The Presbyterian Church and Zionism Unsettled: Its Antecedents, and Its Antisemitic Legacy (original) (raw)
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Christian Zionism: A Missiological Emergency
Journal of the Evangelical Missiological Society, 2023
Zionism historically refers to the international movement to establish a Jewish homeland, a hope that was fulfilled by the present state of Israel. Christian Zionists were instrumental in facilitating the establishment of the modern state. Their continuing support for Israeli political interests, territorial expansion and security has been at the expense of pursuing peace-making, justice, and human rights for Palestinians. The result has been to create a missiological emergency with serious harm to the Church in the Middle East and its mission in the Muslim world. Personally observing the adverse consequences on Arab Christians and Muslims forced the author to reflect upon and discern flaws in his dispensational theology – a theology that is widely held by Christian Zionists. The article proposes a corrective that is (a) true to Scripture, (b) truly dispensational, and (c) compassionate and just toward the Palestinian Christians and Muslims, as well as Israelis, by addressing seven arguments of Christian Zionists. Focusing on misinterpretations or misapplications of scripture relating to the modern state of Israel, this study demonstrates that theological and political support for modern Israel does not logically follow from a dispensational interpretative framework. Nevertheless, future fulfillment of biblical promises to national Israel can still be expected. This theological corrective that can serve to advance the mission of God in the Middle East.
Israel Affairs, 2017
This article studies four major Protestant Christian statements on the State of Israel, from the Presbyterian Church (USA) (1987, 2012) and the Church of Scotland (2003, 2013). While they initially advocate a secular, non-theologized view of Israel, they then paradoxically assessand often critiqueit using Scriptural texts and Christian theological concepts. These assessments are analysed using Jeremy Cohen's model of the 'hermeneutical Jew' , which describes a pre-modern Christian construction of the Jew as possessing Scripture but reading it incorrectly (e.g. too literally, particularistically). It is argued that the model applies to these modern Christian statements which view Israel as a hermeneutical Jew. They cast Israel as a corporate religious entity by which the Jewish people might fulfil their religious obligations, but criticize it for failing to properly interpret and apply Scripture in its policies. The article then critiques the appropriateness and accuracy of their viewing Israel as a hermeneutical Jew.
The American Christians and the state of Israel
Journal for The Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2013
Israel has always mattered to American Christians. They are among the strongest supporters of the State of Israel in the United States. The paper argues that the support that was extended by American Christians in general and the Christian Right in particular, to Israel and the Jewish people is the continuation of a long tradition in conservative American Christians rooted mainly in their theological doctrine. However, the study shows that the Christian Right is ambivalent in its view on Jews. On the one hand, Jews are considered to be God's chosen people and to have a special Biblical status and role. On the other hand, the Christian Right is allegedly anti-Semitic, as it views Jews as a condemned nation for their rejection of Christ as the Messiah, the reason for which they are unsaved and need to be converted to Christianity. Interestingly, both views, love and hatred of Jews, are based on the Biblical teachings and grounded in conservative Protestant theology; their paradoxical views on Jews are not a new phenomenon among conservative American Christians. Nevertheless, the study found that the support of the American Christians of the establishment of the State of Israel goes beyond theological doctrines or values. In fact, the humanitarian considerations of the liberal Christian and secular organizations in particular, were significant in contributing to the establishment of the Jewish state.
Religion and American Culture, 2015
G. Douglas Young, the founder of the American Institute of Holy Land Studies (now Jerusalem University College), is a largely forgotten figure in the history of Christian Zionism. Born into a fundamentalist household, Young developed an intense identification with Jews and support for the state of Israel from an early age. By 1957, when he founded his Institute, Young developed a worldview that merged numerous strands of evangelical thinking—dispensationalism, neoevangelicalism, and his own ideas about Jewish-Christian relations—into a distinctive understanding of Israel. Young’s influence in American evangelicalism reached a climax in the years 1967–1971. This period, and Young’s activism therein, represents a distinct phase in the evolution of Jewish-evangelical relations and evangelical Christian Zionism. Young’s engagement with the Israeli state prefigured the Christian Zionists of the 1980s. This article examines Young’s distinctive theology and politics and situates them in intellectual and international contexts. It argues that Young sought to place Christian Zionism at the center of American evangelicalism after 1967 and that his effort was only partially successful. While Young spoke to thousands of evangelicals, trained hundreds of students, and sat on boards and committees to broaden the appeal of Christian Zionism, he also met stiff resistance by some members of the American evangelical establishment. The Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Prophecy, which saw Young collide with Carl F. H. Henry, a leading American evangelical, illustrates the limits of Young’s efforts. Ultimately, a look at Young reframes the rise of Christian Zionism among American evangelicals and situates activism in Israel as central to the development of Jewish-evangelical relations in the twentieth century.
Journal of Humanities, Social and Management Sciences (JHSMS), 2021
The politics of the Holy land is of crucial importance to the followers of the three Abrahamic religions in terms of religious beliefs, which metamorphosed into military and political significance in the 20th Century. The United States (U.S) support for Israel is especially visible during the republican presidencies. The U.S had five republican presidents from 1980 to 2020, and their evangelical beliefs shaped American foreign policy toward this region, a policy that may loosely be termed as affected by Christian Zionism, which was originally a 16th Century religious Puritan movement, who latter shaped into Christian political movement. U.S Christian Zionism reiterates favourable images of Jews and is pessimistic about peace in Holy land. Christian Zionists believe Lord has bestowed the land of Palestine to Jews and have held up this claim since the turn of the 20th Century. This paper first describes the fundamental nature of Christian Zionism, their view of the modern Israel and ...
Christian Zionism and Foreign Policy: Exploiting Religion
Christian Zionism and Foreign Policy: Exploiting Religion Today, studies of Moslem fundamentalism, and its impact on relations between states, have become particularly fashionable, with far less attention being devoted to the influence of other religions. This article therefore considers the phenomenon of what has become known as ‘Christian Zionism’, as manifested in particular in the United States of America, and its influence on foreign policy formulation. It suggests that there has always been an important element of religious moralising in US foreign policy, which has gone hand in hand with more down-to-earth business interests, but that recently the evangelical side of American Christianity has allied with active support for Israel and its policies. In the words of the British embassy in 1972, this can be labelled ‘American Zionism’. The paper compares the well-known Walt-Mearsheimer critique with a fascinating study produced by the British Embassy in Washington in 1972. It implies that Christian Zionism, subtle though it can be, has developed into a new and unwelcome extremist tendency in foreign policy, and that it needs to be scrutinised at least as much as the phenomenon of Moslem fundamentalism. The paper demonstrates that as far back as 1972, the British Embassy recognised the power of the Zionist Lobby in the US, and the methods it used to promote Israeli foreign policy. The paper concludes that religion is often cynically exploited by the promoters of hard-nosed business and political interests, and that these, in conjunction with religious fanaticism, are a danger to international stability. Dr. William Mallinson, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece.