The CHRISTIAN-ZIONISM HERESY
---His BEATITUD the PATRIACH of JERUSALEM: "We categorically reject Christian
Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupts the biblical message of
love, justice and reconciliation. We further reject the contemporary alliance
of Christian Zionist leaders and organizations with elements in the governments
of Israel and the United States that are presently imposing their unilateral
preemptive borders and domination over Palestine. This inevitably leads to
unending cycles of violence that undermine the security of all peoples of
the Middle East and the rest of the world. We reject the teachings of Christian
Zionism that facilitate and support these policies as they advance racial
exclusivity and perpetual war rather than the gospel of universal love, redemption
and reconciliation taught by Jesus Christ. The establishment of the illegal
settlements and the construction of the Separation Wall on confiscated Palestinian
land undermine the viability of a Palestinian state as well as peace and
security in the entire region. We call upon all Churches that remain silent,
to break their silence and speak for reconciliation with justice in the Holy
Land. Therefore, we commit ourselves to the following principles as an alternative
way: We call upon all people to reject the narrow world view of Christian
Zionism and other ideologies that privilege one people at the expense of
others. With urgency we warn that Christian Zionism and its alliances are
justifying colonization, apartheid and empire-building.
---Rev. Fr. Michael Beuaumont: “The major ambiguity
on the covenant or testament, that is, the affirmation that modern Judaism,
the Judaism after Christ, is "Judaism" pure and simple is a gross error,
of which a single consequence suffices to show its falsity. The Judaism of
the Old Testament was the true divine religion, the true supernatural revelation
preparatory to the coming of the Messiah.When, in the fullness of time, the
Messiah sent by God came, He replaced (by assuming it) the first, provisional
testament by the new and eternal testament. Henceforth He would address
Himself not just to a particular race of men, but to all men of good will.
The children of the Chosen People, the Israelites, evidently had their place,
and an eminent place, in the new and universal People of God, in the Catholic
Church. The Jews of the old Judaism-Abraham, Moses, David, Esdras,
Judas Maccabeus, John the Baptist, etc.-had a covenant with God. This is
an absolutely true proposition integral to the Catholic Faith.
The Jews of modern Judaism, the Judaism of the refusal of the Messiah, have
a covenant with God. This is an absolutely false proposition which is contrary
to the Catholic Faith. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved: he that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mk. 16:16). It will be
objected: "The gifts of God are without repentance" (Rom. 11:29). Now, since
God concluded a covenant with the Jewish people, this covenant continues
despite the infidelity of this rebellious people. This objection is indeed
true. Yes, God's covenant with the Jewish people continues. But (and this
is the fundamental distinction) it continues in its current state, which
is to say, under the form of the new and eternal testament in Jesus Christ
which God established as continuation and replacement of the first, provisional
testament.”
--POPE PIUS XII: (MYSTICI CORPORIS CHRISTI): “And first of all,
by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old
Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries,
enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world
in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior was preaching
in a restricted area - He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of
the House of Israel - the Law and the Gospel were together in force;
but on the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened
the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, establishing the New Testament
in His blood shed for the whole human race. On the Cross then the Old
Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, in order to give
way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified
ministers; and although He had been constituted the Head of the whole human
family in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, it is by the power of the Cross
that our Savior exercises fully the office itself of Head of His Church.”
The New Covenant established by Christ is the New and Only Covenant today.
---- Holy Bible: “Christ annuls the First Covenant to establish the
Second....For, if that First Covenant had been faultless, then there would
be no place for the Second. They did not persevere in My Covenant, said the
Lord, and I disregarded them (Heb. 10:9; 8:7-9).”
---COMPENDIUM, CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH:
153. Why is the Church the ‘people of God’?
The Church is the ‘people of God’ because it pleased God to sanctify and
save men not in isolation but by making them into one people gathered together
by the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
154. What are the characteristics of the people of God?
One becomes a member of this people through faith in Christ and Baptism.
This people has for its origin God the Father; for its head Jesus Christ;
for its hallmark the dignity and freedom of the sons of God; for its law
the new commandment of love; for its mission to be the salt of the earth
and the light of the world; and for its destiny the Kingdom of God, already
begun on earth.
