Never fails. War starts up between the states of Israel
and Palestine and American Christian Zionism rears its ugly head. Why? While
Christian Zionists believe that Christ’s covenant was a fulfillment of the
Mosaic covenant, i.e. dealing with salvation, they do not believe that Christ’s
covenant was a fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, i.e. dealing with Abraham’s
offspring and land. Christian Zionists,
however, miss the Apostle Paul’s point in Galatians 3 that the offspring (singular)
and the land (God’s Kingdom) are realized in Christ. Christ is
the offspring. Those that belong to
Christ are also Abraham’s offspring (Gal 3:28-29). Abraham’s children are spiritual, not
ethnic. Furthermore, this “land,” God’s
Kingdom, is not dependent upon where lines are drawn on a map in the Middle
East. Rather, the Kingdom of God is
found in Christ.
Does this mean that I do not support the
contemporary state of Israel? Certainly
not. I support Israel’s right to defend
itself just as much as I support any nation’s right to, including
Palestine. It is a complicated situation
and I do not have any easy answers for that region. If Christian Zionists, however, are going to
allow their interpretation of Scripture to affect their foreign policy, I would
ask that they re-read the New Testament and consider how Christ’s covenant
affected the Old Testament covenants.
Jewish Rabbis around the world who expressed concern over a State being formed do have an easy answer. They claimed this would never work. They insisted that it would only produce endless strife, hatred and war. Their answer? A swift and peaceful dismantling of the Zionist state. Otherwise Jews will suffer horribly all over the world, and especially in the Middle East. Their warnings were not heeded, but it is not too lake.
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