Abstract
In a recent study of American fundamentalist attitudes toward Jews and Zionism, Yaakov Ariel observes that since the seventeenth century American Christians have possessed a mixed attitude toward Jews.1 In fact, Ariel’s conclusion about American hopes for the restoration of Zion is that colonial millennial thinkers, nineteenth-century sectarians and modern prophecy teachers all have shared a marked ambivalence toward the Jewish people. Before discussing this ambivalence and its relationship to the witness-people tradition, this chapter will offer a brief survey of the rise of modern dispensational premillennialism among conservative Christians.
You can bring almost every nation here and in fifty years they will become extinct, merged into another; but bring a Jew here and in fifty years, a hundred years, or a thousand years, he is still a Jew. When I meet a Jew I can’t help having a profound respect for them, for they are God’s people.
Dwight L. Moody, To All People
Israel today is a living testimony to the words of the Old Testament prophets, and a portent of the triumphant return of Christ. The rebirth of the State of Israel by United Nations decree on November 29, 1947, is by far the greatest biblical event that has taken place during the twentieth century.
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If I were asked to furnish proof of the world’s conversion, of evidence that God will one day bring this whole planet in subjection to himself, and fill it with his glory, as he has promised, I should unhesitatingly point to Israel, the chosen people, the center for blessing for the whole world.
William J. Moorehead, speaking at International Prophecy Conference, 1901
All prophetic truth revolves around the Jews.
Jack van Impe and Roger F. Campbell, Israel’s Final Holocaust
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Notes
See James Barr, Fundamentalism ( Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977 ), 1.
For an in-depth treatment of these matters, see George M. Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1991). For an entertaining and faithful description of conservative Christianity in America, see Randall Balmer, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey Into the Evangelical Subculture in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989 ). Because the atti-tudes of evangelicals toward Jews are not discussed here, it is important to note that contemporary evangelicalism is increasingly sensitive to the presence of anti-Judaism in its midst. Furthermore, so-called liberal evangelicals have dissented vociferously from the Christian Zionism that characterizes conservative American Christianity.
Wes Michaelson, “Evangelical Zionism,” Sojourners (March 1977), 3–5.
Hal Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth ( Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1970 ), 42.
See especially Grace Halsell, Prophecy and Politics: The Secret Alliance between Israel and the U.S. Christian Right ( Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1989 );
Sara Diamond, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right ( Boston: South End Press, 1989 );
and A. G. Mojtabai, Blessed Assurance: At Home with the Bomb in Amarillo, Texas ( Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986 ).
For explicitly theological responses to the Religious Right and its politics, see Gabriel Fackre, The Religious Right and Christian Faith ( Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1982 );
and Rosemary R. Ruether, “Standing Up to State Theology: The Global Reach of Christian Zionism,” Sojourners (January 30, 1990 ), 30–2.
John MacArthur, cited in Richard Pierard, “Anti-Jewish Sentiments in an Unexpected Context: Evangelical Bible Expositor John MacArthur,” Covenant Quarterly XLV:4 (November,1987), 179–97; 179. See also Thinking the Unthinkable, where author John Wesley White makes the remarkable claim that the media in much of the Western world is “masterminded by Jewish interests” (Lake Mary, Fla: Creation House, 1992, 131 ).
See, for example, the introduction to David Rausch’s recent edition of Arno C. Gaebelein’s The Conflict of the Ages (Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers, 1983 ). Gaebelein’s anti-communism seems to be an attractive feature for right-wing groups who do not share his love for “Israel.”
Tom F. Driver, “Hating Jews for Jesus’ Sake,” Christianity and Crisis (November 24, 1980), 325ff.
See Pat Robertson, The New Millennium: Ten Trends that will Impact You and Your Family by the Year 2000 (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990), ch. 11, “The Rise of Anti-Semitism.”
Kermit Zarley, Palestine is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia ( Hannibal, Mo.: Hannibal Books, 1990 ), 145.
See Simha Flapan, The Birth of Israel (London and New York, 1987).
See David Allen Lewis, Magog 1982 Cancelled (Harrison, Ark.: New Leaf Press, 1982), ch. 5.
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© 1995 Stephen R. Haynes
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Haynes, S.R. (1995). Dispensational Premillennialism: The Jew as Key to the Kingdom. In: Jews and the Christian Imagination. Studies in Literature and Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230376199_7
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