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3/23/13 Eric Gilston

Professor Greenberg

Religion in America

Christian Zionism in America

The frightening correlations to which thou draws between early Christian Zionism and

Nazi Germanys atrocious campaign to exterminate God andhis people brings up a variety ofquestions that need answering in the present day context of America and her role upon the world

stage. I was intrigued by the essays descriptions of both Brooks, Houghton and Blackstone, as

examples of empirical and historical schematization of metahistory that which has been

entrenched into Christian Americans worldview from as early as the early Puritan settlers, andhas continued up to the present, most fervently, among evangelicals and Pentecostals. Whereby,

mine own albeit limited ability to effectively piece together the past is a process that enables one

to be able to contextual presentin its entirety - and perhaps even foretell what the future holds.

In any case there seems to be a an implicit connection of the past to the presentat which in

taken in context of post 9/11 era - creates a terrifying irony that places America in the middlewhat thou deem a triadic relationship. The thought that came to mind after reading your essay is

that understanding how Christian Zionism has influenced America, and where Nazi Germany fitinto the Christian drama, a subject which is not only rarely discussed in academic circles, but by

beginning to uncover this narrative, more questions arise than answers.

Invariably, this starts by telling narrative between Christian Zionism and Nazi Germany,in what can even be called Americas metahistory. For as current events on the world stage eerily

resemble Christian Zionisms notions of America as New Jerusalem and Israel as Zion, a

connection which, if understood contextually, will show that the situation in the Middle East is

paradoxically at the boiling point of similar apocalyptic proportions to that of Christiandispensationalist prophecy. The words of Robert Stearn an evangelical Christian preacher from

upstate New York Robert Stearns, who talking to Orthodox Jews while living in Jerusalempersonify this preceding notion, A growing group of us is prepared to lay our lives down forIsrael and the Jewish People.

1In accordance with your statement that the End of time was

nigh, the Jews suffered exile because of sin, that suffering would cease upon a radical change of

heart and mind, that the tyrants of the world served a higher process, that reality was of history

and myth (metahistory) together, and that a remnant of Israel would remain through eternity.Furthermore, that history descended and darkened as a prelude to ascent and illumination, that

the flowering of the Land in the Interwar period was a sign of redemption, that the land of Israel

was the sole refuge, and that the Holocaust catastrophe could be repeated again-and be evenworse then {before}, this shared metahistory appears likewise - to some extent - among both

Christian Zionists and Orthodox Jews, who take a more radical approach, as mention above.

Christian thinkers, particularly Premillennial Dispensation who adhere to such rhetorichave projected cataclysmic events such as Hitlers rise to power- megalomaniacal campaign toeradicate the Jewish people from the world - and Israelites return to the holy land as necessary

perquisites in the fulfillment of G-ds divine plan.2

A plan that he has revealed to humanity in the

1Spector, Stephen.Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism. New York:Oxford University Press, 2009: (p. 1)2 Greenburg Gershon, The Rise of Hitler, Zion and the Tribulation: Between Christian Zionism and

Orthodox Judaism (p. 1)

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scriptural prophesies of the Torah and Bible. For many American Christians espousing

Dispensationalist metahistorytaking on a variety of interpretations of scriptural prophecy - this

mythical process came to fruition in lieu of both the Holocaust and establishment of the Jewishstate in 1948. These two events demarcated the beginning of the end, or put differently that the

signs of the time foretold of the transitioning from the Age of the Church into the Rapture

Tribulation, Christs Return, and the Battle of Armageddon.

3

Furthermore, many piousChristians associate the 1967 war as the end of the times of the Gentiles that wasprophesizedby Jesus in (Luke 21:24).

4Another prominent idea, and prerequisite for the battle of

Armageddon - among evangelical and Pentecostal Christian in Americais to rebuild Davids

Temple, coincidentally on the exact same ground where Muslims second most holy is located,known as the Dome of the Rock (Haram ash-Sharif).

Many studies have shown how American Christian dispensationalist rhetoric plays into

U.S. culture and thus foreign policy, in which American exceptionalism theirapocalyptical

eschatology - that directly connects the Jewish people into their premillennial Dispensationalistmet historywill the.

But before delving into this connection between American Christian Zionists, Orthodox

Jews, and Hitlers rise and attempt to exterminate the idea of God and his relationship with theJewish people. It would be wise to reflect on what Scotty McLennans says about Pope Urban II

first crusade into the Holy Land, traditionally involved applying an absolutist good-versus-evil

distinction not just to enemy military forces, but to whole peoples. Crusaders have repudiated not

only evil deeds that the enemy does, but also the enemy as a whole. Matters of degree have beenmorally irrelevant from a crusader viewpoint. God has been seen to champion only one side and

not lament the loss of enemy lives. The crusaders view is morally simplistic, seeing conflict as

an either-or, a battle between pure good and unadulterated evil.5 This quote is used herein to

juxtapose, arguably, the earliest Christian Zionist ideas concerning the Holy, which is to

emphasize the same absolutist rhetoric one finds within the evangelical community. The extent

of which such absolutist Christian Zionist ideology has influence U.S. culture will be called into

question herein.While the prevailing premillennial dispensationalist discourse has, to some degree or

another, permeated the American political environment and influenced U.S. foreign policy in the

Middle East.6

Nevertheless what becomes quite obvious in this correlation between past andpresent Christian thinking is that ideas concerning Jews and the Holy Land are interwoven into

premillennial dispensationalist rhetoric heard today, which is an extension of the discourse heard

by early Christian Zionist advocates. Take for example the two argument put forth by Paul S.Boyer, firstly that prophecy belief is far more central in American thought than intellectual and

cultural historians have recognized, and second, that in years since World War II the popularizes

of a specific belief systemdispensational premillennialismhave played an important role in

3 Ibid. (p. 1-2)4 Spector, Stephen.Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism. New York:Oxford University Press, 2009: (p. 27)5

Faith and Foreign Policy, The Views and Influence of U.S. Christians and Christian Organizations (p.52)6 Ibid. (p 122-25)

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shaping public attitudes on a wide range of topics from the Soviet Union, the Common Market,

and the Mideast to the computer and the environmental crisis.7

So the question perhaps that needs answering is where Nazi Germany fits into theequation. Perhaps the following statement by Victoria Clarke - who, sharing similar sentiment

with Joseph Hoffman, who said God never appointing a follower of Christ to be His whipping

lashstands up against such violent notions, and in writing of her encounter with a ChristianZionist, says Peace couldnt be Dr Prices Christian priority because the combined forces ofbible prophecy, 9/11, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Irans nuclear ambitions have hurled

him and millions like him back to Munich 1938. Christian Zionists like Price are now more

receptive than ever before to the sound of alarm bells rung by Jews whom history has taught toexpect and prepare for the very worst, by Jews who dare not risk being, as Joel C. Rosenberg put

it, blindsided by evil again. The West Bank settler Sondra Oster Baras had rung t hose bells

during our long talk in that West Jerusalem caf. Netanyahus new refrain was Its 1938 and

Iran is Germany, only worse, because where Hitler started a war and then built a nuclearweapon, Iran is going nuclear before the war starts. In Dr Prices eyes, anyone refusing to

combat the grand evil of Islamic fundamentalism with pre-emptive strikes against Muslim

countries, anyone seeking to resolve the Israeli-Palestine by insisting Israel abide by UNresolutions and give up land is another Neville Chamberlain.8

7 Paul S. Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy and Belief in American Culture, President and

Fellows of Harvard College, 1992: (see Preface I)8Victoria Clark,Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism (p. 271)