In his book “Denial of Death”, Ernest Becker invests a lot of thought into analyzing and critiquing the conclusions of Sigmund Freud. Since his work brought about a revolution in the study and practice of Psychiatry (and, arguably, Philosophy), Becker spends time deconstructing and translating Freud’s work so that it appears to support his own observations about the fear of death.

Before I go any further, I want to provide definitions for a few of Freud’s terms and theories:

Id - The impulsive side of a person that is primarily concerned with selfish pleasure.

Ego – The side of a person that is perceptual, intellectual and cognitive. For the sake of oversimplification, this is the “brain” of the person.

Super-Ego – The morality and spirituality of a person. This includes ideals and goals.

Anal Phase – The second stage in childhood psychosexual development. This phase generally spans from 15 months to 3-years of age and is marked by an increased childhood awareness of the anus and fecal matter. This is generally the point when a child learns to control their bowel movements and is potty-trained.

Oedipus complex – In Freud’s own words: “I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood,” He used the Oedipus conflict to conclude that humans desire incest and that we actively repress that desire.

Becker relates Freud’s study of Anality to the universal human fear of death:

Anality and its problems arise in childhood because it is then that the child already makes the alarming discovery that his body is strange and fallible and has a definite ascendancy over him by its demands and needs…

…Strangest and most degrading of all is the discovery that the body has, located in the lower rear and out of sight, a hole from which stinking smells emerge and even more, a stinking substance—most disagreeable to everyone else and eventually even to the child himself…

…his main task in life becomes the denial of what the anus represents: that in fact, he is nothing but body so far as nature is concerned. Nature’s values are bodily values, human values are mental values, and though they take the loftiest flights they are built upon excrement, impossible without it, always brought back to it. As Montaigne put it, on the highest throne in the world man sits on his arse. Usually this epigram makes people laugh because it seems to reclaim the world from artificial pride and snobbery and to bring things back to egalitarian values. But if we push the observation even further and say men sit not only on their arse, but over a warm and fuming pile of their own excrement—the joke is no longer funny…

…The anus and its incomprehensible, repulsive product represents not only physical determinism and boundness, but the fate as well of all that is physical: decay and death.

Becker, p 31

Becker also related Freud’s Oedipus Complex to the fear of death:

Take the Oedipus complex. In his early work Freud had said that this complex was the central dynamic in the psychic life. In his view, the boy child had innate drives of sexuality and he even wanted to possess his mother. At the same time, he knew that his father was his competitor, and he held in check a murderous aggressiveness toward him. The reason he held it in check was that he knew the father was physically stronger than he and that the result of an open fight would be the father’s victory and the castration of the son. Hence the horror of blood, of mutilation, of the female genitals that seemed to have been mutilated; they testified that castration was a fact.

Becker, p 34

While Becker seems dependent on Freud’s work to substantiate his own observations, he appears to have believed that he was able to divide the dishonesty of Freud’s work from the universal truth of death anxiety:

The horror in the child’s perceptions seemed too contrived, too pat, too much designed to fit into Freud’s own addiction to sexual explanations and biological reductionism…

In his later years, Freud evidently came to realize…that the thing that really bothers the child is the nature of his world, not so much his own inner drives.

-Becker, p38, 52

While Becker’s observations seem to be, at first glance, a conveniently selective survey of Freud’s work, Freud himself made a similar observation regarding the fear of death:

I therefore maintain that the fear of death is to be regarded as an analogue of the fear of castration, and that the situation to which the ego reacts is the state of being forsaken or deserted by the protecting superego—by the powers of destiny—which puts an end to security against every danger.

- Sigmund Freud, The Problem of Anxiety, p 67

It seems that while Freud depended on sexual explanations, he may have still valued the fear of death as a more overarching and universal motivator in human life. Still, a large portion of “Denial of Death” seems wasted by focusing on the work of a man who directed the world’s attention significantly more towards issues of sexual repression than our universal fear of death. Perhaps the mention of Freud’s name alone grants Becker access into the minds of those whose worldview has its foundation in the theories of Sigmund Freud (amongst others). If Freud’s conclusions are seen as inherently empirical, it begs the question: why?

From this point in the book, Becker turns his attention to one who predates Freud: the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard. I’ll pick up with his observations on Kierkegaard in the next post.

