Arno C. Gaebelein

Dr. Timothy Demy

For more thanhalf a century evangelist, author, journalist, and Bible expositor Arno C.Gaebelein passionately proclaimed the prophetic truths of the Bible and dailylived with the hope of their fulfillment. With a ministry that bridged twocenturies and endured two world wars, Gaebelein never doubted the relevance ofthe study of prophecy for spiritual growth and for interaction with the chaosof culture. In the midst of the thundering storms of World War I, he encouragedChristians not to despair, for the trials of this world would one day give wayto the triumph of Christ. In 1915 he wrote:

TheLord Jesus Christ is coming back! He may be here at any moment! He may cometoday! Now this is not a foolish assertion that He will come today. Nor is it the setting of a specifictime for Him to come, which would be equally foolish and wrong; yet many do it.It is the sober statement of a fact, to arouse souls from their carelessnessand indifference, and point them to the clear testimony of God's only Word thatthe Lord Jesus is coming again , and may be here today (Meatin Due Season, 64).

EARLY YEARS OF MINISTRY

Born in Germanyon August 27, 1861, A. C. Gaebelein emigrated to the United States in 1879 toavoid compulsory military service and to experience the adventure oftravel. He settled in Lawrence,Massachusetts, among other Germans immigrants and went to work in a local mill.He soon began attending worship services at a German Methodist fellowship andin 1881 became an assistant to the pastor of a German Methodist congregation inNew York City. In 1881, Gaebelein became a supply preacher in a mission inBridgeport, Connecticut, and in 1882 he was assigned to a congregation inBaltimore. Although he had no college or seminary training, Gaebelein was adevout student and fervently studied and mastered Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, andArabic.

In 1884 Gaebeleinwas ordained as a deacon and moved to Harlem, New York. There he met andmarried Emma Grimm in 1885. He was ordained as an elder in 1886, and shortlythereafter, when his infant daughter died, he began a period of intensespiritual reflection and contemplated entering missions. He moved to acongregation in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1887, where Samuel Goldstein, a convertedJewish parishioner, encouraged him to look to evangelistic opportunities amonglocal Jewish immigrants. Gaebelein began to preach in a Jewish mission anddeveloped a passion for Jewish evangelism. This new work forced him toreevaluate his views on prophecy, and he became an ardent premillennialist. Heimmersed himself in Jewish culture and Hebrew and was soon writing religiousliterature in Yiddish and Hebrew. In 1891, Gaebelein requested that hisdenomination appoint him to work full-time among Jewish immigrants, and in 1893he began publication of Tiqweth Israel--The Hope of Israel Monthly.

Gaebelein wassoon joined in his work by Ernst F. Stroeter, a college professor fromColorado, and in 1894 they beganpublication of English and German editions the journal Our Hope. Devoted to reports onthe work of The Hope of Israel Mission as well as the study of prophecy, thejournal did much to advance evangelistic and social work among the Jewishpeople. Edited initially by Stroeter, and by Gaebelein after 1896, Our Hope provided conservative Christians world-wideinformation sympathetic to Zionism, Jewish affairs, and prophetic studies.Historian David Rausch noted: "Our Hope, was a key periodical in the fundamentalistmovement of the twentieth century, through this periodical, Gaebelein broughtthe teaching of biblical prophecy to the forefront of the movement and coupledit to in-depth, scholarly biblical studies" (Arno C. Gaebelein, 19). The journal continued publication until1958, when it merged with Eternity.

In his earlyministry to immigrants, Gaebelein coordinated a broad-based work of social andevangelistic outreach that included distribution of food and clothing,operation of a dispensary, sewing classes, and relief funds for Jews in Europe.He also spoke fluent Yiddish, traveled to Russia and Europe to view Jewishconditions first-hand. He wrote of these years, ". . . I was obliged to dosomething for the relief of the great suffering among the poor Jews. Itappeared to me a grand opportunity to show to them the practical side ofChristianity" (Half a Century,35). Branches of The Hope of Israel Mission were eventually established inBaltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis.

BIBLE EXPOSITOR AND AUTHOR

Toward the turnof the century, focus began to shifted from Jewish evangelism to a Bibleteaching and conference ministry. He had become a in 1887, after reading aFrench book, La Future D'Israel by Pasteur Guers. Through contacts withmen such as James H. Brookes, James M. Gray, and C. I. Scofield, Gaebelein began to write andspeak extensively on prophecy. When Brookes died in 1897, Our Hope came to be seen as the ideological successor toBrooks' The Truth, and itbecame an instrument for proclaiming nation-wide. Gaebelein believed thatIsrael was the key not only to biblical prophecy, but to all history, and hesought to understand current events through careful teaching and application ofprophecy.

