The first answer originates with the birth of Dispensationalism in England in the 19th century. This theology of Christianity, which teaches that God deals with his creation in specific ways at specific times called “dispensations,” was championed by John Nelson Darby.

Darby taught that God’s blessings toward the people of Israel were put on hold when they rejected Jesus Christ. The prophetic “clock” was stopped and God established the church. Near the End Time, the church will be “raptured” out of the world so that the clock can start again, and God will establish the millennial Kingdom through his people Israel. They will reoccupy their land and the temple will be rebuilt.

Dispensationalism gained a foothold in America through the Niagara Bible Conference (1883-97). They produced the Niagara Creed. The last point of this creed reads: “We believe that the world will not be converted during the present dispensation, but is fast ripening for judgment, while there will be a fearful apostasy in the professing Christian body; and hence that the Lord Jesus will come in person to introduce the millennial age, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. ... “

This premillennialist theology was carried forward into the 20th century by such individuals as Clarence Larkin (1850-1924), author of “Dispensational Truth,” and Hal Lindsey, author of “The Late Great Planet Earth” (1971). It has been further popularized, most recently by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins in their “Left Behind” books.

Millions of Christians in the United States now believe the timeline taught by Dispensationalism, including many Protestants and others who are not traditionally in fundamentalist denominations. They see the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 as part of this timeline and a sign that the “rapture” of the Church and the End Time is near. Intertwined with this belief is the conviction that the promises of God to the Israel of the Old Testament are now directed to modern-day Israel.

Two specific promises underline these Christians’ understanding: God will treat all peoples depending on how they treat Israel, and Israel is entitled to this land because of the promises made to Abraham.

In summary, those who understand the modern state of Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy constantly align daily news from the Middle East with the timeline of Dispensationalism, supporting every action of Israel without question. To not do so would be to disbelieve God’s promises to Israel and to be in danger of “cursing” Israel, thereby endangering their own blessing of God and even their Christian salvation.

The second answer to the original question is that the state of Israel is a result of historic fact. Theodor Herzl introduced the modern secular form of Zionism in 1896 when he wrote a small pamphlet with the title, “The Jewish State.” Herzl described a plan to bring the Jews, scattered throughout the world in the Diaspora, back to their homeland in Palestine.

Giving strength to secular Zionism was the Balfour Declaration. British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, about a position agreed upon at a British Cabinet meeting on Oct. 31, 1917: “His Majesty’s government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

With the end of World War I, partitioning of the defeated Ottoman Empire resulted in British control of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq. Everything was in place to facilitate the combined goals of secular Zionism and Balfour. However, complicated and ever-changing events over the next three decades greatly influenced how the nations of the world would see the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Jewish immigration into Palestine in the 1920s was initially small enough to receive no opposition from Palestinian Arabs. However, with the further rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, immigrants increased, as did tension between Jews and Arabs. The British attempted to control the situation by establishing immigration quotas, which displeased both groups.

Events from the 1920s to 1940s kept the region in turmoil. When the British seemed reluctant to confront Arab protests in 1920-21, Jewish leaders formed Haganah (The Defense) to protect Jewish settlements and properties. This organization spawned the Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) in 1931, which in turn gave birth to Lehi in the early 1940s. Each succeeding group was more militant and violent than its predecessor in support of Jewish relocation to the area.

During this time, a major event was the Great Uprising (1936-39). Begun as a general strike called by Arab leadership in protest of Jewish immigration, it resulted in the death of 320 Jews and, in retaliation by the Irgun, 250 Arabs. Complicating this decade was Irgun’s campaign to facilitate immigration of European Jews who were facing discrimination, murder and pogroms.

With the rest of the world refusing to help them, the first vessel of refugees arrived in Palestine in 1937. By the time of the last vessel’s arrival in 1940, around 18,000 Jews had migrated from Europe.

Although a relative truce between the British and these groups existed through most of World War II, 1944 saw renewed violence and the ascension of Menachem Begin as head of the Irgun.

In the following years, this group, along with Lehi and Haganah, opposed British attempts to limit Jewish immigration. Attacks on prominent symbols of British administration, military, police, civil headquarters at the King David Hotel, and the British prison in Acre, were directed to drain British resolve and to accelerate their withdrawal from Palestine.

Besides the instability in Palestine, it must be admitted that there existed such issues as Western oil interests and a Western fear of Arab nationalism that also inhibited normalizing relations with Arab states of the Middle East. However, never was there a more favorable time for it to happen than during the immediate years after World War II.

After a failed U.N. attempt to solve the problem by partitioning the region into adjoining Jewish and Arab states, further violence erupted, with the British leaving the mandate on May 14, 1948. The modern state of Israel was born on that date in the bloodshed of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. That act, driven by the parallel ideologies of Dispensationalism and secular Zionism, stifled any chance for a peaceful Middle East.

Faced with this historical record, Christians who accept Dispensationalism would agree with both of the above answers to the opening question. They understand the modern state of Israel to be both a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and a result worked by the hand of God through the historical record. But, what of those Christians who do not adhere to Dispensationalism, a teaching relatively new in the 2,000-year record of Christian doctrine and understanding?

Dispensationalists interpret the words, phrases and sentences of the Bible in a very literalistic manner. Thus they reject or fail to see the importance of an ancient and almost universal principle of biblical interpretation known as typology. Typology is the method of biblical understanding which seeks the spiritual meaning of the historical events described in the Old Testament, and which has been universally accepted by the majority of Christians for 2,000 years. This method of interpretation has consistently taught that prophecies regarding the Israel of the Old Testament are ultimately fulfilled in the Christian church, the New Israel.

For the vast majority of Christians, then, the answer to our original question is strictly the second one — the modern nation of Israel is a political creation. Since it is not the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, Israel has no special blessing or protection by God. Israel takes its place alongside nations of the world and is to be evaluated and judged just as any other nation.

Further, just as not all Christians believe in Dispensationalism, it must be said that not all Jews accept the tenets of secular Zionism. Over the last several decades thousands of Israeli Jews, as well as some of their leaders such as Shimon Peres and Yitshak Rabin of the Labor Party, have attempted a settlement with the Palestinian Arabs by trading land for peace and secure borders. Such bold attempts to pacify the Middle East should be supported unequivocally by all nations of the world. Yet, very little — if anything — has changed since 1948.

Because of the influence of Dispensationalism and secular Zionism in the world, especially in the United States, the Middle East has remained in turmoil for almost a century. Rather than having a foreign policy that seeks to uplift and honor the people of all nationalities and religions in that region, America has developed a one-sided policy that favors only Israel. Today, after the Cold War and with the United States now the only superpower in the world, why does our nation still justify this one-sided policy by the unwarranted biases of Dispensationalism and secular Zionism?

For the sake of peace and stability in the Middle East, it is imperative that the U.S. government free itself from these unfortunate influences of the past and develop a new foreign policy evenhanded to all of the nations of that region. Such a move is long overdue and is essential to peace throughout the world, especially in light of the influence of Middle East history on the current war on terrorism.

Finally, if the End Times are truly imminent as our Dispensationalist friends think, it is much better if our nation were judged according to him who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

The Rev. Scott is pastor of St. George Orthodox Church in Charleston. This is a condensation of a longer commentary.