ZIONISM AND ZIONIST CHRISTIANITY!

By

John Roberts(2006)

I recently ( July 2006), received an E-mail from an acquaintance in the USA, criticizing the relationship that, undoubtedly, exists between Zionist Jews and Fundamentalist Christians.

I myself was brought up, in my formative years, in an environment that was decidedly Fundamentalist, Calvinist Christian. Happily, very little of this early indoctrination survived in my psyche' although I must admit that I have always been acutely conscious of the consequences of Sin. Just what those consequences entail, must remain matter of speculation for us all.

It is, perhaps, natural that Christians and Jews should have much in common. After all, Christianity is a direct off-shoot of Judaism. The Old Testament, particularly, figures largely in the teachings of the Fundamentalist Christian. The Messianic tradition forms the basis of doctrine, common to both Jew and Christian, if in a slightly varying degree. The Orthodox Jew still awaits the coming of his “Messiah”; who will judge everyone, regardless of Race or Belief and punish the unrighteous; rewarding the good. There have been numerous “false alarms” over the centuries but no messianic “Saviour” has, as yet, appeared.

The fundamentalist Christian, on the other hand, has an advantage over the Jew: his Messiah has already appeared once upon the Earth, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, a devout and learned Jew, who lived some two-thousand or so years ago, in the land of Palestine.

The Nazarine was a great preacher and teacher of men, who left behind an inspiring body of doctrine, principally encapsulated in the “Sermon upon the Mount”. (Matthew Chs 5-7). His teachings, generally, call for a total rejection of violence of any kind and the adoption of a charitable and loving attitude, towards men of all races and religions. In fact, I would agree that the beauty and sublimity of his teachings deserve an enduring and honourable place in the annals of human history.

Jesus of Nazareth was executed by the Romans, at the request of the principal Jews of Jerusalem, for allegedly making blasphemous remarks, in claiming to be “The Son of God!” He suffered the common death of malefactors by being crucified: a particularly cruel and painful way of killing someone. Subsequent to his death, his spirit was observed by several of his followers, on a few occasions, during which he assured them of the fact of his “Resurrection from the Dead!”

There is a suggestion that he “materialized”, temporarily, to enable his followers to be satisfied as to the fact of his “Resurrection”. (Materialization is a phenomenon regarded as factual by Spiritualists: who believe that communication with deceased persons is a natural and continuous fact of life). He also assured them that he would return, at some, indeterminate, later stage, to guide them in the work they were required to perform in the world.

These early Christian Jews interpreted the Resurrection of Jesus as a confirmation of the Messianic doctrine of Judaism, which, evidently, taught that the Messiah would come to lead the Jews against the Roman oppressors and establish a new Jewish Kingdom: HQ Jerusalem . Subsequently, they waited patiently for the return of Jesus, as the Messiah and are still waiting for this event to occur.

Traditional doctrine puts the geographical centre of this Messianic event, as being Jerusalem, in Palestine, once the home of the Jews and now the site of an artificially created modern “State of Israel”: a State, supported financially and materially by American Jews and the Government of the United States of America, whose fundamentalist Christian leaders and, perhaps, many of whose citizens, support the idea of the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine, as a necessary precursor to the “advent” of the Messiah.

This exalted person will supervise separation of all individuals into the “Saved” (who will be promoted to Paradise on Earth) and the “Wicked”, (who will be condemned to eternal punishment in the flames of Hell). Naturally, there is a strong inducement, here, for one to become one of the saved, and, increasingly so, when it is considered that many of the numerous Sects of Fundamentalist Christians, claim that preferential treatment will be afforded, by the “Saviour”, to members of their own particular group. That, of course, is very convenient for them and such doctrines ensure that there will always be a ready crop of people who become convinced that the only way to ensure their own Salvation is to become and remain a member of a (distinctly privileged) body of the faithful.

Authority for the doctrines, alluded to above, is quoted from the “Prophets” of the Old Testament writings and, particularly, the Book of Revelation, being the last book of the New Testament.

The general idea, is that there will be a War that will, indeed, “end all Wars”, resulting in the rendering of the Earth as a place uninhabitable by living creatures, or at least, by human beings. The “Messiah” will then make his appearance, gathering his chosen followers around-about him and will commence the major task of “Judging” all the peoples of the Earth. One, at least, of the Non-Conformist Fundamentalist Sects, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, taught, for many years, that one of their most important roles in "Armageddon" (The Final War) will be that of the annihilation of the “condemned”. I understand that this potential-function is no longer emphasized in their religious literature. At least, one or two Witnesses, to whom I have spoken in recent years, deny having been taught such a doctrine.

Of great importance, in the scheme of things, is the necessity for the return of the “People of Israel” (The Jews) to Palestine. In AD 70, when the Roman Army finally sacked Jerusalem, the bulk of the surviving population was deported to Rome, as slaves, and subsequently employed in building the Coliseum.

