Christian Zionism - Anxious For Armageddon?

Many fundamentalist Christians are convinced that a series of political and military events must take place before the Second Coming of Christ. Could the speculative biblical interpretations they believe eventually become a self-fulfilling prophecy? What are the reasons why some North American Christians support policies that may lead to a Middle Eastern holocaust?

Why does the United States have such a close relationship with Israel? Why does the Christian Right appear so influential in shaping U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East?

These questions remain inexplicable without factoring in what is probably the most controversial, influential and destructive movement within Christendom today – namely “Christian Zionism”.

While its start can be dated precisely to the 1830s and the eccentric theology of John Nelson Darby, it was the publication of Charles Scofield’s Scofield Reference Bible in 1909 which brought his novel ideas about a failing Church, revived Israel and imminent end of the world to the wider Christian public.

Darby believed that a series of “dispensations” began with Creation and will end in an exclusive Jewish kingdom on earth ruled over by a returned Christ. And Christian Zionism is based on a particular way of reading the Bible in which all Scripture, and especially the prophetic, must always be interpreted literally. Therefore they believe that all Israel will be literally saved; that the boundaries of the land will be from Egypt to Iraq; and that Jesus Christ will return to a theocratic Jewish kingdom centered on Jerusalem.

Today Christian Zionism continues to dominate American Christian fundamentalism. Advocates include Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Billy Graham. They regard the founding of the State of Israel as evidence of divine intervention, that the Jews remain God’s chosen people for the future kingdom and that the war of Armageddon is just around the corner.

Crucial to their reading of biblical prophecy is the conviction that the period of tribulation is imminent along with the secret rapture of the Church and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount. These events will signal the return of the Lord to restore the Kingdom to Israel centered on Jerusalem. These events are also seen as the trigger for the start of the war of Armageddon in which large numbers of Jews will suffer and die.

This is why these Christian leaders are so zealous to ensure that U.S. foreign policy continues to be dictated by the interests of Israel without regard for the consequences in terms of Islamic reaction. The belief that biblical prophecy dictates the futility of peace treaties between Israel and her neighbors and that God will continue to bless America as long as America cares for the Jews is not only naïve but deeply destructive to U.S. interest in the world.

Many Christian Zionists are convinced that a nuclear Armageddon is an inevitable event within the divine scheme of things, and many have committed themselves to a course for Israel that, by their own admission, will lead directly to a holocaust indescribably more savage and widespread than any vision of carnage that could have generated in Adolf Hitler’s criminal mind.

Thankfully, Christian Zionism is increasingly being perceived as a deviant interpretation which is subservient to the political agenda of the U. S. and the State of Israel. In August 2006, for example, the leaders of the historic churches in Jerusalem issued the Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism. It included the following:

Christian Zionism is a modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. The Christian Zionist program provides a world view where the Gospel is reduced to an ideology of empire, colonialism, and militarism. In its extreme form, it places an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ’s love and justice today…We reject the teachings of Christian Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. Rather than condemn the world to the doom of Armageddon we call upon everyone to liberate themselves from ideologies of militarism and occupation. Instead, let them pursue the healing of the nations.

Christian Zionism only thrives on a reading of the Bible where Old Testament promises made to the ancient Jewish people are applied to the contemporary State of Israel. To do so it is necessary to ignore, marginalize or bypass the way that the New Testament reinterprets, annuls and fulfills those promises in and through Jesus Christ and His followers.

This is nowhere more evident than in Galatians 4 where we are taught that the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph are fulfilled only through those who follow Christ, for they alone are designated the true children of Abraham and Sarah. This injunction should be applied today toward those who elevate Israel to a position of such importance.

This is no excuse for arrogance of anti-Semitism, which we all should abhor. With sensitivity and compassion we are mandated to share our faith in Jesus, praying that our Jewish friends find their Messiah and complete their faith. However, any suggestion that the Jewish people continue to have a special status before God, a separate and continuing covenant or exclusive rights to the lands of the Middle East, is incorrect.

Christian Zionism provides a theological justification for racism the ethnic cleansing of war, rather than a theology of justice, peace and reconciliation which lie at the heart of the New Covenant. It is an exclusive theology that focuses on the Jews in the land rather than an inclusive theology that centers on Jesus Christ NOW – the Savior of the world NOW.

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