Ernest Becker apparently viewed the world through a lens that focused on the supreme relevance of death. He defined “creatures” as being hopelessly bound to the reality of imminent death, and his words pay tribute to the brutality that exists on our planet as one creature devours another in an effort to survive or extend it’s importance.

“Everyone reaching out to incorporate others who are edible to him. The mosquitos bloating themselves on blood, the maggots, the killer-bees attacking with a fury and demonism, sharks continuing to tear and swallow while their own innards are being torn out…”

There’s a realism to Becker’s observations that resonates with me and seems to align somewhat with what the Bible says about creation.

For example, we are all made of dust and when we die, our bodies return to dust:

Genesis 2:7
…then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Genesis 2:19
By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

1Corinthians 15:47—49
The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Additionally, King David made countless references to men with an appetite for blood:

Psalm 10:8—11
He sits in ambush in the villages;
in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
The helpless are crushed, sink down,
and fall by his might.
He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

Psalm 14:2—4
The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.

They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread
and do not call upon the Lord?

No matter how much it offends some Christians to be likened to primates, Scripture paints a picture of humanity as often being only marginally different from savage animals. Thankfully, this is really only the beginning of a much larger story. While Becker envisions a world of brutality and death, Scripture confirms this and also tells us of the care that our Creator takes to nurture and protect us:

Matthew 6:26-30
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Ernest Becker’s “Denial of Death” dwells less on the obvious reality of imminent death, and mostly on how the primary motivation of humanity is to deny or transcend it. In the preface of his book, Becker states:

“The prospect of death, Dr. Johnson said, wonderfully concentrates the mind. The main thesis of this book is that it does much more than that: the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity—activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.”

I’ll pick up here in the next post with Becker’s analysis of Sigmund Freud, and the influence that he had on our awareness of human fear.

I’ve been reading a book called The Denial of Death, by cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, and I’ve had a number of varying reactions to the book. I’d like to spend the next couple of posts briefly digesting some of the content.

The best way to start is to drop a quote that describes Becker’s general view of physical creation:

What are we to make of a creation in which the routine activity is for organisms to be tearing others apart with teeth of all types—biting, grinding flesh, plant stalks, bones between molars, pushing the pulp greedily down the gullet with delight, incorporating its essence into one’s own organization, and then excreting with foul stench and gasses the residue. Everyone reaching out to incorporate others who are edible to him. The mosquitos bloating themselves on blood, the maggots, the killer-bees attacking with a fury and demonism, sharks continuing to tear and swallow while their own innards are being torn out—not to mention the daily dismemberment and slaughter in “natural” accidents of all types: an earthquake buries alive 70 thousand bodies in Peru, automobiles make a pyramid heap of over 50 thousand a year in the U.S. alone, a tidal wave washes over a quarter of a million in the Indian Ocean.

Creation is a nightmare-spectacular taking place on a planet that has been soaked for hundreds of millions of years in the blood of all its creatures. The soberest conclusion that we could make about what has actually been taking place on the planet…is that it is being turned into a vast pit of fertilizer. But the sun distracts our attention, always baking the blood dry, making things grow over it, and with its warmth giving the hope that comes with the organism’s comfort and expansiveness.

Although this quote is pulled from the final pages of the book, it describes the foundation of Becker’s viewpoints about our existence. The thing I hope to explore is how Becker’s observations and conclusions fare in light of Biblical truth.

Up until this point, I’ve purposefully written nothing on this blog about the “Lakeland Outpouring“. For months, I’ve been fascinated and horrified by what I’ve seen while watching the coverage on GodTV. The doctrine and practices of Todd Bentley and his crew have been, from the beginning, suspect at best. The news that broke just a few days ago of Todd’s recent separation with his wife has torn a huge rift in the entire thing.

Todd’s contemporaries and leaders have already begun to throw him under the bus, apparently in an effort to absolve themselves of their own prior endorsement of his work in Lakeland. GodTV has already cut out a good portion of its broadcasting of the event, and a number of media outlets have spilled ink to make sense of all that has been going on.

