13
Israelis, Israelites, and God’s Hand
in History
Finnish Christian Attitudes toward the Creation of the
State of Israel
Timo R. Stewart
News of the approval of the United Nations Partition Plan for
Palestine reached most Finns via radio on Advent Sunday 1947,
perhaps after returning from their traditional Lutheran church service
in the dark, cold days of early winter. Due to the time diference
between New York and Helsinki, the vote came too late to appear in
Sunday’s papers. On Monday, however, front pages were brimming
with news from soon-to-be formerly British Palestine. Many of
Finland’s numerous Christian papers also covered the event with
enthusiasm. There was widespread excitement over the decision to
create a Jewish state, yet war in the Holy Land seemed imminent.1
257
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
When the ighting started in Palestine, it seemed to take place on
a rather small scale compared to the cataclysmic struggle that had
ended only two and a half years before in Europe. Finland itself was
no stranger to the horrors of war. The Winter War of 1939–1940
and the Continuation War of 1941–1944 against the Soviet Union,
as well as the Lapland War of 1944–1945 against Nazi Germany, had
left almost 100,000 Finns dead, the same number with a permanent
disability, nearly half a million refugees from lost territories, massive
war reparations, and an exhausted nation with an uncertain future.
Despite all this, the ighting in faraway Palestine and the birth of a
Jewish state captivated Finnish imaginations and prompted colorful
religious speculation.
In the following, I will analyze how Finnish newspapers and
especially the Christian press interpreted the news of the creation
of Israel and the events immediately preceding and following it in
the years 1947–1949. I will show how Christian responses ranged
from indiference among traditionalists to bold conclusions about
the fulillment of prophecies among Pentecostals as well as Lutheran
Evangelicals. A third group, falling somewhere between the extremes
of the irst two, is composed of mainstream Lutheran publications
that were interested in the creation of Israel but were not as clear
in placing it into theological context. Finally, I will address the
surprisingly complete lack of contemporary criticism of these
Christian Zionist interpretations and present an outline of the
Christian Zionist activity that blossomed after 1949.2
1. Helsingin Sanomat, December 1, 1947; Uusi Suomi, December 1, 1947; Ilta-Sanomat, December
1, 1947; Hufvudstadsbladet, December 1, 1947.
2. I deine Christian Zionists as Christians who believe that Zionism is part of God's plan revealed in the
Christian Scriptures. Consequently, they see it as a good development that should be welcomed
and supported. While it was also applicable before the creation of Israel, this deinition comes
close to the one phrased by Stephen Spector: Christian Zionist denotes “Christians whose faith,
often in concert with other convictions, emotions, and experiences, leads them to support the
258
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
Setting the Stage of Popular Opinion:
The pro-Zionist Mainstream Press
The Finnish mainstream secular press followed the undertakings of
the Zionists with great sympathy throughout 1947. The UN
partition vote and Israel’s independence in May 1948 only added
to the enthusiasm.3 The horrors of the Holocaust were still fresh in
everyone’s minds, and although Finland had refused to persecute its
Jewish citizens, eight refugees had been sent to Nazi Germany. The
case was of great interest in December 1947, as Arno Anthoni, the
wartime head of Finland’s intelligence service (the Valtiollinen poliisi,
or Valpo) was being tried for it at the same time.4
It is not immediately apparent why distant Palestine would have
been of interest to Finns. Finland’s own Jewish population was
small—less than two thousand—and Finland had no part in deciding
Palestine’s fate as it was not yet a member of the United Nations.
Besides, there were plenty of other pressing concerns. The Allied
Control Commission only left Helsinki in September 1947, Soviet
troops were still stationed near the capital, and uncertainties about
Soviet inluence and the country’s future were rife. Finns watched
with trepidation as the Soviet occupation forces inluenced political
life in Eastern Europe and the Cold War set in. The possibility of
a communist takeover in Finland could not be discounted. Indeed,
Finland’s postwar period (1944–1948) has been referred to as “the
years of danger.”
