Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism
FROM THE
PRESIDENT
Dear friend in the Messiah,
Shalom. I pray the Lord is blessing your life,
family, and ministry so far in 2019! We are
already enjoying the celebration of our 125th
year of faithful ministry for the Lord among
the Jewish people. I hope you will join our
celebration by attending one of our
125th-anniversary conferences or events.
You can see the entire list by visiting
chosenpeople.com/125years.
Antisemitism:
The Oldest Hatred
Allow me to open my heart to you. Like many
others, I was badly shaken when, on the
Sabbath day of October 27, 2018, the horrible
murders of eleven Jewish people in Pittsburgh
grabbed our attention and directed it to the
growing problem of modern and murderous
antisemitism. Antisemitism, called “the oldest
hatred,” has been around for thousands of
years. And today it seems to be intensifying.
Social commentators, both within and outside
of the Jewish community, have many theories
about this, but they leave out what I believe is
the most critical reason
of all. Antisemitism is
the devil’s invention!
When God called
Abram to be the father
of His chosen people
(Genesis 12:1–3), Satan
made the Jewish people
the target of his fury.
The evil one has tried to
annihilate the Jewish
people in every age and
in endless ways to
prevent God from using
us as His instruments of
redemption through the
Jewish Messiah. We
know the devil will not
prevail, although that
does not prevent him
from continuing to try.
Sadly, one of his ugliest tactics has been to
use the Church to promote the hatred of
Jewish people.
2 The Chosen People | FEBRUARY 2019
Anti-Zionism and
Antisemitism
Of course, the picture is not entirely dark. We
rejoice in the establishment of modern Israel as
a sovereign nation and home for the Jewish
people. The State of Israel rose out of the ashes
of the Holocaust to provide the Jewish people
with a safe haven and a bastion of protection
against antisemitism.
Although God’s choice of the promised land is
ancient and rooted in the Scriptures
(Genesis 15:18–21), the vision for the modern
State of Israel is the fruit of the Zionist
movement founded in the late 19th century
and led by the great Viennese journalist
Theodor Herzl. Yet, this love for Zion is not
new. It has been the cherished hope of both
Jews and Christians for centuries because of
the prophetic biblical teaching describing the
return of the Jewish people to the land of
promise found throughout the Old Testament
(Ezekiel 36:22–34).
In fact, some of the earliest and greatest
supporters of the Zionist movement were
Christian Zionists who took the Bible literally.
They fervently
believed the Jewish
people would return to
the land of Israel.
Yet, today we see a
rising tide of
Christians who do not
believe that the
foundations of
Zionism and the
modern State of Israel
established in 1948 are
biblical. In light of the
growing criticism of
Israel among some
Christians and the
hierarchies of their
churches, the question
I want us to consider
briefly is whether we
September 2018: Campaign in London on the day on
which the Labor party NEC was expected to adopt the
IHRA definition and examples of antisemitism.
Mark Kerrison/Alamy Live News
believe anti-Zionism and, in particular,
Christian anti-Zionism, is antisemitic in
nature.
/125years