Christian Zionism is a political and religious ideology that, in aChristian context, espouses the return of theJewish people to theHoly Land.[1] Likewise, it holds that the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 was in accordance withbiblical prophecies transmitted through theOld Testament: that the re-establishment ofJewish sovereignty in the Levant—the eschatological "Gathering of Israel"—is a prerequisite for theSecond Coming of Jesus Christ.[1][2][3] The term began to be used in the mid-20th century, in place ofChristian restorationism, as proponents of the ideology rallied behindZionists in support of aJewish national homeland.[1][4][5]
An expectation of Jewish restoration among Christians is rooted in 17th-century EnglishPuritan thought.[6][2] Contemporary Israeli historianAnita Shapira suggests that England's ZionistEvangelical Protestants "passed this notion on to Jewish circles" around the 1840s,[7] while Jewish nationalism in the early 19th century was largely met with hostility fromBritish Jews.[8]
Christian pro-Zionist ideals emerged among thePuritans in the 16th and 17th centuries.[6] While supporting a mass Jewish return to theLand of Israel, Christian Zionism asserts a parallel idea that the returnees ought to be encouraged toreject Judaism and adopt Christianity as a means of fulfillingbiblical prophecies.[1][9][10] Polling and academic research have suggested a trend of widespread distrust among Jews towards the motives of Evangelical Protestants, who have been promoting support for theState of Israel andevangelizing the Jews at the same time.[1][11]
The first wave of Protestant leaders, includingMartin Luther andJohn Calvin, did not mention any specialeschatological views which included a return of the Jews to Palestine (converted to Christianity or otherwise).[12] More generally, Luther had hoped that the Jews would convert to his brand of Christianity once he had broken with theCatholic Church, but laterhe harshly denounced Jews. Like the Catholic Church and theEastern Orthodox Church, theLutheran Church and theReformed Church saw the Christian Church as being the "spiritual Israel" and considered faithful Christians the exclusive "people of God"—those with whom God had entered into a covenant throughJesus Christ—assigning no special privileges or role to persons of Jewish descent. (In later times this has been calledsupersessionism.)[13][12]
The Protestant focus onsola scriptura and the wider distribution of theBible across Europe in the vernacular languages, however, allowed variousradical protestants to interpret the scriptures in their own ways, in a manner which was not entirely reflective of either medievalCatholic tradition, or, the views of theMagisterial Protestant leaders themselves.[12][14] Coupled with this was a general culturalHebraising among more radical Protestants, as they saw theveneration of saints asidolatry and placed more focus on thebiblical patriarchs andprophets of theOld Testament, often naming their children Abraham, Cain, Jeremiah, Zachary, Daniel, Sampson, and the like.[15] The anticipation of Jews returning toPalestine and making it their national homeland was first heard among self-identified Christian groups in the 1580s, particularly those aligned withPuritanism, a Reformed branch of Christianity that gave rise to theCongregationalist denomination.[6][16][12] WhileEdward VI of England was the Tudor child-monarch ofEngland, a Calvinist-leaning Regencyde facto ruled. This allowed Continental Protestants such asMartin Bucer andPeter Martyr Vermigli to teach at the prestigious universities of Cambridge and Oxford.[12] These two men forwarded abiblical exegesis which included an important role for the Jews, converted to Christianity, in theend times.[12][nb 1] Early versions of the Bible endorsed by the English monarchy and theAnglican Church included theGreat Bible and theBishops' Bible. However, a number of EnglishPuritans andLowland ScotsPresbyterians viewed these (along with Episcopalianism and the establishment "Protestantism of the princes"), in general, as too "Romanist." In response, a number of these Puritans and Presbyterians spent some time inGeneva in the 1560s under Calvin's successorTheodore Beza and developed a translation of the Bible called theGeneva Bible, which contained footnotes in reference to theBook of Romans, specifically claiming that the Jews would be converted to Christianity in the end times and reorientating attention to Palestine as a central theatre.[12] This view came to be taken up strongly by English Puritans (such asFrancis Kett,Edmund Bunny,Thomas Draxe,Thomas Brightman,Joseph Mede,William Perkins,Richard Sibbes,Thomas Goodwin,William Strong,William Bridge,Henry Finch,John Owen andGiles Fletcher), Lowland Scots Presbyterians (such asGeorge Gillespie,Robert Baillie andSamuel Rutherford),[17] and even some Continental Protestants (such asOliger Paulli,Isaac Vossius,Hugo Grotius,Gerhard Vossius andDavid Blondel).[12]
During the late Tudor and early Stuart period, these Puritans remained outsiders in England and bitterly opposed theLaudian-dominated Anglican Church (though the Presbyterians, who held very similar views, had established theChurch of Scotland as the largest "Kirk" in Scotland). With theEnglish Civil War, the Puritans filled the ranks of theParliamentarians and theNew Model Army. Under the leadership ofOliver Cromwell they were victorious, executedCharles I of England and gained complete state power, establishing theCommonwealth of England between 1649 and 1660.[18] ThePhilo-Semiticmillennialist undercurrent came to have a direct influence on politics. A number of Cromwell's close advisors, such asJohn Dury,John Sadler andHugh Peter, came into contact withDutch-based Jews such asMenasseh ben Israel and advocatedJewish resettlement in England (they had been banned from the country since the 13th century). Sadler, Cromwell's secretary, even argued that the British were one of theLost Tribes of Israel in his pamphletThe Rights of the Kingdom (1649) and thus kindred to the Jews, initiatingBritish Israelism. Other Puritans such asJeremiah Burroughs,Peter Bulkley,John Fenwicke andJohn Cotton,[19] some of whom lived in theMassachusetts Bay Colony, saw Jewish re-entry to England as a step on the path to their eventual return to Palestine (all tied up within a millennialist eschatology, which would hasten theSecond Coming of Jesus Christ and thus thefinal judgement).[20] Johanna and Ebenezer Cartwright, two Baptists who had spent time inAmsterdam, held the same view and issued the original petition toThomas Fairfax's Council of War in January 1649 for Jewish readmission:[21] the petition hoped, "That this Nation of England, with the inhabitants of the Netherlands, shall be the first and the readiest to transport Israel's sons and daughters on their ships to the land promised to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for an everlasting inheritance."[18] Theirde facto toleration in England was informally achieved by 1655 to 1656 and was not rolled back afterthe Restoration.