One article, in particular, caught my attention:

Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma Magazine and in the article he exhibits enough humility to recognize that he and others in Charismatic streams of the Church should have known better. I, for one, appreciate the article because it comes from a publication that showed enough sense to be cautious in making outright endorsements of Lakeland before there was really any fruit to be examined. In an honest way, Grady expresses sorrow on behalf of Charismatics worldwide for scorning discernment and careful examination of what was going on in Lakeland.

Here are some excerpts:

Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the beginning? To put it bluntly, we’re just plain gullible…
…But among those who jumped on the Lakeland bandwagon, discernment was discouraged. They were expected to swallow and follow. The message was clear: “This is God. Don’t question.” So before we could all say, “Sheeka Boomba” (as Bentley often prayed from his pulpit), many people went home, prayed for people and shoved them to the floor with reckless abandon, Bentley-style.
I blame this lack of discernment, partly, on raw zeal for God. We’re spiritually hungry—which can be a good thing. But sometimes, hungry people will eat anything. Many of us would rather watch a noisy demonstration of miracles, signs and wonders than have a quiet Bible study. Yet we are faced today with the sad reality that our untempered zeal is a sign of immaturity. Our adolescent craving for the wild and crazy makes us do stupid things. It’s way past time for us to grow up.

I appreciate the humility that it takes to write an article like that. In this case, J. Lee Grady is admitting on behalf of a much broader community of people, and I hope that many in that community take his leadership in the matter as Godly exhortation.

The fact of Bentley’s marital collapse is certainly not the sole reason to conclude that these events were counterfeit or demonic, but it has certainly opened up a lot of people’s eyes who have been following Lakeland and devoting themselves to a discipline of unquestioning fervor. All along, we’ve been told to “look at the fruit”, and it was never enough for the fruit to be as bad as aberrant teaching, violent and uncontrollable tactics, worship of the “William Branham angel” named “Emma”, and the focus on waves of feelings instead of solid ancient TRUTH.

So like many “revivals” that have come and gone, this one ends when the leader shows marital weakness. This says more about the people who go to these events than it does about Todd Bentley. The movement is willing to tolerate a fast and loose misuse of the Bible and a form of social manipulation for the sake of sensual experiences, yet it bristles at the thought that their leader would have marital problems. It appears to me that Todd Bentley’s problems serve more as a convenient scapegoat for people who ought to be exhibiting as much humility and discernment as J. Lee Grady has.

My heart breaks for Todd and his wife and I have committed myself to praying for the redemption of their marriage. I’m asking God to allow Todd to see both the error of his ways, and the grace that Jesus has always extended to him. Please intercede with me on behalf of all the people who have trusted in the events at Lakeland, and who might now be stumbling in darkness.

God, please let your people see your truth in contrast to all that they’ve been filling themselves with.

Here’s an incredibly useful add-on for Firefox that allows you to directly look up any bible reference on any web-page with just one click:

Bible Refalizer

This sort of thing is particularly helpful when reading pages that use brief scripture citations for validation.

John Piper has suggested that Christians do something unthinkably un-American and decidedly Christ-exalting: Give away your Economic Stimulus Payment.

Excerpt:

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in “extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a “wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home project.

I couldn’t agree more.

If you call yourself a Republican, you owe it to your political ideology to actually support a social cause with private money. If you call yourself a Democrat, consider this a way to fund your favorite charity or cause with public money.

Last Monday, my wife and I received some shattering news. In an unplanned appointment with our midwives, we sat with our eyes fixed on an ultrasound monitor looking at our second child. Our baby laid there in the womb without any movement and without any heartbeat. I waited for the ultrasound technician to flip a switch to allow us to see video footage of the ultrasound, thinking that the machine was just in some sort of still mode. My initial state of denial did nothing to change the fact that our 13-week-old unborn child was dead.

For over a week, I’ve been fighting back thoughts that have flooded my mind with the fragile brutality of all of this. How is it that a child who has never gotten a chance to do anything other than exhibit an insatiable natural will to live would be denied the sovereign gift to thrive and transcend the womb? Why did I hunker down in the presumptive peace of expecting that this pregnancy would go just like our first child’s? What is God’s will in this whole ordeal?

