Considering Christian Zionism. Part 1: Zion
What is Zion?  If you decide it is a place, where is it? if you count yourself a Christian Zionist then you'd better be clear about Zion.
Historically we learn from the Old testament that Zion is the name of a hill in Jerusalem, Israel, where Solomon built The Temple that was then inhabited by a deeply mysterious phenomenon referred to as the Glory of God.  This Presence of God dwelt between the wing tips of two golden cherubim (angels) that were mounted onto the lid of the wooden box known as the Ark of the Covenant, that was in turn situation within the innermost chamber of the Temple that was known as the Holy of Holies.
The Holy of Holies was separated from the inner temple court by a large, heavy, curtain.  No one was allowed into the Holy of Holies because no-one is holy enough. If you tried, you'd come face to face with the Glory of God and you would die.
Once a year, God graciously allowed a representative human, the High Priest, into the Holy of Holies, and then only after a very serious regimen of purification. His job was to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people.  He did this on the Day of Atonement once a year.  On that day he would take off his beautiful priestly clothing, stripping down to just plain garments.  He would then make his way through the 3 foot thick layers of the curtain, and into the holy of holies.  In there it was completely dark, illuminated only by the Glory of God.  He would take in blood from a perfect sacrificed lamb and sprinkle it on the 'mercy seat' - the lid of the Ark of the Covenant - right where the Glory of God would be.  In this way he made 'expiation', that is, a remedy for the guilt of the sins of the people, by having someone else (in this case a perfect lamb) pay for the people's sins by its death. He then offered up incense - a symbol of the prayers of the people now made acceptable to a Holy God.
Zion thus became a word synonymous with the idea of a special place where it was possible to come face to face with God - to experience His holy presence - a place of meeting with God - a place where God deigned to meet with humankind.
Zion is thus primarily a physical place.  It is, secondarily an idiom, an idea - a notion of a place where our human existence intersects with the presence of Almighty God - notably a place of God's choosing and not of ours.

In the mind of Jews, their worldview, land and the presence of God are very closely tied together.  God gave the patriarch Abraham the land by covenant and again lead the Israelite nation (together with many foreigners in their company) out of slavery in Egypt, across the wilderness and into the promised land of prosperity.  Land=God's blessing.  A lack of land=God's cursing or at very least an absence of God's blessings.  For Jews today, the notion of a homeland is very powerful - it is a strong aspect of their racial, ethnic, religious identity. At least for non-Christian Jews and for some Christian Jews too.

Fast forward to the early 20th century and the rise of radical political Zionism in Palestine under the leadership of Menachem Begin at first a guerrilla leader - later in life a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; the rise of sympathy for a theocratic homeland for the Jews in some British evangelical circles who (I believe erroneously) conclude that if the Jews have a homeland it will somehow encourage Jesus to return; British Zionism is born; Nazi Third Reich rises; World War II; the tragic, awful, Holocaust happens; The Balfour declaration; The British Mandate of Palestine after the war (of which my father was very much a part); UN General Assembly Resolution 181.  Meanwhile British Zionism cross the Atlantic and finds a fertile hom in 20th Century American Christian churches, especially those who adhere to  strong sense of pre-destination and dispensationalist theology. The history is all there to study. The result is the creation of the nation of Israel designed to be a majority Jewish state (why else call it Israel?) where Muslims and Christians and Jews could live happily in a democracy...peace in our time.

Politically - and there is certainly more than one opinion on this - Christians and Muslims have been harried to the point of persecution by the majority Jewish authorities.  In 1947 there were once 300,000+ Arab Christians in Israel, there are now so few that they could all be removed on three 747 jets.  Meanwhile the Muslims rally around nationalistic factions, the PLO is born under Yasser Arafat as a resistance response to Jewish-Israeli aggression, later Hamas and Hezbollah and the dreadful civil war in Lebanon develop. Israel is surrounded by Arab/Muslim neighbors that want her to either be gone or to change back to a secular democracy.  Israeli Jews are split between radicals and moderate, secularists and orthodox factions.  It's a mess.  My interest is not to take a political position, but to establish a sound theological view of Zion that will inform any number of possible political positions.

In the middle of it all a central, polarizing idea is Jewish Zionism which again means different things to different groups: the desire for a Jewish Theocracy in the land of Israel; the re-establishment of a Temple of Temple Mounts and the re-assumption of the Old Testament sacrificial system.  For others, the establishment of a well funded, heavily militarized nation state of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish Diaspora to call home - secure from it's enemies.

So what does Zion mean to you?

One God
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone."  Deuteronomy 6:4 NRSV

It was a 'Google moment': a single idea that changed the whole world.  Life would never be the same again.  Every culture that covered the face of the earth had then - as today - a deep need for spiritual peace, security and fulfillment. Life is complex - there are hundreds of important things.  Some material, some emotional, some invisible.  But any one of them could go wrong and wreck life. It stood - sorry, stands to reason - that every thing is under the control of a god. There is a god of the sun, a god for the night and moon. a god for the stars. another god for the sea, another god for the soil. A god for the cattle and another for the crops. One god of fertility and health and another for sickness and death. So many gods!  So many gods to appease and please!  If we neglect any one of them, well, disaster may befall us.  The crops may fail, the river might flood, sickness might come, of we might not have any children.
What is more, there is no telling what any one god may do.  Each god is fickle and unpredictable!  Who knows what any one god requires of me?  Only chance and experimentation can tell.  Even if we figure it out today - tomorrow it may change. The priests guide us but each god is different and constantly changes. It's exhausting, debilitating and soul-breaking.  We live on our nerves edge the whole time - constantly afraid like an animal in the woods.

