Christian Zionism: The Opiate of Some People.
If ever there was a doctrine floating around the Christian world that rightly gets the tag of “opiate of the people”, it is Christian Zionism. If ever a doctrine has kept a people in a drunken “spiritual” stupor so as to blind them to the real historical and material causes of a conflict, Christian Zionism is that doctrine.
The doctrines of today’s Christian Zionism are not put together by any of the University trained Christian teachers or theologians of any of the three major denominations of the Christian faith. So insulated from Biblical scholarship are the prophets of Christian Zionism, that they can publish books like John Hagee’s “Jerusalem Countdown” without the slightest concern for what type of critical review they might get from trained theologians. This is because trained theologians consider books like that just mentioned to be basically a joke in so far as their attempts at Biblical exegesis go as well as the fact that the leaders of the Christian Zionist movement generally consider trained theologians to be the enemy.
Many conservative evangelicals and Pentecostals have an innate distrust of the formal academic study of theology. They fear that such study will undermine their simple “child like” faith in God’s word and turn them into cloistered academics who no longer love Jesus. They consider many of the mainstream theological colleges and seminaries to be hopelessly liberalized and hence demonic. They generally take the words of “mega pastors” to be inspired almost on a similar level to scripture. These Pastors have concocted a parallel reality for their flock with regards to the telling of history, science, politics, economics and religion. This parallel reality is drummed into the faithful unerringly.
The reality that the rest of us deal with is pure delusion in their eyes. Trying to have any reasonable dialogue with such believers takes patience to say the least. Most trained theologians seem to prefer to stay out of the firing line of the culture wars that rage through the west, particularly in the U.S., until the last minute. A few scholars have, however, started to stand up and be counted in the debate that Christian Zionism has created in the Christian church. Stephen Sizer has probably been the most active with a number of books on the subject being written by him. The prolific scholar N.T. Wright and Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, Gary Burge have also joined the fray to some degree.
A few comments from them will suffice. Gary Burge says of Christian Zionism that:
“No New Testament scholar has written in its defense. Its advocacy groups such as Christians United for Israel and Camera, are generally run by political activists. Its books come from the pens of popular television preachers or lobbyists. I have been invited to debate some of their leaders and find myself with people who have no training in theology. How can such a widespread movement in the Church be successful without a thoughtful theological undergirding?” (2010, p. 123)
The Anglican Bible scholar N.T. Wright says of Christian Zionism that it is: “the geographical equivalent of a soi-disant ‘Christian’ apartheid, and ought to be rejected as such.” (1994, p 53 – 77) and more recently he added in a discussion of eschatology:
“For some, alas, the very phrase ‘second coming’, and even perhaps the word ‘eschatology’ itself, conjures up visions of the ‘rapture’ as understood within some branches of (mostly North American) fundamentalist or evangelical Christianity, and as set out, at a popular level, in the ‘Left Behind’ series of novels by Tim F. LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, and the theology, if you can call it that, which those books embody. That scheme of thought, ironically considering its fanatical though bizarre support for the present state of Israel, is actually deeply un-Jewish, collapsing into a dualism in which the present wicked world is left to stew in its own juice while the saints are snatched up to heaven to watch Armageddon from a ringside seat” (Paul: Fresh Perspectives, 2005, p. 141).
References:
Wright, N.T. (2005). Paul: Fresh Perspectives. First Fortress Press. MN, U.S.A.
Burge, G. (2010). Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to “Holy Land” Theology. Baker Academics, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Wright, N.T. (1994). Jerusalem Past and Present in the Purposes of God. Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Craig Nielsen
ACTION FOR PALESTINE
Israel-Palestine 
7 comments
Comments feed for this article
August 14, 2011 at 11:52 pm
flozoe
Very simple – Christain zionism is NOT Christian AT ALL!!
LikeLike
August 15, 2011 at 12:11 am
craignielsen
In the end I think Christian Zionism would have to be termed a heresy. I am still waiting for someone like N.T. Wright to come out and say it plainly.
LikeLike
August 15, 2011 at 12:17 am
flozoe
Any REAL Christian would be shouting it from the rooftops!
LikeLike
August 19, 2011 at 7:23 am
masamune
must be time for christians to behead Shimon Zelotes then….hmmmmm
LikeLike
August 20, 2011 at 8:55 am
John Hillary
I would say both yes and no to what is being said here. What is at issue is the truth or otherwise of Christian Zionism, and why, not who does or doesn’t support it and teach it.
Two things need to be remembered. The first is that Jesus had not gone through the equivalent of the theological college of the time, John 7:15
(and neither had the disciples). That mystified the people and put him offside with the religious leaders and theological schools of the time.
The second is that Christian Zionism was gathered together into what many thought was a viable system, by John Darby who, while not a theologian, was an ordained curate who had a good knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.
Theologians can lead people astray too, as they did in Jesus day and as some have done into modernism in our day. Being led astray began in the Garden of Eden and anyone, and any leader or teacher, is prone to it, theologian or not. Sound exegesis and hermeneutics are a valuable protection, but have to be combined to a close walk with the Lord who is the truth, the true reality. That way we will avoid pure delusion in our eyes that comes from the parallel reality that is but the mere invention of man.
LikeLike
August 20, 2011 at 9:15 am
craignielsen
I think the point is that in our day, access to detailed study of the Bible is far more prevalent than at any other time in history. While arguments from authority are not the be all and end all, they are still very significant. The fact is that when the vast majority of theologians from a very large cross-section of the church do not support an idea, then to demand its truth so dogmatically as Christian Zionists do is extremely unwise. God speaks to all His church. The “many” that thought John Darby’s views were viable were still only a minority in so far as the entirety of the church was concerned. Just imagine if theologians across the board agreed with the doctrines of Darby today? We would never hear the end of it from the likes of Hagee etc. God has not appointed us teachers of the Bible for nothing.
LikeLike
August 22, 2011 at 4:37 am
John Hillary
Yes indeed, God has not appointed us teachers of the Bible for nothing. That is why any who have that gift should share it on this site so others can benefit.
I would like to see articles or extracts of Burge and others about specific aspects of Christian Zionism, so readers become clearer as to the reasons it is not something to embrace but to flee from. The above article was a good starter.
LikeLike