Discourse on “generic” Zionism must be handled with nuance, distinguishing between a belief that a people, defined by culture and ethnicity, have reasonable expectation to a homeland from that of kneejerk support for the government and/or the general conduct and attitudes of that nation, no matter what injustice, travesty and/or atrocity they commit. It should be noted that there are and have been numerous ethnicities which have been denied that ‘right.’
In the current zeitgeist, there are far too many Israelis, Diaspora Jews, and Christian Zionists who mandate such support for the Israeli government, even decry and label those who refuse to kiss that ring as antisemites (or self-hating Jews).
But even as the God of Israel has ostensibly abandoned the Hebrews/Jews not once, but twice, when they deviated too far from His ethic and ethos, this disingenuous clamor is a bit rich to anyone who is a serious Person of the Book.
The Ted Cruz–Tucker Carlson Interview
Growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed. And from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things . . . It doesn’t say the government of it. It says the nation of Israel. So that’s in the Bible. As a Christian, I believe that.
Ted Cruz is one Christian Zionist who claims it mandatory for Christians to bless Israel, based upon his rendering of a biblical passage that Cruz could not even locate.
I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.
– Genesis 12:3
There does exist the essence of this blessing/cursing in Hebrew Scripture. But the aphorism is not directed towards Jacob/Israel, but to Abram/Abraham. Abraham is the father of many nations, including the Arabs by way of Ishmael, and the nation of faith. If, indeed, God extended this blessing/cursing beyond Abraham himself, this would require Christians to also bless all Arabs as well as Jews, even when Jews and Arabs are at loggerheads. However, it says that “all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” Honest and competent exegesis concludes, and New Testament Scripture attests, that God is speaking of Abraham individually.
I have caught and corrected a church teacher just recently, who believed that this blessing extended down to Jacob/Israel. But Jacob/Israel was not blessed directly by God.
May peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. May you be the master of your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.
– Genesis 27:29
The above blessing is that from Isaac, Jacob’s father, and a blessing stolen, not a direct divine blessing. There exists yet another blessing directed towards Israel in Numbers 24:9, also spoken by a man, even a foreigner. Yet New Testament Scripture also speaks of that same generation as unworthy of entering God’s rest (Hebrews 3:7–11). Moreover, God’s blessing to the nation of Israel was conditional (Deuteronomy 28).
Simple-minded assertions, taught in Sunday School, especially in Pentecostal churches, might be short on accuracy and nuance.
Evangelicals: Israel’s Useful Idiots
Another enduring meme, especially within Charismatic circles, is that of Donald Trump as King Cyrus the Great (c. 600–530 BCE). The originator of this fabulism, Lance Wallnau, pointed out in God’s Chaos Candidate (2016), the coincidence that Trump would be the 45th president, corresponding with the 45th chapter of Isaiah. Hillary Clinton would have been the 45th American president had she won.
The first problem with this “prophecy” is that the numbering system is not part and parcel of the original biblical Text. Besides, Cyrus is introduced in the 44th chapter of Isaiah, not the 45th. Finally, only a handful of Wallnau’s prophecies, at best, approximate later realities, failing the biblical test of a true prophet (100%).
Moreover, America does not figure explicitly in Scripture. It is Exceptionalist narcissism to make anything in the Bible about America whatsoever.
Most ironic is the fact that Cyrus the Great is the first cosmopolitan, allowing his conquered subjects to retain their own cultural heritage, rather than be ruthlessly assimilated as had prior civilizations within Mesopotamia (i.e. Assyrians). The Greeks under Alexander merely emulated this existing system and acquired the credit.
But the extreme nativism of MAGA Trump and its prejudices represent quite the polar opposite of cosmopolitanism and its ethos.
Nevertheless, this unbiblical and historically illiterate meme persists not only in Charismatic, but strangely, even in Israeli circles, who do or should know better. By this same reasoning, there must have been a special divine anointing upon Hitler for having quickened the Zionist project which Theodor Herzl certainly did not foresee occurring within a half-century.
Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), who until recently seemed a reasonable Diaspora Jew, sponsors this idiocy, albeit with the caveat, “The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.” This has become a standard weaselly sophistry, to promote an erroneous notion which advances one’s agenda, while facilitating deniability when challenged.
But Tobin and JNS are responsible for everything that they sponsor in their ezine. When Tucker had Nick Fuentes on his broadcast, Jews did not accept any of Tucker’s disclaimers about free speech. Arguments about promoting free speech and a wider Overton Window would only be credible if JNS also gave Tucker Carlson a platform in his ezine.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Tucker Carlson: Leading Advocate for Replacement Theology?
Speaking of which, many Jews, even rabbis, have wildly extrapolated from this Ted Cruz – Tucker Carlson interview that Carlson subscribes to Replacement Theology. If Tucker Carlson subscribes to Replacement Theology, honest critical scrutiny will not find any evidence in this verbal repartee. Another Christian Zionist cited another episode as proof.
There is no chosen people. The chosen people are people who choose Jesus. That is the Christian message right there. It’s not an anti-semitic message, by the way. It’s the Christian message. It’s the core Christian message. And yet, there are many self-described representatives of the Christian faith who are daily sending a different message. And we should be very clear, whatever this is, it’s not Christianity, it is heresy. And among the many examples we could pick, we’re going to go with Lindsey Graham:
A word of warning. If a miracle pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us.
