Return to Zion(ism)

I am going partially “off-the-grid” for a few weeks, but I am going to do something different with the Veracity blog, during the meantime…..

I have gone through a number of fits-and-starts, but I am once again returning to a blog post series I started a few years ago, on the topic of “Christian Zionism.” I got interested in this almost 25 years ago, when I took a trip to the Holy Land. During my years in college, I heard quite a bit about “Israel” at church, and the role “Israel” has in Bible prophecy. But my tour to the land of Jesus left me with a lot of questions, as I met some other believers, who complicated my previous narrative about “Israel.” They were reading their Bible in a much different way than did my church in college.

I learned that two people can be “Bible-believing” Christians, and yet look at “Israel” in very different, even conflicting, ways. As with other controversial topics, such as predestination vs. free-will, the age of the earth, the exact nature of the “End Times,” charismatic gifts in the church, women in ministry, etc., such debates can be difficult to work through. As an exercise in learning how to appreciate a different Scriptural perspective, I decided to take some time to really dig into “Israel,” in particular, looking into what the Bible had to say about “Christian Zionism”; that is, what view should New Testament believers have regarding national, ethnic Israel, and God’s ancient promise to Abraham, and his descendants, about the land.

That study eventually led to a series of 18 blog posts (that I never finished… I stopped at #10) on the main topic, with a number of rabbit trail side trips. To narrow the focus, I started the series by way of asking the question, “Was the year 1948, with the founding of the modern-day, nation-state of Israel, a fulfillment somehow of biblical prophecy?”  Two years ago, my church held a two-week panel discussion with our pastors, on Romans 9-11, that sought to get at the underlying biblical themes, by attempting to answer that question, broadly speaking (week#1 and week#2).  

If you want to get the full-flow of what I have been working on …… you can catch up here…. or start here…. stay tuned to the remaining eight posts in the series, with one post coming every two or three days. As always, please feel free to leave your comments, questions, and challenges….. I will be back after that with something new and different…