Christian Zionism: Terror in Jesus' Name

 

 
 Yoginder Sikand 

 Published on February 13, 2007

 

      Represented by literally hundreds of small denominations and churches today, particularly in America, Christian Zionism is today a formidable force and a major actor in global politics.
 
Christian Zionism comes in various shades, but the core of its message is total, unflinching support to the state of Israel and the Zionist imperialist project.
 
Christian Zionists today exercise an enormous clout in the Bush administration. Bush, too, may himself be characterised in some sense as a Christian Zionist, for his policies in the Middle East and elsewhere clearly reflect or tally with the Christian Zionist agenda.
 
War, conquest and imperialist domination, based on a fanatic insistence on the absolute truth of Christianity and the racial superiority of the Jews lie at the very heart of Christian Zionism.
 
         Christian Zionists believe that the Jews are God’s ‘Chosen People’ and that God has given the Jews the absolute right to complete control over not just Palestine but, indeed, a vast stretch of territory, extending from present-day Egypt to Iraq, the so-called ‘Greater Israel’.
 
God, they claim, has selected the Jews above all other people. Hence, they insist, those who oppose the imperialist project of the advocates of ‘Greater Israel’ or the Zionist occupation of Palestine are ‘God’s enemies’, deserving to be crushed by every available means, including outright war and decimation.
 
Advocating Israel does not mean, however, that Christian Zionists accept Judaism as a legitimate means of salvation after Jesus. Nor does it translate into genuine love for the Jews, a departure from the traditional teachings of the Church that, for centuries, viewed Jews as ‘Christ-killers’.
 
       Since Christian Zionists believe that Christianity is the only religion acceptable to God, and that, as the Bible claims, salvation is possible only through Jesus, they insist that Jews cannot be ‘saved’ unless they convert to Christianity.
 
Yet, because Christian Zionists are dogged defenders of the state of Israel and are fiercely anti-Arab and anti-Muslim, they have been able to establish a close nexus with right-wing Jewish groups and with the Israeli state and are today an integral part of the American-Israeli axis.
 
Christian Zionism is a call for global war. The belief that Christianity is the sole truth, that all other faiths are ‘Satanic’ or ‘false’, that the Jews must all gather in Palestine to fulfil so-called Biblical prophecies, and that a grand global war will soon erupt leading to the massacre of hundreds of millions and heralding the ‘second coming’ of Jesus, who will establish his Christian kingdom extending till the four corners of the world, clearly indicate the hate-driven, global expansionist project of Christian Zionism.
 
John Hagee is a prime example of a Christian Zionist zealot. He is the founder and pastor of the Cornerstone Church, in Texas, USA, which claims some 16,000 members. As with numerous other similar American Christian fundamentalist preachers, his church is richly endowed and media savvy.
 
       Hagee is the president of the ‘Global Evangelism’ media company that broadcasts his daily programmes on television and radio throughout the USA and around the world. He is the author of numerous books on Christian Zionism, some of which have been reprinted by Christian fundamentalist publishers abroad as well.
 
'Final Dawn Over Jerusalem’ is one of Hagee’s major writings on Christian Zionism that well exemplifies the imperialist agenda that lies at its very core.
 
The aim of the book is to defend the Israeli occupation of Palestine, to denounce those who seek to protest Israeli atrocities, and to advocate the cause of ‘Greater Israel’, all this in the name of Christianity and premised on the notion of the Jews as being allegedly God’s ‘Chosen People’.
 
Racism is integral to the Christian Zionist message, as Hagee makes amply clear. The Bible, Hagee, says, describes the Jews as ‘the apple of God’s eye’ [Zech 2:8].
 
        He quotes the Bible as addressing the Jews and declaring, ‘For you are a holy people to the LORD your God’ and ‘the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth’ [Deut.14:2].
 
This means, so Hagee argues, that those who harm the Jews or the state of Israel or stand in the way of the design of ‘Greater Israel’ will ‘experience the instant wrath of God’. To those who dare to challenge the oppressive Zionist state, Hagee announces, ‘The man or nation that lifts a voice or hand against Israel invites the wrath of God’.
 
Such people will, Hagee insists, be ‘cursed’ by God.  Hagee’s notion of God thus appears to be that of a tribal Jewish deity, who functions as a willing tool in the pursuit of Jewish expansionism.
 
The Bible was written by Jewish hands, and given that, as many liberal Christians would themselves concede, much of it is a human product, numerous Biblical verses were written in order to legitimise the interests of the community from which its writers were drawn.
 
        This would seem obvious to any discerning layman, but Biblical literalists like Hagee vehemently disagree.
 
For them every word of the Bible is sacrosanct and divine. Biblical literalism is pressed into the service of the Christian Zionist imperialist and racist agenda. Drawing upon numerous verses of the Bible, Hagee argues, ‘God watches over Israel as a protective parent hovers over an only child’.
 
The nation of Israel’, he makes so bold as to declare, ‘was created by a sovereign act of God. All other nations were created by an act of war or a declaration of men, but Israel was intentionally created by God so that He would have a physical place of inheritance on the earth’.
 
Accordingly, Hagee would have us believe that for this god, who is seen as in need of a ‘physical place’ for himself, non-Jews or Gentiles, are second-rate human beings or less, and so can easily be dispensed with if they are seen as coming in the way of Jewish imperialism.
 
      The tribal Jewish version of God that Hagee presents appears entirely unjust and arbitrary, far from being impartial in the way he deals with His creation. Given the fact that the God of the Biblical literalist imagination is a Jewish deity, and not the universal God who looks upon His entire creation impartially, he is seen as blessing Jewish conquests of territories of their enemies.
 
Thus, quoting the Bible, Hagee writes that God gave the land of ‘Greater Israel’, a vast swathe of land stretching from Egypt all the way till Iraq, to the Jews, descendants of Isaac, forever.
 
That being the case, Hagee suggests that people living in those territories, millions of Arabs, both Muslims and Christians, have no right to live there or else must accept to live under Jewish rule. Although Hagee does not say this explicitly, what this means is that those who refuse to accept Jewish rule must, therefore, be either killed or expelled.
 
The god of Hagee’s imagination appears as an entirely whimsical real estate agent. ‘God established Israel’s national geographic boundaries’, Hagee writes. ‘The exact borders of Israel are detailed in Scripture just as our heavenly Father dictated them’, he goes on, adding, ‘The divine Surveyor drove the original stakes into Judean soil and decreed that no one should ever change these property lines.
 
       The real estate contract and lands covenants were signed in blood and stand to this very hour’. Hence, he argues, ‘Jews have the absolute right as mandated by God to the land of Israel and, more specifically, to the city of Jerusalem’.
 
Hence, he suggests, Palestinians have no claim to their own historical land, and must make way for Jewish occupiers.
 
Hagee’s defence of Zionist imperialism goes to ridiculous lengths. Laughable as this may sound, he argues, ‘Israel has a Spy in the sky’—God Himself. God, he claims, provides Israel, the Jewish people and the state of Israel, with special protection.
 
‘No nation in the world can match the defensive force guarding the State of Israel. The archangel Michael has a special assignment to guard Israel’. And those who, for any reason oppose Israel, and this includes Palestinians fighting Israeli occupation and oppression, are said to incur God’s wrath.
 
‘The Lord stands watch in the darkest night with an eye trained on the nation of Israel and, more specifically, Jerusalem. Those who fight with Israel fight with Him’, Hagee asserts.
 
        So central is Israel to Hagee’s tribalistic version of God that he goes to the extent of arguing that the fate of each and every person on the face of the planet depends essentially on his or her attitude to the Jews.
 
'Prosperity or punishment depends on how we treat Israel’, he alleges, because, he claims, the Jews, as descendants of Abraham ‘enjoy heavenly favour’.
 
