Neo-Conned! Again

by D Liam O'Huallachain

  3. The Age of Human Government (Noah to Abraham).

  4. The Age of Promise (Abraham to Moses).

  5. The Age of Law (Moses to the Crucifixion).

  6. The Age of Grace (Crucifixion to the Second Advent).

  7. The Age of Christ's Millennial Kingdom.

  Among Darby's theological innovations is the “rapture” (popularized today by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins's series of novels about those “left behind”). At some moment in time, according to this doctrine, all Christian believers will suddenly be removed from the earth. This rapture of the church will be followed by seven years of tribulation, the Battle of Armageddon, the Second Advent of Christ and Christ's thousand-year reign on earth, centered in Jerusalem. Darby's scriptural basis for the doctrine of the rapture is 1 Thess. iv:16–17: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.” Deriving the rapture from these verses obviously requires extraordinary skill in “reading between the lines.”

  Darby's theology was criticized by a number of his contemporaries. In an attempt to reconcile it with the Bible, Darby made a distinction between Scripture intended for Jews and Scripture intended for Christians: “The doctrine of the separation of Israel and the Church, the foundation of dispensationalism, was born out of Darby's attempt to justify his newly fabricated rapture theory with the Bible.”1

  Dispensationalism is opposed to Protestant traditions of “supersessionism” or “replacement theology,” according to which the New Covenant has superseded or replaced the Old. For dispensationalists, the Jews continue along a track of prophecy parallel to that of Christians. Darby “placed a restored Israel at the center of his theology, claiming that an actual Jewish state called Israel would become the central instrument for God to fulfill His plans during the last days of history.”2

  Dispensationalists understand that their system conflicts with Catholic theology and with “supersessionism” generally:

  1 Corinthians 10:32 plainly states that there are three categories of men in the world today: “Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God.” Obviously, then, Israel is not the same as the church. This is a very, very important matter for the Bible student to understand. Some of the most common errors in theology have come about through confusing the church with Israel.

  This is one of the errors of Roman Catholicism. Rome claims to be the new Israel and has adopted many things from the Old Testament dispensation, such as priests, temples, candles, incense, sprinkling of water, and many other things. This is one reason why Rome attempted to take over the Holy Land during the crusades of the Middle Ages. It is also why Rome has opposed Israel's desire to control Jerusalem.3

  In 1909, Cyrus I. Scofield (1843–1921) published an edition of the King James Bible with premillennial dispensationalist notations. (Scofield read some of Darby's writings while doing time for forgery.) The Scofield Reference Bible has been extremely popular among American fundamentalist Protestants ever since and is still available today from Oxford University Press. It contributed to an increase in the interpretation of current events as fulfillment of biblical prophecy and signs of the imminent end of the present dispensation. Among the leading contemporary centers of premillennial dispensationalism are the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Dallas Theological Seminary.

  Another chapter in the intertwining of the histories of Protestant and Jewish Zionism is the relationship between Scofield and Samuel Untermeyer (1858–1940), a wealthy New York lawyer and Jewish Zionist. In addition to being Chairman of the American Jewish Committee and President of the American League of Jewish Patriots, Untermeyer also played a leading role in the campaign to involve the U.S. in the First World War against Germany. (The unjust terms of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of that war led to the conditions that prepared the way for Hitler to come to power.) Untermeyer used Scofield, a Kansas City lawyer with no formal training in theology, to inject Zionist ideas into American Protestantism. Untermeyer and other wealthy and influential Zionists whom he introduced to Scofield promoted and funded the latter's career, including travel in Europe. The notations in the Scofield Reference Bible are in fact a mix of premillenial dispensationalist and Jewish Zionist (including Kabbalistic) ideas. And, according to a recent book by Michael Collins Piper, some have charged that “Schofield's dispensationalism was actively promoted and funded by the Rothschild family of Europe, for the very purpose of advancing the Zionist cause and for fostering a push for an imperial global order quite similar indeed to the policies being pursued by the “neoconservative” elements in the Bush administration in alliance with the Christian right.”1

  Although theological considerations were not central to the decision by Jewish Zionists to establish their national home in Palestine, since most of them were not theists, the contributions of many British and other Christians to that decision were, in fact, based upon theological beliefs. Arthur Balfour, “the strongest and most influential advocate of Zionism which that movement had,”2 was a Christian Zionist, raised in a dispensationalist church. His 1917 “Balfour Declaration” calls itself a “declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations” and states that “His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

  The Fuse of Armageddon

  In 1970, premillennial dispensationalist Hal Lindsey of Dallas Theological Seminary published a little book entitled The Late Great Planet Earth. It has sold more than twenty-five million copies and has contributed significantly to the popularity of Zionism among Christians, including many belonging to Protestant traditions other than premillennial dispensationalism. According to Lindsey, 1948 marked the beginning of the end of the world as we know it:

