Fighting For Real Estate - Part #23: The Darby-Blackstone Middle East Craze!

“Christian Zionism Escalated the Fight for Palestine, Promising Israel a Kingdom God Never Intended!”

By Richard Allen – October 6, 2025

One of the most ironic stories in history is how many of the followers of Jesus, that is, those who profess to be Resurrected with Christ into His Spiritual Kingdom (i.e. the Kingdom is within you Luke 17:21), have sold their Spiritual Birthright in Christ for a “bowl of Millennial Pottage!” Instead of preaching the Gospel of Christ to both Jew and Gentile, teaching all Believers that in Christ, God had “made One New Man of the two distinct groups of Believers” – many modern-day believers proclaim that God has two completely different types of Salvation for Jews and Gentiles.  To the Jews, God would give them a temporary, physical, earthly salvation with “Sacred Land and a Temple with Bloody Sacrifices.” Sadly – even this future promise that God would establish Israel as a “1,000 year-long paradise on earth” (with mostly fallen men and women), will also end in complete failure!  And at the end of that “semi-glorious” 1,000-year reign – “all four quarters of the earth” (i.e. all mankind) will be able to reject Jesus once again!  These misguided experts on prophecy imagine that a Jewish Rule over all the Gentile Nations – like King David and Solomon – is what God had always longed for, even if this kingdom is relatively short-lived. Compare this insanity with the promise that the Angel Gabriel told Mary about the Son of David, Jesus the Messiah and His Kingdom:

^“And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33).

Either these Dispensationalists have a different Messiah, or they are interpreting Jesus’ Messianic Kingdom ALL WRONG! This is the whole point of the next two Blogs: Dispensationalists – like the Jews in Jesus’ day – fundamentally fail to understand the Kingdom, God’s Promise and His Eternal Purpose in Christ!  To be clear, the Physical, Earthly and Spiritless Kingdom of Stone and Law – to reconcile man with God, had been tried repeatedly, over several thousand years. Needless to say, it never worked. Even the best human effort during the reign of king Solomon – didn’t set up the next generation for success. In some ways these Dispensationalists are like many young modern-day Marxists on college campuses. Having their heads filled with “Utopian Marxist Theory” by the college professorial class, these young Marxists believe that Communism is still the best system. Even when faced with more than a century of 100% failure, they fancy that “Communism just hasn’t been tried in the right place, or with the right people, or at the right time!”  The Future Dispensational Utopia that John Darby, William Blackstone and others dreamed of in the 1800’s, was just another version of the failed “physical earthly kingdoms” of Israel during the Old Testament. They had failed for more than 2,000 years to obey God’s Law – or earn His favor – for precisely the same reason Marx’s Socialist Utopian experiments fail:  You can’t build a perfect government with “fallen men and women” still operating in the flesh! 

No matter how “rosy a picture” the Dispensationalists paint of a “future Millennial Utopia” with King Jesus sitting on the throne – next to a Temple where thousands of animals will daily be slaughtered – even they have to admit, this millennial reign will ultimately “fail in the end.” Not even Jesus’ presence, ruling with a “rod of iron” will prevent Satan from deceiving unregenerate mankind, corrupting “the nations at the four corners of the earth!” According to their “literal-natural-interpretation” of Revelation 20, here’s how Christ’s wonderful 1,000-year reign will end:

“They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them” (Revelation 20:4b-9).

So I’m not misunderstood, I’m not saying that Christ’s imaginary millennial reign will fail, the Dispensationalists are saying that it will fail!  What I am saying is, that Christ is not coming again to deal with “sinful men,” those days are done (Hebrews 9:28).  When Jesus comes again, it will be to judge the “righteous and the unrighteous,” and consummate all things. The vast majority of church pastors and leaders throughout the ages all believed this truth. It wasn’t until the 1830’s that Darby began to teach his erroneous theories that we now call: Dispensationalism.  The “Biblical Kingdom of Christ” that God has promised – which I referenced from the Gospel of Luke above, has already succeeded!  According to Daniel Chapter 2, God has already set up the Kingdom of Christ – the “stone that was cut without hands” – and it will have no end!  Jesus is building His Church right now, and the “gates of hell will not prevail against it!” So, the question that needs to be asked and answered is: “Why do they believe and teach that Christ’s earthly 1,000-year reign – in a glorious Millennial Kingdom – will end in a “total rejection by all humanity?”  The simple answer is – they have a wrong interpretation of Revelation Chapter 20 (which we’ll cover in weeks ahead), and this misunderstanding leads them down a wrong path.

