“I am glad to commend Stephen Sizer’s groundbreaking critique of Christian Zionism. His comprehensive overview of its roots, its theological basis, and its political consequences is very timely. I myself believe that Zionism, both political and Christian, is incompatible with biblical faith. Stephen’s book has helped to reinforce this conviction.” — Rev. Dr. John Stott
New Preface
The seeds of this book were sown over forty years ago when, as a young Christian, I devoured Hal Lindsey’s best-selling book, The Late Great Planet Earth, and heard in person his mesmerising lectures on eschatology. It seemed as if the Bible was literally coming true before our very eyes.
Kumi Now are working to connect activists around the world with the organizations working on the ground in Palestine and Israel to bring a just and lasting peace based on international law and nonviolence.
All Palestinians regardless of their faith face similar challenges. However, Palestinian Christians face a specific kind of challenge from Christian Zionists who manipulate scripture to support the oppression of Palestinians. On August 22, 2006 Palestinian Christian churches addressed the threat of Christian Zionism with the “Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism.” We mark the anniversary of the declaration by learning about Christian Zionism and learning what you can do so that together we can rise up.
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1. Scofield: The Christian Leader with Feet of Clay 2. The Link between Darby and Scofield in the Rise of Dispensationalism 3. Scofield’s Dispensational Hermeneutic: ‘Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth’ 4. Scofield, the Brethren and the Bible Prophecy Conference Movement 5. The Significance of the Scofield Reference Bible 6. Scofield’s Seven Dispensations 7. The Denigration of the Church within the Purposes of God 8. The Elevation of National Israel to a Superior Role over the Church 9. Prophetic Promises of a New Covenant with a Restored National Israel 10. Speculations on Armageddon and the Day of the Lord 11. Conclusions: The Legacy of Scofieldism on Christian Zionism
Like other Western colonial-settler experiments, for over 70 years, Zionists have been systematically erasing the culture and history of indigenous Palestinians to justify their forced removal and the theft of their land. Ilan Pappe, in his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, calls this ‘memorocide’ and in The Palestine Nakba, Nur Masalha elaborates,
“The founding myths of Israel have dictated the conceptual removal of Palestinians before, during and after their physical removal in 1948… The de-Arabisation of Palestine, the erasure of Palestinian history and the elimination of the Palestinian’s collective memory by the Israeli state are no less violent than the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948 and the destruction of historic Palestine.”
This is why books such as Ancestral Journeys and Western Missions are so vital in recording the memories and eyewitness accounts of Arabs and Palestinians who experienced the arrival of Western colonialists to the Middle East, were co-opted into their wars, witnessed the rise of Zionism and then became refugees in the Palestinian Nakba. Anita Damiani-Shanley’s book will most certainly help perpetuate their heritage and rightful historic claim to Palestine.
Ancestral Journeys is however much more than the story of two families, one Arab and the other Scottish joined in marriage. It traces the influence of missionaries, archaeologists, traders and colonialists competing with each other for a share of the Near East as the Ottoman Empire met its demise. Richly illuminated with family photos, the three main chapters trace the ancestral journeys of Damiani-Shanley’s extended family from Scotland and Lebanon to Iraq and then to Palestine. A fourth chapter traces the role of the Anglican Church in Palestine.
This past year, during the pandemic, Rev. Naim Ateek, put together a collection of his writings including lectures, sermons, largely unpublished but mostly delivered at various universities, colleges, and churches over the years.
A number of them have been organized by topics and published in booklet forms. This is a work in progress. So far, six booklets have been published. They are now available through Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.
I was invited to review one of the booklets, “Cry Out, Do Not Hold Back! Finding the Church’s Prophetic Voice for Palestine”.
Why such a close relationship between Israel and the United States of America? What is the fascination with Israel among Evangelical Christians in America? There is a simple explanation. At least one in four American Christians surveyed recently by Christianity Today magazine said that they believe it is their biblical responsibility to support the nation of Israel. This view is known as Christian Zionism.
At its simplest, Christian Zionism is Christian support for Zionism. The driving principle of Christian Zionism is the belief in the abiding relevance of the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through you”.
“I wanted to congratulate you on your book … Like yourself in one regard, I have a long history of what I call “prediction addiction” — and its obvious flaws and failures. Your book seems to be a careful and much needed analysis of the destructive wake left by pre-millennial dispensationalism. Thank you! My particular version of dispensationalism was informed by a potent and lethal mixture of sabbatarianism and British Israelism as championed by Herbert W. Armstrong… God rescued me (and many others, thank God) from these heretical notions… What Dr. Sizer addresses is absolutely critical for Christians in North America to understand. Greg Albrecht, President of Plain Truth Ministries, and Editor-in-Chief, The Plain Truth magazine (author of Revelation Revolution & Bad News Religion).
