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As per a past post I re-raise this issue where angels fear to tread; well, thank goodness no one reads my blog anyway. Professor of New Testament, Rikk Watts, here @ Regent College has given a chapel lecture titled: “Up Zion’s Hill: Imagining a New Jerusalem” – and I walk away feeling like I missed the punchline – kinda half-full / half-empty – but here’s the synopsis:

“Recent events in Gaza have once again highlighted the near intractable problems that seem to plague the modern Near East. For Christians there is the added dimension of the status of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in particular in the light of the same God’s new covenant inaugurated in Christ. How are we to respond when, for example, the Abrahamic promise of land results in suffering for our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ? This Forum is an attempt to help us think through the issues. Rikk has recently written an article on Israel and Salvation for the Oxford Dictionary of Evangelical Theology.”

Now here’s what I’m wrestling with. With consummate scholarly skill, Rikk navigated the safe passage between the extremes of supersessionist replacement theology and dispensational (literalist) Zionist theology but managed to avoid the ethical dimensions of what is happening currently in Gaza altogether; And it leaves me wondering if there are any grounds at all for a theological / ethical discussion of Israel’s actions against Palestine in the Middle East?

As much as we might avoid it we (as religious people) must begin to ask, “Is such behavior religious?” Is this how the people of God ought to act? I recognize the presumptuousness of this statement coming from a Gentile but don’t the photos we see in the news engender such a response of outrage? Indeed, is this what the people of God do??

In the end I find that unfortunately, American evangelicalism has been represented by a vociferous and might I add, wealthy, faction that can afford to buy up television time and book rights to propagate the Christian Zionist declaration that “without the Jewish nation God’s redemptive purposes of the world will not be completed.” This is just bad biblical reading and unfortunately there is lots of money to advance this view.

Why get bogged down in this as one has recently asked me? Because the implications are ENORMOUS for our age:

• In terms of missiology – we’re never going to be able to engage let alone “reach” the Muslims if we carry in our back pocket a Zionist agenda.
• In terms of apartheid / racial stratification – we’re never going to make progress so long as these aberrants are proclaiming their version of the story. And here in the States, Islamiphobia will only continue and polarize society more, no doubt fueled by these aberrant Biblical perspectives.
• In terms of geo-political stability – unless we confront our prejudices towards Muslims, this issue will only divide us more and more and lead to WWIII. And certain Christian factions seem to want this to happen. It’s sad that the crackpots make the loudest noise, when in fact I am finding that most of the thinking Christian populace sees the insanity of this view. Too few are speaking up about it, and I hope that will change in time.

Nuff said. Rise up, those who will be the voice for Gospel sanity.

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