This is the second in a three-part series on Zionism written from a Biblical Christian perspective. Part one covered political Zionism.
‘And have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but instead expose them’ (Ephesians 5:11)
If you’re among a group of evangelicals, there are several topics you should stay away from.
The timing of the rapture is one. Churches have split over whether people are pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib or, heresy of all heresies, preterist.
It’s a depressing sign of the times.
One topic which you can safely bring up though is Israel.
Because if there’s one thing born-again believers in the current year love, it’s Israel.
God hates Palestinians. Even the Christian ones.Like, they really love it.
US Christians give billions of dollars to Israel through Christian Zionist networks every year, and this is on top of the hundreds of billions Israel has (officially) received from the US Treasury since its foundation in 1948. Israel is, by far, America’s biggest welfare recipient.
In 1967, Israel attacked and destroyed the USS Liberty off the coast of Egypt, knowing it was an American ship. US sailors who survived the assault claimed Israel was trying to provoke the US into believing Egypt did it. Israel said it was a mistake, and President Lyndon B. Johnson did nothing. Three years earlier, in the Gulf of Tonkin, the US had claimed (falsely) that North Vietnamese vessels had attacked a US ship and LBJ declared war.
That's some serious chutzpah.
Christians provide support to Israel not only financially, but also politically. The Christian Right in America enthusiastically supported the military response to 9/11, which bizarrely was directed toward Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now Syria, rather than against the country with the most involvement: Saudi Arabia.
Which is Israel’s closest regional ally.
Christian Zionists have come to see Muslims as the great enemy of the end times, fueled understandably by terror attacks, the rapefugee tsunami and rabid radicalism in the mosques. Should the neocons be successful in getting their war with Iran, it is not difficult to see many Christians falling in behind another crusade against Mohammed’s minions.
It’s a dialectic of good vs evil, and because God gave the land to Israel, the US alliance is on the side of the angels, right?
So let’s nuke Iran.
Israel’s claim to Israel
There are three bases to modern Jews’ claim upon what was known as Palestine until 1948: historical, prophetic and genealogical.
The historical argument runs that the land was held by the Jews for centuries and was uninhabited when they left. This is patently false. When the Jews were expelled by the Romans in 70AD, some remained, but also other groups settled in and around the region. This type of argument also rests on a sort of ‘native title’ justification; except the Jews aren’t native to the region, even in their own account. There is no nation on Earth which has been held continuously since the Bronze Age by the same ethnic group, and there is no precedent for nationhood through that claim.
All nations are based on someone getting conquered, ours included. That’s just the way it is.
The prophetic argument rests on some key verses from Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Revelation, the most important of which for the Christian Zionist worldview is Ezekiel 37.
In the passage, God declares to Israel that he will restore their dry bones and bring them back to the land of Israel. So far, so good. Seems like the establishment of Israel in 1948 was the fulfilment of that prophecy, right?
Not so fast. The passage states that God will do two things. The first is bring the people of Israel (whoever they are, and we’ll get to that in a minute) back to the land. This has undoubtedly happened, or begun to happen. The second thing that God promises he will do, however, is establish David (representing Jesus) as their king forever (Ezekiel 37: 21-28):
21 “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. 23 They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
24 “David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them. 25 Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28 The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”’
Is Jesus ruling in the land of his forefathers? Has God established a covenant of peace with Israel? Is God’s sanctuary among them? Do the gentile nations know that the Lord has sanctified Israel?
No. The Christian Zionist belief that God established the nation-state of Israel is not at all supported by scripture. This belief, and other similar interpretations which are used to support Christian Zionism, were unheard of before the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. This annotated Bible, which had a profound impact upon generations of American evangelical pastors, was published by the prestigious Oxford University Press under very suspicious circumstances. The author, Cyrus Scofield, had no qualifications or theological training. Only very powerful patrons behind the scenes with deep pockets could have coerced the OUP to publish it, and then paid for the enormous marketing campaign to promote it across America.
God does not support any government on Earth. He repeatedly tells us the rulers of this world, particularly in the end times, are under the control of Satan, the god of this age, and are in rebellion against God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Psalms 2).
God can use kings and political entities, but none of them are Godly. Especially not the state of Israel.
The last pillar of credibility for the state of modern Israel is the weakest. Christian Zionists believe that the modern state of Israel’s claim upon the land goes back to the covenant God made with Abraham to bless his seed (Genesis 17:8): ‘8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.’
There are two problems here. Jesus foretold of the destruction of the temple in 70AD and the Jewish diaspora. If ‘Abraham’s seed’ refers to the Jews collectively, did God then break his promise?
No, he didn’t. Abraham’s seed, or descendants in the more modern translations, does not refer to the Jews. It refers to Jesus. Galatians 3:16 is pretty clear on this: ‘16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.’
