Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer
"Knowing a lot about Christian Zionism doesn't mean anything unless we do something."
Internationally renowned expert on Christian Zionism, Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer http://www.sizers.org/ recently completed a whirlwind ten day odyssey through America speaking to hundreds of concerned, committed, thoughtful Christians in Seattle, Peoria, Fort Lauderdale, New Smyrna Beach and in a soon to be broadcast radio interview in Tampa, Florida before returning to the UK on July 4, 2007. Sizer, is the vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water in the UK, the chairman of the International Bible Society UK, which is well known for the New International Version (NIV), the most widely read Bible translation in English and he is a founding member of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism.
"Knowing a lot about Christian Zionism doesn't mean anything unless we do something."[1]
In the last three years, this concerned, committed, thoughtful Christian has searched to learn-and do something- about the heretical and inherently anti-Semitic theology of Christian Zionism, for in my hometown in Florida, I have not found one church, priest or pastor who even seems aware of the facts on the ground in the Holy Land, nor the danger of the Left Behind theology which is in bed with the political ideology of the neo-conservatives.
I didn't even have a clue as to how little I knew about what was going down in the Holy Land until my first journey in June 2005, when I passed through my first checkpoint and entered into the Little Town of Bethlehem, which is Occupied Territory.
What I witnessed and viscerally felt in my gut was the injustices of oppression caused by a military occupation that denies human rights to innocent ones simply because they were born on the wrong side of the tracks ; in the West Bank and Gaza.
The term 'Zionism' was first coined in the late nineteenth century with the hope that the Jewish people would have a peaceful and secure homeland. Ironically, it was Christians who nurtured and shaped this hope long before it received widespread Jewish support.
"The origins of 'Christian Zionism' lie within nineteenth-century British premillennial sectarianism, but by the early twentieth century it had become a predominantly American dispensational movement, and pervasive within all main evangelical denominations. The contemporary Christian Zionism movement emerged after the 'Six Day War' in Israel in 1967, and it has had a significant influence on attitudes towards the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Evangelicals are increasingly polarized over whether Christian Zionism is biblical and orthodox or unbiblical and cultic." [2]
This reporter had the opportunity to spend 36 hours with Reverend Sizer during his Florida tour and I learned how and why he was inspired to speak out on a topic that most American Christians do not even want to look at, and what he told me was:
"'Bertrand Russell said, 'Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.' I will turn 54 this July 27th...but until I was about 21 or 22 I didn't even think about this topic...I lived in a normal home in Suffolk, attended the Presbyterian Congregational church with a liberal theology and no real mention of Israel.
"When I attended University I became radicalized and was involved in social justice issues and the focus of my degree was in economics, justice and apartheid. This is also when I became a Christian and started learning about dispensationalist and Hal Lindsay, but I was passively pre-millennial...Because of my faith in Jesus I wanted to visit the Holy Land, [do the] Fifth Gospel, which is walking where Jesus walked and touching the sand he may have touched...That is where I first met Palestinians; Philistines, 'terrorists'!
"It was Riah Abdulelassal, the Vicar of the Church in Nazareth, an Arab Christian Israeli Palestinian and meeting [1948 refugee and founder of SABEEL] Naim Ateek and a messianic Jewish guide who hated Arabs, that opened my mind...I lived with Palestinians...I was confused about the theology I had learned. The church in Palestine was telling me something very different and what I learned was that Palestine needed to be liberated from the Jews!
"I then looked again at Hal Lindsay and saw he spoke in stereotypes; that Palestinians were animals and the Israelis were chosen. I encountered hatred towards those who sided with Palestinians and that increased my resolve to ignore the attacks that came against me for speaking out. The Israeli interrogations made me even surer that I was doing the right thing. The Hal Lindsay [and Left Behind] theology came out of Britain; the family tree of [John Nelson] Darby [has sprouted] the children of Lindsay and Tim Le Haye."
"The "father of modern dispensationalism" John Nelson Darby was born in Ireland, in the year 1800, and died in 1882. He was an honor student in Westminster and Trinity College, where he studied law, and worked as a lawyer until he became a curate in the Church of England until 1827, when he joined the Brethren movement. Darby, along with the rest of the Brethren, claimed to have been given many "rediscovered truths." These alleged truths supposedly had been taught by the apostles, and then lost sight of. Even the great Reformers had not known of these doctrines. These "rediscovered truths" were, in fact, the direct opposite of all historic Christian teachings proclaimed by the Reformers and extant commentaries. Even some of Darby's best friends hesitated at some of his doctrines. He was accused of heresy a number of times." [3]
In 1891, Christian fundamentalist and lay-preacher, William Blackstone appealed to President Benjamin Harrison to help establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Blackstone was a disciple of Dwight L. Moody and they both were influenced by John Nelson Darby.
Darby had great success on American soil in connecting with the traumatized post-Civil War survivors and was able to transmit his new heretical theology into the heartland of America. Despite the horrifying news of Czarist pogroms that could have been the catalyst to establishing a Jewish state before the Jewish Holocaust, the Christian fundamentalists moved onto the Scopes Trial and forgot about the Jews for a while.
Fifty years later and after six million innocent Jews and five million other innocent 'outcasts' were cold bloodedly murdered because good people did nothing for a very long while-and only after the British Mandate ran out, Israel was born.
Most evangelicals interpreted the establishment of Israel to be the fulfillment of -how they understood and interpreted- certain prophetic scriptures. They interpreted the Israeli victory in the 1967 War and the capture of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights to be an act of God and never considered the fact of Israeli superior military might and USA Intelligence.
The American Bi-Centennial in 1976 was a watershed year for the religious right. While mainline churches declined evangelical fundamentalist churches became the fastest growing sector of American Christianity. TIME magazine named 1976 as The Year of The Evangelical and suddenly they became a legitimate political and religious force.
Following the War of 1967, Israel gained an increased portion of USA foreign aid and military budgets, becoming the 'western pillar' of the USA strategic alliance against Soviet incursion into the Middle East...During this period AIPAC and other pro-Israeli lobby agencies began their ascent to power in shaping USA foreign policy. The Roman Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations began to develop a more balanced approach to the Middle East, bringing them closer to the international consensus on the Palestinian question. Pro-Israel organizations interpreted this shift as being Anti-Israel and in turn began to court the conservative Christians.
In 1977, when President Carter stated "The Palestinians deserve a right to their homeland," the Christian fundamentalists and Israeli lobby responded with full page ads stating: "The time has come for evangelical Christians to affirm their belief in biblical prophecy and Israel's divine right to the land...and affirm our belief in the Promised Land to the Jewish people."
The Reagan White House hosted a series of seminars from the Israeli lobby and Christian right. This was when Hal Lindsay, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the Moral majority infiltrated the West Wing.
Falwell received a Lear Jet from the Israeli government for his personal travel...When Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981, Prime Minister Begin called Jerry Falwell -before he called Reagan- to ask him 'to explain to the Christian public the reasons for the bombings.
In 1996, Netanyahu and Likud ideology dominated Israeli policy and 17 evangelical USA pastors pledged their support of the illegal colonies in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and full support for a Jerusalem under sovereignty of Israel.
The Christian Zionists launched a PR campaign under the banner: "Christians Call for a United Jerusalem." They ignored the fact that they were in conflict with American policy and the Oslo process as well as a direct attack on Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant unity with the Churches for Middle East Peace that called for a Shared Jerusalem.
"It is also irresponsible to suggest that God will bless us materially if we support the largely secular State of Israel, especially when this invariably means ignoring the plight of the indigenous Christian population of Palestine."-Rev. Stephen Sizer, page 67, Zion's Christian Soldiers, to be released Fall of 2007.
Fundamentalist Christian Zionists do not have eyes to see nor hearts that bleed for their sisters and brothers in Christ in the Holy Land; the indigenous Palestinian Christians who are the descendants of first century Christians, and whose Exodus has rendered their numbers from 20% of the total population to less than 1.3% since 1948.
The politically driven Christian Zionist fundamentalists are also notorious supporters of the settlements, they seek to rebuild The Temple and have an avowed distrust for the United Nations and peacemakers.
According to Sizer, "There is not one verse in the New Testament that says the Temple must be rebuilt; for Jesus is the new Temple...Watch out for this July 29th, every year the Temple Mount Faithful take [cement] blocks to place [as cornerstones] on the Temple Mount; the Israeli High Court gave them permission to begin the rebuilding, but last year, fortunately the Israeli police stopped them before they got too close to the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site for Muslims.
"In 2006, a Gallup Poll surveyed the Israeli citizens and 58% of them believe the Temple must be rebuilt in place of the Dome of the Rock. Most Israelis are secular, but 50% of them in Jerusalem send their kids to Orthodox schools, so the next generation is becoming more orthodox. Millions of dollars are being poured into the settlements by Christian churches who adopt them and pray for them."
In 2004, The International Court of Justice in the Hague deemed all the settlements in the West Bank are illegal.
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews who Serves as Israel's Ambassador to Evangelical Christians, attended Jerry Fawell's funeral and honored John Hagee with the Ambassador Award for Outstanding Leadership and Support, during the "Night to Honor Israel" at Word of Faith, on January 7, 2007. [4]
In 1983, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews which seeks to unite Christians and Jews to support [only] Israel and the Jewish people around the world. The Fellowship provides financial support for Jews to make aliyah (emigrate) from countries around the world to Israel.
Reverend Sizer remarked that no Jew since Jesus has had the kind of Gentile following Rabbi Eckstein has had and that U.S.A. churches have sent him over a quarter of a billion dollars so far.
Sizer also addressed the elephant in the room, which is a fear amongst Christians of being labelled an anti-Semite when speaking out about the injustices of the Israeli government and he repudiated such a charge by firmly stating, "I am a Phylo-Semite; I love the Jewish people, and I repudiate anti-Semitism as I repudiate Islamaphobia. Both are racist attitudes...Jesus called us to be peacemakers and to heal the Nations."
1. Phyllis Bennis, page 99, Challenging Christian Zionism: Theology,
Politics and the Israel-Palestine Conflict
2.http://www.ivpbooks.com/pages/data.asp?cache=update&layout=Article.htm&Id=264
3. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/9170/COX1-2.HTM
4.http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/2/prweb501530.htm
"Knowing a lot about Christian Zionism doesn't mean anything unless we do something."
Internationally renowned expert on Christian Zionism, Rev. Dr. Stephen Sizer http://www.sizers.org/ recently completed a whirlwind ten day odyssey through America speaking to hundreds of concerned, committed, thoughtful Christians in Seattle, Peoria, Fort Lauderdale, New Smyrna Beach and in a soon to be broadcast radio interview in Tampa, Florida before returning to the UK on July 4, 2007. Sizer, is the vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water in the UK, the chairman of the International Bible Society UK, which is well known for the New International Version (NIV), the most widely read Bible translation in English and he is a founding member of the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism.
"Knowing a lot about Christian Zionism doesn't mean anything unless we do something."[1]
In the last three years, this concerned, committed, thoughtful Christian has searched to learn-and do something- about the heretical and inherently anti-Semitic theology of Christian Zionism, for in my hometown in Florida, I have not found one church, priest or pastor who even seems aware of the facts on the ground in the Holy Land, nor the danger of the Left Behind theology which is in bed with the political ideology of the neo-conservatives.
I didn't even have a clue as to how little I knew about what was going down in the Holy Land until my first journey in June 2005, when I passed through my first checkpoint and entered into the Little Town of Bethlehem, which is Occupied Territory.
What I witnessed and viscerally felt in my gut was the injustices of oppression caused by a military occupation that denies human rights to innocent ones simply because they were born on the wrong side of the tracks ; in the West Bank and Gaza.
The term 'Zionism' was first coined in the late nineteenth century with the hope that the Jewish people would have a peaceful and secure homeland. Ironically, it was Christians who nurtured and shaped this hope long before it received widespread Jewish support.
