William Eugene Blackstone (October 6, 1841 – November 7, 1935) was an American evangelist

Evangelism

Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

 and Christian Zionist

Christian Zionism

Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, is in accordance with Biblical prophecy. It overlaps with, but is distinct from, the nineteenth century movement for the Restoration of the Jews...

. he was the author of the proto- Zionist Blackstone Memorial

Blackstone Memorial

The Blackstone Memorial of 1891 was a petition written by William Eugene Blackstone, a Christian Restorationist, in favor of the delivery of Palestine to the Jews. It was signed by many leading American citizens and presented to President Harrison....

 of 1891. Blackstone was influenced by Dwight Lyman Moody, James H. Brookes

James H. Brookes

James H. Brookes, D. D. , American religious writer, was pastor of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri.The was named in his honor . Dr. Brookes was a prolific writer, having authored more than 200 booklets and tracts...

 and John Nelson Darby

John Nelson Darby

John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation...

.

Blackstone was born in Adams, New York

Adams (town), New York

Adams is a town in Jefferson County, New York, USA. The population was 5,143 at the 2010 census. The town is named after President John Adams.The Town of Adams also has a village named Adams...

 and became an evangelical Christian when he was 11 during revival meetings at a local Methodist church. He enlisted for military service during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 but was not accepted due to "frailness of body". Instead he joined the United States Christian Commission

United States Christian Commission

The United States Christian Commission was an important agency of the Union during the American Civil War. It was designed to offer religious support, but also provided numerous social services and recreation to the soldiers of the U.S. Army. It provided Protestant chaplains and social workers,...

 (similar to the modern Red Cross) and was stationed much of the time at General Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

's headquarters as coordinator of medical services for injured combatants.

On June 5, 1866, Blackstone married Sarah Lee Smith (daughter of Philander Smith

Philander Smith

Philander Smith was an American real estate agent and philanthropist. Philander Smith College is his namesake.- Biography :...

) and settled in Oak Park, Illinois

Oak Park, Illinois

Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...

 in 1870, where he very successfully engaged in the "business of building and property investments". Blackstone, in a single night of personal spiritual struggle, decided to dedicate his life to God. Renouncing material pursuits, he proclaimed for the balance of his long life, in his preaching as well as in his writing, the premillennial

Premillennialism

Premillennialism in Christian end-times theology is the belief that Jesus will literally and physically be on the earth for his millennial reign, at his second coming. The doctrine is called premillennialism because it holds that Jesus’ physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration...

 return and rapture

Rapture

The rapture is a reference to the "being caught up" referred to in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the "dead in Christ" and "we who are alive and remain" will be caught up in the clouds to meet "the Lord"....

 of the Church. As he ministered across the U.S., Blackstone spoke with increasing fervor in support of Jewish Restorationism.

In 1878, he wrote, Jesus is Coming. His book became the veritable reference source of American dispensationalist thought. Over the next 50 years, Jesus is Coming sold multi-millions of copies worldwide and was translated into 48 languages.

He initially focused on the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land

Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land

Christian Restorationism, the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was a nineteenth-century, Christian movement with both political and religious motivations.-Secular motivations:...

 as a prelude to their conversion to Christianity, out of a pious wish to hasten the coming of the Messiah; but he increasingly became concerned with the deadly, Russian, government-instigated pogroms and believed that it was necessary to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. He was, furthermore, persuaded that neither the European nations nor the United States would accept as many Jews as needed to escape from Europe.

Blackstone and his daughter traveled to the Holy Land in 1888. He returned convinced that a return of the Jewish people to its ancient homeland was the only possible solution to the persecution Jews suffered elsewhere. On November 24–25, 1890, Blackstone organized the Conference on the Past, Present and Future of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 where participants included leaders of both Jewish and Christian communities, albeit not leaders of the Reform movement.

The conference issued a call urging the great powers, including the Ottoman Empire, to return Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 to the Jews. Resolutions of sympathy for the oppressed Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 living in Russia were passed, but Blackstone was convinced that such resolutions - even though passed by prominent men - were insufficient. He advocated strongly for the voluntary resettlement of the Jewish people, suffering under virulent anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

, in Palestine.

A year later in 1891, Blackstone led a petition drive that was approved by the conference. It was later known as the Blackstone Memorial

Blackstone Memorial

The Blackstone Memorial of 1891 was a petition written by William Eugene Blackstone, a Christian Restorationist, in favor of the delivery of Palestine to the Jews. It was signed by many leading American citizens and presented to President Harrison....

. The Memorial was signed by 413 prominent Christian and a few Jewish leaders in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Blackstone personally gathered the signatories of men such as John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Cyrus McCormick, Senators, Congressmen, religious leaders of all denominatons, newspaper editors, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and others for the "Blackstone Memorial." He presented the "Memorial" to President Harrision, March 1891, calling for American support of Jewish restoration to Palestine. His petition presaged and paralleled the later ideas of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the State of Israel, whose establishment of modern Zionism was outlined in his book, "Der Judenstaadt", 1896.

