Let’s get acquianted with Christian Zionists

Doctrinal Foundations

Followers of Evangelic church in the United States, who constitute approximately a quarter of American population (70 millions) and are increasing in population, are the most important theoretical source of Christina rightists. The followers of this sect believe in absolutism and in the permanent war between good and evil. “The second Christ’s return” in “the end of the word (apocalypse)” after a series of events which result in “a great war and destruction” is one of the doctrinal foundations of this group.
Based on such beliefs, Jesus Christ will return to earth someday will rule for a thousand years, and his actions will take place in "seven stages". Now is the sixth stage, or the stage of church, and the next step is called "apocalypse" where Jesus Christ will turn to the earth and the gives life the Christian faithful a new life.
Then the "anti-Christ" will appear on the earth and falsely calls himself the savior of Jews. Some believe what would lead some people to believe him is that he will be able to restore an apparent peace in the Middle East. Antichrist's rule lasts seven years and will be called the period of "great suffering or trial".
In the first half of this period, the Antichrist will establish an apparent peace and in the second half he will rise against Israel. He thus completes the set of human sins and will trigger God's final judgment and the beginning of an unprecedented persecution of the Jews. This period ends with the siege of Jerusalem (Beit al-Moghadas) by hostile nations who are intent on destroying it, and the scene for "The Final Battle" or "Armageddon" will be ready.
Followers of Evangelical Lutheran Church believe that at this stage, Jesus, riding on a white horse, will return to earth, and following him a cavalry composed of believers will move down from the clouds. Jesus triumphantly enters the war, revives ancient Jewish temples and begins a thousand-year government. He will show new Heaven and Earth show and stifles the devil forever.
"Christian fundamentalism" previously focused on the correct moral conduct, but in recent decades it has been purely political. The "fundamentalists" are given the title "resurgence". This includes a kind of spiritual awakening experience or merely a tendency to particular political opinion. They believe that human history comes to an end during a battle in the Apocalypse which is called "Armageddon" and the culmination of it is the reappearance of Christ; after that the final judgment for all the dead and the living will be done.
It believes that God has decreed that humans undergo seven stages or seven divine providences, one of which is "Armageddon nuclear battle". With the beginning of this terrible war, the saved people will ascended into heaven and will be safer from the scourge of war.
A books by "Tim Lahe", describes such beliefs and so far it has been published in twelve volumes and a total of more than 50 million copies of them have been sold. In these collections, evangelical beliefs about battles alongside the taking place of "second return" of Jesus Christ are described.
Some followers of this movement are opposing many of the actions taken at the international level on the grounds that the move towards a final deal should not be impaired or slowed down. They consider the General Secretary of the United Nations who is responsible to ensure peace as an antichrist. Most of them have become hyperactive following the events of eleventh September and Palestinian conflicts and have considered it another reason for the inevitability of "War and great destruction". According to "Dolet Gibson" director "of the World Evangelical Alliance," violence has made people start to think that if Christ is emerging?
The important thing is our discussions is that the Christians which are considered evangelical Christians and who seem to have such opinions in varying degrees, have created the largest Christian sect in the United States of America, although it is not clear which parts of these ideas they believe in and which parts they don’t believe. However, based on the ideas of Christian right in America to be lasting peace, a comprehensive and true in the Middle East before the rise of "savior" and the "final battle" is not only difficult but also impossible to know and respect the efforts of " peace process "and" Oslo agreements "as something that looks suspicious.
As we shall soon see, theological beliefs of the Christian right are in turn the basis for the bias of this sect to Israel and have prepared a substantial political base for proponents of Likud in the United States of America, paving the way for the performance of people like Sharon in the Occupied Territories. On this basis, the creation of Israel in 1948 was the fulfillment of a "prophetic prediction" and an introduction to the realization of other predictions. In this sense, strategic and political considerations, common values and so on which have been the basis for the tendency of non-religious currents to Israel, have not played a major role.
Of course the issue of apocalypse in various denominations of Christianity has been expressed in different ways and even within the Christian right as well there are differences in attitudes of its different parts of the country to the apocalypse and its relationship with Israel. Some of them see God's sovereignty in a broad way and on this basis they believe that God is able to do whatever it wills, and therefore it is not necessary to establish a certain government so that God can fulfill His purpose . In addition, the issue of the establishment of Israel was not raised as a serious matter until the Second World War and just after the war it became serious.
This very fact that nearly two thousand years, believing that Israel is the centerpiece of it, had no role in Christianity is one of the greatest weaknesses of this belief.
