“What is a Christian Zionist?”
................... by David Severy Oct. 2011
First a Christian Zionist is one who has received and trusted Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as their Savior and as their Lord. Their Bible includes the “New Testament” as well as the “Old Testament.”
“So are Christian Zionists different than ‘regular’ Christians? If they are, why are they different? What does the ‘Zionist’ part mean? What is Zion?”
Zion is defined by Strong’s Bible dictionary as:
1) the hill on which the higher and more ancient part of Jerusalem was built
1a) the southwestern most and highest of the hills on which the city was built
2) often used of the entire city of Jerusalem
3) since Jerusalem because the temple stood there, was called the dwelling place of God
Jerusalem is the capitol city of modern Israel and declared by Israel to be her eternal capitol. It was first called Jebus (Ha Jebusi), and was a city of the Jebusites in Canaan. David son of Jesse took the castle at Zion around three thousand years ago. As you can see, the city of Zion and Zionism are not new to history. Zion has been said to be a name for the Old Testament church, that is the assembly of God’s faithful before the Common Era (C.E.). Zionism has its roots in God’s history in the books of the Old and New Testaments. But isn’t Zionism a Jewish term, something pertaining only to Judaism? After all, isn’t the word Zion a Jewish word transliterated into English? True enough but wait! There is more!
The Christian Church worldwide (Christendom) is predominantly made up of gentiles (gentiles are all the non-Jewish people of the world). But the church was not always so. Jesus Himself is Jewish, and born of Mary a Jewess who was then betrothed to Joseph also a Jew, both from the house of David (Israel’s 2nd King who captured the castle at Zion), David being from the tribe of Judah, Judah being the son of Jacob named Israel. Jacob is the son of Isaac, and Isaac the son of Abraham.
When Jesus called the twelve disciples He called twelve Jewish men. We have them named in the King James Bible as Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot (which also was the traitor). These are names transliterated into English in 1611 C.E. Their Hebrew names (Hebrew is the language of Israel) are rendered by David Stern in the Complete Jewish New Testament as Shim`on, whom he named Kefa; Andrew, his brother; Ya`akov; Yochanan; Philip; Bar-Talmai; Mattityahu; T'oma; Ya`akov Ben-Halfai; Shim`on, the one called the Zealot; Y'hudah Ben-Ya`akov; and Y'hudah from K'riot (which also was the traitor). In fact Jesus Hebrew name is Y’shua (or Yeshua), Mary his mother is called Miryam, and Joseph is Yosef. The city of Jerusalem is called Yerushalayim and Zion is Tziyon. (Don’t bother spell checking here!)
The Bible is a thoroughly Jewish book! Moses who led the Children of Israel through the desert? Of the tribe of Levi the son of Jacob called Israel. Joshua is of the tribe of Ephraim, Ephraim a son of Joseph the son of Jacob called Israel. Aren’t there any gentiles in the Old Testament? Yes there are, and many more of them than of Israel. But the Old Testament, which the Jewish people call the Tanakh, is written by Jews and written first for Jews, but is now given by God equally to all gentiles who trust Yeshua (Jesus) as their Savior and Lord! The story now begins to get very interesting, and in the minds of some it is quite controversial! Why, you ask? Because the New Testament is a thoroughly Jewish book too!
An important feature of a Christian Zionist is that he or she recognizes that God began (again) with Abraham to reveal Himself to the whole world. What God began to reveal by covenant with Abraham brought us through to Jesus, a son of Abraham by human lineage and the Son of God by a divine miracle! The story of “the Jews” from Abraham to Jesus and beyond is one of how God through history has revealed Himself, His will, His way and His word to whosoever now will have ears to hear and eyes to see. It is a sad fact that gentiles beginning around the second century began to treasure less and less the grace God had given to the ancestors of their Savior and Lord, their Anointed One. Jesus is that Anointed One. Jesus is that Christ. Yeshua is that Messiah. And all three of the previous sentences declare the same exact truth!
Remember, Jesus is born of Mary a virgin Jewess by the Holy Spirit! Jesus 12 disciples are all Jews! While Jesus interacted with gentiles, and famously with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus (Yeshua!) said to another gentile woman: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:24 The apostle Paul, known to his Jewish brethren as Sha’ul, recognized that the Gospel was sent by Father God and Jesus to the Jew first, and then to the gentile. In Romans 1 verse 16 it is very clear when Paul (Sha’ul) writes:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (gentile).” Romans 1:16 King James Version.