Nevertheless, the events in Palestine proved riveting both before
and especially after the partition resolution. When news of ighting
modern state of Israel as the Jewish homeland.” Stephen Spector, Evangelicals and Israel: The
Story of American Christian Zionism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 3.
3. Here, I am consciously echoing conclusions present in unpublished works by both Raimo
Lammi and Tiina Kirkas.
4. An account in English can be found in Hannu Rautkallio, Finland and the Holocaust: The Rescue
of Finland’s Jews (New York: Holocaust Library, 1987).
259
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
was reported from December 1947 onward, the name recognition of
the battle sites must have added immensely to their news value. At the
same time, this recognition lent a particular perspective. The context
from which all Finns knew the promised land—the Old and New
Testaments—described a land populated by Jews. Moreover, after a
name was chosen for the new state in May 1948, the Finnish word
for biblical Israelites (israelilaiset) was the most linguistically natural
choice to denote modern Israelis as well.5 Conversely, the Finnish
word often used at the time for Palestine’s Arabs (arabialaiset) literally
translates as “Arabians,” which implies a people foreign to Palestine.6
Even though the mainstream press generally avoided overtly
religious references, the justiication of Zionism’s claim to Palestine
was never explicitly questioned. Finland lacked a colonial history
of its own, but it had struggled to gain independence from Tsarist
Russia only thirty years before and had recently fought the Soviet
Union to retain it. The argument for the Palestinian Arabs—that they
were both the clear majority and the indigenous population of a
land that was holy also to Muslims and Christians—could have struck
a chord. This was all the more so, since many of their rivals for
control of the land came from Russia or were socialists. But it did not.
Although a few papers briely mentioned the Arab position,7 none
seemed to take it very seriously.
From the start, the Zionist argument received better coverage in
the mainstream media because of well-publicized visits by Zionist
oicials. The leaders of the Finnish Jewish community were available
for comment as well, while there was no corresponding
5. This was not inevitable. Israeliitta—a word similar in connotations and form to Israelite—used to
exist in Finnish. It appears, for example, in the 1642 Bible translation that was in use until the
eighteenth century and even after that in spoken language.
6. The more neutral term, “Arabs” (arabit), was also used and later became universal.
7. Three such examples are from Christian papers: Herättäjä, August 8, 1947; Församlingsbladet,
November 13, 1947; Per Wallendorf, “Arabisk och judisk syn på Palestina,” Församlingsbladet,
September 9, 1948.
260
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
representative for Palestinian Arabs. Finns who had traveled to
Palestine and knew something of the country had for decades
described Zionists in a positive light while denigrating Arabs as cruel,
treacherous, and backward.8 In fact, Finnish accounts of the Orient
are remarkably similar to the French and British works analyzed
by Edward Said in Orientalism (1978). Moreover, the Finnish
missionaries who were living or had lived in Palestine worked almost
exclusively with Jews and had a very high degree of identiication
with them.9
It seems that these three factors—sympathy for Holocaust victims,
the unchallenged assumption of Zionist entitlement to Palestine, and
general cultural identiication with the Jews compared to the
Arabs—strongly inluenced the way Finns saw the situation. On this
basis, it was easy to frame the conlict as a Jewish—not Arab—struggle
for independence. It also appeared to contemporaries that the
Zionists, through resourcefulness and hard work, just might succeed
in making a living in a tough environment and besting their many
enemies as well.
