Why I Am Not A Christian Zionist
December 15, 2020
By John Kleinheksel
There are at least three reasons why I am not a “Christian Zionist”: First, I agree with the vast majority of biblical scholars who affirm God’s aim in the Bible is a new community consisting of Jews and Gentiles -- not a restored Jewish State. Second, Christian Zionism looks forward to a bloody climactic battle at the end of time that will usher in God’s kingdom. This is contrary to the Kingdom of God that has already begun in Jesus. Jesus envisions a different sort of Order, not one that leverages politics in the modern world. And third, Christian Zionism promotes a triumphalism that is oppressive: it harms all the inhabitants in the Holy Land and models an unmerciful oppression now being imitated by other nations around the world.
A light to the nations or a political nation in the Middle East?
In Acts 1:6-8, the disciples ask the resurrected Jesus if he intends to restore “the kingdom of Israel.” This was a political question anchored to political hope. “Don’t bother seeking an answer to that question,” Jesus seems to say. From Jerusalem, you will receive God’s power to witness to me to the ends of the earth. The rest of the Acts of the Apostles chronicles how new Jewish/Gentile communities sprang up all over the known world. People were changed. And they began to experience a life with one another that upended the tribalism of the Old Order. The nation of Israel and the Empire of Rome were put on notice that God's New Order was breaking out in every nation.
It seems clear that Jesus would not overtly wed his kingdom to the political aspirations of his day. I can’t imagine that Jesus would promote the secular/religious State of Israel that we see today as fulfilling his dream for how his New Order might come about.
Abraham’s promise of Genesis 12 offered blessing to all nations.
Twelve of his disciples are named “apostles” (sent ones), representing leaders of the original tribes of Israel. They, with him, are the foretaste of the New Community which finds its charter in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). These are people centered on humility, justice, repentance, and grace – and who experience persecution – not promote it. This community invites all into its life – Gentiles included, because they too are called the children of Abraham when they embrace Jesus in faith (Romans 4).
Christian Zionists believe God will orchestrate a violent end to Israel’s present-day enemies in a war called Armageddon. This is out of step with the kind of kingdom Jesus imagines: built on his cross-work where Jesus blood was shed and where new communities are built on forgiveness and grace. Jesus envisioned a community known for its sacrifices like his, not for its violence.
We are called to serve the powerless in Israel/Palestine and around the world.
The new revolution begun by Jesus does not offer uncritical political support to any one nation, much less Israel. The revolution of Jesus’ kingdom seeks to find the poor and oppressed in any nation and lift them up. The test of Israel’s biblical virtues is how they protect the orphan, the widow, and the resident alien – all codes for the marginalized in any society. The Palestinians at least are “aliens” in Israel today. Leviticus makes their treatment clear: When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19:33-34, NRSV).
Many Palestinians (such as Nora Carmi) are stunned to learn that they need to be called “aliens” if they are to gain any rights in Israel. They too have lived in the Holy Land for a very long time and deserve to be viewed as “natives” as well.
I want my life to elevate the new and renewed communities God is raising up here and around the world, where ALL nations are blessed, where help is extended to any in all nations who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick or in prison (Matthew 25). I pray and work for the kairos/time when followers of our Lord will be celebrated more for the purity of their purpose than the power of their politics, where goodness floods the old creation, and where right relationships flourish.
Promoting one political agenda for one political nation is not the way forward. That is why I am not a Christian Zionist. Pray with me/us that all people of good will join with the Spirit of our Lord until the New Order has fully come and it will once again be said of everything that God has made: ". . .and indeed, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).
John Kleinheksel has a master’s degree in theology from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan. In 1975, Kleinheksel participated in 22-day immersion tour of the Middle East sponsored by the Reformed Church of America (RCA). This tour included meetings with religious leaders in Cairo and Jerusalem, a visit to Barj El Barjneh refugee camp near Beruit, and visits to RCA mission sites in Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. This tour and subsequent tours gave Kleinheksel the opportunity to meet and form bonds of friendship and solidarity with Israeli Jews and Arab Palestinians—bonds which he continues to renew to this day. In 2014 he helped found Kairos West Michigan, an organization providing education and advocating for a just peace in Palestine/Israel.