The establishment of the State of Israel, in l948, (when 70% of the best land of Palestine was handed over to the Jews, as a Jewish homeland), was seen as the first stage in this process. Naturally, the indigenous inhabitants, the Palestine Arabs, were not consulted by the United Nations, nor anyone else, before Israel was carved out of their homeland. Since that time, there have been several Orthodox Jewish Rabbi’s who have been proposed as “Messiahs” but without producing any results. However, many Fundamentalist Christians support the proposition that the establishment of the State of Israel, is a sure and certain sign that the “Coming of the Kingdom”, is at hand. George W. Bush, himself a nominal Christian, is one who, evidently, shares this belief. The fact that many Gentile Americans feel exactly as he does, has given Zionist Jews, within the United States, a tremendous degree of support for their genocidal treatment of the Palestinian Arabs. For some Zionist Jews, the land of Palestine is, once again, the land of Canaan, whose inhabitants, Jahwe ordered to be annihilated. It must be mentioned here that not all Jews support Zionism and there is a group of people who designate themselves as, “Jews against Zionism”. This fact must throw a welcome ray of light upon an, otherwise, gloomy scene.

There is no doubt that there is a body of opinion ,within the State of Israel, that considers it has a God-given mandate to rule the whole area of the Middle East., With great military assistance from the USA, it is certainly capable of dominating the entire region. It is a well-known fact that, without such economic support from the United States, the State of Israel could not exist, as it would be incapable of supporting its infrastructure.

The present conflict, in which the Jews are attacking their Northern neighbours, the Lebanese and the Palestine Arabs, in Gaza, using all the force of modern, high-tech fire power, bomber aircraft, etc., against an enemy equipped with small arms weapons and home-made rockets, is simply mass murder. That several Israeli civilians have been killed recently, together with a few of their soldiers, is a very sad thing for their relatives, but fades into insignificance, when compared to the massive damage inflicted upon Lebanon and the hundreds of lives lost by both the Lebanese and Palestinian people. That many little children are being killed and maimed by this ferocious onslaught, goes without saying.

For fifty-odd years the people of Palestine have been dispossessed of their lands, forced into exile into Camps in Lebanon and totally dominated and suppressed by the Israelis, on the basis of a fatuous mythological proposition: that of the Divine Right of the Jews as “God”s Chosen people!” To evaluate such a proposition, one would have to commence with a definition of the word “God”. Very briefly, the Jews, like the Muslims, worship the concept of an undivided and Universal Creator of the World. At the time when they developed their ideas of “God”, they were a middle-eastern tribe of Semites, who worshipped God under two names, those of “Jahwe” and “Elohim”. The latter is, in effect, the same name as “Allah”. This deity was, essentially, a tribal God and remains so to this day, although it must be accepted that He has evolved somewhat since the escape of the Israelites from Egypt, some three thousand years ago. Sadly, for both Zionists and Fundamentalist Christians, their God remains in a Limbo, entrapped in the concepts of a primitive religion, that sees its followers as privileged, to the exclusion of all other humanity and stuck in a time warp that is three thousand, or more, years old.

Well! If the Messiah is to come at all, surely it must be imminent. Armageddon is about to explode upon us, with nuclear intensity and, if so, there is no doubt that there is certainly going to be a terrible blood-bath. Just who will survive such an inferno will, indeed, be a matter of speculation. Billions of totally innocent folk will be projected into the Spirit World, where they will have a hard time sorting themselves out. The physical world they have left behind will not be fit for human habitation for thousands of years, but, no doubt, for our Zionist and Fundamentalist friends, their Deity will make some arrangements that will permit the “Elect” (The Saved), to function in the New Jerusalem upon Earth, as prescribed in traditional mythology, and yet having the benefit of the possession of their earthly bodies. Lucky You! There is increasing excitement within the United States, on the part of these Fundamentalist individuals, as they perceive the utterly ruthless and cold-blooded onslaught upon the people of Lebanon. So far as these folk are concerned, the Palestinians don’t rate a mention, as they will, undoubtedly, be ripe for annihilation, along with the millions of other non-believers. Armageddon is about to happen (they are sure), even though there have been repeated prognostications, as to the nature and timing of such an event, over the last few centuries.

The principle fact that both Zionist Jews and their Christian supporters share in common, is the idea that there will be a future New World and that it will have a physical basis. All the prophets and the early Christians, themselves, expected to be miraculously translated from the present worldly (and hopelessly deplorable) condition into a similar but totally new system, having its centre in Jerusalem and populated solely from within the ranks of the “Blessed”.