The pioneering underdog aspect of Zionism resonated deeply in
Finland, which celebrated its thirtieth independence day a week
after the partition resolution and had recently survived two wars
against its far larger eastern neighbor. The way the Zionists portrayed
themselves—as a hardworking people in a poor land opposed by
numerically superior oriental enemies—was strikingly similar to
8. For example K. Aug. Hildén, Palestiinassa—Matkamuistelmia [In Palestine—travel memoirs]
(Helsinki: J. C. Frenckell ja Poika, 1891), 108, 179; A. A. Granfelt, Pyhä maa—Kuvia ja
kuvaelmia [Holy Land: pictures and descriptions] (Helsinki: Kansanvalistusseura, 1913), 28;
Hilja Haahti, Pyhillä poluilla [On holy trails], second ed. (Helsinki: Otava, 1924), 204; Aapeli
Saarisalo, Galilean rauniomailta [From the land of ruins in Galilee] (Porvoo: WSOY, 1927),
46–49.
9. This is true of Ester Juvelius (1876–1962), Aapeli Saarisalo (1896–1986), Aili Havas
(1903–1988), Rauha Moisio (1909–1999), and Kaarlo Syväntö (1909–1998), but not exclusively
of Elna Stenius (1875–1949).
261
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
Finnish self-perception. Finns also saw themselves as a bastion of the
West against the East, a sentiment aptly captured in the irst lines of a
popular wartime poem:
The border opens like an abyss.
Before me Asia, the East.
Behind the West and Europe;
as a guardsman, I protect it.10
Adding a Biblical Layer:
Three Kinds of Christian Papers
Many Christian papers—both weeklies and monthlies—went even
further. “Literal fulillment of the Bible”11 was the headline used to
describe this “sign of the times”12 by Sana (The Word), a popular
weekly published by a new evangelical revival movement inside the
Lutheran church. The more traditionally Lutheran biweekly Kotimaa
(Homeland) was more speciic and claimed the prophet Jeremiah had
foretold the creation of the Jewish state.13 “The Arabians [sic] will
ind it completely futile to try and ight this tide,” the paper wrote
later in its editorial. “The creation of the Jewish state . . . is based on
God’s clearly revealed promise, which seems to have reached its time
of fulillment.”14
Editorials, articles, and news items in Christian papers provide an
interesting perspective on how Finnish Christians reacted to Israel’s
creation in 1947–1949. Not all the Christian papers caught the same
10. The poem, Rajalla [On the border]by Uuno Kailas, appeared in Uuno Kailas, Uni ja kuolema
[Dream and death] (Porvoo: WSOY, 1931). Unless otherwise noted, English translations of
Finnish-language works throughout this chapter are by the author.
11. Sana, December 12, 1947.
12. “Tilin avaus,” Sana, January 3, 1948.
13. Kotimaa, December 2, 1947.
14. “Kulunut vuosi,” Kotimaa, December 30, 1947.
262
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
enthusiasm. The texts can be divided, very roughly, into three
categories depending on the frequency and boldness of their
interpretations concerning Israel.
First, there are the traditionalist papers, belonging to old revival
movements inside the Lutheran Church. They give the event very
little or no attention and make even fewer speculations. Second
are the newly emerging evangelical revivalists inside the Lutheran
Church and the Pentecostal movement outside of it who write about
Israel very often and make bold theological claims as to the
signiicance of Middle Eastern political events. Third are mainstream
Lutherans, not ailiated with revival movements, who are interested
in Israel and sometimes see biblical signiicance in Israel’s creation but
leave the theme almost completely theologically undeveloped.
The irst group—the traditionalists—includes papers published by
the four old revival movements inside the Lutheran Church of
Finland.15 The vast majority of Finns, 95 percent at the time,16 were
members of the Lutheran Church. A signiicant number of at least
the more active church members were ailiated to some extent with
one of the four revival movements, although no exact igures are
available. By the 1940s, the revivalist fervor of these movements
had long since cooled and they had come to be seen as active and
15. The movements are known as rukoilevaisuus (the Prayerful), a movement that started in
the eighteenth century originally with an emphasis on sanctiication, prayer, and healing;
herännäisyys (the Awakened), originating in eastern Finland in the late eighteenth century and
early nineteenth century and emphasizing the insuiciency of deeds and trust in atonement;
Laestadianism (named after its founder Lars Levi Laestadius, 1800–1861), which spread in
Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish Lapland and is known for stressing the diference between
believers and nonbelievers; and inally evankelisuus (to avoid confusion with evangelicals, I
shall designate them the Pietists), who split from the Awakened in the nineteenth century,
diferentiated by an emphasis on joy in the certainty of salvation. Their main papers are,
respectively, Länsi-Suomen Herännäislehti (published by the Prayerful), Herättäjä and Hengellinen
Kuukauslehti (published by the Awakened), Siionin Lähetyslehti (published by the Laestadians),
and Sanansaattaja (published by the Pietists).