To back his claim he quotes the Bible as saying that when God entered into a covenant with Abraham, He gave him an ‘awesome promise’, saying, ‘I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’ [Gen. 12:3].
 
Hence, Hagee insists, the United States, and, indeed, anyone else who wishes to please God, must consistently engage in ‘compassionate support of the State of Israel’, adding that, ‘The quickest and most effective way to be on God's side is to stand with the State of Israel and the Jewish people in their hour of need’.
 
         By doing this, he claims, one can win God’s favour, because, ‘God blesses the man or nation that blesses Israel or the Jewish people’.
 
At no time before, Hagee firmly believes, has support for Israel and Zionist imperialism, been more crucial than today. This is because, he claims, Jesus is returning to the world soon, and Israel must be protected in order to welcome the Messiah.
 
Hagee’s image of Jesus in his ‘second coming’ bears no resemblance to the familiar notion of the suffering, loving Jesus. Rather, in his description Jesus appears as a fierce warrior, rallying Christians to arms and heralding the final, global war, ironically in the name of the ‘Prince of Peace’.
 
In the doomsday scenario that Hagee outlines, what he calls ‘fanatical attacks’ by Arabs on Israel, particularly Jerusalem, would mount.
 
In response, Christians the world over, he says, must rally behind Israel. At this hour, he insists, ‘we must let the world know that if a line has to be drawn, it will be drawn around Christians as well as Jews. We are united and indivisible’.
 
     The city of Jersualem, Hagee believes, is the crux of the final battle before Jesus’ ‘second coming’. This city, considered sacred by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, has been ordained, so Hagee argues, by God to be ‘under the exclusive control of the Jewish people’ until Jesus arrives again.
 
The final battle of Armageddon will, he writes, be centred on this city, with Arabs or Muslims seeking to wrest control of it from the Jews. In this regard, Hagee says, Christians, for their part, must staunchly defend Israel and must refuse any peace offers, such as allowing for a shared Jerusalem or joint control of the town by Jews and Arabs.
 
In particular, he appeals to the United States to do everything in its power to back Israel and to crush its opponents, claiming this is the only way to win God’s favour. If America fails to do this, he warns, it would be crushed by God Himself!
 
Quoting various verses of the Bible, Hagee describes what he sees as the unfolding of events of cosmic proportions, ushering in a global war the like of which has never been witnessed hitherto and heralding the ‘second coming of Jesus’.
 
In this global war, he says, Muslims, whom he regards as followers of a ‘false’ religion, would ally with the Russians to fight against Israel. This would lead to a global nuclear war, with hundreds of millions being killed. At this point, the ‘Anti-Christ’ will appear, attack Jerusalem and will take over the reigns of the world, falsely claiming to usher in peace.
 
       But, this grand deception will not last long, and, instead, will only lead to even more devastating wars. At this time, Hagee says, Christians must defend, by every means possible, the Jews and Israel, and wage war against the armies of those opposed to God’s ‘Chosen Race’, the Jews. Only then can they be saved, he insists.
 
After years of global war and terrible destruction, Hagee writes, Jesus will be sent by God to deliver the world. Mounted on a white horse, he will arrive at the battlefield at Armageddon. Defeating the ‘Anti-Christ’ and his army, he will establish his global kingdom with his capital in Jerusalem, there to ‘rule and reign forever’.
 
Hagee’s description of Jesus’ future global kingdom offers little cause to cheer for non-Christians, including, ironically, even the Jews whom he so ardently defends. It would, as he himself makes clear, be nothing short of a global Christian empire, and an antiquated one at that, with kings and queens and presidents still in place!
 
How they would continue to be around when Jesus rules the whole world is a mystery that Hagee leaves unsolved.
 
Ruled by Jesus, Hagee writes, ‘Jerusalem, the apple of God’s eye, will become the joy of the world. The city will become the international worship center, and people from all over the world will make pilgrimages to worship in the holy temple.
 
       Kings, queens, princes and presidents shall come to the Holy City’ to adore Jesus. Presumably, these all will be Christians themselves, for Hagee quotes the Bible as predicting that ‘at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’.
 
