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Christian
Zionism… Apocalypse Ever After
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Tarek
A. Ghanem
Staff
writer – IslamOnline
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23/05/2002
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William H. Hechler (left) and Theodor Herzl
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That
ideology and religion can be twisted into a different course than
the initial philosophy, and sometimes a criminal one, is nothing
new. Marxism became Stalinism, capitalism became colonialism, free
market became third world exploitation, nationalism became Nazism
and fascism, xenophobia became racism, religious liberty became
secular fundamentalism, and Judaism became Zionism.
But
as for the case of Christian Zionism, it is not only the variation
from mainstream Protestantism into extremism - based on the overtly
literary interpretation of Evangelism, eschatology (the study of end
of times) - and prophetical fulfillment of redemption that make it
represent such a deviation; it is its hands and geography.
Although
the viewpoint of Christian Zionists is quite uncomplicated-endorsing
the existence and power of Israeli subsistence, for once the Jews
are the “masters of the world” the Messiah will revisit-their
effect on Palestinian suffering is far reaching. As there is between
39 and 60 million Evangelicals(1)
in the United States, many of them are Zionists, and among them
Former Presidents Ronald Regan and Jimmy Carter, the effect is
stronger than American Jewry (mounting up 6 million in the U.S.) and
all pro-Israel associations, combined.
And
in fact it is puzzling how their effect escapes the minds working on
helping the Palestinian cause. The America Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), with its influence, is viewed to be the chief
backstage hand behind an American foreign policy so saturated with
favoritism to Israel; no, it is the power of such organizations,
greater than a dozen, that creates the culture of the political
elite in Washington as well. Hence an attentive study of such a
movement - especially in times of its zenith - becomes imperative.
Coming
Off on the “Right” Foot
In
his diary, Theodor Herzl, the religiously indifferent mastermind and
founder of Zionism as a movement for creating a state for the Jews
(destination not specified at this point), wrote on March 10, 1896:
The
Rev William H. Hechler, chaplain to the British Embassy in Vienna,
called on me.A likable, sensitive man with the long grey beard of a
prophet, he waxed enthusiastic over my solution. He, too, regards my
movement as a “prophetic crisis” - one he foretold two years
ago. For he had calculated in accordance with a prophecy dating from
Omar’s reign (637-638) that after 42 prophetical months, that is,
1,260 years, Palestine would be restored to the Jews. This would
make it 1897-1898.
When
he read my book [Der Judenstaat (the Jewish state), 1896], he
immediately hurried to Ambassador Monson and told him: “The
for-ordained movement is here!”
He
wants to place my movement to be a “Biblical” one, even though I
proceed rationally in all points.
He
wants to tract the hands of some German princes… he knows the
German Kaiser and thinks he can get me an audience(2)
This
little excerpt sums the prophecy-possessed notion and, based on the
calculations, proves the flaws in Christian Zionism since its dawn,
for Zionist statehood did not come to the fore until 1948. Hechler,
a priest interested in biblical prophecies, history and maps, had
published a pamphlet, Die bevorstehende Rűckkehr der
Juden nach Palästina (The Restoration of the Jews to
Palestine [according to Prophecy], 1882), earlier before this
meeting. He sympathized with Jews for the ill treatment they
received and his boyhood dream was to be their missionary.
Hechler
was the forceful enthusiasm for making Palestine the “Promised
Land,” the solution to anti-Semitic sentiments. It is the
Herzl/Hechler paradigm that created Zionism: by Herzl’s
secular/scientific touch and Hechler’s spiritual grace. And sure
he did help Herzl meet with the Grand Duke of Baden, the Kaiser and
many public figures. He co-helped him on his second project: The
World Congress of Zionists. And he remained the most faithful
follower of Herzl after his death.(3)
The
Coming Feats, Elsewhere
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William E. Blackstone, founder of the American Messianic Fellowship (AMF)
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It
was not until 1914 that Zionism came with its American branch.
Before that Britain had become their stronghold, not Germany, and
many European cities witnessed their marketing. Chaim Weizmann, an
ultra-Zionist rabbi, imported Zionism to England and was able to
influence many Christian politicians, on top of which were the
non-conformist Welsh and believer in philo-Semitism and
Restorationism, David Lloyd George (Chanceller of the Exchenquer,
and later Prime Minister of wartime coalition government, 1916-18),
and the illustrious Lord Arthur Balfour, foreign secretary, with his
famous declaration. Surprisingly their biggest rivals in England
were British Jews who did not endorse their restoration plans.
Although,
thanks to Jewish German immigrants (Yahudim) to the U.S., the
Federation New York Zionists was founded in 1878, Christian Zionism
settled and flourished in American states with the transfer of the
leadership of World Zionism in 1914. The main Christian Zionist at
this early phase was William Blackstone, a preacher and a teacher
with strong beliefs in Evangelism and Revivalism, and one of the
founders of the Chicago Committee for Hebrew Christian Work, 1887.
