Palestine: a version of “Houston, we have a problem.”

A Message from Warren Reeve

In 2013 my wife Debbie and I participated in a team trip to Israel with the intent to plant an IC. Included in the consideration were several days in Palestine. What remains are the vivid memories of Palestine and Palestinians. Behind the checkpoints and inside the 12 meter wall surrounding the West Bank we worshipped and prayed with Palestinian Christians. The attitude of grace and generosity deeply impacted us.

We visited Palestine again in 2022 and continue to be deeply moved by the Palestinian response to the historical and present-day conflict.

Clearly what we experienced then and what is happening now is simply not fair! Are we as International Church leaders willing to look from another perspective to learn more about the complex issues of Israel and Palestine?

I commend the following article written by my good friend Graham Chipps, and strongly encourage you to take up his challenge.

Warren

---

Palestine: a version of “Houston, we have a problem.”

Palestine, an ancient word for an ancient land and its people. The use of the word for the region between the River Jordan and the sea goes back to the Egyptians 4,000 years ago.

“Houston, we have a problem.” For the Apollo 13 mission, the lives of three men were at stake.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a far, far greater crisis. We are divided, seriously divided. True of the evangelical community as much as the broader Christian world. However, not the divisions of baptism or predestination/free will or church governance or the Holy Spirit or gender, but the division over an issue that is life-and-death for hundreds of thousands. I refer to the polarization of views on Christian Zionism. While it takes many forms with various rationalizations, at heart it is the establishment of an ethnocentric, Jewish state in the territory traditionally referred to as Palestine requiring the removal of most Palestinians from their land.

Within Evangelical circles, Zionism takes several forms, though all support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine called Israel. These range from Dispensationalist eschatologies through to others who just believe that the State of Israel today is a fulfilment of Biblical prophecy, usually seeing this as an indication of the closeness of Christ’s return. Some just conclude that we as Christians simply should be supportive of Israel. And there are variations with these generalizations. Those Evangelicals opposed to Zionism also have different perspectives, though mostly they centre around an understanding that Christ Himself fulfils the expectations of the Old Testament. Variations here depend on how much the Kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus features in the argument, and how earthy and/or heavenly and/or spiritual is this fulfilment in Christ. And some of you are a bit frustrated because this summary does not adequately represent your position!

Across the Body of Christ, including the Evangelical community, we have strong diametrically opposite views, as well as less passionate perspectives. So, the Christian community has no voice; we cancel each other out. Effectively we have nothing to say of any credibility simply because we contradict one another; even though the world is watching, even though we face a profoundly serious ethical crisis, even though the death and destruction of Gaza continues to be so horrific and tragic.

One Palestinian Christian leader stated, “Gaza has become the moral compass of the world.” Are we listening, do we know why he said this?

Another stated, “Gaza represents a theological crisis for the world.” Do we realize the gravity of this claim?

Will we have the courage to work together through the question of Christian Zionism, its theology, its ethics, and its consequences? Or will we just repeat to ourselves that it is the other side that is wrong and should change? Will we limit ourselves to an Israeli or Palestinian perspective or will we discipline ourselves to explore the experience of both over the past 100 years? Will we just continue to hold to the position that my position is true to the Scriptures and that others just haven’t studied their Bibles enough? (For example, I have read many publications claiming to argue against my perspective that display no understanding at all of what I think, nor why I have reached such conclusions.)

There are two urgent reasons why we must not accept the status quo of polarization between us.

1. People are dying, huge numbers are being injured, and even greater numbers are grieving. Homes, schools, and hospitals are being destroyed. It is as simple as this.
2. The faith is coming into disrepute, losing credibility, because the endorsement of Israel’s war on Gaza by some of us is so very offensive to huge numbers of people. Increasingly, the Christian church is seen as not just divided but as supporters of injustice, brutality, and a massive neglect of love and compassion. For many, to be a Zionist is to endorse genocide. Is this valid?

Will we have the courage to do the hard work of searching for a common mind?? Only then will we have a prophetic voice worth listening to. Only then will we have a morality of any credibility. Only then will our missional engagement with the world have any traction with the majority. Only then will our Gospel connect with the brokenness of our world.

I understand my own position very well: it has been an area of study for me for over 5 decades including my PhD.  However, I commit to studying again the alternatives on this matter of Christian Zionism, to explore the arguments for these alternatives. I examined these as part of my PhD but in the spirit of my exhortation to us all, I will study the writings of those with different understandings and listen to them when the opportunities arise. I welcome any publications that you have found most helpful on Christian Zionism, whether supportive or opposed. I will do my best to read them. [Please add the resources you recommend in the comments below: resources not opinions!]

