World Council of Churches
Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches
Reformed Churches Bern-Jura-Solothurn

Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF)

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE
“Promised Land”

Church Center Bürenpark, Bern, Switzerland
10 - 14 September 2008 

Promise and Prophecy in Christian Zionist Thought

Dr Johnny B. Awwad
Near East School of Theology, Lebanon

PDF version for downloads 

Central to Christian Zionism’s belief is the eternal covenant that God cut with Abraham, in one of the dispensations, and the eternal promises that accompanied that covenant, namely to make Abraham a great nation (Gen. 12:2); to be the father of many nations—“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations” (Gen. 17:4); to give his descendants land from the river Nile to the Euphrates—“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates…’” (Gen. 15:8); and a royal offspring—“ I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you” (Gen. 17:6). The Davidic covenant is but an expansion on the covenant with Abraham; the word of the Lord comes to the prophet Nathan to tell God’s servant David that the eternal and earthly kingdom will be given exclusively to David’s house and offspring (2 Sam. 7:1-17). 

For Christian Zionists, Christ’s first coming was to fulfil the promises of the covenant with Abraham, especially the promise of the land, as well as the promise to David of an eternal and earthly kingdom to his offspring. The prophets of the Old Testament predicted the coming of this kingdom, John the Baptist announced it, and Jesus offered it. However, it was rejected by the Jews. Their rejection postponed the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham and David in the divine plan, until a later dispensation, namely that of the millennium, the time of Christ’s second coming and reign for 1000 years on earth (Rev. 20:4). 

The church that was established, though it fulfilled the promise to Abraham to be the father of many nations and that through him many nations will be blessed, was not part of the divine plan, but an interruption, an afterthought, a parenthesis. This church, narrowly defined, will come to an end on the day of the rapture (1 Thess. 4:13-18), when Christ will meet in heaven, not on earth, those who have fallen asleep and the chosen ones among the living. Following the rapture, there will be seven years of tribulation, based on a convoluted calculation of the 70 weeks in the book of Daniel (Dan. 9:24-27). During these years the Anti-Christ will appear as a ruler of the world, and 144,000 of the Jews will be sealed, according to Rev. 7:1-8. Before the seven years are over, Christ will come again to put an end to the time of tribulation and to establish his rule and earthly kingdom for 1000 years, which he failed to achieve during his first coming. Christian Zionists believe that during the millennium, the last dispensation, all the remaining promises to Abraham as well as many of the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets will be finally fulfilled. 

During the millennium dispensation, Old Testament prophecies, originally dealing with the return of the people of Israel to the land from the Babylonian exile, such as Ezekiel 37:12-13, are introduced and interpreted literally as if they were history written in advance for the end times. During the millennium, Isaiah’s prophecy (Is. 2:1-4) of the subjection of all the cities of the nations to the capital city of the world, Jerusalem, will be fulfilled. During this period, the third temple will be rebuilt with a sacrificial system in accordance with Torah in fulfilment of the prophecy in Ezekiel 40-48. During the millennium, Jews who accept Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfiller of the promises and prophecies, and not the crucified and raised saviour, will be saved. Satan will be released and judged (Rev. 20:7-15). Then comes the eternal state (Rev. 21:22-5) in the New Jerusalem when the raptured Church and saved Jews from the period of Christ millennial reign on earth with the saints of the Old Testament from all ages, and the angels will dwell together and God will be in their midst. 

Among the root problems of Christian Zionism are the way it views the Bible (as verbally inspired) and the method with which it interprets it (consistent literal interpretation). For Christian Zionists, the Bible provides a chronological map of world history, but for it to be understood properly, it must be read literally and the interpreter must find ways to fill in the gaps. 

In providing detailed scenes for the scenario of the millennium, prophecies from the Old Testament are imported into the book of Revelation, as history written in advance, without any consideration to the historical contexts within which these prophecies were originally given. The horizons of the book of Revelation and the rapture in 1 Thessalonians are mixed and confused, leaving one wondering whether the scenario of events just presented does emerge naturally from the biblical text or is in some of its main features imposed on the Bible. The genre of apocalypse, whose main purpose is to state God’s control over human history, is taken as a set of prophecies of historical events, or a historical record of events, that will take place in the near future. 