16. Finland’s total population was just over four million in 1950. “Population structure,” Statistics
Finland, http://www.stat.i/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html (accessed April 29, 2013).
263
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
distinctive, yet undisruptive, movements irmly in the fold of the
Lutheran Church.
The revivalist papers, as well as the more highbrow Lutheran
theological publications,17 display a near-complete absence of essays
or even chance comments on the biblical signiicance of Zionism
or the new State of Israel. There is very little mention of Zionism
or Israel in any of these papers, although a few of them include
individual articles (but no editorials) that make vague reference to the
principle of God bringing his people back to the promised land near
the end of days.18
The likely reason for this lack of interest is the force of Lutheran
tradition. On this issue, it had long held similar views to the Catholics
and the Orthodox,19 whose publications during 1947–1949 also make
no connection between the political events in Palestine and their
faith.20 Martin Luther had said as much in his New Preface to the
Prophet Ezekiel (1541), which was included in a well-known Finnish
Bible edition from 1878: “Over against the blindness of the Jews, it
should be known especially that all the prophecies which say that
Israel and Judah shall return to their lands and possess them in a
physical way forever, have been long since fulilled, so that the hopes
of the Jews are utterly vain and lost.”21
17. Teologinen Aikakauskirja and Vartija.
18. The two articles making reference to God’s plan to repatriate the Jews to Palestine were Eino
Rimpiläinen, “Etsikonajoista,” Siionin Lähetyslehti 6/1948; Länsi-Suomen Herännäislehti 9/1949,
pseudonym Tunto: “Sanan vaihto.” Additionally Herättäjä paid some attention to events in
Palestine without giving them spiritual signiicance.
19. By 1950, the Orthodox Church had almost seventy thousand members, amounting to
1.7 percent of the total population. There were very few Catholics in Finland in the 1940s.
“Population structure,” Statistics Finland, http://www.stat.i/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html.
20. Aamun Koitto (the Orthodox Church of Finland) and Kellojen kutsu (the Catholic Church in
Finland).
21. Citation from Brooks Schramm and Kirsi I. Stjerna, Martin Luther, The Bible, and the Jewish
People: A Reader (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), 157. Printed in Finnish in Gustaf
Dahlberg, Pyhä Raamattu, tarpeellisilla selityksillä varustettu—Vanha testamentti. 4 osa [The Holy
Bible with necessary explanations—part 4 the Old Testament] (Turku: Wilén, 1878), 1815.
264
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
Antti J. Pietilä, professor of theology at the University of Helsinki,
was very irm on this principle in his work on Lutheran doctrine
from 1932: “Under no circumstance can one use biblical prophecies
to support the many dreams of Israel’s return to Palestine and its
national re-establishment and uniication.” However, he then
immediately proceeds to muddy the waters by adding, “before it
acknowledges Christ and starts preaching him to the nations.” But
this, of course, had not happened. According to Pietilä, “Christianity
has abolished Israel’s special position as a religious people.”22
The second group of papers is smaller and includes relative
newcomers on the Finnish Christian scene. These are the
publications of the small but quickly growing Finnish Pentecostal
movement and the still-disparate groups that would eventually come
to be seen as the popular and dynamic ifth Lutheran revival
movement, the Finnish Lutheran Evangelicals.23 Unlike the older
revival movements, the Pentecostals and the Lutheran Evangelicals
were inluenced by ideals from the United States and Britain, often
mediated by Swedes and especially Norwegians.24 Although the ifth
revival movement also remained inside the Finnish Lutheran Church,
its theology was characterized by a more literal hermeneutic as well
as some Calvinist leanings.
