Volume 4 No 2 - Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

652 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 4:647being “brought near” or included through Jesus, now “fellow citizens . . .in God’s household.” Thus we are considered one people, one tree, onecommonwealth, one house, one family, all sons of Abraham . . . 10Similarly, and in striking contrast with those expressions of Christianitythat have sought to emphasize their disjuncture from their historical Jewish(or Hebraic) roots, Christian Zionism specifically highlights thosehistorical roots and encourages a Christian appreciation for them. ChristianZionists see themselves as profoundly indebted to the Jewish people as thesource of their own scripture, prophets, and Savior. As Pastor Bob 11explained to his Christian tour group in Israel:It’s important to realize that God has chosen Israel for specific purposes.He has chosen them to be a light to the nations. Many of us from theChristian Church think He has chosen them to have ultimately broughtforth a Jew by the name of Jesus. And I’m thankful . . . and I was thirtyyears old before I began to identify with this fact, that Jesus is Jewish, myBible is Jewish, all the prophets are very, very Jewish. That Christianityis Jewish. This was a revelation that changed my life. When I began tonot only understand that, but I began to realize that God has not onlychosen Israel for these purposes, I began to identify with how God haschosen those who are not Jewish, to bless the Jewish people. To honourthem. To love them. To serve them . . . Paul said that because of the richspiritual blessing he received through them—Jesus was Jewish, the Bibleis very Jewish—we owe them a material blessing.Using the olive tree metaphor of Romans, Willem Glashouwer, presidentof Christians for Israel International, brings these themes together andreminds his readers of Christian indebtedness to the Jewish foundation oftheir faith:We should celebrate two thousand years of Christianity with a deeply feltconviction of guilt concerning our treatment of the Jewish people. If Goddoes not save all the natural branches, He will not save all the engraftedwild branches either . . . and Gentile Christians may also be cut away.Those who look only to the New Testament, leaving out the Old, are likethose trying to build the second floor of a house, without building the10. David Parsons, Swords into Plowshares: Christian Zionism and the Battle ofArmageddon (Jerusalem: International Christian Embassy, n.d.), 27.11. All interviewees are identified by pseudonyms.