  Some time in the future there will be a seven-year period climaxed by the visible return of Jesus Christ. Most prophecies which have not yet been fulfilled concern events which will develop shortly before the beginning of and during this seven-year countdown. The general time of this seven-year period couldn't begin until the Jewish people reestablished their nation in their ancient homeland of Palestine.1

  Israel is, for Lindsey, the “fuse of Armageddon,” because three events must take place there before that battle: the restoration of Israel as a nation in Palestine, the repossession of ancient Jerusalem and the sacred sites, and the rebuilding of the temple upon its historic site. Lindsey cites Christ's words in Matthew 24 as his primary scriptural basis for regarding present events in the Middle East as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy: “When Jesus looks into the future and describes the conditions which would prevail at His coming, He puts the Jews back in the land as a nation.”2 Lindsey finds “an extremely important time clue” in Matt. 24, 32–33: “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that He is near, at the very gates.” A straightforward reading of these two sentences would seem to be that the meaning of the first is explained by the second. Lindsey, however, provides the following gloss:

  When the signs just given begin to multiply and increase in scope it's similar to the certainty of leaves coming on the fig tree. But the most important sign in Matthew has to be the restoration of the Jews to the land in the rebirth of Israel. Even the figure of speech “fig tree” has been a historic symbol of national Israel. When the Jewish people, after nearly 2,000 years of exile, under relentless persecution, became a nation again on 14 May 1948 the “fig tree” put forth its first leaves. Jesus said that this would indicate that He was “at the door,” ready to return. Then He said, “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matthew 24:
34 NASB). What generation? Obviously, in context, the generation that would see the signs – chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation in the Bible is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction, then within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could take place.3

  The second event in Lindsey's fuse of Armageddon occurred nineteen years later:

  In March and April of 1967 … I said that if this was the time that I thought it was, then somehow the Jews were going to have to repossess old Jerusalem. Many chuckled about that statement. Then came the war of June 1967 – the phenomenal Israeli six-day blitz. I was personally puzzled as to the significance of it all until the third day of fighting when Moshe Dayan, the ingenious Israeli general, marched to the Wailing Wall, the last remnant of the Old Temple, and said, “We have returned to our holiest of holy places, never to leave her again.”1

  Since two of the three events that will precede Armageddon have now taken place, the fuse is short – though apparently not as short as Lindsey expected.

  One problem for Christian Zionists who believe that the land that was recently called “Palestine” and is now called “Israel and the Occupied Territories” belongs to the Jews, not the Palestinians, is determining who is a Jew. Lindsey assumes that contemporary Jews are descendants of the Hebrew patriarchs: “We see the Jews as a miracle of history. Even the casual observer is amazed how the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have survived as a distinct race in spite of the most formidable odds. What other people can trace their continuous unity back nearly 4,000 years?”2According to Jews, however, one can become a Jew in either of two ways: by being born to a Jewish mother or by converting to Judaism. The matrilineal descendants of converts to the Jewish religion are Jews, even if they do not believe in the Jewish religion. Many Israeli Jews, especially those who immigrated from Russia and other Eastern European countries, are not descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but of converts to Judaism. If Jews have a right to the land of Israel because the Bible says so, does that include descendants of converts to the Jewish religion? What about descendants of “converts” from Christianity to Judaism? Do such Jews have a right to dispossess Palestinian Christians of their land?

  Christian Zionist Interpretations of the Iraq War

  Although most Christian Zionists supported the invasion of Iraq, there is disagreement among them concerning how exactly it fits into biblical prophecy. The website of Paw Creek Ministries in Charlotte, North Carolina tells us that we are conquering and eliminating the enemies of Israel in Iraq:

  Presently, we are eliminating Israel's enemies in Iraq. This is important because Iraq will be the center of the New World Order and Israel will make a treaty with the false messiah. That seven-year treaty will be broken in the middle of the seven years. Jesus said it like this, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand) …. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:15,21). There has to be a truce between the government of Israel and the government of Iraq for this treaty to be enacted and then broken.

  Who is the President best fitted to defend Israel, to conquer the enemies in Iraq and to set the stage for prophecy? President George W. Bush is the only man ….

  Bible Prophecy is unalterable truth set in the halls of heaven. It cannot vary. Israel is going to be safe until the middle of this Great Tribulation but will survive the relentless attack of the Antichrist. Iraq must be in place to become the center of the Antichrist Kingdom. Israel will have America as her defender even when the Antichrist seeks to eliminate every Jew from the face of the earth. The terrorists that claim Allah as their god will help lead this campaign of Jewish eradication, but they will fail.

  … A Biblical prophecy almost totally unknown by Bible teachers is that the Antichrist will be an Assyrian and that an Assyrian nation will develop at the end of God's judgment. This nation will be one of the three major nations in the Middle East during the millennial reign. The movements in Iraq have already caused the ancient Assyrians that number in the thousands and spread over many nations to start yearning for their own independent self-government and homeland. There has been no self-governed nation of Assyria for over two thousand years, yet the Creator Jehovah has preserved this ancient culture for His End Time plan.

