THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A RESPONSE FROM A PENTECOSTAL PERSPECTIVE

PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A RESPONSE FROM A PENTECOSTAL PERSPECTIVE

SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR ELLEN T. CHARRY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF TH 3200: JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM IN ISRAEL/PALESTINE

BY LUIS QUIÑONES-ROMÁN DECEMBER 18, 2015

THE ARAB-ISRAELI PERSPECTIVE

CONFLICT:

A

RESPONSE

FROM

A

PENTECOSTAL

“He said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying” (Gen 28:13) Introduction In this paper, I aim to analyze the notion of the “Promise Land” through the lens of Pentecostalism. It is challenging to discuss the understanding of the Arab-Israeli Conflict through the sympathetic of Pentecostalism. As Eric Nelson Newberg mentions in his chapter, “Pentecostal Zionism,” the Pentecostal approach has been strongly sympathetic with Zionism since their early days.1 The most challenging thread in this research paper for myself is to push beyond the understanding of Pentecostals because I grew up in a Pentecostal context. As I researched, I encountered different approaches within Pentecostalism, however, they did not aim to adequately provide support and protection to the Palestinians. I will examine how the Pentecostals understand the biblical promise of the Land of Israel (Gen. 28:13), and how the Arab-Israeli Conflict plays its part in the theological approach of the end-times for Pentecostalism. I will argue that the Pentecostal’s understanding of the Arab-Israel Conflict is based on the assumption that God has “Promised the Land” to the descendants of Jacob—The Israelis. As we shall see, Pentecostalism holds quite a few surprises in the understanding of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and a closer examination of their claim will grant more insight to their approach and response to the conflict. Pentecostalism Roots and the Connection to Palestine The Pentecostal revival of the 1900s was heir to both Jonathan Edwards’ millennial ambitions and John Wesley’s hunger for an encounter with the Spirit of sanctity. As a note, I must mention that Pentecostals did not adopt Edwards’ postmillennial theology, but rather they 1

Eric Nelson Newberg, The Pentecostal mission in Palestine: the legacy of Pentecostal Zionism, (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2012), p. 154 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



2

embraced his global evangelism. Pentecostals view themselves as intended by God to ignite the fires of revival and spiritual renewal over the world as the prelude to the Second Coming of Christ. Hence, when the Pentecostal Movement emerged at the beginning of the 20th-century with Charles Perham and a few students at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas.2 After the Azusa Street Revival (ASR) many participants felt called by God to evangelize overseas. As Gary B. McGee mentions in his article, “Pentecostals believed that speaking in tongues had a unique missionary function… The new tongues were actually spoken languages to be used by the Pentecostals in the proclamation of the Gospel.”3 Classical Pentecostals are motivated foremost by their practical view of Scripture. They are influenced by the Great Commission laid on by Matthew 28:16 – 20. Furthermore, opponents of the ASR began to emphasize the need for language studies before commencing overseas evangelization. Amos Yong argues that the distinctive feature of Classical Pentecostal missiology is its essential emphasis on the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 2:4. In this, Pentecostalism was influenced by the paradigm of the early Church and the apostles.4 This paradigm was translated as “Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” 5 As a result, since the ASR, the movement has been sending missionaries all around the world, especially Palestine. It is significant that Pentecostal missionaries were on the ground in Palestine from 1908 and 1948 until the present time. They were first-hand observers of the events leading up to the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.

2

Vinson Synan, The Century of Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001, (Nashville, TN.: Thomas Nelson, 2012), p. 3 3 Gary B. McGee, “Early Pentecostal Missionaries: They Went Everywhere Preaching the Gospel,” in Assemblies of God Heritage, (Springfield, MO: Assemblies of God Archives, 1983), p. 6 4 Amos Yong, The Musicological Spirit: Christian Mission Theology in the Third Millennium Global Context, (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2014). 5 Gary B McGee, p. 6 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