"The origins of 'Christian Zionism' lie within nineteenth-century British premillennial sectarianism, but by the early twentieth century it had become a predominantly American dispensational movement, and pervasive within all main evangelical denominations. The contemporary Christian Zionism movement emerged after the 'Six Day War' in Israel in 1967, and it has had a significant influence on attitudes towards the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Evangelicals are increasingly polarized over whether Christian Zionism is biblical and orthodox or unbiblical and cultic." [2]
This reporter had the opportunity to spend 36 hours with Reverend Sizer during his Florida tour and I learned how and why he was inspired to speak out on a topic that most American Christians do not even want to look at, and what he told me was:
"'Bertrand Russell said, 'Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.' I will turn 54 this July 27th...but until I was about 21 or 22 I didn't even think about this topic...I lived in a normal home in Suffolk, attended the Presbyterian Congregational church with a liberal theology and no real mention of Israel.
"When I attended University I became radicalized and was involved in social justice issues and the focus of my degree was in economics, justice and apartheid. This is also when I became a Christian and started learning about dispensationalist and Hal Lindsay, but I was passively pre-millennial...Because of my faith in Jesus I wanted to visit the Holy Land, [do the] Fifth Gospel, which is walking where Jesus walked and touching the sand he may have touched...That is where I first met Palestinians; Philistines, 'terrorists'!
"It was Riah Abdulelassal, the Vicar of the Church in Nazareth, an Arab Christian Israeli Palestinian and meeting [1948 refugee and founder of SABEEL] Naim Ateek and a messianic Jewish guide who hated Arabs, that opened my mind...I lived with Palestinians...I was confused about the theology I had learned. The church in Palestine was telling me something very different and what I learned was that Palestine needed to be liberated from the Jews!
"I then looked again at Hal Lindsay and saw he spoke in stereotypes; that Palestinians were animals and the Israelis were chosen. I encountered hatred towards those who sided with Palestinians and that increased my resolve to ignore the attacks that came against me for speaking out. The Israeli interrogations made me even surer that I was doing the right thing. The Hal Lindsay [and Left Behind] theology came out of Britain; the family tree of [John Nelson] Darby [has sprouted] the children of Lindsay and Tim Le Haye."
"The "father of modern dispensationalism" John Nelson Darby was born in Ireland, in the year 1800, and died in 1882. He was an honor student in Westminster and Trinity College, where he studied law, and worked as a lawyer until he became a curate in the Church of England until 1827, when he joined the Brethren movement. Darby, along with the rest of the Brethren, claimed to have been given many "rediscovered truths." These alleged truths supposedly had been taught by the apostles, and then lost sight of. Even the great Reformers had not known of these doctrines. These "rediscovered truths" were, in fact, the direct opposite of all historic Christian teachings proclaimed by the Reformers and extant commentaries. Even some of Darby's best friends hesitated at some of his doctrines. He was accused of heresy a number of times." [3]
In 1891, Christian fundamentalist and lay-preacher, William Blackstone appealed to President Benjamin Harrison to help establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Blackstone was a disciple of Dwight L. Moody and they both were influenced by John Nelson Darby.
Darby had great success on American soil in connecting with the traumatized post-Civil War survivors and was able to transmit his new heretical theology into the heartland of America. Despite the horrifying news of Czarist pogroms that could have been the catalyst to establishing a Jewish state before the Jewish Holocaust, the Christian fundamentalists moved onto the Scopes Trial and forgot about the Jews for a while.
Fifty years later and after six million innocent Jews and five million other innocent 'outcasts' were cold bloodedly murdered because good people did nothing for a very long while-and only after the British Mandate ran out, Israel was born.
Most evangelicals interpreted the establishment of Israel to be the fulfillment of -how they understood and interpreted- certain prophetic scriptures. They interpreted the Israeli victory in the 1967 War and the capture of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights to be an act of God and never considered the fact of Israeli superior military might and USA Intelligence.
The American Bi-Centennial in 1976 was a watershed year for the religious right. While mainline churches declined evangelical fundamentalist churches became the fastest growing sector of American Christianity. TIME magazine named 1976 as The Year of The Evangelical and suddenly they became a legitimate political and religious force.
Following the War of 1967, Israel gained an increased portion of USA foreign aid and military budgets, becoming the 'western pillar' of the USA strategic alliance against Soviet incursion into the Middle East...During this period AIPAC and other pro-Israeli lobby agencies began their ascent to power in shaping USA foreign policy. The Roman Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations began to develop a more balanced approach to the Middle East, bringing them closer to the international consensus on the Palestinian question. Pro-Israel organizations interpreted this shift as being Anti-Israel and in turn began to court the conservative Christians.
