The concept that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are different is a foundational concept of Marcionism.  The error of following the heretical theology of Marcionism is expressed in many ways today- even by many who would reject the label of being Marcionites.  

Examples of such expressions would be believing that God is less wrathful and more merciful after Jesus has come; and/or believing that Jesus taught an allegedly higher, better morality than the Law of Moses taught.  

We’ve dealt with these things much in several of our other studies, yet the point I want to make now is that even many who reject even the more insidious, subtle expressions of Marcionism still believe in a strange variation of this heretical theology.

By that strange variation, I mean Zionism; supporting the modern nation of Israel and Jews who reject Jesus Christ and treating them as if they are God’s chosen people.  When Zionism is taught as an aspect of Christianity, it might be called Christian Zionism.

How is this a variation of Marcionism?  

Whereas Marcionism teaches that God changed from the times of the Old Testament to the time of the appearance of Jesus Christ, Christian Zionism practically teaches that God changed His mind about the Jewish nation and the natural Jewish people after He rejected them in AD 70 by causing the Second Jewish Temple to be destroyed then.

This judgment in AD 70 had been foreshadowed upon the Jewish nation through the destruction of the First Temple.  It was even warned of afterwards right in the Old Testament Scriptures; and that warning was echoed by John the Baptist, Jesus, and Christ’s Apostles (this is also covered in several of our other studies).  

Before the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, God told the Jews through Jeremiah that their captivity in Babylon must last for 70 years.  

Jeremiah 25:1-11: “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; The which Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.  And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.  They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever (my note- this land was obviously given conditionally- that is why they were told they needed to turn from their evil way in order to dwell in the land): And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.   Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.  Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.  Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.  And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

Note that 70 years of being removed from the land was the precedent that God sent down here.  That was the sentence imposed by God upon the Jews.  They would be rebelling to even hope or plan to come back sooner.  

Read Jeremiah chapter 29 along these lines (while understanding that some of the Jews were carried away to Babylon approximately 11 years before the others were- and the things in Jeremiah 29 are to those who were carried away earlier).

Reading from Jeremiah 29:8-14: “For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.  For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord.  For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end (my note- this verse in its context presents a much different picture than what is typically presented by the cheap grace/Prosperity Gospel preachers when they quote it as part of their deceitful message).  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.  And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”

Daniel got the message.  God had imposed a sentence of judgment; a minimum amount of time of captivity for the Jews.  Daniel recognized that human cooperation was essential for the captivity to return; but he also recognized and accepted that return would not happen in righteousness until 70 years had expired (see his prayer in Daniel 9:1-19).

Until the Jews’ captivity in Babylon was turned away, the Jews were rejected and cursed by God.  Obviously.  Daniel’s prayer of confession pleading with God to turn away the Jews’ captivity basically admitted this.  The prayer was pointless otherwise.  

Jeremiah 6:26-30 (this is before the first destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity in Babylon happened): “O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.  I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.  They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.  The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.  Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them.”

Lamentations 5:17-22 (this is the very end of the Book of Lamentations describing Jerusalem under God’s judgment- expressed most by the destruction of its Temple): “For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.  Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.  Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.  Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?  Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.  But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth (angry) against us.”

70 years was the minimum time frame for the first captivity after the First Temple’s destruction.   

After the Second Temple had been rebuilt, the Messiah came to it (as was foretold in Malachi chapter 3 and Haggai chapter 2).  The Jewish nation did not receive Him.  Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed 40 years later in AD 70.  These things are indisputable.  

There was also a precedent explicitly set down by Jesus Christ related to how God would forsake Jerusalem and reject the Jewish nation after the Second Temple’s destruction.  

The precedent set down by Jesus is that unless the Jews as a people welcome Him as their Messiah, then they remain forsaken and rejected by God.  

Considering how the vast majority of modern Jews and the modern nation of Israel refuse to bow to their rightful King Jesus Christ, Christian Zionism is thus irrational as well as wicked.

Luke 19:41-44: “And when he (Jesus, this is very shortly before He was crucified) was come near, he beheld the city (Jerusalem), and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!  but now they are hid from thine eyes.  For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

Matthew 23:33-39: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?  Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.  Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

There is a huge and irrational disconnect in the mind of the Christian Zionist from the evil Jews in the Bible and the Jewish nation’s rejection of Jesus Christ.  This is evident from their strange support of modern Israel and their strange belief that natural Jews who do not worship Jesus Christ in spirit and truth are God’s chosen people.  

To call the Jews God’s chosen people still; and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, as if it is God’s city, like it had been before when the Temple stood there, is not heeding the precedent laid down by God.  

Not heeding this precedent essentially is a practical way of attempting to justify the Jews in their rejection of Jesus Christ.  It is really a strange and wicked variation of Marcionism (as if God has changed His mind about the unrepentant Jewish people and nation at some point between AD 70 and today).

To go against this precedent is like contending against the precedent of Cain being banned from the presence of the Lord and sent to dwell in the Land of Nod as a fugitive and a vagabond for his murder of Abel, it is like contending against the precedent of the Israelites being sentenced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years in Numbers chapter 14 (and you can read that chapter and see how they were told at that time that going up to try to take the land would be rebellion against the commandment of the Lord), and going against this precedent is also like contending against the precedent set down through Joshua concerning the curse involved in rebuilding Jericho after Israel (when it was following the Lord) conquered Jericho and destroyed it.

There is much more to the sin of supporting Zionism due to the manifold sins which the Jews and their accomplices have committed in their Zionist endeavor.  

Not heeding the precedent set in AD 70 is in itself enough to make Zionism irrational and evil.

Christian Zionists need to repent, because (at the very least) they are fighting against the precedent set down by the King whom they profess to serve.  They are siding with His enemies in seeking to overthrow the verdict which that precedent, the precedent of AD 70 and the statements made in the Bible in relation to that judgment, have established.  

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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