Christian Zionism Or Israel Theology In Reponse To David Pawsons Defending Christian Zionism

Why did God choose the Israelites to be his people, and why did He give them a land? Which Covenant made Israel God's people? What is the consequence if God's people break the Sinai Covenant? Can an everlasting promise or covenant be withdrawn or cease to exist? If so, why? If not, why not? If the Israelites are not God's people anymore, do they have a Biblical right to live in the country where their ancestors lived? Does this land belong to Israel? What does the New Covenant mean for Israel? What was the mission of the Jewish Messiah? Did the Jewish Messiah come to undo the fall in paradise, overcome death, overcome Satan and establish the Kingdom of God, or was his mission to graft the Gentiles on Israel and to revive old times to make an earthly kingdom of Jews? Who is the real enemy of God's people? Satan and his angels or flesh and blood Palestinians, Iranians and Muslims? The author is a teacher and an elder in an Evangelical Church in the Netherlands.

Has God brought the Jewish people back to Palestine? How can both Jews and Christians be God's chosen people? How many covenants are there in the Bible? Do all Christian Zionists accept dispensational teaching? Does the God of Israel ever change his promises? These are some of the questions that must be faced in the light of current attacks on Christian Zionism by some evangelical writers. David Pawson believes that Christians need very clear biblical understanding before making political pronouncements about conflict in the Middle East.

How should Christians today understand the many promises and prophecies in the Old Testament about the future of Israel and its land? Are Christian Zionists justified in believing that these have been fulfilled in the return of Jews to their land since the 1880s and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948? This book discusses all the key texts about the restoration of Israel that are quoted in these debates, questioning the Christian Zionist interpretation and offering an alternative. This is followed by a detailed study of two important Old Testament texts dealing with the future of Israel, Ezekiel 33-47 and Zechariah 9-13, understanding them in their original context and exploring how they are interpreted in the New Testament. This is no theoretical, ivory-tower debate. We are dealing here with the most bitter and protracted conflict of the last 150 years; and the way we interpret the Bible has profound political consequences.

When Christians collude in crimes against humanity, they betray their citizenship in the kingdom of God, demonstrating that Christ’s Lordship does not rule over every area of their lives. The popular ideology known as Christian Zionism is a prime enabler of such widespread discipleship—failure in western Christianity. As the state of Israel continues to violate international law with colonial settlement in lands captured by warfare, legalized racial discrimination, and the creation of what many have called “the world’s largest open-air prison” in Gaza, Christian Zionists continue their unqualified support for Zionist Israel. Though Israel advertises itself as “the only democracy in the Middle East,” it is actually a rigid ethnocracy—its entire society built on the foundations of Jewish supremacy over a Palestinian underclass. History will eventually judge Christian Zionist support for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians in the same way people of conscience now condemn the Christian church in the American South for its defense of slavery and hostility towards the civil rights movement. Just as the Southern Baptist church finally repudiated its pro-slavery past, so everyone genuinely devoted to Jesus Christ must repudiate both the ideology and the legacy of Christian Zionism.

The modern state of Israel has been a nation for almost 70 years. When she was formed and fought her early wars of existence, most Bible-believing Christians believed there was a real connection with what was going on in the Middle East and Bible prophecy that predicts an end-time return of the Jews to their land. While support for Israel remains high in most evangelical communities, we are seeing the beginning of a decline, especially among younger evangelicals, who question whether modern Israel really relates to end-time Bible prophecy. The Case for Zionism attempts to bring together biblical, historical, and legal arguments for the legitimacy of the startup nation known as Israel as it: Explains controversies such as antisemitism and Replacement TheologyDetails the biblical and legal rights of Modern IsraelExplores the prophetic nature and future of Israel. In this presentation, Thomas Ice answers many of the contemporary arguments being used by both secular and religious communities to undermine what he believes is the hand of God at work in our own day.

Christian Zionism is often seen as the offspring of premillennial dispensationalism. But the authors of this work contend that the biblical and theological connections between covenant and land are nearly as close in the New Testament as in Old. Written with academic rigor, this provocative volume proposes a place for Christian Zionism in an integrated biblical vision today.

Beyond Christian Zionism tracks the journey of a Christian pastor/theologian from his initial enthusiasm for Christian Zionism in the heady days of the early 1980s, to something approximating a volte-face as a result of hermeneutical revision and political engagement. Given that the church he has pastored for the last twenty years was once an epicenter of Christian Zionism, and is now a multi-ethnic community, the travelogue is as much a reflection on the mission and unity of the Christian community as it is upon the politics of the Middle East. But given the ongoing conflict in the Holy Land, it also carries a prophetic note of warning to lay aside theological fundamentalism and to engage in the painstaking work of peacemaking.

Millions of American Christians see U.S. support for the State of Israel as a God-ordained responsibility. Robert O. Smith provides an in-depth look at the English Protestant tradition of Judeo-centric prophecy interpretation at the heart of this popular affinity.