The rest of humanity, in the meantime will have been consigned to “Perdition”. One problem, here, is sure to arise and that is the difficulty of disposing of the Jewish and Christian elements in the new equation. The Jews look to a strictly “Jewish Messiah”, the Christians to the person of “Jesus Christ: the Saviour of the World. (Being their idea of the Messiah). They can’t both be right. There cannot be two Messiah’s. However, they are sure to have a devil of a time in sorting-out themselves, in the “New Jerusalem”. This, from the viewpoint of the Christian, is prophesied in the last book of the “New Testament” writings, the “Book of Revelation”, a rather confused and disturbing account of the end of the old order.

The Jews, on the other hand, base their tradition on the writings of several of their “Prophets”, from Isaiah to Amos, including the ghoulish and bloodthirsty “Ezekiel”. Whatever happens in the New Jerusalem, you can bet your life, it will be no better than the Old Jerusalem and may even be a great deal worse. If I was a Fundamentalist Christian I would not like the idea of sharing my heaven with a large number of fanatical Zionists, wearing black suits, hairy fore-locks, top-hats and bearing the appearance of a convocation of rather depressed Undertakers.

As a Spiritualist, who is fairly certain as to the validity of his own beliefs, I have no doubt that “Heaven” and “Hell” exist already and that there will be no possibility of any future State being established upon the physical plane, as we understand it. It seems clear that if we do, in the foreseeable future, destroy the world, using nuclear weapons, that it will not be fit for re-inhabitation for some thousands of years. It would take a pretty-convincing “miracle” to put things right, for the evolution of new life to commence within that time frame. Of course, I forget that the God of the Jews and their Christian friends is an altogether partial and very friendly "bloke", who will have no difficulty in sorting-out these things, to suit their convenience.

The unfortunate reality is that so many persons, of diverse religious belief, can possibly entertain such ideas as to the “Coming of a Messiah”, of any description, coupled as it, undoubtedly, is, with concepts of the Judgment of all Mankind and of the destruction of those who are classified as “The Wicked!”. These people, we are told, will be “Cast into Hell!” Well! There are, no doubt, wicked people in the world and it may even be true to state that most people are wicked, at least some of the time. A wise man once told us that we should not judge other people, as we ourselves run the risk of being judged, at some future time.

These were very true words. In spite of this, we still tend to judge other people, often hastily and without due consideration. But when it comes to the final analysis, we leave the judging to God Himself, or whomsoever he chooses to appoint for the task. I personally, do not accept that there will be any “Judgement” at all, or if there is, it will take the form more of a “Self-Judgement” than any form of approval or disapproval by a superior Judge. My view is that “God”, (whatever our concept of the Deity may be) is too busy to get involved in the narrow and petty, day-to-day dealings of men and women and merely leaves it to the natural processes of conscience and the application of the spiritual law, to settle questions of guilt and innocence. We are, after all, what we, ourselves, make of ourselves and there is no escaping those consequences. This is what actually constitutes Heaven and Hell, as they are one and the same place, merely different aspects of the same “landscape”. If some people end up in darkness and filth, it is only what they have created for themselves. ( But this is to digress.)

In the meantime, the killing continues and the “innocent”, as well as the “guilty”, are being daily slaughtered or maimed, in the bloodbath that has been going on, with intermissions, for fifty-odd years.

Now, the combatants are being used as pawns in a wider game of “cat and mouse” in which those important people who presently conduct the affairs of our world, from within the confines of the United States of America, have decided to expand their control over the nations of the Middle-East. They daily turn their attention to Syria and Iran, both enemies to the Imperialistic Militarist policies of the USA. Syria and Iran have also repeatedly indicated their hostility towards the establishment of the State of Israel within the lands of the people of Palestine. Israeli propaganda daily refers to the threat to world peace, said to be originated within the plans of the Iranians to pursue their nuclear arms policy. The world conveniently overlooks the possession, by the Israelis, of large numbers of nuclear weapons, not to mention massive quantities of “State of the Art” weaponry. It is this military might that has been applied so destructively and murderously, to the Nation of Lebanon. That the present relentless pursuit of Hezbollah and the destruction of Lebanon is the work of the Israelis, given the “green light” by the USA, is common knowledge. Not content with the destruction of Iraq and the mass-murder of its citizens, the United States now turns its attention to the other oil-rich nations of the region.

One feels a sense of impotence and helplessness, when witnessing these events, even from afar. Is such madness going to continue forever? When are people going to understand that they are all members of one human family? “God” indeed, is no respecter of persons: has no preferential views as to any particular race or creed of men. We just will not accept the fact that “all men are, indeed, created equal”. Surely, it is a fact that some are, very much, “more equal than others!”

The New Jerusalem, if it exists at all, will, undoubtedly, stay in “Heaven”. By no stretch of the imagination will there ever be any chance of it “Descending down out of Heaven”, as prognosticated in the Book of Revelation.

FINIS

John Roberts

Sydney,

Australia

9th August 2006

mailto:robertsjno@gmail.com

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