A prominent French-born figureIsaac La Peyrère, who was nominally aHuguenot Calvinist, but came from a PortugueseNew Christian (convertedSephardic Jewish) family was also a significant 17th century progenitor, with influence on both sides of theEnglish Channel.[22][18] La Peyrère in his millennialist workDu rappel des juifs (1643) wrote about a Jewish return to Palestine, predicted thebuilding of the Third Temple andJerusalem playing the most powerful role in world governance: all working towards the Second Coming.[18] La Peyrère closely followed the developments of Oliver Cromwell's Dissenter regime and dreamed of overthrowingLouis XIV of France and replacing him with thePrince of Condé (who he worked for as a secretary) as part of a millennialist proto-Zionist messianic project.[23] After the publication of La Peyrère's book the Amsterdam-based Menasseh Ben Israel informed his friend,Petrus Serrarius (a close associate of John Dury), about the importance of the theories, showing an early interplay between 17th century Jewish and Protestant proto-Zionism.[24] Other Continental Protestant millennialists enthused by La Peyrère's theories were the GermansAbraham von Franckenberg (a student of theKabbalah) and Paul Felgenhauer.[24] Menasseh Ben Israel himself would authorThe Hope of Israel in 1652. Serrarius ended up being the main supporter among Protestants in Amsterdam of the message thatSabbatai Zevi was theMessiah, as proclaimed byNathan of Gaza (his followers, theSabbateans, were based in theOttoman Empire but he had significant support throughout theJewish diaspora).[25]
Although removed from power in England itself, the millennialistPuritans who had moved to New England continued to have a deeper cultural legacy in society. As well as John Cotton,Increase Mather, one of the early Presidents ofHarvard College was a strong proponent of the restoration of the Jews to Palestine.[16][18] An author of numerous works, his most notable in this regard wasThe Mystery of Israel's Salvation (1669).[18]Roger Williams, the Puritan proponent ofreligious liberty (including for Jews)[26] in theColony of Rhode Island that he founded has been citied as a proto-Zionist in speeches by later Jewish Zionist leaders such asStephen S. Wise, due to his comment that "I have longed after some trading with the Jews themselves, for whose hard measure I fear the nations and England have yet a score to pay."[27] Some important17th-century philosophers who acted a bridge between the millennialist sectarians of their day and the approachingAge of the Enlightenment with itsscientific revolution either held views associated with premillennial restorationists, or moved closely in their circles: this applies particularly to SirIsaac Newton andBaruch Spinoza. Newton especially, who heldRadical Reformation viewsin terms of religion and alsodabbled in the occult (including the Kabbalah) predicted a Jewish return to Palestine, with the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the late 19th century and the erection of the Third Temple in the 20th or 21st century, leading to the end of the world no later than 2060.[28][29] Much of these private writings were embarrassing to his supporters who sought to uphold him as a man of reason and science againstLeibniz and while theUniversity of Cambridge inherited his scientific papers, they refused to take these private ones.[29] Many of these, collected byAbraham Yahuda, now rest in theNational Library of Israel since 1967.[29] Spinoza for his part, although Jewish himself, moved in circles in the Netherlands which included Petrus Serrarius,Henry Oldenburg and was even directly influenced by La Peyrère.[30]
With the rise of theHanoverians to power in Britain and the ascent of the Enlightenment, much of the 18th century mainstream elite adoptedPhilhellenism, looking back to the culture and philosophies of theclassical world for inspiration for theGeorgian age, rather than entertaining millennialist fantasies based on the Hebrew Old Testament (though Jews themselves enjoyed significant toleration in theBritish Empire). Although marginal at first, a religious underground was slowly growing from the 1730s which would eventually spout a second wave of Protestant Zionism and with it the birth ofEvangelical Protestantism. This was precipitated in Germany byPhilipp Spener'sPietism, a mystical and often millennialist take on Lutheranism, which prophesied the "conversion of the Jews and the fall of thePapacy as the prelude of the triumph of the Church." One of Spener's followers,Nicolaus Zinzendorf, spread this into theMoravian Church, linking the theory to Palestine, changing the Moravian liturgy to include a prayer "to restore the tribe of Judah in its time and bless its first fruits among us."[18]John andCharles Wesley, early leaders inMethodism; inspired by the Pietists and Zinzendorf's Moravians; also promoted a Jewish return to Palestine with Charles Wesley even authoring a hymn dedicated to it.[18][31] The Baptist,John Gill, who moved in similar circles to the Wesleys, authored works expressing similar views.[32] By 1771, the Evangelical minister,John Eyre, founder of theEvangelical Magazine and among the original members of theLondon Missionary Society was promoting a more developed version of these views with hisObservations upon Prophecies Relating to the Restoration of the Jews.[18]
