Notes on Christian Zionism: What It Is, and Why It Is So Dangerous
Christian Zionism presents itself as love for the Jewish people. Its end-times theology, in which Jews must convert or die, tells a different story.
Rev. J. Mark Davidson
8/20/20265 min read
To understand where Christian Zionism came from, some history is in order. Christian Zionism’s roots go back to the early 1800s in the British Isles, almost a century before the publication of Theodore Herzl’s THE JEWISH STATE in 1896 and the first World Zionist Conference in 1897. The Zionist notion of Jews migrating to Palestine en masse was a Christian idea before it was a Jewish idea. Christians promoted Zionism decades before Jews did. Christian Zionists laid the groundwork for the very idea of a Jewish state. Christian Zionists wanted the gathering of world Jewry in Palestine not out of regard for the well-being of Jews, but because it would accelerate the end-times scenario they coveted. They believed it would “force God’s hand,” bring about Armageddon, the cosmic battle of good vs. evil, and spark the Second Coming of Christ. Interestingly, their yearning for the Second Coming of Christ never has moved them to deepen their prayer and spirituality, or work harder to follow the teachings of Jesus and embody the Beloved Community in our time. No, they are nihilists. They don’t believe in redemptive love. Instead, they want to accelerate history, get “raptured” into heaven, and bring it all to a violent end for everyone else. So, they cynically facilitate the migration of Jews to Israel. They financially support illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. They set up “sister city” relationships with illegal settlements and enthusiastically buy banned settlement products made on stolen land. All in service to their distorted religious views.
British elites like Lord Shaftesbury, Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and Foreign Secretary Sir Arthur Balfour, were Christian Zionists or Christian Zionist-adjacent. They were instrumental in throwing the full ideological, diplomatic, and military weight of the British Empire behind the Zionist idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration in 1917, written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and addressed to Lord Rothschild, a prominent leader in the British Jewish community, offered historic Palestine as a “homeland” for the Jewish people. Clearly, the British government had no right to peremptorily grant Palestine to anyone. It was not theirs to give away. But the reigning superpower of the day, an empire with colonies throughout the globe, possessed the mentality and the means to impose its well nonetheless. The Balfour Declaration provided the “permission structure” for the Zionist settler-colonial project in historic Palestine. The marriage of religion and politics is what makes Christian Zionism so dangerous. If Christian Zionism were only the strange compulsions of a marginal group of evangelicals with a distorted theology, it would have been little more than a footnote in the history of Christianity. But the decision to build political, economic, and military power to realize these ideas, indeed to weaponize them, is what made, and continues to make, Christian Zionism such a potent threat to the lives of Palestinians and the people of the region.
Christian Zionists appeared to be philosemitic – loving and supporting the Jewish people. But in reality, they were profoundly antisemitic. British elites infected by Christian Zionism did not want Jews in Britain; they wanted them in Palestine. Zionists voted against bills in Parliament at the time that would have strengthened the civil rights of British Jews and solidified their place in British society. However, Christian Zionist politicians preferred for Jews to migrate elsewhere, Palestine in particular. In their end-times scenario, the Jews of the world will be presented with a convert-or-die decision. If they repudiate their Judaism and convert to Christianity, they survive. If they refuse to convert, they are killed. So, Judaism is destroyed because it ceases to have any adherents, and millions of faithful Jews are slaughtered. It is difficult to imagine a more antisemitic belief-system than Christian Zionism.
Christian Zionist belief is not only profoundly antisemitic, it is also deeply Islamophobic. Christian Zionists routinely smear Islam as an "illegitimate" religion. Franklin Graham has described Islam as "a very evil and wicked religion." In their brazen religious supremacy, they insist that The Third Jewish Temple must be built on “The Temple Mount”, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. They insist that Al-Aqsa must be razed in order to clear the way for the Third Temple. Al-Aqsa is the third holiest site in Islam, where according to Muslim faith, Buraq, the winged steed, carried the Prophet Muhammad in the mystical night flight from Mecca to Jerusalem. Global consensus is that the destruction of Al-Aqsa and the construction of the Third Temple on that site would spark World War III. There was a time when talk of actually building the Third Temple seemed incredibly far-fetched, the stuff of madmen, but not anymore. Recent news reports have indicated an alarming uptick in activity of fanatical Jews who want to construct the Third Temple in their lifetime. The government of Jordan, custodian of Islam’s holy sites, is deeply worried that the current Israeli and American governments have relaxed the safeguards, and are allowing religious extremists to cross red lines and fan the flames.
Christian Zionists believe the Jews are “God’s Chosen People.” They believe they are set apart from the rest of humanity, and have special God-given rights and privileges that the rest of the human family do not have. They believe God’s promises to ancient Israel are binding for all eternity, and are destined to be fulfilled by the modern state of Israel. Authentic Christianity, on the other hand, affirms that every human being is created in the image of God, and that the notion of the chosen people is a self-serving distortion. To be assigned a specific task by God in history does not mean that “the called” are entitled or superior. No part of the human family is entitled to special privileges or exempt from the same ethical guidelines as everyone else. It leads to a dangerous exceptionalism, as we have seen.
To Christian Zionists, historic Palestine is not Palestine at all. They rename it “the biblical land of Israel”, “the Promised Land.” Before physically erasing Palestinians, they erase their very claim to the land. They claim Palestine belongs, not to the Palestinians, but to the Jewish people exclusively. Because God promised it to them. It doesn’t matter that the Palestinians are the indigenous people of the land, that Palestinians have the deepest, most long-lasting, and continuous connections to the land. U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, an ardent Christian Zionist does not believe Palestinians event exist. He says “there is no such thing as a Palestinian,” and he does not refer to Palestine according to internationally-recognized terminology, but uses biblical terms, “Judea and Samaria,” favored by Israeli annexationists who covet all the land of historic Palestine for themselves. Christian Zionists cherry-pick a few selected Bible passages which refer to divine promises of the land, such as 3800-yr. old Genesis stories about Abraham. They invest these claims with absolute divine authority for all time. From their perspective, Palestinians defending their homeland, staying put on the land of their ancestors, images of grandmothers clinging to ancient olive trees is not noble, courageous, and inspiring. It’s getting in the way; it’s defying God’s will. Christian Zionists view settler pogroms on West Bank villagers and Israeli Occupation Forces driving Palestinians off their land not as violent vigilantism and egregious violations of human rights and international law, but as fulfilling the divine will.
Christian Zionists are actually far more numerous than Jewish Zionists, and they are well-organized and politically active. Christian Zionist organizations such as Christians United for Israel (CUFI) boast millions of members. Christian Zionist congregations proudly post the Israeli flag in their sanctuaries and hold “Stand With Israel” events. Sermons in hundreds of Christian Zionist churches across the country feature standard talking points to reinforce their dogma. CUFI spends millions supporting US military aid to Israel, funds illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank, and advocates for the punishment of pro-Palestinian speech.
It is important to remember that “Christian” Zionism is not authentic Christianity. Anglican priest and Christian Zionism expert, Stephen Sizer, puts it well: “Christian Zionism is an exclusive theology that focuses on the Jews in the land rather than an inclusive theology that centers on the liberating message of Jesus. Christian Zionism provides a theological endorsement for apartheid, human rights abuses, [and genocide], rather than a theology of justice, peace, and reconciliation.”