I do not doubt that across the MICN community, there is a diversity of opinions. Some of you on both sides are passionate about your position. All the more reason for us to face the challenge with courage.

Please do not dismiss the question of Zionism. I promise you that it is impacting your church’s missional presence in your city far more than you realize. It is a profoundly relevant issue right now, and it will not go away anytime soon. It is a very real life-and-death issue. Out of love for our brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine, out of love for all Israelis and Palestinians, we must engage.

I urge us all to commit to the quest for a common mind on Zionism. How is it possible for people passionate about being faithful to the Scriptures to end up with such contradictory conclusions on such a life-and-death matter?

To go further (and I urge you to do so):

I recently returned from Palestine where I attended this conference, one of the best conferences I have ever been to: https://christatthecheckpoint.bethbc.edu/ 

You can watch and listen to the sessions here. Most sessions had two presentations followed by a Q&A.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=christ+at+the+checkpoint+2024 

This was a conference of around 150 Evangelical Christians concerned about the tragedies experienced by Palestinians over the past 100 years. About 1/3 were Palestinian church leaders and the rest were foreigners.

The following is a collection of questions, observations, and issues requiring our engagement as we work together to better understand the Scriptures: some are more about the theology of Zionism while others are more about the context in which it is currently being practiced between the river and the sea. I urge you to engage with all of them.

As international church (IC) leaders, we must face the fact that we have people on both sides of the division, that people leave our ICs when they feel the majority position is one they cannot support, that our mission is directly impacted by how the world sees our stance on what is happening today in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in the lives of Palestinians. While Christian Zionism is fundamentally a theological question, we must also face the ethical consequences as Zionism is practiced on the ground. The IC is an ideal context for such discussions – as long as we listen well to one another. The IC is usually a mix of people representing all perspectives on the Zionism question.

I acknowledge that the following does have a certain Palestinian focus. This is simply because within the Evangelical community, this is less well-known.

1. Palestinian Christians.
2. Imagine how it feels to be Palestinian Christians being told that they must vacate their ancestral homes and lands because it is to be given to Jewish foreigners; and that this is wholeheartedly supported by their Christian brothers and sisters in other countries. This betrayal by their fellow Christians is doubly hurtful when foreign Christians support the use of military violence to make it so and will even raise money for the Israeli army (as some Christian Zionists have done). How would you feel if you were in their shoes, forced to become a refugee and lose the land that your family has loved and cared for over centuries, to see your productivity over centuries trashed?
3. Palestinian Christian leaders are passionate and clear, without exception and without qualification regardless of the systemic injustice and violence. To be Christian is to love, to love one’s enemies, to treat all others with dignity and humanity, to be committed to non-violence and peace (loving one’s enemies requires a non-violence stance towards them), to be steadfastly consistent in Biblical ethics, and to never be antisemitic even if being attacked by Jews. ALL human beings beingthe image of God demands the ethics of love as commanded by Jesus.
4. A number of the Palestinian presenters at the conference had relatives and friends in Gaza, some already killed or injured, and many still doing the best they can to stay alive. One presenter had 29 relatives seeking shelter together in the Gaza Baptist Church. The dead and injured in Gaza have names and faces, histories and families.
5. Palestinian Christians and churches have a 2000-year heritage in the land on which Jesus walked. Their witness over the two millennia cannot be undervalued. It will be tragic if their presence continues to diminish as their migration out of Palestine continues.
6. Questions to be addressed.
   1. Israel has made a number of claims to justify its takeover of Palestine. These range from a divine right to the land and so to set up a Jewish state, through to claims about the land and the Palestinian people and the threats they bring to the existence of the State of Israel. Threats from other nations are also claimed, especially Iran. The media have often reported on Israeli leaders repeating these claims. Yet many argue that Israeli propaganda has long played the victim scenario to justify its aggression against Palestinians by exaggerating the threat substantially. What is the evidence here?
   2. Assuming a restoration of Israel, the nation, is an expectation of Scripture, what would be the expected characteristics of such a nation? And how does Scripture envision how such a nation should be established? What about the centrality of the Messiah, the characteristics of faith, justice and compassion, of grace and love towards all, and the fundamental requirement and practice of being a welcoming and inclusive community?