The people of Abraham - the Israelites - come telling us of bizarre news - hard to get our heads around.  They tell us that there is only one God - that this one God is in control of everything - all at the same time.  One God controls the seasons, summer sun and heat, winter rain and floods; tides and weather; fertility, life and death.  Can it be!  How amazing would that be!  As if that wasn't mind-blowing enough, the Israelites tell us that this God - YHWH - doesn't change: He stays the same every moment of every day or every year of every age.  Staggering there is more:  That this one, unchanging God - YHWH - (I think they pronounce it Yahweh) is as plain as day about what he wants from us.  He makes it simple and understandable.  He has even inspired their leader - Moses - to write it down on tablets of stone - so there is no mistake.  No god was every this plain to understand!

How many gods do you have today?  Or let me ask that another way: how many influences do you allow to drive your thoughts and actions, ambitions, plans and expectations?  Do you have the One True God?  Are you living His plan, His way?

Hear O Journey Church, The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.

Koran Burning is not The Way
As you have doubtless read/watched, an independent Baptist church in Gainesville Florida will mark the up-coming anniversary of 9/11 by performing a burning of copies of the koran (qu'ran) ina  public bonfire.  The pastor says his motive is to draw attention to his view that islam is of the devil, and is a religion of violence.

In a free country with separation of church and state, he is free to do this.  I think he is deeply mistaken to do so.     Here is my thinking:

The great majority - experts say about 85%  - of muslims are peaceful, law abiding people who contribute to their societies.  They practice their faith with nobility and with sincerity.  Theologically, I don't think much of the treachings of Mohammed. I don't see him as a true prophet.  He was a brilliant general, and leader of men, and statesman.  He life seems an example of a man following his own path and believing his own publicity.  He lived a full, wealthy, long life full of adulation and power.  The very opposite of Jesus Christ.  There is much on the life history of Mohammed that is deeply disturbing. Everything is the life of Jesus Christ is awe-inspiring.

I seem Islam as something different from the life of muslims. Islam is a dark extension of Mohammed's teachings.  Islam is three things:

1) Islam is a religion centered on obedience.  There is no concept of love is this religion. 'Muslim' means 'obedient' or 'servant'.  The highest hope of a muslim is to be a servant or slave of God.  This is a high and noble aim.  Muslims have produce high and great art, poetry and science.  I respect that.  I respect Christ more, and His teaching centered on love, in which adoption as children of God is the highest ideal.  Muslims chant that God is great; Christian sing that God is our loving Father.  Surely we who diligently seek God are close. The relationship between genuine muslim and authentic Christian should be a careful, respectful dialog.  Burning each other's scriptures is not the way of glorifying Jesus Christ.

2) Islam is an ideology.  There is nothing so powerful as an idea.  So we all better be very careful to check our ideas. Islam has one central aim: to establish and maintain a total world domination of enforced obedience to the teachings of Mohammed.  Period.  It seeks an imposed theocracy.  Individual freedom - and the right for a people of exercise self-determination is anathema to Islam. As an ideology, (did you read that? - as an ideology - ) Islam is evil, dark and utterly of the devil.  It is driven by the devil's spirit bent of power and control.  It is the antithesis of love, the enemy of freedom, and the friend of the despot and dictator.  It is utter power that had been utterly corrupted.  The ideology of Islam is the fruit of a fallen humanity and of 'this world'. Is is to be comprehensively resisted.  I long to see genuine muslims dismantle the ideology of Islam.  Islam is Mohammedanism gone deeply wrong.  Now here is the kicker.  Book-burning Christians is an early stage of Christianity going deeply wrong.  I long to see authentic Christ-followers dedicate 9/11 to reading and sharing the Holy Bible and then living out a day of selfless service to others as the antidote to a tiny church engaging is an act of fearful hatred.

3) Islam is a merciless system of law.  Sharia law is a wicked, dark, oppressive, merciless human system of law.  There are some broad parallels between Sharia law and the law code of the Jewish Old Testament, although I will doubtless be criticized for even naming them in the same sentence.  I do not imply there is any theological correlation, but that we Christians needs to understand that on the surface, the two can look similar with injunctions to kill sinners by stoning.  So proceed with respect and care. While the Old Testament law came from God as an articulation of His Justice, it also contained multiple varied measure of grace and mercy.  God's justice is always tempered with mercy - at least this side of Judgment Day.  Punishment is usually accompanied by an invitation to repentance and restoration.  This the way of Almighty God - hallelujah! The wonder of The Cross is that God died for our sins so that we would never have to.  The Judge steps down from the bench and pays the penalty of our crimes against Him.  What a truth!  Sharia law knows neither mercy nor repentance.  It is a heartless, cruel exercise of martial law, invented by a medieval general and impose by ideologists.  May God forbid that Sharia law ever prevail.  Amen.

In conclusion, I will encourage Journey Church to mark the anniversary of the mass murder of 9/11 by engaging in loving, Christ-like service to our neighbors, and by praying for the advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven: first in our individual hearts and minds, then in our families, then in our churches, then in our communities, then in the USA (including Gainesville) and across the muslim lands and the whole world.

As salt and light in the world.  May Jesus Christ be glorified.  They will know us by our love.

A friend has this as his email signature line.  I thought it was pretty good:

THINK Theologically  |  ENGAGE Globally  |  LIVE Biblically

I especially like the order: to think first, then engage with the culture and then live out our Christ-likeness.

Thanks to Gide Demosthene for this.