Stephen Sizer was once enthusiastically (if uncritically) pro-Israel. Then he discovered the Palestinian problem and changed sides. He therefore writes with the excessive zeal of a convert. My main problem is not the inaccuracies in his work. It is the serious misrepresentation of CMJ that I really object to.
Officially we are still the 'London Society for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews'. We don't use that 19th-century title, with its unhelpful terminology, but it does describe what we are about. It is ludicrous to put us in the same category as Zionist Christian organisations which disavow evangelism in order to facilitate their work.
Aims
In 1809 CMJ became the first Christian Society in 2,000 years to take the gospel to the Jewish community in many countries including the Holy Land. Evangelism is still our first aim.
Ironically, in view of Stephen's thesis, we receive a good deal of criticism for our priority of evangelism. Some Christians, including certain evangelicals, do not believe it necessary to evangelise Jewish people. Others believe that after centuries of antisemitism Christians have forfeited the right to evangelise them. Although we are painfully aware of Christian antisemitism (we teach about it and combat it), in our view, such an emotive argument which denies the gospel to Jewish people is itself de facto antisemitic.
Our second aim is to support and encourage Jewish (or Messianic) Believers. Even in this country Jewish people who come to faith in Jesus can be rejected by their families. In Israel an extremist, ultra-Orthodox minority attack Jewish believers in Jesus. They seek to drive them out of the community and to cause them to lose their jobs.
Furthermore, the Israeli government (whom, according to Stephen's mistaken opinion, we support uncritically) has been known to remove the citizenship of people born Israeli who come to faith in Jesus. There are also continuing moves to outlaw evangelism in Israel which could mean heavy fines and imprisonment for Jewish believers.
Education
Our third aim is to educate the church in the Jewish roots of the Faith. The NT is a Jewish book written by Jewish authors. In order fully to understand it, one has to enter into the Jewish mind. Christianity has been 'Gentile-ised' and consequently has lost something important. For example, it has lost the Hebrew emphasis on paradox in theology in favour of linear logic. It has lost a holistic view of worship and salvation. It has lost a good deal of ability to celebrate, especially in terms of festivals. Many Christians have forgotten that we have been grafted into a Jewish olive tree. God didn't plant a new tree! Understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) is essential in understanding the New Testament.
You will notice that I haven't mentioned Zionism yet! That is because I am outlining the things that really make CMJ tick: the things we spend our time and money on. But there is more.
Reconciliation
The official commentary on our aims states that we seek reconciliation between Jew and Gentile and between Messianic and Palestinian believers. We have been involved in dialogue with the (Palestinian) Bishop in Jerusalem and other Palestinian Christian leaders. We employ Palestinian people and educate Palestinian children in our school (providing bursaries for some). We support Christians in Gaza who obtain medical help in Israeli hospitals for seriously ill Palestinian children.
Another commentary states: 'We see the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel as a sign of God's faithfulness as revealed in Scripture.' This requires that staff believe God provided a safe homeland for the Jewish people, after 2,000 years of antisemitism culminating in the holocaust. Staff may believe more than that but the Society has never demanded any particular eschatological view of its staff.
The Society does believe God has a continuing purpose for the Jewish people according to Romans 9-11, namely that there will, at some time in the future, be a massive turning on their part to faith in Jesus (Romans 11.25-26).
Pro-Jewish
We are unashamedly pro-Jewish in the sense that we have a particular calling to love and serve the Jewish people. But any more developed eschatological or Zionist views are a matter for individual staff conviction. Some staff hold stronger Zionist views than I could wish. Others have real doubts whether Israel is a fulfilment of prophecy. But neither party speaks for CMJ. Stephen acknowledges this but then proceeds as if they do!
It should now be clear how seriously Stephen is misrepresenting the Society.
However I am not going to duck the issues he raises. It is true that the founders of the Society in the 19th century believed, as a context to their primary aim of evangelism, that the Jews would have to return to Palestine in order to greet the return of Christ.
