Christian Zionism
In endorsing the paper "Christian Zionism: A Historical Analysis and Critique," the 2004 General Synod also recommended that it be used as a study guide in congregations.
 Christian Zionism is marked by an interpretive approach to scripture that places the modern state of Israel at the center of God's redemptive purposes. Those who hold to this teaching represent a powerful political lobby in the United States. They have consistently blocked any attempt to bring about a reconciled peace between Israelis and Palestinians through their nearly uncritical support for the most expansionist aims of the Israeli government. "Christian Zionism: A Historical Analysis and Critique," written by John Hubers, supervisor of missions to the Middle East, explores the historical development of this movement and critiques the theology that undergirds it.
Drawing on the work of evangelical biblical scholars, most notably Donald Wagner, Stephen Sizer, and Gary Burge, Hubers notes in the paper that the unique and controversial premillenial eschatology of the nineteenth-century Irish Anglican priest John Nelson Darby has had a seminal influence both on the establishment of and ongoing support for the modern state of Israel.
 Key nineteenth-century British political figures came under its influence, leading them to lend support to the Jewish Zionist movement begun by Theodore Herzl. Transplanted to America, where it would come to have even greater influence through "prophesy conferences," the teaching of conservative evangelical Bible schools such as the Moody Bible Institute, and the publication of the hugely influential Scofield Bible, Darby's "dispensationalism" would cement in many fundamentalist evangelical minds the conviction that the reestablishment of a Jewish state in Palestine is the key element in events leading to the second coming of Christ.
Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth, coming as it did on the heels of the rapid fire victory of the Israeli military in the '67 war, gave new impetus to this movement. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and other fundamentalist leaders became at this time political advocates for the state of Israel in its most expansionist mode.
 Hubers notes that Christian Zionists like Robertson and Falwell have failed to address the injustice meted out to Palestinian Arabs who were driven off their land to make way for the Jewish state. Worse still, they call on Israel to take even more land through their insistence that the Jewish state be expanded to the fullest extent of its biblical borders.
Hubers notes that the most important critique of this movement is a biblical critique, as Darby's reading of scripture distorts the interpretation of the biblical message mediated through Jesus.
The core of Christ's message, says Hubers, is reconciliation, which makes Christian Zionist support for an exclusivistic Jewish state with apartheid-like tendencies questionable at best.
"The true prophetic word for Israel and the Palestinians is the clarion call echoed in every prophetic book of the Bible calling for reconciliation based on justice," he says.
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