God will kill you if you don’t support Bibi Netanyahu in the aisle. That’s what he’s saying. He will pull the plug on you like a quadriplegic and intensive care. You’re going to flatline unless you support the secular abortion on demand government of Israel. That’s the Christian perspective really. That God loves some people more because of their DNA. That is not the Christian message.
That’s the opposite of the Christian message. The Christian message is universal. That’s the whole point of it. The chosen people in Christianity are those who choose Jesus. The entire New Testament is that story. And anyone who says otherwise has not read it or is lying.
Whatever dubious understandings exist within Tucker’s position, one cannot find Replacement Theology therein. For Replacement Theology explicitly replaces ethnic Jews with the largely goyim Church as True Israel. This is not what Tucker is claiming.
True Christianity insists that those, like Abraham, who put their trust in God, are ultimately the chosen, this before and after Christ. The goyim churches association with the Kingdom of God is through Abraham, not through Israel. While subscribing to a view similar to Carlson’s, no one could legitimately accuse me of subscribing to Replacement Theology.
Ambassadors for Christ, not of Israel
Christian believers are not mandated to support the state or peoples of ethnic Israel, especially when the Jews go rogue (i.e. Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, Sam Bankman-Fried, Jeffrey Epsteen), any more than Christians are mandated to support any other ethnic individual or grouping which goes rogue. This is a question of juridical impartiality, equality of treatment, based upon the same criteria of judgment.
Moreover, it is the calling of Christians to be ambassadors for the Kingdom cause of Christ. It is not the calling of Christians to be ambassadors for the cause and state of Israel, especially when the imperatives of the latter undermine the imperatives of the former. The Christian imperative aspires to see the enemies of Christ converted and saved. The Israeli imperative aspires to crush the enemies of Israeli. Hence, even the ethos and psychological dynamics are in conflict.
Eschatological Presumption
Certainly, there are promises and predictions concerning latter day Israel. However, human beings are not privy about the manner by which these shall be fulfilled.
The first great sin by Christian Zionists is that of presumption, operating upon the promises and predictions, which shall be fulfilled at the inscrutable level of God’s Sovereignty in His good time, while neglecting, even violating, the commanded counsels at the immanent and scrutable level of God’s Sovereignty. Many Christian Zionists justify acts by Israel (and become effectively complicit) which they would never tolerate if committed by other nation. Hereby, Christian Zionists become partial and unjust.
Many Diasporic Jews complain of being lumped together with the actions of Netanyahu’s Israel, objecting to the principle of collective guilt when it is applied to them, but actively supporting that principle when conducted against the Gazans. Christian Zionists ride along such hypocrisy, even though Scriptures, to whom they claim inerrant authority, repeatedly disabuses the principle of collective guilt (although not the principle of collective consequence).
Summary
As noted from the start of this essay, there is nothing amiss in Christians believing that the Jews have a reasonable expectation to their own homeland, as do all ethnicities. The noetic errors and moral faults lie in that which exceeds this basic belief.
The greatest of noetic errors lies in conflating Abram/Abraham and Jacob/Israel which affects both statements concerning blessing/cursing as well as land claims.
Moral faults include the presumption that one understands the inscrutable Sovereign Will of God (re: prophecy) and acting upon that presumptive belief while neglecting, even violating, the commanded Will of God. Moreover, the imperatives of the Kingdom of Christ are usually contrary to that of earthly Israel, lending to divided loyalties, sensibilities, and even worldliness.
There currently exists a concerted effort by Jews to vilify and sideline Tucker Carlson (i.e. charges of antisemitism), who questions the existing status quo in America vis-à-vis Israel and the influence of Jews over American policy and interests. This is not a planned conspiracy. There is perceived need by Jews to disparage Tucker’s reputation and denigrate his influence. For Tucker, like an increasing number of goyim in America, wish to reassert national self-interests, which is perceived to have been redirected towards Israeli and Jewish imperatives. There appears to be no ethical boundaries in this effort.
If the patterns of Diasporic history have not been abrogated, the Jews shall invariably fail. A rinse and repeat cycle of Jewish migration has consistently and eventually led to economic resentments by the commons and concerns by the elites in the host country that the Jews’ have too much influence (Maîtres Chez Nous). Hanna Arendt mentioned this social dynamic in The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951). The impetus behind Herzl’s Zionism was in recognition that the goyim would never allow European Jews to rise to the very top of their adopted homelands.
Many Christian Zionists have joined in this Jewish effort, unjustly slandering Tucker, such as the claim that Tucker subscribes to Replacement Theology without supplying incontrovertible proof. Herein is an example of the presumption and divided loyalties which leads to committing evil for a supposed “good cause.”
I am not the greatest of fans of Tucker Carlson for reasons other than the Jewish/Israeli question. That does not, however, justify rhetorical efforts to unjustly vilify Tucker. We ought not to desire to have the name of God blasphemed among the nations because of us (Romans 2:24). Leave the slandering for the Jews.