The change in attitudes towards Israel by the British church has slowly become more positive over the years. Here are two new books by Anthony Whelan and James P Smith on this important subject.
The missing ingredient: a well-written challenge to charismatic churches
The Tide has Turned
By Anthony Whelan (Tony Whelan Media, 2024)
Anthony Whelan recalls the time when he and his school friends were caught on a sandbank as the rising tide threatened to sweep them away. Fortunately, they were rescued in the nick of time by a passing boat. The real-life scene became a picture of how he sees the Church drifting away from its moorings as it adheres to false teachings built on sinking sand, as he relates in ‘The Tide has Turned’.
Anthony grew up in Southend-on-Sea where a troubled home life gave way to criminal behaviour (including burglary) and a ‘hippie’ culture of sex and drugs where virtually anything became acceptable. But his rebellion against authority landed him in prison.
It was only after his brother became a Christian, while he too was behind bars, that Anthony eventually had a wake-up call. In seeking to know whether God was there for him, he became powerfully aware of a divine presence and even had a vision of Jesus dying in agony on the Cross for the sins of the world, including his own. Life took on a new meaning. He had finally found purpose and direction as he got involved in Gospel outreach, mainly through what came to be known as the ‘new churches’.
But then, in 2017, he had an epiphany. On a tour of Israel, he was shocked rigid by the contradiction between what he witnessed in the land and the Western media’s perception of the conflict, which has been absorbed and reflected lock, stock and barrel by much of the Church. And he felt forced to ask why the question of Israel, among the hottest topics of the day, was constantly ignored in pulpits? This caused Anthony to explore the theological basis of the many churches he had come to experience. The most striking missing ingredient was an almost total blackout on a subject mentioned throughout the Bible.
In general, it was simply never discussed, with many subscribing to the theory that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s end-time purposes. As a result, the Old Testament is often downgraded while prophetic passages from the likes of Ezekiel and Jeremiah tend to be ‘Christianised’ or ‘spiritualised’ to apply to Gentile believers rather than be seen in their original context. Anthony goes on to explore what he sees as the faults of several new church streams spawned by the charismatic renewal. Though he is convinced the latter was a genuine move of God, he questions the theological basis for much that has since emanated from that initial outpouring of the Spirit.
I’m not convinced that his sweeping diagnosis is always correct. I believe much that was fresh and vibrant came out of these movements, from which Mr Whelan now distances himself. Having said that, this book is very thoughtful, challenging and well-written. Endorsed by Hebraic scholar Dr Clifford Denton as “an important message” and “a timely warning”, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but I recommend you take the medicine both for your own long-term health as well as that of the Church.
‘Jesus came to my bedsit’ – Anthony Whelan’s testimony appeared in the Feb/Mar paper and can be read at www.heartpublications.co.uk
Myopic! The Short-Sighted Church: How it came to believe it has replaced Israel
By James P Smith
250 pages, £13.99, available from the author: jamiepsmith1970@gmail.com
I was pleased to have the opportunity to review this new book by James P Smith as I reviewed his earlier book, ‘Israel: The Inconvenient Truth dividing the Church’.
“The Short-Sighted Church” is really an extended critique of ‘replacement theology’. Smith shows how the Church has abandoned its Hebraic understanding of Scripture, and instead applied a thoroughly Greek lens to interpret God’s message.
His work echoes other contemporary writers who have written similar books (see end of review). Where, then, does James Smith’s book ‘fit’ in this growing body of literature?
Overall, I think it is a valuable addition to this particular genre. Written in an easy style, the book is accessible to the general, non-specialist, reader. It seeks to be comprehensive, and in this it generally succeeds. In its structure, the book covers much ground:
Chapter 1: The beginning
Chapter 2: It’s all Greek to me
Chapter 3: Slippery slope for “the way”
Chapter 4: Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 5: Amillennialism
Chapter 6: What about the reformers?
Chapter 7: Out of focus
Chapter 8: Understanding the rapture
There are also extensive endnotes and two appendices.