As Hagee’s book clearly indicates, Christian Zionism, rooted in tradition of the Crusades and a long history of Church triumphalism, is a recipe for global war and Christian imperialism.
 
Moreover, it reflects a total lack of genuine spirituality, seeking to reduce the notion of God into a petty, whimsical and racist dictator who willingly urges the slaughter of innocents in order to protect the expansionist designs of his supposedly ‘Chosen People’.
 
       Of course, Christian Zionism is hardly unique in its use of religion for such blatantly political ends, but given the immense clout enjoyed by its advocates today, especially in America, it is a much more menacing threat to world peace than is sometimes imagined and cannot be simply dismissed as the ravings of lunatics on the fringe.


 
Dr. Yoginder Sikand  writes in Mukto-Mona from Bangalore. Yoginder Sikand did his MPhil in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and his PhD in history from the University of London; he is the author of several books including Sacred Spaces: Exploring Traditions of Shared Faith in India (Penguin, 2003) and Muslims in India Since 1947: Islamic Perspectives on Inter-Faith Relations (Routledge Curzon, 2004). etc.

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/yogi_s/christian_zionism061205.htm

Posted in Submitted by Rhiannon on Sat, 2008-10-25 12:32.

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The Christian roots of Zionism stem deep in western society particularly France and Britain. I am not suggesting that those who settled in Palestine were Christians. The point being made here is that Zionism is a Christian European project with its roots in Western civilization.

Many Christians in France and Britain were the nurturers of the notion. "Jews" latched on to the idea centuries later. Please find below but a few examples,  which instruct on the Christian roots of Zionism.

The pagan Roman Emperor Julian began the project of restoring the Jews to Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple. He fell in battle before the project could be completed, and subsequent Christian emperors abandoned the project.

http://www.mideastweb.org/britzion.htm

However, with the rise of Prstestantism and the Enlightenment brought a spirit to Europe wherein, support grew for restoration of the Jews as the rightful owners of "the Holy Land." This movement was nourished by many sources, not all favorable to the Jews. The theology of some branches of Protestantism posits that the second coming of Christ would only come only after the Jews were reestablished in their land. Antisemites believed that establishment of a Jewish homeland would be a convenient way to rid Europe of Jews. Imperialists hoped that a Jewish Palestine would be an excuse for a British protectorate there, and might serve as a solution for the "Eastern Question."

The idea of Jewish restoration was not alien to British culture. In 1621, the British MP Sir Henry Finch wrote a book entitled "The World's Great Restoration." He encouraged Jews to reassert their claim to the Holy Land, writing, "Out of all the places of thy dispersion, East, West, North and South, His purpose is to bring thee home again and to marry thee to Himself by faith for evermore." However, the idea remained dormant until the enlightenment and the rise of nationalism in the 19th century coincided with the full bloom of British Imperialism.

In 1799, Napoleon issued a proclamation promising to restore Palestine to the Jews, as he was camped outside Acre. Though Napoleon was forced to withdraw from Palestine, the idea had been planted and took root in British soil. For religious, or humanitarian or philosophical or imperialist motives, prominent Britons learned Hebrew, wrote novels about restoration of the Jewish commonwealth, began settlement and exploration societies and advocated restoration of the Jews in public and in private. Among the advocates we may include Lord Lindsay, Lord Shaftesbury Lord Palmerston, Disraeli, Lord Manchester, George Eliot, Holman Hunt, Sir Charles Warren, Hall Caine and others. Shaftesebury was probably responsible for the phrase "A country without a nation for a nation without a country," later to become the Zionist slogan "A land without a people for a people without a land." He asserted, " There is unbroken identity of Jewish race and Jewish mind down to our times; but the great revival can take place only in the Holy Land."

Lord Lindsay wrote:

The soil of "Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in the days of Solomon. ( Crawford, A.W.C. (Lord Lindsay), Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land, London, H. Colburn 1847, V II, p 71).

