A terrible tragedy will take place March 5-9 in the holy city of Bethlehem. Our Lord’s city of birth will host a conference called, “Christ at the Checkpoint.” Which Christ? Not the Christ of the Bible. The premise of the event is that the Palestinians live under brutal Israeli “occupation.” It is supposedly so bad that Israel is accused of apartheid-like treatment of the Palestinians such as the “separation” experienced in South Africa. The symbol for all of this is the wall of separation between Palestinian territories and Israeli land. Their perception is that this represents a military checkpoint. Israel’s perception — and reality — is that the wall saves Israeli lives.

Some 30 Christian leaders will be gathering at the Bethlehem Bible College to raise the banner of “Palestinian Liberation Theology” as the only true hope for reconciliation and peace in the Middle East. The target of the speakers will also be Israel’s divine right to the land.

“Christian Zionism” will be “brought into the conversation” during the conference–but you can bet not in a friendly manner. No matter how benign Christian Zionism is, the Left side of Christianity’s aisle believes we look forward to Armageddon and we blindly root for the Israelis because they’re the chief players on the end-time stage and feel Israel has a right to their land. If the truth were known, we’re a puny band of evangelical Christians who are even outcasts in most of the major denominations today.

Christian Zionists are roundly scolded by this crowd. You can read that here. Our biggest problem is that we take the Bible literally! When did that almost become a crime? “Checkpoint” folks say we Christian Zionists support the “occupation” but it isn’t an occupation! We rejoice that on May 14, 1948, God just kept His word. Tony Campolo scolds us, too. We’re blind followers of Schofield and Darby and we need to get over it.

“Christ at the Checkpoint” says Christian Zionism is a political movement that is “ethnocentric,” privileging one people at the expense of others. Christianity calls believers in Jesus to focus on building God’s kingdom on earth, says Checkpoint publicity, and not futuristic speculations. It is tragic how this bunch sweeps under the rug God’s continued covenant with Israel. These folks have no appreciation of the “last days” spoken of so frequently in the Bible. “Christ at the Checkpoint” theologians do not want to consider Jesus as the Messiah of the Jewish people, someday returning to earth to set up His kingdom in Jerusalem to rule as the last Davidic King.  Then they would have to acknowledge the continuance of the Abrahamic covenant with the modern state of Israel.

“Palestinian Liberation Theology” is heralded, however. It is all about the Palestinian struggle for “freedom” from their “occupied land.” Followers of this sentiment see the Israelis as an “occupier” trying to oppress the Palestinians. Reality shows that Israel has worked them into their society, given them seats in the Israeli parliament, and given them a decent standard of living. Israel gave the Palestinians so much freedom that they let them elect the terror group Hamas to govern them. As a thank you, Hamas shells Israeli towns and settlements regularly. This conference will tell the world — and the church — that Israel brings this on due to their repression.

Many of the participants are part of the “religious Left” but some evangelicals show up yearly, including Lynne Hybels, wife of Willow Creek’s Pastor Bill Hybels. We believe she should know better.

The most troubling person at such events is Vicar Stephen Sizer who has a war against the Jews as well as Christian Zionists. It seems he cannot — or perhaps chooses not — to see the brutality of Israel’s enemies. Sizer writes books against Christians who stand with Israel but he has a distinct aversion towards talking about Israelis being brutally slaughtered. To him, the now-infamous wall represents repression rather than safety.

To balance his position, Sizer needed to speak out a year ago when a family was wiped out in Itamar, Israel. The Fogel family has become the symbol of Palestinian aggression, not Israeli aggression. In watching sessions of past Checkpoint conferences, I hear little or no reference to the root of the conflict. I hear a one-sided argument that is decidedly anti-Israel in tone and a case consistently made for Israel as Goliath slaying David every day.

The Checkpoint conference claims to oppose “all forms of violence and racism.” Yet a few of the Checkpoint speakers — including Sizer — have given me reason to question this. Why? In part because at least Sizer seems to be a defender of the Gaza flotilla sent to Israel in May 2010 by Turkish Islamists. Those on the Turkish boat headed for Gaza were lovers of jihad. Participants on that ship sang songs calling for the murder of Jews.

I maintain you cannot have conservative Christians take an event like “Christ at the Checkpoint” seriously when Stephen Sizer is on the program unless you have a blatant Christian Zionist like me on the ticket as well. Someone needs to challenge this guy and reveal just who is the real racist. Sizer does not like Jews.

Critics of this event are scorned for not considering the issues of peace, justice, and reconciliation. The truth is, we recognize only the millennial kingdom as a time of peace and justice. Reconciliation with the Palestinians is not possible due to their corrupt leadership. The Arab world has wanted the Palestinian people to be political pawns for 60 years so they stuck them in squalid refugee camps decades ago. That is the real reason there can be no peace. Hard line Hamas and Fatah leadership stand in the way,  not the Israelis. This conference will not address that.

The tragic roots of Replacement Theology can be cited as the fuel driving events like this. The church did not replace Israel. If God could forsake the Jew, He could also turn His back on the Christian. Replacement Theology allowed the church to go along with Adolph Hitler 75 years ago. God forbid the church participates — or looks the other way — in some future Holocaust. Frankly, Replacement Theology replaces reality.

Even some solid evangelicals were perplexed as to how all the promises to Israel could unfold before the 1940s. When it blossomed in 1948, students of the Bible should have collectively stood up and cheered and not jeered as a few denominations did. Today the “miracle of the millennium” is living proof that God is not a liar. “Christ at the Checkpoint” will not talk about this. Instead they will grumble about Israel’s brutal “occupation.” Jesus lived and ministered in that “occupied territory” but that won’t change their perspective.

