Christian Zionism

Religious belief and practical action on behalf of Israel or the Zionist movement are recurring components of Christian Zionism, but they do not constitute one uniform theology.[2] Some adherents emphasize the continuing validity of God's promises to the Jewish people, particularly promises concerning the Land of Israel; others connect Jewish restoration with biblical prophecy and the Second Coming of Jesus.[1][3] Historical responsibility after the Holocaust provides another rationale for Christian solidarity with Israel.[3] These motivations coexist rather than defining mutually exclusive movements.[3]

The meaning of the term has changed over time: early usage emphasized Christians' political support for Zionism, while later scholarship increasingly examined the religious beliefs associated with that support.[2] Christian Zionism consequently includes both a history of ideas about Jewish restoration and a history of Christian cooperation with Jewish national aspirations.[2] Its antecedents extend into Protestant restorationist thought, while its modern organizational forms developed alongside political Zionism and, subsequently, the state of Israel.[1][5]

Evangelical Christianity has been an important setting for the movement, but evangelical identity does not itself establish a Christian Zionist position.[2][6] Evangelicals belong to multiple Protestant denominations and differ in their political and theological commitments.[6] Biblical authority, emphasis on Jesus and the Trinity, personal religious conversion or a 'born again' experience, and evangelism are prominent evangelical characteristics, rather than a common position on every Israel-related question.[6] Support for Israel has been particularly associated with evangelical Center and Right currents, although that support is not necessarily uncritical.[6]

Christian engagement with Israel also extends beyond American evangelical politics.[1] Jerusalem-based ministries, international pilgrimage gatherings, and networks of churches and volunteers give the movement a transnational presence.[1][2] Some participants understand their work principally as friendship, religious service, or obedience to a divine calling, even when those activities also have political dimensions.[2] The movement's practical significance therefore includes relationships between Christians and Jews as well as advocacy concerning governments and foreign policy.[2]

Protestant ideas about a future Jewish national restoration emerged in the decades after the Reformation, well before the organized modern Zionist movement.[2] Renewed biblical study and millennial expectations encouraged some Christians to understand Jewish restoration as part of the coming Kingdom of God.[1] This developed against a long Christian background of supersessionism, the teaching that Christianity had replaced Judaism and that Christians had become the new chosen people.[1] Restorationist readings instead assigned the Jewish people a continuing role in biblical history and its anticipated fulfillment.[1][2]

Writers associated with these early discussions included Henoch Clapham, Thomas Brightman, and Joseph Mede, while restorationist ideas flourished in seventeenth-century Puritan England and northern European Pietist circles.[2] By the mid-seventeenth century, support for Jews had gained ground particularly among Anglophone Protestants.[1] In 1656, Oliver Cromwell, working with Portuguese Jewish scholar Manasseh ben Israel, opened England to the return of Jews following their expulsion in 1290.[1] Cromwell's motivations included a belief that Jewish conversion to Christianity would hasten the Second Coming.[1]

Puritans in New England also anticipated a Jewish return to Palestine as part of end-time events.[1] Their image of America as a Christian 'city on a hill' belonged to a divine plan whose culmination they associated with Jerusalem rather than America.[1] Historian Diana Muir Appelbaum defines Christian Zionism as the idea that 'God's promise to Israel should be advanced by helping human hands' and traces proponents among Dutch, English, Scottish, and early American Calvinists by the mid-1600s.[7]

In his review of Samuel Goldman's history, Allan Arkush interprets an early Puritan strand as joining an expectation of Jewish recognition of Jesus as Messiah with restoration to the Land of Israel.[8] He cites Massachusetts clergyman John Cotton's prediction that willing gentiles would convey Jews to their own country as an early expression of Christian assistance with that return.[8] Arkush also recounts that Presbyterian minister John Austin returned to New Haven in 1797 and purchased ships and warehouses intended to transport Jews and their belongings to Palestine.[8] In Arkush's account, Austin influenced Elias Boudinot, a former president of the Continental Congress whose organization combined assistance for Jewish return with belief in the necessity of conversion.[8]

Nineteenth-century British support joined religious conviction to political activity.[5] Lord Shaftesbury advocated Jewish settlement in Palestine under British auspices and lobbied the British cabinet on foreign-policy questions.[5][9] He led the London Jews' Society from 1848 until his death in 1885, within a wider British environment of interest in biblical archaeology and philosemitism.[1] Earlier English Christian and political supporters of Jewish sovereignty in the historic homeland included Cromwell and, later, Shaftesbury and Lord Palmerston.[10]

Humanitarian and strategic considerations also informed settlement proposals.[5] George Gawler founded an association promoting Jewish settlement in 1852 and connected such settlement with British influence in Syria.[5] Jean Henri Dunant sought support from Western European Jewish organizations and founded the Palestine Colonization Society in London in 1875.[5] Arkush identifies American Bible professor and abolitionist George Bush as another nineteenth-century advocate, interpreting his position as a call for Christians to create political conditions for Jewish return rather than simply await a miracle.[8]

Restorationist support took several denominational forms.[5] The Plymouth Brethren, founded in England in 1830, promoted dispensationalist premillennialism, while Christadelphians, founded in 1844, supported Jewish return and later provided practical assistance.[5] Some Adventist sects interpreted return as an eschatological fulfillment.[5] In 1841, Mormon missionary Orson Hyde traveled to Jerusalem and dedicated the land to the Jews in a prayer on the Mount of Olives.[5]