On Monday morning, before we found out about the miscarriage, Lauren and I were talking about potential names for our new baby. We kicked around the idea of naming the child “Abel”. Both of us loved the idea that, in Genesis, Abel offered a pleasing flesh and blood sacrifice to the Lord and it was accepted on account of his faith. At the same time, we had an honest acceptance of the fact that Abel’s name in Hebrew (Hebel) means “Breath”, or “Vapor”, indicating the fleeting brevity of human life. There was no way for us to have known just how prophetic this conversation was.

The author of Ecclesiastes (presumably Solomon) uses the word hebel 27 times in the book and most English translations render it to mean “vanity.” For me, the true meaning of this word brings clarity to most of the passages in Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 3:18,19
I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is [fleeting vapor].

(The distinction between the word “breath” and “breath/vapor” can be seen in the difference between “ruwach” and “hebel” in the Hebrew)

Ecclesiastes 8:14
There is a [fleeting vapor] that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is [fleeting vapor].

Strangely, the author’s honest words about the nature of life have brought me a great deal of comfort and resolution. I can’t shake the images that come into my mind when I think of what has happened to my little baby, but all of this brutality has become bitter-sweet because I have no doubt that God is infinitely sovereign and good.

Let me share something in as bold and raw of a light as I can:

I am fully convinced that our son or daughter is now peacefully situated with our savior Jesus Christ and will be for all of eternity. Not only that, but my wife and I will get to meet them one day in Heaven.

King David confirms this in 2 Samuel:

2 Samuel 12:22,23
He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

David believed that he would one day be reunited with his son. While his son would never again return to earth as he knew it, David was sure that he would see his son in heaven.

I’m convinced that our suffering is shared and understood by God. He allowed his only son to humble himself by becoming human, and then undergo a mercilessly brutal series of floggings and eventually death by asphyxiation on a cross. Surely, God can understand what it feels like to lose a child.

Its been ordained by God for Lauren and I to suffer through the death of a child. It’s been incredibly difficult to accept this in light of such a tangible tragedy. I suppose I was safer believing this when it was convenient to be abstract and philosophical about it. God doesn’t want me to abstract his truth about suffering any longer. Its now a thick and palpable reality to me.

Romans 8:18—25
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

I long to meet our second child in Heaven. I long to see an end to these labor pains. Most of all, I long to see Satan the murderer bend his knee to Jesus and then be thrown into the lake of fire. God is good and I know that I don’t long for his coming in vain.

I came across the following quote from GK Chesterton as the closing words in his work entitled “Orthodoxy”.

Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city.

Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell.

Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation.

There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.

Leave it up to a dead white guy to conclude a book with a word that carries next to no meaning in today’s use of the English language. The word “mirth” is defined as “hilarity: great merriment, gaiety accompanied with laughter and joviality.” Based on the context of Chesterton’s final statement, one could conclude that he’s saying that Jesus often kept his joy and joviality hidden, and that his main outlet of joy was prayer.

Chesterton wrote Orthodoxy as a reaction against the “Moderns, Materialists, and Skeptics” of his time. He presents Christianity and the Gospel in contrast with rationalism, paganism, and a host of other -isms, and in this statement, he poses a curious observation about the visible joy of Jesus. At first glance, his thoughts seem to fly in the face of Jesus’ resounding promise of joy:

John 16:22—24
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

John 15:10,11
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

We aren’t necessarily told exactly what this joy should look like. For myself, Chesterton’s words are encouragement to see Jesus as one who fervently pursued a passionate and joyful prayer life. While the world tends to stage large demonstrations of lesser joy, its true that the greatest joy can be found in pursuing God face to face, and asking him to make his name great. The pursuit of God is demonstrated in scripture as being a source of joy. The consummation of his plan is the promise that feeds a joyful life of prayer.

Back in December, I spent some time in Los Angeles doing a live-action film shoot for my work. While I was walking back to the hotel in Santa Monica, a Hasidic man approached me and said “Shalom! Are you a Jew?” I said “No, I’m not a Jew, I’m a Christian.” “Well, you know, Hanukkah’s coming and well….hold on a second…” He then bolted off towards another man who was walking down the street saying the same thing “Shalom! Are you a Jew?” This time he was met with a “uh, yeah, how did you know?” I waited around to talk to the guy because it seemed like our conversation still had some legs. I overheard him admonish this man to start coming to the Chabad House once Hanukkah starts so that he could follow the law and various traditions. The guy he was talking to seemed disinterested and told him that he was circumcised and that his mother is a Jew, and he didn’t really see much of a need to go any further than that. After some opposition, their conversation ended and I approached him again.

