An interesting website. O.K. http://www.christianzionism.org/ On July 19 & 20 Christians United For Israel (CUFI) met in Washington DC with an agenda which included encouraging Israel to give serious consideration to a pre-emptive strike on Iran as well as calling for full American support for Israel's increasingly violent campaign in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. This approach to the issues of our day is harmful to all persons ? Christians, Muslims, and Jews ? in the Middle East and around the world. The Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism (ISCZ) represents a different perspective. With the vast majority of U.S. Evangelicals and an even higher percentage of U.S. Christians generally, the ISCZ believes that seeking God?s justice and peace is a crucial element of Jesus? mandate for his Church. We believe that the ideology of Christian Zionism turns the good news of Jesus Christ into a militant, Crusader ideology that justifies violence in the name of God, increasing the cycles of terrorism, insecurity, and injustice. ISCZ works and prays for the security of all of God?s people in the Middle East and fears that CUFI?s call for military solutions makes not only Israelis and their Arab neighbors less secure, but also citizens of Europe and the United States more vulnerable to potential terrorist acts. http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/magazine.cgi/Yr%202005/May/Views/The_Christian_Zioni.html?seemore=y In assessing the political conditions necessary to establish a lasting peace in Israel-Palestine, Americans are confronted with a theological question: Does the Bible insist that Christians take a certain view regarding the treatment of the Jewish people in particular, their presence in the Holy Land, or the placement of the borders of Israel? One particular subset of American Christianity answers that question in the affirmative. Yes, they believe, the Bible does mandate that we treat the Jews?specifically, the Jews of Israel?not merely as another ethnic group of fallen (sinful) people, made in the image of God and in need of the Gospel, but as one that holds God?s unique favor and is deserving of our full, unconditional support. This subset is made up largely of American evangelicals who are committed to something called dispensationalism. ?The essence of Dispensationalism,? according to Charles Ryrie, a dispensationalist theologian, ?Is the distinction between Israel and the Church. This grows out of [our] consistent employment of normal or plain interpretation, and it reflects an understanding of the basic purpose of God in all His dealings with mankind as that of glorifying Himself through salvation and other purposes as well.? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The fruits of this ?normal or plain interpretation? of the Bible have raised any number of red flags for conservative theologians of all Christian denominations. Of greater concern to us here, however, is the way in which many popular and powerful dispensationalist leaders apply their apocalyptic understanding of the place of the modern state of Israel on the stage of world history?the ?other purposes? by which God must be glorified?in the form of ?Christian Zionism.? When President Bush, himself an evangelical, proposed statehood for Palestine in his 2002 ?Road Map,? several key evangelical leaders denounced the plan, hinting that they would withdraw support for him if he failed to reconsider. According to their Christian Zionist understanding of dispensationalism, there simply cannot be a Palestinian state, because God has promised all of Eretz Israel to the Jews?forever. The borders of the state of Israel must extend, literally, to biblical proportions, including all of the land that is now in dispute?the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and all of Jerusalem?and we must do everything in our power to make it so. Addressing this way of thinking is essential to the success of any peace plan for the Middle East that involves the United States, because the sheer size of the umbrella group that we call evangelical?there are an estimated 65 million evangelicals in the United States?means that, in a democracy, their deeply held beliefs matter. (President Bush won the White House in November 2004 with fewer than 61 million votes.) Although, obviously, all 65 million evangelicals are not militant Christian Zionists, many are beholden to leaders who are unflinching supporters of the state of Israel and actively hostile toward the Palestinians. Paul Charles Merkley, author of Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel, conservatively estimates that Christian Zionists number in the ?tens of millions.? The greatest source of Christian Zionist influence is found in the Christian media. Evangelical Christians are fed a steady diet of dispensationalist/Zionist interpretations of the news every day through the radio and television programs of Pat Robertson (CBN News, The 700 Club); Jerry Falwell (the Liberty Channel, which broadcasts, among other things, Zola Levitt Presents); John Hagee; Benny Hinn (This Is Your Day!); Kerby Anderson (Point of View); Jack Van Impe (Jack Van Impe Presents); and countless others, with audiences in the millions. Megachurches, which are virtual media centers, hold prophecy conferences all across America and invite rabbis to come and speak to Christians on Israeli history and politics. Perhaps most influential have been the best-selling books of the Left Behind series, by Timothy LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The 12-book series, offering a fictional account of the playing-out of dispensationalist interpretations of biblical prophecy, has enjoyed sales of over 62 million units, eclipsing Hal Lindsey?s dispensationalist fantasy novel, The Late Great Planet Earth, the best-selling book of the 1970?s. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html