“All Israel Shall Be Saved”: The Jews’ Conversion and Restoration in English Particular Baptist Thought, 1649–1815

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the English Particular Baptists of the mid- seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries viewed the Jews, with a special emphasis on their future eschatological role. A central research question guides this study: what was the evolving understanding of the Jewish people among English Particular Baptists, and how did the eschatological concepts of Jewish conversion and restoration to the land of Canaan influence their larger understandings of socio-political and cultural events, and vice versa? The dissertation argues that English Particular Baptists accorded the Jews a central role in God’s redemptive plan, not merely with regards to Israel’s historical election as God’s chosen people but also as an essential people with a vital role in God’s unfolding purposes for humanity. Those covered in this study include Henry Jessey, William Kiffen, Thomas Collier, Hanserd Knollys, John Bunyan, Joseph Perry, John Gill, John Collett Ryland, Andrew Fuller, and Charles Spurgeon. The Jews occupied a significant place in English Particular Baptist life and thought, leading to real-world implications like the theological arguments employed to readmit the Jews in 1655 and the surge of domestic missions directed towards them with the establishment of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews in 1809. This dissertation shows how the doctrine of the Jews’ conversion and restoration developed during two centuries among the English Particular Baptists.