By abraham A. van kempen

Christian Zionism

 Enraptured Around a Golden Calf

Surrender Israel to God!  

God knows what to do. 

Let’s do what Christians do. Walk the Talk (Matthew 24: 14) and Glorify God (Psalm 134)!

Pray for Israel! Urge Israel to seek God!

God Loves Israel-Palestine.

 

RISING Author

Abraham A. van Kempen

When asked on my first day in kindergarten, ‘where were you born,’ I sparkled with pride: ‘Palaestina!’ Palaestina, pronounced in Dutch, sounded so exotic.

Later, I realized I was born a refugee, onboard a British ship on the Red Sea, between Africa, Asia, and Europe; on the outskirts of Israel-Palestine; of Dutch parents with a dual nationality, English and Dutch, making me more European than most (but I look Kamaāina, Hawaiian; a long story). To complicate matters, I am Jew — my mother was Jew — born in Israel-Palestine; a life, without borders.

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8 Cases for Change

1. Who is Israel? What is Israel? Where is Israel?  

In his article, ‘The Place of Israel,’ John Stott suggests: “to understand ‘Who, What and Where is Israel’ is an object lesson in biblical hermeneutics *[interpretations, ed.]

2. Zion … The Heart of Human Consciousness! 

True Christians are true Zionists. Most Christians believe that God’s Spirit resides in their souls and that Christians ‘reside spiritually’ in Zion, defined as God’s Spiritual Kingdom.

3. Biblical Zionism: “Striving in the Path of God”

As It is time for real Zionism … “to reign with righteousness and justice.”

4. I will Bless … I Will Curse 

I will bless those who bless you,
But I will curse those who curse you.
And through you I will bless all the nations (Genesis 12: 3 Good News Translation)

5. What does the New Testament say about ‘One People, One Land, One God?’

‘Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around a Golden Calf’ pits the Holy Trinity of Zionism – One People, One Land, One God – against the Holy Trinity of Christianity – ALL people, ALL nations, One God

6. Modern Israel Defiles the Covenant of Righteousness and Justice …

Israel is to be a prototype, of “righteousness and justice (Genesis 12:3).” God cares as much how people relate to Him as how people relate with each other and the other. 

7. Where’s the Israel of My Parents’ Dreams?

The Israel of my parents’ dreams still does not exist. Modern Israel is not yet a nation. There is no such thing as an ‘Israeli nationality.’ 

 

8. Breaking News … The Sign of the Second Coming

When will Christ return? When Christians Share and Witness EVERYWHERE the Good News; NOT the talk, the WALK! 

 

From this place, I invite both Christians and Muslims to raise an intense prayer to the One, Almighty God who created us all,

that the fundamental good of peace may reign in the world.

May people everywhere, strengthened by divine wisdom, work for a civilization of love, in which there is no room for hatred, discrimination or violence.

With all my heart I beg God to keep the world in peace. 

Amen.”

Saint Pope John Paul II

Angelus prayer on the Square of the Motherland in Astana, Kazakhstan, 23 September 2001

“We cannot give up on the search to end this conflict,”

President Barack H. Obama 16 August 2016 (Page 152; Kindle Locations 3042-3044)

Any conviction worth its salt has chosen to cohabit with a piece of mystery. All of our traditions insist on a reverence for what we do not know now and cannot tie up with an explanation in this lifetime.

This is an invitation to bring the particularities and passions of our identities into common life while honoring the essential mystery and dignity of the other and to do so not as an adjunct to faithfulness, but as an article of it.”

Krista Tippett, Host On-Being (Page 159; Kindle Locations 3205-3208)

“The task is no longer a question of ‘who is right’ but to focus on building a path that will be best served for all, a path that embraces human courtesy predicated on kindness and a generosity of spirit.”

Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of In Embracing Israel/Palestine (Page 31; Kindle Locations 415-418)

“… God’s commandments to Christians should be the same whether they happen to be Americans, Palestinians or of whatever other nationality or racial or ethnic group …

Put yourself in my shoes, and think on how any [Israeli-Palestinian] political statements you make would impact me, your Christian brother …“

Jonathan Kuttab, Palestinian Christian and Human Rights Attorney, Jerusalem (Page 162; Kindle Locations 3278-3279)

“You just cannot believe that your interpreted tradition is the only one. 

If you find some part of your life where your daily round has grown thin and controlling and resentful, life with God is much, much larger, shattering our little categories of control, permitting us to say that God’s purposes led us well beyond ourselves to live and to forgive, to create life we would not have imagined.” (Page 143;  Kindle location 2870-2873). 

Christian Theologian, Walter Brueggemann, author of the Prophetic Imagination (Page 159; Kindle Locations 3208)

“The Bible is saying to us the whole time: Don’t think that God is as simple as you are. He’s in places you would never expect him to be.

When Moses at the burning bush says to God, “Who are you?” God says to him three words: “Hayah asher hayah.”

Those words are mistranslated in English as “I am that which I am.”

But in Hebrew, it means “I will be who or how or where I will be,” meaning, don’t think you can predict me.

I am a God who is going to surprise you. Don’t think we can confine God into our categories. God is bigger than religion.”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom (Page 160; Kindle Locations 3228-3234)

“… the Qur’an [authenticates] confirms [Holy] books such as the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospels.

… the Qur’an teaches that the Holy Spirit has supported Jesus from the moment of his birth.

As such, every word He utters is Gospel [Good News]. In fact, He is the Injeel as the Qur’an calls the Gospels.

Hence, we Muslims revere Him, and we consider every one of Jesus’ principles worth following … as … confirmed in the Qur’an.

Also, forgiving transgressors is an integral concept in the Qur’an and believers are always urged to forgive …”

Safi Kaskas, PhD co-authored together with David Hungerford, The Qua’an with References to the Bible (Page 166; Kindle Locations 3377-3381)

“… Jewish and ‘democratic’ have to be rethought … that rethinking must be theological if it is rooted in the Jewish [Hebraic] tradition.

… No humans can truly own anything or any place in this world, because we are all mortal creatures; here today and gone tomorrow (Psalm 49: 7-13).

Thus, King David states, ‘everything is Yours [belongs to God] (II Chronicles 29: 16).’

The Torah clearly stipulates: ‘There shall be one civil law (mishpat ehad) for both the sojourner (ka-ger) and the native-born (ka-ezrah), for I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 24: 23).’

To paraphrase God, ‘Co-existence among people demands equal rights.’”

Rabbi David Novak in ‘Zionism and Judaism A New Theory’ (Page 40, Kindle Locations 622-626)

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