There is a conviction among some evangelicals that the formation of the anti-Christ’s government is near, and as a result of it a severe economic and political dictatorship will prevail in a way that even ordinary purchase and sale will be required to obtain prior consent. They believe that for strengthening such a regime a mighty and false prophet and a universal religion will emerge.
However, not all Christian right necessarily adhere to such beliefs and some of them do not believe in seven stages, but in some cases they have accepted that evangelical teachings must be adapted to the conditions of the new era and returning to evangelical laws and their definitive realization might take centuries. But political leaders and missionaries of the Christian Right, like "Patrick Robertson" and "Jerry Falwell" and in fact, most television missioners as well as millions of their followers usually have such extreme beliefs.
Another foundation of evangelical church beliefs is the belief in Jesus Christ as the only Savior. However, the followers of other more liberal Protestantism, such as "Presbies" and "Methodists" consider Jesus as one way to be saved. It is especially an important doctrinal foundation which leads to evangelical proclivity to invite people of other faiths but also followers of other Christian denominations to the evangelical church.
Protestant ministers’ popular television programs in the United States of America which attract about 60 million viewers are continually striving to convince people that instead of "peace" they should seek "war". They quote Bible verses trying to prove that we are in the end of the world. Because they believe that Israel should be the "landing site" of the second coming of Christ, are trying to turn worshipping the land of Israel into a religious ceremony.
The political effect of appointing the believers to "divine providence" in sensitive positions in the United States can be very worrying; for example, "James Watt", former United States Secretary of the Interior, in the House of Committee stated that:
Due to the imminent reappearance of the Christ, we cannot be too locked in the destruction of our natural resources.
Message of believers in the Divine Providence is not limited to the borders of the United States. This group in August 1985 showed a play that was called the first congress of "Christian Zionists".
In the early 90s, Americans were listening to more than 1,400 religious radios. The vast majority of the 80,000 Fundamentalist Protestant pastors talking on 400 radio stations on a daily basis are calling for orientation to the divine providence; some of the most famous of these include: Patrick Robertson, Jimmy Suagart, Jim Baker and Jerry Falwell.
Many evangelical schools, whether denominational or trans-denominational, across the United States of America are teaching Armageddon theology based on the worship of Israel. The number of these schools is about 200 institutions and has about 100,000 students. The students after graduation become Protestant pastors and will go among people and promote this view.
But "Armageddon" which is in fact "Har Megiddo" literally means "Mountain of Megiddo". "Megiddo" is located in the north of occupied Palestine along the western bank of Jordan River and throughout history it had been a strategic city. This city had been located on the East and West and North-South and naturally has seen many wars. In the books of the Prophet Ezekiel this war is described as such:
Hard torrential rain and hail of fire and brimstone will be shaking earth hard, the mountain will fall, cliffs will fall into the ground and all the fences of the earth will vanish.
Fundamentalist pastors consider these descriptions as a sign of the exchange of tactical nuclear weapons. They believe that Christ will strike the first shot. He will use a new weapon that works like a neutron bomb: in the Book of Zechariah it is stated that:
Their flesh will be reduced while they stand on their feet; and their eyes will melt in their sockets, and their tongue will be reduced in their mouths.
Some miracles will happen during this battle including the drying of the river Euphrates. In this invasion Arabs and Confederation of Russia and Iran will attack Israel. Antichrist enters the Middle East and will install his statue in the Jewish temple and demands that all the people of world worship that statue instead of God.
Fundamentalist pastors used to refer to the Communism of Russia as a sign of the apocalypse. As a result of this attitude, they do not believe in the peace contract in the Middle East and believe that such contracts are not sustainable.
"Long", research director of "Christic Institute" in 1985 revealed that: "Ronald Reagan" American president had believed in the ideology of Armageddon. Ronald Reagan during all the years of his life has been under the influence of the trainings of his mother "Nell Regan," which is said to have been a woman of great belief in the Bible. He has said that he owes his faith to his mother.
"Alling Wood" who is one of the most ardent believers in the worship of Israel, including the battle of the Apocalypse, has said that he and Governor Reagan often sit together and talk about Bible prophecy. At dinner Reagan had told:
This angry prophet of the Old Testament is Ezekiel who has better than anyone foretold the massacre that destroys all of us.
And then he suddenly talked angrily about the Communism of Libya and expressed the opinion that: This is a sign that the coming of Armageddon is not far away.
Reagan also said in an interview: I believe that I have revitalized.
Dubbed the title of "evil empire" to Russia by Reagan which later became common among American politicians comes from this insight.