3

Today, the Pentecostal Movement is barely a century old, and yet its expansion has overtaken mainline Christianity.6 It has grown from an anomalous coterie of religious and social discontents to a massive global renewal movement, now more than 27% of all Christians identify themselves as Pentecostals.7 . For instance, the Assemblies of God has more than 12,849 churches in the United States (2014), and still growing. David B. Barrett argues that there are three waves of Renewal of Pentecostalism.8 He describe the first wave as “Classical Pentecostalism” tracing its beginnings to 1901 when Charles Perham taught his hypothesis of the “Bible evidence” of baptism with the Holy Spirit. As a result, Pentecostalism has been defined as the movement that seeks to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit that is evidenced by “tongues-speaking.” The centrality of the Classical Pentecostal theology is an understanding of glossolalia as the evidence of the restoration of the power of the apostolic faith. Barrett defines the second wave as the “Charismatic Renewal.” For him, Charismatics emerged primarily in the resurgence of interest in the Holy Spirit in the historic Protestant Churches, including Catholic. However, they differentiate themselves from Classical Pentecostals in the claim that Charismatics did not accept the “doctrine of initial evident:” tongues speaking. Charismatics based their doctrine in the emphasis of the manifestation of the “gifts” of the Spirit as evidence in the Bible. The last wave describe by Barrett are “The Neo-Charismatics,” they appeared in the 1970’s within independent charismatics groups. This third wave does not identify neither with the first nor second. Here, I will examine the approach of Classical Pentecostals and their relation to the Zionism Movement.9

6

Ibid, p. 3 David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, “Global Statistics,” in The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movement, (Ed. Stanley M. Burgess), (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 2002), p. 284 8 David B. Barrett, “The Twentieth-Century Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal in the Holy Spirit, with Its Goal of World Evangelization,” (International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 1988), p. 119 9 The Political Zionism of the Jews (note: not every Jew is a Zionist) establishing that “is the belief that the Jews should form and maintain a state for themselves there” Arthur Goldschmidt and Lawrence Davidson, “The Contest for Palestine,” in A Concise History of the Middle East, (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2012.), p. 271 7

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



4

Classical Pentecostals reread the Bible in light of their own experience and understood that God was guiding their prayers, sermons, worship, mission, and evangelization. For Classical Pentecostals their theology was simple: “pray until you are filled with the Spirit and then share the good news.” Daniel H. Bays, defines Pentecostal Christianity as an orthodox belief with the following elements: salvation as a personal grace, the use of spiritual gifts, “glossolalia,” healing, and finally the notion of expanding the Gospel through evangelization and missions. 10 For Classical Pentecostals, the Spirit becomes the Agent of the mission and the “catalyst” of the Church (Joel 2:28); without the Spirit there is no mission, i.e. the power of God manifests itself in the midst of the Church to equip His people for the enterprise of His kingdom. Hence, Classical Pentecostal has understood that the biblical promise for Abraham was that his offspring would be heir to the Land of Canaan (Gen. 12). As a result, the history of the Jewish people begins with the affirmation that God had given them “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8). To this, any Christian that encounter this biblical promise would indeed sympathize with the Jewish and theirs rightful right to occupy the Land, as many Evangelicals and Fundamentalists have done already.11 Gerald R. McDermott argues that “if fundamentalists and evangelicals see a future for Jews in the land of Israel is because of their understanding of Paul and Jesus, they also see Old Testament prophecy pointing in the same direction.” In this sense, the land would be given to the descendants of Abraham, which fundamentalists and evangelicals seem to point out to the Jews. However, there are some tensions among both Fundamentalists and Evangelicals. For instance, Fundamentalists tend to stress more than evangelicals the biblical promises of land and future to the Jews, while evangelicals tend to place more emphasis on the 10

Murray A. Rubinstein, "Holy Spirit Taiwan: Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in the Republic of China," in Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present, (Ed. Daniel H. Bays), (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 354. 11 Gerald R. McDermott, “Evangelicals and Israel: A Conversation with Gerald R. McDermott,” Center Conversation. An Occasional Publication of the Ethics and Public Policy Center 25, (November 2003), p. 15 – 16 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



