Christian Zionism:

Will Fear or Freedom Triumph?

In response, Rabbi Beliak pulled a condom out of his pocket and gave it to me. Attached to the condom was a post card from a feminist Jewish watchdog group called "Jewish Women Watching" (jewishwomenwatching.com). Titled "Strange Bedfellows," the card satirized the "strange partnerships between Jewish leaders and members of the Christian right."

Our feature writers, Bill and Genie Durland, attended a conference in Israel/Palestine that examined the theological roots of this bizarre partnership. According to Bill, those who are called "Christian Zionists" believe that by supporting the most reactionary elements in Israel, they are hastening the Second Coming when Jesus will whisk all true Christians off to heaven and make everyone else suffer hideous torments for failing to believe literally in the Bible’s claims.

If Christian Zionists had their way, all Palestinians (aka Philistines) would be driven out of "Greater Israel," the Dome of the Rock (which has been a Muslim place of prayer for over 1,300 years) would be destroyed to rebuild the Temple of Solomon, and all hell would break loose in the Middle East. As far as these Christian Zionists are concerned, however, this conflict would be a very good thing: the sooner Armageddon happens, the better, since only then will Jesus return!

It would be easy to dismiss Christian Zionists as religious lunatics, but unfortunately, they number in the millions and are having an inordinate influence on America’s Middle East policy. We therefore need to understand why Christian Zionists feel as they do and how we can respond appropriately to their distortion of biblical prophesy and revelation.

Bill and Genie are to be commended for making us aware of this and other developments in the Holy Land. Their work as "reservists" on Christian Peacemaker Teams reminds us what the "real Jesus" is all about.

As Sandy Perry notes in her article, the "real Jesus" preached equality and love and reached out to those who are oppressed and suffering.

When the "real Jesus" appeared to John Calvi, a Quaker healer featured in this issue, he says that "there were no words for how tender the presence was, no words for how beautiful the love was."

Having experienced this compassionate, peace-loving Jesus, I feel it is important to reclaim his revolutionary message of hope and grace, especially during these dark times, when some who claim to be "real Christians" are avidly supporting war, viciously attacking gays, lesbians, and Muslims, and showing utter disregard for Jesus’ main concern: the poor, the oppressed, and the outcast.

Jesus’ prophetic ministry helps us discern the difference between "real" and "false" religion, between the religion of love and the religion of fear.

Perhaps that’s why I appreciate Jewish Women Watching and Rabbi Beliak. They are fearlessly exposing what’s false and hypocritical in their faith community. We need Christians who care enough about their Christian faith to do the same. Historically, that’s been one of the important jobs of Quakers.

Bill and I spent Easter in Jerusalem along with other members of our Christian Peacemakers team in Hebron. There were many people on the streets, but no huge crowds. The churches were well attended but not crowded. When one remembers that the Christian population of Palestine, once nearly 10 percent, is now less than one percent, one is disappointed but not surprised.

That Easter Day in Jerusalem was a welcome respite from the tension and difficulty of our work in Hebron. The night before we came up as far as Bethlehem and spent the night with our friends Sis and Jerry Levin. Jerry is a CPTer and Sis works for Holy Land Trust. After church and lunch in Jerusalem we returned to Hebron to resume our work.

The day after Easter we traveled with Abdelhadi Hantash of the Hebron District Land Defense Committee to visit an extended Bedouin family in the south Hebron hills. The contrast between the streets of Jerusalem and the sere, stark compound where this family ekes out a marginal living could not have been greater. They live on the edge of the Israeli settlement of Karmel, and south of the huge settlement of Gush Etzion. The elder of the clan, Salim Eid Al Hadalin, a warm and expressive man, spoke English well.

"The settlers are taking our land," he said, pointing to an acre that had been bulldozed and foundations for about ten houses laid. "They are building and building, but we may not build. We were building a latrine, but the army came with a stop work order. If we do not stop, they will bulldoze it. We may not make a permanent building."

This large extended family lives in a series of small concrete huts with no plumbing or basic amenities. The settlement which looms above them at the crest of the hill is clearly visible in all its detail—charming two-story villas with satellite dishes and solar panels on their roofs, American SUV’s and minivans in the driveways, lush flowers and trees, which bespeak unlimited access to the water denied their Palestinian neighbors.

We sat on mats outside Salim’s house, overlooked by this incongruous suburban enclave. We were served glasses of sweet mint tea and Salim told us his history and his dreams. His father bought this land in the 1950s from a Bedouin in Yatta. He was a small boy when they came to live there. "When I first came here," he said, "there was no one here, no persons, only little birds." When he was a child, his family lived in tents. Then, as a young man he built a small house. "Later, the Jewish settlers came, and they took much of our land by strength. I wanted to go to them and say ‘this is my land,’ but the soldiers shouted at us with very angry words. I wanted to say, ‘Where is the justice? Who will make a judgment?’"

Who, indeed? This is not the State of Israel. We are well beyond the internationally recognized, legal boundaries and yet this land, legally owned and deeded to the Palestinian occupants is being whittled away, without recompense, to continually enlarge the Jewish settlements.