I asked him why he thought to come to me and ask if I was a Jew. He explained that his religion calls for him and others to do “outreach”. I asked if that outreach included Gentiles and he said “Oh, no…well, its very hard for a Gentile to become a Jew. You have to do a lot of really hard stuff to become a Jew and we really don’t encourage Gentiles to go through with all of that. But if you’re a Jew, its important for you to follow the Torah and take part in all the customs.” He told me that his father was a leader in the local Chabad House, and that they often go around the city encouraging Jews to start taking their religion more seriously. He handed me a Jewish calendar and I asked him a question I had been wondering about for some time.

“In Genesis, God tells Abraham that his seed will be a blessing to all nations. How has this been fulfilled?”

He fumbled about for a bit and started to tell me about how through Abraham, many nations came about and how not all of them are Jewish. So by simply being the beginning of many nations, he felt that the prophecy had been fulfilled. He started to walk away from me and so I asked if he believed there was more to it than that. He answered “No.” and waved goodbye.

My encounter with this man was intense not because of the words that we shared, but because I could feel a huge connection between us, almost as if I was talking to a long lost relative who shared the same blood, but who spoke an entirely foreign language. I prayed for the man often during that week, that he would see Jesus, and bow his knee to him as Messiah. He knew where our conversation was headed and took the first opportunity to eject himself out of it when I asked a difficult question. I was humbled by the experience because I could see some of my own tendencies in his swift retreat.

The Bible teaches that man is not saved by a working observance of the Old Testament Law. One only needs to hear the words of a pious Jew in Romans 3 to understand that salvation comes only through faith in Jesus the Messiah. Paul’s words alone bear a testimony that shatters many of the teachings of Christian Zionists mentioned earlier in this series. The remaining question is “How are we to practically apply what the Bible teaches about Israel?”

One of the more profound teachings in Scripture about God’s will for the church’s relation to Israel is in Ephesians 2:

Ephesians 2:11—22
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

God wills for the Gentile church and the children of Israel to be one body. The point of division is the reliance on Old Testament Law for salvation. The physical manifestation of that division is circumcision. God’s will is for that dividing wall to be broken down and redeemed by the blood of Jesus.

The most loving thing that we can do for Jewish people is to tell them about the Messiah who has already come once and is coming again. In Acts, we see that the Apostles set out preaching first to the Jews in a particular region and then they preached to the Gentiles. There is already a profound connection between the Church and Judaism, and that is the Law and the Prophets. Preach the glorious Good News of Jesus Christ and assure your Jewish friends that their acceptance of him solidifies them as a part of God’s holy family: Israel.

The modern nation of Israel is commonly understood as being the same thing as God’s holy family as described in Scripture. This understanding often places an undue amount of favoritism in the lap of the Israeli government no matter how secular their beliefs and no matter how unjust their actions. God has shown himself to be more concerned with what his people do with their land than with defending their eternal right to it. In the process of regaining the land of Palestine, over 700,000 non-Jews were uprooted from their homes and placed into refugee camps and other permanent communities. Since 1948, violence in the region has flared up time and time again from both Israelis and Palestinians. Both sides have and continue to suffer immense casualties: men, women, and children. Regardless of the indignant political statements made from both sides, human beings including Jews and Gentiles are suffering and dying. Its a Christian duty to heal the wounded, take care of the orphans and widows, and act as peacemakers. This involves compromise from both sides and instead of finding some sick and sheltered prophetic fascination in watching Palestinians and Israelis get butchered daily, its time for the Church to stand up and anoint the region and people with an oil of service and prayer.

We can help the wounded on both sides by donating money and other resources to emergency relief organizations such as Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Both face unparalleled challenges healing the wounds of this conflict, and both could use our unbiased support.

The Abraham Fund is involved in “Advancing the coexistence and equality among Jews and Arabs in Israel.” They are actively educating people in the Israeli government about the social and economic realities of Arab life in Israel. They promote dialogue through encouraging Jewish schools to teach Arabic to schoolchildren, and they work with Israeli police to sooth wounded relations with the Arab minority in Israel. Their current hope is to transform the Beit HaKerem Valley into a “coexistence zone” driven by social and economic prosperity, safety and fruitful cooperation.

