Why are Christian Zionists more Zionist than Christian?
You might think that Christians would tend to stick up for each other when the crunch comes, but in the case of Christian Zionists, they abandon any sense of solidarity with their Christian brothers and sisters for their allegiance to the Zionist state of Israel. Western Christian supporters of Israel pretend that Palestinian Christians (along with their resistance to the State of Israel) do not exist. I can’t think of any other time when Christians do this sort of thing on such a grand scale and with such zeal. In general, if you ask conservative Christians to betray their Christian brethren for the sake of an ideology that is secular, and more resistant to the preaching of the Gospel than any number of socialist countries, you would likely have more luck if you asked the family cat to explain Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
They unconditionally support a state whose secular ideology they do not even remotely understand. Even Noam Chomsky has noted that the vast majority of Zionists are not even Jewish. How often do you come across an ideology with the majority of its supporters not only not understanding its fundamental concepts, but actually holding to beliefs that are contradicted by that ideology? Christian Zionists are clearly more Zionist than they are Christian even though they don’t know what Zionism really is.
The Christian Zionist “love” of Israel is completely self serving. Many Jews, regardless of whether they support Israel or not, consider the Christian Zionists to be anti-Semites. Politically useful anti-Semites, in the eyes of Zionist Jews, but still anti-Semites nonetheless . It would not be the first time that Zionists have enlisted the help of anti-Semites to further their political goals in Palestine and it probably wont be the last.
The Israeli state is a Zionist state and the Jewish supporters of Israel tell us that Israel can only exist if it is a Zionist state. If Zionism fails, then Israel as a nation will collapse. Zionist ideology has always demanded that a Zionist state must be a state with a permanent Jewish majority. This follows from the racist notion that Jews and non-Jews can not live together.
Israel must be a state for all the Jews of the world, not of its citizens. Israel is not a state for Arabs in the same way that it is for Jews, even Jews that don’t live in Israel. Any Jewish person in the world has rights to nationality and citizenship in Israel, while Arabs, regardless of how long they have lived in Israel-Palestine, can only have rights of citizenship. Israel has a two tiered concept of citizenship. At least 20 laws discriminate in favour of Jews against non-Jews. Extensive benefits are conferred to any person who has served in the I.D.F. and since very few Arabs ever serve in the I.D.F., this means that enormous benefits end up with Jewish people exclusively in Israel.
What is it about a democratic Israel, that exists for all its citizens equally, that Christian Zionists do not like? What part of Christian Zionist theology would be compromised if Israel granted full citizenship and nationality to its Arab citizens in a manner identical to how it now treats its Jewish citizens? Which part of the Schofield Bible would be contradicted if Zionism was renounced in Israel and the Palestinian refugees were allowed to return or given compensation? Why would Christian Zionists be disappointed if Arabs (Muslim, Christian or secular) returned to the same peaceful and respectful relationship with Jews that they enjoyed in the Middle East in centuries past?
For Christian Zionists, a two or one state solution is an abomination before God. What they want is no solution. The only solution they desire is an Apartheid Jewish State with an Arab population firmly under the oppressive thumb of extremist right wing Zionists. Arabs in Israel are not people, they are an obstacle.
There is not one scripture in the Bible that demands that Israel never be a state equally for all its citizens. The Zionist doctrine has come from the twisted ideology of a group of European Jews who rejected the Torah and it’s values of compassion toward gentiles. As such it can not last, so why not save everyone from a lot of suffering and back the winner…that is …God’s justice for all His people, Jew and Gentile.
Craig Nielsen
ACTION FOR PALESTINE
Israel-Palestine 
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June 19, 2011 at 10:55 pm
irishanglican ~ Fr. Robert
Craig,
Once again your arguments are all poltical and at best ad hoc, and never biblical or theological! This is what one gets with liberal supersessional theology!
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June 20, 2011 at 12:30 am
craignielsen
Read the rest of the posts on the blog. Plenty of theological stuff. Read Yakov Rabkin’s “A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism.” The anti-Zionist Rabbis are not liberals, they represent what is left of the majority Orthodox Jewish tradition that totally opposed Zionism and the project to take Palestine. I am not a liberal nor a supersessionalist. Take a look at the youtube videos I have done as well. I can email you a pdf of my book if you like. That way you can at least know what I am saying and what i am not saying.
