Product Description
by Paul a. Pomerville (Author)
The New Testament Case Against Christian Zionism: A Christian View of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict uses the analogy of a trial in an American courtroom. As the book title indicates, Christian Zionism and its dispensational theology are in the dock and are indicted and proven to be guilty of perverting the gospel and Jesus Christ's central role in salvation history. Although the book gives an historical and theological analysis of Christian Zionism in Britain and America, its main feature is the presentation of New Testament evidence from the ministry of Jesus and apostolic evidence from Luke's Gospel-Acts of the Apostles, Paul's Romans-Galatians letters, the Hebrews Exhortation and John's Gospel. In the light of this NT evidence, the existence today of pseudo-Christian Zionism with its new unorthodox dispensational theology in the evangelical community is ironic. Jesus' theology of the "good news of the kingdom of God" and apostolic testimony show that Christian Zionism perverts the gospel today in the same way that Judaizers perverted the gospel by adding the requirements of Judaism to the gospel in the first century. The Judaism-gospel conflict in the NT, therefore, is the biblical model used in this study for understanding a key historical setting of the early church and its apostolic documents. It provides a firm evangelical basis for evaluating Christian Zionism's retro-theology that returns to the pre-Christian religion of Judaism. The Judaism-gospel conflict in the NT is like an "elephant in the room" of evangelicals, due to an excessive Israel-influence among American evangelicals. Its resurrection exposes the Christian Zionist movement for what it is-a renewal of Judaism in the evangelical community today.The book features an evangelical "missionary viewpoint" in its analysis of the "perfect storm" of Israel-influence in American society and also in the evangelical community. The book gives the history of the emergence and ironic existence and influence of pseudo-Christian Zionism and the dispensational theology of J.N. Darby among evangelicals. The book's message is essential for helping evangelicals to think "Christianly" about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and come to a Christian view of the conflict. Just as the world-mission of the Church in the first century was jeopardized by the Judaizer's narrow Jewish-oriented gospel in the Gentile world, so it is in jeopardy again today with pseudo-Christian Zionism's Israel-centered gospel. It is important that evangelicals engage in a robust mission among 2.5 billion Muslims in the world today; they must hear Jesus' universal "good news of the kingdom of God."
Author Biography
Paul Pomerville served as a missionary to Asia and Europe for thirteen years and as Graduate Professor and Department Chairman of Christian Missions and Cross-Cultural Communications at the Assemblies of God Seminary for two years. He is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World Mission with a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies. His doctoral dissertation was about the international Charismatic Movement and it won the theology prize at the School of World Mission; it was published by Hendrickson Publishers under the title The Third Force in Missions. Most of the author's professional life has been involved in the quest to understand culture and its influence on people. His experience with culture has always been a mixture of Professional experience with cultures in the field and academic studies. Having pursued a two-track career in law enforcement and the Christian ministry, further credentials for writing about the impact of Western/American culture comes from seven years training police in cultural diversity in the United States, and another seven years training police in Indonesia, East Timor and Bosnia Herzegovina. Paul is retired and currently lives on the Island of Bali in Indonesia.
