Israel faces REAL genocide and extinction from the dozens of Arab and Muslim states that surround it, and the various terrorist organisations that have declared war on it. Israel has a fundamental right to exist and to defend itself against such a satanic onslaught. And the Christian can support this, while even holding to differing views on theology and eschatology.

There is never a shortage of debates about politics and religion. As someone with an interactive website featuring 7000 articles and 91,500 published comments, I know all about this. I have lost count of how often an angry atheist or secularist or non-Christian will come here trying to tell me what Jesus meant, what the Bible teaches, or what correct theology is. Almost always ignorance and not expertise is being paraded.

Current heated discussions about Israel and Middle East have both biblical and non-biblical dimensions. Both can be weighed into, but one finds many who are just too far out of their depth. This is especially the case when someone who clearly has no biblical or theological understanding comes along pretending that he does.

A case in point is the radical libertarian John Ruddick who recently joined with other Israel-haters and Hamas-supporters on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Pretending that was a ‘freedom ‘march’ was one of the bigger jokes, but when he starts pontificating on theology and Scripture, it gets even more ludicrous. Thankfully many members of the Libertarian Party left after that episode.

He thinks he is some authority on what the Bible teaches, and that he is some sort of theological expert. But it is clear that he doesn’t have a clue. His main religious ‘argument’ against Israel and the Jews is to make the bizarre claim that ‘Christian Zionism’ – whatever that is – is a “heresy”; to insist it is all due to the “perverse Scofield Bible”; and to claim we just need to “read the Sermon on the Mount”. Good grief.

Um, there is nothing heretical about simply stating that the modern state of Israel, like every other state, has a right to exist, to defend itself, and not cave in to those who have sworn to annihilate it. And one can leave theology and eschatology out of this case if need be. See much more on this here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/07/21/five-home-truths-on-israel-and-the-jews/

 It is unlikely Ruddick has ever read anything by the American pastor C. I. Scofield (1843-1921). And if his ‘Bible,’ then which one? There of course is more than one version. In 1909 the Scofield Reference Bible was published, with a revised version appearing in 1917. Oxford University Press still publishes it today.

I have both and have read both carefully, although I no longer am as committed to this particular point of view. He, along with John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), popularised what is known as dispensational premillennialism. But of course classical or historical premillennialism (chiliasm), was long held to, including by Justin Martyr (c100-c165), Irenaeus (c130-c200), Tertullian (160-240), Isaac Newton (1643-1727), Cotton Mather (1663-1728), and Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885).

And here is a simple truth that folks like Ruddick need to get up to speed with. Christians who hold to dispensationalism are not heretics, nor are those who do not hold to it. These are views which Christians can and do differ on. Having different understandings of the end times, and different interpretive frameworks to run with is the norm in church history.

The same with covenant theology versus dispensationalism, and the same with the various millennial views. Godly and learned Christians over the ages have held to all of these various positions. But see more in this two-part article: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/11/30/on-the-millennium-part-one/

Thus any claims that earlier believers never thought that God had a place for ethnic Israel and this is just some Scofield con job is the height of theological foolishness and historical ignorance. Indeed, many who preceded Scofield and were decidedly non-dispensational have believed that God is not yet finished with the people of Israel. A few quick quotes will have to suffice here:

“When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation, . . . which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first born in God’s family, as Jews are the first born, what the prophet declares must be fulfilled, especially in them; . . . it is to be ascribed to the preeminence of that nation, who God had preferred to all other nations….” John Calvin (1509-1564) in his commentary on Romans

“There is a day coming when there shall be a national conversion of the Jews or Israelites. The now blinded and rejected Jews shall at length be converted into the faith of Christ, and join themselves to the Christian Church.” Thomas Boston (1676-1732) from a 1716 sermon

“Jewish infidelity shall be overthrown…the Jews in all their dispersions shall cast away their old infidelity, and shall have their hearts wonderfully changed, and abhor themselves for their past unbelief and obstinacy. They shall flow together to the blessed Jesus, penitently, humbly, and joyfully owning him as their glorious King and only Savior. 

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