Zionism is based on a distorted and erroneous reading of Scripture, and began with the English preacher John Nelson Darby. Zionism was perpetuated in America by Cyrus Scofield during the early 20th century, who published the popular Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. Zionist eschatology is held by most Fundamentalist, Pentecostal, and Evangelical Protestant sects, and is one of the biggest falsehoods ever fabricated about the end times. We will briefly address some of the most obvious problems with Zionism from a biblical perspective.
1. God does not owe the Jews any land or protection.
2.God's covenant with the physical nation of Israel & the Jewish people (AKA the old covenant) HAS already been granted & completed
We should also note that the Old Covenant that God entered into with the Jews has been superseded by the New Covenant of Christ. This happened the moment that God tore the curtain of the Jewish Temple in two (Matt. 27:51). When we speak of the “Old Covenant,” we are referring to the “Mosaic covenant,” that is, the law that God gave the Jews through Moses (see 2 Cor. 3:14). We are not referring to the Abrahamic covenant which, because it was based on grace through faith, (Not the rejection of the Messiah; Jesus Christ, which is faithlessness) was incorporated into the New Covenant of Christ. This is why Paul says that Abraham is the father of the children of the New Covenant (AKA Christians) (see Rom. 4:16; 9:7; Gal. 3:29; James 2:21; see also Gal. 3:9,14,16,18).
God says through the prophet Nehemiah that His promise to grant the land to Abraham’s descendants has been fulfilled:
"Thou art the LORD, the God who didst choose Abram and bring him forth out of Ur of the Chalde’ans and give him the name Abraham; and thou didst find his heart faithful before thee, and didst make with him the covenant to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Per’izzite, the Jeb’usite, and the Gir’gashite; and thou hast fulfilled thy promise, for thou art righteous” (Neh. 9:7-8).
Thus, those who believe that God still owes the Jews land and protection by divine decree deny the plain meaning of Scripture and make God a liar.
In fact, the loss of Israel’s ancient holdings is a sign of God’s divine judgment against the Jews for rejecting His Son, Jesus Christ, their Messiah. God warned Israel in the Old Testament Scriptures:
“But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say,Because they forsook the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the LORD has brought all this evil upon them.’” (1 Kings 9:6-9).
Scripture is clear that God owes the Jews nothing more, and suggests that the Jews are suffering the ramifications of rejecting Jesus Christ. They have been “cast off” of the root of Christ “because of their unbelief” However, Paul says that the Jews can be grafted in again, “if they do not persist in their unbelief,” for God has the power to do so.
Paul is essentially telling the Greek Gentiles not to rub it in the faces of the Jews that the Gentiles were brought into the covenant while the Jews were cut off from it, basically saying God wasn't afraid to cast off the Jews so be careful cause God isn't afraid to cast off the Gentiles either if He has to.
"For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom 11:13-25)
The only place where the phrase “Old Covenant” is used in the New Testament is in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, and Paul says that “through Christ it is done away”.
"Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ." (2 Cor 3:12-14)
Referring to the abrogation of the Old Covenant, Paul tells the Hebrews that “a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and unprofitableness ” and a "better hope" to replace it (AKA the New Covenant).
"For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God." (Heb 7:18-19)
This means that the Jews are no longer in a saving covenant with God until they renounce Judaism and are baptized into Jesus Christ.
The only thing that saves is the blood Christ shed for the world on Calvary, no physical land, no Israeli borders, no special secret covenant with the Jews, no building of a third temple. Judaism is now a false religion like Islam or paganism or any other heathen religion & to believe that there is another way for Jews to be saved or are somehow still in good standing with God the Father is to deny that the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ the Son alone was sufficient to save the Jews & everyone else (were they to accept Jesus).
"Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." (1 John 2:23)
Of course there is a simple way around all of this to justify zionism in one's mind & that is something that a thankfully very small but radical group of people do & that is to call Paul a "false apostle" & disregard everything he said. Though that would just make that person an apostate that denies the infallibility of scripture.
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[–] Fish7463 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Just a little bit of 1st hand input.
John Nelson Darby founded the "Plymouth Brethren" later called the "Exclusive Plymouth Brethren" and finally the "Exclusive Brethren" which continues today but it's numbers would be in the tens/hundreds of thousands world wide. They claim to be the only true Christians.
JND's main claim to fame was the "pre-Tribulation Rapture" doctrine..
I was born into this sect in 1963 and we remained in it until I was around 13yo.... I grew up reading the JND translation of the Bible which is only slightly different from the KJV, and closer to it than some of the modern translations....... This sect believes that they are literally the only people who are going to Heaven, and all outsiders are going to Hell.... They are well skilled in brainwashing and have an extremely strong psychological hold over their members.. They are "exclusive" in that their doors are closed to all outsiders and one can only be born into it. There are no converts.
During my time in the sect, they did not call themselves Zionists.. They did not teach the "false apostle Paul" doctrine. which is something I learned of only a few years ago.