In 1977, when President Carter stated "The Palestinians deserve a right to their homeland," the Christian fundamentalists and Israeli lobby responded with full page ads stating: "The time has come for evangelical Christians to affirm their belief in biblical prophecy and Israel's divine right to the land...and affirm our belief in the Promised Land to the Jewish people."
The Reagan White House hosted a series of seminars from the Israeli lobby and Christian right. This was when Hal Lindsay, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and the Moral majority infiltrated the West Wing.
Falwell received a Lear Jet from the Israeli government for his personal travel...When Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear plant in 1981, Prime Minister Begin called Jerry Falwell -before he called Reagan- to ask him 'to explain to the Christian public the reasons for the bombings.
In 1996, Netanyahu and Likud ideology dominated Israeli policy and 17 evangelical USA pastors pledged their support of the illegal colonies in the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and full support for a Jerusalem under sovereignty of Israel.
The Christian Zionists launched a PR campaign under the banner: "Christians Call for a United Jerusalem." They ignored the fact that they were in conflict with American policy and the Oslo process as well as a direct attack on Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant unity with the Churches for Middle East Peace that called for a Shared Jerusalem.
"It is also irresponsible to suggest that God will bless us materially if we support the largely secular State of Israel, especially when this invariably means ignoring the plight of the indigenous Christian population of Palestine."-Rev. Stephen Sizer, page 67, Zion's Christian Soldiers, to be released Fall of 2007.
Fundamentalist Christian Zionists do not have eyes to see nor hearts that bleed for their sisters and brothers in Christ in the Holy Land; the indigenous Palestinian Christians who are the descendants of first century Christians, and whose Exodus has rendered their numbers from 20% of the total population to less than 1.3% since 1948.
The politically driven Christian Zionist fundamentalists are also notorious supporters of the settlements, they seek to rebuild The Temple and have an avowed distrust for the United Nations and peacemakers.
According to Sizer, "There is not one verse in the New Testament that says the Temple must be rebuilt; for Jesus is the new Temple...Watch out for this July 29th, every year the Temple Mount Faithful take [cement] blocks to place [as cornerstones] on the Temple Mount; the Israeli High Court gave them permission to begin the rebuilding, but last year, fortunately the Israeli police stopped them before they got too close to the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site for Muslims.
"In 2006, a Gallup Poll surveyed the Israeli citizens and 58% of them believe the Temple must be rebuilt in place of the Dome of the Rock. Most Israelis are secular, but 50% of them in Jerusalem send their kids to Orthodox schools, so the next generation is becoming more orthodox. Millions of dollars are being poured into the settlements by Christian churches who adopt them and pray for them."
In 2004, The International Court of Justice in the Hague deemed all the settlements in the West Bank are illegal.
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews who Serves as Israel's Ambassador to Evangelical Christians, attended Jerry Fawell's funeral and honored John Hagee with the Ambassador Award for Outstanding Leadership and Support, during the "Night to Honor Israel" at Word of Faith, on January 7, 2007. [4]
In 1983, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews which seeks to unite Christians and Jews to support [only] Israel and the Jewish people around the world. The Fellowship provides financial support for Jews to make aliyah (emigrate) from countries around the world to Israel.
Reverend Sizer remarked that no Jew since Jesus has had the kind of Gentile following Rabbi Eckstein has had and that U.S.A. churches have sent him over a quarter of a billion dollars so far.
Sizer also addressed the elephant in the room, which is a fear amongst Christians of being labelled an anti-Semite when speaking out about the injustices of the Israeli government and he repudiated such a charge by firmly stating, "I am a Phylo-Semite; I love the Jewish people, and I repudiate anti-Semitism as I repudiate Islamaphobia. Both are racist attitudes...Jesus called us to be peacemakers and to heal the Nations."
1. Phyllis Bennis, page 99, Challenging Christian Zionism: Theology,
Politics and the Israel-Palestine Conflict
2.http://www.ivpbooks.com/pages/data.asp?cache=update&layout=Article.htm&Id=264
3. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/9170/COX1-2.HTM
4.http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/2/prweb501530.htm
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