We sipped our tea, surrounded by smiling children, eager to have their pictures taken. Too soon it was time to leave. We walked down the rocky incline past a small field of barley, where a couple of donkeys grazed. Three little girls came running to the field and chased the donkeys back up the hill. As we approached the road with the tall wire fence running along the edge of the settlement, we wondered—"Where’s the justice? Where’s the judgment?"

Such visits are often part of our work as CPT team members. We make them to inform ourselves of the reality of the situation "on the ground" so that when we return home we can give accurate accounts of the impact of occupation, closure, economic strangulation and land confiscation on the lives of everyday Palestinians. We also make such visits so that we may, in some small way, feel connected with the poorest of the poor in this beleaguered land and in hopes that our presence might help them to keep hope alive.

Our work with the team in Hebron this year was also highlighted by the opportunity to take part in "school patrols." The CPT apartments are located in the Old City of Hebron, an area honeycombed with Israeli settlements and military checkpoints, and characterized by flashpoint tensions. Because children walking to school each morning are often harassed by settlers, we go out in patrols of two to four people, wearing our distinctive red caps, to accompany the children and to watch the "hot spots," the places where trouble most often erupts. It is heart-stopping duty because of the irrepressible exuberance of the children in the face of unimaginable hardship.

When the conference was over, a continued program of "exposure" to various aspects of Palestinian and Israeli life was planned for those who remained to take part. Bill and I were asked to facilitate the first of these events—a trip to the farming village of Beit Ummar, halfway between Bethlehem and Hebron, where CPT works assisting farmers threatened by settlers. We escorted two busloads of people to Beit Ummar, including a 45-minute delay at the soldier-manned entrance to the village, where we waited while three Israeli soldiers called their superiors to find out whether they could allow us to enter. This sort of arbitrary detention occurs on a daily basis for local residents, so it seemed an appropriate experience for internationals seeking "exposure."

When we were finally allowed to enter the town, we brought the group to the municipality building where they were greeted by the Mayor and given information by local farmers about how two settlements—Harsina and Gush Etzion—have confiscated more and more of their land and how the settlers harass them and shoot at them when they try to work their land or harvest their crops.

A final trip to Ramallah to visit the Friends Schools and the Friends playschool in the Amari Refugee Camp marked the end of our time in Palestine. We came away feeling both deeply saddened and strangely hopeful. Saddened because the Palestinians seem more demoralized than ever. The construction of the so-called "security" wall, ripping up communities, dividing families, destroying livelihoods and confiscating huge chunks of Palestinian land is cementing the creation of an Apartheid situation. Hopeful because in spite of the cruel realities of their lives, so many of the people we talked with are able to retain hope and come up with amazingly creative actions of nonviolent resistance to the 37-year-old occupation.

Our Bedouin friend, Salim Eid Al Hadalin, planted the greatest hope in our hearts. He and his family will lose what’s left of their land. We could see the path the wall will take when it is finished, and there will be nothing left for them when the settlements are enlarged and the wall completed. Yet Salim talked to us about his faith and his understanding of the goodness of God. He said, "Our God does not want people to be fighting. … I want our God to send peace, not just here, but to all the world, for all the people. He likes from us that we help each other. Then the world becomes good." As we were leaving he said, "Live in the peace. That is the message from Moses, peace be upon him, and Jesus, peace be upon him, and Mohammed, peace be upon him. They all taught the people to live life in the peace—not in the fighting."

In the end this was the most profound message we received in Palestine, including all the erudition and scholarship presented at the Sabeel Conference.p

The age-old question of whether
human beings have freedom of choice or are simply living out a predetermined plan of the universe in which we are pawns, plays a significant role in the current debate over the "end times" of this world and of ourselves. According to what theologians call "end times" or "eschatology" theologies, human existence as we have known it will culminate in a final judgment and eternal life in another dimension. How free we are to do God’s will or even how free God and Jesus are to act without certain predetermined events taking place is part of this theological mix, which is sometimes known as "apocalypticism" (after the Book of Revelation). Fear plays a major part in coercing people to believe in such a version of reality.

This essay criticizes this version of the end times. All three so-called "religions of the book," Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have end times theologies and the interplay of them with history and politics in the Middle East, particularly in Israel, Palestine and Jerusalem, is crucial to their understanding.

I will focus on one Christian version, which is called Christian Zionism. Christian Zionists compose part, but not all, of the evangelical and fundamentalist wing of the Christian church. Pentecostal churches, in particular, dominate this view in America. The view antedates the more familiar Jewish Zionist movement by about 80 years. Emerging from British, Anglican and American denominations of so-called dispensationalists, and further narrowed to those dispensationalists holding a pre-millenarianist view, is Christian Zionism. Dispensationalism holds that there are several ages of God’s history. Each age is a dispensation from God. The ages are named after familiar Old Testament figures such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and others. These ages are followed by the Christian or "church age" which culminates in the Messianic and a "New Heaven and New Earth" ages. Once again this version is further narrowed to belief in a pre-millenarian as opposed to a post-millenarian age which for Christian Zionists and others comes after a seven-year period of tribulation and before the coming of Jesus to usher in a 1,000-year peaceful reign by virtue of the temporary defeat and binding up of Satan. Thereafter Satan once again is released and permanently defeated so that the final judgment may take place and the eternal age of salvation begin.

