The Godless U.N.

Jesus and the United Nations

In the theology of many Christian Zionists, the United Nations constitutes the very essence of the anti-Christ. The very embodiment of Satan’s plan to create an Israel-hating, one world, Godless empire bent on the destruction of God’s people and the thwarting of God’s plan of redemption. The United Nations, in their eyes, is run by a combination of atheistic Socialists, Islamic Jihadists (there is really no other kind of Muslim) and anti-Semitic Arabs. The United Nations mandate to help maintain peace, promote democracy and protect the rights of the vulnerable is a sham.

From this, one might imagine that the U.N. Charter is filled with blasphemies and calls for the end of Christianity and the imprisonment of all followers of Jesus, but one would be heartily disappointed to find such overt statements of the United Nation’s true agenda.

The United Nation’s obsession with Israel is proof enough of their Godlessness, or so it is claimed.
The real story of the U.N. is not exciting enough to maintain the interest of Christians who place their trust in Israel’s near divine role in the Christian Zionists version of God’s plan of redemption.

The United Nations was created to replace the failed League of Nations. The U.N. sought to create a world order where conflict, such as had just been experienced in World War II, would not happen again. The U.N. was not naive enough to believe it could stop conflict altogether, but that it could establish a world order where the basic motivations for war would be outlawed in the international community. The United Nations adopted three principles which were meant to prevent expansionism and colonialism: Inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war. Prohibition of the transfer of civilians of the occupying power to the occupied territory. Right of peoples to self determination. These principles are not remotely in conflict with the Gospel of Jesus.

In creating the State of Israel in 1948, the United Nations violated the right of the indigenous peoples of Palestine to self determination. The paradox of an Israel-hating United Nations which broke its own charter to create the state of Israel is not often remarked upon by Christian Zionists. The occupation of the West Bank by Israel in 1967 has violated the other two principles as has been acknowledged by the overwhelming majority of the international community. The regulations spelled out in the Fourth Geneva Convention pertaining to the treatment of civilians in occupied territories by the occupying forces, have been violated by the Zionist State in legions of well documented cases.

No doubt the United Nations obsession with Israel stems from the fact that the U.N. created the problem and hence feels that it is incumbent upon itself to find a solution. Israel’s demand that it is being picked on sounds very much like a student who continually disrupts the class and complains that the teacher “keeps picking on me!” With Israel continuing to violate the resolutions of the U.N., the U.N. has little option but to continue in passing more resolutions against the rebellious Zionist State.

Do Christian Zionists expect the United Nations to create resolutions based on Christian Zionist sectarian and incorrect interpretations of the biblical teaching about the relationship between the Jewish people and the land of Palestine? Normally Christian Zionists are happy to recognise the concept of Separation of Church and State in the national sphere, acknowledging history has clearly shown that such a separation is the healthiest arrangement for both institutions. When it comes to the situation of international law they become somewhat confused. International law can not be separated from religious dogma, they maintain.

The alleged control of the United Nations by Arab and Muslim countries is refuted by a simple look at the voting in the U.N. over resolutions concerning Israel. Only 21 Arab states exist and if we add to these the number of non Arab Islamic countries, we can see that the majority of countries in the United Nations are not Arab/Muslim. In 2002, a General Assembly resolution (‘Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine’) affirming Israel’s right to ‘secure and recognised borders’ as well as the Palestinian people’s right to an ‘independent state’ in the West Bank and Gaza passed 160 to 4. There are well less than 80 Arab/Islamic states in the United Nations. The 4 countries to go against this resolution were Israel, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and the United States of America. The 2002 United Nations voting record on virtually every resolution concerning the Israel-Palestine issue was just as lop sided with the majority of countries supporting the resolutions going against Israel being non Arab/Muslim. The international consensus regarding Israel’s violations of international law has been extremely stable despite large scale geopolitical changes throughout the world in the last fourty years.

University of Cambridge scholar, Marc Weller, has shown that when comparing the case of Israel and the occupied territories with similar situations in Kosovo, East Timor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, occupied Iraq and Kuwait, and Rwanda, Israel has enjoyed a virtual immunity from such measures as arms embargoes and economic sanctions which have been employed by the United Nations against member countries that have violated international law in a manner identical to that of Israel. See Norman Finkelstein’s, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, page xvii, for documentation of this study.

As a Bible believing, born again Christian I recognise that the United Nations is a fallible, human institution. However I see no reason to cast it into the realm of the anti-Christ and condemn its resolutions as anti-Israel and therefore anti-God. The United Nations created the State of Israel and has never advocated its demise. Its mandates contradict no part of the Gospel of Reconciliation as revealed in scripture.

Neither the United Nations, Islam, Christianity, Marxism or even National Socialism (an early stage of Hitler’s final solution came up with the idea of all the Jews in Europe could be transferred to one place in the world where they could live together away from the rest of the world) has any basic problem with the idea of a state of Israel, where Jews (in any number) can live. The only tradition in the world that forbids Jews to have a State of their own is, ironically, the Jewish tradition itself as articulated in the Oaths of the Talmud. See posting in this blog “Sacred Oaths”.

Craig Nielsen
ACTION FOR PALESTINE