Intercession on behalf of the people living in the region of Israel is the most practical and constant method for Christians worldwide to work for peace, justice, and the fruitful proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Acquaint yourself with the diverse people of the land, and the history of their struggle, and you will find your prayer taking on a new dimension of clarity and precision as you align your hearts compassionately with the humanity that dwells on all sides of the conflict walls.

Israel is a diverse nation containing a complex mix of the following religious/cultural groups:

Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Druse, Bedouin, Secular Arabs, Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, Mizrahi Jews, Secular Jews, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Syrian Orthodox Christians, Armenian, Latin-rite, Marionite, Melkite, and Syrian Catholics, Anglicans, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Church of the Nazarene, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and non-denominational Christians, as well as a host of other religions and cultural persuasions.

This brings complexity to the need for prayer, but it should cause one to realize that the situation in Israel is not simply a matter of Jew -vs- Muslim. Pray for the salvation of each and every person living in the region, and pray specifically for how God would want to redeem the rebellious systems of belief that currently reject his son and show hatred for the Good News.

Pray specifically for the families of the wounded and casualties of the conflict. Pray for miraculous healing and regeneration of blown-off appendages, ruptured eardrums and lungs, punctured hearts and damaged brains. Lift your hands and do not cease asking God to have his name glorified in the region through miraculous signs and wonders, and through the rebirth that only comes from a bowed knee to Jesus. Meditate on God’s word and ask him to fulfill his desire to have “one man” where there is now two. Ask him to hasten the day when Jesus will come in the clouds and judge the hearts of man and bring down the New Jerusalem where the old one lies.

Come Jesus, and surprise us with your will! Help us to be postured towards loving you with all that we are, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Help us to participate in the creation of “one man” where there is now two. Amen!

Willem Glashouwer’s book “Why Israel” provides a glimpse into his own organization’s narrow beliefs regarding Christian Zionism. It is, therefore, worthwhile to take an even broader survey of the different sorts of Zionist leanings that exist within the Christian church today. Before I highlight a few examples, its necessary to at least provide a cursory history of Christian Zionism.

Christian Zionist History on Fast-Forward

In England, the emergence of proto-Christian Zionist beliefs followed the translation of the Bible into English. As the word of God became accessible to non-clergy Englishmen, individuals started to discover “the people and land of the Book.” Because of this, many British statesmen developed a clearer sense of the history of a people who had been forcefully spread out over Europe and Asia. While Zionism had not yet developed in any sort of organized manner, the roots of Zionist beliefs started to take form even within the hearts and minds of Gentile Christians.

The advent of organized Jewish Zionism followed quickly on the heals of the “Haskalah” of the 18th century. The Haskalah was a movement among European Jews that proposed the adoption of enlightenment values for Jews to become fully integrated into European society. It was primarily concerned with secular human rights issues and for a secular form of Judaism in Europe. The Haskalah solidified Jews in Europe under a revival of Jewish secular identity. Many Jews ceased observing the ritual laws of the Torah as a result of this movement. It later developed into Zionism (a focus on the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine) while facing the persecutions of the late 1800s.

Around the same time, an American preacher influenced by D.L. Moody began to speak fervently about the restoration of the historical Israelites to the land of Palestine. His name was William Eugene Blackstone, and he also believed in a premillennial return of Christ and the Christian rapture. In 1887, he founded the Chicago Hebrew Mission for the evangelization of American Jews. In 1891, he obtained the signatures of 413 prominent Americans advocating the resettlement of persecuted Jews in Russia to a new homeland in Palestine. He gathered this document to sway the opinion of President Benjamin Harrison to support such an initiative. Blackstone later made a similar appeal to President Woodrow Wilson that influenced his acceptance of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which was the British establishment of a Palestinian homeland for Jews:

Arthur James Balfour (Foreign Secretary of England):
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

In 1948, Israel was officially recognized as an independent nation in the land once called “Palestine”. President Harry S. Truman, influenced by his own flavor of Christian Zionism, was compelled to disregard the advice of the U.S. State Department and stand to recognize the official state of Israel regardless of the effect that this would have on the population of over 1 million Palestinians that inhabited the territory. As a result, 914,000 people in Palestine were expelled from their homes and forced into refugee camps.