The interpretations put forward in Ristin Voitto (Victory of the
Cross), the main Pentecostal paper, and Sana (The Word), published by
the Finnish Bible Society (Kansan Raamattuseura, or KRS)—a major
22. Antti J. Pietilä, Kristillinen dogmatiikka III [Christian Dogmatics III] (Helsinki: Valistus, 1932),
496–97.
23. The terminology can become confusing, as the word evangelical also appears in the name of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. When speaking of evangelicals in the North
American and British sense, I will refer to Lutheran Evangelicals. Incidentally, Finnish has
derived two diferent words from the same root to avoid this confusion: evankelinen and
evankelikaalinen.
24. For the Pentecostals, see Lauri K. Ahonen, Suomen helluntaiherätyksen historia [History of the
Finnish Pentecostal movement] (Hämeenlinna: Päivä, 1994), 32–60.
265
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
Lutheran Evangelical organization—have much in common. Writers
in both seem to take it for granted that God cursed the Jews after
they rejected Jesus and that their woes throughout history are a result
of this. They also claim that the Jews still have signiicance in God’s
plan and particularly that Zionism is at least a partial fulillment of
that divine plan. They look forward to the unfolding of even more
dramatic events in Palestine, culminating in mass conversion. “Based
on the Bible, we are in no doubt about what this aims at. In the land
of their fathers, they [the Jews] will see clearly that the Messiah is not
coming in the future, but has already come. They will understand
who Christ is.”25
The Christian Zionism expressed in these articles does not
necessarily mean they are free of anti-Semitic stereotypes or
particularly warm toward Jewish Zionists: “Did the Jews feel any
desire for the land of their fathers just a few decades ago? No! Their
only desire was for business, getting rich. . . . But today there is
movement in the dead bones. (Ezek. 37)”26 While the Jewish state
is portrayed as clearly prophesied in the Bible, it was considered
necessary to reairm the orthodoxy and normativity of such a belief.
“The understanding that things concerning the Jews are the
timepiece of world events is widely held,” claimed Sana.27 “Every
child of God knows that we are living in a time of great biblical
prophecies,” echoed a writer in Ristin Voitto.28 But prophetic certainty
comes easier with hindsight. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both papers
started publishing more on the topic and become increasingly
conident only after the partition plan was approved by the United
Nations and Israel declared its independence.29
25. Sana, December 2, 1948.
26. Kauko Olander, “Juutalaiset ja Palestiina,” Ristin Voitto 10/1947.
27. Sana, May 28, 1948.
28. Esko Vanhala, “Elämme suurta, raamatullisten ennustusten täyttymisen aikaa,” Ristin Voitto 6/
1948.
266
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
However, there are fewer speciic clariications on how the authors
reached their conclusions beyond vague references to fulilled
prophecies and “signs of the times.” The authors must have assumed
their audiences were familiar with their way of interpreting the
relevant prophecies, or they had no clear system for doing it
themselves. For example, recurring references are made to Zionism
or Israel as a ig tree, alluding to a verse from the Gospels: “From the
ig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts
forth its leaves, you know that summer is near” (Matt. 24:32). Usually,
the actual verse is not cited in full or even part, and no reference
is made to where it could be found in any of the three Synoptic
Gospels.30
Another verse that is frequently, and this time straightforwardly, -
cited is Luke 21:24: “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles,
until the times of the Gentiles are fulilled.” Often this is found in
conjunction with the observation that the United Nations had not
granted Jerusalem to the Jewish state, and later that Israel did not
actually hold the Old City of Jerusalem. This is interpreted to mean
that the “times of the Gentiles” are drawing to a close but have not
yet ended. Many then connected this to their expectation of a mass
conversion of Jews as a nation, with some citing Rom. 11:25-26: “a
hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the
Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.”
