205: The Lewis Revival (1949-1952)

One afternoon in our Christian Heritage Centre in Edinburgh, two enthusiastic American Christians greeted me. Within minutes of our conversation, one of them asked, “Have you heard of the Lewis revival?”

“Oh, yes!” I replied, “It’s well known.”

“I love the way that God used two elderly and frail sisters in a poor cottage to usher in the revival through their prayers, when the churches were dead,” one of them stated, matter-of-factly.

“It was awesome how the Holy Spirit fell one night when Duncan Campbell came to preach, with hundreds pouring into the church at Barvas, and hundreds more into the police station to pray,” his friend added.

“My favourite bit was when the Spirit came in power during a dance in the community hall, and about a hundred young people fled and rushed to the church to get saved,” said the first man. “Lights were on in every house as people fell on their faces, convicted of their sin.”

Such “facts” about the Lewis revival have been repeated and grown into legends and myths, spreading worldwide, and yet most of the above points are embellishments, exaggerations, and even falsehoods. Yes, a significant Christian revival did come to Lewis (especially the western side and in parts of Harris) between 1949 and 1952, but the true story, avoiding sensationalism, is much better. The best books for tracing this movement accurately are Sounds of Heaven (2004), by Colin and Mary Peckham, and Island Aflame (2023), by Tom Lennie.

Rather than a revival breaking out because two elderly sisters prayed, the Christians who witnessed the revival tell us that a bigger and deeper revival, seldom known to the general public, had already spread in parts of Lewis between 1934 and 1939, leaving many converted to Christ and transformed. If it had not been for World War II, it would probably have continued. After the war ended in 1945 there was an intense passion for another revival on the island. “The 1949 revival was thus almost a sort-of continuation of a revival which had been interrupted by the sad events in Europe,” relates Mary Peckham, who had been converted there before she was married.

Rev. Murray MacKay was the minister of the Church of Scotland in Barvas, where much of the revival focused during 1949 and 1952, and his understanding, along with Christians all over the island, was that there was a great expectancy and passionate praying for another revival. Rev. Mackay was convinced that they were on the edge of a breakthrough, and repeatedly said, “It only needs a spark!” Yes, the two elderly sisters, Peggy and Christine Smith, did play their small part in prayer, but so did hundreds more like them. “A huge volume of prayer ascended from Christian folk all over the Barvas area for revival,” wrote Mary Peckham. “The place was soaked in prayer.”

Although the locals know nothing about the stories of the dance hall (there was not even a dance hall in Barvas), and the police station being crammed full of praying Christians, or of lights being turned on in every home because people were convicted of sin, they were aware of the presence of God in a very real and tangible way. It seems that Rev. Duncan Campbell, the main evangelist during the revival, was prone to embellish accounts, or get things mixed up, and the exaggerations and misinformation spread from there. However, apart from this he was a godly man whom the Lord used mightily, and he freely admitted, “Revival was already there before I came to Lewis.”

“The awakening broke out in the church in Shader [not in Barvas] on the night of Sunday, 11th December 1949,” said Rev. MacKay, “the awakening spread to Barvas and Borve… You could feel Him in the homes of the people, on the ‘machair’ (common) and on the moor, and even as you walked along the road through the two townships… There are over 100 in this district who have come to saving faith since the beginning of the awakening. God is keeping them all; not one of them has gone back.”

The fruit of the revival was a great love for Christ, holiness, love for the Bible, love for one another and for the lost, and zeal for prayer. Hundreds were converted through this movement, and they often came to Christ in brokenness because of a deep sense of their sin, and found cleansing and new life. Others recount that at the home of Donald and Bella Smith at No.10a in Arnol village, the building shook during a prayer meeting, although no other house anywhere experienced this. One eyewitness I spoke with also recounted a strange heavenly perfume as God descended on weeping sinners who were coming to Christ in Barvas. Without doubt the 1949 revival at Lewis was special, but for some reason the more embellished version has captured the minds of many Christians, whilst its more powerful predecessor between 1934 and 1939 has completely escaped their notice. Moreover, the 1949 Lewis revival never really impacted the mainland, but remained as a localised phenomenon.

“O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!” (Habakkuk 3:2, NKJV).

Image: The Church of Scotland at Barvas in Lewis, which was the epicentre of the revival of 1949-1952, photo by Donald Lawson / Barvas Church of Scotland.

