www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Christian Zionism

Shlomo Brian,
Sorry

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

At the beggining when I saw the thread aout "Christian zionism" I thought that the meaning was a little bit diffrent.

I thought that it refered more to the presence of some concepts that would later be hold as a flag by radical jewish activists of the XIX Century but that did not originated among them (a race chosen by God to rule the others, the return to the promised land, the superiority of the "spirit" of unity among the members of that race, etc) within the protestant-white movement which originated in England, better known as "British Israelism" (christian zionism, very similar term).

British Israelism was the base of ideologies and philosophies such as the "Manifest Destiny" and the "Monroe Doctrine" and later developped into more radical groups (white supremacy movement, christian identity, kkk, etc).

British Israelism, in general, claims that the Angle-Saxon race are the elected people of God to become the rulers of the world and to lead it to an era of unprecedented power and development, as the New Israel.

The New World, America, was seen by them as the promised land where the New Israel would be born. "Romanism" meaning Catholicism, is, according to them, the dark religion of the middle ages, which opposes to reason and denies the rights assigned by God to men. "Romanism" was embraced by inferior peoples such as the "mixed" races of New Spain, who were lazy and incapable to rule the vast territory we had before 1847. The territorial expansion was, therefore, an act of justice, when the most developped race takes what God had destined to it. (This ideology was fiercely condemned as an infamy by Abraham Lincoln, who rejected the territorial expansion under these conditions).

British Israelism originated within Calvinist Protestantism but its influence was the key of the foundation of the Mormon sect. Mormons had a radical and fanatic interpretation of this ideology, more "religious" and less secular than the other one. America was not only the promised land, it was also visited by Jesus Christ whose rightful and nouble descendents (nephites) inhabited the American Continent. However, Christ's master plan to build his nation in this continent was destroyed by the sons of Satan (they call them lemanites) who exterminated God's people and whose skins became red because of their sin. God's promiss was that one day his people would return and that the lemanites would be punished for their sins, so, the extermination of Native Americans and the territorial expansion was perfectly justified.

Dear Yuhannon,

Politics is certainly everywhere.

But when it comes to theology, there are many interpretations.

Yours is one of them, and there are others.

For that reason, I think this thread should be closed.

Alex

Shlomo Orthodox Christian,

I understand your caution, but this is a legitimate theological question. What the question asks that I posted is do our Eastern Churches support the interpetations of the Bible that have been presented by Christian Zionist?

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Well, just a brief comment, we all know we are all brothers and this includes protestants, muslims, hindus and jews, and we're all the same before Christ who wants to do everything he can to save our souls. However, there are some who share the true faith, and some who clearly don't. I believe we should have an armonious and respectful relationship with our brothers from other religions, but Orthodox and Catholic christians, when justice is at our side, must be together. We christians clearly didnt get the message when the Turks got Constantinople, if we had been united, this would not have happent.

Ad in this case it is the same, I believe it is not christian to support Israel's supremacy in the Holy Land in the Middle East, we must always look for the good of christians who live under the occupation, and to defend christians from the attacks of religious fundamentalists from other religions (islam, judaism, pagan in india, etc). Therefore, christian zionism is not christian