Although the same verses and generally similar interpretations
regularly appear in numerous articles by varied writers, no unifying
system is clearly discernible. Due to the vague way in which Israel
is presented as the fulillment of prophecy, it is diicult to trace
the source of these beliefs, but they could have been inspired by
29. The primary articles, editorials, and news items used for this section are found in Ristin Voitto
and Sana throughout 1947, 1948, and 1949.
30. In addition to Matt. 24:32, the story is found in Mark 13:28 and Luke 21:29-30.
267
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
dispensationalism or other premillennial prophetic scenarios, of
which many had been translated or even written in Finnish.31
In such premillennial prophetic systems, the role of Israel, even
when central, is usually part of an overall picture that often
incorporates, for example, the outlook for world evangelization, the
signiicance and sometimes the identity of the antichrist, and other
“signs of the times.” In the Finnish context, such themes were not
usually developed very far. At least in the religious papers, Israel
is plugged in as prophecy “lite.” Rather than using the success of
Zionism and Israel as proof of a preexisting and developed
eschatology, most writers only make the point that Jesus is coming
soon and then use this sense of immediacy for calls to convert.
The third group of papers consists of the aforementioned
mainstream Lutheran Kotimaa (Homeland) and its Swedish-language32
counterpart, Församlingsbladet (Congregation Paper). For the years
1947–1949, the group can also be seen to include a Lutheran
Evangelical revivalist paper, Herää Valvomaan (Awake and Watch),
which was ailiated with the Finnish Bible Institute (Suomen
Raamattuopisto, or SRO) and would eventually take up Israel as a
core theme. However, in the years 1947–1949, the views on Israel
promoted by all these papers fall somewhere between the two groups
described above.33
Especially the irst two papers include plenty of news items about
recent events in Palestine. Their obvious interest in the issue sets
31. Two early examples of premillennialist literature are translations from Swedish and English,
respectively: Fredrik Franson, Taiwaan kello eli Profeetallinen sana [The heavenly countdown]
(Wiipuri: A. Skutnabb, 1898); H. Grattan Guinness, Light for the Last Days—A Study in
Chronological Prophecy [Lopun aika—Historiallisia ja profeetallisia tutkistelemuksia] (Jyväskylä:
Gummerus, 1898).
32. Finland has two national languages, Finnish and Swedish. In 1950, Swedish was the irst
language of 8.6 percent of the population. “Statistics Finland—Population structure,”
http://www.stat.i/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html#structure
33. The primary articles, editorials and news items used for this section are drawn from
Församlingsbladet, Kotimaa, and Herää Valvomaan throughout 1947, 1948, and 1949.
268
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
them apart from the irst, more traditionalist group. Additionally, all
three feature some individual articles attributing a degree of religious
signiicance to the creation of Israel. However, compared to the
second group, the Israel theme achieves less prominence, and the
few existing interpretations are generally more cautious and can be
attributed to a relatively small group of individuals. Direct Bible
citations are also even less common than in the second group.
Nevertheless, some of the themes that made their way into Sana
and Ristin Voitto are also in evidence in these more established papers,
often through interviews with Finns who had been to Palestine or
in news items about the Christian Zionist Karmel Association, which
was established in Finland in late 1949. They also make reference
to the vision of the valley of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37, which is
interpreted as foretelling Israel’s rebirth. The “times of the Gentiles”
are also mentioned, as is the hope that the Jews would be converted
en masse.
The important role of Christian Zionist individuals is apparent.