Charles Henry Churchill, a British resident of Damascus, also became a zealous propagator of the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. In 1841 he wrote a letter to the Jewish philanthropist Moses Montefiore in which he stated: "...I consider the object to be perfectly obtainable. But, two things are indispensably necessary. Firstly, that the Jews will themselves take up the matter unanimously. Secondly, that the European powers will aid them in their views..."

In 1839 the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar Robert Murray M'Cheyne, to report on "the Condition of the Jews in their land." Their report was widely publicized in Great Britain and it was followed by a "Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine." This memorandum was printed verbatim in the London Times, including an advertisement by Lord Shaftesbury igniting an enthusiastic campaign by the Times for restoration of the Jews.

In August 1840 the Times reported that the British government was considering Jewish restoration. It added that "a nobleman of the Opposition" (apparently Lord Shaftesbury) was making inquiries to determine:

1. Jewish opinion of the proposed restoration.

2. Jewish readiness to live in Palestine and invest their capital in agriculture.

3. How soon they would be ready to go.

4. Whether they would pay for their own passage, given assurance of safety to life and property.

5. Whether they would be willing to live under the Turkish rule, protected by Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, Austro- Hungary.

Lord Shaftesbury was the most active restoration lobbyist. 'The inherent vitality,' he wrote, 'of the Hebrew race reasserts itself with amazing persistence. Its genius, to tell the truth, adapts itself more or less to all the currents of civilization all over the world, nevertheless always emerging with distinctive features and a gallant recovery of vigor.

Lord Shaftesbury lobbied for the idea with Prime Minister Palmerston and his successors in the government and was incidentally instrumental in the considerable assistance and protection against oppression that Britain hence­forth extended to the Jews already living in Palestine.

Sir George Gawler, a hero of Waterloo, urged the restoration of the Jews as the remedy for the desolation of Palestine. In 1848 he wrote, "I should be truly rejoiced to see in Palestine a strong guard of Jews established in flourishing agricultural settlements and ready to hold their own upon the mountains of Israel against all aggressors. I can wish for nothing more glorious in this life than to have my share in helping them do so." Gawler formed a Palestine colonisation fund to help the work of settlement.

In her novel, Daniel Deronda (1876), George Eliot advocated, "the restoration of a Jewish state planted in the old ground as a center of a national feeling, a source of dignifying protection, a special channel for special energies and an added voice in the councils of the world."

The restoration movement fed off the nascent Jewish nationalist movement Colonel Churchill in Damascus was influenced by Montefiore, who had been trying to secure a Jewish homeland in Palestine from the Mehmet Ali, the Khedive of Egypt. Ali was not opposed, but he was deposed shortly thereafter. George Eliot's Daniel Deronda reflected her thorough grounding in the work of the Jewish historian Heinrich Graetz, who believed in national restoration of the Jews in their own land.

F. Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888), MP and Evangelical Christian, was a follower of Lord Shaftesbury. In 1880 Oliphant published a book entitled The Land of Gilead, urging the British Parliament to assist the restoration of Jews to Palestine from Russia and Eastern Europe, and advocating that Palestinian Arabs be removed to reservations like those of the North American Indians.

The interest of Britain in Palestine expressed itself in the "capitulations" won from the Turks, allowing them to place missions there and to found charitable works such as hospitals, settlement colonies and exploratory surveys like those of Conder. In fact, there were over a 1,000 British travelogues and surveys of the Middle East in the 19th century. Such exploratory travels, as in the case of famous explorers such as Burton and Livingston, usually preceded British imperial involvement in a region. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, British interest in the Middle East increased, because it was considered essential to guard the route to India and to guarantee the stability of the Turkish empire against Russian and other imperialist threats. Settlement of Jews in Palestine was offered first as a way to bolster the faltering Turks and help guarantee the security of the Suez canal. The idea which had seemed utopian became a more or less respectable and acceptable project.

The point here is to further establish and put into context that the Zionist movement was at the onset and continues to be a colonialist emdeavor.

