The author's thoughts on the work of the conversion of the Jews.
The Hundred-and-Twenty-Second Letter.
The author's thoughts on the work of the conversion of the Jews.
Dear brother!
May Jesus alone live in your heart and mine, and in the heart of your wife, and in all those who love His saving appearing and wait for it! Amen.
Dear brother! greet for me, as occasion offers, the brothers N. and N. May Jesus, the Risen One, speak His peace into their heart, and fulfil in them ever more fully the great word of promise from His mouth: I live, and ye shall live also.
To brother N., whom I have already often greeted in spirit, you may report in answer: that concerning the conversion of the Jews I have no special disclosure, and therefore can determine nothing about it with any indubitable certainty. Meanwhile I hold it credible that the general conversion and transfiguration of this people (to whom I bear a special affection, for the sake of my Lord Jesus Christ and of all the divine promises) is appointed for its own time — namely, after the last great judgments of God upon the earth — and that before such a time little or nothing is to be effected by all human means, as little as a man can bring life or fruitfulness into severed olive-branches: He who has cut them off must and will graft them in again in His time. But just as, after the day of Pentecost, a company out of this people was gathered as first-fruits of the full harvest, so it is also credible that God, the nearer the goal of the promises draws, may well take out one or another, and set them forth as a token of the approaching spring: this is a special grace and a kind of election, which befalls only rarely, and but a few individuals; and when such souls truly break through, they may come to something thorough, as the elect of God. From this the dear brother N. may recognize and prize the grace and calling shown to him; and my soul wishes him all faithfulness, and overflowing life-saps and powers out of the fullness of Jesus, to walk worthily in this high calling, as a chosen and dedicated one of the Lord.
Just as I now regard it as an imperfection when awakened souls take it upon themselves to want to convert others before they are themselves thoroughly converted, and are, by the Lord, as it were thrust out to labor in His vineyard: so I hold it much more needful, in respect of the conversion of the Jews, that one should not run ahead of the Lord — whereby neither ourselves nor others are helped, but the powers of grace are vainly exhausted through fruitless sweeping-out. Let the dear brother N., then, only strive, with us, to abide gently and near by His heart, and, through the dearly-appeared grace, to let himself, together with us, be led into the fellowship of the death of Jesus Christ, unto the experiential knowledge of this true Saviour and of the power of His resurrection. To Him we are to give heart, will, and understanding wholly, and to let Him ever more fully live and work in us. If Jesus so lives in us, and we by faith in Him, then one stands, resigned, to the leading of God — whether God will of us that we should commend the life to others, which we ourselves have found in the Son of God.
This, then, is my brotherly and non-authoritative opinion: that we must, with one another, exercise ourselves in this life of faith, in the communion of Jesus, as in the main matter. Besides this, brother N. may heartily commend his family to God in prayer; and therein I will join my weak sighs with his. For the rest, let him not, of his own impulse, seek lengthy speeches or disputes with the Jews; but if he come among them by chance, let him rely on God, who will then give him to be able to speak, and, without circumlocution, to commend what he has found in the living Saviour.
This I write thus in haste, according to love. May Jesus become to us, daily and hourly, more inward and more dear, that we may abide by Him unmoved, and let ourselves be content with Him, Amen! I greet you once more heartily. My head can no more. You may kindly communicate this to brother N. Commend me to your prayer.
Your
Mülheim, the 22nd of April 1737. weak fellow-brother.
German
Der hundertundzweiundzwanzigste Brief.
Des Autoris Gedanken von dem Werk der Juden-Bekehrung.
Lieber Bruder!
Es lebe nur JEsus in deinem und meinem Herzen, und in dem Herzen deiner Frauen, und in allen denen, die Seine seligmachende Erscheinung lieb haben und darauf warten!
— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.
German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).
Translator’s notes
What this letter is. A letter of 22 April 1737 in which Tersteegen sets down, at a brother's request, his own thoughts "on the work of the conversion of the Jews." A third man — "brother N." — feels drawn toward that work, and has asked what Tersteegen makes of it. The reply is careful and, for its century, notably restrained: he claims "no special disclosure," refuses to "determine anything with certainty," and calls the whole a "brotherly and non-authoritative opinion."
Its argument. Tersteegen reads the question through Romans 11. He holds it "credible" that the great turning of "this people — to whom I bear a special affection, for the sake of my Lord Jesus Christ and of all the divine promises" — belongs to "its own time," after "the last great judgments," and that until then human effort can force nothing: "as little as a man can bring life into severed olive-branches. He who has cut them off must and will graft them in again in His time." Meanwhile, as a "first-fruits" was gathered at Pentecost, God may still draw "one or another… as a token of the approaching spring" — but that is "a special grace… an election," rare and personal. The weight of the letter falls on a warning against zeal that outruns God: it is an "imperfection" to "want to convert others before one is oneself thoroughly converted"; one must "not run ahead of the Lord," lest "the powers of grace be vainly exhausted." The one thing needful is to "abide near His heart," to enter "the fellowship of the death of Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection," and to speak of what one has "found in the living Saviour" only when God gives the occasion — "not of one's own impulse," and never as mere "disputes."
A few words and echoes.
- "His saving appearing." Titus 2:13 / 2 Timothy 4:8 — "that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing"; "them also that love his appearing."
- "I live, and ye shall live also." John 14:19 — the risen Christ's own word of promise, quoted here as a blessing.
- "The general conversion of this people… severed olive-branches… grafted in again." Romans 11 — Paul's image of the olive tree, the branches broken off and "grafted in again" (11:23–24), and the hope that "all Israel shall be saved" (11:26). Tersteegen's "special affection" for the Jewish people is grounded, as Paul's is, in "the promises."
- "First-fruits of the full harvest… the approaching spring." The Pentecost ingathering (Acts 2) as "first-fruits" (Romans 11:16); the "approaching spring" recalls the fig tree of Matthew 24:32, whose leaves tell that "summer is nigh."
- "Not run ahead of the Lord… thrust out to labor in His vineyard." Matthew 9:38 — the Lord of the harvest who "sends forth labourers"; the caution is against sending oneself.
- "The fellowship of the death of Jesus… the power of His resurrection." Philippians 3:10 — the one ground from which any true witness can come.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-122 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.