This morning court evangelical Robert Jeffress appeared on Fox and Friends to talk about Monday’s opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem. Jeffress will say a public prayer at the event.
I watched Jeffress’s appearance on Fox and Friends and it led me to embark on a small Twitter rant. Here it is:
1/Let’s be clear here. Jeffress is touting what is commonly referred to as dispenational theology. Dispensationalists believe that God’s plan for Israel and the church are different. https://t.co/doUN4gTgdO
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
2/ Unlike other biblical theologians, dispensationalists DO NOT believe that God’s Old Testament promises to Israel now apply solely to the church. They reject the idea that church (not any nation, whether it be Israel or the U.S.) is now God’s new “chosen” people.
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
3/Dispensationalists thus see Israel in apocalyptic terms–part of biblical prophecy. God will restore the nation of Israel (this is why 1948 was so important) and Jerusalem will be the site where Jesus will return to usher in his 1000 year millennial reign. #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
4/In January, #courtevangelical @JohnnieM told BBC that evangelical support of Israel had nothing to do with theology. He said “I’ve never heard it [“end-times” theology] come up once.” This doesn’t jive with Jeffress’ remarks on @foxandfriends https://t.co/nxVqhVh0vN
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
5/Jeffress sees U.S. recognition of Israel as a way of grafting the United States, which he believes to be a Christian nation, into God’s divine plan. This is why he call the move to the embassy “historic.” #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
6/Jeffress quotes Genesis 12:1-3 and offers the classic dispensationalist interpretation of this verse. Why are some OT verses relevant for U.S. foreign policy today and others not? #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
7/In addition to his policies on abortion, religious liberty, etc., some #courtevangelicals believe Trump is a new King Cyrus because he is being used by God in God’s divine plan for Israel. #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
8/On the King Cyrus stuff check out Xtian Zionist and lesser-known #courtevangelical Mike Evans This is a slightly different angle on Cyrus than the idea Trump is Cyrus because he is releasing American Christians from the “captivity” of the Obama era : https://t.co/nxVqhVh0vN
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
9/Jeffress was schooled in this kind of dispensationalist theology at Dallas Theological Seminary, THE major center of 20th century dispensational theology. #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
10/Hal Lindsey of *The Late Great Planet Earth Fame* popularized dispensational theology, but others-Lewis Sperry Chafer, John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, and J. Dwight Pentecost spent their careers defending dispensationalism. #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
11/How do I know all this? I went to a dispensational college founded by C.I. Scofield of “Scofield Bible” fame. I’ve studied this stuff as both an insider and an outsider. #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
12/I had a Bible professor who used to scream in class at the top of his lungs: ISRAEL IS NOT THE CHURCH! ISRAEL IS NOT THE CHURCH! GOD IS NOT DONE YET WITH ISRAEL!
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
13/There are evangelical Xtians in the Palestinian West Bank who are not dispensationalists & have been fighting against this form of extreme Zionism for a long time. Why don’t Jeffress and court evangelicals seek solidarity with them? https://t.co/5HWsqEmoLz #JerusalemEmbassy
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
14/If Jeffress and the #courtevangelicals convinced Trump to move the embassy to Jerusalem (and Jeffress claims that they did), then we can say with certainty that part of the U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is now guided by dispensationalist theology.
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) May 12, 2018
I touch on some of this stuff in my forthcoming Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump. Don’t forget to pre-order at your favorite bookstore. The book releases on June 28.
I wonder what you think of Robert O. Smith’s argument that Dispensationalism itself is not in fact the main source of modern Christian Zionism, but rather that it emerges from a presumed link between Israel and America (and, before that, Britain and Israel) as the twin chosen nations. In other words, modern Christian Zionism is nourished by Evangelical nationalism (and even Christian imperialism) as much as it is by Dispensationalism.
Early British Zionists such as Lord Shaftesbury were not Dispensationalist, but they certainly did have a sense of Britain’s theo-imperial role in the Middle East. And that oft-cited Genesis text is normally interpreted as being about God blessing America if America blesses Israel. This is not actually a Dispensationalist claim, as such… Indeed, the early Dispensationaists were very skeptical of Christian nationalism.
I am thus inclined to give Jefress the benefit of the doubt when he says end times theology does not feature in his circles as highly as some might suspect. After all, not all Christian Zionist organizations are Dispensationalist. My argument here is not that Dispensationalism hasn’t shaped and been a major carrier of Christian Zionism — clearly it has — but it has merged with the “chosen nationism” of the Anglo-American tradition to produce a pro-Israel policy that potentially floats free of Dispensationalism strictly defined.
This sounds fair, Martin. I wish that the court evangelicals had such nuance.
I found this a few years back: thought it was especially interesting, given the source and original audience: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a485511.pdf
Wow! Thanks, Matt.