---Catholic Catechism: 762 The remote preparation for this gathering
together of the People of God begins when he calls Abraham and promises that
he will become the father of a great people. Its immediate preparation begins
with Israel's election as the People of God. By this election, Israel is
to be the sign of the future gathering of All nations. But the prophets accuse
Israel of breaking the covenant and behaving like a prostitute. They announce
a new and eternal covenant. "Christ instituted this New Covenant." (LG 9;
cf. Hos 1; Isa 1:2-4; Jer 2; 31:31-34; Isa 55:3.)
--CATHOLIC CATHECISM: 804 One enters into the People of God
by faith and Baptism. "All men are called to belong to the new People of
God" (LG 13), so that, in Christ, "men may form one family and ONE
People of God" (AG 1).
---CATHOLIC CATHECISM: 783 Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father
anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king.
The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and
bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.
Catechism: 782 - One becomes a member of this people not
by a physical birth, but by being "born anew," a birth "of water and the
Spirit,"203 that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptism.
---LUMEN GENTIUM (Second Vatican Council): "Behold the days shall come
said the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel, and
with the house of Judah . . . I will give my law in their bowels, and I will
write it in their heart, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
For all of them shall know Me, from the least of them even to the greatest,
said the Lord. Christ instituted this new covenant, the new testament, that
is to say, in His Blood, calling together a people made up of Jew and gentile,
making them one, not according to the flesh but in the Spirit. This was to
be the new People of God. For those who believe in Christ, who are
reborn not from a perishable but from an imperishable seed through the word
of the living God, not from the flesh but from water and the Holy Spirit,
are finally established as "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a purchased people . . . who in times past were not a people, but are now
the people of God"…. For the nurturing and constant growth of the People
of God, Christ the Lord instituted in His Church a variety of ministries,
which work for the good of the whole body.
----CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: But however this may have been, His
intention in employing the term, hitherto used of the Hebrew people viewed
as a church, to denote the society He Himself was establishing cannot be
mistaken. It implied the claim that this society now constituted the true
people of God, that the Old Covenant was passing away, and that He, the promised
Messiah, was inaugurating a New Covenant with a New Israel. Who n times
past were not a people: but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained
mercy: but now have obtained mercy.--- Revelation 18:4; 21:3).
By their admission to the Church, the Gentiles have been grafted in and form
part of God's fruitful olive-tree, while apostate Israel has been broken
off (Romans 11:24). St. Paul, writing to his Gentile converts at Corinth,
terms the ancient Hebrew Church "our fathers" (1 Corinthians 10:1).
---Fr. Majdi al-Siryani, LL.D.: “God’s election of Israel was not
an end in itself but rather as a means for a universal goal. This idea is
intrinsic to the theology of the Old Testament. Furthermore, for the extra-majority
of the believers in the Bible, the restoration of Israel came true in a greater
spiritual reality, that is the coming of the Messiah and the election of
the Church. In this understanding, the realities of the Old Testament are
not abolished or replaced but raised to a greater reality. For any Christian
to accept the Israeli claims is to deny a basic dogma in Christian theology.”
---HOLY BIBLE: Matthew 21:33-43
When JESUS was in the Temple, he said to the chief priests and
elders:
33 Listen to another parable. A man was a house owner who planted a vineyard,
and set a hedge around it, and dug in it a wine press, and built a tower,
and rented it to tenant farmers, and went abroad.
34 When, however, the season of the fruit arrived, he sent his servants to
the farmers to take his fruit. 35 And, the farmers took hold of his servants,
one indeed they beat, one, however, they killed, one they stoned.
36 Again, he sent servants, more than the first, and they treated them in
the same way. 37 Later on, however, he sent his son, saying 'They will respect
my son.'
38 But the farmers, seeing the son, said to themselves, 'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and we might gain his inheritance.' 39 And, taking
hold of him, they threw (him) outside of the vineyard and they killed (him).
40 So, when the master of the vineyard arrives, what will he do to those
farmers?"
41 They said to HIM, "The evil men, he will utterly destroy them and the
vineyard he will rent to other farmers who will give to him the fruit of
their seasons."
42 JESUS said to them, "But did you not ever read in the writings (of the
Bible): The stone which the builders rejected, this became the cornerstone.
From the Lord this happened, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?
43 Because of this I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.”
The Parable is an allegory -- a story in which each of the elements has a
hidden or symbolic meaning:
− The landowner/Lord is God
− The vineyard is the nation of Israel
− The tenants are the people of Israel
− The servants are the prophets
− The son is Jesus
− The other tenants are the Christians or New People of God”