|
National Prayer Network
WHY “CHRISTIAN” ZIONISM IS A CULT
By Rev. Ted Pike
2 Nov 11
The first act of Christian cults is to distort the Bible’s original, clear teaching in favor of more recent “revelations” or interpretations. Cults may emphasize the few verses in Scripture that seem to support their beliefs but ignore a host which don’t. This is like taking scissors to huge sections of the Bible. Jesus says anyone who removes even a line of His Revelation will have their name erased from His book of life (Rev. 22:19).
This behavior precisely describes Christian “Israel-first” Zionism.
Ignoring Evangelism
Evangelism is the central emphasis of the New Testament. The Book of Acts opens with the Christian’s duty to proclaim the good news of salvation first to Jews in Israel and then to the whole world. Yet Christian Zionism is not concerned with evangelism to Jews. The foremost Christian Zionist leader today, Pastor John Hagee, forbids evangelism of Jews or even mention of the name of Jesus in his huge “pro-Israel” rallies. (See Hagee: Unrepentant Heretic) Christian Zionism is primarily devoted to upholding the right of a nation of Christ-rejecting Jews to occupy Palestine. It is primarily a political, not evangelistic, movement. How do Christian Zionist leaders justify such departure?
Ignoring Laws of Covenant Blessing
Christian Zionists quote passages describing the Jews’ special covenant, such as Genesis 12:1, 14-15, 15:18, 22:17. They infer that God wants Jewish safety and blessing as a top world priority and claim these verses grant Jews, in any moral condition, perpetual rights to occupy Palestine.
This is hardly what the Bible teaches. God says Jews inherited covenantal rights only because of Abraham’s obedience, an obedience they must duplicate in order to also inherit (Gen. 18:19, 26:4-5). This condition is clearly present in Deuteronomy 7:12 and 28:1-2:
if ye harken to these judgments and keep and do them. . .the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He swore unto thy fathers.
if thou shalt harken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and do all His commandments…all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou but harken unto the voice of the Lord… (see also Hebrews 8:8,9)
The apostle Paul says clearly that God’s blessing was promised not to a nation of Abraham’s physical, unbelieving descendants but only to one person, Jesus (Gal. 3:16, 19). In verse 29 he says all who believe in God are children of Abraham and will receive his blessing.
[Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He doesn’t say, “To seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “To your seed,” which is Christ. – Gal. 3:16 – editor]
Yes, God does have a land contract with the physical, believing Jewish people (Gen. 15:13-21) which will be fulfilled when a remnant of Jews repents at Christ’s coming. But Paul encourages all Gentiles to now consider themselves “children of Abraham” where it matters – spiritually.
Not one verse in Scripture promises that unbelieving Jews can occupy God’s holy land in unbelief. Not one prophecy clearly says that God will allow an unbelieving nation of Jews into Palestine and convert them later.
Christian Zionism twists a handful of verses, giving them a fleshly, materialistic, unconditional interpretation ignoring God’s spiritual terms of obedience.
Ignoring Terms of Occupation
If you are an evangelical, have you ever heard preached the dozens of clearest warnings to the ancient Hebrews that they cannot enter the land except in obedience and that if they are rebellious God will throw them out? Or that, once in exile, they can never come back except they obey?
Here are only several:
[if you shall corrupt yourselves]…I call heaven and earth to witness against you that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land . . .and the Lord shall scatter you among the nations… (Deut. 4:25-27).
[Conversely, when exiled Jews] return to the Lord thy God. . .the Lord thy God will turn their captivity. . .and gather them from all the nations. . . (Deut. 30:1-3)
It is also unlikely you have heard preached the many warnings by Christ and His apostles to beware of unbelieving Jews. Here is one example:
. . .for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen among even as they have of the Jews: who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins all way: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. (1 Thess. 2:14-16)
It is hard to even imagine a pastor preaching from “anti-Semitic” passages which affirm that Jews who reject Christ are liars (Rev. 3:9) and “enemies of the gospel” (Rom. 11:28)—or that Christians should “beware of the leaven” (teachings) of modern Judaism (Mark 8:5)—or the many clear statements that blame Christ’s crucifixion on unbelieving Jews and their leaders. (See Are Jews Today Guilty for the Crucifixion?)
Like a broken record, Christian Zionists play and replay Ps. 122:6: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” You will never hear from their lips that Christ calls Jerusalem “Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was crucified” [Rev. 11:8], the embodiment of the sexual perversion of Babylon and occult of Egypt.
