The Prince and the Prophet

The title of this article is taken from the work of Pastor Claude Duvernoy (1), who passed away in 2016 after a long ministry devoted to reminding Christians of the importance of Israel and the love of Zion. A true witness of history, he left a poignant testament to believers:

“May it not be only the names of the Bible and a few ruins that move you there, a few disappointing and misleading holy sites... Do not let Israel alone make the mountains low!”

It was Claude Duvernoy who brought renewed attention to the legacy of Pastor William Hechler, the faithful companion of the “Prince” Theodor Herzl. For Herzl, Hechler was “the prophet,” sharing the biblical promises and opening for him the doors of Europe’s rulers, the Sultan, the Kaiser, the Pope. Yet none of these powerful men, filled with pride, allowed Herzl to fulfill his visionary dream: the establishment of the State of Israel.

The First Zionist Congress

As Israel inaugurates this week the 39th Zionist Congress, it is worth remembering the very first one. In Basel, Theodor Herzl declared, “I have founded the Jewish State.”
The meeting was originally planned for Munich, but strong opposition from local rabbis forced it to be relocated to Basel, Switzerland.

From August 29 to 31, 1897, Herzl opened the First World Zionist Congress, gathering nearly 200 delegates from Europe, Russia, Palestine, and the United States, including a handful of invited Christian Zionists. His opening speech became historic: “We are here to lay the foundations of the house that will shelter the Jewish people.”

“In five years, in fifty years certainly”

In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), the founding work of modern Zionism. In it, he analyzed the Jewish question and proposed a political, and prophetic solution: a homeland for the Jewish people. Even today, we can see how vital that vision was, and how vital it remains in the face of growing hatred and threats.

Herzl died in 1904, without seeing his dream fulfilled. The “great men of this world,” whom Hechler helped him approach, could not open the necessary doors, for it was not yet the appointed time. Herzl himself had prophesied:

“In five years perhaps, in fifty years certainly.”
And indeed, fifty years later, on November 29, 1947, the nations voted for the creation of a Jewish state.

The Restoration of the Jews in Palestine

Fifty years, a Jubilee: a symbol of deliverance, of the cancellation of debts, and of the restoration of the land. The land of Israel, lying fallow for two millennia, was to return to its rightful heirs.

As early as 1893, Hechler had published a prophetic booklet titled The Restoration of the Jews in Palestine According to Prophecy, in which he announced that the days of Israel’s salvation would begin in 1897–1898. He based his calculations on the book of Daniel, interpreting the “prophetic month” as thirty days/years — that is, 1,260 years from the conquest of Jerusalem by Caliph Omar (637–638), leading precisely to 1897–1898. And indeed, that was the very year the First Zionist Congress convened!

After the death of “Prince” Herzl, Hechler traveled throughout Europe preaching biblical prophecy. When asked if he believed he would live to see the Jewish state, he would simply reply: “The Lord has His own times. But I have seen the beginning, and that is enough.”

Jerry Klinger, founder of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, wrote: “Political Zionism and the modern State of Israel owe much to the determination of Theodor Herzl. Without a Christian, Herzl would have remained an obscure Austrian writer. It is the Reverend William Hechler, and Zionism’s debt to him, that have been forgotten…”

...The last years of Hechler’s life were marked by poverty and obscurity. He lived modestly in a small house in Richmond, near London, surrounded by his books, his maps of Palestine, and a few mementos of Herzl. The Reverend William Henry Hechler died in January 1931, in London, at the age of 86. He was buried in the Richmond cemetery, without ceremony, without tombstone, and without descendants.

It was only after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 that his name was rediscovered in the archives of the Zentral Zionistenarchiv in Jerusalem. Among Herzl’s papers were more than sixty letters signed “W. Hechler.” These letters, filled with fervor and vision, revealed the depth of their friendship. In one could be read lines such as:

“Fear nothing, dear Doctor. The nations will rise against you, but God will be your strength.”

In 2001, the government of Israel decided to erect a commemorative stone on the grave of Reverend Hechler in Richmond.

Jews and Christians alike must know history and discern the hand of God in the affairs of nations. He turns the hearts of kings, humbles the proud, and fulfills His purposes concerning Israel.

“For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?”
Isaiah 14:27

(1) Born in Nancy in 1929, Claude Duvernoy was a Protestant historian and theologian, a specialist in biblical prophecy. He became an Israeli citizen and lived in Jerusalem for 54 years. A spiritual heir of Jules Isaac, founder of the Jewish-Christian Friendship Association, he proclaimed for many years the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Claude Duvernoy was also repeatedly commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Just after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, he founded, together with his wife Marianne and Pastor Adolphe Hunziker of Geneva, Christian Action for Israel, a relief fund for families in need. A laureate of the Académie Française and the City of Jerusalem, he authored several books, including his well-known Moses.