By the end of the 18th century, in the aftermath of theFrench Revolution and theNational Assembly decreeing in December 1789 that non-Catholics were eligible for all civil and military positions, the Revolutionary government in France made aplay for the allegiance of Jews, in competition with Britain. During theEgypt–Syria campaign of theFrench Revolutionary Wars,Bonaparte invited "all the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather under his flag in order to re-establish the ancient Jerusalem."[33] Although Bonaparte himself was secular and the idea an early example of pragmaticPolitical Zionism, the Jacobin idea itself may have originated fromThomas Corbet (1773–1804), anAnglo-Irish Protestant émigrée who, as a member of the liberal-republicanSociety of United Irishmen, was an ally of theJacobin-government, engaged in revolutionary activities against the British and served in the French Army.[34][35] In February 1790, he authored a letter to theFrench Directory, then under the leadership of Napoleon's patronPaul Barras.[34] In the letter he stated "I recommend you, Napoleon, to call on the Jewish people to join your conquest in the East, to your mission to conquer the land of Israel" saying, "Their riches do not console them for their hardships. They await with impatience the epoch of their re-establishment as a nation."[35] Dr. Milka Levy-Rubin, a curator at the National Library of Israel, has attributed Corbet's motivation to a Protestant Zionism based on premillennialist themes.[34]
In New England during the 18th century,Ezra Stiles, president ofYale College was a supporter of Jewish restoration and befriended RabbiRaphael Chaim Yitzchak Karigal ofHebron in 1773 during his visit.[36]Jonathan Edwards also anticipated a future return of Jews to their homeland.[37] In 1808, Asa McFarland, a Presbyterian, voiced the opinion of many that the fall of the Ottoman Empire was imminent and would bring about Jewish restoration. One David Austin ofNew Haven spent his fortune building docks and inns from which the Jews could embark to the Holy Land. In 1825,Mordecai Manuel Noah, a Jew who wanted to found a national home for the Jews onGrand Island in New York as a way station on the way to the Holy Land, won widespread Christian backing for his project. Likewise, restorationist theology was among the inspirations for the first American missionary activity in the Middle East[38] and for mapping the Holy Land.[39]
Most early-19th-century British Restorationists, likeCharles Simeon, werepostmillennial in eschatology.[9] With the rise ofJames Frere,James Haldane Stewart andEdward Irving a major shift in the 1820s towardspremillennialism occurred, with a similar focus on advocacy for the restoration of the Jews to Israel.[9][40] As the demise of the Ottoman Empire appeared to be approaching, the advocacy of restorationism increased. At the same time, the visit ofJohn Nelson Darby to the United States catalyzed a new movement. Darby was the founder of a theological framework known asdispensationalism. This was expressed at theNiagara Bible Conference in 1878, which issued a 14-point proclamation (relying on Luke 12:35–40, 17:26–30, 18:8 Acts 15:14–17, 2 Thessalonians 2:3–8, 2 Timothy 3:1–5, and Titus 1:11–15), including:
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; and that this personal and premillennial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be constantly looking.[41]
The dispensationalist theology of John Nelson Darby is often claimed to be a significant awakener of American Christian Zionism.[42] He first distinguished the hopes of the Jews and that of the church and gentiles in a series of 11 evening lectures in Geneva in 1840. His lectures were immediately published in French (L'Attente Actuelle de l'Eglise), English (1841), German and Dutch (1847) and so his teachings began their global journey. Some dispensationalists, like Arno Gabelein, whilstphilo-semitic, opposed Zionism as a movement born in self-confidence and unbelief.[3] While dispensationalism had considerable influence through theScofield Reference Bible, Christian lobbying for the restoration of the Jews preceded the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible (first published by OUP, 1909) by over a century,[9] and many Christian Zionists and Christian Zionist organizations such as theInternational Christian Embassy Jerusalem do not subscribe todispensationalism. Many non-dispensationalist Protestants were also strong advocates of a Jewish return to their homeland,Charles Spurgeon,[43] bothHoratius[44] andAndrew Bonar,Robert Murray M'Chyene,[45] andJ. C. Ryle[46] were among a number of proponents of both the importance and significance of a Jewish return to Israel. However Spurgeon averred of dispensationalism: "It is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed one at a time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement".[47] In 1864, Spurgeon wrote:[43]
We look forward, then, for these two things. I am not going to theorize upon which of them will come first — whether they shall be restored first, and converted afterwards — or converted first and then restored. They are to be restored and they are to be converted, too.