5

need for justice in order to make peace. Thus, Pentecostal tend to view it as an eschatological event. Pentecostal Missionaries in Palestine As I stated early, the ASR have played a significant role for Pentecostal Zionism. For instances, during the years of 1906 and 1910 the ASR sent three of the first five missionaries to Palestine: Jerusalem, Syria, Transjordan, and Persia. The three major pioneering missionaries were: Lucy Leatherman, Charles Leonard, and Anna Elizabeth Brown. The ASR heard God calling them to go missionaries to Palestine and without hesitation they accepted the called. In the interwar period, the Pentecostal missionaries established a mission station in Jerusalem and expanded their ministry to other territories. However, when they arrived Jerusalem was a Muslim town 1906 and was under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire.12 In December 1908, Leatherman testified from Jerusalem regarding the Holy Spirit baptism of a Syrian minister from Lebanon and other victories of her work there.13 While in February 1912, Leatherman wrote a telegram to Alexander A. Boddy saying, “Since you have visited the land, and understand the conditions, will you pray more and more for the peace of Jerusalem, ‘For they shall prosper that love thee.’”14 Leatherman and the other missionaries were sent by ASR to evangelize and missionize the Palestine territory in order to advance the Second Coming of Christ.15 For Pentecostals, the logic of sending missionaries to Jerusalem was based on their fascination with Palestine as the homeland of Christ and the ancestral home of the Jews. Newberg

12

Eric N. Newberg, p. 26 Lucy Leatherman, “A Missionary Trip Through Syria and Palestine,” in The Pentecostal, Indianapolis, IN: Assemblies of God, December 1908), http://ifphc.org/pdf/ThePentecost/1908/1908_12.pdf#Page15 p. 15 14 Lucy Leatherman, “Jerusalem,” in Confidence, (access on December 6, 2015) http://ifphc.org/pdf/Confidence/031912.pdf#Page11 p. 59 15 Until today, the Assemblies of God have special departments that target Jews for conversion. 13

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



6

mentions that the missionaries were influence by the Zionist project of restring Jerusalem to the Jewish people. Perham was the first of many Classical Pentecostals to cast the missionary enterprise in eschatological terms. According to Grant McClung, “The Azusa Street focus on the Word of God and the fact that the early Pentecostals saw themselves as prototypes of the restored community prophesied by Joel.”16 Pentecostal understood Acts 2:1 – 41 in three dimensions: Experience (vv. 1 – 13), Eschatology (vv. 14 – 36), and Evangelism (vv. 37 – 41). In fact, at the heart of early Pentecostals’ was their personal experience with the Holy Spirit. This was also integrated with an eschatological urgency and a passion for the souls. The question one might ask here is, “What are the historical sources that informed American Pentecostalism ideas and beliefs concerning Israel?” Their sources were: 17th-century Puritan historical premillennial, 18th-century New Light postmillennialism, and 19th-century Holiness and dispensationalist schools. The Classical Pentecostals understood that by sending Spirit-Filled missionaries to Jerusalem would help to convert the Jews to Christ and hence accelerate the Second Coming. Alexander A. Boddy (editor of the Apostolic Faith periodical) prophesied the Jews would become a nation of Spirit-Filled missionaries. At the same time, Perham in partnership with the Zionism movement preached a sermon tittle “Zionism” where he highlights the purchase of Palestine for the Jews. Perham states, There are 13,000,000 Jews in the world. The purchase of Palestine can be accomplished with $10,000,000. During the last few years, diplomats and statesmen have declared that for the continuation of peace the further advancement of commercial and intellectual interests of the world, a strong and independent nation should be established about the mouth waters of the Nile. No people are so capable of supplying this demand in every particular as the Jew, and no people have such ties to draw and bind them, or national pride in establishing such a 16

Grant McClung, Azusa Street and Beyond, (Alachua, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2012), p. 8 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



7

nation. Henceforth Jerusalem shall be the hub of the world intellectually, politically and religiously.17 Perham clearly advises Pentecostals to help Jews in their enterprise to purchase Palestine because this was a sign of the end-times. Along with this, he emphasized the soon coming of Christ to restore the Jewish State in Zion. Somehow, Perham was convince that the Anglo-Saxon were the lost then tribes of Israel, and therefore all prophecy agree they must be brought together in the last days. For him, the Zionism Movement was looking forward to the restoration of the Jews in Palestine. Newberg points out that the return of Jews to Palestine was a sign of the Second Coming and Pentecostal felt that the events in Palestine were of eschatological importance. Hence, by World War I, dispensationalism had become nearly synonymous with fundamentalism and Pentecostalism. Classical Pentecostals are not far from neither Evangelicals nor Fundamentalists. McDermott argues that evangelicals seem to understand, for the first time since Marcion (died c. 160), that Jews and their religion are “essentially the same religion as the Christian church.” In fact, Pentecostals aligns with Jonathan Edwards’ views Jews would return to “their” Land. However, McDermott suggests that Edwards did not sympathize with Judaism in his day. Both Pentecostals and Evangelicals believe that the Jews would play a significant part in the end-times. McDermott mentions, “Evangelicals in the nineteenth century continued to look for a role for Jews to play in the end-time drama of redemption.” As we know, when Israel was founded as a state in 1948 Pentecostals, Evangelicals and Fundamentalists saw this event as a fulfillment of biblical prophecies. Christian Zionism, Pentecostal Zionism, and the Conflict

