I was Raised a Christian-Zionist Nationalist- and Left

And then many will be led into sin and will betray one another and will hate one another, and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end—this person will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 24:10–14 (LEB)

Those of us raised in some version of dispensational theology have likely all heard the saying, “Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.” A good example of this theology is displayed in a recent interview with U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.

The first problem is that this saying, “those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed,” is not in the Bible. Secondly, if it were, it would be hard to justify linking it to the current political state created by United Nations Resolution 181 in 1947.

The verses in the Bible Christians derive this saying from are in Genesis regarding Abraham: Genesis 12:1–3 (LEB) 12 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. 3 And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse. And all families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

“And all families of the earth will be blessed in you.” is in reference to the Messiah, not a secular country in Western Asia. We must also remember that Abraham is the father of all the semitic people.

Genesis 17:20 (LEB): ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I will bless him and I will make him fruitful, and I will multiply him exceedingly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

We should define terms in order to untangle the web of deception. I was raised in the United States as an evangelical Christian-Zionist and nationalist. This means that I believed the USA was the greatest country on earth and that, along with that, the nation-state of Israel had to be supported at all costs. All of these subjects are extremely complicated and have nuances that require extensive research. The best I can do is share what I have learned from experience and how removing myself from the United States and this brand of evangelical, dispensational theology helped me see the deception.

It is hard to find unbiased definitions of these terms; therefore, the reader must study reliable sources. This is simply a quick overview:

1. Christian nationalism: ideology that seeks to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian religion with a nation’s character. Advocates of Christian nationalism consider their view of Christianity to be an integral part of their country’s identity and want the government to promote—or even enforce—the religion’s position within it. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-nationalism
2. Zionism: A Jewish nationalist movement with the goal of the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews (Hebrew: Eretz Yisraʾel, “the Land of Israel”). Though Zionism originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, it is in many ways a continuation of the ancient attachment of the Jews and of the Jewish religion to the historical region of Palestine. According to Judaism, Zion, one of the hills of ancient Jerusalem, is the place where God dwells. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism
3. Christian Zionism: A Theological and political Christian movement that supports the return of the Jewish Diaspora to a Jewish homeland in Palestine based on readings of biblical texts that consider that region a sacred land promised to the Jews by God. A major impetus behind the movement is the belief that the Jews’ return will lead to the Second Coming of Jesus. Christian Zionists also believe that by blessing and supporting Israel, considered both as the collective Jewish people and the modern state, they themselves will be blessed by God. Early Christian Zionists from the 16th through 19th centuries supported the return of the Jews to Palestine primarily for reasons of eschatology and gaining divine benediction. Since the formation of Israel as a Jewish state in 1948, American Evangelicals who subscribe to the movement have combined their theological convictions with strong political advocacy. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-Zionism
4. Dispensational Theology: Dispensationalism is an evangelical theological system that addresses issues concerning the biblical covenants, Israel, the church, and end times. It also argues for a literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecies involving ethnic/national Israel, and the idea that the church is a New Testament entity that is distinct from Israel. The Gospel Coalition

In the Christian world where I was raised, there were no alternatives to dispensational theology, Christian-Zionism, and nationalism. It was a package and part of the faith. For example, no one explained to me that there are different systems of theology and we believe in dispensationalism theology because of—fill in the blank. It simply was how Christianity was presented.

My parents followed ministries such as Morris Cerillo, Hal Lindsey, TBN, Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell, and many more, all of whom were Christian nationalists and Zionists. Many of the churches we attended had the Christian flag and the Israeli flag along side of the American flag on the pulpit.

I inherited at least one hundred books from these ministries, from thousands of dollars my parents donated to “support Israel.” One such book is As America Has Done to Israel, by John P. McTernan. The premise of the book is that the United States is judged through natural disasters every time it disobeys, or at least does not completely side, with the modern country of Israel. Here are a couple of excerpts from the book:

“What an awesome warning to America. Possibly the most powerful tornadoes ever to hit the United States fell the same day (May 4 Israeli time) that Arafat was to Claim a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.” Page 184.

Regarding the bombing of the World Trade Center in 2001:

“These United Nations resolutions called for Israel to retreat back to the pre-Six-Day war borders. This would require Israel giving up East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and ending all settlements in the West Bank. The President [George W. Bush] was totally ignoring God’s covenant with Israel….Exactly 32 days after the president’s speech, the Moslem terrorists struck America”. Page 195.

In this book, it labels the terrorists as Muslims, which means they practice the religion of Islam. “Muslim” is not a nationality, so in the example of the bombing of the World Trade Center, they could have said, “Saudi terrorists struck America,” because that was supposedly the nationality of the people who carried out the attack. The U.S. then promptly went to war with Afghanistan, which is not Saudi Arabia. Weird. It is similar with the term “Jew.” Judaism is a religion; Israel is a country made up of Israelis. The religions and nationalities are all conflated. The difference between Israel and other countries is that its government claims to be the home country for all the Jews in the world, and it claims to speak on their behalf. Even the term “terrorist” has become a broad brush to paint people with different viewpoints and give a negative connotation to those viewpoints.