The crumbling of the Ottoman Empire threatened the British route to India via theSuez Canal as well as sundry French, German and American economic interests. In 1831 the Ottomans were driven from theregion of Syria (including Palestine) by an expansionist Egypt, in theFirst Turko-Egyptian War. Although Britain forcedMuhammad Ali to withdraw to Egypt,the Levant was left for a brief time without a government. The ongoing weakness of the Ottoman Empire made some in the west consider the potential of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. A number of important figures within the British government advocated such a plan, includingCharles Henry Churchill.[48][49] Again during the lead-up to theCrimean War (1854), there was an opportunity for political rearrangements in the Near East. In July 1853,Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, who was President of theLondon Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, wrote toPrime Minister Aberdeen urging Jewish restoration as a means of stabilizing the region.[9][50][51]
Late-19th-century non-messianic restorationism was largely driven by concern over the fate of the Jews of the Russian Empire, beset by poverty and by deadly, government-inspired pogroms. It was widely accepted that western nations did not wish to receive Jewish immigrants. Restorationism was a way for charitable individuals to assist oppressed Jews without actually accepting them as neighbors and fellow-citizens.[52][53][54] In this, Restorationism was not unlike the efforts of theAmerican Colonization Society to send blacks toLiberia and the efforts of British abolitionists to createSierra Leone.[citation needed]Winston Churchill endorsed Restoration because he recognized that Jews fleeing Russian pogroms required a refuge, and preferred Palestine for sentimental reasons.[55]
In 1818, PresidentJohn Adams wrote, "I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation", and believed that they would gradually becomeUnitarian Christians.[56]
In 1844,George Bush, a professor of Hebrew atNew York University and the cousin of an ancestor of the Presidents Bush, published a book titledThe Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived. In it he denounced "the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them (the Jews) to the dust," and called for "elevating" the Jews "to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth" by allowing restoring the Jews to the land of Israel where the bulk would beconverted to Christianity.[57] This, according to Bush, would benefit not only the Jews, but all of mankind, forming a "link of communication" between humanity and God. "It will blaze in notoriety ...". "It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth."[10]
Herman Melville expressed the idea in a poem, "Clarel; A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land":
the Hebrew seers announce in time
the return of Judah to her prime;
Some Christians deemed it then at hand
Here was an object. Up and On.
With seed and tillage help renew –
Help reinstate the Holy Land
The tycoonWilliam Eugene Blackstone was inspired by the conference to publish the bookJesus is Coming, which took up the restorationist cause. His book was translated and published inYiddish. On November 24–25, 1890, Blackstone organized the Conference on the Past, Present and Future of Israel at the First Methodist Episcopal Church inChicago where participants included leaders of many Christian communities. Resolutions of sympathy for the oppressed Jews living in Russia were passed, but Blackstone was convinced that such resolutions—even though passed by prominent men—were insufficient. He advocated strongly for the resettlement of Jewish people in Palestine. In 1891 he lobbied PresidentBenjamin Harrison for the restoration of the Jews, in a petition signed by 413 prominent Americans, that became known as theBlackstone Memorial.[58] The names included the US Chief Justice, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and several other congressmen, Rockefeller, Morgan and famous industrialists.[58] It read, in part: "Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews? ... These provinces, as well as Romania, Montenegro, and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Palestine as rightfully belong to the Jews?"[59]
Ideas favoring the restoration of the Jews in Palestine or the Land of Israel entered theBritish public discourse in the 1830s, though British Reformationists had written about the restoration of the Jews as early as the 16th century, and the idea had strong support among Puritans.[citation needed] Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety ofProtestant beliefs,[9][60]or by a streak ofphilo-Semitism among the classically educated British elite.[61]
At the urging ofLord Shaftesbury, Britain established a consulate inJerusalem in 1838, the first diplomatic appointment to Palestine.[9]
In 1839, theChurch of Scotland sentAndrew Bonar,Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Alexander Black andAlexander Keith on a mission to report on the condition of the Jews in Palestine. Their report was widely published.[62] They traveled through France, Greece, and Egypt, and from Egypt, overland toGaza. On the way home they visitedSyria, theAustrian Empire and some of the German states. They sought out Jewish communities and inquired about their readiness to accept Christ, and separately, their preparedness to return to Israel as prophesied in the Bible.Alexander Keith recounted the journey in his 1844 bookThe Land of Israel According to the Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. It was also in that book that Keith used the slogan that became popular with other Christian Restorationists,a land without a people for a people without a land. In 1844 he revisited Palestine with his son,George Skene Keith (1819–1910), who was the first person to photograph the land.[63]
An important, though often neglected, figure in British support of the restoration of the Jews wasWilliam Hechler (1845–1931), an English clergyman of German descent who was Chaplain of the British Embassy inVienna and became a close friend ofTheodor Herzl.[64] Hechler was instrumental in aiding Herzl through his diplomatic activities, and may, in that sense, be called the founder of modern Christian Zionism. When it came to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Herzl's death, the editors of the English-language memorial volume said that William Hechler was "not only the first, but the most constant and the most indefatigable of Herzl's followers".[58]
On 2 November 1917, UK Home SecretaryArthur Balfour sent a letter toLord Walter Rothschild. This letter, known as theBalfour Declaration, famously stated that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." As noted by Philip Alexander, "A crucial ingredient in Balfour's Zionism [may have been] his Christian belief or, to put it a little more subtly, his Christian formation. The most persuasive advocate of this thesis is the Canadian historian Donald Lewis in his 2010 monograph,The Origins of Christian Zionism, but it has been espoused by a number of other scholars as well."[65][66]
In the decades leading up to the1948 Palestine war andestablishment of the State of Israel in 1948,[67] the most prominent and politically active American Christian supporters of Zionism were liberal and mainline Protestants whose support for the movement was often unrelated to their interpretation of the Bible.[68] These Christian supporters of Zionism viewed Palestine as a needed safe haven for Jews who were fleeing from intensifying persecution in Europe and they frequently believed that their support of the movement was part of a broader effort atinterfaith rapprochement. The Pro-Palestine Federation, a Christian pro-Zionist organization which was founded in 1930, called for the promotion of "goodwill and esteem between Jews and non-Jews" and it also called for the British government to adhere to the terms of its Mandate for Palestine, which pledged support for the establishment of a Jewish national home.[69]
Amidst World War II and their growing awareness ofthe Holocaust, American Jewish Zionists helped coordinate the establishment of two non-Jewish Zionist organizations, the American Palestine Committee and the Christian Council on Palestine, which were later merged into the American Christian Palestine Committee (ACPC). The ACPC, which was composed largely of liberal and mainline Protestants, became the leading American Christian lobby in support of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.[70] After the establishment of Israel in 1948, the ACPC continued its lobbying efforts. For instance, it coordinated opposition to the United Nations' efforts to internationalize the city of Jerusalem, which was divided between Israel and Transjordan in the 1948 War.
