Not Without a Struggle: Lifesketch of Rev. J. I. Fles by Kenneth Fles
[email protected] As nineteenth century Dutch immigrants to America progressed from pioneering in fields and woods to becoming settlers, their Midwestern cities grew around them. The post-Civil War era saw more industrialization and easier travel. And new ideas flourished. Tightly-knit Dutch communities were conflicted; could they stay close to God while modernizing and becoming more American, or should they resist change and keep their traditional ways? Their devout religious beliefs led to many doctrinal disputes between themselves. Jan Isak (anglicized to John Isaac) Fles was a converted Rabbi’s son and a minister who once had a key role in an early Christian Reformed Church (CRC) evangelical mission that spread the Christian gospel of salvation among Jews. Fles’s support for the Chicago Hebrew Mission and its influential leaders was significant, but his role is barely remembered now. This paper is not only a biography; it also attempts to show how beliefs about the end times were once part of the dramatic, complex relationships between the Reverend Fles, the CRC, and the Chicago Hebrew Mission. Fles and other ministers, usually from Protestant denominations other than the CRC, understood the Bible literally by taking the Scriptures “in a realistic manner.” They studied Bible verses describing how the Jewish people would someday return from exile to live in the land God once gave them. Those ministers advanced a theology which said the Jews will recognize and accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah and Savior, on the day when they see Him coming again.