Some details
In chapter 3, Smith looks at the very early Church and the heresies and questionable teachings of gnosticism, Marcionism, Docetism, universalism and various other teachings, and their ongoing legacy today.
The chapter on Augustine traces how Roman Catholicism brought in the tools of Greek philosophy to interpret Scripture. Augustine was a fan of Plato and Plato’s dualism, which divides the spiritual from the physical, and the clergy from the laity.
Augustine majored on the concept of allegory to ‘interpret’ the meaning of Scripture – and arguably to ‘explain away’ the difficult bits, such as those bits that deal with Israel and the Jews!
Chapter 5 on ‘Amillennialism’ promotes a premillennial understanding of God’s overarching purposes, and of the future. Chapter 6: ‘What about the Reformers?’ helps us to see that the Reformation did not deal decisively with Catholicism’s philosophical accretions to Scripture. Rather, these beliefs were simply absorbed by the key reformers, Luther, and Calvin. (Steve Maltz makes a similar case in one of his books; the Reformers succeeded in reforming something that was fundamentally unfit for purpose. They improved it slightly, but simply could not wean themselves away from the core tenets of Catholicism).
“The Short- Sighted Church” incorporates useful cartoon style images, especially the image of a pair of spectacles, situated where Smith is emphasising that the institutional church is both short sighted, and has adopted its own lens of Greek philosophy to justify its theory and ‘theology’ that it has replaced Israel in God’s salvation scheme. Essentially it’s ‘We have replaced the Jews’!
What I appreciate about “The Short- Sighted Church” is its breath, accessibility, and scope. I was intrigued by Smith’s chapter 8 ‘Understanding the Rapture’. As a Bible student my own understanding is that we are to expect what might be termed a ‘post tribulation rapture’. But always remember that the word ‘rapture’ is not found in Scripture. The author is clear that he believes in a pre- wrath rapture rather than a pre- tribulation rapture. That is a helpful distinction, but I confess my overall view that the emphasis on ‘rapture’ is misplaced. Having said that, Smith does at least provide a reasonably cogent insight in his Chapter 8.
The two appendices are particularly helpful. In appendix 1 Smith provides six key texts which have been used by the institutional churches to underpin their theology of ‘replacement’. Smith examines each of these text portions and provides a corrective interpretation.
Appendix 2 is a detailed exposé of the life, beliefs, teachings, and writings, of John Calvin. Calvin is a bit of a ‘Marmite’ figure in church history. People either love him or hate him! However, it is true to say that those who love Calvin and those who hate Calvin probably misunderstand his key teachings and key drivers.So author James P. Smith is at pains to explore precisely what Calvin taught and what he stood for. Apart from his teachings on ‘predestination’ John Calvin assuredly believed in replacement theology. As an ex Catholic, he quite simply brought his Catholic background into the reformed Protestant church. James Smith demonstrates this admirably.
Verdict
In some places James Smith’s text becomes quite polemic, or forceful. But the issues concerned are not side-issues or insubstantial, they are central to Christian life and praxis. Despite some minor quibbles therefore, I am happy to recommend “The Short Sighted Church” to today’s readership, and doubly so for any Christians who are unaware of replacement theology. The book is timely, and the issues it explores are hugely relevant to the world (especially the anti- Jewish world) that we are living in today, and the world that we should expect to inhabit tomorrow.
The reviewer of this book is Peter Sammons, the author of ‘The Prince of Peace – finding true Peace in a World that wars’ (Christian Publication International, 2015)
Other books on this theme: see their reviews at
www.christiancomment.org
‘The Forgotten Bride: How The Church Betrayed its Jewish Heritage’ by David Lambourn https://christiancomment.org/2024/02/27/the-forgotten-bride-how-the-church-betrayed-its-jewish-heritage/
Israel: The Inconvenient Truth dividing the Church by James P Smith
https://christiancomment.org/2024/04/29/israel-the-inconvenient-truth-dividing-the-world-and-the-church-james-p-smith/