Patriotism and Zionism
Most Christians and conservative Americans consider themselves patriots, lovers of their country and their God. They believe in Godly standards of morality and the Biblical values that our country was founded upon.
But what about Israel, the only democratic country in the Middle East? Are they also entitled to be patriots and lovers of their country? Afterall, God led Abraham to the land that would eventually be named Israel and founded it (literally) upon His Word and His ways some 4,000 years ago. Then, in 1010 BC King David established Jerusalem on Mt. Zion also calling it God’s Holy City and the City of David. It is the same Land that God claimed as His own and then gave it to Israel as an inheritance. Israel’s patriotism to this beloved land is called Zionism.
The National Shift
After the Romans destroyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem in the first century, the Jewish people were forced to take exile in other nations. They were unwanted everywhere they went. Their Zionist heritage was ridiculed, and their culture and religion were scorned. The Jewish followers of Yeshua, however, took this opportunity to spread the faith of Messiah to all the pagan lands that they journeyed into.
Three hundred years later the Roman Emperor was compelled to hear about the faith that so many Gentiles had been converted to. Constantine the Great approved of many aspects of the new faith but because he was a hater of the Jews and their Zionistic loyalties, he insisted on modifying the doctrine into a new religion, void of anything Jewish. Constantine was a polytheist and a pagan. His beliefs in Eshtar, the fertility goddess, Ra, the Sunday God, and Tammuz the son of Eshtar were central to his religious worldview. By simply re-assigning Eshtar as the day of Resurrection, the day of Ra as the new Sabbath and Tammuz as Jesus, he created a Romanized, Latinized, and paganized faith he called the Universal or Catholic faith. With a simple stroke of a pen, an edict was established within the entire Roman Empire mandating a new creed for every subject in the empire.
As we compare the indigenous faith of Yeshua to Catholic and Protestant Christianity today it becomes obvious the faith has been grossly redefined and subjected to prodigious changes from its original inception and matrix.
Awakening in the Nations
Today Church reform has continued to the tune of more than 33,000 different Christian denominations. Separations of denominations and splits within churches are extremely common. Because Yeshua warned us that in the End Days there would come a time of great apostacy, we must be on guard now than ever before for false teachings, lawless doctrines and woke expressions of Christianity. Many believers in Messiah seem to be awakening as if out of a deep trance. It seems as if there is an inherent interest of true believers seeking Yeshua in his original Jewish context.
Marrying into a Family
When I married my husband, I was thrusted into a very unfamiliar heritage. Paul was Romanian. When his parents would start speaking in Romanian to each other I always wondered if they were talking about me – the only blond non-Romanian in the room! Everything was foreign. There were different holiday traditions, different foods, and cultural expectations. When I began to have children, I realized that my children shared this culture. I really knew nothing about Romania – it’s geographic location, its history, the culture. But something began to brew inside of me. I began to understand the heart of Ruth as she latched on to her mother-in-law. I not only wanted to understand the roots of my husband and children’s ancestry, but I actually needed to. I began to embrace this different people and their traditions, after all I was married into it. I began to spend a lot of time with Paul’s mother and his grandmother learning how to prepare Chicken paprikash and Romanian pastries like Churi gawa and pupasa. I learned Romanian sayings that continue with our children today like Hristos a inviat (Christ has risen) and Adevarat ca a inviat (He has risen indeed). I learned Romanian songs, nursery rhymes and holiday games that are still known by our family today. We eventually took our children and our grandchildren to the old country. It felt like my own!
Learning the Ways of Our Jewish Redeemer
One day it also dawned on me that my Messiah and bridegroom, Yeshua was born a Jew. He lived His life in Samaria and Judea, spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, ate indigenous foods, practiced Jewish customs, and eloquently taught from the Hebrew Scriptures. He passionately kept Sabbath and Passover as well as the other feasts outlined in Leviticus 23. He spoke about things that seemed foreign to me – like washing feet, prayer shawls or going to synagogues. I began to see a recurring pattern – If he calls me His bride then doesn’t it make sense to do the very same thing I did when I immersed myself into my Earthly husband’s heritage?
What I found as I plunged into the Hebrew roots of my Lord, was, that I was falling in love with Him all over again. I began to see Him in His true Jewish context, and no longer through my western, 21st century filter. It was as if Yeshua re-introduce Himself to me! As I sought Him in truth, I noticed the subtle anti-Semitic judgements that I learned from my Lutheran upbringing begin to fall away from me. I intimately understood how Israel is seen by our God – the apple of His eye. I no longer perceived Israel through the anti-Israel rhetoric of liberal media that I had me brainwashed. I also began to love the brothers and sisters of my Lord just as I grew to love the family of my husband. In fact, I found myself loving everything that my Messiah loves. He led me on a long road of historical and prophetic truths concerning Israel and the Jewish people. I was pained to see the historical persecution and oppression forced upon the Jews by political pogroms in Eastern Europe, ethnic cleansing crusades led by the Catholic church, the prejudicial inquisitions that purged entire populations of Jews from various countries and the senseless Holocaust of 6 million Jews in a ridiculous agenda of ridding the world of an “inferior race”.