In the yearsbetween 1900 and 1915, reputation as a Bible teacher and his prominence grewsignificantly. In 1901 he began the annual Sea Cliff Bible Conference on LongIsland. It was there that C. I. Scofield first mentioned his desire to publisha study Bible and asked for Gaebelein's assistance in the project. Both menwere fervent dispensationalists, and Scofield asked Gaebelein to provide theprophetic portions of the Scofield Reference Bible. So great was his admiration of Gaebelein, thatScofield wrote him saying, "By all means follow your own views ofprophetic analysis. I sit at your feet when it comes to prophecy andcongratulate in advance the future readers of the Reference Bible onhaving in their hands a safe,clear, sane guide through what to most is a labyrinth" (Half a Century , 94).

The events andtragedy of World War I troubled Gaebelein, and he was saddened to see theprogress of Zionism slowed by the war. He cautioned his readers not to identifythe war as Armageddon and exhorted them to trust God and turn to the Bible forcomfort and guidance. He closely watched the events of the war and whenJerusalem was captured by British forces, he claimed it as the most significantevent of 1917.

In the yearsafter the war, Gaebelein became a vocal and prolific defender offundamentalism, inerrancy, and premillennialism. He engaged critics from thepulpit and in print and always did so with a firm but irenic spirit. In 1922,Wheaton College conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.Politically conservative, he saw a great threat in Communism, and it is in hisresponses to it, as well as some of his statements on conspiracy theories, thathe has been criticized. In 1933, he published his thirty-eighth volume, Conflictof the Ages. Controversial tosome, the book portrayed all of human history as conflict between God andSatan, and as obedience and disobedience to the will of God. In it he addressedcurrent events and focused especially on the threat of Communism.

HOLOCAUST YEARS

In the 1930s, thedangers of Communism gave way to the threat of Nazism, which Gaebeleinabhorred. In 1937 he sailed to Germany to witness first-hand the Nazi regime,and he denounced it continuously in the pages of Our Hope. Both before and during World War II hemeticulously documented and published accounts of Nazi atrocities to the Jews.While many American religious leaders denied or ignored contemporary reports ofextermination, Gaebelein repeatedly reported Jewish conditions. In 1939, E.Schuyler English became Associate Editor of Our Hope, relieving Gaebelein, now 80, of some of the editorialburdens. However, as he had done in World War I, Gaebelein closely followed theevents of World War II.

In 1944 and 1945,Gaebelein rejoiced in Hitler's demise but was greatly grieved over theHolocaust. While he saw the end of the war, he did not live to see either thereturn of the Jews to Israel or the return of Jesus Christ in the rapture, ashad been his hope. He died in his home on Christmas Day, 1945. In 1942,Gaebelein had written a letter to English to be published in case he died beforethe Lord's return. In it he proclaimed his lifelong faith and hope: "OnlyHe knows the exact time when the crowning event in the history of the Church,the gathering of the saints of god to meet Him in the air will take place.Perhaps in His infinite mercy He may still tarry to add more members to HisBody, His own fullness, which filleth all in all" (quoted in Arno C.Gaebelein, 182).

PROPHETIC HOPE

Throughout hisministry Gaebelein shunned prophetic date-setting and those who practiced it,arguing that our hope and interest must not be in the Antichrist but, rather,in Jesus Christ. With the storm clouds of war gathering once again in 1939,Gaebelein wrote words that applied not only to his readers then, but to us aswell:

We look at the approaching stormprecipitating all into an abyss of hopelessness. We look again and see amarvelous sunrise. The Morningstar appears, the herald of the Day and the Sunin all His glory. Even so Come, Thou Hope of the hopeless, Thou Hope ofIsrael, Thou Hope of the World, all Nations, and Creation. Even so, Come LordJesus (quoted in Arno C. Gaebelein, 150).

Bibliography

Gaebelein, Arno C. Half a Century: The Autobiography ofa Servant.. New York: Our Hope,1930.

_______.Meat in Due Season. By theAuthor, n.d.

Rausch, David A. Arno C. Gaebelein 1861-1945: IrenicFundamentalist and Scholar. NewYork: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1983.