Why America’s ‘Blessed Israel’ obsession dangers the church, the world – and the reality
Throughout a current interview with Tucker Carlson, US Senator Ted Cruz displayed not solely alarming geopolitical ignorance but in addition a brazen willingness to distort Scripture in protection of his unwavering assist for Israel. The verse he quoted – Genesis 12:3 – was shamelessly truncated, a typical tactic used to lend divine legitimacy to Zionist exceptionalism in Finish Instances prophecy. This verse has change into the theological bedrock of a militant worldview referred to as Christian Zionism.
Even Jewish critics of Israeli state coverage specific dismay on the historic illiteracy and theological crudeness fueling this metastasizing ideology inside American evangelical circles. I recall debating this phenomenon over a decade in the past on LinkedIn with Jewish and Israeli interlocutors. I had dubbed it a “trailer-trash cult” – a fusion of biblical illiteracy, apocalyptic fervor and geopolitical delusion. A few of my Israeli counterparts, in a wierd show of informal prejudice, alternately referred to Cruz and current Secretary of State Marco Rubio merely as “the Mexican.”
Christian Zionism thrives on biblical illiteracy and selective scriptural appropriation. Although typically introduced as historical and immutable, it’s actually a comparatively trendy phenomenon, rising alongside the rise of political Zionism within the late nineteenth century. Slightly than treating Scripture as sacrosanct, it distorts the biblical canon right into a pliable instrument – one which should conform to the ideological imperatives of the second. In a nation resembling the USA, which has been at struggle for almost 95% of its existence, this distortion typically serves as theological cowl for an “infinite struggle” doctrine, with cherry-picked verses used to sanctify geopolitical aggression and the confection of latest enemies.
After World Battle II, when the Soviet Union grew to become the primary nation to grant de jure recognition to the fashionable state of Israel, this similar motion started feverishly mining scripture to forged the USSR, and Russia specifically, because the apocalyptic villains Gog and Magog. Even Ronald Reagan, the pseudo-religious saint of American conservatism, repeatedly invoked this interpretive heresy to border the Chilly Battle as a cosmic battle in opposition to the “evil empire.” To today, thousands and thousands of American Evangelicals and fundamentalist Protestants worldwide proceed to see Russia because the everlasting enemy of God Himself. The attain and affect of this pseudo-theological subculture shouldn’t be underestimated. However earlier than unpacking the broader ramifications of this ideological perversion, allow us to first look at the verse Senator Cruz so conveniently misquoted.
Blessings and curses of Genesis
Senator Cruz invoked Genesis 12:3 to justify unwavering US assist for Israel, however his quotation was conspicuously selective. The complete verse reads: “And I’ll bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all households of the earth be blessed.” – (KJV)
It is a prophetic promise given to the patriarch Abraham, pointing in the end to his seed, Jesus Christ. It’s by Christ, based on Galatians 3:16, that “all households of the earth” are provided reconciliation with the Divine. If that blessing is common and messianic in scope, the place then is the ethnic or nationwide exclusivity so typically ascribed to modern-day Israel? (I’ve explored this subject in higher depth right here, right here, right here and right here)
Cruz’s theological framework, in apply, aligns extra intently with Talmudic ethnocentrism than Christian soteriology. Take into account this outstanding declare from Rabbi Chaim Richman, directed at Christians:
“You guys are worshiping one Jew. That’s a mistake. You ought to be worshiping each single certainly one of us as a result of all of us die in your sins each single day… The Jewish folks within the land of Israel are the bulwark in opposition to the Orcs, okay? The Orcs are coming to not a theater close to you however to your house.”
Other than the Tolkien reference – which, to my data, seems nowhere within the Talmud – Richman’s quote reveals the ideological terrain Cruz is orbiting: one the place collective Jewish identification is quasi-divinized, and adversaries are dehumanized as fantasy monsters. One suspects that the “Orcs” are a sweeping euphemism for Arabs within the area, lots of whom are surreptitious allies of Israel. The one recalcitrant “Orcs,” apparently, are the Palestinians, whose refusal to simply accept their divinely appointed overlords stays an intractable downside.
Mockingly, Persians (Iranians) have historically loved a much more favorable depiction in Jewish scripture – from Cyrus the Nice to Ahasuerus within the E book of Esther. Trendy geopolitical enmity is due to this fact a historic aberration, not a theological necessity.
But when one follows Richman’s grotesque logic, does this “unqualified worship of each single Jew” prolong even to these lately implicated in satanic baby abuse scandals in Israel? At what level does solidarity change into sacrilege, and does assist for Israel require a complete theological give up?
Indicators, omens and pareidolic delusion
There’s a cause I describe Christian Zionism as a theologically bankrupt subculture masquerading as prophecy. It’s an ideology that sanctifies any struggle crime, any act of brutality by Israeli forces as a result of based on its adherents, private “blessing” from God is contingent on political allegiance to a contemporary nation-state.
When not actively mangling scripture, historical past, and fundamental morality, this motion manufactures indicators and wonders out of skinny air. Pure phenomena, particularly pareidolic patterns, are routinely interpreted as divine communications. This isn’t innocent enthusiasm; it displays a credulous mindset conditioned by groupthink, emotion-driven worship, and manipulative rhetoric. Hypnotic music, staged testimony, and thoroughly orchestrated atmospheres typically whip congregants right into a frenzy of expectation, the place gullibility turns into religious advantage.