As I became more enraged by my own past bias, I clearly began to see the spirit behind all the discrimination and hatred. I had been lied to! It became apparent to me that the church has had spiritual blinders on. A light began to shine in me, and I knew I couldn’t stay silent any longer. I asked Him to remove any bigotry from me and help me to relate and receive the pain of the people that have now become my people. And just as I visited Romania, the country of my husband and children, I also visited Israel, the homeland of my Savior. I find myself going back as often as I could, and I cried every time I had to leave it.
The Rebirth of Zionism
The resurrection of the Jewish homeland was insightfully envisioned and established by the efforts of a Jewish man from Poland named Theodore Herzl in the late 19th century. Motivated by the hateful discrimination and anti-Semitism toward his people, Herzle had a vision of a resurrected Jewish State. It was 1896 when Herzle started the pathway through several Zionist Congress meetings. At the end of WWI, the defeated Ottoman Empire was mandated by the League of Nations to concede the area called Palestine to Great Britain. The Jewish homeland at the time was barren and scarcely populated with Jews and Arabs. Never in history has there ever been a global patriotic movement to bring back to life an ancient home state, resurrect its ancient language and culture as well as encourage the indigenous people to return to repopulate the land. As God would have it, the concept of a National Jewish Homeland as set forth in the Balfour Declaration was approved by the League of Nations Council on July 24, 1922 and endorsed by a joint resolution of the United States Congress on June 30, 1922. The mandate of the Jewish homeland was issued by the League of Nations and on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed the new State of Israel.
Since the inception of the sovereign state, the UN has unfairly condemned Israel more than all other countries combined. The world calls Israel an apartheid state when the obvious meaning for apartheid is about racial, social, and economic segregation. How is it then that Arab citizens in Israel have full, equal rights in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, as well as in the Israeli court system, including the Supreme Court? There are Arab doctors, professors, policemen, teachers, and countless other professions, working side by side with Jews. These malicious lies to sway public opinion have been effective. Anti-Semitism is on the rise and many Jews feel forced to leave countries like France, Ukraine, Poland and South Africa seeking refuge in their own homeland.
Although many globalists hate the philosophies of nationalism, it should incense American patriots and those of the free western world that any country should be chastised for their heart for patriotism toward their own sovereign land. Of course, like America, Israel and her patriotic citizens have every entitlement to stand in allegiance to their land.
The Call to Christians
Many Christians have seen the anti-Semitic attitudes within the Church and have repented for the biases that have been passed down from the arrogant Greco-Roman Church. Are they also aware of anti-Judaism that results in boastful pride that further separates us from God’s chosen people?
These anti-Semitic, anti-Judaic, anti-Israel and anti-Zion sentiments are of not of God. God loves His people and His Land, Israel (He constantly re-iterates this point) and He has promised to bring all His people back to the land and faith in Him. We are seeing this happen right before our eyes.
Paul gives the Church a colossal clue and some treasured advice as he warns:
“Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off.”[1]
Paul admonishes believers to regard this critical reproof so that they are not accursed or cut off from God. We must realize that duplicitous demonic spirits of religious pride and haughty arrogance will separate us from God and His ways if we boast against Israel. We should instead continue the kindness of God, treating His people with patience and love. This is what God is looking for – how we treat the Jewish people.
How can you show kindness?
I have numerous suggestions:
- Daily pray for the peace of Jerusalem and be a watch man on the wall declaring into the Heavenlies what the will of God is concerning Israel[2].
- Give to humanitarian aid organizations in the Land.[3]
- Help Jews to make Aliyah from all countries and be instrumental in the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli Society.[4]
- Take tours to Israel.
- Buy Israeli products.[5]
- Start a Jewish Roots Bible study or Bring a Dish Shabbat gathering to familiarize Christians concerning the 1st century faith of Yeshua and encouraging them to support his people.
- Start or attend a March of Remembrance Holocaust event in your city, inviting 1st and 2nd generation Holocaust survivors to speak to the Christian and Jewish communities as a coalesced event. This is great way to stand for the Jewish people declaring “Never Again”! [6]
- Fight against efforts to delegitimize Israel by BDS, subverting sovereign policies, fighting against NGOs funds by foreign governments and the New Israel Fund, and join in positive influence toward the policies and positions of the Israeli government also supporting the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Zionist education, fostering spiritual and cultural values and teaching Hebrew as the national language; [7]
Last of all I encourage you to have patience with the Jewish people. Trust in the Lord to fulfill His promises concerning her. God is faithful to finish what He started with His Church as well as His own people Israel.[8]
All will change In an Instant. In the twinkling of His eye.
[1] Romans 11:19-22
[2] Isaiah 62
[3] visionforisrael.com
[4] globalaliyah.org and icej.org
[5] BlessedBuyIsrael.com
[6] marchofrembrance.org
[7] imti.org.il
[8] Zechariah 12:7-14
