벤자민 네탄야후의 유사신학적 정치수사와 세대주의의 위험한 공생의 선교학적 함의 분석

Abstract

The present essay seeks to make an analysis of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pseudo-theological and political rhetoric and its missional implications. The purpose of the present paper is twofold: First, it aims to critically examine the theological dimension discernible in the political statements and utterances that Netanyahu has made in the capacity of both the leader of the ruling Likud Party and the prime minister of the Israeli government. Secondly, it aims to bring public attention to the misguided convictions of a group of contemporary dispensationalists domestic and abroad. In recent times, some conservative South Korean Christians have conspicuously flown three national flags in their weekly anti-government demonstrations: the American flag, the South Korean flag, and the Israeli flag. Their use of the Israeli flag in particular can be traced back to the theological influence of pro-Israel contemporary dispensationalists both domestic and abroad. Recently, a circle of theologians named ‘The Israeli Theology Forum’ has emerged, with their main goal being to disseminate their pro-Israel and dispensationalistic eschatology to churchgoers at large. It is said that those who have been regularly flying the national flag of Israel have been brought under such dispensationalism and its inferior variant, Christian Zionism. Fully convinced of the eschatological drama of Rom 11:25-26, according to which the nation of Israel will make a nation-wide repentance to God and welcome Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, they insist that Korea should enter into a mutually beneficial and peace-enhancing diplomatic relationship with the nation of Israel, to which Jesus Christ will ostensibly first come in his second Advent. They are generally supportive of Netanyahu's hostile upper-hand policy against neighboring Islamic states, and even position themselves against the Arabic-Islamic nations under the belief that Muslims are the enemy of Christian faith. It is likely that their pro-Israel and anti-Arab stance will cause a shift of public opinion toward Islamophobia in South Korea, which may then come to regard any Arabic nations and peoples as potential enemies of Christianity. In response to the current affairs facing these pro-Israeli and dispensationalistic church folks, the present essay proposes to analyze the pseudo-theological and political rhetoric of Netanyahu with special attention to pro-Israel dispensationlists’ central assertions that seek to make Netanyahu’s pseudo-theological and political utterances sound like a Christian confession about the eschatological mission of the nation of Israel.