Why I wrote Beyond Christian Zionism  

Baptist minister Ian Stackhouse has documented his journey away from Christian Zionism in a new book. He explains why  

 
Not having grown up in church, I came to faith in my late teens. Within a year, by virtue of a scholarship with Friends of Israel, I embarked on a six-month gap year programme in a land that has been a fascination for me ever since. Given that it was 1983, it was almost inevitable that I would end up as a Christian Zionist. Eschatology was in the air. Menachim Begin was in power, Moral Majority were in the ascendency, and charismatic evangelicalism, which is the tribe I was born into (and still belong to) was decidedly pro-Israel.

In truth, it would have been dull not to be a Christian Zionist and to share their convictions about the return of the Jews to the land. Over the next couple of decades, however, with a bit more insight into the politics of the region, and a few more theological tools in my bag, many of my convictions eroded, such that I woke up one day and realised I didn’t believe in Christian Zionism anymore.
 
This is not to say that I ceased to support Israel’s right to exist (I was a historian whatever else I was), nor that I believed that the church replaced ethnic Israel (what Christian Zionists call replacement theology). On the contrary, my affection for Jewish people, and a fascination with Jewish culture, increased during that time. I am one of those who believe that the evangelisation of Jews is an act of indebtedness on the part of us Gentiles, and an essential part of God’s mission in the world. What I couldn’t do any longer, but which Christian Zionism does without apology, is tie that to a prophetic, at times apocalyptic, ideology concerning the state of Israel. In the light of the New Testament, such religious territorialism (particularly since it involved the West Bank), not to mention large-scale militarism, became highly problematic for me, and required an acquiescence on the Palestinian issue that I was not prepared to give anymore. Beyond Christian Zionism is really a memoir of that spiritual journey. As it says in the subtitle, it is a travelogue of a former idealogue. 
 
The irony in all of this, which I write about in the book, is that my journey away from Christian Zionism coincided pretty much with my arrival in 2004 at Millmead, which during David Pawson’s era was something of an epicentre of Christian Zionism. Hence, my first few years were spent saying goodbye to a number of families who deemed my revisionist position on Israel as antisemitic and a betrayal of biblical prophecy.

It was a painful time, and frustrating to say the least. I discovered there was nothing more difficult than dialogue with a Christian Zionist. Indeed, it wasn’t so much a dialogue as a telling off for being so dismissive of the Bible, at least in the way they interpreted it.

Nothing has changed in the meantime that makes me think Christian Zionists are any less dogmatic. In some ways, particularly since October 7, they are more unyielding. And who can blame them? By any measurement, October 7 was a dark day in Jewish history - a moment of unspeakable evil. But it’s what happens next, in moments like this, that is critical for me, and the reason why, after so many years of silence on the matter, I felt compelled, in the early part of 2023, even before this latest and perhaps defining moment in the Arab-Israel conflict, to go into print.

It’s not that I had swung to the political left. I have as much problem with progressive liberation politics as I do with far-right populism. Rather, I couldn’t stay silent anymore about what I now regard as unjustified expansionism on the part of the Israeli government, and what I can only describe as collective punishment of the Palestinian people every time their frustration boils over.

Again, this is not to deny the very real security issues Israel faces, nor to underestimate the complexity of urban warfare. Furthermore, I do understand the existential fears that October 7 has reawakened (on both sides actually). But it seems to me, in my naivety perhaps, that if you hold to a theology of exceptionalism, which Israel does of course, then that also carries responsibilities, which, as far as I understand both testaments of the Christian Bible, is all about hospitality to the other.
 
People tell me this kind of rapprochement is unworkable. In terms of realpolitik, I am told this would prove disastrous.

But I choose to differ.

Yes, it is difficult for the Jewish people to trust anyone other than themselves. The Holocaust is an immeasurably deep wound. But as the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks warned, if the Jewish people continue to see themselves as alone in the world, define themselves as victims, and demonize every criticism of Israel as antisemitic, then they will never emerge to play the part only they can play in human history. Instead, as we see happening now in Gaza, the abused will end up becoming the abuser, which for anyone who is a friend of Israel, as I am, albeit on different terms these days to when I started out, is utterly heartbreaking. 
 
Now that the book is out, I confess that I am feeling a bit nervous. Given the binary nature of the debate, I run the risk of being attacked on all fronts, including Palestinians who might feel bemused by my unwillingness to deploy the term apartheid as a way of describing Zionist ideology. All I can say is that I will continue to reflect on those things.

The book was never meant to be a final word, less so a way of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. What I do believe, however, is that if peace is to have a chance - even the surprising re-emergence in recent debates about a two-state solution - then Christian Zionists will need to adjust their ideology or suspend it altogether. Not only does it oppress the Palestinians (a significant number of whom are Christians) but, strangely, it instrumentalises the Jews. In other words, it serves neither communities, perpetuates conflict rather than resolves it, and detracts from the goal of all Christian eschatology which is a people where there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one in Christ.
 

The Revd Dr Ian Stackhouse is the is senior pastor of Millmead, Guildford Baptist Church 

Beyond Christian Zionism by Ian Stackhouse is published by Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock), 2024 

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