But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. Romans 2:29
During my twenty years as an adherent of Dispensational Premillennialism, I often heard it asserted that Christians, and the United States, have a mandate from God to support the modern state of Israel.
That's Christian Zionism, in a nutshell.
Christian Zionism focuses on God's promises to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you" (Gen 12:3), and "To your seed will I give this [i.e. Canaan] land"(Gen 12:7).
Televangelists and popular Christian authors teach that these promises mean that Christians are obligated to support the modern country of Israel, unconditionally.
This - I now know - is wrong for several reasons. Here are four:
1. THE GOSPEL IS NOT RACIST
First, the promise to Abraham is to his seed. And Abraham's seed is Jesus Christ (Gal 3:16,29). Through Jesus, the promised seed of Abraham, all the nations are to be blessed (Gen 12:3; Gal 3:16).
God's covenant has always been about faith, not race (Rom 4:3,9). Believers of all nationalities - Jews, Greeks, and all other races (Gal 3:28; Mat 28:19) are heirs of God's promise to Abraham (Gal 3:29).
This truth stands against the race based doctrines of Christian Zionists as well as the various sects who hold to British Israelite views. These groups devote vast resources and time identifying the physical descendents of Abraham, the "true Israelites," if you will. They come to different conclusions: For instance, the brand of British Israelism embraced by Christian Identity adherents holds that modern Ashkenazi Jews are imposters (and worthy of all demonization), their own Anglo-European selves being imbued with true Israelite blood. Accordingly, their objections to Christian Zionism are typically framed in racial terms - they regard Zionists as heretical for supporting Jews who (as they see it) don't have Israelite blood in them.
Then again, Christian Zionists also promote a race based doctrine, being ignorant of their own New Testament which clearly indicates that a spiritual Jew isn't the same as a physical Jew. Even the outward sign of God's old covenant with Jews, circumcision of males, prefigured the inward sign of the better, new covenant characterized by "circumcision...of the heart" (Rom 2:28,29), applying to males and females, and without regard to bloodline (Gal 3:28).
Unlike the Identity sect, Christian Zionists claim to love Jewish people. Nevertheless, many of these Christians look forward to a future event called "the Rapture," when they will (so the story goes) leave Israeli Jews behind to die by the millions. Many Christian Zionists believe that two-thirds of the Jews in Israel will die violent deaths just before Christ's second coming, based on a grim, futurist interpretation of Zechariah 13:8.
I have Christian friends in both the Identity and Zionist camps. Clearly, the former have a grievously wrong view of Jewish people. But what manner of dissonance accounts for the fact that many among the latter camp encourage Jews to migrate to Israel...to be slaughtered!? If I accepted the futurist view of Zechariah 13:8 (I don't), I'd be urging all to STAY AWAY from Israel.
2. DO JORDAN, SYRIA, AND IRAQ BELONG TO ISRAEL?
Second, the boundaries of the modern political entity, Israel, entail only a small portion of the land promised to Abraham. The promised land extended from the Nile to the Euphrates (Gen 15:18).
So, when Christians assert that God gave Israel the land it occupies, they ought to be asked whether God plans to give them the rest of the "promised land" too. Should we expect Israel to expand eastward, annexing parts of Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq all the way to the Euphrates River?
3. THE BIBLE TRUMPS JOHN HAGEE
Third, Israel achieved suzerainty over this area during the height of Solomon's rule (1 Kings 4:21),and actually God fulfilled His promise to Abraham four centuries earlier (Joshua 21:43-45). These facts I found when looking to Scripture rather than to John Hagee.
The promise of land to Abraham's physical descendents was fulfilled. The Bible records the fact.
4. DON'T BE MORE PRO ISRAEL THAN GOD'S EVER BEEN!
Fourth, Christian Zionist support for modern Israel is stronger than God's support for ancient Israel, His own covenant people! Under the old covenant, God severely judged Israel over her unbelief and rebellion, as the epistle to the Hebrews reminds us (cp. 4:6). See Leviticus 26:17; Deuteronomy 28:15; Jeremiah 7:15 and hundreds of other passages.
Jesus "came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). Their unbelief resulted in them being cut off, though they are the natural branches (Romans 11:20). Jesus told the Jewish religious leaders, "... the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruit of it" (Matthew 21:43). Jesus wasn't endorsing "Replacement Theology" (Supersessionism), the truly pernicious teaching that God has rejected Jews and replaced them with the church. Jesus meant that the leadership of Israel was taken from the Pharisees and given to the Apostles. The Congregation was entirely Jewish at first, then Gentiles were grafted in, just as unbelieving Jews are grafted back in (to the "olive tree", i.e. God's covenant) when they are no longer in unbelief (Romans 11:23).
The modern state of Israel was founded by unbelieving, secular Jews who were devoted to Marx, not Moses. There is no scripture for an unrepentant regathering (cp. Deuteronomy 30:1 - 3) of unbelieving Jews as a fulfillment of prophecy. The state of Israel worships the same demons that caused ancient Israel to be evicted by God: to wit, over 1 million unborn children killed, and Tel Aviv is world renowned for its embrace of homosexuality. Israel is an apartheid state, treating Palestinians (whether Muslim or Christian), and even Shephardic Jews, as second class citizens - ongoing documentation of this is found at Mondoweiss, a website run by liberal Jews who care more about being human than supporting nationalism of any kind.
Yet, my Zionist friends tell me regularly that Israel (the political entity) is the "chosen people," and worthy of unconditional support. Practically speaking, this means one cannot criticize Israeli policy without being accused of anti-Semitism. It also means that the United States must oppose every foe of Israel, or risk incurring the wrath of God (per the misreading of Genesis 12:3).
CONCLUSION
Most information about Israel and the Middle East is very one sided, eschatology notwithstanding.
I condemn the terrorist acts of Hamas. The PLO contains terrorist elements, but the Zionist movement was advanced by terrorism before there was a PLO.
Denouncing the terrorist acts of one side, while giving a pass to the other side.. is no way to appraise facts.
When Menachem (Nobel Peace Prize winner) Begin's Irgun set off explosives in the King David Hotel in 1946, it was the largest terrorist bombing in history up to that time.
The massacre of men, women, and children at Deir Yassin was also carried out by Irgun.
The attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, during the Six Day War in 1967 was not the action of a friend.
Former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky's book, By Way of Deception, exposed the perfidy of Mossad. The Israeli government tried to block publication in the USA. The late Joe Sobran recounted Ostrovsky's story of Israeli complicity in the 1983 attack by Arab terrorists on the US Marines' barracks in Beirut:
It's time for Christians to be consistent in their denunciations of terrorists. Old Testament Israel wasn't given a pass when they engaged in treacherous behavior. The ancient Gibeonites were marked for annihilation by God, but deceived Joshua into making covenant with them. God required Israel to adhere to that covenant, and severe judgment resulted when Saul violated it. Likewise, Zionists and their friends in the British and American governments broke the many promises made to the the indigenous Arab population of Palestine, and continue to treat them with contempt.
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