The Passionate Love of Zion
By Claude Duvernoy

The theology of the Church is essentially a theology of Divine grace. Whenever the Church ceased to be anchored on the rock of this grace, its doctrine became a rigid dogmatic system.
Since the days of the “first love” of the apostolic period the Church, instead of cultivating a theology of grace, has confronted its Jewish mother with a rigid dogmatic doctrine of contempt, of which some of the poisonous fruits are called auto-da-fe, yellow badge, ghetto and organized pogroms.
Instead of preaching that the death of Christ is also for Israel, the Church had preached that “the Jews killed Jesus” as if they were solely responsible, when actually God predetermined the death of His Son to provide redemption for all. Instead of preaching that the blood of Christ can bring forgiveness to the Synagogue, by their actions Christians have excluded the Jewish people from salvation of the One who shed His blood for the redemption of all. Instead of preaching, like Paul, that God will forever keep His promise to His people it has taught throughout the centuries that God has rejected His people.
Instead of loving Israel, it has despised it. Instead of showing to Israel the face of its King radiating love, the Church has shown it the horrible crucifixes on the stake and at the head of pogroms.
Through the gross and merciless judgments without appeal of the Church fathers, Luther and many, many theologians until our own days, the Church has paved, doubtless without intending to, the road towards the Nazi persecutions.
Finally, when the Land of Israel and Jerusalem its capital were revived the Christian world and the Church refused to acknowledge the hand of God in these events, refused to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, the only state in the world that bears the Holy Name of God in its name…
All this was possible because the Church has forgotten that the Jewish people remains the focal point of the grace of God, that the whole bewildering and bloody history of Israel is no less than a theology of History itself. Zionism is nothing but the passionate love of Zion.
The Church has too long been indifferent tom peace and justice on earth as in heaven, concentrating on eternal, celestial salvation alone. But this is a Greek view of human life, not the biblical theology of the Kingdom. The commandment to fight for just peace is not only a commandment given by Moses and the Prophets, but it the heart of Christ’s prayer: “Thy Kingdom come on earth as in heaven!”
Entirely turned towards heaven - although its feet were firmly planted on earth and its worldly power - the Church has forgotten Jerusalem, which will remain the corner stone of the Divine policy until the coming of the messianic Kingdom on earth. In other words, the Church has forgotten Zion, and, as the Psalm had predicted, “its right hand withered away”, its hope ran dry.
Consequently it no longer understands the destiny of Israel, is bewildered by the resurrection of Zion and shocked by the term “Zionist theology,” although this ought to be its own theology, because it is the theology of Christ and St. Paul and not our personal invention.
On which foundation is this theology built?
On God’s eternal faithfulness and His promises to the Patriarchs, to the Prophets, to King David and to the Apostles.
These promises have nothing in common with those of politicians in an election campaign, but that this “treaty of Alliance” (for the covenant with Abraham is such a treaty) was signed forever, unlike so many treaties in human history. The Alliances God concludes with men are not motivated by economic, military or political interests - which in turn are the products of either pride or fear - but are inspired by His love for all creatures. There are no “reservations” in God’s treaties.
God has chosen a certain people called Israel and a land called the Land of Israel forever. No transgression by this people, no catastrophe in this land can nullify the Covenant. Let us listen to Isaiah 49: 14-16:
“Zion said: ‘The Lord has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me.‘ Can a woman forget her sucking child, That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, these may forget, Yet will not I forget thee! I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; Thy walls are continually before me”

