The Implications of Christian Zionism for Mission Andrew F
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The Implications of Christian Zionism for Mission Andrew F. Bush he region of Gaza in the Palestinian territories is home the mission of God; and (4), espousing heightened eschatological Tto 1.5 million Palestinians, making it one of the most expectations, creating a missional ethic that downplays, if not densely populated communities in the world. It is fenced and dismisses, Jesus’ ethic of love. heavily guarded, with Israel restricting travel into Israel, off the shores of Gaza in the Mediterranean, and at the Rafah border Dispensationalism and Christian Zionism crossing into Egypt. It is a captive community. The former pres- ence of the Israeli settlements, with their eight thousand settlers, Dispensationalism, a theology formed in the nineteenth century made a difficult life virtually unbearable. Under the protection by evangelical Protestants in England and the United States, of Israeli armed forces, the settlers controlled 50 percent of the emphasizes a literal interpretation of the Bible, including es- land, further squeezing the Palestinian communities into their pecially the prophecies concerning Israel.2 These prophecies packed towns and refugee camps. When the government of Israel are viewed as predicting the restoration of Jews to Palestine, made the decision that it was not feasible to expect that Israelis which is regarded as a condition for the return of Jesus Christ. would ever constitute a majority community in the Gaza Strip, it This restoration includes possession of the land promised to began the process of relocating the Israeli settlers. In the months Abraham and his descendants, as well as the renewal of wor- and weeks leading up to the final eviction of the most recalcitrant ship in a rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem. This new Jewish settlers, Christians from the United States and elsewhere moved temple must replace the presently situated Dome of the Rock into the settlements in Gaza, joining the settlers in protesting and the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest place of worship in Israel’s policies.1 The suffering of the Palestinian Gazan residents Islam.3 Following establishment of a false peace, the Antichrist caused by the presence of the settlements seemed not to be a will defile the temple and will instigate persecution of the Jews. consideration to these protestors. Christ will then return to defeat the Antichrist and his forces at These Christian supporters illustrate a commitment to a final battle of Armageddon and establish his global millennial Christian Zionism, a mission movement that believes in a reign. National Israel will be glorified before the nations, which literal fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise of the land to the must come to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. Dispensationalism Jews, regardless of the implications for Palestinian Arabs in the maintains that God has distinct purposes for Israel and for the West Bank and Gaza. This article examines the implications of church and that God’s prophetic purposes are fulfilled through popular Christian Zionism for contemporary missions. I wish to Israel. Before the final horror of the Antichrist, the church will show that in four respects it radically departs from the norm of be “raptured,” or caught up into heaven.4 contemporary mission theory and practice, namely, in (1) fail- In accordance with dispensationalism’s emphasis on the cen- ing to view Palestinian Arabs as a distinct people group, thus trality to God’s purposes of a restored Israel and the assumption ignoring the insights of cultural anthropology; (2) ignoring the that modern Israel is the fulfillment of these biblical prophecies, role of context in its missionary efforts; (3) following militant dispensationalists are devoted to furthering the security of Is- liberation theology in espousing the use of force to accomplish rael and its claims to the land. This commitment is apparent as dispensationalists have formed numerous organizations in the Andrew F. Bush is Associate Professor of Missions, United States and internationally to advance political support 5 Eastern University, St. David’s, Pennsylvania. He for Israel on the part of the U.S. government. At the same time, has served since 1998 with a Christian organization in they have developed associations with Israeli political leadership the Palestinian West Bank. He previously worked as a and Zionist organizations.6 church planter in Manila, Philippines (1987–98). For its part, Christian Zionism is a movement of premillennial, —[email protected] dispensational, fundamentalist/evangelical Christians who ad- here to and promote the beliefs and goals of political and religious Zionism.7 It is a nationalistic movement driven by heightened 144 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 33, No. 3 eschatological expectations. As a Christian movement, it does evangelization, extensive research has been undertaken to num- display a concern for the salvation of the Jewish people, even ber the remaining unreached people groups. Current results are though evangelistic intentions must be tempered in order for al- available on the Web site of the Joshua Project, a ministry of the liances to be secured with Jewish activists and Israeli authorities. U.S. Center for World Mission.15 Christian Zionism is also characterized by its rejectionist position The strategy of reaching people groups is well understood toward the Palestinian people, who are regarded as illegitimate throughout the evangelical mission community. Yet Christian Zi- usurpers of the land and whose claims to a sovereign state are onists often assert that there is no authentic people group known viewed as having no merit.8 Although Christian Zionism adheres as Palestinians, that the Palestinians are merely Arabs without theologically to mainstream dispensationalism, it is distinct from cultural distinction from other Arab communities in the Levant. it in melding theology with alliances to political movements that For example, “the notion of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ with a seek to advance the fulfillment of the dispensational prophetic language, culture and religion of its own, is a creation of Yasser scenario. Two such organizations are the International Christian Arafat and nurtured by the surrounding Arab nations after their Zionist Center in Jerusalem and the International Christian Em- ignominious defeat in the 1967 war with Israel. The so-called bassy Jerusalem (ICEJ).9 ‘Palestinian people’ are, in reality, Arabs whose mother tongue While not all dispensationalists support the activism of Chris- is Arabic, whose religion is Islam, and whose culture is shared tian Zionism, the influence of the latter movement is widespread by most of the 22 surrounding Arab countries. There simply is within the evangelical dispensational community. Its values are no distinct Palestinian entity.”16 spread through popular televangelists and Bible teachers such The historic presence of the Palestinian community in the land as Pat Robertson and Kay Arthur, influential pastors, the Web is also disputed. Despite the centuries-old association of Palestin- sites of various ministries, and popular Christian literature such ian Arab society with the land, Christian Zionists maintain that as Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind novels.10 the land was essentially empty when Jews began to immigrate to Palestine. Such an idea is borrowed from political Zionism, Christian Zionism as Mission which sought to dismiss Palestinian national identity.17 Israeli historians Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal challenge such Dispensational evangelicals have always been ardent supporters notions in their analysis of the Palestinian people. of global mission. Although postmillennial evangelicals in the nineteenth century argued that dispensationalism’s emphasis One of the best known expressions of such a viewpoint [the on the sudden, premillennial return of Christ to “rapture” his denial of the Palestinians’ unique ethnicity and historicity] has church from the world would effectively militate against mis- been argued by Joan Peters’ From Time Immemorial: The Origins of sionary fervor, the opposite has been true. The mission motiva- the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine, a heavily documented and, tion for dispensationalists is the salvation of as many people as apparently, serious work of scholarship. Its basic argument is that possible before the nations are “left behind” to suffer under the most of Palestine’s Arab population was not indigenous. Rather, it consisted of migrants, attracted by opportunities offered by Jewish Antichrist.11 settlement, who came from separate streams and certainly did not Christian Zionism is emphatically to be seen as missional in (do not) constitute a people. But as numerous sober historians intent. With the same zeal that dispensationally informed mission have shown, Peters’ tendentiousness is not, in fact, supported by agencies exhibit throughout the world, it seeks the fulfillment of the historical record, being based on materials out of context and God’s purposes for a people group, Jews in Israel, and the estab- on distorted evidence. lishment of the kingdom of God in a particular land. Christian We asserted then, and reaffirm in this book, that the origins Zionism strives to further the fulfillment of prophecy that will lead of a self-conscious, relatively unified Palestinian people pre-date ultimately to the end of mission, when the nations are gathered Zionism.18 to worship Christ in Jerusalem in the millennium.12 Christian Zionism has indeed made meaningful