During these years,dispensational premillennialism grew in popularity among conservative American Protestants. Manydispensationalists viewed the Zionist movement as at least a partial fulfillment of biblical prophecy or they viewed it as a modern fulfillment of God's covenantal promises to the Jewish people. In the 1930s,Southern Baptist missionary Jacob Gartenhaus, himself a convert from Judaism, argued that "Zionism is going to win whether anybody likes it or not...To oppose it is to oppose God's plan."[71] But for the most part, such beliefs did not translate into political action on behalf of the movement in this era. One slight exception was J. Frank Norris, afundamentalist Baptist who split time between pulpits in Fort Worth, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan.[72] While Norris did not organize lobbying efforts in the way that the ACPC did, he did preach to his followers that it was their Christian duty to support the Zionist cause and wrote President Truman in support of Zionist claims to Palestine in 1947 and 1948. Norris also loosely coordinated with the ACPC, at times publishing their materials in his periodical,The Fundamentalist.[73]
In the decades since the establishment of Israel, and especially since the 1967Six-Day War, the most prominent American Christian supporters of Israel have come from theevangelical wing ofAmerican Protestantism. American evangelicalism itself underwent significant changes in the years surrounding Israel's birth, as a "new" evangelicalism led by figures likeBilly Graham emerged fromProtestantism and came to cultural prominence.[75] It was among these new evangelicals that the contemporary movement that most commonly associated with the term "Christian Zionism" originated.[76]
Many new evangelicals adhered to dispensationalism or at least, they adhered to beliefs which were inspired by it—most especially, they adhered to the dispensationalist understanding that Jews remained in a special covenantal relationship with God. Most important to the development of Christian Zionism as a movement, though, was the fact that American evangelical leaders began to build relationships with American and Israeli Jews and they also began to build institutional connections with Jewish organizations and the Israeli government itself. Crucial to the building of these relationships was a motivated coterie of American evangelicals who resided in Israel, most notably, the founder of the American Institute of Holy Land Studies, G. Douglas Young. Through his institute, Young worked to convince American Christians that it was their biblical duty to support the Jewish people and the Jewish state. He also worked as a go-between for Jewish organizations and Israeli government agencies which were seeking to build relationships with American evangelicals.[77] Such activism provided the basis for the development of Christian Zionism as a movement.
Such activism, it should be noted, was in many ways distinct from the prophetic speculation about the State of Israel that exploded after the 1967 Six-Day War (even as it had somewhat common theological and hermeneutical antecedents). This activism includes the wildly popular writings of the Americandispensationalistevangelical writerHal Lindsey, which sought to fit Israel into a dispensationalistend-time narrative. InThe Late Great Planet Earth, for example, Lindsey anticipated that, perEzekiel 39:6–8, Jews would fight off a "Russian" invasion before realizing their miraculous deliverance and converting to Christianity. Their lives would be spared the great fire that God will put upon Russia and people of the "coastlands." And, perZechariah 13:8–9, one third of Jews alive who have converted will be spared.[78] Lindsay has been critiqued for highly specific, failed predictions even by those who share his eschatology, likeJohn MacArthur.[79]
Examples of Protestant leaders who combined political conservatism with Christian Zionism areJerry Falwell andPat Robertson, leading figures on theChristian Right in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1981, Falwell said: "To stand against Israel is to stand against God. We believe that history and scripture prove that God deals with nations in relation to how they deal with Israel."[80] They cite part of the blessing ofIsaac atGenesis 27:29, "Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed."Martin Luther King Jr. has also been cited as a Christian supporter of Israel and Zionism.[81]
The government of Israel has given official encouragement to Christian Zionism, allowing the establishment of theInternational Christian Embassy Jerusalem in 1980.[citation needed] The embassy has raised funds to help finance Jewish immigration to Israel from the formerSoviet Union, and has assisted Zionist groups in establishing Jewish settlements in theWest Bank.[citation needed]
The Third International Christian Zionist Congress, held in Jerusalem in February 1996, issued a proclamation which said:[82]
God the Father, Almighty, chose the ancient nation and people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to reveal His plan of redemption for the world. They remain elect of God, and without the Jewish nation His redemptive purposes for the world will not be completed.