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/1770

Zionism's insistence that European Jewish colonial settlers in Palestine were White Europeans is as old as Zionism itself. In his magnum opus, Der JudenStaat (The State of the Jews) published in 1896, Herzl unabashedly identified the Zionist state to be "the portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism". When negotiating later with the Portuguese Ambassador Count Paraty to locate an African territory to be colonised by European Jews (most likely Mozambique), Herzl asked Paraty to inquire of the Portuguese government the following: "Is there a territory sufficiently habitable and cultivable by Europeans?"

 

Quote from Non-Jewish Zionism: Its Roots in Western History
by Regina Sharif

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0862321514/102-4053136-5516141?v=glance&n=283155

Moreover, just as 'Palestine' was a construct of European Christian scholarship, so the principle sources for information on the subject, Jewish, Classical pagan and Christian, were also largely the exclusive preserve of European Christian scholars, thanks, largely, to the Roman Catholic Church.

 

This is an outright racist article however, it shows nascent Zionist firmly suckling in the bossom of Christiany.

http://christianactionforisrael.org/annals_cz.html

Jewish figures such as Pinsker, Nordau, and Herzl became prominent Zionists in the late 19th century. But there already existed in Europe Christian Zionists who, recognizing the continuing plight of Jews as a stateless people and, in many cases, inspired by the Old Testament, began to discuss and promote the idea of a Jewish return to Zion.

In her riveting study, Bible and Sword, the historian Barbara Tuchman traced the origins of Christian Zionism in England, from the earliest days to its full flourishing in late Victorian England. It was there that Christian Zionists won the earliest converts, including such powerful spokesmen as the writers George Eliot (Daniel Deronda), Laurance Oliphant, and the lesser-known Charlotte Elizabeth (Judea Capta), important statesmen such as Lord Salisbury and Lord Shaftesbury, and military men such as Colonel Churchill, all of whom were inspired by a vision based on Biblical history that led them to investigate the possibilities of making that vision real. Through speeches and writing, they promoted the restoration of a Jewish commonwealth in what, since Roman times, had been known to Western Christendom as the Holy Land or Palestine, a forsaken place divided under Moslem rule into various Ottoman administrative units, or vilayets.

In addition, to further substantiate the European roots of Zionism, consider this passage: Passage from: A Basic History of Zionism and its Relation to Judaism-

http://www.robincmiller.com/articles/hanna1.htm

There had been a number of revolts and uprisings against their hegemony and their collaboration with Rome, Jesus was one non violent example, and so they decided to leave when the Romans pulled out. Most of the indigenous subsistence farmers, craftsmen and small-time traders stayed put and continued their lives as before. Some of these inhabitants were early Christians and form the ancestors of today's Palestinian Christians, others remained Jewish. Modern research suggests that when Islam arrived in the area in 638 AD many of these Jews converted and that they form a considerable part of today's Palestinians. Numerous surnames, such as Mousa, Dini and Canaan, are even nowadays shared by Arab Jews, Muslims and Christians. Incidentally, people with the surnames Da Souza and Sassoon were originally from the Jewish community in Suza, the ancient capital of Persia. Those who left with the Romans later dispersed to other parts of Europe and even central Asia, where there were some trading outposts. The bulk of European Jews, however, consisted of Khazars, inhabitants of an important kingdom in the early middle ages, roughly between the Caspian and the Black sea. One of their Khans or kings converted to Judaism around 740 AD and made Judaism the state religion. In the 9th century Khazaria finally fell to the Viking hordes and its inhabitants dispersed throughout much of Europe. Thus the idea of a "return" of European Jews to their roots is an absurd myth.

 

The financing and membership of the Zionist project may have been Jewish (French - British financing ... most members Eastern Europeans ) nevertheless, the reformantion of the Jew to Palestine was a Christian idea that emerged with Protestantism and the Enlightenment -- strenghened and eventually, realized with the amassed wealth [and the power it yielded ] from mercantilism, colonialism and slavery--beginning in the early 15th century.