Literal preservation
Stephen has a problem with literal application of biblical prophecy. Obviously symbolical language is used so the word 'literal' here must be understood as prophecy which refers to literal Israel and real historical events, whether now past or future.
I firmly believe prophecy can have more than one fulfilment. Some OT prophecies seen by the New Testament as messianic illustrate this. So I have no problem, in principle, about applying promises originally made to Israel to the church. After all, we Gentile believers are grafted into the Jewish olive tree.
But I do have a problem with a theology which says God doesn't keep his explicit and strong promises to Israel. For example, Jeremiah tells us: This is what the LORD says: ... 'Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,' declares the LORD, 'will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.' This is what the LORD says: 'Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,' declares the LORD' (31.35-37). How reliable is a God who makes those promises and then applies them to a different people group? Who is to say he won't do the same with promises to Christians and apply them to some other group? Where is the faithfulness of God here?
Then there is the remarkable and unique preservation of the Jewish people without a land for 2,000 years. In view of all the promises about a second return from all over the world, it is a remarkable coincidence that the return of the Jewish people to Israel (against enormous odds) has taken place. I find it impossible to think it is a purely human action. It seems supernatural. If that is true, is it an act of God or of Satan? Let the reader decide!
However this does not commit me to the Dispensational Premillennialism of Darby, Schofield, etc. In fact I have serious problems with that eschatological view. (For example, Stephen is mistaken: we don't believe Jewish followers of Messiah will be separate from the church). Nor does it commit me to extreme Zionism, let alone an anti-Palestinian stance.
Called to love
On the contrary, to be truly prophetic about Israel one must remember the Hebrew Scriptures say Israel is duty-bound to treat the non-Jew (in this case, the Palestinian) with the same justice and care as the Jew. Modern Israel is far from perfect. It is probably no more religious than the UK! How can anyone be uncritically pro-Israel? Equally, how can any Christian be anti-Palestinian in view of the teaching of Scripture? We are called to love our (Palestinian) neighbour, some of whom are our brothers and sisters in Christ, in our global village. We do believe in equal rights for all citizens and we do pray for peace in the Middle East.
God is a God of justice so we are concerned for justice for Palestinians. However we believe in justice for everyone in the Holy Land including Jewish people (after the terrible record of antisemitism by countries such as ours). We therefore want to distinguish between history and propaganda. Many Christians have been on a tour to Israel and returned thinking they are experts on the complexities of Middle East politics. Some become vehemently anti-Israel (which, in some cases, is fuelled by latent antisemitism); others become strongly anti-Palestinian (which, in some cases, is fed by an anti-Arab racism). Neither is a godly attitude.
There is injustice in Israel. Some Arabs were, in one way or another, driven from their homes in 1948. But it is important to know the whole story.
Whole story
There has always been a Jewish Community in Palestine in the last 2000 years. Palestinian national identity is a 20th Century creation (as, of course, the Israeli national identity is a recreation). There was a cultural identity amongst the inhabitants of southern Syria (they didn't call themselves Palestinians) as there was among Jewish people. In fact in the last 2,000 years Palestine has been under Arab control only for relatively short periods. It is also true that large numbers of the Arab people in Palestine when Israel was set up in 1948 were very recent (frequently illegal) immigrants.
It is important to remember that the UN decided there should be a Jewish state in Palestine. Israel was established in accordance with international law. Palestine included what is now Jordan (so Jordan is a Palestinian state!). Therefore the Jews should have been offered a much larger share of Mandatory Palestine. However British duplicity led to the Jews being given less than 20% of Palestine.
Sadly, Arab governments could have done much for the Palestinian refugees but have instead preferred to use them as political pawns in their dispute with Israel. Few people know that more Jews fled from Arab countries in 1948 than Arabs fled from Israel. Will they be repatriated or recompensed?
I mention these facts because many Christians don't know them, which leads to unjust and unbalanced opinions.