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and has promised to return to Jerusalem, to Israel and to the world.
It is reprehensible that generations of Jewish peoples have been killed and persecuted in the name of our Lord, and we challenge the Church to repent of any sins of commission or omission against them.
The modern Ingathering of the Jewish People toEretz Israel and the rebirth of the nation of Israel are in fulfilment of biblical prophecies, as written in both Old and New Testaments.
Christian believers are instructed by Scripture to acknowledge the Hebraic roots of their faith and to actively assist and participate in the plan of God for the Ingathering of the Jewish People and the Restoration of the nation of Israel in our day.
Popular interest in Christian Zionism was given a boost around the year 2000 in the form of theLeft Behind series of novels byTim LaHaye andJerry B. Jenkins.[83] The novels are built around the prophetic role of Israel in theapocalyptic end times.
For most Christiansthe City of God (Psalm46:4 (Septuagint:ΜΕ:5):"ἡ πόλις τοῦ Θεοῦ",romanized: "hē pólis toũ theoũ",lit. 'the city of God') has nothing to do withJewish immigration to Israel and the ongoingIsraeli–Palestinian conflict; instead, it predicts thesack of Rome (410) and it is cited in theteaching of Saint Augustine of Hippo. That is why neitherEastern Orthodox Christians nor traditionalCatholic Christians[84] did consider Zionism in any political form: "[The Eastern Orthodox Church [...] upheld a historic lack of emphasis on pilgrimage, insisting that the land of promise was not Palestine but the Kingdom of God. Thus,Patriarch Ignatius IV, head of the church in the Middle East, reiterated that the people were his concern in Jerusalem, not the stones."[85] Not a worldly kingdom, not an earthly Jerusalem is sought after,[2][7][8] but the focus is on theheavenly Jerusalem,[86] the kingdom of thetriune God:[87]
At first you will see prayer as a ladder, then as a book which you read, and finally, as you advance further and further, you will see it as the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the King of Hosts, Who is together with His Father — with Whom He is of one Essence — and with the venerable Holy Spirit.
TheCatholic Church—the largest branch of Christians in the world—does not endorse the theological premises underlying millennialist Restorationism as propounded bydispensationalists and it has generally inveighed against the prospect of Jewish governance over Holy Places in Palestine which it deems of importance to Christianity.[88][89]Theodor Herzl, the secular Jewish founder of modern political Zionism, had an audience in the Vatican withPope Pius X in 1904, arranged by the Austrian Count Berthold Dominik Lippay, seeking out the position of the Catholic Church on Herzl's prospective project for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Pope Pius X stated "We cannot prevent the Jews from going to Jerusalem—but we could never sanction it. The soil of Jerusalem, if it was not always sacred, has been sanctified by thelife of Jesus Christ. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. TheJews have not recognized our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people."[89] After Herzl explained that his reasoning behind the project for the creation of aJewish state was not a religious statement, but interest in secular land for national independence, Pope Pius X replied "Does it have to beGerusalemme?"[89]
While it rejected a theological basis for Zionism outright, a major concern for theHoly See was the fate of theHoly Places which were associated with Jesus Christ if they should ever fall under the governance of such a state.[88] By the mid-19th century, relations between the Vatican andIstanbul were fairly collegial; by that time, the Muslim Ottomans permitted the Vatican to work among theArab Catholics in Palestine and they also permitted the Vatican to access the Holy Places quite freely so thestatus quo was already workable for them. Following theUnited Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, the Vatican advocated the position that Jerusalem should be treated as a separate "international city", as laid out in the encyclicalRedemptoris nostri cruciatus. Until theSecond Vatican Council, the Catholic Church was forthright in its international lobbying against Zionism (including theCatholic Church in the United States, because theUnited States had become Zionism's most powerful endorser).[88] TheState of Israel and the Holy See only establishedfull diplomatic relations in 1993 and this was a recognition of political and civic reality, not a theological statement.[88] In the 20th and 21st centuries, certain Catholic theologians such as André Villeneuve, Gary Anderson andGavin D'Costa, have written in support of Christian Zionism, holding it to be a sign of God's fidelity.[90][91]
Political Zionism, which "came down like the wolf on the fold",[92] has also beenanathematized by eminent Protestants:[85][93]
[I]t is the conviction of most biblical scholars that the Old Testament contains no description of the restoration of Israel to its ancient homeland which can apply to the Jewish people of the present age.
— The Christian Century: 144–145. December 1929
Political Zionism and Christian Zionism are biblically anathema to the Christian faith. [...] [T]rue Israel today is neither Jews nor Israelis, but believers in the Messiah, even if they are gentiles.