 

Lastly, see also, Lovers of Zion: A Brief History of Christian Zionism by Thomas Ice, which places this Christian support for Zion as far back as the 2nd century AD but becoming more avid in the 12th century.

http://www.ifca.org/voice/05Mar-Apr/ThomasIce.htm

__________________________

"As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, most of mankind are Nazis" --Isaac Bashevis

Stern Gang | Sat, 2008-10-25 19:09

Christian Zionism is surely one of the most preposterous ideologies to make the world stage but I have to surely wonder to whose benefit the active promotion of Christian Zionism accrues.

 

Is it to the benefit of fundamentalist Christians living across the heartland of America?? Is it to the benefit of the American nation? Frankly I can't see how in either case it is of the least advantage?

 

Hagee spends more time talking about Israel, often up to 60-70% of the time of a broadcast, than he does about “Christian concerns”. I wonder why? Then you have to ask yourself what Zionism has to do with Christianity?

 

Historically the Roman Catholic Church as been accused of antisemitism, which would kind of make you wonder how that squares with the current Zionist agenda? Until you realize that it has been under the financial control of the Rothschilds since 1821 and that the last two Popes, oddly enough, had Jewish mothers.

 

Then, of course,there is the association with the Crusades, an agenda that has long since faded from modern forms of Christianity, that is, until the heavy guilt trip laid on the Christian community for Jewish suffering and most importantly, the “Holocaust”, once again involved the Christian community in an active political agenda in the Middle East.

 

I notice that Zionism seems to have rooted itself in the minds of English Christendom in the 17th century, about the same time as Cromwell's re-introduction of the Jews into England and the funding of his activities by Jewish bankers from Amsterdam.

 

The fact that numerous political and intellectual leaders in European countries, particularly Britain, supported the idea of Zionism, proves, not that it is a European idea, but only that they promoted it, possibly under the influence of Jews Zionists.

 

Then there is the excuse that Zionism is just an expression of European colonialism, again a force that has been rendered obsolete by 20th century political development and intellectual ferment. Israel has superseded the U.K. As a military power and as Great Britain continues to decay into a poor northern island, Israel has worked its way up to the world's 16th wealthiest country. The British protectorate is a matter of history as well.

 

The Turkish, or Ottoman as it was then known, over Palestine is also a thing of past days. What is not so well known is that the Young Turk revolution by which the Ottoman ruling class was displaced with “revolutionaries' was of Jewish origin and machinations. Kemal Attaturk himself was Jewish.

 

According to this article by Sterngang, “Palestine was a construct of European Christian scholars”. Not according to the Palestinians who have inhabited the place for centuries, it isn't.

 

The Zionist movement was heavily supported by those Khazar Jews who were not returning to any land they had once inhabited but displacing the rightful inhabitants of Palestine.

 

The French Connection does a great job of documenting the political rise of Zionism and its supporters from a non-apologist's viewpoint.

 

What is troubling to me is that Christians can invest some much of their “spiritual energy” in this project. A racially based theology is complete ad odds with both Christianity and Islam.

 

Although a vague part of the theology of some Christian sects for the last two hundred years, the massive support of and preoccupation with the state of Israel seems to have made its way into Christendom only in the last twenty five or so years.

 

And finally one has to return to that of repeated question, Cui bono? Who profits? With Israel's meteoric rise in the last century and the increasing costs to the American nation, the answer is evident.

 

 

 

holyland | Sun, 2008-10-26 02:34

Indeed, the Palestinians have been in Palestine for millenia - I indicated this historical fact. Nevertheless, I urge your direction to material, which contravenes the Christian political sources of Zionism in the modern era outlined in the article. I surmise that the situation doesn't involve an either or duality rather it involves a tug and pull of finance and politics - Jewish finance and Christian political power - in the formation of Israel anew.

Of course the possibility exists that all the material reviewed in composing the article are misconceptions and fabrications.

