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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
Christians and Zion: British stirrings
Part 1 in a series of 5 articles on Christian Zionism:
Donald Wagner
10/09/03 (Daily Star) The British have had a long-term fascination with the
idea of Israel and its central role in biblical prophecy that dates back to
their earliest recorded literature. The Epistle of Gildas (circa. 6th
century AD) and the Venerable Bedes Ecclesiastical History (735 AD) both
saw the British as the new Israel, Gods chosen people, who were destined
to play a strategic role despite repeated invasions by their Nordic
neighbors. In the British perception of being an elect, these battles were
understood in the context of Israels battles against the Philistines,
Babylonians and others.
A clear resurgence of such themes was evident in the 16th century, perhaps
influenced by the Protestant Reformation and its emphasis on the Bible and
varied interpretations of its texts, now that Rome had lost its control
over the new clergy and theologians. One of the early expressions of
fascination with the idea of Israel was the monograph Apocalypsis
Apocalypseos, written by Anglican clergyman Thomas Brightman in 1585.
Brightman urged the British people to support the return of the Jews to
Palestine in order to hasten a series of prophetic events that would
culminate in the return of Jesus.
In 1621, a prominent member of the British Parliament, attorney Henry
Finch, advanced a similar perspective when he wrote: The (Jews) shall
repair to their own country, shall inherit all of the land as before, shall
live in safety, and shall continue in it forever. Finch argued that based
on his interpretation of Genesis 12:3, God would bless those nations that
supported the Jews return. However, his idea did not find support from
fellow legislators.
While these writers cannot be classified as Christian Zionists, they might
be viewed as proto-Christian Zionists, as they prepared the way for those
who would follow. Gradually their views receded, but the turbulence
following the American and French revolutions provoked significant feelings
of insecurity across Europe. As the anxiety rose in the run-up to the
centennial year at the beginning of the 19th century, prophetic speculation
concerning Jesus return and related events was in the air.
During the decade that followed the year 1800, several Christian writers
and preachers began to reflect on the events leading to Jesus would-be
imminent return, among them Louis Way, an Anglican clergyman. Way taught
that it was necessary for the Jews to return to Palestine as the first
stage prior to the Messianic Age, and he offered speculation as to the
timing of Jesus second coming. Within a short period of time, Way gained a
wide readership through his journal The Jewish Expositor, and counted many
clergymen, academics and the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge as subscribers.
A number of influential proto-Christian Zionists emerged in the generation
that followed Way. John Nelson Darby (1800-81), a renegade Irish Anglican
priest, added several unique features to Ways teachings, including the
doctrine of the Rapture, whereby born again Christians would be
literally removed from history and transferred to heaven prior to Jesus
return. Darby also 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.
Only true (born again) Christians would be removed from history prior to
the final battle of Armageddon through the Rapture based on his literal
interpretation of 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
Darbys extensive writings and 60-year career as a missionary consolidated
a form of fundamentalism called premillennialism (Jesus would return
prior to the Battle of Armageddon and his millennial rule on earth). Darby
made six missionary journeys to North America, where he became a popular
teacher and preacher. The premillennial theology and its influence on
Christian fundamentalism and the emerging evangelical movement in the
United States can be directly traced to Darbys influence.
Christian Zionism is the direct product of this unusual and recent Western
form of Protestant theology. Found primarily in North America and England,
it is now exported around the globe via satellite television, the internet,
best-selling novels such as the Left Behind series, films and a new breed
of missionaries. These unique doctrines were found among fringe movements
in Christianity throughout the ages, which most Catholic, Eastern Orthodox
and Protestant churches regarded as extreme and marginal, if not heretical.
One of the influential British social reformers to be influenced by
premillennial theology was Lord Shaftesbury, a conservative evangelical
Christian who was intimately linked to leading members of the British
Parliament. In 1839, Shaftesbury published an essay in the distinguished
literary journal the Quarterly Review, titled The State and Restoration of
the Jews, where he argued: (T)he Jews must be encouraged to return (to
Palestine) in yet greater numbers and become once more the husbandman of
Judea and Galilee. Writing 57 years before Zionist thinkers Max Nordau,
Israel Zangwill and Theodor Herzl popularized the phrase, Shaftesbury
called the Jews a people with no country for a country with no people.
The saying was curiously similar to that of the early Zionists, who
described Palestine as a land of no people for a people with no land.
Gradually, Shaftesburys views gained acceptance among British journalists,
clergy and politicians.
One of the most important figures in the development of Christian Zionism
was the Anglican chaplain in Vienna during the 1880s, William Hechler, who
became an acquaintance of Herzl. Hechler saw Herzl and the Zionist project
as ordained by God in order to fulfill the prophetic scriptures. He used
his extensive political connections to assist the Zionist leader in his
quest for an international sponsor of the Zionist project. Hechler arranged
meetings with the Ottoman sultan and the German kaiser, but it was his
indirect contacts with the British elite that led to a meeting with the
politician Arthur Balfour. That meeting in 1905 would eventually lead to
Balfours November 1917 declaration on a Jewish homeland, which brought the
Zionists their initial international legitimacy. Balfours keen interest in
Zionism was prepared at least in part by his Sunday school faith, a case
put forth by Balfours biographer and niece, Blanch Dugdale.
Then-British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George was perhaps even more
predisposed to the Zionist ideology than Balfour. Journalist Christopher
Sykes (son of Mark Sykes, co-author of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916),
noted in his volume Two Studies in Virtue that Lloyd-Georges political
advisers were unable to train his mind on the map of Palestine during
negotiations prior to the Treaty of Versailles, due to his training by
fundamentalist Christian parents and churches on the geography of ancient
Israel. Lloyd-George admitted that he was far more familiar with the cities
and regions of Biblical Israel than with the geography of his native Wales
or of England itself.
British imperial designs were undoubtedly the primary political motivation
in drawing influential British politicians to support the Zionist project.
However, it is clear that the latter were predisposed to Zionism and to
enthusiastically supporting the proposals of Herzl and leading Zionist
officials such as Chaim Weizmann due to their Christian Zionist
backgrounds. Balfours famous speech of 1919 makes the point: For in
Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the
wishes of the present inhabitants of the country
The four great powers are
committed to Zionism, and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is
rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far
profounder import than the desires and prejudices of 700,000 Arabs who now
inhabit that ancient land.
The phrases rooted in age-long traditions and future hopes were perhaps
grounded in Balfours British imperial vision, but they were also
buttressed by his understanding of Bible prophecy, which undergirded his
bias toward the Zionist project as well as his grand designs for Britains
colonialist policy.
Donald Wagner is professor of religion and Middle Eastern studies at North
Park University in Chicago and executive director of the Center for Middle
Eastern Studies. He wrote this commentary, the first of five on Christian
Zionism running this week, for THE DAILY STAR
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4959.htm>Part 1 -
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4930.htm>Part 2 -
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4950.htm>Part 3 -
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4951.htm>Part 4 -
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4960.htm>Part 5
source:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4959.htm
===
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