TheLa Grange Declarations of 1979 and 1981 were issued by a broad array of (mostly Protestant) Christian leaders critical of Christian Zionism who advocated for a change in church and governmental positions on Israel and Palestine. The 1979 statement, drafted at a conference inLaGrange, Illinois, criticized Israel’s territorial actions, recognized the right of Palestinians to self-determination, and called for the U.S. to end its unconditional backing of Israel, though it stopped short of denying Israel's legitimacy. The 1981 declaration took a more assertive stance, challenging the religious justification for Israel’s claims to the land, demanding a full cessation of U.S. military aid to Israel, and denouncing American policies that restricted thePalestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Both declarations represented a growing Christian movement that sought to oppose pro-Israel evangelical perspectives and bring attention to Palestinian political and humanitarian concerns.[94][95][96][97]
In the United States, the General Assembly of theNational Council of Churches in November 2007 approved a resolution for further study which stated that the "theological stance of Christian Zionism adversely affects:
- justice and peace in the Middle East, delaying the day when Israelis and Palestinians can live within secure borders
- relationships with Middle Eastern Christians (see theJerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism)
- relationships with Jews, since Jews are seen as mere pawns in aneschatological scheme
- relationships with Muslims, since it treats the rights of Muslims as subordinate to the rights of Jews
- interfaith dialogue, since it views the world in starkly dichotomous terms"[98]
TheReformed Church in America at its 2004 General Synod found "the ideology of Christian Zionism and the extreme form of dispensationalism that undergirds it to be a distortion of the biblical message noting the impediment it represents to achieving a just peace in Israel/Palestine."[99] TheMennonite Central Committee has criticized Christian Zionism, noting that in some churches under its influence the "congregations 'adopt' illegal Israeli settlements, sending funds to bolster the defense of these armed colonies."[100] As of September 2007, churches in the US that have criticized Christian Zionism include theUnited Methodist Church, thePresbyterian Church (USA),[101] and theUnited Church of Christ.[102]
The filmWith God On Our Side, by Porter Speakman Jr. and Kevin Miller (the latter of whom also co-created the filmExpelled: No Intelligence Allowed), criticizes both the underlying theology behind Christian Zionism as well as its negative influence on the church.[103]
In the United Kingdom, the Church of Scotland, despite its Restorationist history,[104] has recently been critical of Zionism in general, and in turn has received strong criticism over the perceived injustice of its report,"The Inheritance of Abraham: A Report on the Promised Land",[105] which resulted in its republication in a briefer form.[106] On 9 July 2012, the Anglican General Synod passed a motion affirming support for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).[107] This was criticised by the Board of Deputies claiming the Synod 'has chosen to promote an inflammatory and partisan programme'.[108] The advocated group was simultaneously criticised for its publication of a call for sit-ins at Israeli Embassies, the hacking of government websites to promote its message, and support for theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.[108][109]
Some Christian Zionists interpret the prophetic texts as describing inevitable future events, and these events primarily involve Israel (taken to mean the descendants of the Biblical patriarchJacob) or Judah (taken to mean the remaining faithful adherents of Judaism). These prophecies are seen as requiring the presence of a Jewish state in theHoly Land, the central part of the lands promised to the Biblical patriarch Abraham in theCovenant of the pieces. This requirement is sometimes interpreted as being fulfilled by the contemporary state of Israel.[110]
Christian schools of doctrine which consider other teachings to counterbalance these doctrines, or which interpret them in terms of distinct eschatological theories, are less conducive to Christian Zionism. Among the many texts which address this subject in counterbalance are the words of Jesus, as for example inMatthew21:43, "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it".
InDefending Christian Zionism,David Pawson, a Christian Zionist in theUnited Kingdom, puts forward the case that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is a fulfilment of scriptural prophecy, and that Christians should support the existence of the Jewish State (although not unconditionally its actions) on theological grounds. He also argues that prophecies spoken about Israel relate specifically to Israel (not to the church, as in "replacement theology"). However, he criticises Dispensationalism, which he says is a largely American movement holding similar views. Pawson was spurred to write this book by the work ofStephen Sizer, an evangelical Christian who rejects Christian Zionism.
Tens of millions of Americans belong toEvangelical churches that strongly support Israel for religious reasons,[111][112] and there are tens of millions more Christians who identify as Christian Zionists outside the United States.[113]
The largest Zionist organisation isChristians United for Israel, which has 10 million members and is led byJohn Hagee.[114][115][116]
A 2017 LifeWay poll conducted in United States found that 80% ofevangelical Christians believed that the creation of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would bring about Christ's return and more than 50% of Evangelical Christians believed that they support Israel because it is important for fulfilling the prophecy.[117]
According to the Pew Research survey in 2003, more than 60% of the Evangelical Christians and about 50% of Blacks agreed that the existence of Israel fulfilled biblical prophecy. About 55% of poll respondents said that the Bible was the biggest influence for supporting Israel which is 11 times the people who said church was the biggest influence.[117]
The Jews have cause to worry becauseEvangelicals are active on both fronts, promoting support for the State of Israel, andevangelizing the Jews at the same time. While theIsraeli government eagerly accepts public support of Evangelicals and courts the leaders of theNew Christian Right, many Jews bitterly condemn Christian proselytism and try their best to restrict the activities of missionaries in Israel.Jews for Jesus and other Christian Jewish groups in Israel have become especially effective in evangelizing, often with the support of foreign Evangelicals. It is not surprising that Jewish leaders, both in the United States andIsrael, react strongly to "Jews for Jesus" and the whole"Messianic Jewish" movement, whose concern is to promote awareness among the Jews as to God's real plans for humanity andthe need to accept Jesus as a Savior. In this respect,Gershom Gorenberg lamented the fact that "people who see Israel through the lens ofEndtimes prophecy are questionable allies, whose support should be elicited only in the last resort. In the long run, their apocalyptic agenda has no room for Israel as a normal country."