I as soon as watched a video of Christian pilgrims in a van in Jerusalem who erupted in awe as beams of dappled daylight flickered by roadside bushes. To them, these fleeting mild patterns weren’t a trick of movement and shadow, however “angelic manifestations.” (They’re, actually, a typical optical impact attributable to mild passing by foliage whereas in movement.)
In the present day, a big swath of Evangelicals are keen to interpret any mundane prevalence as divine endorsement of Israel’s central position in Finish Instances prophecy. But when they’re in search of indicators, they may think about one which cuts in the other way. Proper after Israel launched an unprovoked strike on Iran, a raven appeared to tug down an Israeli flag amid the rubble in an Israeli neighborhood.
In Jewish Midrash, the raven is taken into account an omen. Within the biblical narrative, it’s the creature God used to maintain the prophet Elijah when he was close to despair (1 Kings 17). The raven is a creature related to each judgment and provision. What message, then, was it delivering?
Now think about if the fowl had as an alternative torn down a Palestinian or Iranian flag. The Christian Zionist ecosystem would have erupted into mass ecstasy. Social media feeds would overflow with headlines declaring it an indication from heaven. Prophecy blogs would rush to decode its “symbolism.” Tele-evangelists would loop the footage between pleas for donations. However because it challenged their narrative, the occasion went studiously ignored.
Such is the schizoid reflex of Christian Zionist theology: divine indicators are legitimate solely once they reinforce the script. Anything, nonetheless biblical, nonetheless stark, is dismissed as coincidence or satanic interference.
Blessings and curses: The truth examine
There’s an oft-cited quote – attributed to Joseph Goebbels, although doubtless first utilized by Adolf Hitler – that claims: “A lie repeated a thousand instances turns into fact.”
Christian Zionists have chanted Genesis 12:3 so often and with such zeal that few inside their ranks ever pause to check the verse in opposition to both scripture or empirical actuality.
Let’s try this now. Genesis 12:3 says: “I’ll bless those that bless you, and curse him who curses you…”
If we’re to interpret this as a blanket mandate for state-level overseas coverage, the proof needs to be apparent. So ask your self: Are Israel’s most loyal allies as we speak, significantly within the West, really “blessed”?
Take the USA. It’s arguably extra internally divided than at any level for the reason that Civil Battle. Its cities are decaying, homelessness and drug habit are rampant, race relations are at its lowest ebb, and almost 40% of Individuals can not afford a $400 emergency expense with out borrowing, promoting their household heirloom, or falling into debt. And but, billions in unconditional help proceed to circulate to Israel, yr after yr.
Western Europe fares no higher. The continent faces deepening political polarization, a disaster of institutional legitimacy, and escalating cultural clashes fueled by migration and financial inequality. What as soon as handed for democratic consensus is now fractured by populism, apathy, and unrest. Social cohesion is unraveling throughout the transatlantic alliance.
Now evaluate that to East Asia and Southeast Asia, the place most international locations keep measured, impartial stances on the Israel-Palestine battle. With a mixed inhabitants nearing 2.4 billion, this area encompasses numerous ethnicities and religions, but stays strikingly extra steady. Other than Myanmar, whose navy junta has been equipped with Israeli weaponry, there are not any continent-wide wars, nor the kind of existential societal fractures plaguing the West. Immigration is proscribed, social concord stays comparatively intact, and all main Asian nations assist a two-state answer primarily based on pre-1967 borders. No nation sucks as much as Israel on this a part of the world.
So the query virtually asks itself: If Genesis 12:3 is getting used to guage overseas coverage towards Israel, then who precisely is being blessed, and who’s being cursed?
The results of blind allegiance don’t cease with financial decline. Take into account the proxy wars fed by Israeli strategic calculations. In Syria, Israeli assist for jihadist factions has contributed to the decimation of ethnic and spiritual minorities. Simply this previous Sunday (June 22), a suicide bomber detonated inside St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church, killing no less than fifteen Christian worshippers. These will not be remoted tragedies. These are the fruits of Christian Zionism: a theology conflating realpolitik with divine mandate.
Endangering Christians worldwide
Why is it important to confront and proper this narrative? As a result of the spiritual ideology peddled by Senator Cruz and his ilk bears no resemblance to genuine Christianity. It’s a harmful theological counterfeit – a den of wolves in sheep’s clothes, exactly as Matthew 7:15 warned.
Removed from defending the religion, Christian Zionism actively endangers Christians throughout the globe. In its zeal to uphold Pax Americana, idolize the fashionable State of Israel, and force-fit present occasions right into a contrived apocalyptic script, it sacrifices precise Christian communities on the altars of geopolitics and eschatological fantasy.
As somebody descended from one of many world’s oldest Christian traditions – whose roots attain again even to the Outdated Testomony – I say this plainly: Haven’t any fellowship with these murderous idolaters (1 Corinthians 5:11).
They invoke Christ however serve the ambitions of empire, the delusions of man, and the units of Devil. If that’s what it means to be “blessed,” then your church ought to watch out for what it’s actually worshiping.
The statements, views and opinions expressed on this column are solely these of the creator and don’t essentially characterize these of RT.