But the more immediate answer is, according to Darby, Blackstone, Shaeffer, Schofield and others – two thirds of fallen, unregenerate men and women in the flesh will live through the “great tribulation” – and make it into Christ’s earthly millennial reign. If you grasp how two thirds of fallen men and their descendants populating the earth for Jesus’ 1,000-year reign will affect His “supposed-millennial” reign on earth – then you should understand the failure of Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom.  Just like Karl Marx’s system – these Dispensational teachers never considered the contradiction of teaching Christ’s perfect millennial rule from a throne in Jerusalem, and the “flaw in how futurist Utopian prophecy” will be accomplished:  You can’t build a perfect “Future Paradise” with “Imperfect and Sinful People.” Likewise, in Marx’s utopian dreams, he wrongly believed that if you put the right socialist government in place – all men would do the right thing. Marx’s naïveté and lack of any Biblical understanding of “man’s fallen nature” gave him unrealistic utopian dreams, dreams that men would willingly share, working for the common good of their fellow man!

I’m not saying that the Jews in Jesus’ day weren’t looking for a physical-earthly kingdom – they absolutely were.  But unlike the lessons they should’ve learned in their previous failures, these fallen men and women were looking for power, dominion and physical blessings – and a “fighting Messiah” who could make it happen!  They wanted a Messiah who would strike down the Romans, return Israel to the grandeur they had under Solomon and make Jerusalem the “crown jewel of the earth,” where all mankind would come to worship. So, when Jesus came preaching a completely different kingdom, a Spiritual one that was not limited by country or people, but available to all men “By Faith” and not “Physical Lineage,” the Jewish people rejected Him outright, and Crucified Him!  It’s precisely “because Jesus wasn’t the Messiah of an earthly Kingdom that they rejected Him.” Contrary to Dispensational myths, “Jesus never offered Israel a physical, earthly kingdom for men in the flesh” to continue the status quo.” No, Jesus offered them a Spiritual Kingdom – and the only way to access it was “through the New Birth, Regeneration!”

By the mid-1800’s John Darby, William Blackstone and Cyrus Schofield had invented an unorthodox interpretive system to gain “new light on the Bible” called Dispensationalism.  Sadly, this system taught unbelieving Jews that “they did not necessarily have to be born again, nor repent and believe the Gospel.”  No, they taught the physical descendants of Israel that they would be saved – solely based upon their physical lineage as “children of Abraham.” There is a long-running thread of belief that the Jewish people needed to be back in Palestine – going back to the Puritans in England and the United States. Darby, coming out of the “Plymouth Brethren” was not really grounded in orthodox Christian doctrine. As a result, he invented many components of this system of interpretation – out of thin air.  He came up with the “Pre-Tribulational Rapture” in the 1820’s, teaching that the Church would be “caught up,” or Raptured to Heaven as God began once again to deal with the Jews – to bring them to the “land of promise.” The irony is, that long before Jewish Zionism, Christian Zionism was advocating a “homeland for the Jewish people in Europe and Russia.”  Most modern-day Zionists in Israel credit Theodore Herzl as the “Father of Modern Zionism.” It’s ironic, but William Blackstone, a Christian minister, is also often referred to as the “Father of Zionism.” What exactly did Blackstone do? Here's what Jonathan Moorehead says in his article: “William E. Blackstone, Father of Zionism?”

“William E. Blackstone played a pivotal role in early American Zionism, influencing both Christian and Jewish support for Jewish resettlement in Palestine. His activism was galvanized by religious beliefs and geopolitical events, particularly the persecution of Jews in Russia and his experiences in the Holy Land. Blackstone organized significant conferences advocating for a Jewish homeland, thereby laying groundwork for future Zionist efforts, and earned the title 'Father of Zionism' for his contributions.” 

So I’m not misunderstood, I support the present nation-state of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and an ally of the United States. I also support the “Evangelization of the Jewish people.” They need the Gospel of Jesus as much as any poor sinner. What I don’t agree with, is the “perverting of Christian doctrines and beliefs to create another way of salvation” that is focused on carnal things:  A Physical Land of Promise, Ethnicity and Human Priesthood – all of which have already been fulfilled in Jesus Christ!  He’s the Substance; all those things were “shadows of things to come.” For Ministers of the Christian Gospel to preach another way of Salvation than Christ, is condemned already. The height of irony is that so-called servants of Jesus Christ today promise physical Jews – that is, those only circumcised in the flesh (not the heart) that they can be heirs of Salvation, just by being Jewish – the very thing that Jesus told them in His day would not qualify them for heaven (Matthew 3:9). More to come in “Fighting for Real Estate – Part #24.”

Soli Deo Gloria