The Zionist idea itself has its organic roots deep within theEuropean imperialist movement. [...] England of the seventeenth century was, in Carlyle's own words, an England of 'awful devoutPuritanism'. [Note:Thomas Carlyle,Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (Boston, 1884), 1:32] Puritanism meant the invasion of Hebraism as transmitted through theOld Testament, but distorted by the effort to apply the ethics, laws and manners of the Old TestamentHebrew people, a people that lived in the Middle East more than two thousand years earlier, topost-Renaissance England. [Note: In the words ofMatthew Arnold, 'Puritanism was a revival of the Hebraic spirit in reaction to the Hellenic spirit that had animated the immediately preceding period of the Renaissance.' See Matthew Arnold,Culture and Anarchy (London, 1869), chap. 4] [...]Palestine had up until then been remembered as theChristianHoly Land, unfortunatelylost to Islam. But in seventeenth century England it came to be regarded as thehomeland of the Jews, whose return to Palestine was, according to Old Testament prophecies, inevitable for the coming of theSecond Advent of Christ.· Samman, Khaldoun (2015)."The Anti-Semitic Gaze and the Making of the New Jew".Clash of Modernities: The Making and Unmaking of the New Jew, Turk, and Arab and the Islamist Challenge.Abingdon, Oxon,New York, NY:Routledge. pp. 49–92.ISBN 978-1-317-26235-0.
Long before the arrival ofTheodor Herzl and other prominent Jewish nationalists, as Regina Sharif has so persuasively argued, there had already existed a significantnon-Jewish Zionist movement within Europe. [...] [W]hen an influential U.S. evangelist namedWilliam E. Blackstone learned upon his visit to Palestine in 1889 that Herzl had been considering Uganda and Argentina as possible sites for the Jewish homeland [...] [i]mmediately, he sent Herzl a Bible, 'marking every passage which referred to Palestine, with instructions that it alone was to be the site of the Jewish State.'
In their thought physical Israel continued to have a place in God's plan of salvation, due to His covenantal faithfulness. Consequently, probably beginning with Thomas Brightman, many Puritans expected that the Jews would return to their old geographical habitat in the Middle East. Later Puritans, like Samuel Rutherford, Joseph Mede, and Robert Maton, expected reconciliation of Israel with Christ and the flourishing of the Church after Christ's return.
[T]he idea of the Jews returning to their ancient homeland as the first step to world redemption seems to have originated among a specific group of evangelical English Protestants that flourished in England in the 1840s; they passed this notion on to Jewish circles.
In light of the history of supersessionism found in Catholic and Lutheran writers
Christian Zionism was never a fundamental or integral element in evangelical thinking. It was a peripheral movement which grew among some evangelicals, but also other Christians in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among its luminaries are Reverend John Darby and Cyrus Scofield. The publication of the Scofield Bible, which included commentary in the margins that reflected the teachings of Christian Zionism, contributed to its popularity among Christians, including evangelicals. [...] Christian Zionism found a home among many Christians, even those who were themselves anti-Semitic.
Internationally, according to the1947 United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution 181, the UN accepted a plan for thepartition of Palestine into two states: one Jewish, one Palestinian, each with its own designated territory. Despite the eventual outcomes of the1948 war and theestablishment of a single State of Israel, separation into two states remained the internationally agreed-upon vision in the well-known two-state solution to theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, which requires separation to maintain a viablePalestinian state. Internally, Israel identifies itself as a sovereign state within the1949 green line in which theWB and theGS were not included. Following the1967 occupation, Israel chose to refrain from annexation of the OPT and to control the area and its population as a nonsovereign territory that is referred to as "administered" (according to the mainstream official Israeli position) or "occupied" (according to other official positions and Israeli and international legal institutions). Theinternational law of occupation requires the OPT to remain a separate political and legal unit and views annexation as unlawful, regardless of the envisioned political solution to the conflict, which is why we call this the separation paradigm (and not the two-state paradigm). The formal separation is not only territorial but also legal and organizational, and it has been maintained by the military government of the OPT, including the military management of courts and prisons, enabling Israel to argue that it is abstaining from annexation and is therefore abiding by international law.
Biblical support for Israel does not contradict or undermine the Catholic faith in any way, but is wholly in continuity with God's revelation. Respected Catholic theologians have recently made compelling cases for Catholic Zionism. Gary Anderson believes that the Jewish return to Zion, though also a call to responsibility and justice, is "part of God's providential design and eternal promise to His people Israel," even despite the uncertainty that surrounds the future of the current State of Israel. Gavin D'Costa, likewise, in his article "Catholic Zionism," argues that "the existence of the Jewish State is a sign of God's fidelity to his people," even if this does not require endorsing a particular form of government for the Jewish state.
It is an amazing statement that Paul makes. 'He is not a real Jew who is one outwardly by descent from Jacob. Nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, that is by faith in Jesus. And real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal.'
