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Zion's new nameMiddle ground?ZION’S NEW NAME The primary thrust of this book is a critique of ‘Christian Zionism’ — the belief that the modern state of Israel is a fulfilment of biblical prophecy, that it is therefore incumbent on Christians to support and defend its cause and, in its more extreme form, that Jews may enjoy the blessing and favour of God while still rejecting the Lord Jesus. The author traces the development of these views from the teaching of Edward Irving, Henry Drummond and J.N. Darby in the 19th century to their expression in modern times by writers like David Pawson and John Hagee. In less detail and, in my view with less clarity, he rejects ‘Replacement Theology’ — the view that the church has ‘superseded or replaced Judaism’. As ‘commonly understood’ he says, it ‘does not provide the full picture of Israel’s place in God’s plan’. Yet, when he says that his main argument ‘is that most prophecies relating to Israel were fulfilled in and through Christ and in his church’, that everybody, Jews and Gentiles, ‘must come in through the same door’ (i.e. through faith in Christ) and that ‘the church is spiritually, ethnically and legally Israel’, is he not expressing the essence of what most people understand by Replacement Theology? Sibley looks at both views in the light of Old Testament prophecies, Matthew’s Gospel and some of the Epistles. The treatment of the texts is necessarily brief and inevitably often inadequate. He lays strong emphasis on prophecies which speak of future blessing for the descendants of the tribes which were exiled from the northern state of Israel and their reunion with the descendents of Judah — prophecies which are fulfilled as they, along with Gentiles, are united through faith in Christ. With regard to the current conflicts between Jews and Palestinians, he argues that Christians should be on the side of justice and should be praying for peace and reconciliation rather than supporting uncritically the state of Israel. The book would have been improved greatly by some careful editing and proof reading. Grammatical and spelling mistakes abound! Peter Seccombe,
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