Words like “occupation” and “checkpoint” are incendiary — almost war-like.  I realize my response could be as well. Ever feel like you can’t take it anymore? With apologies, I acknowledge that’s where I’m at.

In April of 2010 I wrote my e-newsletter on the new film titled, Whose Side Is God On? In its own promotion, it aimed at changing the end-time views of evangelicals and the theology that says the Jews are God’s chosen people and that they have a Divine right to the land of Israel. The movie’s spokesman, Porter Speakman, explains that there is a biblical alternative for Christians who want to love and support the people of Israel. He says that there is a theology that doesn’t favor one people group over another. Instead, it promotes peace and reconciliation for both Jews and Palestinians unlike “Christian Zionism” that is outspoken in its favoritism toward all things Jewish, based on biblical verses.

I am not sure why Israel can’t have a little group of supporters. We have just seen the world get behind the Palestinian push for statehood in the U.N. But what really troubles me is that the bashers of Christian Zionists don’t really care one whit about Israel’s friends. They can’t stand us, in fact. According to the film’s Web site, pro-Israel Christians like me have helped create “the largest refugee population in the world.” We are participating in “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinians, and we sanction “Israeli apartheid.” Does this sound like the film is unbiased?

With God On Our Side tries to provide a portrait of desperate Palestinians but doesn’t spend a nanosecond explaining that their plight is at the hands of their corrupt and selfish leadership, starting with Mahmoud Abbas who has done a song and dance in the U.S. in recent days. There is no reference to the new terror state in Gaza run by Hamas or the fact that Palestinians danced in the streets with joy on 9/11. The promotion in the film and its Web site of Stephen Sizer, well known for his blatant anti-Semitism, dashes any hope that the film cares proportionately for the Jew and the Palestinian. Sadly, the so-called Bible Answer Man, Hank Hanegraaff, loves to give Sizer credibility on his radio program which serves to gain recruits for Israel-bashers. Hanegraaff’s Preterism is tough enough to swallow but calling my friends and me supporters of “apartheid” as well as “racists” takes the argument way too far.

Now that the film has had almost a two-year shelf life and global circulation, it has gained new and troubling advertisers. One is Frank Schaeffer, the son of the late Francis Schaeffer. If he speaks for a lot of people, times are scarier than I thought. He says in The Huffington Post, “My father was a key evangelical founder and leader of the American religious right. I grew up in a home where the ‘return of the Jews to Israel’ was seen as ‘proof’ of ‘God fulfilling prophecy’ in order to expedite the return of Christ. I changed my mind and I changed my politics. I explain why I quit the evangelical movement in my book. I no longer believe that any ‘prophecy’ is being fulfilled in Israel or anywhere else. I don’t believe anyone is ‘chosen.’ If there is a God, then God either loves all people or none.”

Frank Schaeffer, most of the world believes as you do. Why can’t you folks allow a very tiny little band of Christian Zionists to stand with Israel? Why must you throw verbal stones at us? But it gets worse. I am not sure your dad would be proud.

“Speakman’s film presents an authentically Christian and evangelical perspective to the warmonger far right views,” he states. “As such, this film is literally the most important document of its kind — because it was made by an insider. It is the key to understanding why evangelicals have become the permanent party of war in the name of ‘helping Israel.’ ” Schaeffer doesn’t stop even here. He is about to get even more intense.

He says, “If we go to war with Iran, you’ll know why after watching this film. Hint: It won’t be to protect American interests. The film presents an opportunity for Christians of all denominations as well as Jews, Muslims, atheists — whomever — to engage for peace as vigorously as the Christian Zionists root for war.”

Wait! I’m not rooting for war! Wars are lethal. Are you rooting for war? I’m also not rooting for terror or any kind of violence. It is the Palestinians, whom Schaeffer and this film champion, who broke into an Israeli home in March and literally slaughtered the Fogel family, Jewish settlers. A young daughter came home at midnight to find rivers of blood and only one family member left. The intruders were careless and missed one.

Schaeffer says that it is American Christian Zionists who have driven American foreign policy over a cliff. He says we jeopardize America’s future due to our “hair-brained biblical prophecy beliefs.” Now, if Frances Schaeffer isn’t turning in his grave yet, he is about to. Frank says, “To a Christian Zionist, defending Israel is just a handy pretext for indulging their obsession: Egging on, even helping the fulfillment of biblical prophecies about the return of Christ. But their worst sin isn’t just embracing dumb theology but that they have enabled a nefarious group of losers (emphasis mine) to irreparably harm America and contribute to the needless killing of our men and women in uniform worldwide: The neo-conservatives.”

I do get it that today it is not cool to be a conservative, a neo-conservative (whatever that is), a Zionist, a prophecy buff, or an end-time watcher hanging on to my blessed hope. If we fit into any of these categories, we are among the “nefarious group of losers.” Even I don’t call theology I don’t agree with “dumb.” I might call it “unsound” or “unbiblical” or “man-made.” Five-year olds call ideas “dumb.” You really have to have an axe to grind to talk like Frank Schaeffer & Co and he clearly has an axe in his hand! He has called good people just about everything short of some four-letter words. We’re losers, hair-brained nuts, nefarious, obsessed, in favor of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, warmongers, racists, and fools. And, we control American foreign policy.

Well, it was American Christian evangelicals and Christian Zionists who sounded an alarm to be wary of the “Arab spring.” We warned that it was not a ploy for democracy– rather, an effort by the Muslim Brotherhood and other radicals to destabilize the Middle East and the world–and to unite and wipe out Israel.

So much for our influence. Nobody listened.