We are well aware that the traditional theology of the Church will probably come with its sledgehammer argument: all these promises lost their significance and validity with the coming of Christ whom Israel has not recognized…
We shall ignore the fact that this way of thinking restricts God’s love and faithfulness, making them provisional on Israel’s faithfulness.
Let us rather see whether there has been a moment in history in which Israel presented the image of a community of “converted people!” We would have to look a long time… Sacred history is a long succession of human apostasy and revolt and of Divine forgiveness. Hardly liberated from Egyptian bondage in a miraculous way, the people already grumbled and complained to Moses. Hardly arrived in the Promised Land, the young nation fell prey to Canaanite idolatry and to fraternal quarrels. Before long they demanded a king of their own, so that they would be like the other nations, a desire which is the preeminent sin. David became a tireless warrior, Solomon a corrupt monarch and after him the schism became inevitable.
At the depth of one of Israel’s most serious crises the Prophet Elijah believed to be alone and wished to be dead, not knowing that a faithful remnant, known to God alone, had not bent its knees before the Baal…
Even if this remnant were to vanish, God would not revoke His covenant of love, for He is like the mother who never ceases to love her child. Such is the grace of the God of Israel. This is the cornerstone of biblical theology.
Shouldn’t we draw a profound lesson from the famous battle of Jacob in that night at the ford of the Jabbok, the night in which his name was changed into Israel…?
One may be surprised and even shocked by the manner in which this strange battle is concluded, just as one may be shocked by the strange judgment of God in the matter of the lentil broth. But if we are indeed shocked it is only because our human nature - and perhaps our theological inclinations - do not recognize the grace of God. For our reason and God’s grace are fundamentally opposed. We always expect and demand that virtue be rewarded and vice punished, taking it for granted that we belong to the virtues and are entitled to determine who is not…
And doesn’t the history of the Church teach us the same lesson?
Where do we find the pure Church without sin? Isn’t the history of the Church, like that of Israel, one continuous manifestation of God’s grace which persists notwithstanding the transgressions of His children?
How outrageous is this habit of the Church, itself so guilty, of judging other human communities! How distressing is this Christian insistence on the Israel’s exclusion from the continued purposes of God!
Thus what we call Zionist theology is but one of the possible names for God’s love of Israel. Since Zionism is linked to this people and its martyrdom and to the resurrection of the Promised Land, it must be seen in the context of Grace. In this bloodstained 20th century it demonstrates that God has not abandoned His Jewish children. It is the answer of the Lord of History to the gas chambers of the nations. Of course, we have said it before: Zionism is also a matter of political implications and diplomatic games - but since when has God be afraid to associate Himself with human politic? If God does not hesitate to use men of flesh and blood like Samson and Gideon and even to take their side, why should He hesitate to use men like Herzl, Weizmann, Ben-Gurion and Dayan whose character and education are certainly superior to those of Delilah’s partner?
If God guides history, it is inevitable that His own policy of love is “tarnished” by the interests and stratagems of the petty lords of the nations. Is this not the astonishing lesson of the Incarnation?
We see it: a theology of Love. But also a theology of History. And it is clear that from the moment that a certain tyrant named Constantine raised Christianity to the rank of religion of state (and instrument of his imperialist policy) the Church ceased to understand History and in particular its own role in History.
Once hunted and persecuted, maltreated by history, the Church now became itself the servant of history. The same Church which once had been an outcast, now found itself next to the throne of Caesar, the maker of history! It was inevitable that it, too, began to seek ways of making and guiding history, through laws and arms…
Installed in the seats of power, loaded with honors and wealth, what else would it hope for than the continuation of the status quo? Soon it got into the habit of choosing and crowning kings, abandoning its own King on the Roman cross and forgetting, or trying to forget, that He will come again one day to judge and to call the Church to account!
Soon it began to believe that everything is possible, and that it is its right to forcibly “convert” the nations. Thus it confused the outrageous justice of men with the justice of God, turning the peace of the Kingdom into the armed and shameful peace of the nations. At the height of the era of nuclear threats and ideological struggles which divide the nations confronted with a wounded, divided and misunderstood Jerusalem, the Church no longer knows exactly to whom it should pledge allegiance. Caught in the trap of its flirting with Caesar it has paid for this insane alliance the price of its Hope. Neither its popes, nor its prince, bishops and Councils proclaim to the world that only the Parousia will cure mankind of its diseases.
It is true that God’s sovereign rule of History is manifest in mysterious ways which can be seen by Faith alone. The mystery of the policy of God is nowhere in the Bible better expressed than in the renewed and precise Divine promises which the Prophet Nathan conveys to King David in 2 Samuel 7:9,10,12,16):
“I will make thee a great name, like unto the name of the great ones that are on earth. And I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they will dwell in their own place, and be disquieted no more; neither shall the wickedness afflict them any more… I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy body, and I will establish his kingdom… And thy House and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever”

If we remember that after the death of David’s son Solomon Israel was split into two kingdoms, that the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exists in 722 B.C., and the kingdom of Judah less than two centuries later, these promises to the House of David sound rather cynical!
At the time that Jesus appeared among his people, the throne of David was occupied by a cruel Idumean named Herod who had no relation whatsoever with the House of David! Rome was already the real master of the country…
But the Church believes that the authentic royal title was vested in this Jesus, and that it is vested in Him forever, beyond the great Exile and the great martyrdom of Israel… That is why Jesus, confronted with Ceasar’s representative Pilate, places His Kingdom in another dimension, beyond time.
In Jesus, and in Him alone, this extraordinary and bewildering promise to David, obtains its real meaning. A meaning which has not yet become manifest in History, but remains of a prophetical and messianic nature.
The powers that be do not recognize this Kingdom, and the Church has often made it into a caricature by assuming itself the role of Christ.
But other powers, which are not of this world, and beyond our understanding, have recognized it from the Beginning. This crucified Jew whom the churches continue to crucify in their sanctuaries, remains the Prince of the House of David. The hour of His reign on earth has not yet struck, and His Kingdom is still hidden, but it does exist.
It is not merely a Liberator who will be given to the Synagogue at the time of the Parousia, but a King, its own King. Listen to the words of the prophet Ezekiel (43:1,4,7) in the rebuilt and dedicated Temple:
“Afterward he brought me to the gate that looketh toward the east. And behold, the glory of God of Israel came from the way of the east… And the glory of the Lord came into the House by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east… And I heard one speaking unto me out of the House: Son of Man, this is the place of My throne, and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever…”