17

Charles F. Perham, “Zionism,” in The Sermons of Charles F. Parham, (New York, NY: Garland Publishing, 1985), p. 102 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



8

Zionism, whether Jewish or non-Jewish, looks to the return of the people of Israel to the “Promise Land.” Zionism is eccentrically rooted on theological assumption that God-self promises the territory of Canaan to the descendants of Jacob. However, to understand these rationales it is necessary to examine the biblical roots in the idea of God’s promises. In Genesis 12, God promise Abraham that his offspring would settle in the land of Canaan. Daryl P. Domning sustains that the Israelis’ beliefs are found in the collective narrative of Genesis. For Jewish, YHWH is the creator of the world by exercising his sovereign power, with the intention to bring humanity into the world (Gen. 1 – 2). Consequently, Israelites understood that YHWH is the rightful owner the world that He created, and therefore God gave the Land to Abraham’s offspring. The problem gets worst because both Palestinians and Jews have Abraham as their remotely progenitor. The question that one might ask here is, “who is the rightful owner of the “Promise Land?” Before addressing that question let us turn to Christian Zionism and Pentecostal Zionism. Pentecostal Zionism is set in it the context of Christian Zionism. For this reason, it is important to acknowledge Christian Zionism. According to Donald M. Lewis, the Christian Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people were “destined by God to have a national homeland in Palestine and that Christians were obliged to use means to enable this takes to place.”18 The idea of establishing a national home for the Jewish people is not a 19th century cliché. Rather, it is something that can be traced back to the 17th century and is strongly involve both Britain and colonial America. In this matter, Lewis indicates that the acceptance of the Jewish “national identity” came in the 19th century with Balfour and Lloyd George. They began to use the language of “the Jewish people,” “the Jewish nation,” “the Jewish race,” and “the Jewish homeland.” Lewis 18

Donald M Lewis, “Introduction,” in The Origins of Christian Zionism, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 5 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



9

points out that Arthur Belfour sent a letter to Lord Rothschild perusing the establishment in Palestine of a nation home for the Jewish people. Balfour’s latter huge the Majesty’s government to facilitated the achievement of this object. Moreover, the Balfour Declaration of 1917 enables the Jews to establish a national home in the territory of Palestine. It is within that assumption that Christian Zionism emerged as a political force to facilitate the restoration of the Jewish people. Scholars also had argued that Christian Zionism is rooted in the Protestant evangelicals and it is pre-dated by the Zionism Movement of 1897. Lewis makes a strong description of Christian Zionism. He says that Christian Zionism “appeals to evangelicals whose own experience ‘on the margins’ creates an affinity for the Jews experience as a nation that is portrayed as being ‘on the margins.’” 19 For many evangelicals, Zionism was a sign that the end of the dispensation was near, and the prophetic dates were ending. The core of Christian Zionists is that they consider themselves to be naturally allied with Jews against a radical Islamist movement bent on worldwide domination. Yet, the ideology behind Christian Zionism was the perception to establish a Jewish “nation.” It is clearly understood that Christian Zionism understands the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and thus deserving of political, financial, and religious support. Both Evangelicals and Fundamentalists view the Jewish people as the “Chosen People,” and therefore they must support them. The understanding of Pentecostal Zionism is not far from the Christian Zionism perception. They understood that the prophecy of Joel 2, the events of Acts 2, the revivals of 1900’s, and the restoration of the Jewish people in Palestine were of ultimate significances. To this, Newberg points out, 19

Arthur Goldschmidt and Lawrence Davidson, p. 335 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



