The Theology of the Zealots is Alive and Well on Planet Earth

https://www.christianpost.com/news/evangelical-leaders-back-israel-call-on-us-govt-support.html

One need not turn to a vile rag like the misnamed Christian Post to learn of this story. The number of articles concerning Evangelical support for Israel can be counted by the dozen. This one caught my eye back in November and at the time I made a few notes. More than five months into this war, nothing has changed. In fact the situation has only grown worse.

The spin surrounding the events on October 7 has multiplied and the Netanyahu government has engaged in such mendacity that its lies are already being forgotten.

It's disheartening to drive by Evangelical homes and see Zionist flags flying proud, let alone to see the bumper stickers and Stars of David hanging from rear-view mirrors as I pull up to church on Sunday morning.

I do not support Israel but I reject any notion that it makes me Anti-Semitic. There are Orthodox Jews who are anti-Zionist and reject the Israeli state. Are they Anti-Semitic too? The very notion is an absurdity.

I know more about the Holocaust than the average person - which isn't saying much these days. The survivors are a people entirely worthy of sympathy but those who formed the State of Israel have negated much of that emotional capital, as one might put it. They had many sympathizers in 1948, but by 1967 some began to doubt and by the 1980's many came to understand that the Zionist state had been transformed into something ugly and unbelievably it had succumbed to Right-wing racialist and authoritarian forces (typified by Likud) that were close cousin to the evils they fled in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries in Europe.

The State of Israel today has become bestial and immoral and is far removed from anything to do with the Old Testament - which for Christians is fulfilled in Christ. God is not on their side. They are not God's people. This does not mean we persecute them. As Christians we persecute no one and we refuse the sword. The bad historical associations between Christianity and the pogrom have nothing to do with the religion of the New Testament but are instead the rotten fruit of Constantinianism and its misguided and delusional quest to create a Christian political order.

We do not persecute or hate the Jews but that doesn't for a moment suggest that we support the Zionist state of Israel either.

One of the great ironies that few dare to speak aloud is that many of the Palestinians are simply Arabized Jews and thus in terms of ethnicity and history - they have a valid claim to the land.

The Christian case for Zionism is rooted in theology - but it is a Judaized theology that rejects and subsumes the teaching of the New Testament. It is a heresy that when combined with Right-wing politics and Dominionist proclivities has led to political action and active support for the murderous regime in Tel Aviv. These people have a lot of blood on their hands, and the more extreme forms of this error do in fact compromise the gospel itself.

I wish more teachers would invoke the memory of the Zealots, the sect that was active when Christ was on the Earth and yet was clearly rejected by him. Indeed at least one of the apostles left that sect or cult in order to follow Christ. The two faiths are incompatible.

Most American Evangelicals possess a theology completely compatible with that of the Zealots - the same sect that instigated a rebellion against Rome which ended in 70AD with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem - thus bringing a final end to the Old Covenant order. It was all part of God's plan but that in no way excuses the wicked conduct of the Zealots - or even the Romans for that matter.

The modern Zionist Zealots in the Church reject this and erroneously believe the Jews remain the primary covenant people and the Kingdom promises pertain to them. As such this heretical sect advocates for a Third Temple and supports the violent fascist regime in Tel Aviv as it attempts to build Greater Israel (another misguided notion) over the dead bodies of Palestinians - a people driven to the point of despair and madness.

Let us ask a very simple question that few seem to consider.

Did the early church stand with Israel during the Jewish Revolt of 66-70AD?

The answer is a resounding 'no'.

Did the Church support Bar Kokhba and his period of revolt from 132-135AD?

The answer again is a resounding 'no'.

The Church fled from these uprisings, refused them, and in some cases suffered persecution at the hands of the Jews. The Church did not believe that the land belonged to the Jews or that they had a right to Jerusalem or that it was desirable for a Temple to continue or be rebuilt.

How would today's Christian Zionists be viewed by the Early Church? It's safe to say they would be reckoned as heretics and rightly so.