After Truman’s presidency, a good friend introduced him to a group of professors by saying “This is the man who helped create the state of Israel,” but Truman corrected him: “What do you mean ‘helped to create’? I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus!” Truman was comparing himself to the Persian King in the Old Testament who defeated the Babylonians, enabling the Jews to return to their land after 70 years of captivity.

While this historical accounting leaves out many details in the development of Christian Zionism, the most relevant points have been noted. Even early on, Christian Zionists exhibited influence and control over political and international affairs. Characteristic of the movement is the belief that the establishment of the modern state of Israel is in fulfillment of key biblical prophecies leading to a hastening of the return of Jesus Christ. Also characteristic of this movement is the idea that Christians can and must do what they can to influence or force a hastening of Christ’s footsteps through a particular interest in the political and social affairs of modern Israel.

Various Contemporary Christian Zionist Beliefs

Rick Joyner and Morningstar Ministries

In the July of 1999, Gentile author and self-proclaimed prophet Rick Joyner presented a list of prophecies outlining his beliefs about Israel and the end-times. Here are just a few things that he professed at a conference called “Messiah ’99”:

The Messianic people are a prophetic righteous remnant, “that are calling the Church back to their Jewish roots” and “they are back to become a prophetic call to the nation of Israel.”

Messianic people are, “THE HEAD,” meaning, of the Body of Christ and the First Fruits.
Jews and Gentiles will be looking to the Messianics to explain the Word of God.

Reconciliation happens when there is restitution, and there’s going to be a lot of restitution for the Messianic people as Jews.

Messianic people will have a better ability to witness, heal, discern and utilize spiritual gifts than others.

Messianics are going to help us (the Church) restore our foundations to where they belong — and we won’t get where we’re supposed to be without their help.

The LaHaye/Jenkins Book Club

Popular interest in Christian Zionism surged around the year 2000 on account of the “Left Behind” series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. While Christian involvement in fervently evangelizing Jews and urging them to move back to Israel is often cited as a function of hastening the return of Jesus, it isn’t often that they are told of all the prophecies that involve them in the end times. For example, Tim LaHaye and others believe that Zechariah 13:8 is a yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecy about the grotesque murder of 2/3 of all Jews in Israel.

Zechariah 13:8
“In the whole land, declares the Lord,
two thirds shall be cut off and perish,
and one third shall be left alive.”

It would be difficult for Christian Zionists to encourage Jews to move back to Israel if they also told the part of the story where only 1/3 of them will survive something worse than the Nazi Holocaust. This part of the story is often conveniently withheld.

Pat Robertson’s Foot/Mouth

In 2006, the infamous televangelist Pat Robertson found that his words could still provoke a healthy dose of controversy when he spoke harshly about the recent stroke and hospitalization of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon:

“He was dividing God’s land, and I would say, ‘Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America.’ God says, ‘This land belongs to me, and you’d better leave it alone,’”

This statement came as a response to the Prime Minister’s withdrawal of Israeli forces from the battle-embittered territory of Gaza. Robertson fully believed that God had vengeance on Sharon for compromising a divine land right. He later apologized to the Prime Minister’s family after Israeli officials canceled plans to involve Robertson in the construction of a new Christian tourist center in Northern Israel.

“My concern for the future safety of your nation led me to make remarks which I can now view in retrospect as inappropriate and insensitive in light of a national grief experienced because of your father’s illness…”

John Hagee is Ready For Combat

In July of 2007, Texas Pastor John Hagee and his organization, Christians United For Israel, held a conference called “A Night to Honor Israel”. Over 4,500 people from every state in the country, including Newt Gingrich and multiple U.S. Senators attended the event. Hagee addressed this highly influential and powerful audience with a call to preemptively attack Iran for the sake of Israel.

“Let us shout it from the housetops that a new day has been born in America. The sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awakened. If a line has to be drawn, draw the line around Christians and Jews. We are united. We are indivisible. And together we can reshape history…we want you to recognize that Iran is a clear and present danger to the United States of America and Israel… it’s time for our country to consider a military preemptive strike against Iran if they will not yield to diplomacy. And if they continue the pursuit of nuclear weapons we must not allow them to manipulate the economy of the world because they have a nuclear weapon.”

