Israel Frenzy

From an article on the recent Anabaptist Identity Conference in Holmes County, OH comes this excerpt on a topic that I addressed much more mildly in teaching my SS class on Sunday:

‘Israel frenzy’

Bercot took on what he acknowledged was a contentious topic when he spoke about the role of Israel in prophecy.

He critiqued “the Israel frenzy within the evangelical churches” associated with the theological system of dispensationalism, which he said is “totally incompatible with Anabaptism, with the doctrine of two kingdoms.”

Dispensationalism, a system of interpreting biblical history, emphasizes God’s separate plans for the church and for the nation of Israel.

Bercot had strong remarks on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“Do we have the blood of Palestinian Christians and Muslims on our hands when we cheer Israel on and approve of what it does?” he asked, referencing the unconverted Paul, who approved of the killing of Stephen (Acts 8:1). “[Israel] has pushed Christians out of their villages and keeps slaughtering people and taking their lands — not just Christians but Muslims who have lived there for hundreds of years.”

He challenged his listeners with the question of why they would choose to support a secular state instead of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Rivka Pratt of Manchester, Mich., a woman in the audience with an Orthodox Jewish background, voiced her agreement with Bercot on dispensational theology.

“Dispensationalism keeps us from witnessing to my Jewish brothers and sisters,” she said during a question-and-answer period. “Jesus says, ‘None shall come to the Father except through me.’ If we fall into this deception that the Jewish state of Israel is something special and that God has a separate recipe for my Jewish brothers and sisters, then they’re going to be lost.”

The above quote can be found here.

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A number of years ago when we were studying Revelation in Sunday School, I remember raising a question about whether official US policy favoring Israel is warranted, based on Scripture.  Israel's rejection of the Messiah and the formation of the Christian church by Jesus Christ seems to me to suggest that becoming God's people or experiencing God's favor is not now based on having natural Jewish bloodlines.  I mentioned the "don't mess with Israel" idea that people generally seem to think is the Christian political view.  To my surprise, Suzie O. said that's exactly what her dad used to say.  He was a WWII veteran and not a professing Christian, to my knowledge.  It suggested to me that "don't mess with Israel" was actually a pervasive American view--not limited to Christians.

I also mentioned in Sunday School yesterday Hal Lindsey and his Late Great Planet Earth Book which became extremely popular in the 1970s.  I suggested that his writing seems to have sparked a lot of interest in current events as fulfillment of prophecy according to the pre-millenialist, dispensationalist view.  Israel had a central role in these events, in Lindsey's thinking.  I wondered whether we have been more influenced by Lindsey than we realize.  

Cursory research just now supports the off-the-top-of-my-head impressions I shared in Sunday School.  PBS's Frontline says here that Lindsey's book became the all time non-fiction bestseller of the decade of the seventies.  Lindsey himself spoke of having met with important government officials, presumably to provide input on how America should act in world affairs.  Conservatives, Christians, and the American government (at least in the seventies and eighties) all seem to have generally fallen in step behind Lindsey.  How did this happen?

Elias Chacour in Blood Brothers also gives a sobering first-person account of being greatly wronged as a Palestinian Christian in Israel.  A few in my Sunday School class have read that book, and I daresay that Bercot's reference to Palestinian Christians above will recall images of Chacour's life for anyone who is familiar with the powerful story.  

I am not promoting an anti-Israel stance.  Even on purely humanitarian grounds, any people who have suffered as the Jews have should be regarded with compassion.   I have no desire to criticize America's friendship with Israel and am happy that we're friends.

I've heard harsh criticism of our current president for not being sufficiently supportive of Israel.  As I'm sure is also true of David Bercot, I have no desire to take up that critical mantra.  

Thanks to Bercot for articulating clearly some of the niggling thoughts that have been floating fuzzily to the top in my own thinking.  

Reading this almost makes me wish I could have accepted Sharon N.'s invitation to go with her to the conference.