With the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers a movement started which no power in the world can halt, which nothing can destroy, we are certain of that while we are writing these lines in new Jerusalem, in the midst of this people which is returning from the four corners of the world…
During the centuries of the great Exile the Jewish people remained the focal point of History, though in a hidden manner. But since the days of their Return, and in particular since the day of their recovered independence they have presented themselves to the nations and the Christian world under conditions which are exactly the same as those that prevailed in the biblical period of independence.
Indeed, they have experienced a second Exodus, they have escaped the web of torturers, they are rebuilding the ruins and the biblical sites. They have reassembled around a common language and a rediscovered Bible in the land of their origin. They are still being threatened on all their borders, caught between two rival ideologies. A new pharaoh has appeared on their way threatening their final extermination (once again!).
Isn’t this the same Sacred History, the same history set apart? This history which no classical handbook has yet analyzed, and which laughs at the professors of history!
Isn’t this the same Divine pedagogy which compels Israel, surrounded by enemies, to close its ranks with one hand on the load and a weapon in the other…?
Isn’t this the same faithfulness of God who does not forget one of His children, let alone His first-born who wears the name Israel?
A theology of Grace and a theology of History, but also and finally, a theology of the Incarnation.
This is a truth which the Church can understand and accept, because it has sprung from Incarnation, but which is outrageous and foolish to the learned and the philosophers.
Through the Incarnation God had joined men on their own level, in their humility and misery. He has entered History personally, physically as it were. But wasn’t this Incarnation, which became manifest in a Christmas night in Bethlehem, the town of David, always latently present in the Hebrew Bible, from its first pages, from the moment in which the Lord engaged in a dialogue with His creation, a dialogue of love and forgiveness? Was it not manifest in His pact with Abraham and his descendants? And did it not always remain latently present from this crucial moment in Sacred History onward - in the cloud and the pillar of fire of the first Exodus, in the simple Tabernacle in the desert and then in the sanctuary in Jerusalem? And not less mysteriously, did it not even remain present “in spirit and truth” in the lands of exile, without Temple, priests and sacrifices…?
The Church was in fact already presented and alive when the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, wrote the following remarkable words (9:1-5), of which the Church has forgotten the real significance:
“I am speaking the truth in Christ…foe I could even pray to the outcast…for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsfolk who are Israelites: they were made God’s sons; theirs is the splendour of the divine presence, theirs the covenants, the Torah, the worship and the promises. Theirs are the Patriarchs, and from them, in natural descent, sprang the Messiah”

Israel evidently is and will remain forever the people of the Incarnation. Forever elected (an election which has brought it more suffering than happiness…) it is the trustee of Divine Presence. It is bound up with God through the threefold thread of the promises, the Scriptures and the Messiah Himself. Nothing that happens to it in its history can be detached from this policy of salvation, which is the policy of the Kingdom. The Divine promises and covenants link it forever to this land of which Jerusalem is the capital; how can we then fail to understand that the Zionist epic is at the center of this policy of the Kingdom of peace and justice on earth as in heaven?
Through the Bible Israel remains forever linked with the will of God; how can we then exclude it from His grace?
Through the Messiah it will always be at the center of every movement yearning for temporal and spiritual redemption; how can we then fail to see that its place is at the center of the stream that leads to the Parousia, to acknowledge its pivotal in the world? How can we disbelieve St. Paul when he sums up this series of extraordinary privileges in these words: “…and from their midst the Lord will appear in His glory!”
After Titus and his legions of destruction, after the edicts of contempt and hate of a “Christian” empire, after the pogroms, after Auschwitz and the miraculous rebirth in 1948 - is there a better and clearer manifestation of the grace of God that this Zionist epic which is still in progress?
Has there ever been a more convincing proof of God’s sovereign reign of history?
Has there ever been a clearer announcement of the Parousia (The Second Coming)?
A theology of Grace, of guided history, of the Kingdom that will come - this, it seems to us, is what Zionism stands for if we see it in the light of the Holy Scriptures.

(Source: Controversy of Zion, Claude Duvernoy, New Leaf Press, Green Forest, AR 72638, USA. Claude Duvernoy is of French Huguenot descent and is a protestant clergyman residing in Israel)

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The Passionate Love of Zion By Claude Duvernoy

The Passionate Love of Zion
By Claude Duvernoy