This passage in the article clarifies some of these points:

The financing and membership of the Zionist project may have been Jewish (French - British financing ... most members Eastern Europeans ) nevertheless, the reformantion of the Jew to Palestine was a Christian idea that emerged with Protestantism and the Enlightenment -- strenghened and eventually, realized with the amassed wealth [and the power it yielded ] from mercantilism, colonialism and slavery--beginning in the early 15th century.

However, I do take heed of your caution concerning the end of the 19th century when the gentry and aristocracy were superseded by capital - a process which took some 3 centuries or so to come to fruition riding the profits of slavery and its attenuated industries.

Stern Gang | Sun, 2008-10-26 03:10

Holy Land - The Zionist movement was heavily supported by those Khazar Jews who were not returning to any land they had once inhabited but displacing the rightful inhabitants of Palestine.

Is it to the benefit of fundamentalist Christians living across the heartland of America?? Is it to the benefit of the American nation? Frankly I can't see how in either case it is of the least advantage?

 Hagee spends more time talking about Israel, often up to 60-70% of the time of a broadcast, than he does about “Christian concerns”. I wonder why? Then you have to ask yourself what Zionism has to do with Christianity?

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

From what I can decipher, the money given to the likes of Hagee by these very simple-minded, ignorant people with their severely rigid  faith in God [although at extreme odds with the true teachings of Jesus and core scriptures]  will buy them some sort of rapture, a seat in God's Heaven. 

Their misguided beliefs will send them to their salvation.  Their hard-earned money is of no consequence.   These people really do not shop.  They save their money and give chunks of it away to the church, and upon death, as well.

Hagee and his ilk are their guides.  In reality, Hagee is nothing but a snake oil salesman, an entertainer on a soap box with such grandiose acting skills.

He's selling and they are buying.

Aside from Hagee's  dramatics,  he is in it strictly for huge profit and status.

Hagee doesn't give a whoop dee doo about God.

Rhiannon | Sun, 2008-10-26 11:35

Wake Up From Your Slumber with Christian Zionism: terror in Jesus' name.

Kashmiri Nomad

k_nomad | Sun, 2008-10-26 21:17

Christian Zionism is not just an absurdity, but an abomination in God's sight.

First, the absurdity - Zionism, whether it is the pre-talmudic mishnah expressed Pharisaism that Our Lord Jesus Christ condemned repeatedly (see Gospel of St. John Chapter 8 and Gospel of St. Matthew Chapter 23 for two examples) or the post temple destruction plotting and attempt of Bar Kochba and those later under Julian the Apostate and then later attempts and plots such as under Sabatai Zvi and Ari Luria and Theodore Herzl and the Communist based incursion into Palestine in the 20th century -- Zionism has nothing to do with the faith of Moses or the promise to David of a Messiah (see the Messianc Psalms).

Mt:23: 31  Wherefore you are witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of them that killed the prophets.
32  Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33  You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of hell?
34 ¶ Therefore behold I send to you prophets and wise men and scribes: and some of them you will put to death and crucify: and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city.
35  That upon you may come all the just blood that hath been shed upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the just, even unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar.
36  Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

Second the Abomination of Christian Zionism.

Christians profess to follow Our Lord Jesus Christ. Rightly so. Zionism seeks to overthrow the Gospel since the Gospel is Anti-Zionist. For instance: Mt:4:8  Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,
9  And said to him: All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me.
10  Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written: The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve.
11  Then the devil left him; and behold angels came and ministered to him.

And

Jn:18:36:
36  Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my kingdom is not from hence. (DRV)

Therefore for anyone professing to follow Our Lord Jesus Christ, if they put forward a Zionist position, they have in fact totally apostasized from the faith and are nothing but money grubbing shills and fakes.

The problem they present for the rest of society is the base in politics that they give to the Zionist war mongers.

 

Steve in Vista | Mon, 2008-11-17 23:22
Steve in Vista | Mon, 2008-11-17 23:35
Steve in Vista | Fri, 2008-11-21 23:54

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