Cyrus nations ?: Blessings, Curses or Coincidence ? The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
Hatikvah Films dvd, 2017 59 minutes £9.99
Cyrus was the Persian king who allowed the Jewish captives in Babylon to return to their own country to rebuild Jerusalem, the city and the Temple.
It was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s prophecies given centuries before (Isaiah 44-45 and Jeremiah 29)).
The circumstances in the story told in this dvd are similar yet different.
After the sack of Jerusalem in 70AD, the Jews were scattered throughout the world – the diaspora.
Starting the story of the movement to regather the Jewish people to their historic homeland in England, we learn of Edward 1’s edict to expel all Jews from England, of Oliver Cromwell’s attempt to overturn that edict and Charles II’s approval of their return to the UK
In the 18th century the movement to help regather the Jews to their homeland gathers pace with the Evangelical Revival, spearheaded by Whitefield and the Wesleys.
Charles Wesley espoused the idea in one of his hymns ‘Almighty God of love’ one verse of which reads –
‘Send then thy servants forth,
To call the Hebrews home;
From East and West and South and North,
Let all the wanderers come,
Where’er in lands unknown
The fugitives remain.
Bid every creature help them on,
Thy holy mount to gain.
In the 19th century, the church became increasingly awake to the Biblical prophecies concerning the Jews and the Holy Land. The likes of Spurgeon, Bishop JC Ryle and Robert Murray M’Cheyne preached the necessity for the Jews to recover their historic homeland.
Politically, Lord Palmerston also strongly supported the idea.
The rise of Zionism with Theodor Herzl added impetus to the growing surge of concern for the people of Israel to return to the Holy Land largely by immigration.
The high point may be seen as the Balfour Declaration of 1917 but, after the Mandate which gave responsibility for Palestine to the British, political enthusiasm and commitment for returning the Jews to Palestine began to wane. The British government looked to the Arabs rather than the Jews in relation to their political aspirations.
Attributing the loss of its Empire after World War 2 to this alleged betrayal of the Jews is a tenable but controversial consequence portrayed here. It is an interpretation of history.
The film features interviews with academics, church leaders and eye witness accounts as well as historical footage.
This is a well-presented and engaging history of the Jews in their trials and tribulations over time and their eventual restoration to Israel in 1948.