In 1948 President Harry S. Truman by following in the footsteps of President George Washington and heeding the Scriptural advice of Pastor J. Frank Norris of First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas blessed Israel by being the first head of state to recognized Israel as a sovereign Nation.
Below you will find historical information concerning President Harry Truman to recognized Israel as a Nation.
Following this you will find how President George Washington also brought blessings upon America!
"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I WILL BLESS THEM THAT BLESS THEE, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)
"O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant FOR EVER, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an EVERLASTING covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it." (Psalm 105:6-12)
Director, J. Frank Norris Historical Society
The J. Frank Norris Historical Society
Dr. J. Frank Norris' Letter on Israel
to President Harry S. Truman
dated October 2, 1947
In 1947 President Harry Truman asked for the opinion of Dr. J. Frank Norris on the Palestine situation. Below is Dr. Norris' answer and President Truman's personal reply to him.
First Baptist Church
4th and Throckmorton Streets
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Oct. 2, 1947
Oct. 2, 1947
Hon. Harry S. Truman
President United States
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:
Mr. Matthew J. Connelly wired me New York October 1st and suggested that I write you certain matters of my trip to Palestine.
First, I want to thank you for your very kind personal letter of August 5th, which was of invaluable assistance in all my travels.
I have given extensive study to the Jewish Palestinian question. The issue is whether we will take the authority of the Bible of our mothers or the Koran with the sword and flame.
In that whole controversy the big issue is who owns the land, who has the title to that land? If that question is settled there is no other question.
The Lord God Almighty in Genesis the 17th chapter, specifically states that the title to Palestine is given not to Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs, but to Isaac and his seed for ever.
“And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” (Gen. 17:19)
This covenant was confirmed to Isaac, Genesis 26:3:
“Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;”
This covenant was also confirmed to Jacob, Genesis 28:13:
“And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;”
The covenant was likewise confirmed to Moses in Deuteronomy 30:3-5:
“That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the out most parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.”
David specifically states the title to that land is to the Jews and the descendants of Jacob: Psalm 105:9-12:
“Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.”
Thirteen hundred years ago the Arabs were usurpers, Mohammet with fire and sword, and they were robbers of property that belongs to the Jews.
A second and very important authority in addition to Scriptural authority, Great Britain was given mandate over Palestine for the purpose of Jewish immigration into that land and for making it a national home.
This mandate was confirmed by the United States Government and by the 57 Nations of the League of Nations.
The tragedy and the cause of all the present trouble is that Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister, put on a two-fold appeasement in 1939:
First, with Hitler, and that brought on World War II.
Second, with the Arabs, who were the allies of Hitler.
Chamberlain violated the international law giving that land as a national home for Jews in 1939, and said only 70,000 Jews would be permitted to go for the next five years, and after that none except by the consent of the Arabs. But the mandate made no such restrictions.
Therefore the present Jewish immigration into Palestine is not “illegal”; it’s legal.
Based on the mandate given to Great Britain over Palestine, and confirmed by the United States Government and confirmed by the League of Nations, the Jews invested six hundred and fifty million dollars in Palestine, built cities, public works, and the curse of God Almighty is on every hand that violates this most solemn agreement the mandate three times over confirmed.
Now, Mr. President, it certainly is a matter that should cause us to stop and think that the Arab leaders from the Grand Mufti on down were allies of Hitler, and it ill becomes them to come now into court with their hands dripping with the blood of the Jews, six million of them murdered by Hitler.
I interviewed many Arab leaders, and without question I found that the whole crowd are for Stalin, just like they formerly were for Hitler.
While this country was fighting Hitler, thirty thousand young Jews from Palestine volunteered and went to the battle front and not a single Arab regiment.
If the Arabs and Jews in Palestine were left alone they would get along and settle their troubles.
Russia is doing everything at her command to foment the trouble.
The time has come, and long past, when the United States should keep its promise and take a firm stand for law and order in that land that has given the world its Bible and Saviour.
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed by J. Frank Norris)
J. Frank Norris
First Baptist Church
4th and Throckmorton Streets
Fort Worth, Texas
(Signed by J. Frank Norris)
J. Frank Norris
First Baptist Church
4th and Throckmorton Streets
Fort Worth, Texas
JFN:r
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Dear Dr. Norris:
I am most grateful for your thoughtful letter of October second. I deeply appreciate having the benefit of this expression of your views because I know that you have given long and extensive study to the Jewish Palestinian question.
(Signed by President Harry Truman)
Harry Truman
President
Reverend J. Frank Norris,
First Baptist Church,
4th and Throckmorton Streets,
Fort Worth, Texas.
SOURCE OF THE TWO HISTORICAL LETTERS ABOVE:
October 22,2004
Dear Brethren:
Dr. DeWayne Nichols, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, thought this would be something you ought to read.
Sincerely,
Dr. James A. Vineyard
Pastor, Windsor Hills Baptist Church
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Truman's message of recognition of Israel
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photos/israel.jpg
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/israel/palestin.htm
Blessed the Stock of Abraham in America
The first Jewish community to address the newly elected George Washington was the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia, on May 6, 1789.
Washington replied thusly in late May 1789:
Gentlemen:-I thank you with great sincerity for your congratulations on my appointment to the office which I have the honor to hold by the unanimous choice of my fellow citizens, and especially the expressions you are pleased to use in testifying the confidence that is reposed in me by your congregation ...
I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and philanthropy is much more prevalent than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth, and that your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion as it shall become still more extensive; happily the people of the United States have in many instances exhibited examples worthy of imitation, the salutary influence of which will doubtless extend much farther if gratefully enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of heaven) have been attained by fortitude in war, they shall conduct themselves with reverence to the Deity and charity toward their fellow- creatures.
May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.
G. Washington.
In 1790, President George Washington wrote a letter to the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island, affirming the values of tolerance and religious freedom that he saw as the bedrock of the country:
All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. ...
May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.
May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.
G. Washington.
In late December of 1790 replied to a letter from the Hebrew Congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond in these words:
To the HEBREW CONGREGATIONS IN THE CITIES OF PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, CHARLESTON, AND RICHMOND.
Gentlemen:-The liberality of sentiment toward each other, which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this country, stands unparalleled in the history of nations.
The affection of such a people is a treasure beyond the reach of calculation, and the repeated proofs which my fellow-citizens have given of their attachment to me and approbation of my doings form the purest source of my temporal felicity.
The affectionate expressions of your address again excite my gratitude and receive my warmest acknowledgment.
The power and goodness of the Almighty, so strongly manifested in the events of our late glorious revolution, and His kind interposition in our behalf, have been no less visible in the establishment of our present equal government. In war He directed the sword, and in peace He has ruled in our councils. My agency in both has been guided by the best intentions and a sense of duty I owe to my country.
And as my exertions have hitherto been amply rewarded by the approbation of my fellow citizens, I shall endeavor to deserve a continuance of it by my future conduct.
May the same temporal and eternal blessings which you implore for me, rest upon your congregations.
G. Washington.
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