William Eugene Blackstone

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Dr. William Eugene Blackstone (October 6, 1841 – November 7, 1935) was an American evangelist and Christian Zionist influenced by Dwight Lyman Moody, and author of the Zionist Blackstone Memorial of 1891.

Blackstone was born in Adams, New York 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 but was not accepted due to "frailness of body". Instead he joined the United States Christian Commission (similar to the modern Red Cross) and was stationed much of the time at General Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters.

On June 5, 1866, Blackstone married Sarah Lee Smith and settled in Oak Park, Illinois in 1870, where he engaged in the "business of building and property investments". Under the influemce of evangelical preacher Dwight Lyman Moody he turned to religion, and in his preaching as well as in his writing, he proclaimed the premillennial return and rapture of the Church. As he ministered across the U.S., Blackstone spoke with increasing fervor of the restoration of the historical Israelites to Palestine.

In 1881, he wrote, Jesus is Coming.

On November 24-25, 1890, Blackstone organized the Conference on the Past, Present and Future of Israel at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago where participants included leaders of both Jewish and Christian communities. Resolutions of sympathy for the oppressed Jews 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 resettlement of Jewish people in Palestine. Accordingly, the Blackstone Memorial of 1891 was drafted as a petition signed by 413 prominent Christian and Jewish leaders in the United States.

In 1891, Dr. W.E. Blackstone, quoting the foremost authorities on international law, pointed out that since the Jews never gave up their title to Palestine, the general “law of dereliction” did not apply in their case; “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...” Blackstone quoted the leading legal authorities of his day, who agreed that the Jewish claim is legally sound – and this remains so to this day. [1]

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.

Blackstone died on November 7, 1935.