Some dispensationalists and pre-millenarianists are also Christian Zionists who see God’s purposes for Jews (Israel) and Christians ("the church") as separate entities. The former are God’s earthly people, the latter his heavenly ones. Some of these Christian Zionists take the position that the Jewish covenant is eternal and the Christian covenant a mere interlude in theological history and salvation. God’s chosen people, Promised Land and temple priesthood are to be blessed, restored and to exist eternally. Christian Zionists are further identified by their scriptural interpretation of absolutist literalism, a futuristic end times, and a restoration of Jews to Palestine in the present state of Israel, which will become the embodiment of God’s eternal salvation on earth.

Christian Zionists are divided over the emphasis placed on all of this. Some emphasize "defending and blessing Israel." Others are occupied with the signs of the times, and a third group with "reaching Jews for Jesus." What unites them, however, and makes them different from other evangelicals, other millenarianists, and other dispensationalists who are not Christian Zionists, is their focus on the State of Israel and the need for Christians to give it their unconditional support as God’s requirement of politicians and churchgoers.

How do these characteristics of Christian Zionism evoke images of freedom and fear? Steven Sizer’s book entitled Christian Zionism: Historical Roots, Theological Basis, and Political Consequences is most helpful in this study and lists seven basic tenets that identify this "ism." These include:

1) an ultra-literal and futuristic hermeneutic of the Bible (i.e. interpretation),

2) a belief that the Jews remain God’s chosen people,

3) an everlasting and unconditional covenant (i.e. agreement) with God which guarantees the Jews the right to always possess Palestine over its existing, indigenous population,

4) the justification of further possession of land stretching from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq,

5) the possession of Jerusalem soley by Jews as their capital,

6) the re-building of the temple of Jerusalem with a priesthood and animal sacrifices replacing the Christian doctrine of Jesus’ human sacrifice of himself for humanity, and

Christian Zionists, although not Jews or Israelis, believe that their own self interest depends on certain fearful events occurring, with certain dire consequences for some Jews, Christians, and innumerable others who have not been saved before the seven year period of tribulation begins. Christian Zionists see history and politics unfolding in a way that supports their eschatological predictions.

With the British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, Jews returned in increasing numbers after 1923 to a land where the Jewish population had been almost completely depleted. In 1948 the independence of the Jews was declared through the creation of the State of Israel in a war that confiscated Palestinian lands. Many Palestinians left their homeland or were placed in refugee camps that exist to this day. Having conquered what was 78 percent of Palestine, Israel occupied the rest in a 1967 pre-emptive strike. As a result, control over Jerusalem was restored. Subsequently Jerusalem became the capital of Israel. So the first three steps towards the culmination of the end times have already taken place: Jews have been restored to Israel; Jerusalem, in its entirety, became part of Israel in 1967 and subsequently became its capital. Next on the countdown list is the rebuilding of the temple with priests and sacrifice. Christian Zionists now want to force Israel to destroy the Islamic mosques on the site of the destroyed second temple so that the anti-Christ will then be able to join us, as the next major event. (No thought is given to preventing the anti-Christ from ever coming by not rebuilding the temple.) The anti-Christ will then desecrate the temple and the war of Armageddon will begin, after which the Messiah Jesus will then, and only then, have the ability to return in his second coming to conquer Satan, but only temporarily.

Where are the Christians when Jesus returns? Well, only the bad ones are here to greet him because, according to the Christian Zionists and other Christians, the sinless Christians will be saved just prior to the seven years of tribulation and will not suffer at all but will be whisked away in a "rapture" to meet Jesus "in the air." While they are hanging in outer space, Jesus returns to earth. The remaining population of Christians, Jews and others must make a decision to accept Jesus or not. Those that do reign with Jesus in a thousand years of peace. After this Satan returns again and is finally disposed of. (Some Christian Zionists now believe in a new twist that all Jews, as God’s chosen people, will inherit the earth as their kingdom without the need to accept Jesus as the Messiah, as Christians, an afterthought in this foreordained theological evolution, will be safely set aside in heaven.)

Peace does not figure into the present times for Christian Zionists. As a matter of fact, it is not desired, but should be avoided. What is fore-ordained is violence, war, destruction and death, except for those Christians who have been taken up in the rapture. Those Christians who are not today Christian Zionists must become so, now, to be saved. Those who do not, along with some Jews and others, will have been given a second chance to accept Jesus as their Messiah after the seven-year tribulation. If they don’t, they will be disposed of in hell. So the ultimate message of Christian Zionism to Quakers and others is to give up your work for peace. It is not God’s will. A conscientious commitment to nonviolence and pacifism only acts to obstruct and delay this plan and thus is anti-Christian and supportive of the anti-Christ. The "Prince of Peace" who proclaimed a message of love and reconciliation no longer is their Jesus.