Ignoring Spiritual Adultery
Israel is portrayed more than 80 times in the Old Testament as the “mother” of spiritual adultery in the world. The whole book of Hosea and much of Ezekiel dramatize this unique distinction. Yet evangelical pastors and Bible teachers, largely for fear of offending Jews, never hint at the possibility that Israel is the “great harlot” of Revelation. Instead, all suspicion is heaped upon the Roman Catholic Church. Yes, the papacy was a spiritual whore, especially during the Inquisition and persecution of Protestants during the Reformation, bloody with the martyrs of Jesus. Apostate liberal denominations are also spiritually adulterous today. Yet only Israel, first to spiritually marry Jehovah and prostitute that relationship, can legitimately be called the “mother” of that scarlet sorority. (See ‘Babylon the Great’ is Israel)
Ignoring the Prophets
By forbidding criticism of Israel under threat of divine curse, Christian Zionism collides with the fact that God encouraged His biblical prophets and saints to warn wicked Jews away from their sins. He did so without any hint that such was anti-Semitic. On the contrary, God looked for and was proud of anyone who under His leading and out of love would rebuke wicked Jews. If God is unchanging, He also encourages and blesses those who rebuke evil Jewish leaders today. Don’t you think God wants Christians, as in the time of Jeremiah, to rebuke Jewish supremacist groups, like the Anti-Defamation League, who persecute Christians under hate laws and encourage sodomy and removing Christian symbols from America? God is grieved that not one national evangelical leader has the courage to publicly identify ADL as a threat to America but cowers before it, fearing the dreaded, potentially ruinous epithet “anti-Semitic!”
What precedent exists in Scripture to hold up 17 million non-Christian Jews today as beyond criticism? Scripture contains no example of exalting even one righteous Jew or Gentile beyond reproof! Christian Zionism thus not only flagrantly omits Scripture it doesn’t like; it creates a false obligation to bless the wicked just because they are Jewish. This is a perverse, even racist, violation of the commandment in the book of James not to show favoritism to persons. This is a spiritual perversion. God hates it.
Bringing Biblical Reason to Evangelicals
Many secular critics of Israel and Talmudic Judaism say Jews are mostly evil and corruptive and therefore cannot possibly be God’s chosen people. Yet such falls on deaf Christian Zionist ears.
Most Christian Zionists agree that Israel is in spiritual darkness, even apostasy, en route to ultimate enlightenment through Christ. But no amount of Jewish evil can shatter their loyalty. Such includes creation of Communism (See Jewish Activists Created Communism), media control (See Jews Confirm Big Media Is Jewish), promotion of homosexuality, or injustices in the Mideast. Christian Zionists feel obligated to protect even the vilest supremacist Jews from investigation, criticism, or exposure—shielding them from any “anti-Semitism” that could possibly result in killing of Jews or even destruction of modern Israel, which they believe would frustrate God’s plan of the ages and delay Christ’s return. Such unbiblical fanaticism helps explain why literally no magnitude of evil coming from Judaism can disenchant most evangelicals.
Christian Anti-Zionists have a better argument than do secular anti-Zionists as they attempt to bring reason to evangelicals.
The New Testament describes Christ-rejecting Jews as dry, withered, castaway branches, devoid of special covenant protection. Jesus affirmed such withered branches, both Jew and Gentile, are “burned” by God (John 15:5-6). He said those who say they are Jews but reject Him are not true Jews at all (Rev. 3:9). Paul says such “children of the flesh” are not the seed of Abraham (Rom. 9:6-8) but are “broken off” (Rom. 11:19).
Sadly, Israel-first evangelicals are so habituated to ignoring Scripture that even the clearest Bible passages will usually not alter their protectionism.
Cults do not produce fruits of wisdom, love, righteousness and justice but lead their followers into service of evil. By encouraging evangelicals to give first loyalty to Israel rather than Christ and the whole Bible, including evangelism to Jews, Christian Zionism makes Christians the servants of wicked men. Taught to bless Israel no matter what, Christians become callous and depraved toward the Arabs, whom God loves as much as Jews. Like Saul of Tarsus, who held the cloaks of those who stoned righteous Stephen, the pro-Zionist church bids Godspeed to evil men and becomes “a partaker of their evil deeds” (II John 11).
The verdict is clear: “Christian Zionism” is not authentic Christianity. It is devoted to a single monstrous heresy: that wicked Jews can reoccupy God’s holy land, a region of the earth originally set aside by Him to signify heaven. It rejects God’s command that His church not be unequally yoked with one of the vilest, most arrogant and oppressive systems of all time.
If there is one verse Zionist Christians should take to heart, it is Revelation’s last day’s cry to God’s people to flee “Babylon the Great,” the Harlot Israel.
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers in her sins, that ye receive not her plagues. For her sins have reached up to heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Rev. 18:4-5)
________________________________
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization. …
The freedom-saving outreach of Rev. Ted Pike and the National Prayer Network is solely supported by sale of books, videos and your financial support. All gifts are tax-deductible.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015
|
