Crosstalk: July 28, 2017

​Dr. Tommy Ice is the director of the Pre-Trib Research Center which he co-founded in 1994 with Dr. Tim LaHaye. He has authored or co-authored over 30 books, written hundreds of articles and is a frequent conference speaker. He's also served as a pastor for 17 years. He appeared on Crosstalk to discuss his book, 'The Case for Zionism: Why Christians Should Support Israel'.

According to Dr. Ice, Zionism involves people, including Christians, who believe that God has given Israel the land of Israel.

There are Christian anti-Zionists. This goes back to the 2nd century of the early church when people began to say that the church was the new Israel. That developed into the belief that the church has replaced Israel (Replacement Theology or Supersessionism). This has been the majority view down through church history especially within the Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches.

Dr. Ice disagrees with Replacement Theology. He noted that there are 3 chapters in Romans where Paul says that God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Paul then goes on to note that their hardness is temporary and that sometime in the future all Israel will be saved. For Dr. Ice, that means every Jew that's alive toward the end of the tribulation will become a believer.

Dr. Ice's book teaches that the world has witnessed (in the last few years) the greatest increase of anti-semitism since WWII. Dr. Ice believes this to be especially true when you factor in the Islamic world. Up to about 70 years ago when Israel became a nation, anti-semitism involved hatred toward Jewish people. Today that includes hating the nation of Israel and Zionism.

The leaders of anti-semitism include Islamic people and Christians who believe in Replacement Theology. Although not all Christians in this group are anti-semitic, their belief in Replacement Theology opens the door to that attitude. There's also European Catholic anti-semitism that blossomed into the holocaust. The holocaust did put anti-semitism under control for a while. However, now with many Muslims immigrating into Europe, Dr. Ice believes this emboldens those who have latent, Catholic European anti-semitism.

The Puritans were very pro-Israel and that's why America ended up with millions of Jews who came here. So we haven't had much anti-semitism although that's changing. Dr. Ice went on to explain that he believes there's an international assault taking place against Israel. This assault is taking place through the United Nations and focuses on the abuse of the so-called Palestinians. That's in contrast to the atmosphere during the wars of 1967 and 1973 when Israel was internationally viewed as a small nation being abused by 22-23 Arab nations.

Dr. Ice believes that Israel has a literal future. The Abrahamic Covenant is repeated 20 times. The land promises of that covenant are repeated 20 times in Genesis alone. Deuteronomy mentions the land promises 68 times. Every prophet , except for Jonah, talks about a future time when Israel is right with the Lord and dwelling in her land. This is carried over into the New Testament. Nothing there cancels out or claims that there's an 'expiration date' to the promises of God to Israel.

Why does the world hate Israel? Does Satan really believe that he can put a stop to God's plan? Is modern day Israel less than, equal to or more than what God gave to them? Why does it seem we're required to be tolerant of Islam but not of Israel? What is the Balfour Declaration? What was Harry Truman's role in support of Israel? These questions and more are answered on this edition of Crosstalk.