The most active interviewee by far was Professor Aapeli Saarisalo, a
former missionary and very efective propagator of Christian Zionist
interpretations of Israel’s signiicance.34 Saarisalo’s fundamentalist
views on scriptural authority kept him out of the University of
Helsinki’s Faculty of Theology, but he eventually succeeded in
becoming Professor of Oriental Literature in 1935. Saarisalo saw
himself irst and foremost as a biblical archaeologist, but his main
impact in Finland was as a popularizer of research on Jewish and
Christian connections with the Holy Land’s past.
Saarisalo’s credentials as university professor and his past as a
missionary and archaeologist in Palestine enabled him to seize the
position of preeminent commentator on the events of 1947–1949,
34. His views are presented in, for example, Kotimaa, June 4, 1948; Aapeli Saarisalo, “Kuivat luut
kolisevat—Raamattu valaisee siionismin ja Palestiinan kysymystä,” Kotimaa, July 6, 1948.
269
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
even though he had not visited Palestine for ifteen years. He often
dropped into the oices of Christian and other papers to ofer his
views, which were invariably spiced with references to prophecy,
biblical covenants, and positive recollections of Zionists in the 1920s
and early 1930s.
Professor Yrjö J. E. Alanen, the editor of Kotimaa until the end of
1947 and an occasional writer after that, also appears as an inluential
voice in portraying the creation of Israel as the fulillment of
prophecy and a milestone on the road to the conversion of all Jews.
As Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Helsinki,
Alanen’s views carried weight. He found an outlet for them in
Kotimaa, which was seen as the main Lutheran paper, although not
oicially associated with the church. Already in late May
1948—before the irst truce of the Palestine War—Alanen was certain
that “the historical chain of events that has now begun cannot have
any other ending than the people of God permanently gaining their
old home.”35
While too much should not be read into the editorial choices
of these papers in covering speeches and interviewing Christian
Zionists, it is interesting that no balancing viewpoint is ofered. The
absence is so complete that even a few interviews with Christian
Zionists, with an occasional article espousing such viewpoints, creates
the impression that seeing Zionism as the fulillment of prophecy was
the only interpretation available.
35. Yrjö J. E. Alanen, “Toteutuva ennustus,” Kotimaa, May 21, 1948.
270
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
Silence as an Enabler:
The Dearth of Challenges to Christian Zionism
As we have seen, bold interpretations of the theological meaning
of faraway political events were not the exclusive playground of
Pentecostals and Lutheran Evangelicals. Christian Zionist messages
were also put forward in mainstream Lutheran papers, and on rare
occasions also among traditional revivalists. Later, this trend would
be greatly strengthened in these very same groups due to the success
of Christian Zionist and other pro-Israel organizations, authors, and
preachers, as well as mass tourism to Israel and voluntary work on
kibbutzim.
The best indication of the growth potential for Christian Zionist
beliefs in Finland may be the utter lack of criticism of Christian
Zionist interpretations during 1947–1949, or even later. Some secular
critics did express hesitations in the popular press about certain aspects
of the Zionist movement or the Palestine War of 1947–1949. One
prominent Finnish academic even made the following harsh
statement in 1950: “The demands by the Zionists for political rights
and economic privileges in Palestine do not have, when it comes to
historical facts, any kind of substantive base in reality.”36 A Danish
priest, Axel Torm, later the president of the Danish Israel Mission,
was also quoted elaborating some of the secular objections put forth
by Palestinian Arabs to giving up their land to foreign immigrants.37
However, these are the exceptions, and even such limited reservations
were not ofered from a speciically Christian point of view even in
Christian papers.
Why did nobody explicitly question the practice of equating
biblical promises with modern-day political events? It can hardly
36. Armas Salonen, Allahin kansat—Islamilaisten kansojen historia vuoteen 1950 [The people of
Allah—the history of the Islamic nations until 1950](Porvoo: WSOY, 1950), 630–31.