Week 204: The Balfour Declaration and Scottish Presbyterians“One-two-three-four, we don’t want another war! Five-six-sev...
19/06/2025

Week 204: The Balfour Declaration and Scottish Presbyterians

“One-two-three-four, we don’t want another war! Five-six-seven-eight, Israel is a terror state!” The procession of thousands waving Palestinian flags, led by a Muslim girl of about eight years old, slowly made their way along Princes St in Edinburgh. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” another Muslim girl of about six years old, called into the megaphone. Since the massacre by Hamas against Israelis on 7 October 2023, a long, horrible war has dragged on, and our news has been filled with heartbreaking scenes. Amidst accusations against the Jewish people of apartheid, colonial occupation, and genocide by many people, students have pressurised the University of Edinburgh to apologise for its support of an important document called The Balfour Declaration of 1917. So far it has been unsuccessful, although a forged letter claiming a public apology has been doing the rounds on the internet.

So, what was the Balfour Declaration? And why was it so important? For this, we need to understand the background. Since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70, the Jewish people have been dispersed through the nations. Jewish people have continually lived in the land of Israel since the time of Joshua (c.1406 BC), but the Roman colonial occupation of the land by force existed between 63 BC and AD 636, with Emperor Hadrian renaming the land Palestine, as part of Syria-Palestina, in AD 135. The Roman colonial power was replaced through conquest by an Islamic colonial power in AD 636, just four years after the death of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The first Islamic Rashidun Caliphate under the leadership of Umar, Muhammad’s father-in-law, was succeeded in turn by other Muslim dynasties: the Umayyads; the Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates; the Ayyubid Sultanate, and the Mamluk Sultanate followed them, and culminated with the Ottoman Empire (1516-1917). Thus, Israel became Palestine in AD 135 under the Roman occupation, and the Muslims occupied Palestine for 1,281 years.

The Crusaders tried to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land during the Middle Ages for “Christian” purposes, but ultimately failed. It was not until the collapse of the Islamic Ottoman Empire in 1917, that the British moved in as peacekeepers until the State of Israel was reborn on 14 May, 1948, having been voted in by the United Nations. Most of the world stood with the Jewish people who had undergone the horrendous ordeal of the N**i holocaust during the Second World War, in which 6 million of their people had perished in concentration camps. Since their return home, the Jews, (along with other Israelis, such as Arabs, Armenians and others) have sought to preserve their state against a storm of extraordinary hatred.

On 2 November 1917, Lord Walter Rothschild, who was the leader of the British Jewish Community and Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, received the longed-for confirmation by Arthur Balfour, the Scottish Prime Minister of Britain. In a letter, much cherished by Jewish people, are the words:

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

What is rarely known is the work behind the scenes by Presbyterian Christians. Firstly, although Arthur Balfour was not a serious Presbyterian, his mother, Lady Blanche Cecil, was a devout evangelist who would embarrass her aristocratic family by giving out gospel tracts to the general public. As his mother, she brought him up on the Bible and the prophecies of the Jewish return to Israel were part of his education. In those days the Presbyterian Church longed for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland. Even during the time of great persecution for their faith and stand for Christian democracy in the church, the Covenanter Presbyterians of the 17th century prayed for the return of the Jewish people. During the last sermon of Revd Richard Cameron on 11 July, 1680, just a week before he was arrested, tortured and executed for his faith, his biographer, Patrick Walker, wrote:

“He fell in such a rap of calm weeping, and the greater part of that multitude, that there was scarce a dry cheek to be seen among them; which obliged him to halt and pray, where he continued long praying for the Jews’ restoration and engrafting again…"

Among the leading voices proclaiming the return of the Jewish people to their homeland were Dr Thomas Chalmers, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, and many church leaders in the 19th century. This evangelical Presbyterian movement, which had come out of their covenanting ancestors of the Reformation and their descendants who had signed the National Covenant in 1638, there was a strong biblical sense that God keeps his covenants with the Jews and Christians. This movement spread to Europe and America, preparing the way for the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It is a telling point that of the government’s nine-man steering committee for this declaration, three were Scottish Presbyterians and a fourth was an Ulster-Scots Presbyterian.

““Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you [a]call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, 2 and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.””

(Deuteronomy 30:1-5, NKJV, a prophecy of Moses in c.1400 BC)
Image: The Balfour Declaration, 1917, United Kingdom Government signed by Arthur Balfour, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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C/o Street Columba's Free Church, 1 JohnstonTerrace
Edinburgh
EH12

Telephone

+441315546140

Website

http://edinburghchristianheritage.org.uk/, http://theroyalmile.org.uk/, http:

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