GAEBELEIN, ARNO C.
Gaebelein (1861-1945) was born in Thuringia, Germany and
came to America at the age of eighteen. Ordained in the Methodist Episcopal
church, he held pastorates in Baltimore and New York City. In New York he began
an important ministry to reach the Jewish population. He began a magazine for
Jewish readers entitled Our Hope. He supplied a great amount of reading for
Jews, especially along the lines of biblical and prophetic
publications.
Gaebelein was a remarkable scholar. He knew biblical
Hebrew and Greek as well as many Middle Eastem languages. He wrote nearly fifty
books and many pamphlets on prophecy. He lectured widely and was active in the
Bible conference movement. Gaebelein was popular with audiences because of his
vast knowledge of the Jewish people and Hebrew customs. Though avoiding
seminary training, he was self-taught in languages, history, systematic
theology, apologetics, and prophetic studies.
It was in New York City
working with the Jewish community that Gaebelein became a premillennialist (ca.
1887). He wrote: "This attempt to bring the Gospel to the Jews led me deeper
into the Old Testament Scriptures. I began to study prophecy. Up to this time I
had followed in the interpretation of Old Testament prophecy the so-called
'spiritualization method' (allegorical)." He realized that only with literal
interpretation would Israel mean Israel and not the church. He realized that a
promise of redemption back to the land of Palestine still held for the
Jews.
Gaebelein realized that the differences in Bible interpretation
were caused by a conflict in hermeneutics. He followed two basic rules for
interpreting the Scriptures. He felt a literal-grammatical interpretation led
to a national restoration for Israel's future. And secondly, this approach led
one to see the church as a new entity unrevealed in the Old Testament but
clearly outlined in the book of Ephesians.
Gaebelein also used a
dispensational hermeneutic. He saw three major dispensations: law, grace, and
kingdom. He also used the analogy of faith and the concept of progressive
revelation combined to provide a way of looking at passages that went beyond
the grammatical-historical interpretation of an individual text. He also felt
strongly about the doctrine of the rapture of the church. No signs were needed
to herald Christ's coming. The church clearly would not go through the Great
Tribulation. The coming of Christ in the air to receive the church is a
separate event from His coming to the earth to set up His kingdom seven years
later. Finally, three crucial doctrines were behind Gaebelein's
dispensationalism: (1) the inerrancy of Scripture, (2) the premillennial coming
of Christ to earth to reign on David's throne, and (3) the pretribulational
Rapture.
Gaebelein viewed the Abrahamic covenant as having past,
present, and future fulfillment. He wrote, "The nations of the earth, all the
families are unconsciously waiting to be blessed by Abraham's seed. Salvation
is still of the Jews." And he ex-pected the terms of the covenant to yet be
fulfilled literally, physically to the descendants of Abraham and the Jewish
nation.
A biblical passage that arrested Gaebelein's attention was
Deuteronomy 28. In this he saw "prewritten the sad history" of Israel. Moses
predicted the scattering, suffering, tribulation, and ultimate final
restoration for the Jews, "the enigma of history." About this Gaebelein wrote,
"the Old Testament is practically a sealed book to every person who does not
believe in a literal restoration of Israel to their land"
(Stallard)
From The Dictionary of Premillenial Theology
edited by Mal Couch