The principle of education of advocates of "Devine Providence" is that before the establishment of the kingdom of the Christian world, according to prophecies of the Bible, Jews must first return to Israel, then the Jewish state be established and the Word of God be promoted to all nations. They believe that one day, an extremist Jewish will blow Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in its place; Jewish sacrificial ceremony begins a second time and then Armageddon begins.
Excavations under the Quds are being done in order to discover traces of Solomon's Temple so that it will be proved that the Temple of Solomon is in Quds. As a result of this justification they continue destroying Jerusalem (Quds) and the establishment of Temple of Solomon in its place. While Muslims fear that these excavations are meant for collapsing of Aqsa Mosque.

Christian Rightists and Islam

Although the Bush administration, especially in the early days following the events of 11 September, apparently tried to prevent negative propaganda against Islam and declared the fight against terrorism as a war between "civilized world" and its enemies, Christian rightists pointed the sharp attacks against the whole Islamic world. Active elements and religious groups in a wide range of rightist tried in this case using interpretation and claims referred to in speeches of "Osama bin Laden" and his colleagues against Judaism and Christianity on the one hand and the distortion of some themes of Quran on the other hand propagate such view that beliefs and views of Al Qaeda are in fact those of Islam and thus Muslims have waged war against Christians.
In other words, according to some, the Christian rightists have engaged themselves in a "closed crusade" against the Muslims. This has turned into yet another important factor in strengthening of the tendency of Christian rightists in their attempts to impress the United States of America's foreign policy.
Remarks of Christian rightists leaders like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Jerry Vaynzo show how stating anti-Islamic abuse content since 11 September has been a constant part of the political discourse of the religious right.
Jerry Vaynzo, priest of "First Baptist" Church in Jackson Will and former head of the Convention Baptist South talking in the annual convention of conservative priests in June 15, 2002, in addition to using offensive contents against Islam, criticized "religious pluralism" in the United States of America, saying that pluralism wrongly assumes that all religions are equal. According to "The New York Times," other leaders who had attended this convention in the same meeting or in its following days supported the statements of Vaynzo and claimed that his statements about Islam are based on his researches.
It is remarkable that George Bush one day after Vaynzo’s speech via satellite, sent a message to the meeting in which he referred to the community as "pioneers of tolerance and religious freedom". It is not clear whether he was aware of the contents of Vaynzo’s speech before sending the message; however, in his words there was no evidence of his knowledge. A number of active civil rights, including Jewish groups, "anti-vilification society", criticized the statements of Bush Vaynz wanted to publicly distance himself from his statements.
Falwell's remarks on 60 Minutes television program in CBS channel against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on October 8, 2002, were another example of misconduct of leaders of the Christian Rightists against Islam.
Jerry Falwell, on September 81 in an interview with CBS TV channel clearly insulted holy shrine of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Following these defamatory statements, in addition to Muslim nations in different countries, Islamic Conference Organization in its reaction to these statements and actions of the priest in CBS channel condemned it.
Although US officials when faced with protests by Muslims in this country about derogatory remarks by the pastor, formally sympathize with them and said that those statements were the personal speaker's views, we cannot ignore the United States of America’s share and the governments which via their cultural and political performance provided the context in the country to create such audacities.
In a country where its unwise and inexperienced President after the accident of eleventh September deliberately sharpened the edge of his attacks against "Islamism" and out of ignorance talk of the need to initiate another crusade, it is natural that priests and bishops flagrantly violate and desecrate the Muslim holiness.
Indians protests against the controversial statements by American Pastor Jerry Falwell in which he had insulted the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him and his progeny) resulted in at least five martyrs and a large number of injures. This was the bloodiest reaction against American-supported bishop.
"Fareed Zakaria", one of the authors of the magazine "Newsweek" wrote an article criticizing the remarks of Falwell:
Immediately after September 11, Falwell and Robertson decided to use this tragedy to mobilize their own supporters against the liberals, pro-abortion, etc., but it provoked a sharp reaction in the United States of America and resulted in their condemnation by a wide range of people including President Bush.
Falwell and Robertson were thus forced to retreat, apologized and awkwardly claimed that their statements were taken out of context. They later abandoned this kind of malice and instead found Muslims as easy target preys.
The notable thing in the aftermath Falwell’s insulting was the way the White House treated the case. White House spokesmen even in cases where they were questioned repeatedly declined to comment on this issue and sufficed to this sentence by the president that "Islam is a religion of peace”.
In general it is quite evident that George Bush does not have that care which he used to have immediately after September 11 as to promotion of religious tolerance and preventing acts of abuse against Muslims and Islamic. One of the main reasons for this could be very high penetration of Christian rightists in the Republican Party and the important role they play in the presidential election in 2004.