Once again, Church historian Aaron D. Wolf slanders evangelicals with his essay “The Christian Zionist Threat to Peace” (Views, May).  Using the classic ploy of quoting from a dictionary-type source in his introduction allows him to set up his own dispensationalist straw man to knock down in the rest of his polemic.

Mr. Wolf does not really tell the reader what dispensationalism or premillennialism means, but he does get to employ the word apocalypse a few times and act highbrow by denigrating the Left Behind series—all to marginalize evangelicals.

I’ll try to offer such a definition in two sentences.  Premillennialism comes from a literal interpretation of Scripture and entails a belief that Jesus Christ could return at any moment.  When taken in its literal, historical, grammatical sense, God’s Word declares that Jesus Christ’s return is imminent and that, following His return for His Church, He will return seven years later to establish His literal millennial kingdom on this earth.

Mr. Wolf even goes so far as to say that this evangelical eschatology must be flawed because—Heaven forfend—it is not taught in the Episcopalian or Roman Catholic Churches!  Well, maybe that fact alone proves that evangelicals are on to something or have been for quite some time.  Mr. Wolf should be more worried about a belief system that says nothing when people venerate images in the efflorescence of leaky water pipes in cement on the wall of a Chicago expressway viaduct than about pro-family, Bible-reading evangelicals.

Don’t worry—I still look forward to your magazine each month.

        —Suzie Tinaglia
Park Ridge, IL

Chronicles is the only magazine that will even mention Christian Zionism, much less shed some light on this heresy.  I am amazed that the whole Arminian side of the professing Christian church is “bewitched” by this fable.

You would think that one of their evangelists would have stumbled across the third chapter of Galatians, which says (verse 16): “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.  He sayeth not, And to seeds as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

Then, in verse 29, Saint Paul adds, “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  It is pretty clear that the promises (“great nation”; “I will bless them that bless thee”; “in thee shall all the nations be blessed”; etc.) were made to a spiritual seed, through Christ, and not to the carnal seed.

        —Lionel Ledbetter
Adamsville, AL

Mr. Wolf Replies

The goal of my article was not to define dispensationalism, nor to slander my evangelical friends, nor to explain why I am a Lutheran and not a Roman Catholic or an Episcopalian (all of which hold that “Jesus Christ’s return is imminent”), but to offer criticism of Christian Zionist leaders, who do not present serious, Bible-believing Christians with any other  option than to give their undying support to the Likud government.  Entire ministries are built around keeping Christians convinced that they must support Israel or else God’s wrath will fall on America.  Why else would the Christian Coalition encourage American Christians to spend thousands of dollars in order to spend a day with the Israeli Defense Force instead of giving that money to their own local churches in order to support the preaching of the Gospel?

Mrs. Tinaglia seems to confuse dispensationalism with premillennialism, which might explain why she found my use of Charles Ryrie’s definition of dispensationalism to be unsatisfying.  Premil-lennialism simply holds that, after the Lord returns, He will rule the Earth for 1,000 years, before enacting a final judgment and recreating a New Heaven and a New Earth.  It is only when dispensationalism is added to the mix that we get the seven-year Tribulation, the “rapture,” and the restoration of “Israel.”  Even still, there are three varieties of dispensationalism: “pre-Trib” (those who believe Jesus will conduct the rapture before the Tribulation); “mid-Trib”; and “post-Trib.”  Nonetheless, the most common position among evangelicals (reflected in the Left Behind series and by Mrs. Tinaglia) is the dispensational, pre-Tribulational, premillennial position.  Historic premillennialists, on the other hand, do not hold that Scripture requires the restoration of the nation or state of Israel.

It is important to note that even if the relatively new theology of dispensationalism (it dates to the mid-19th century) were the proper “literal” interpretation of Scripture, dispensationalists need not lend their financial and political support to the secular state of Israel.  In other words, dispensationalists need not be Christian Zionists.

Mr. Ledbetter’s interpretation of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is a reflection of the Church’s traditional—and literal—understanding of “Israel” in Scripture.  Interpreting the Bible “to the letter,” the grammatical-historical approach championed by Martin Luther (certainly no dispensationalist) does not require us to take every word at face value, something that even dispensationalists do not do (else they would be looking for a “literal” seven-headed dragon to emerge from the sea).  Rather, the theologian, in Luther’s words, “should take pains to have one definite and simple understanding of Scripture and not to be a wanderer and vagabond, like the rabbis, the Scholastic theologians, and the professors of law, who are always toiling with ambiguities.”  There is nothing ambiguous about the passages quoted by Mr. Ledbetter, especially for those of us who approach the text with the firm conviction that the subject of every page of Scripture is Christ—crucified, risen, and (literally!) coming again.  As for the word apocalypse: It’s Greek to me.