Defending Christian Zionism: David Pawson - 3 stars

I have long appreciated David Pawson's (DP) work, have read most of his books, attended his lectures and met him a couple of times. I appreciate his rigorous way of examining the scriptures and the issues and, in many areas of controversy, have a large measure of agreement with him. However, in this controversy, I suspect he would regard me as somewhere in his Replacement/Fulfillment categories of Christian anti-Zionists although I don't fit his criteria for either.

His book serves a valuable purpose in removing the dispensational element from the discussion. Stephen Sizer's (SS) book right targets the dispensationalists but as DP points out there is a brand of Christian Zionism which utterly rejects the dispensationalism of Darby, Lindsay and LaHaye. It is useful to clear that ground and to see that in terms of the Mosaic Covenant David Pawson himself is a `Replacement Theologian'. However it was the Mosaic Covenant which established Israel as a nation with a destiny and the Commandments and Judgements served partly as a tenancy agreement for the land. Where does this leave a right to the land for those whose constitutional covenant giving them the lease, never the right, to the land was `replaced' by the New Covenant?

Clearly DP feels strongly about these issues but I think this book does not maintain his usual standards of patient reason and fairness. I was saddened to note one or two places where he adopted the `guilty by association' brand of reasoning and surprised at his association of several UK politicians with `Christian Zionsim'. I would scarcely regard Churchill or some of his other `Christian Zionists' as `Christian' in any sense.

DP's book is only the beginning of a response to SS's position. His handling of the topic was inevitably reactive but it suffers as a result of this. It left me with more questions than solutions. I still think that in agreeing with Stephen Sizer's demolition of dispensationalism DP has served his readers well, now we can get onto the real issues of interpretation.

Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Terra Nova Publications International Ltd (April 2008)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1901949621
ISBN-13: 978-1901949629