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June 20, 2011 at 12:52 am
irishanglican ~ Fr. Robert
I lived in Israel in the late 90’s, so I know about many of the different sects of Judaism and the differences of the secular Zionists, Conservatives, Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, etc. And their (Orthodox, etc.) rejection of Zionism is much different than yours, they are much more concerned about the secular aspect of Zionism, and their own religious aspects. And I am also aware of some of the secular Zionists use of the Christian Zionists. I am myself not uncritical of some Christian Zionists. But the point is, Israel in their land is simply the providence and will of God, whether we are Christian Zionists, or Supersessional. To miss this is simply grevious biblical and theological error! Outside again, of the political, social and ethnic aspects. Again, your position depends upon a certain rejection of Biblical Zionism, simply!
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June 20, 2011 at 9:07 am
craignielsen
The Bible does not teach, and nor has Orthodox Judaism ever taught, that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people by simple virtue of their Jewishness. This point is so obviously taught in scripture that denial of it makes me wonder if the Christian supporters of Israel have even bothered to read scripture at all! See my post “Who owns the land of Palestine” or better still let me send you a copy of my book and you will see that my arguments are virtually identical to the anti-Zionist rabbinical Jews.
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June 20, 2011 at 4:19 pm
irishanglican ~ Fr. Robert
Sadly Craig, it appears it is “you” that simply doesn’t read and believe literally Holy Scripture! And the Christian cannot finally measure or understand Scripture, by Jewish Rabbis. For this, God gave us St. Paul…Eph. 3:1-13, etc. / Titus 1:14-15, etc.)
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June 20, 2011 at 2:20 am
zaplation
Come on Robert! You know that Israel was sent back into exile (Assyria, Babylon) and was not to return until they changed their ways. And when they did return it would be obvious that it was God who would bring them back without the help of anyone. Do you honestly think that that is what has happened now? Especially as a Christian? Aren’t they supposed to follow God (and Jesus!) and then they would return to the land (using your argument – not what I necessarily believe) – not the other way round. In what Bible reading of yours can you see that God gave them the land and then just sat on his hands hoping they would come back to his ways. Paul says that we are all children of God and “no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).
so what is the problem with this post? What is the problem with pointing out that this supposedly ‘godly’ nation is an apartheid nation with better rights for one people group and lesser rights for another people group? What gospel are you reading to still be able to support that?
(Read my post on this blog – “Christian Zionism – still living in the Old Covenant” for a theological/biblical account for this belief … as brief as it is if your interested.)
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June 20, 2011 at 3:51 am
zaplation
Robert I just quickly read through the two links you put on another post on this site. I now know that this argument is futile. A web site full of miss-quoted scripture that also concludes that NT Wright is just living in “abstract thought” and speaking nonsense is not a reliable source to be taken seriously. Do you find it troubling that all the big theologians and scholars who have devoted their LIFE to studying the Bible feel they have no choice but to reject christian Zionism? The Land was not just given for the sake of it: it was for a purpose. The land was to serve a purpose. The land was not just given for the sake of it.
I’ll finish here with a quote from Charles Scobie’s almost monumental 950 page book on biblical theology – OT and NT theology (The ways of our God: An approach to Biblical theology, 2003):
“Christians are bound to feel a special sympathy for the Jewish people in the light of the biblical heritage they share… But they cannot share the view that Jews have an inalienable right to the whole of the Holy Land. Sympathy for the Jewish view has to be balanced by a concern for an equally biblical principle, that of justice; Christians must therefore encourage the search for a solution that will be a just one for both Jews and Arabs” (pg. 566).
Even ultra-conservative Millard Erickson is lead to believe that “there is, however, a future for national Israel… Yet Israel will be saved by entering the church just as do the Gentiles… To sum up, then: the church is the new Israel. There is a special future coming for national Israel, however, through large-scale conversion to Christ and entry into the church” (Christian Theology, 2nd Edition, p. 1053). I don’t personally agree with all these statements, but my purpose here is served.
Jesus came not just for Israel but for the world; gentiles like you and me. He was concerned about THE KINGDOM OF GOD (worldwide, non-nationalistic, non-military). In fact in Acts 1:6 the disciples ask “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel” (compare Luke 24:21). But Jesus is not concerned and brushes their views aside and speaks of the real issues: that they go into all the world. Here was his chance! But no.
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June 20, 2011 at 4:09 pm
irishanglican ~ Fr. Robert
Zaplation,
It is sad that people like you that are anti-Christian Zionist and Biblical Zionism, simply don’t engage with the reality of what it teaches and believes. This is just plan ignorance and bias! I am not going to go into depth here, I have given the Christian and Biblical Zionist link, and there one can see what is taught and believed!