For example, the President of the United States recently labeled “Antifa” as a terrorist organization. What does that even mean? It opens the door for future presidents to label anyone that does not toe the latest political line as a “terrorist.” Another example is the latest flotilla made up of private citizens from all over the world trying to deliver humanitarian supplies to the people in Gaza by way of the Mediterranean Sea—labeled “terrorists,” berated, belittled and arrested illegally in international waters by the Israeli military as Italian and Spanish navy ships watched. This is not politics as usual.

This book, As America Has Done to Israel, links calamity after calamity in the United States with different events that were happening in Western Asia, and that any time the U.S. tried to settle disputes over land wars in Israel, there would be floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, stock market crashes, etc. It is like a national Voodoo doll for America and a completely distorted view of the Holy Scriptures. It reminds me of a Larry the Cable Guy quote: “When you hear Lee Greenwood singing, you know something bad just happened.” Lee Greenwood sings the song God Bless the USA.

There are thousands of people like me, perhaps millions, who were raised as Christian-Zionist nationalists in the United States. As world organizations highlight the recent atrocities committed by Israel, such as assassinations of diplomats in sovereign countries, exploding pagers and cell phones, and tactics like starvation and oppression, many people are starting to change their opinion of the country of Israel. Propaganda comes from all sides of the struggle, but some truth still pushes out that is not that hard to piece together. The fact is that international law is continually being ignored. That is a fact no matter who one sides with. It is not necessarily about one side or the other, but the fact that nations’ sovereignty is being violated, the Geneva Convention is being violated, peoples’ rights in international waters are being violated, and the governing entities of the world are silent. One has to ask why?

The Prime Minister of Israel’s next war front is that of the propaganda war to limit the amount of information Americans unequivocally supporting Israel can consume. Here is the Prime Minister talking about the acquisition of TikTok, talking to Elon Musk about X, and the use of social media influencers.

This article in the Israeli Times talks about these propaganda campaigns to target Christian groups. (click here) Quoted from the article:

JTA — With its popularity in the United States crashing, Israel is bankrolling what organizers say will be the largest campaign of its kind to bolster support among evangelical churches, until recently seen as an unshakable base of support for the Jewish state.

The Foreign Ministry has hired an American firm to run the campaign, with plans to spend as much as $4.1 million on marketing aimed at Christians across the Western part of the country, according to newly filed federal disclosures.

The documents, filed last week under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, reveal that Show Faith by Works, LLC will execute what it bills as the “largest Christian Church Geofencing Campaign in US history.”

Definition of geofencing: “ge·o·fenc·ing /ˈjēōˌfen(t)siNG/: the use of GPS or RFID technology to create a virtual geographic boundary, enabling software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves a particular area.” This technology is going to be used in the vicinities of Mega-Churches in the western part of the U.S., so Israeli interests will be promoted on the cell phones of attendees to help encourage their ongoing support, i.e., propaganda! Even the spell check AI assistant in the program I am writing this post with would not spell check paragraphs until I removed certain words and phrases.

There is so much more that could be discussed here about these topics. I would like to address one more popular belief that is held by dispensationalists, evangelicals, and Christian-Zionists. It is that the formation of the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. I believed this, but like so many, could not defend this belief in any coherent manner. Once one starts asking questions, it can lead to anger and frustration. Christians will say that this is in the Bible, but often have never researched it, nor can it be properly defended. The verses that I was taught to prove that the modern state of Israel has fulfilled Biblical prophecy come from the prophet Isaiah and are actually speaking about the Millennial kingdom after the Messiah returns; not a political regime with an army, nuclear weapons, and help from big daddy U.S. military “taking back the land” and ki***ng its inhabitants.

Isaiah 66:7–8 (LEB): ⁷ Before she was in labor she gave birth; before labor pains came o her, she gave birth to a son. ⁸ Who has heard anything like this? Who has seen anything like these things? Can a land be born in one day? Or can a nation be born in a moment? Yet when she was in labor, Zion indeed gave birth to her children.

There are other verses that are taken out of context and applied to the modern state of Israel. The Prime Minister of Israel has stated that he is fulfilling Ezekiel’s “dry bones” prophecy and “Gog and Magog” prophecy. One problem is that many evangelical Christians only parrot what they hear other people say and never do the hard work of trying to understand the Scriptures and history for themselves. Many of my blog posts dig into the covenants and teachings in light of the message of Jesus (Yeshua) and are free for consideration.

Before you become a victim of geofencing in the parking lot of your local church, by a company in the United States, registered with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, representing the country of Israel, I suggest learning your surroundings and studying the word as never before. Deception, disinformation, misinformation, false prophets and lawlessness will continue to be plentiful.