“For I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it is God's powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile.” Romans 1:16 Complete Jewish New Testament
There is not time to recount the history of the church from the times of the book of Acts until now. But it can be said with no doubt that the church of the God we worship and love comes directly out of the church at Pentecost circa 34 C.E., and that church was entirely Jewish. The first gentiles to be divinely received into the church were received into a community composed entirely of Jews! Yeshua (Jesus) Himself said to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well:
Yeshua said, "Lady, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim. You people don't know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews. But the time is coming — indeed, it's here now — when the true worshippers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the Father wants worshipping him." John 4:21-23 Complete Jewish New Testament
This is further confirmed to us gentiles as Paul (Sha’ul) writes this to the gentiles in Rome warning them against pride: "But now I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I lay great stress on my ministry and magnify my office, In the hope of making my fellow Jews jealous [in order to stir them up to imitate, copy, and appropriate], and thus managing to save some of them. For if their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were [overruled] for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? [It will be nothing short of] life from the dead! Now if the first handful of dough offered as the firstfruits [Abraham and the patriarchs] is consecrated (holy), so is the whole mass [the nation of Israel]; and if the root [Abraham] is consecrated (holy), so are the branches. [Num. 15:19-21.] But if some of the branches were broken off, while you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them to share the richness [of the root and sap] of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches and pride yourself at their expense. If you do boast and feel superior, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root [that supports] you. You will say then, Branches were broken (pruned) off so that I might be grafted in! That is true. But they were broken (pruned) off because of their unbelief (their lack of real faith), and you are established through faith [because you do believe]. So do not become proud and conceited, but rather stand in awe and be reverently afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches [because of unbelief], neither will He spare you [if you are guilty of the same offense]. Then note and appreciate the gracious kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's gracious kindness to you--provided you continue in His grace and abide in His kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off (pruned away)." (Rom 11:13-22)
God found a man Noah whose generations were righteous and showed him grace by which Noah and his family repopulated the world which was destroyed. God found and chose Abram (Avram) the great great great great grandson of Heber (‘Ever) whom He would rename (Avraham) to leave his home in Ur and go out not knowing where God would send him. God sent him to Canaan and made Abram/Abraham a promise strengthened many times, even made to Abraham’s grandson Jacob (Ya’akov). The promise was that the land of Canaan was given to Abraham and his seed forever.
“Wait a minute! Aren’t you coming near to worshipping these Jews, these sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Aren’t you saying they are more important, better, holier than the gentile Christian?”
No, I am not. God so loved the world that He sent Jesus for whosoever would believe, that they should not perish, but live forever.
For God has shut up all mankind together in disobedience, in order that he might show mercy to all. O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments! How unsearchable are his ways! Romans 11:32-33 Complete Jewish New Testament
What does become evident is that God has had a mysterious plan for mankind which exploded in the world with the first coming of Yeshua (Jesus). Since that time we have not only a Saviour and Lord, but also a Guide and Teacher the Holy Spirit who continues to reveal God and His plan, and also instruct our faith in Jesus! For those who receive Jesus as Lord, should His preferred means of bringing salvation to them be objectionable? I think not! The drowning man saved can hardly complain for the piece of wood not having been a rope. Men who are often under-educated Biblically, not fully sanctified or both need to humble themselves and pray, turn from their wicked ways and seek His face. This will heal their land, and they will find themselves healed as well, for more than even the soil they are God’s focus. It will be a blessing to all who seek the truth to find it, and to find what the truth means and reveals to them about their land in their day. God’s vision is perfect; it is we who need to be healed.
God’s plan has not ever been to abandon the Jewish people to hell. Some may end in hell, but God is not willing that any perish but that all come to repentance and salvation. God is not willing that any gentile perish either. He sent Jesus to care for our souls. What did Jesus do for the gentiles? He brought us in to the light and Kingdom of His Son, into the community of the saints gone before us all, the saved of the times before Christ Jesus first came to earth. Jew and gentile had every reason to thrive together in their now mutual Messiah, yet in the 2nd century something happened: anti-Jewish anti-messiahs grew prominent in the church. I think it surely has been true that few have found the narrow way and straight gate. How odd that God’s love is so misunderstood, is found by so many as something to avoid, and by so many who call themselves Christian. We who have found salvation in the grace of God’s Jewish Messiah must preach and teach those who will be His disciples. We are called to a love far different and far greater than human love. This love of God (God is love and love is of God) does not sin!
Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful, not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not gloat over other people's sins but takes its delight in the truth. (1Corinthians 13:4-6)
Therefore, remember that at one time you were Gentiles (heathens) in the flesh, called Uncircumcision by those who called themselves Circumcision, [itself a mere mark] in the flesh made by human hands. [Remember] that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ [excluded from all part in Him], utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise [with no knowledge of or right in God's agreements, His covenants]. And you had no hope (no promise); you were in the world without God. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were [so] far away, through (by, in) the blood of Christ have been brought near. For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us, By abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace. And [He designed] to reconcile to God both [Jew and Gentile, united] in a single body by means of His cross, thereby killing the mutual enmity and bringing the feud to an end. And He came and preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off and [peace] to those who were near. [Isa. 57:19.] For it is through Him that we both [whether far off or near] now have an introduction (access) by one [Holy] Spirit to the Father [so that we are able to approach Him]. Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants, and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens), but you now share citizenship with the saints (God's own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself); and you belong to God's [own] household. You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone. In Him the whole structure is joined (bound, welded) together harmoniously, and it continues to rise (grow, increase) into a holy temple in the Lord [a sanctuary dedicated, consecrated, and sacred to the presence of the Lord]. In Him [and in fellowship with one another] you yourselves also are being built up [into this structure] with the rest, to form a fixed abode (dwelling place) of God in (by, through) the Spirit. (Eph 2:11-22) (Amplified Bible)
Can Christians love as God loves? If they can, if they do how can they not love the Jews? How can they not be grateful to Yeshua the Jewish Messiah for the gift of everlasting life? How can they not want for Jewish people, the ancestors of the priests, prophets and shepherds of Yahweh to know their own Savior Jesus?
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 3:18-22)
As it is written, Behold I am laying in Zion a Stone that will make men stumble, a Rock that will make them fall; but he who believes in Him [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] shall not be put to shame nor be disappointed in his expectations. [Isa. 28:16.] (Romans 9:33)
The stone is Jesus the Messiah (the Christ, the Anointed Savior) of Jews and gentiles who trust Him, has been laid in Zion. He is made by God the head (stone) of the corner. As Paul wrote: “let each one be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Yeshua the Messiah.” 1Corinthians 3:10, 11 With these things in view, how can a Christian not be a Zionist? If we will not love whom God calls His beloved, we will be either indifferent to them or hate them. Today some churches who call themselves Christian are actively supportive of the Palestinian cause calling the divine return of the Jewish people to their land Israel an occupation. Churches have stripped their financial portfolios of investments which benefit Israel. They are active in political efforts to have Israel make more concessions of land to the Palestinians. They are deceived by revisionist historians who author lies of Israel’s history since 1948. They think the Islamic religion to be one of peace, and only “hijacked” by radicals. What is far more accurate is that they are ignorant of the history of Israel, and of Abraham, and the Holy Bible. So ignorant that they have become the prey of deceivers and do not know it to be so. May God reveal all His truth to them.
Remarkably there are also some Jews who are "drinking the Kool-aid" by supporting those who want to give up "land for peace." May God grant them revelation.
As a gentile believer in Jesus, His Father and His Holy Spirit I know I am called to be like Him. It is challenging to pick up my cross daily and follow Jesus knowing that I could be crucified on it on any day! That must be so; why else would Jesus have me (us) to carry one? But I know my bodily death will not bring condemnation and hell, but instead for my faith I will be received into God’s heavenly Kingdom and live with Him forever! Therefore, since God is for me who can be against me? I have no more fear of death, and no more fear of any man. There is no reason to hate any man, although there is good reason to hate all sin. The question with regard to the Jews and to Zion is: “Why are they so hated?” And the answer for that unreasonable hatred is found in the pages of the Holy Bible, Old and New “Testaments.” Have you read and discovered the purposes of God in the Bible, why He chose Abraham, why He gave the land of Canaan to him and to his seed forever? Do you know why Zion is important not just in the past but in the present and future? You can know these things, things so important that the whole world trembles over the controversy of Zion, of Israel and of God’s chosen people, the descendants of Isaac!
