What is “Christian Zionism?
There is more to Dispensationalism than what has come to be called “Christian Zionism,” including the belief that Christ’s second coming will be in the form of a “secret rapture.” But Adventists have hammered away on the “secret rapture” for decades, and Christian Zionism is by far the most controversial aspect of the Dispensationalist belief system. So our time is better spent dissecting Christian Zionism.
Christian Zionism rests upon five main pillars or propositions regarding how Scripture is to be interpreted, including:
If an Old Testament writer believed he was speaking only to literal Israel, the Hebrew nation, then we Christians, living deep into the Christian dispensation, may not interpret his prophecy or writing from a Christian, New Testament, perspective. We must interpret it as applying only to physical, carnal Israel.
Spiritual Israel, the Christian Church, does not supersede carnal Israel, in terms of the promises made to “Israel” in the Old Testament
The Christian church is not the new or true Israel. Israel and the Christian church remain distinct, and God has a different relationship with one than with the other.
Although Dispensatonalists admit that personal salvation, for both Jews and Gentiles, depends upon faith in Jesus Christ, they nevertheless maintain that God still has a special relationship with carnal Israel.
God will save and restore carnal Israel, as a nation, and give it a unique role and identity in a future millennial kingdom.
In this episode, we will discuss the first pillar of Christian Zionism.
Pillar No. 1: We must Not Interpret the Old Testament Through a Christian Lense??
There are a couple of very serious problems with the first pillar of Christian Zionism.
First, we do not know what the Bible writers were thinking, we only know what they wrote. We cannot say that they did not have in mind a spiritual fulfillment beyond the immediate application to the Hebrews or Israelites of their day. We know that they were inspired, and that the Holy Spirit need not have limited their message to the Hebrew nation, but might well have given them messages with dual application, applying not only to the Hebrew nation but to Christians as well.
Second, assuming for purposes of argument that the Old Testament writers thought they were writing only and forever to the Jews, or intended their prophecies to apply only to the Hebrew nation—which, again, is a presumptuous interpretation— Jesus Himself and all the New Testament writers quoted Old Testament passages in support of Messianic and specifically Christian teachings. They did this continually, throughout what today is called the New Testament.
Even before His death, Jesus began the process of interpreting the Old Testament along Messianic lines, as being fulfilled by Himself. He said:
“You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me.” John 5:39
“But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” John 5:45-47.
Jesus disciples, even while Jesus was still alive, understood that He was fulfilling what was written in the Old Testament:
“Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’” John 1:45
While He was on the cross, Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mat. 27:46. Although Jesus quoted only the first verse, from a reading the whole chapter, it is obvious that Psalm 22 is a Messianic prophecy pointing to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ:
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
“He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
Then, after His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus intensified the process of explaining how the Old Testament prophecies applied to Him:
“Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.” Luke 24:26-27
“Jesus said to them, ‘These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’” Luke 24:44.
So Jesus has clearly stated that what is written in the Torah, and the Prophets and the Psalms—which is the entire Old Testament—points forward to Himself, Jesus Christ.
In addition to Jesus—who ought to be enough—the other writers of the New Testament did the same thing, interpreting the Old Testament to apply to Jesus Christ. Paul opens the book of Romans by writing:
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 1:1-4.
Who was foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament Scriptures? Jesus Christ our Lord. This is a constant refrain in the book of Acts:
“And now we proclaim to you the good news: What God promised our fathers He has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.’” Acts 13:32-33, quoting Psalm 2.
So the Second Psalm was pointing forward to Christ and was fulfilled in Christ.
Peter, at Pentecost, preached that Psalm 110 was a Messianic prophecy fulfilled by Christ:
“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”’ Acts 2:29-35.
And Peter continues in this vein in his Pentecost sermon:
“Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. . . . For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.’[Deut. 18:15,18,19]
“Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’[Gen. 22:18; 26:4]” Acts 3:17-26.
