Christian Zionism - New Life Tabernacle of Chattanooga

‘The Bible also makes clear that Jerusalem - the focal point of the
endtimes fighting - will be vanquished by Israel’s enemies in the hours
just before the Lord comes. In fact, it seems that the destruction of the
holy city is the final straw that angers God and provokes Jesus’
return.’ 912
If such an appalling prospect is imminent as Lindsey suggests, it is surprising
that he does not invoke Jesus’ warnings in Matthew 24 to ‘flee to the
mountains’ and encourage Jerusalemites today, as Jesus did then, to save
themselves from the terrifying onslaught to come. Lindsey does, however,
offer some comfort to the survivors. During the millennium, he promises,
‘Jerusalem will be the spiritual centre of the entire world ... all people of the
earth will come annually to worship Jesus who will rule there’, indeed he
claims it will become something of a tourist attraction. 913 Lindsey’s predictions
highlight the contradiction, rarely admitted by Christian Zionists, that their
futurist eschatology leads them to expect both the exaltation and destruction
of most Jewish people.
Taking a stand against God’s plans for Jerusalem ‘spells disaster’,
claims Jarvilehto of the ICEJ. Quoting Zechariah 12:3, ‘I will make Jerusalem
an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure
themselves’, she believes God is currently using the status of Jerusalem as a
test of people’s obedience to the Bible. 914 As with other prophecies previously
cited, whether this particular text is intended to be interpreted in such a way is
debatable since the next verse goes on to warn that God will strike every
horse with panic and every rider with madness. Most dispensational
commentators, however, understand this prophecy to be describing a future
siege of Jerusalem preceding the battle of Armageddon. 915
5.3 Jerusalem Assessed
For dispensationalists especially, Jerusalem appears as non-negotiable to
Israel as Zion is to Zionism. The New Testament, however, knows nothing of
a preoccupation with a nationalistic and materialistic earthly Jerusalem, let
alone Zionism as it exists today. Access to heaven no longer has anything to
912 Ibid., p262.
913 Lindsey, Israel, op.cit., p165.
914 Jarvilehto, op.cit., p58.
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