Are White American Evangelicals The Most Dangerous People on the Planet?
How Zionism POISONED Christianity
(written by a Palestinian Christian)
Despite the fact that Palestinians are not their enemies, Zionist Christians shamefully neglect Christ’s command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The infiltration of Zionist ideology, particularly within evangelical, Pentecostal, Baptist and charismatic churches in the United States, has profoundly compromised the integrity of our Christian faith.
Jesus taught inclusion
Jesus Christ, a Palestinian Jew, taught radical inclusion, compassion for the marginalized and resistance against earthly powers. Yet today, Christian Zionism distorts these sacred teachings, replacing them with toxic nationalism, militarism and racial superiority. By twisting Scripture and history to fit political ends, Zionism not only corrupts our faith but also endangers Christians in the Middle East and beyond.
A Biblical Refutation of Christian Zionism
Watch Pastor/Priest Stephen Sizer sum it up at at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LohMNT_Xtas
His Book “Zion’s Christian Soldiers” https://stephensizer.com/books/zions-christian-soldiers/
“It is not an understatement to say that what is at stake is our understanding of the gospel, the centrality of the cross, the role of the church, and the nature of our missionary mandate, not least, to the beloved Jewish people. If we don’t see Jesus at the heart of the Hebrew scriptures, and the continuity between his Old Testament and New Testament saints in the one inclusive Church, we’re not reading them correctly. The key question is this “Was the coming of Jesus and the birth of the Church the fulfilment or the postponement of the promises God made to Abraham?” Christian Zionists see the promises of identity, land and destiny as part of an ongoing covenant God has with the Jewish people. In this book I unpack this question and show that
Christian Zionism is a recent manifestation of a heresy refuted by the New Testament.”
Why I’m Not a Christian Zionist
https://www.thebanner.org/features/2019/12/why-i-m-not-a-christian-zionist
The spiritual root of Christian Zionism is dispensationalism, whose themes have fully permeated many American churches. Dispensationalism was born in the 1800s as an attempt to divide human history
Fidelity to Israel
For Christian Zionists, the first obligation of Christians is to study end-times prophecies and to monitor each nation’s political decisions. One conviction is always held aloft: God blesses those who bless Israel and curses those who curse Israel. Nations will stand or fall based on this one creed.
Reformed theologians hear this and wonder if the message of the gospel has been lost. My first call is fidelity to Christ and his kingdom. And yet this commitment should inspire in me a deep love for Israel and a desire for its people to become what their Scriptures call them to become: a nation of priests, a light to the nations, a people in whom there is such goodness that the nations will see the glory of God and rejoice.
Jesus’ Second Coming
This is the crown jewel of Christian Zionism. The birth of Israel has set the stage for the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Zionists claim, any national agenda that would impede God’s plan, any peace plan that weakens Israel’s hold on the land, or any decision that stands in the way of this dramatic stage-setting is not a plan blessed by God.
Reformed theologians believe in the second coming too. But the chief difference is that Reformed theologians make profound investments in the world. We are not sectarian. We devote ourselves to promoting Christ’s commitments here and now. We do not despair about the course of the world, and we refuse to abandon it. We still build schools and hospitals and speak to injustice and poverty.
Christian Zionists believe in Jesus, but I wonder if they have lost the gospel. They have uncritically wed our faith to the politics of one nation, and this, as the church has learned so many times, is a prescription for disaster.
Criticisms of Christian Zionism
https://academic.oup.com/book/7112/chapter-abstract/151631314?redirectedFrom=fulltext
criticisms of Christian Zionism. There are four principal charges: First, that evangelical Christians support aliyah (Jewish emigration to Israel) mainly because it speeds the battle of Armageddon, the mass conversion or death of the Jews, and Christ’s Millennial kingdom. Second, that evangelicals’ true motive is to convert the Jews. Third, that Christian Zionist theology distorts Christianity: that it misunderstands biblical covenants and ignores the scriptural emphasis on doing justice, relieving suffering, and showing compassion to the oppressed, who, in this view, are the Palestinians. The fourth major criticism is that the evangelical Zionists’ biblical worldview allies them with extreme right-wing Israeli politicians in opposing any exchange of land for peace. The chapter discusses efforts to evangelize Jews, and notes the beliefs of Messianic Jews. It examines the claim by some evangelicals that Christians are the heirs to God’s promises to Israel; that the covenantal promises to the Jews are conditional; and that modern Israel is not the fulfillment of prophecy. The chapter notes the role of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in opposing Christian Zionism and Israeli policies.
A warning for Christians – from the birthplace of Christ
The Rev. Munther Isaac speaks from inside the walls of beleaguered Bethlehem
Munther Isaac is a Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian. He is pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem. He is also the academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College, and is the director of the highly acclaimed and influential Christ at the Checkpoint conferences.
Another assumption I’m sure you’ve heard, and it’s very common, for example, in North America, but I’ve seen that it’s also common in East Asia or in Africa, or Latin America, the idea that if you bless Israel, God will bless you. But if you stand against Israel, God will curse you. Now they base this on Genesis 12 123, where the address is actually about Abraham, it doesn’t mention his descendants, and the Bible reads this as a sign of God’s blessings to the people through Christ.
Yet somehow, that statement from God to Abraham became the way in which many Christians today relate to a secular state. And to me, that’s incomprehensible. But that led many people to support Israel simply because they want what’s best for them, not necessarily for Israel. I look at this principle and I say this is 101 Religious Manipulation for a Political Purpose. You’re manipulating people using a religious text, to support a political position, you have to support Israel or you will face God’s wrath. However, if you give money to Israel, or if you take political action on behalf of Israel, God will bless your life and your ministry.
And finally, there is the assumption that the land that today we call Palestine and Israel belongs to the Jewish people as an eternal possession, because God gave it to them. And as such, Jews have a divine right to the land. This led many Palestinians to write a lot on the theology of the Promised Land. I wrote my PhD about this topic. But I don’t want to go into the biblical text and analyse this assumption, but to simply ask, as a Palestinian again, and I continue to bring it back to the question of how does this come across to us as Palestinians, because now you’re telling me that the land of my ancestors where I’ve been born, and my ancestors have been born, and we’ve been here for hundreds, if not thousands of years, somehow is not ours. And so we are taking someone else’s land, and even worse, we’re standing against God. The idea of a divine right, puts me in opposition to God.
we’re talking not simply about a theological belief, or a theological school, but about a political movement, a political action. And when it comes to how this political movement functions, Stephen Sizer in one of his books identifies at least six ways in which Christians Zionists act on behalf of Israel or support Israel by political lobbying.
The main concept here was that the land was empty. But you know too well the land was not empty.