Can’t really argue with that. Romans 9:8 corroborates the point.
Christian Zionism is a modern invention. Protestants before the 20th century were generally no fans of the Jews. Luther’s final book and final sermon were both warnings against Jewish deception.
The Catholics too. The Catholic Church has always espoused replacement theology – the view that the Church replaced the Jews as the people of God, and therefore all promises made to the Jews are now forfeit. Such a view is also not supported by scripture, in my view. It is clear that God did make promises to his people, and God always keeps his covenants. Revelation is clear that God will bring the remnant of the Jews left after the Great Tribulation to repentance, and they will call on Jesus as their Saviour and initiate the Second Coming (Zechariah 12).
This leads to another question though: Who then are the Jews?
Who are the Jews?
There are about 14 million people who identify as Jewish in the world today. Of these, around 11 million are Ashkenazim. You can tell Ashkenazim pretty easily; they look white.
There’s a reason for that. They are.
The Ashkenazim are descended from a group of Eastern Europeans who mass converted to Judaism in the 8th century. This piece is already too long, so I’ll let Rocking MrE explain this one if you’re interested.
I would link to a YouTube video, but it's been put on limited state on that platform.
What do Jews believe?
Christian Zionists will tell you that the Jews’ one error is that they only believe the first five books of the Bible (the Torah) or the Old Testament (the Tenakh). They are wrong.
The group of Jews who have maintained fidelity to the Torah are the Karaite Jews. There are only a few thousand of them still around today.
All other religious Jews today follow the ‘oral Torah’, or commentaries created by the rabbis over the centuries. These are codified in the Babylonian Talmud. When rabbis say they study and debate the Torah, this is not true. Most don't even read it. They study a compendium of commentaries upon the Torah built up over the centuries which ultimately derive from the oral traditions of the Biblical Pharisees.
The basis for the Pharisaic tradition is the belief among Jews that while Moses was receiving the written law from God on Mount Sinai, 70 elders also received an oral revelation from God at the base of the mountain. This was to be maintained as an oral tradition, and became the basis of the oral tradition of the Pharisees which ultimately became the Babylonian Talmud studied in Jewish schools and synagogues today. The Talmud also states that the oral tradition takes precendence over the written law (the Torah).
There are also some Jews who follow the mystical traditions of Kabbalah. Like all things related to Jews, it’s complicated. And like all things when it comes to Jews, understanding how this arrangement came to be requires a deep dive on some history.
The Babylonian Talmud
Following the destruction of the Second Temple by Roman forces in 70AD, the Pharisee sect regrouped after their dispersal from Jerusalem at various religious schools and synagogues around the Eastern Roman Empire. During this time, the Pharisees feared their oral tradition of Torah commentaries would be lost. In response, they compiled the Mishnah, the first edition of what has become known as the Talmud in modern times.
Following the arrangement of the Mishnah by the Pharisees in the Near East over the first and second centuries, the rabbinic scholars spent the next three centuries debating and elaborating upon the Mishnah. These debates were recorded and arranged and form the Gemara, the second and much larger portion of the Talmudic commentaries. These have been added to with commentary over the centuries.
Rabbis claim that the Talmud is simply a collection of commentaries upon the Torah, or Tanakh. They are more than this. Talmudic Judaism has moved far beyond and outside anything that Christians would consider Biblical; indeed, many passages would be considered utterly blasphemous if Christians were more aware of them.
Passages that describe Mary as a harlot (Sanhedrin 106a), Jesus as the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier (Kallah 1b & Toldath Jeschu), ‘goyim’ as animals (Sanhedrin 74b) who can be killed by Jews with impunity (Sanhedrin 57a) and assert that Jesus is now boiling in a vat of excrement in hell (Gittin 57a) are now starting to become more widely known by Christians. Princeton Professor of Jewish Studies Peter Schafer even wrote a book about it.
It’s hardly a conspiracy theory. What is less well understood, however, is the role that Talmudism had in the formation of Freemasonry, the secret societies of the Enlightenment and the ideological movements of modernity.
Talmudism is more a way of thinking, speaking and acting than a set of coherent doctrines. Although Jewish rituals and prescriptions are elaborate, and the conditions which allow for getting around them even more so, they are not the main emphasis of the Talmudic training young orthodox Jewish men receive. Talmudism is metaphysical dialectics; a form of philosophical inquiry similar to ancient Greek sophistry. Competition between Talmudic students revolves around debate and who is able to manipulate truth the most effectively. It is about the deployment of truth for advantage, rather than the traditional Christian approach of seeking truth for its own sake. Its epistemological basis is ultimately relativist, as opposed to the absolutist nature of the Christian worldview.
The Kabbalah
Alongside the recorded oral tradition of the rabbis tracing back to the Pharisees, mystical Judaism has also had a significant impact which is not well understood by today’s Christians.