Jesus featured the Kingdom of God in His teaching, His perspectives, His actions, and His condemnation of the Jewish leaders. The Kingdom of God is clearly a New Testament term for an Old Testament set of expectations for Israel and the nations. How does this already inaugurated Kingdom come into the world and increase? What does Jesus say about this?

3. What exactly is antisemitism? Note the many Jewish groups joining in the protest movement against Israel’s offenses in Gaza (such as The International Jewish Collective for Justice in Palestine). It is nonsense to suggest that being opposed to Zionism is necessarily antisemitic, though it may be for some. Jews opposed to Zionism certainly do not think so.
4. Jesus and the prophets certainly did not support Israel no matter what it did. As Israel and Judah disgraced the name of God, judgement came and exile from the land followed, just as Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden. For how much longer will God tolerate the atrocities committed by Israel against Palestinians? How would Amos, or Micah, or Isaiah speak into today’s realities in the land?
5. Many confidently assume all sorts of understandings of Zionism, the Palestinians, and what has been happening in the land for the past 100 years once Jewish immigration to Palestine increased after WW1 and the land became a British Mandate. Will we commit to doing the essential serious study of this history or simply rely on popular opinion and propaganda? In our world in which even pastors read less, this is a critical challenge. I suggest you start with Ilan Pappe; an Israeli Jew and professional historian whose research includes previously hidden documents from Israeli leaders both military and political. His most famous book is “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” with a particular focus on the Nakba of 1948.If you have not read it before, will you commit to doing so? Whether or not you agree with it is your call but at least look at the evidence.

Why do Palestinian Christian leaders claim that the current war in Gaza did not begin on October 7 but is the continuation of the Nakba from 1948 to today? History matters.

6. Why do so many conclude that Israel is a typical colonial power, driving indigenous people from their land, farms and homes, businesses, schools, churches, mosques, and community life?  Why do many conclude that it is an apartheid society in which there are two very different systems based on race? Why do many conclude that the main driver of discrimination against Palestinians is ethnic cleansing? Why do many conclude that Zionism by its very nature is racist and inevitably leads to violence? Are such conclusions valid or merely propaganda, and will you do the research needed to come to a well-informed perspective?
7. Does Zionism legitimately negate the human rights of Palestinians?
8. How valid is the slogan “A land without a people for a people without a land”? The land from the river to the sea was a society of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities, and others,  mostly cooperating together peacefully. It was a land of schools, churches, mosques, towns, villages, culture, farms, infrastructure, and businesses. It was a developing society as the control of the Ottomans declined in the years before WW1.Before 1948, estimations of the percentage of Christians in Palestine range from 10% to as many as one-third of the population, with the majority of these being Arab Christians. This percentage has dropped substantially as many continue to leave due to the repressions they face in their homeland. [One Palestinian from Bethlehem I talked with has lived there all his life. Until recently he never wanted to leave. But now he is married and the prospect of the future for his yet unborn children is causing him to think that for their sakes he should leave. But go where?]

Imagine how it feels to be a Palestinian listening to the dehumanizing and insulting rhetoric used to justify Zionism: to be characterized as unworthy of the land.

9. Why are so many Palestinians living in refugee camps? When the families of the original refugees from 1948 are included, as they also live in these camps, there are up to 7 million Palestinians in such places. These communities can be found in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as in Gaza and the West Bank (of the 19 in the West Bank, three are in Bethlehem). To start answering this question, first recognize as nonsense that they left their homelands voluntarily: this is far from the truth.

[I visited the Aida Refugee Camp community (one of three in Bethlehem) which is along the wall close to where I was staying. I stood in the spot where a 13 boy (Abdul Rahman) was killed by an Israeli sniper in the wall watchtower more than 100 metres away. There were others. This community is the most tear-gassed place on earth as the Israelis lob tear gas into the Refugee Camp 2-3 times a week. Undoubtedly with the intention to make them leave. Yet this community still keep the keys to their family homes from which they were driven by the Israelis in 1948. They long for the day when they can go home. In the meantime, they do the best for their children who go to school, and learn music and dance, etc, in their community centre (which we visited).]

10. What gives a country the right to exist and the right to defend itself? What rights do Israel and Palestine have? For me this is a theological question; the legal issues in international law are not for me to address.Theologically, a nation’s right to exist is not absolute as God demonstrates repeatedly through the Scriptures by destroying nations when their sins become extreme. This is the same for Israel as God utilized the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Romans to bring their nationhood to an end. Exile in one form or another follows. Theologically, the current State of Israel likewise has no absolute right to exist, it is conditional. Such a right can be forfeited by failing to live up to the requirements laid out in Scripture (see Deuteronomy 28-30).

