Zionism

My co-workers and I just wrapped up a study of Amos today. If you're looking for a great way to study a prophet, check this out. We talked about the closing lines which describe the Jewish return from exile. The question came up whether this referred to today or to the future. (I don't see "new wine dripping from the mountains" yet, so it must be future. . . . I'm aware of the silliness of begging that out of the metaphorical.) My old Dispensational Zionist tendencies would say, absolutely, there will come a time when the reconstituted Israel will have a sweet honey of a deal with immense productivity and peace on all sides (that is, the heel of their sandal boots on the throats of the Muslims all around them). Today that seems arbitrary to me, like God has a cosmic checklist he's using to clean up a mess created by his poor planning. "Why did I choose those Jews if all along I was going use these precocious Christians? I guess need do some funky maneuvering so I don't look like I'm abandoning them. They'll get earthly props for a bit before we get to the real action in heaven. Party goin' all eternity long! (Then I'll abandon them anyway.)" (As if we Christians were that precocious.)

Some people call the view that the Christians took the Jews' place "replacement theology," and they say it with a really derisive tone. My understanding of replacement theology is where we take a few words from the Bible and replace their intended meaning with another meaning. Which is what the anti-"replacement theology" folks do. (And that's not just relative to the Jewish position in God's program. We do it to the Bible all the time.)

The smack between the eyes that Dan brought up in our study was that we're ignoring the call of Amos (and the rest of the Bible) to take care of all of God's creation in humility and service by subjecting ourselves to an erroneous understanding of Scripture. There are congregations of Christians and governmental teams who devote vast amounts of time and money to oppressing the neighbors of the Jews because they think the Bible tells them to. Nothing could be further from Jesus's heart! Read the gospel of Matthew and see how every action of Jesus seems to reflect something from the life of Moses, David, Aaron, the prophets or Israel itself. Matthew shows Jesus to be the new Moses, the new David, the new Israel. Moses was in the wilderness for forty years; Jesus for forty days. Jesus gathered twelve new patriarchs around himself. Jesus was in the earth for three days as Jonah was inside the fish. Jesus led the creation in a new exodus. Everything Jesus did screams that he's the new Israel, the true Israel God always intended! Those who choose to follow Jesus are Abraham's children as Paul points out in Galatians, whether Jew or Gentile.

People who claim to be working to fulfill "prophecy" by helping political "Israel" to oppress their neighbors are directly controverting Jesus's commands. Surely, God has permitted this abominable diversion into the story for a reason. But I don't think it's part of God's "perfect will" such as that may be. The accuser of the saints, that ancient serpent, delights to see people who believe they are following Jesus turning their eyes away from his desire for love and service to militance and hate.