The
space is not enough to cover the historical developments of the
movement, but the strongest and earliest influence was on president
Harry Truman, pressing him to recognize the necessity of
the state of Israel:
[On]
12 May it had seemed obvious that Truman would have to choose
between honoring his [earlier] pledge to the Jews (given through
Chaim Weizmann) or losing his Secretary of State [George Marshal],
with all the awful consequences that would follow… Marshall
conveyed to the President his assurance that he would make public
opposition to his decision… In the years of retirement Truman
frequently insisted that the most infuriating moments of his
presidency were those when he had to fight off the persistence of
Zionists. Those people spoke to him as their cause was the only
cause in the world… and as those [their] suffering gave the right
to speak to him as though the office of the president of the United
States meant nothing to them. No other visitors ever pounded to his
desk!(4)
Nowadays,
the U.S. is familiar with the works and influence of an
international coalition of Christian Zionist organizations, which
includes Bridges for Peace (BFP); The American Messianic Fellowship
(AMF); The Messianic Jewish Alliance America (MJAA); Jews for Jesus
(JFJ); and of course, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
(ICEJ); all are shaping the content of the Christian Zionist agenda
today.
“Messianic”
or “Menace” Alliance?
Many
Christian theologians consider Christian Zionism and Messianism as
heresy (epitomized in the movie The Chosen). In his
article, “Christian
Zionism And Messianic Judaism,” James B. Jordan,
president of Biblical Horizons, and author of numerous essays and
books of Biblical studies, deconstructs the theology of Christian
Zionism and even concludes that it is a blasphemy, based on the
following:
First,
by teaching that there are no signs that precede the Rapture,
dispensationalism clearly implies that the modern State of Israel
has nothing to do with Bible prophecy. If Israel collapsed tomorrow,
it would make no difference. Second, dispensationalism teaches that
Jews of today, and even into the Tribulation period, are apostate,
and this certainly implies that they are under the wrath and
judgment of God… Third, by teaching that Israelis “set aside”
during the Church Age, dispensationalism clearly implies that the
promises made to Israel are also “set aside” during that
period… Fourth, dispensational theologians are most strict on the
point that the Church is a “new people,” composed as one body in
Christ of both Jew and Gentile [non-Jews]. During the Church Age,
the distinction between these two is not to be felt in the Church.
Thus, dispensational theology is, by implication, opposed to the
kind of standpoint articulated in many “Messianic Jewish”
groups.
Many
Christians, both from the East and the West, are against Christian
Zionism. And even in joint statements from the Jerusalem Head of
Churches, The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem was
called a “self-proclaimed”
Christian Zionist institution. They all see it as a political
movement stripped from any religious cause. The Middle East Council
of Churches (MECC), comprising the most indigenous and ancient
Oriental and Eastern Churches, has been highly
critical of Christian Zionists as they…
imposed
an aberrant expression of the Christian faith and an erroneous
interpretation of the Bible, which is subservient to the political
agenda of the modern State of Israel. Indeed they represent a
tendency to… force the Zionist model of theocratic and
ethnocentric nationalism on the Middle East… The Christian Zionist
programme, with its elevation of modern political Zionism, provides
the Christian with a world view where the gospel is identified with
the ideology of success and militarism. It places its emphasis on
events leading up to the end of history rather than living
Christ’s love and justice today.
undoubtedly
against their Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters!
The
Way Out!
Even
though the Glorious Qur’an mentions that the Jews will be
triumphant twice (one of them is prehistoric Kingdom) and many
Muslim scholars, on top of which famous and respected Sheikh Yusuf
Al-Qaradawi, believe that Israel is the second prophecy meant, and
many authentic Hadiths (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace Be
Upon Him) prophesized that Jews will come from all over the world to
Palestine, there is no “Muslim Zionism” likewise. No religious
prophecy can be fulfilled by specious and criminal works. No
divinity would grace it.
It
is self-evident that Christian Zionism is sheer politics, not
religion. For all religions and for sure Christianity cannot put
Zionism and what Zionism does (has become?) under its banners--let
alone the audacity and the disrespect to the Church of the Nativity
by Israel. What can Christian Zionists see that others do not see?
What
faith or religious discourse can substantiate displacement for
finding a refuge, collective punishment for safety, sling out of
indigenous inhabitants for well-being, annihilation for defense,
destruction of property for shelter, and apartheid for security?
None.
The
Jewish suffering in the holocaust is a crime against humanity. They
have had one. As for the Palestinians, Muslims and Christians,
theirs is still ongoing. They did not have to pay the price for
Jewish suffering - cured with a romantic movement to find a homeland
for Jews - with their blood, anguish, land, loss and freedom. That
religion and scripture can be tailored to tally wanton politics is
the story.
And
since it is a political movement it must be politically fought. In
the second of a series of three articles titled American Zionism,
Edward Said, the triumphant sun of Arab intellectualism, sees the
key Zionist waves in the U.S. (secular and religious alike) in “a
mass campaign on behalf of Palestinian human rights, which would
have the effect of out-flanking Zionists and going straight to the
American people. Uninformed and yet open to appeals for justice as
they are, Americans would have reacted as they did to the ANC
campaign against apartheid, which finally changed the balance inside
South Africa” (Al-Ahram Weekly, October 5, 2000). His
vision is still applicable specifically after the latest Israeli
carnages and the cordon of the Church of the Nativity.
The author
encourages your comments. Please e-mail him at t.ghanem@islam-online.net
(1)
That was in 1989. Not only that, they possess 80% of world’s Christian wealth. See Christian ACMC & the Battle by Mike Pollard
http://www.missionfrontiers.org/1989/10/o899.htm
(2)
Quoted in Paul C. Merkley, The Politics of Christian Zionism 1891-1948 (Frank Cass: 1998), p. 9. The title of the diary is Book One of the Jewish Cause, begun in Paris, around Pentecost, 1895.
(3)
Ibid. 25
(4)
Ibid. 189-90.
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