Leviathan and Zionism

Gen. 1:28 says that the Bible created man to "subdue the earth." This tells us that apart from man, the earth was chaotic like a jungle and in need to organization and purpose. In other words, man was to build the Kingdom of God so that the glory of God could be manifested in the whole earth.

The philosophyer, Thomas Hobbes, in his 1651 book, "The Leviathan," believed that man was part of the chaotic jungle and that certain elite men had the inherent right to subdue other men to bring order. This philosophy comes from the ancient idea first conceived by Nimrod, who subdued other men under him to form the prototype Babylonian Kingdom. This philosophy came to be firmly fixed in the minds of men until the Protestant Reformation just a few hundred years ago. America was the product and political expression of its concept of equality and inalienable rights of man.

Wayne Holstad's book, "Leviticus v. Leviathan", subtitled, "Choosing Our Sovereign," is a legal history of how we came to be ruled by Leviathan after such a hopeful start in 1776. In dealing with the Supreme Court's reinterpretation of the First Amendment to mean excluding God from government, he writes on page 10,

"Until 1947, the American people and all branches of government had a consistent and undebatable understanding of what the Establishment Clause meant.

"Since first ratified, numerous attempts to redefine the First Amendment had failed. . . The last failed attempt was 1947.

"Then came 1947 and 'Everson' and the historical context was forgotten. In 'Everson,' the Supreme Court claimed that it had to interpret 'establishment' for the first time because the First Amendment was unclear about its meaning. (page 10)

Holstad is referring to the 1947 Supreme Court ruling known as "Everson v. Board of Education." This crucial ruling put America on an entirely new foundation apart from Jesus Christ and paved the way for the cultural revolution of the 1960's and for Roe v. Wade of 1973 permitting abortion.

I find it interesting that this most crucial ruling came in the same year that the United Nations passed the Palestinian Resolution (Nov. 29, 1947), which led to the creation of the Israeli state on May 14, 1948. Is this just a coincidence? Or is the Israeli state, with its Zionist philosophy, another political consequence of our rejection of God?

Not only Zionism, but Judaism itself is founded upon the principle that Jews are inherently superior to non-Jews. Not all Jews adhere to this principle, of course, any more than all Americans hold one view or the other. Yet their religion and culture is based on the principle of inherent inequality. Furthermore, Christian evangelicals and pentecostals have bought into this inequality principle as well, holding that the Jews are inherently superior and "chosen" by God to rule the world of ordinary people, the "gentiles." They have a divine right to rule, regardless of whether they know Jesus Christ or not, simply because of their race or religion. This is a wholesale forsaking of the original and unique American concept on which this nation was founded.

While the founding fathers of America used the Bible and the Divine Law (as interpreted by Jesus in the New Testament) to form the foundational American theory of equality, Judaism uses the Talmud--which is the "traditions of men" that destroy Scripture (Mark 7:9).

Dr. Israel Shahak, professor emeritus of organic chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote in his book, "Jewish History, Jewish Religion," page 36,

"There is yet another misconception about Judaism which is particularly common among Christians, or people heavily influenced by Christian tradition and culture. This is the misleading idea that Judaism is a 'biblical religion'; that the Old Testament has in Judaism the same central place and legal authority which the Bible has for Protestant or even Catholic Christianity."

On page 95, he refers to "The Book of Education" written by a 14th century rabbi in Spain:

"In 322, dealing with the duty to keep a Gentile slave enslaved for ever (whereas a Jewish slave must be set free after seven years) the following explanation is given:

"And at the root of this religious obligation [is the fact that] the Jewish people are the best of the human species, created to know their Creator and worship Him, and worthy of having slaves to serve them."

Not only are Jews said to be superior to other races, but the men are said to be superior to women as well. Dr. Shahak says on page 88, "all Gentile women are presumed to be prostitutes.'" Again, he says, "Gentiles are presumed to be congenital liars, and are disqualified from testifying in a rabbinical court.

On page 96 he writes: "Anyone who lives in Israel knows how deep and widespread these attitudes of hatred and cruelty toward all Gentiles are among the MAJORITY of Israeli Jews."

It is widely taught in rabbinic circles that non-Jews have "satanic souls." The popular Rabbi Schneerson taught this openly in New York to the day he died in 1994.

Even as there is no inherent equality before God in Judaism, neither is there equality of justice. Judaistic justice is not biblical, where God sternly commands the judges to administer equal justice and not to oppress foreigners. Dr. Shahak tells us on page 90,

"Robbery (with violence) is strictly forbidden if the victim is Jewish. However, robbery of a Gentile by a Jew is not forbidden outright, but only under certain circumstances such as 'when the Gentiles are not under our rule', but is permitted 'when they are under our rule'. Rabbinical authorities differ among themselves as to the precise details of the circumstances under which a Jew may rob a Gentile, but the whole debate is concerned only with the relative power of Jews and Gentiles, rather than with universal considerations of justice and humanity. This may explain why so very few rabbis have protested against the robbery of Palestinian property in Israel; it was backed by overwhelming Jewish power."

I suggest that there is a link between American Christian support for Judaism and Zionism and the fact that God has permitted Americans (especially Christians) to lose their inalienable rights that used to be secured by the Constitution. The critical time was in 1947 when the guacamole hit the fan.

As Christians, our goal is to establish the Kingdom of God--not the Kingdom of the Jews or any other ethnic group that thinks of itself as privileged and inherently superior. In this Kingdom, the middle wall of partition has been broken down (Eph. 2:14). That was a wall in the temple court that separated Jews from non-Jewish believers. That wall was never sanctioned in the Divine Law. It was built by men who had put away the law and had substituted in its place the traditions of men.

Though many evangelicals and pentecostals today have decided to allow even Christian Jews to rebuild that wall of partition, and consider Jews to be superior, I utterly reject that proposition on biblical grounds. I am more than willing to live in a Kingdom where Jews who have accepted Jesus Christ may be my equal; but I am not willing to work to establish a kingdom of Jews where I am inferior to them and have unequal justice--even if men try to call that the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom will be ruled by overcomers of all nations, not because they are inherently superior, but because their character is Christ-like and they are able to dispense equal justice for all according to Biblical law.