  … It's exciting to have spiritual eyes capable of watching prophecy being fulfilled.1

  Exciting indeed! But how can one be confident that one's spiritual vision is clear, when others with spiritual eyes see the situation differently? According to LaHaye, the war is not about conquering and eliminating enemies, but about liberating people who will become neither friend nor foe:

  Dr. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the popular Left Behind series of Christian novels, says world events are pointing to the Middle East in general and Israel in particular as the center for prophesied future world events. And he says Iraq will play a prominent role in upcoming events leading to Christ's return ….

  The author and theologian says the war to liberate Iraq will pave the way for that nation eventually to emerge as a world power. As the region comes into its own, he says the people of Iraq will want to develop a distinct identity and in the last days old Babylon will become a sort of “Switzerland” for the world, a neutral country.

  According to LaHaye, in chapters 38 and 39 in the book of Ezekiel, the one Arab nation not mentioned among those that come against Jerusalem when God destroys Russia and the Arab world, is Iraq. He says scripture suggests that Iraq is going to rise to prominence, but “won't be involved in that awful destruction that will solve the Arab problem temporarily.”

  LaHaye feels now is an exciting time to be a Christian because the Rapture is imminent.1

  It is good to know how LaHaye feels. But it would be better if the rational part of the soul were involved in relating Scripture to the world in which we live.

  R. A. Coombes, of The Alpha-Omega Report, has a different interpretation of the passage in Ezekiel and believes that America, not Iraq, is old Babylon:

  America's invasion of Iraq created American control over the ancient site of Babylon and the old nation of Babylonia. America, in effect, has become “Babylon.” This is a fact that has been ignored by most American Bible Prophecy commentators. Today, America controls Babylon as a conquering nation. From a prophetic perspective, America IS Babylon ….

  It should be obvious to Bible Prophecy commentators that Iraq is not to be the fulfillment of Mystery Babylon prophecies if indeed we are approaching the “Last Days.” To that end, some other nation must be Mystery Babylon because Gulf War 2 ruined any possible chance that Iraq might be miraculously transformed into a World Super-Power leader and thus be Mystery Babylon ….

  The Second Gulf War has not adversely affected the prophecies regarding Israel's Messianic Kingdom boundaries. While contamination by depleted uranium is a current problem, it will be no problem for direct, Divine cleanup work by the Creator-god Himself. In fact, the prophecies indicate probably far greater contamination from the Gog-Magog war than what has taken place so far in Iraq. That will not be a problem for Israel then and the Iraqi “depleted uranium” issue will likely be less of a problem for Israel (See Ezekiel 38–39) ….

  Gulf War 2 may well have taken western Iraq out of the equation for massive destruction of the Arab alliance of nations led by Iran against Israel. Eastern portions of Iraq – closely aligned now with Iran – may suffer the same results as Iran and other Islamic confederated nations that war against Israel and the Lord. Thus, Gulf War 2 may have played a part in minimizing damage in order that it will be readily absorbed by Israel's Messianic Kingdom.

  All told, we can see these elements as important consequences of Gulf War 2 upon Biblical Prophecy …. If we stumble across more revelations of this nature, we will bring it to your attention.1

  It is unsurprising that
Christian Zionists disagree with one another in interpreting biblical prophecy, since Protestants disagree with one another regarding every other point of theology. Griffith Thomas commented on the splintering of Darby's Plymouth Brethren into opposing factions, “The Brethren are remarkable people for rightly dividing the Word of Truth and wrongly dividing themselves!”2 If these mutually-inconsistent interpretations of scriptural prophecy were not relevant to decisions about people's lives, they could be dismissed as nonsense or read for entertainment. But tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have died as a consequence of our invasion of Iraq.3 Since this was an unjust war of aggression, those who are responsible for it – with a government of, by, and for the people, not a small number – have innocent blood on their hands. This is no laughing matter.

  Christian Zionists and National Policy

  To point out that Christian Zionists supported the invasion of Iraq in large numbers is not to subscribe to any “conspiracy theory,” according to which all of them did so as part of an orchestrated campaign. There are hundreds of Christian Zionist organizations in the United States.4 A single Protestant denomination claims by itself to represent 3.5 million Israel-loving Americans.1 Tens of millions of American Christians, belonging to a wide variety of religious organizations and theological traditions, supported the war and were influenced in doing so by their theological beliefs.

  Opinion polls by various organizations show that the invasion of Iraq was supported by Protestants more than by Catholics, and by evangelical Protestants more than by mainline Protestants: “A nationwide survey March 13–16 [2003] by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that 62 percent of Catholics and the same percentage of mainline Protestants support the war …. The Pew sample showed 77 percent of evangelical Christians supporting the war.”2