Glenn Beck’s outreach expresses dangerous themes of Christian Zionism
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PrintWith his upcoming “Restoring Courage” event in Jerusalem, Glenn Beck, the former Fox News personality, is morphing from culture warrior and conspiracy theorist into super Zionist.
That may not be a good thing, however, because Beck’s expression of Christian Zionism overlaps with the steps recommended by some Christian leaders to ingratiate themselves to Jews and gain access for proselytizing.
Christian Zionists, including several directors of John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel, are at the heart of a network of support for Messianic Jewish missions that have perfected methods for outreach to Jewish communities and make Jews for Jesus look like amateurs. (Messianics in this context refers to Jews who have converted to evangelical Christianity but retain some aspects of Jewish identity and observance.)
Beck recently spoke to members of the Knesset and delivered the keynote speech at the CUFI summit in Washington, D.C. In both places, Beck quoted Ruth 1:16 — “Your people shall be my people” — and was received enthusiastically.
Beck’s Jewish audience, however, missed a layer of meaning that many of evangelical Christians in America understand. In quoting Ruth, Beck was also quoting one of the leading guides for how Christian Zionists should approach Jews: “Your People Shall Be My People: How Israel, The Jews And The Christian Church Will Come Together In The Last Days.”
For Don Finto, the author of the 2001 book, bringing gentile and Jewish believers (Messianics) together is crucial for “hastening of the coming of the Lord Yeshua in glory,” which cannot take place until Israelis call for Yeshua (Jesus) to return as their messiah. Moving the hands of the prophetic clock depends on proselytizing that is aggressive but savvy. Finto, by the way, claims that over 400,000 Jews have adopted a belief in Jesus in recent decades.
In his book, Finto advises Christian Zionists on how to “harvest” Jewish souls: Repent of the Holocaust vocally and frequently; stress the Jewish roots of Christianity; and aid Jews in the “final Exodus” to Israel.
That “final Exodus” can be a bit disturbing to Jews, but it explains one of the odder moments of Glenn Beck’s Knesset appearance: his claim that a wave of anti-Jewish persecution is imminent. The good news: Finto instructs his readers to prepare to be righteous gentiles when the anti-Semitism hits, meaning to save Jews from death. Christian Zionist leaders teach that this coming “Tribulation” period is necessary to Jesus’ return. Hagee, in “Daniel to Doomsday,” says that these prophesied persecutions are necessary “to bring Israel to the place that she will recognize Jesus Christ as Messiah.”
Finto urges his readers to cleanse themselves of “every vestige of anti-Semitism.”
But the love of Jews does not necessarily extend to a love of Judaism. In “Your People Shall Be My People,” he quotes a leading Messianic “rabbi,” Dan Juster, who attacks Rabbinic Judaism as “a severe departure, replacing revelation with human reason….We who are Jewish are biblical Covenant Jews, not Rabbinic Jews.”
It’s not a surprise, then, that Christian Zionists play a lead role in the evangelical community’s efforts to proselytize Jews, described in their lingo as “blessing Israel.”
Both Finto and Juster have served on the board of CUFI director Robert Stearns’ ministry, which organizes the international Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem and has received the personal endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Similarly, Beck’s upcoming “Restoring Courage” event has been promoted on the website of the Messianic ministry Maoz Israel of Tel Aviv, which also includes the endorsement of John Hagee and several CUFI directors. Maoz Israel also describes saving Jewish children from Judaism as “blessing Israel.” This and other Messianic ministries in Israel are promoted to Christian Zionists worldwide through the publishing empire of yet another CUFI director, Stephen Strang.
It is understandable that many Jewish and Israeli leaders are eager to accept the warm embrace of Christian Zionism while overlooking the proselytizing and the increasing demonization of Rabbinic Judaism that characterizes Christian Zionist activism. That it is understandable doesn’t make it wise.
