Why I Am Not a Christian Zionist
May 29, 2023
By Jeff Sajdak
I am not a Christian Zionist because people close to me invited me to ask questions, and to look more closely and deeply at the Bible and at the unfolding story of Israel-Palestine.
The first person who helped me look more closely was my daughter. In the late 2000s, she participated in a semester abroad program in the Middle East.
Prior to my daughter’s trip, I didn’t think much about the Middle East. I had been a pastor for over 15 years. My seminary professors didn’t say much about Israel, apart from eschatology. I mostly learned what I knew about the Middle East from other Christians. I came to understand that the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 was part of God’s blessing on His people, that people in the Middle East have been fighting “forever,” and that since Israel was blessed by God the Palestinians were a threat that needed to be controlled by force.
My daughter invited me to question those assumptions. She said there was a lot more to the story. She invited me to read Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour. I realized that what I was hearing from other Christians was a simplistic understanding of a complicated history. I learned that there are Palestinian Christians in the land who have been there for generations and who do not have freedom in the land. I discovered that the fighting had only begun in recent history, and that there was a need to find a path to peace and justice for all the people of the land.
A few years later, I took up my faculty role at Calvin Seminary, where a colleague invited me to look at the Bible in new ways. He helped me to see that it is by faith in Christ that we reckon the descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3). I saw that the promises to Abraham are fulfilled in Christ, and that the descendants of Abraham by faith seek Christ’s kingdom and righteousness. His kingdom is not of this world. It is not a political or geographical entity (John 18:36).
In January 2023, I went to Israel-Palestine with two professors and a group of students. The professors helped me to observe, to ask questions, and to learn. We met people of the land – Palestinian Christians, Israeli Jews, Palestinian Muslims – who helped me see more clearly. All parties have suffered because of the military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. They grieve because loved ones have died in the conflict. I discovered that the people of the land have been under occupying forces since the Old Testament Assyrians and Babylonians conquered the land. I saw that the modern nation of Israel is not seeking to love its Palestinian neighbors who dwell in the land (Lev. 19:18, 34), but is oppressing them by military occupation. Israel is surrounding Palestinians with illegal settlements in order to take land from Palestinians who have legal and historical rights to it.
My prayer is that there will be a way to peace and justice in the land. I hope that the military occupation and the oppression of Palestinians, some of whom are Christians, will end. I desire that there will be a state that welcomes Jews and Muslims and Christians in the land. I pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6).
My personal hope is that I might be someone who invites others to ask questions, to look more closely and deeply at the Bible and the unfolding story of Israel-Palestine.
Jeff Sajdak earned his B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Minnesota. He received his Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. He is ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in North America, where he served as a pastor for twenty years in Iowa and Michigan. He currently serves as Dean of Students at Calvin Theological Seminary.