Margy Pezdirtz
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
I received an email from a dear and trusted friend a couple of days ago regarding an old, but new, theology that is floating around. Several of my friends and I came across this theology twenty years ago, researched it and found it to be without a valid basis. But, it seems to be alive and well and drifting through the air like an unwanted virus waiting to attack whomever has their guard down.
We’ve had Replacement Theology which says the Jews had the opportunity to accept Jesus, they blew it so we got it and now all that was theirs is ours through our acceptance of Jesus. When the Jews wouldn’t accept Jesus, then some brilliant theologian decided, on his own, that they didn’t deserve the promises of God as His Chosen People, so they – the promises – would now pass to “the Church.” It is a vile theology that has caused a great deal of trouble as well as anguish down through the generations.
For two thousand plus years of “the Church” folding, stapling and mutilating Jews in the name of Jesus to get them to accept Jesus, all based on Replacement Theology. When that didn’t take hold and become accepted by everyone in the world, then a new theology was begun by some who call themselves Christian Zionists. Now, make no mistake, I’ve called myself Christian Zionist for a long time, but I wonder if I’ll have to search for a new term now – maybe I’ll just settle for Believer!
The Christian Zionists are lovers of Israel and, supposedly, the Jewish people. They travel to Israel and they get Holy Ghost goose bumps from the experience and the retelling of the journey. Some of them are so in love with the Jewish people that they are hell bent on evangelizing them, getting Jews to accept Jesus, just because they love them so much they can’t bear the thought of them – the Jews – going to hell.
Quite a number of us are honest brokers. We have no agenda. We realize that we are being blessed by traveling to Israel and we hope, in turn, we are a blessing to Jews. We don’t evangelize. We don’t proselytize. We go wishing to be friends and helpmates. We don’t go to get, but to give.
And then there is the new group – the Move Over Theology group. They love Israel. They love the Jews. They love Jesus and the Holy Ghost goose bumps. But they don’t seem to be content with the idea that their love of the people and the land is a God given blessing or call. Instead they have to rationalize it and try to explain it; perhaps this is because they get so many questions from their church and family as to why they’ve chosen this path.
But, if they can prove they are part of the Lost Tribes of Israel, then it explains it all away. No one need think they are crazy or wacky. They can explain it away by simply saying its in their blood. Nothing else need be said; they can’t help they are like they are.
Really!
What about those – like me – who have siblings and parents. Wouldn’t it be in their blood as well? Wouldn’t they also love the Jews? One would think so. But the same thing happens when a person comes to accept Jesus as Lord and their siblings, parents and other family members don’t. Do we have to rationalize that? Can we not just accept the fact that for whatever reason, God tapped us on the shoulder and called us into His fellowship? Why do we have to rationalize and reason it out? Do we not recognize a blessing when we receive it?
Accepting Jesus as savior is without explanation. It is supernatural and it is a gift. There is no reason for it other than we’ve come to understand the price He paid for us and in doing that, we choose to accept Him and all that He offers. That doesn’t mean He is giving us the homestead or the birthright. We are heirs to the Heavenly Kingdom through Him – it doesn’t mean we have a deed to the land of Israel.
According to Move Over Theology, the next step is to understand that we must be of one of the Lost Tribes or we wouldn’t have this wonderful enlightening! Which Tribe? It follows to reason that if we are of the Lost Tribes – no matter which one – then surely we have a right to the Land of Israel and we can go, put our foot there, and proclaim it as ours. So instead of replacing the Jews, we are just telling them to Move Over and make room because we are arriving soon.
Throughout my life, I’ve had the privilege – and I count it that – to live in Israel several times. It has always been as a guest in the Land. As an outsider who has come in, not to claim the land, to take over or replace, but to be a guest in the Land, live by their laws and under their government and then to respectfully pack up and go home when my visa expired. No exception. I never went as an illegal alien, but as one who came humbled and in awe of God’s blessing upon His Land and His People. In my