Flag CommentThanks God you expressed your view as an “Opinion”. Glen Beck was accused by the liberal media in the last few years as being an anti-semite. In his last weeks of his TV show on Fox News, he showed so much understanding and sympathies for Israel and the Jewish people, that I haven’t seen in the entire US media in the last 35 years. His views were almost unprecedented. When presently Israel is under a tremendous attack inside and outside, especially by foreign media and a heartbreaking number of countries, and when a person like him comes up and does what he did, by digging up the dirt of the past, making references to old scriptures in order to back up a certain “opinion” oposite to his honest endeavors, you are making a great deservice to Israel and the Jewish people. Exactly in these tremendous stressful times, when friends like him are scarce, you are chasing them away. The survival and Israel is not only in the hands of the Jews, as much as - in the hands of non-Jews. Leave the politics, camouflaged in religious terms out of this, when it comes to the safety and security of Israel.
Here’s a video of a real Israeli settler on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem telling Beck the truth about Jewish life, and showing no signs of accepting “Yeshua” as Messiah. As long as we have people like this out there in Israel, we don’t need to worry too much about missionaries poisoning the barrel: http://youtu.be/Zybwa6CHYXI
I am sorry that the Jewish people feel so threatened by we Christians. I know that the past has had its shameful episodes but, speaking for myself and the people I know who support Israel and the Jewish people, we mean you no harm. Actually, its not even about YOU so much as it is about G_D and what HE wants of us. It is a privilege and an honor for me and many like me to stand up for Israel no matter the cost to us. We take the barbs from fellow gentiles and from the Jewish people. The bottom line is that it pleases the Father for us to be Watchmen on your walls, oh Jerusalem.
May you be blessed and protected from ALL who would harm you.
Peace.
Why do many Evangelical Chirstians support Israel when Israel has socialized medicine, a woman’s right to choose and a high rate of taxation? It is because many wish to gather the world’s Jews in Israel and convert them as this article suggests. Glenn “Bad News” Beck would like to grab a hold of this issue and bring it to the forefront. Years ago it was his religion of choice—Mormonism—that posthumously converted Jewish holocaust victims to Christianity until protests caused them to back off.
God bless the Christian Zionists. They remain strong and uncompromising supporters of Israel despite the undeserved and unfair insults hurled at them by too many Jews in editorials, articles, letters in this paper and other media. The Christian Zionists do not ask us to support their politics. They are supporters of Israel despite the unwarranted behavior of so many Jews.
What are our fears of the Christian Zionists? They want to convert us. Well, Christianity is a proselytizing religion. That includes the Christian Zionists and the Christian anti-Zionists. Today, all we Jews have to say is a loud ‘No!’. Our friends are the Christian Zionists despite their politics or perhaps because of their politics.
In the Jewish media, I have seen many more articles attacking the Christian Zionists than the Christian anti-Zionists. Where are the equivalent articles condemning the Presbyterians for their continued anti Israel policy of divestment, boycott, and sanctions? Refusing to accept the friendship of the Christian Zionists because their domestic politics is different from many of us is self defeating. Ignoring the enemies of Israel because their domestic politics is similar to ours is equally self defeating.
In the July 29 issue of the Jewish Standard, Rachel Tabachnick ends her diatribe against the Christian Zionists with the following paragraph: “It is understandable that many Jewish and Israeli leaders are eager to accept the warm embrace of Christian Zionism while overlooking the proselytizing and the increasing demonization of Rabbinic Judaism that characterizes Christian Zionist activism. That it is understandable doesn’t make it wise.”
Since attacks on Christian Zionists have a long history, Caroline Glick had the right answer back in June 2008: “These are terrible times for world Jewry. Islamic Jew-hatred is genocidal. The international Left has betrayed us. Our leaders are weak. Our friends are few and far between.
If we wish to persevere in this environment we must embrace those who support us while eschewing those - even in our own ranks - who tell us that support for Israel is conditional. Now is not the time to quibble over Christian theology. Now is the time to stand united with our friends against our common enemies.”