37. Per Wallendorf, “Arabisk och judisk syn på Palestina,” Församlingsbladet, September 9, 1948.
271
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
be attributed to a general Finnish cultural antipathy to public
controversy. Rancorous and highly publicized theological debates
were held, at least in print, both before and after this period. They
involved, among other things, infant baptism, the role of the
Lutheran Church in society, social justice, born-again experiences,
and a number of ethical questions. Christian Zionist interpretations
had been in evidence in Finland previously, but they were hardly a
sine qua non for Lutheran theology. Christian Zionist interpretations
were clearly within the realm of debate. It just never surfaced.
Perhaps the silence is indicative of the sheer wonder with which
the creation of Israel was received, particularly given the positive slant
the secular press put on it. The problems inherent in the solutions
of 1947–1949 were not evident to the vast majority of Finns. For
example, the roughly 700,000 Palestinian refugees were hardly
mentioned.
Furthermore, while Lutherans were not accustomed to thinking
of eschatology in general and had traditionally not reserved any
particular role for the Jews, some may have felt this to be an oversight.
The near absence of eschatological teaching left a vacuum that was
easily illed by preachers of varying quality. Israel was exciting and
unexpected. Who would dare say it was just a political event devoid
of theological meaning? In the end, nobody did.
The Karmel Association, founded in 1949, would eventually give
some practical outlets for funneling Christian enthusiasm for Israel
(see below). However, at this early stage in 1947–1949, nobody in
Finland called on Christians to actually do anything in support of the
State of Israel other than pray and perhaps work on evangelization.
Instead, the many who viewed Israel with religious interest tried to
use it as a tool for domestic evangelization by making the connection
between the creation of the Jewish state and the imminent return of
Jesus.
272
ISRAELIS, ISRAELITES, AND GOD’S HAND IN HISTORY
On a more personal level, believers interpreted Israel as a clear and
very tangible sign of God’s existence through his work in history. If
one read the Bible to say that Israel was prophesied, the creation of
Israel “proved” the Bible. It is a circular argument, but the thrill of
seeing God’s hand in history was hard to resist. Later, it would have
political consequences of its own.
The Blossoming of Finnish Christian Zionism
The enthusiastic reaction to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948
resulted in the founding of the Karmel Association the very next year.
Taking its inspiration from Norway, and including the ubiquitous
Professor Aapeli Saarisalo among its founders, the Karmel Association
would work hard to spread the good news of Israel to a receptive
Christian audience. Eventually, it was to boost pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, which started with overland trips but gained momentum
in tandem with more afordable air traic.
By the early1960s, Finns sent by the Karmel Association would
make up the irst Christian groups to volunteer on Israeli kibbutzim.
Their arrival was greeted with surprise in Israel, but volunteering
soon became an international trend, especially after the Six-Day War
in 1967. In the 1970s, Finns founded their own moshav near Jerusalem
to commemorate the eight refugees handed over to Nazi Germany
during World War II. In the 1990s, Finland and its numerous
Christian Zionist organizations and churches would play an active
role in facilitating the immigration to Israel of Jews from the former
Soviet Union.
Although Finland’s political and economic ties with Israel were
never particularly close, relatively large amounts of Christian Israel
literature, ranging from travel accounts and picture books to
prophetic treatises, were published. Christian Zionist organizations
273
COMPREHENDING CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
focused on facilitating travel to Israel, and after the political mood had
turned more critical in the late 1960s, on organizing demonstrations
and petitions on behalf of the Jewish state.
It was not until long after secular critics had called the solid,
although mainly symbolic, Christian support for Israel into question
that some theologians hesitantly followed suit. The foundations of
strong support for Israel—based on speciically theological but also
perceived cultural and historical connections—have proved to be very
strong. Although Finnish Christian Zionism reached its height in the
1980s, it continues to draw supporters from within the very same
groups—both Lutheran and Pentecostal—whose papers were quick to
ofer biblical explanations for the events of 1947–1949.
274
