Accusations are
hurled against
Israel and the
pre-tribulation
rapture on a
regular basis. I
find them weekly
in my "In Box."
About Israel,
the accusations
are both from
the Christian
world and from
the secular
world. The first
argument
involving Israel
is spiritual in
nature;
the second is
from a purely
geopolitical
position.
The majority of
the churches who
claim
Christianity
today as their
home put forth
that modern
Israel is no
longer in God’s
favor. The Jews
as a race are
no longer
inheritors of
God’s promises
to the racial
descendants of
Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. These
hold that the
Church of Jesus
Christ now have
been
given those
former promises
because of
Israel’s
unbelief and
rejection of
their Messiah,
Jesus Christ.
This is known as
“replacement
theology” –i.e.,
the
Church has
replaced Israel
in God’s eternal
economy.
The secular
world rails
against the
modern state of
Israel as a
usurper of lands
in the Middle
East that the
Israel-haters
say belong to
those who have
primarily
inhabited that
land for the
past nearly two
millennia. The
world of
geopolitical
diplomacy, and
certainly the
Arabs and others
occupying that
area known as
“the Holy Land,”
are blood-oath
vowed against
Zionism, the
desire and
determination
for Jews to
reestablish
Israel in the
land it was
promised
by God. These
present-day Jews
believe–and they
are absolutely
correct—that it
is their land by
divine right.
The Scriptures
are
unequivocally
clear on
God’s promises
to His chosen
people.
Regarding the
constant
invective
against the
pre-tribulation
rapture I
receive
weekly–sometimes
daily—the
argument usually
centers on John
Nelson Darby.
He was a
preacher during
the 1800s whom
the angry
antagonists to
the pre-trib
rapture view
accuse as, at
best, being a
false prophet
who stole from
others
and made up the
rapture “theory”
out of whole
cloth, and at
worst, as a
demented
disciple of the
occult ravings
of a teen-age
witch who saw a
vision.
This is where
this terrific
work by Dr. Paul
Wilkinson steps
in with biblical
insights and,
I’m convinced,
Holy
Spirit-given
discernment on
these
much-argued-over
issues. I know
of no other book
in recent times
that so
profoundly and
specifically
speaks to these
crucial matters.
For Zion's Sake:
Christian
Zionism
and the Role of
John Nelson
Darby is, quite
frankly, the
definitive
source for
defense of
Zionism and of
Darby and the
truth of his
part in
formulating
the doctrine of
the
pre-tribulation
rapture. It is a
must-have for
the library of
every believer
who wants truth,
not hyperbole
and obfuscation
in studying
matters
involved.
The back cover
of For Zion's
Sake: Christian
Zionism and the
Role of John
Nelson Darby
encapsulates
what I found to
be the heart of
Wilkinson’s
superb
effort with this
work:
“By locating
Christian
Zionism firmly
within the
Evangelical
tradition, Paul
Wilkinson takes
issue with those
who have
irresponsibly
portrayed it as
a ‘totally
unbiblical
menace’ and as
the ‘Road-map to
Armageddon’.
Charting in
forensic detail
its origins and
historical
development, he
argues that
Christian
Zionism
lays the
biblical
foundation for
Israel’s
restoration and
Christ’s return.
No one has
contributed more
to this cause
than its leading
architect and
patron,
John Nelson
Darby, an
‘uncompromising
champion for
Christ’s glory
and God’s
truth’.
This
groundbreaking
book debunks
decades of
misrepresentation
and scholarship,
exploding the
myth that Darby
stole the
doctrine of the
pre-tribulation
Rapture
from his
contemporaries.
By revealing the
man and his
message, Paul
Wilkinson
vindicates Darby
and spotlights
the imminent
return of the
Lord Jesus
Christ
as the
centrepiece of
his theology…”.
Wilkinson delves
deeply, yet with
easy-to-understand
dissection of
Scripture and
historical fact
into how
inextricably
linked are God’s
two programs for
Israel and the
Church
established by
the Lord Jesus
Christ. He makes
understandable
the relationship
between these
two programs and
the
pre-tribulation
rapture so that
a reader of his
book, if he or
she refuses to
see the truth
the writer
unfolds, has, in
my view, a mind
desperately in
need of
spiritual
light.
I can and do
highly recommend
this book for
every
Christian’s
library. It will
give you the
ammunition
needed to combat
the scurrilous
attacks on God’s
truth about
Israel and
against the
pre-tribulation
rapture
teachings.
For Zion's Sake:
Christian
Zionism and the
Role of John
Nelson Darby
By Paul
Wilkinson
ISBN 978 1
84227 569 6
308 pages
To purchase the
book, go to:
