Posted by Gev
Anti-Zionist crusader vicar Stephen Sizer will not only speak at mosques and on TV station of oppressive Islamic regimes to Muslims and to thePalestine Solidarity Campaign atheists, he will also share he message of animosity towards Christians who support Israel, to reformed Christian ministers in the guise of the Yorkshire Reformed Ministers Fraternal with 24 affiliated churches in the Yorkshire area.
The YRMF is led by the minister of Sheffield Presbyterian Church Rev. Dr Kevin J. Bidwell and Pastor Ben Hutton of Thornhill Baptist Church. I initially left a comment on theirblog asking why they had thought it was so important to have invited Sizer to speak, however the comment was quickly deleted and there seems to be no desire to dialogue on this question. However a cursory glance at Bidwell’s blog reveals how enamoured he was with Sizer’s talk primarily because he has bought-into Sizer’s straw-man presentation of Christian Zionism as a one-size-fits-all theological bogeyman, or as Bidwell calls them “Israel fanatics”. It is informative that Bidwell seems to suggest that all political and this-worldly interests and issues are not for the Christian, citing Jesus’ words that His Kingdom is not of this world. However we live in this world, so to some extent His Kingdom is, of this world without being worldy!
Bidwell has imbibed Sizer’s rhetoric “some Christians wrongly seem to become engrossed in Middle Eastern politics.” One could however, claim that Sizer himself has lunched-out regularly on his engrossment in Middle Eastern politics and Bidwell was happy to have him speak and partake in Sizer’s obsession with Middle Eastern politics, however for Bidwell it seems OK when it is the anti-Israel side of the obsession. I doubt very much that the minister’s fraternal will have another speaker to balance-off the perspective Sizer brought. I would be happy to be proved wrong on that point.
At 8:50 in his highly political and biased talk, dressed as theology, to the august gathering of Yorkshire ministers Sizer claimed that Christian support of Israel is easily dismissed, as it is merely hot air in a balloon which he will provide the pins to pop, in fact only one pin is needed and Sizer will generously give the anxious ministers several to help them out!
Sizer starts his talk off with his usual scaremongering about the Israeli-Arab conflict being the most dangerous conflict in the world today, ignoring all other global challenges and the potential conflagration scenario that the Ukraine-Russian-USA(EU)-Russian conflict could easily develop into both economically and militarily.
Sizer claims the Old Testament can ONLY be read through the eyes of Jesus and the Apostles, so much for all scripture, (which was the Old Testament when Timothy wrote), being God-breathed.
Sizer claims at 10.51, if you preach what a Jewish rabbi could also preach, there must be something wrong with it. This is surely an exaggeration, I’m sure there are many things said in sermons in church and synagogue that are repeated in both.
Sizer asserts, and warns that it may sound anti-Semitic, that the Jewish people as a race were never God’s chosen people at 15.51 mins.
Sizer also recites his usual over-the-top statements from select minority of American Christian Zionists leaders and then claims all that he does in attacking Israel and her Christian supporters is really the Gospel after-all! So for Sizer attacking Christian support of Israel is the gospel. Sizer is deluded if he thinks his new Crusade against Israel is actually the gospel. I wonder if any of those ministers saw through this talk and challenged Sizer’s ‘other gospel’.
Flip the Israel obsession coin and on one side you will have Hagee and on the other you will find Sizer. These ministers seem happy to have one side of the coin because it seems more theologically reformed because of Sizer’s attack on chiliastic eschatology and the Augustinian hermeneutic recycled and renewed by N.T. Wright that Sizer builds upon.
Sizer’s talk can be accessed here.
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