And btw, Acts 1:6 actually touches upon what Jesus must have taught during His forty days Risen among them (Acts 1:3) concerning the “subject” of Israel and the Kingdom, etc. But Jesus says, “You are not permitted to know (it is not for you to know) the times or periods that the Father has set by His own authority.” (NET Bible Translation and note…which I placed in the parenthesis). It is not for them, or us to know the exact timing of this great subject. But then the two angels or “men in white clothing” told them that as Jesus has ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, He would literally come back there, to the same place..Acts 1:10-11 / Zech. 14:4, etc. And again, this certainly does deal with Israel and the Kingdom! And “times” (Kairos, Gk.) does refer to the duration of the interval previous to the Parousia or Coming of Christ and the length of time it will occupy.
“Broadly speaking, “chrons” expresses the duration of a period, “hairos” (Gk.) stresses it as marked by certain features; thus in Acts 1:7, “the Father has set within His own authority” both the times (chronos), the lengths of the periods, and the seasons (hairos), epochs characterized by certain events; in 1 Thess. 5:1, “times” refers to the length of the interval before the Parousia takes place (the presence of Christ with the saints when He comes to receive them to Himself at the Rapture), and to the length of time the Parousia will occupy; “seasons” refers to the special features of the period before, during, and after the Parousia.” … “Chronos” marks quantity, “kairos”, quality. (W.E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words)
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June 20, 2011 at 5:11 pm
irishanglican ~ Fr. Robert
Zap.. Btw, concerning Tom Wright he is of course a brilliant mind, but he has simply departed from the simplicity & authority of Holy Scripture, as have so many theolog’s today! I would see him in some form of today’s Neo-Orthodoxy. As I have said over and over the Church today is in a profound free-fall and certain apostasy! So the numbers of modern, or today’s theolog’s and theology means very little, we simply must return and find our submission in the full belief & authority of God’s Word! (2 Tim.3:16) Note I recognise and believe myself, in a certain aspect of Dispensational doctrine & so-called theology, a clear distinction between God’s program for Israel and God’s program for the Church. And thus first and when possible, always a consistent and regular use of a literal principle of interpretation. And thus too, an understanding of the purpose of God as His own glory rather than the salvation of all mankind. I am what I would call a Biblical or Pauline Calvinist!
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June 21, 2011 at 7:13 am
zaplation
Ya know what Robert, I’m getting tired of hearing about how i don’t engage with the text blah blah blah. You have not done nearly as much work as I have at explaining your position based on the bible so your complaint means nothing to me (esp since I’ve written a whole post on this elsewhere on this website). If your still living in the world of Vine’s expository you need to update yourself a little. Your just full of claims with no substance. Your half-assed attempt at discussing greek words is not sufficient.
Ya need to remember that in terms of church history, you and christian zionists in general are the odd ones out – the new kid on the block. And it will fade like any other fad.
Your statement: “the Church today is in a profound free-fall and certain apostasy! So the numbers of modern, or today’s theolog’s and theology means very little, we simply must return and find our submission in the full belief & authority of God’s Word!” just gives you no credit. You sound like a lone-ranger who knows it all and the rest of the world are all nut jobs. Problem is, those sorts of people always show true and wrong in the end.
God bless
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June 21, 2011 at 4:03 pm
irishanglican ~ Fr. Robert
Zap,
Run baby run! 😉 I quoted the Vine’s purposely, for those who still simply believe in the Bible, verses all this “smoke & mirror’s” as to a theology (Supersessionalism) that rejects God’s covenant people, the Jews! Remember, I have two earned doctorates in both philosophy and theology myself, but I learned long ago they don’t mean much, if they don’t believe God’s Word! I am hardly a “lone-ranger”, note some older guys (btw, I am 61) like J. Dwight Pentecost and John Walvoord, etc. And today people like Tommy Ice, Ed Hindson, etc. And also btw, I recommend the NET Bible, and note Isaiah’s description of Israel’s future kingdom, from chapter 1:4 ; 9, 25-27. 2:2, etc. to 66:24! Here the Lord will someday restore the faithful remnant of Israel to the Land to inhabit the kingdom at its beginning. And of course an eternal kingdom, as part of God’s new creation, will follow the millennial kingdom!
This will be my last statement here, as you are simply throwing ad hoc’s and now personal ad hom’s!
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July 22, 2011 at 12:16 am
masamune
not too much honesty in this article or the book, do find it sad you couldn’t also address the other sects that are also anti-zionist, you just pick 1 out of the crowd & bang tried to be stephen sizers protege an as an anti-zionist, your an insult to us, not a blessing.
cya later from Tokyo to Fukushima
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July 22, 2011 at 4:25 am
craignielsen
Sorry you feel that way, however you comments aren’t really a criticism, just a bit of name calling. Nothing really of substance to say to me concerning the post. Simply making claims of dishonesty don’t get us anywhere.
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