Kabbalah was, until the 20th century, practiced mainly by Hasidic Jews. It is also learned under the tutelage of a rabbi, and its texts are also framed as commentaries upon the books of the Old Testament. There are many texts in Kabbalistic Judaism, however the Zohar is given primary importance. Although Jews believe the teachings of Kabbalistic Judaism go back to Adam, Enoch, Abraham and Moses, and Biblical figures populate them, the subject matter of Kabbalistic writings is entirely alien to the Bible. The Zohar was written in medieval Spain.
Kabbalah concerns issues of metaphysics, the nature of God and the hidden secrets of the cosmos. It is not, however, an academic pursuit. The teachings of Kabbalah correlate to ritual practices designed to move the initiate along a path of enlightenment, and ultimately to achieve the spiritual states described about figures like Enoch, Moses and Elijah in the Bible.
Kabbalah has been the basis for the occult mystical traditions of the West. From the Knights Templar to Freemasonry and the secret societies of the Enlightenment to the theosophists of the 19th century and Aleister Crowley's thelema religion of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Kabbalah has been the wellspring of waves of Western occult mysticism, Gnosticism and Luciferianism over the centuries.
The Lord told us you can know a tree by its fruit. The evidence is clear - the tree of Judaism is as cursed as the fig tree in Mark 11:12-25.
The ‘synagogue of Satan’
Talmudism and Kabbalism have an entirely different spiritual basis to the Bible. In Christianity, one is reconciled to God through accepting the sacrifice for sin which Jesus made of himself on the cross. In Judaism, one moves closer to the transcendant divine principle through intellectual advancement and the mastery of esoteric principles. Kabbalism frames this sexually, as the marriage of the female and male natures of God in sexual union.
These themes of intellectual evolution as the meaning to life have become part of our modern culture through Jewish-influenced comic books, movies, TV and literature. The Gnostic picture of God as an uncaring, remote, tyrannical control freak can be discerned in popular culture too. It is a theme repeated over and over and over again. The Lord told us to be wise. Look closely at the themes you and your children are imbibing from entertainment. They're not from God.
One way of understanding the Bible is as a chronological overview of the period during which God will deal with man. The Old Testament records events prior to Jesus, the gospels record Jesus' life, the epistles cover the early church period, the letters to the churches in Revelation comprise an overview of the previously concealed Church Age and the rest of Revelation tells of the events of the Last Days. If you read Revelation as a chronology, it begins to make much more sense.
Revelation is clear that, during this Church Age, there will be "those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews but are not..." (Revelation 3:9). The phrase "synagogue of Satan" is repeated for emphasis.
Who has synagogues?
Jesus' warning to us is clear: There will be deception around the nature of Judaism during the Church Age. This deception, in my view, goes to the very heart of the devil's end times plan to try and bring the world under his direct control for the final showdown between good and evil.
The good news is, we've read the end of the book. We win.
The Christian answer to the Jewish question
When the Lord was betrayed by Judas and a mob moved to seize him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter drew his sword and cut the ear off one of the high priest's lackeys. The Lord rebuked Peter, and healed the ear. The message of this incident is clear.
We don't need to use violence against those who serve the spirit of antiChrist in this age. That principle should be remembered by all Christians who come to grapple with this very thorny issue. Anger, bewilderment and outrage are common emotions after one has been betrayed through their faith. But violence is not the way to address this issue. Our struggle is not with flesh and blood.
Jesus modeled how to deal with the spirit of antiChrist throughout his ministry. He never sought conflict or argument with the Pharisees and the scribes, but when they assailed him he stood his ground and called them out as hypocrites and manipulators of others' goodness. It is worth remembering that Jesus only ever did this to the rabbis and the scribes; he had compassion for the people, who had been deceived. This is still the case today.
Many Christians will be outraged at the arguments I have made in this piece. I know, because I used to hold the same beliefs as them. Many conservatives will also get triggered by this talk, as they will see it as a pro-Islamic argument. It isn’t. Neither side in that conflict is on the side of God, and both are working together for destruction.
If you are a member of a Zionist church or listen to Zionist preachers, ask yourself from where these men draw their inspiration for their teachings. If they are relying on the Bible commentaries which have built up over the decades, then they are straying away from scripture in the same way the oral tradition of the rabbis did. They are not being led by the Holy Spirit.
As I stated earlier, I do not subscribe to replacement theology and I am not a preterist. I believe the Lord is coming back, and soon; and when he does, it will be at the behest of the repentant remnant of his people who call upon his name in their darkest hour. I believe there will be great mourning on that day in Israel. Until then, however, I remember who persecuted the early church and who the book of Revelation warns us about. The great end times deception will soon reach its fruition, in my view. When it does, I expect the rage of the gentiles will be a terrible thing to behold.
The tribulation will be great indeed.