10

Among early Pentecostals, there was a widely held belief that, at the time of the outbreak of the Pentecostal Revival, God was effecting a double restoration of ultimate significance. First, the apostolic power of the Holy Spirit was being restored through the Pentecostal Revival. Second, the Jewish homeland in Palestine was being restored through the Zionist Movement.20 Yes, it is since the very early beginnings that Pentecostalism has sympathized with both the Jewish people and the Zionist Project. Many Pentecostals pioneers publicly embraced the Zionist movement and predicate that the Jewish will be restored as a nation. They carried with themselves an image of Israel/Palestine that was inclined towards a pro-Zionist ideological agenda where Jerusalem figured largely in the eschatological discourse of Pentecostalism. By the same token, Perham in his sermon title “Zionism” states, “When the Jewish Congress meet in Jerusalem and by proclamation announce themselves a restored nation, that edict opens the seventieth week of Daniel and the last seven years of this age.”21 Perham believed that the Jewish people were to be restored to fulfill the biblical prophecies. In this sense, he is presenting the understanding of the Pentecostal eschatology where the Arab-Israeli conflict is understood as a fulfillment of the biblical prophecies of end-times. Newberg understands that Perham went too far in this observation of the biblical promises. In fact, Newberg indicates that Perham attempt to raise money in order to travel to the Holy Land in search for the Ark of the Covenant—which he claimed to know its location. However, Boddy disagreed with Perham on this adventure. Newberg mentions that Boddy wrote a column on Confidence saying that “having been asked whether I could recommend… to give money… I must answer with a decided ‘NO!’”22 The disagreement between Perham and Boddy was very clear: “there were no support” to search for the Ark of the Covenant. This can be trace back to how Pentecostals were seeing that the establishment of the Jewish “nation” pure eschatological. 20

Eric Nelson Newberg, p. 19 Charles F. Perham, p. 102 22 Eric Nelson Newberg, p. 160 21

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



11

Beyond the above paragraph, the Arab-Israeli Conflict has been one of the most challenging topics to address in any research paper due to all the political, socio-economical, and religious issues that it evokes. No one in the field of Middle Eastern studies can come to an agreement on this conflict. In fact, the United Nations is also divided in their opinions on this matter. Scholars Arthur Goldschmidt and Lawrence Davidson in their chapter, “The Contest for Palestine” argues that the Arab-Israeli conflict did not initiate in 1948. Rather, the conflict is based on the assumption that “Zionist Jews believed that the land of [Palestine] would be restored to [Israel] someday and that the Temple would be rebuilt in Jerusalem.”23 Yet, Muslim also believed that Palestine “for so long a part of the umma and containing Jerusalem, a city holy to them as well as to Jews and Christians, could not be alienated from the lands ruled by Islam.”24 Beyond both assumptions, Goldschmidt and Davidson understand that the Arab-Israeli conflict is due to the rise of nationalist movement in the modern sense. They also understand that the “problem” rests in the affirmation that both Arabs and the Israelites descent from Abraham. However, as they argue that term Land of Israel restricts the possession to the descendants of Jacob—Israelites. Furthermore, the conflict gets more complicated when trying to draw a plan to establish the limits between the lands. As Goldschmidt and Lawrence Davidson mention, “Some Israelis viewed Gaza and the West Bank as a part of their Biblical patrimony and wanted to absorb them They also argue, “The Arabs would not negotiate from weakness… whereas Israel chose to hold all the occupied lands as bargaining chips in the peace talks it hoped would ensue.” 25 At the same time, Pentecostal periodicals supported Zionism and provided commentaries on current events in Palestine (1906 – 1948).