Can anyone read Isaiah 53 and not see a very poignant portrait of Jesus Christ? Dr. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, tells us that, yes, Isaiah 53 is a Messianic prophecy that was fulfilled in Christ. Philip is told to stay near the chariot of the Eunach, who is the treasurer of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia:
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” Acts 8:32-35.
How dare anyone say that we must not interpret Isaiah 53 as applying to Jesus Christ when inspiration clearly says that it is speaking of Jesus?
In Acts chapter 13, we find Paul preaching at a synagogue in Antioch (Acts 13:13-41), showing the people how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures, including Psalm 2:7, Isa. 55:3, Psalm 16:10, and Habakkuk 1:5. Paul and Barnabas were invited back for the next Sabbath, but in the meantime the Jews organized against them, and prevented them from teaching in the synagogue the next Sabbath:
“Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.” Acts 13:46.
“To the Jew first, and then to the Greek,” does not go on forever. It applied to the apostles during the period from 34 AD, when the Gospel was first taken to the gentiles, until the destruction of the Jerusalem in 70 AD. The apostles almost always (Athens was an exception) followed that pattern during that period of time; they went to the Jewish synagogues, then to the Gentiles.
And when they went to the Jewish synagogues to preach Christ, they always preached out of the Old Testament. Those Jews who were willing to study the Hebrew Scriptures with fresh eyes were converted to the faith:
As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. Acts 17:10-12
Remember, there was no New Testament at this time, so the Hebrew Scriptures were the only Scriptures; the Greek Scriptures (the New Testament) although they were being written as letters and other writings during this time, did not exist as an accepted canon until centuries later. Let’s think about this “Berean” passage carefully, using a dialog or question and answer format:
Q: What did Paul and Silas do when they arrived at a new city?
A: They went to the synagogues to preach Christ to the Jews.
Q: What did they preach out of the when preaching Christ in the synagogues?
A: They preached out of the Old Testament, because a), the Old Testament was the Scriptures, and b) the Old Testament is all about Jesus Christ.
Q: Which Jews were Paul and Silas able to convert?
A: The ones who “fact checked” Paul and Silas out of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Q: So you’re telling me that what converted these Berean Jews, as to opposed to most of the other Jews the apostles preached to, was that they went back and re-read the Old Testament passages and saw that they clearly pointed to Jesus Christ as the Messiah?
A: Yes, that’s what I’m telling you. The Berean Jews were converted to Christianity because they went back and read the Hebrew Scriptures with “fresh eyes,” and they saw Jesus in those Scriptures.
The final Pauline sermon recorded in the book of Acts has Paul quoting Isaiah 6:9-10:
They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus. Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
“‘Go to this people and say,
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
“Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” Acts 28:23-28.
It should be obvious from the foregoing that Christianity systematically re-interprets the Hebrew Scriptures along Christian lines. That is what Christ, his disciples, and the apostles all did. Christ repeatedly emphasized that the entire Old Testament—Law, Psalms, and Prophets—was about Himself. The apostles in their missionary journeys adopted a pattern of going first to the synagogues and explaining to the Jews, using the Hebrew Scriptures, that Jesus was the Messiah who fulfilled the prophecies, and indeed how He fulfilled everything written in the Hebrew Scriptures.
What the dispensationalists have done is to form their theology on a pre-Christian interpretation of the Old Testament, then fit the New Testament in around it. They demand that the Old Testament not be re-interpreted in the light of the New Testament. Without being clear about what they are doing, the dispensationalists in effect privilege the Old Testament over and above the New Testament.
Non-dispensationalists, by contrast, form their theology from the explicit teaching of the New Testament. We insist that the teaching of the New Testament be used to interpret the Old Testament, which is what Christ, His disciples, and the apostles all did.
Dispensationalism is a non-Christian belief system. It seeks to interpret the Scriptures in a non-Christian or pre-Christian manner. It is doing a great deal of damage.