A right to defend itself? This is a more difficult question as it depends on the nature of the threat, and the means by which the defence is carried out. Such a right does not give a nation a free hand to do whatever it wants. The invasion of Gaza is way out of proportion to the October 7 attack; it is clearly more an offensive operation than a defensive one. The mass killings of tens of thousands (including thousands of aged and children) who had nothing to do with the October 7 attack is morally reprehensible.

1. None of the Palestinians at the conference were supportive of HAMAS. They understood why HAMAS acted as it did – like every oppressed people over the millennia, sooner or later some kind of uprising occurs, resistance is inevitable (sadly sometimes violent). On previous occasions, since the siege and blockade of Gaza by Israel around 16 years ago which resulted in serious deprivations for the people of Gaza, Israel has launched violent incursions into Gaza killing thousands of Palestinians (in 2008, 2012, and 2014 killing 3,804 Palestinians of whom about a quarter were children). 

One speaker talked of being in Gaza and found that the majority of people in Gaza do not like or support HAMAS. Our speakers understood but were just as condemning of the October 7 atrocity as everyone else: understanding is not justification. But they also were convinced that the deaths of tens of thousands of the people of Gaza, including thousands of children, and the serious limitation of humanitarian aid to prevent famine and the provision of basic medical care, can only be described as genocide by any measure of humanity. How can it not be genocide when the body count is getting close to 40,000 and still thousands are probably buried under the rubble? [There is no “equivalence” of course. Those charged by the International Criminal Court face quite different charges; and the atrocities and genocide practiced by Israel are far, far more extreme, serious, and offensive.]

All who perpetrate violent injustices against others should be brought to account. However, when the means chosen to do so murder thousands of uninvolved civilians, including the aged and children, then we must label this too as a crime.

HAMAS will not be destroyed by the Israeli invasion of Gaza, an impossible goal: the HAMAS leaders are in other countries, undoubtedly many of the HAMAS military are no longer in Gaza, and as one Palestinian speaker at the conference said, the Israeli offensives in Gaza and the West Bank are a great recruitment drive for HAMAS. Militarily, it is impossible to defeat an idea, a cry for justice. When there is no hope and no future, only a life of deprivation and harassment, anger so often leads to a violent uprising. We may not like HAMAS but at least let us be realistic about the causes and do something about these rather than attempt the impossible.

1. Christian Zionism in all its forms, and in the perspectives of those who oppose it, is essentially an exercise in Biblical theology. This is where we must not only concentrate our study but also where we must work together. This will not be easy. I am reminded of the lengthy process the early church worked through to secure a common mind on the Trinity and the essential nature of Christ.  

The challenge before us must not be put into the too-hard basket. We must do the Biblical and theological work needed. We must face the issues of hermeneutics at the heart of the differences. I use the word “must” intentionally: human suffering matters and we have a moral obligation to address the theological component at the heart of the causes.

Do not just study again the position you hold already but focus more on the alternative positions and why people believe these are Biblical. Don’t assume you already understand, you probably do not.

My recommendation is to focus on the Gospels, especially Jesus and His focus on the Kingdom of God. After all, Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom coming into the world through Him fulfilled the expectations of the Old Testament. How does the Kingdom (with Christ as the Lord of heaven and earth) fulfil the expectations for Israel, and the nations, that is built up from Genesis 1:1 to Malachi 4:6?

May I repeat: Please do not dismiss the question of Zionism. I promise you that it is impacting your church’s missional presence in your city far more than you realize. It is a profoundly relevant issue right now, and it will not go away anytime soon. It is a very real life-and-death issue. Out of love for our brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine, out of love for all Israelis and Palestinians, and out of love for the people in your city, we must engage.  

Graham Chipps

1. Nur Masalha, 2018, Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History, Zed Books, London, pp. 1-18.
2. See Andrew Bush, 2013, Learning from the Least: Reflections of a Journey in Mission with Palestinian Christians, Cascade Books, Eugene OR. and Munther, Isaac, 2020, The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope, IVP, Lisle IL.
3. Ilan Pappe, 2006, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld Publications, London.
4. Ilan Pappe, 2017, Ten Myths about Israel, Verso, London, chap 1. See also, Mitri Raheb, 2021, The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire, Baylor University Press, Waco TX.
5. For an introduction to the legal status of Israel see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2P3wU3_D90&t=330s
6. Rashid Khalidi, 2020, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, Metropolitan Books, New York, chap 6.