Charles Ryrie, a leading dispensationalist of our times, argues that if a consistent literal interpretation is applied to the Bible it demonstrates three important results.[1] It reveals that many of the eternal promises given to Abraham such as the promise of the land from the Nile to the Euphrates, as well as many Old Testament prophecies have not yet been literally fulfilled. A consistent application of literal interpretation must recognize that when the Bible speaks about “Israel” it must always mean Israel as a clearly defined nation historically and ethnically. The word “church” must always mean the church. It cannot be said that the church is the new Israel or the true Israel; Israel cannot be given any spiritual meaning. This distinction between Israel and the church must ultimately lead to a distinction between two peoples of God—Israel is the earthly people of God, and the church the heavenly people of God. The distinction between these two peoples must naturally lead to a distinction between two different plans of salvation for each of them. A consistent literal interpretation of the Bible starts with a distinction between two words, moves to a distinction between two peoples, and ends in distinguishing two plans of salvation. 

In my opinion, this methodology in biblical interpretation is misleading and has dangerous theological implications. Many of the features and beliefs of Christian Zionism that I introduced earlier raise serious questions about the centrality of Christ and the finality of God’s work of salvation in the cross and resurrection of Christ. Any talk about two plans of salvation is a perversion of the biblical witness and the foundational beliefs of historical Christianity. There is one plan of salvation. While it is true that some of Israel are in a state of disbelief, eventually all Israel will be saved through its embrace of the gospel, as Paul argues in Romans 9-11, and not apart from it, as Christian Zionists claim. 

The application of a consistent literal interpretation of the biblical text raises serious questions about Christ’s relationship to the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament. The New Testament consistently insists that all the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, not a selection of them, have received their fulfilment in the person of Christ: “For in him every one of God's promises is a ‘Yes’” (2 Cor. 1:20). The Bible knows no claim that the promises to Abraham and David have been postponed until the millennium. Even the promise of the land and the promise of eternal kingdom have been fulfilled: “For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13).  From the perspective of the new covenant, God’s promise of the land to Abraham is a promise of the entire world through the righteousness of faith, and not a promise of a land with well-defined geographical boundaries. This universality is a crucial interpretative key to the promise of the land to Abraham and the prophecies of the exilic and post-exilic prophets. This is not spiritualizing the biblical texts, as Christian Zionists claim, but allowing the Bible to interpret and speak for itself. 

As for the promise of an eternal kingdom, the words of the Lord’s angel to Mary are clear: “the Lord God will give to him [Christ] the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33). Though the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and invited people to enter and have their lives shaped by it is a spiritual kingdom, yet it is a real one. It is where God rules over the human heart. It transcends geography, ethnicity, culture and language. It travels across continents. Its very foundations are the love of God and love of neighbour. 

If a consistent literal interpretation leads to understanding Israel as Israel and the church as the church, then what can be said about Paul’s description of the Christians in Galatia, both Jews and gentiles, as the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16), or what he says in Romans that not all who descended from Israel are Israel (Rom. 9:6)? The Bible itself does not tolerate the sharp distinctions Christian Zionists claim through their “consistent literal interpretation”. 

The “literal interpretation” of the Bible espoused by Christian Zionists raises serious questions about the identity and the unity of the people of God. Among the things affirmed by the Reformed tradition, to which I belong, is the belief in the unity of the people of God in both Testaments. There are not two peoples of God in the Bible but one people of God. Israel, the people of God in the Old Testament, continues, through Christ, in the church, the people of God in the New Testament. The church is not an interruption or an afterthought. It was there from the times of Abraham and Moses, continues through the prophets, into Christ and the apostles, down to our own day, and will be there until the end of the ages. 

I am deeply convinced that Christian Zionism’s interpretative strategies of the biblical text—the scenario of world history that they impose on the Bible yet insist that it emerges from it—distort their understanding of promise and prophecy. What is more dangerous still is that these distorted views have been translated into political action that negatively impinges upon the lives of millions of people in the Middle East and endangers regional and world peace.