The Blackstone Memorial read, in part:

Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews?…These provinces, as well as Romania, Montenegro, and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Palestine as rightfully belong to the Jews?

Also in 1891, Blackstone stated that, the general "law of dereliction" did not apply to the Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 in regard to Palestine:

for they never abandoned the land. They made no treaty; they did not even surrender. They simply succumbed, after the most desperate conflict, to the overwhelming power of the Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

.

Learning of the rise of the Zionist movement, led by Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...

, Blackstone became an outspoken and ardent supporter of Zionism. When Herzlian Zionism

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

 considered the offer by the British government of an interim Jewish State in Uganda he campaigned against it. He sent to Herzl a personal Bible outlined with the specific Biblical references to Jewish Restoration to Palestine only. The Bible was said to have been prominently displayed on Herzl's desk for many years. It is no longer locatable.

In 1904, he began teaching that the world has already been evangelized, citing Acts 2:5, 8:4, Mark 16:20 and Colossians 1:23. As one of the most popular Evangelists in the United States, he traveled extensively continuing to spread the Gospel until his death 31 years later.

Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis rediscovered the Blackstone Memorial in 1916 during the period of his raucous, at times anti-Semitic, Congressional appointment hearings. Brandeis, as head of the American Zionist movement, utilizing the intercession of Nathan Straus

Nathan Straus

Nathan Straus was an American merchant and philanthropist who co-owned two of New York City's biggest department stores – R.H...

 who first brought Brandeis's attention to the potential significance of the "Blackstone Memorial of 1891", sought out and formed an alliance with Blackstone.

Nathan Straus wrote to Reverend Blackstone, May 16, 1916,on behalf of Brandeis:

“Mr. Brandeis is perfectly infatuated with the work that you have done along the lines of Zionism. It would have done your heart good to have heard him assert what a valuable contribution to the cause your document is. In fact he agrees with me that you are the Father of Zionism, as your work antedates Herzl".

Brandeis requested that Blackstone reissue a "modern Blackstone Memorial" to President Wilson. Brandeis understood the fundamentals of power politics and grassroots American Christian and American political support. Brandeis understood the support that Blackstone would raise for the "Memorial" would enable President Wilson to accept and endorse American Zionism and the later British Balfour Declaration of 1917, which set the course for the establishment of the State of Israel. Though 75 years of age, Reverend Blackstone energetically undertook the strenuous project. Of particular note, Blackstone secured the endorsement of his Memorial to President Wilson from the Presbyterian Church. President Wilson was a religiously observant Presbyterian. The Memorial, though presented to President Wilson only privately, was very affective in garnering President Wilson's support and in turn reassuring the British of American support for the Balfour Declaration. The Blackstone Memorial of 1916, unlike the Memorial of 1891, was never publicly presented.

Blackstone remained committed to Jewish restoration and Zionism for the balance of his long life. As a believing Evangelical Christian, he witnessed the seeming fulfillment of Biblical prophecy as the Jewish state came back to life after 1900 years. Blackstone died thirteen years before the Jewish state of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

was reborn in 1948. Without Rev. Blackstone's lifelong efforts to build American political support and American prophetic understanding of dispensationalism and restorationism, American support for Zionism and the State of Israel might have been very different. Famous during his life, he slipped into historical obscurity

Reverend Blackstone died on November 7, 1935. He was buried in a modest grave at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. All his Evangelical life, Blackstone described himself as "God's Little Errand Boy."

External links

• William E. Blackstone
• Mideast Outpost: Dr. William Eugene Blackstone (Oct. 6, 1841 – Nov. 7, 1935) at mideastoutpost.com
• Blackstone Memorial at www.amfi.org
• The High Walls of Jerusalem, A History of the Balfour Declaration and the Birth of the British Mandate in Palestine, Ronald Sanders, Holt, Rinehart, Winson, 1983 New York
• Mason, Alphoos T.M., Brandeis, A Free Man's Life, (New York: Viking Press, 1956)
• The Politics of Christian Zionism, 1891–1948, Paul C. Merkely, Frank Cass Press, London, 1998
• Harry S. Truman and the Founding of the State of Israel, Michael T. Benson, Praeger Publishers, 1997
• Louis D. Brandeis, a Life, Melvin Urofsky, Random House, N.Y., 2009
• Jesus is coming: The Life and Work of William E. Blackstone (1841—1935) by Jonathan David MoorheadMoorhead, Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary, 2008, 373 pages; publication number: 3318932 abstract http://gradworks.umi.com/33/18/3318932.html