The Rev. Matt, a former Christian Zionist, explains why many misguided American Christians were calling for war with Iran and endorsing the Gazacaust of the Palestinian people, among other obviously evil things:
Christian Zionists believe it is their God-given duty to preserve the Jewish people until they are raptured and it is out of their hands. This is why nothing can shake their devotion to the godless nation of Israel. They simply see it as God’s call on their lives to bless these people by supporting them. They see all of your criticisms of Israel as at best unfair, as maybe, in fact probably, suspicious and motivated by antisemitism, and ultimately as an extension of the devil’s hatred for God’s special chosen nation. Some even believe that the Church should subject itself to Israel’s wishes, so as not to risk breaking the 11th commandment, “Thou shalt bless Israel.”
Now, we know the New Testament does not teach any of this. In fact it explicitly says not to show partiality amongst the church (James 2:1-12), and it says the Church is God’s chosen people (1 Peter 2:9-10). But the Christian Zionist believes that these ideas were snuck into the Church by the Church fathers who basically sidelined the Jews after the Gentiles became a majority. There is absolutely nothing in the historical text to substantiate this, in fact that the early Church Fathers anathematised Marcion for having basically this idea, but many Dispensationalists and Christians Zionists believe that almost all of Church leaders in Church history were led astray on this issue, and the creators of Dispensationalism brought back the proper focus on Israel’s uniqueness. Any reference to the Church fathers to rebuke this is simply seen as more evidence of their position being the correct one.
Dispensationalists also kind of see the uniqueness of Israel as helping unlock the “code” of how to understand the Bible and history. Everything bad that has ever happened to the Jewish people in history is simply viewed through the lens of the devil having a unique desire to destroy them, and their survival is seen as the most powerful proof of God’s existence and preservation of them as his special people. Never mind the fact that terrifying and bad things have happened to many peoples and that many other peoples have survived throughout history as well, this is how the Dispensationalist sees the issue. The continued existence of many other people’s in dispersed lands (Roma, Rohingya, Kurds, etc, etc) is simply a coincidence, or not even acknowledged or known. History is one long conflict between the devil and God for the soul of the Jewish people. And in their worldview it will culminate in the redemption of Israelis on a national scale. A revival of the whole country.
I was raised in Christian Zionism, although even the Christianity didn’t take root until I was in my late 20s. The constant state of hysteria shown by the Dispensationalists, which I figured out was little more than Boomers incapable of imagining a world continuing without them, was too offensive to my natural preference for philosophical equanimity to hold much appeal.
But it wasn’t until I observed that a) the god of Judaism was not God the Father, but the god of this world, and b) the historical Zionists were atheists anyhow, that I grasped how fundamentally deceived the Christian Zionists are. After that, learning about the Scofield Bible, the true identity of the Wailing Wall, and various and sundry other telling details, most of which involved blatant historical lies, were not even remotely surprising.
IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes.
As always, the more epicycles and rationalizations that are required to maintain a specific viewpoint, the more likely it is to be fundamentally false. When your interpretation of the Bible leads you to oppose the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, and to repeatedly defend lies, falsehoods, and subversions, that should be a strong signal that your interpretation is incorrect.
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