Periodical Reviews -- By: Jefferson P. Webster

Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 167:666 (Apr 2010)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Jefferson P. Webster


Periodical Reviews

By The Faculty and Library Staff of Dallas Theological Seminary

Jefferson P. Webster

Editor

“Dispensational Christian Zionism: A Strange but Acceptable Aberration or a Deviant Heresy?” Philip A. F. Church, Westminster Theological Review 71 (2009): 375-98.

Church is a senior lecturer in the school of theology at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand. In this essay he evaluates dispensationalism’s attitude toward the nation Israel. He defines Christian Zionism as support for the establishment of a Jewish “homeland in Palestine” on Christian theological grounds, based on “God’s promises in Genesis, and particularly those concerning the ‘promised land,’ as though they apply to the modern State of Israel, whose citizens they consider to be the descendants of Abraham” (pp. 376-77). He asserts that “many Christian Zionists would describe themselves as dispensationalists. A variety of millenarianism, dispensationalism is a hermeneutical system that privileges a literal reading of the one-thousand-year reign of peace in Rev 20:1-6, and conforms the rest of the Bible to that reading” (ibid.). Although not all Christian Zionists are dispensational, dispensationalism “represents the theological under-pinning of Christian Zionism. Christian Zionism and dispensationalism go hand in hand, with the latter nearly always leading to the former” (p. 378).

Church criticizes dispensational hermeneutics as “utterly simplistic” (p. 383). Further, he claims that dispensationalism’s “rigid distinction between Israel and the church” is based on a selective hermeneutic that has “missed” texts such as Ephesians 2:11-22 and 1 Peter 2:9-10, where “it is clear that the NT authors considered Christ to inherit the promises made to the OT people of God, and that the church inherits the blessings of Israel through Christ” (p. 385). He claims that dispensationalism’s “‘normal’ hermeneutic also leads to the belief that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, and that Jewish sacrifices will again be offered there” (ibid.), but that John’s Gospel argues for a contrary view (pp. 386-87). Thus he concludes, “Clearly a ‘normal’ hermeneutic does not guarantee the most appropriate reading” (p. 387). Church also asserts that dispensational Christian Zionism supports injustice and oppression of Palestinians: “Ironically, these people, so interested in the fulfillment of OT prophecies, have failed to notice Mic 6:8 where the Lord is said to require his people to do justice, love kindness, and walk hu...

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