One should certainly not underestimate the political weight of the words spoken by this man from Texas. History has shown that preachers can often have enough influence to either coddle or sway the interests of powerful men holding public office to change the state of foreign or domestic policy. Hagee’s sentiment is that if any group is bold enough to make threats against Israel, Christians should respond with preemptive and violent attack, and he feels that God and his word back this sentiment.

Earning Your Way into New Jerusalem – IHOP

While all of the above examples provide a look at some of the common extremities of belief within Christian Zionism, its also worthwhile to look at the seemingly milder presentation of Zionist beliefs found within a popular youth prayer movement. Kansas City’s International House of Prayer disseminates a message about Israel that avoids some of the common scriptural and social pitfalls of the older generations of Zionists while continuing to support the notion of hastening the return of Jesus through alignment with modern Israel.

From IHOP’s “Israel Mandate” webpage:
“The operation and visitation of the spirit in Israel is a vital part of releasing the great end-time harvest among the nations (Ezekiel 36:23–36). However, this full release will only come as a result of a body of believers who are committed to a life of night and day prayer living a fasted lifestyle.”

From IHOP Pastor Mike Bickle’s sermon “The Fullness of the Gentiles; Provoking Israel”
Most Gentile believers are significantly unaware of the plan of God, as revealed in the Scripture, and of the jeopardy they will be in if they do not understand it so as to cooperate fully in the grace of God. That fear of God, that peril, is almost non-existent among Gentile believers, five hundred million strong in the earth. That is trouble. That is not a good situation. We are not going to be equipped by Messianic believers trumpeting this, and five hundred million Gentile believers going, “Well, it is their thing.” We need an army of men and women taking their stand; anointed, equipped at the heart level, at the revelatory level.

In [Romans 11:20], “Because of unbelief they were broken off. You stand because of faith. Do not be haughty, but fear God.” Why? Why was this fear of God? Why do we have to fear God because Jewish people are going to get saved? Why does that have the fear of God on it? Paul says, “Stay with me, here. If God did not spare the natural branches, he may not spare you!” Where is the trumpet blast to the Gentile believers? God, the love sick Bridegroom God, may not spare you and your church!

The Gentiles in Rome are going, “Paul, you have not even met us.” Paul says, “Stay with me. Therefore, consider the goodness. Study the goodness, study the Bridal Paradigm, study the Father-heart of God. Encounter the goodness. Get lost in the realm of the mercy and the goodness of God.”

IHOP’s presentation of Christian Zionism is more honestly connected to their focus on end-time prophecy. In the previous statements, the leadership at IHOP is effectively saying “If you don’t begin to understand and participate in what we think God is going to be doing in Israel, you will likely lose your salvation and be destroyed.” When Paul, in Romans 11, is talking about humbling ourselves before the God who spared us and grafted us into the olive tree, Mike Bickle interprets this as a warning to Gentile believers about being destroyed if we don’t recognize what God is going to do with the Jews. It seems more reasonable to say that Paul is urging the brethren to remain humble because they did NOTHING to deserve being grafted in. Mike Bickle prefers to focus on the way he believes that Gentile believers can be worthy enough to remain a part of the olive tree.

What follows after this can only be described as the IHOP re-contextualization of any given verse in scripture to align with their image of Jesus as being primarily a “love-sick Bridegroom God.” While this sermon lacks any pragmatic examples of what it means to understand and “cooperate fully with the grace of God” as it applies to modern Israel, the threat is implicit yet clear: “You and your church can lose your salvation if you don’t get this right.”

Hastening the Day

Whether its the youth-palatable IHOP message or the southern drawl war-porn of John Hagee, the essential focus of Christian Zionism has less to do with compassion for Jews as human beings and more to do with compelling Jesus to “hurry along and get us out of this sick-ol’-world already.”

So far, I’ve spent a lot of time in this series being critical—cutting into the beliefs and actions of others. I’d like to spend my next post suggesting, what I feel to be, God-pleasing and practical applications of what scripture demonstrates and teaches us about Israel.