23

Arthur Goldschmidt and Lawrence Davidson, p. 270 Ibid, p. 270 25 Ibid, p. 334 24

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



12

The Balfour Declaration was a boon for Pentecostals’ eschatology especially when the British capture Jerusalem. The declaration left an intentional aim to establish a “national home” for the Jewish people. In this sense, the momentous gained by the declaration gave Zionism a language to talk in terms of “political legitimacy,” and as well provided an impetus for the colonization of Palestine. After this, dispensationalism became a dominant way to lead the discussion among mainstream Evangelicals and Fundamentalists. As a result, Pentecostals deeply understood it in terms of the end times. Most Evangelicals, Fundamentalists and Pentecostals interpreted the establishment of Israel as a fulfillment of the prophetic scriptures and believed we were entering the countdown of the return of Jesus. I must mention that it is quite impressive that the Pentecostals’ eschatology does not support Arabs or Palestinians. Rather, their approach has been inclined to view Arabs and Palestine as agents of Satan alongside with their religion. For this reason, it is necessary for Pentecostal to evangelize Arab, Palestinians, and Muslims so that they can be save. This also gets more complicated when reviewing the biblical promise of the Land because as firsthand Pentecostals will rush to say that the Land belongs to the Jews. In this sense, as a Pentecostal, I ask if it is legitimate to take into accountable the biblical promise in order to pre-adjudicate the “ownership” of the Land to Jews? In other word, as modern readers of Genesis 28:13 we must use this passage and others to sustain that Jews are the rightful heirs of the Land. This is an endless conflict and the answers propose have been endless one. Despite the numerous efforts, the conflict remains the main impediment to world peace. It is almost daily that there are attacks between Israel and its neighbors, and there is no end in sight. The Former President of the United State, George W. Bush advocated for a two-state solution but it was unsuccessful. However, it was the most promising proposal to end the crisis. Moreover, the

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



13

conflict has the entire world divide within the question of “who are the rightful heirs of the Land?” No one sense to come into agreement on this matter. Of course, Jews argue that it is their land, but the Arabs also stand in the affirmation that it is theirs as well. On one hand, Benjamin Netanyahu—Israel’s Prime Minister—in his speech at UN General Assembly said, “The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first.”26 On the other hand, on her inaugural speech Tzipi Hotovely—Deputy of Foreign Minister—said, “We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country… This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologize for that.”27 Hotovely claim was very clear that Israel owes no apologies for its policies, and to sustain her claim she cited religious texts where it affirms that the Land “belongs to the Jewish people.” This “back-and-forth” between Jews and Palestinians have produces countless crimes in the course of resistances. Conclusion The history of Pentecostal mission in Palestine is being now told by several scholars; however, it is still in its early stages. Classical Pentecostals embraced the “Great Commission” as a sign God’s calling. When Perham and his students study the Bible they were seeking for a spiritual understanding that would enable them to revive the Church. It is not a surprise that Perham was pursuing an awakening of the Spirit because evangelicals like Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, and other were searching for the same revival. Classical Pentecostals, unlike 26

Benjamin Netanyahu, “The 66th session of the General Assembly at United Nations,” (Last modified on Sep 24, 2011), access Dec. 2, 2015: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/full-transcript-of-netanyahu-speech-at-un-generalassembly-1.386464 27 Tzipi Hotovely, “Inaugural Speech,” (Last modified on May 22, 2015), access on Dec. 6, 2015: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/22/israels-new-deputy-foreign-minister-this-land-is-ours-all-of-it-isours THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



14

Evangelicals, overemphasize that a “true Christian” is those who are field by the Spirit to missionize others. As a result, Pentecostals understood that they were called by God to spread the Good News through the entire world. Since the beginning many Pentecostals were sent from the Azusa Street Revival to all ethnicities, races, religions, and tribes. It was Matthew 28:18 that enables Pentecostals to missionize all entire earth, especially Palestine. The essential principle of Pentecostals was to expand the Kingdom of God by preparing a landscape for the second coming of Christ. Thus, Pentecostal constructed their Zionism ideology on the discourse of conservative evangelicals and pre-millennialists’ theology. Of course, modify to serve theirs agenda. No movement of “peace” can work unless it takes full account of the Palestinian experience, and it is importance in the quest of peace. Professor Ellen Charry stated in class that we must to pursue a dialogue and not a debate—the primary purpose of a dialogue is to learn in order to change and grow. In fact, dialogues serve a purpose in realm of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. As we know already, this conflict is largely a political one, yet interreligious dialogues might help us move toward the peace we need. I believe that if dialogue is going to have an impact on resolving the conflict, and it must occur parallel with advocacy efforts. Hence, the eschatological response of Pentecostalism recognizes the priority of the Spirit in working for a future of justice and peace, which enables us to missionize others. At the same time, we must be not prejudice but rather objective in order to have a dialogue that lead us towards the solution of the conflict. As a Pentecostal, I say that if Pentecostals truly are pro-Israel and believe in the role destined for the Jewish. Then, they must help not only the Jews but also the Palestinians to arrive at an agreement that will result in the end of the conflict for God sake and world peace.

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT



15