John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren developed premillennial dispensationalism in the mid-nineteenth century.[2] His system divided history into eras in which God dealt with humanity in different ways, distinguished the Jewish people from the Church, and assigned particular biblical prophecies specifically to Jews.[2] Dispensationalism became an important influence on Christian Zionism, especially through its American circulation.[1] Arkush describes Darby's anticipated final seven years before Christ's return as including Israel's territorial restoration, a covenant with the Antichrist, persecution, and Christ's rescue of a pious remnant.[8] He distinguishes Darby's personal distance from politics from the political responsibilities some later American followers derived from those teachings.[8]

William Eugene Blackstone helped turn American restorationism into organized appeals for government action.[2] In 1891, he petitioned President Benjamin Harrison to assist the establishment of a Jewish-administered state in Palestine.[2] The widely circulated Blackstone Memorial advocated giving Palestine to the Jews and attracted prominent American signatories.[1] Blackstone later sent Theodor Herzl a Bible marked with passages supporting Jewish return.[1] His insistence on Palestine differed from Herzl's politically motivated project, which also considered other possible locations for a Jewish state.[1]

Blackstone repeated his appeal to President Woodrow Wilson twenty-five years after the original petition.[2] Arkush characterizes the first petition as predominantly humanitarian rather than explicitly dispensationalist and describes the revised wartime proposal as endorsed by 81 prominent figures and church organizations, including theological and political liberals.[8] Another politically active Protestant, the Reverend William Hechler, worked with Zionist leaders including Herzl and Leon Pinsker.[2]

The First Zionist Congress, held in Basel in 1897, adopted the objective of creating a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law.[10] The expression 'Christian Zionists' appeared in Herzl's writings for Christian associates who supported Zionism politically and was in print by 1903.[2] An early scholarly use appeared in Nahum Sokolow's 1919 History of Zionism 1600–1918, where it described Christian precursors of Jewish Zionism.[2]

Britain's 1917 Balfour Declaration expressed support for 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people' while stipulating that nothing should prejudice the civil and religious rights of non-Jewish communities in Palestine.[10] The declaration created opportunity and legitimacy for increased Jewish immigration, and the 1922 League of Nations Mandate incorporated and elaborated its terms while explicitly recognizing the Jewish people's historical connection with Palestine.[10] France and Italy publicly endorsed the declaration in 1918, and the United States Congress did so in 1922.[10]

British evangelical support for a Jewish homeland included the belief that Jewish return to the Holy Land would precede the Second Coming.[11] Religious restorationist ideas entered British government consideration during the First World War alongside political considerations.[11] Winston Churchill was initially drawn to Jewish restoration and later became an avid supporter of Zionism.[11] Nineteenth-century evangelical advocacy had helped create a British climate of opinion favorable to the Balfour Declaration.[9]

Organized Christian support expanded during the following decades.[5] The British Palestine Society operated from 1916 to 1924 and again from 1930 to 1946.[5] In the United States, the American Palestine Committee and the Christian Council on Palestine merged in 1946 to form the American Christian Palestine Committee.[12] Its aims included educating Christian leaders about the post-Holocaust need for a Jewish state, opposing antisemitism, supporting the state's existence, and publicizing its accomplishments.[12] The Christian Council had 3,000 clergymen as members in 1946, and the merged organization was described as having 15,000 influential members.[5]

Christian support during the period between the Balfour Declaration and Israel's establishment included theological liberals as well as conservatives.[8] Arkush identifies Reinhold Niebuhr as a Christian Zionist whose support for Jewish statehood rested on theological commitments rather than a prophetic argument of Blackstone's kind.[8] In Arkush's account, Niebuhr described Jewish statehood in 1938 as a possible 'partial expiation' for the history of Jewish-Christian relations and defended it as necessary for Jewish national survival.[8]

After Israel's establishment in 1948, American Christian Zionism increasingly centered on support for the existing state, particularly from the 1960s onward.[1] Billy Graham emphasized Jewish contributions to Christianity and Israel's significance while opposing efforts to proselytize Jews.[1] Jerry Falwell encouraged evangelical political participation and interpreted Israel's victory and acquisition of religious sites in Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War through an apocalyptic framework.[1] During the Cold War, some evangelicals also connected support for Israel with opposition to the Soviet Union and communism.[4]

The 1967 war was a turning point in Protestant-Israel relations: many evangelicals interpreted the victory prophetically, while liberal Christians were more ambivalent.[2] Evangelical organizations emerging during the 1970s presented themselves as defenders of Israel and educators about its role in biblical prophecy.[2] The June 1971 Jerusalem Conference on Biblical Prophecy drew at least 1,200 participants from 32 countries, and former prime minister David Ben-Gurion greeted the attendees.[2] Israel's government provided the convention center without charge, and religious-affairs official Yona Malachy had been sent to the United States after the war to assess prospects for an alliance with conservative Christians.[2]

International Christians for Israel was founded on February 2, 1978, by Douglas Young and other evangelical leaders to coordinate worldwide Christian commitment related to Israel.[2] It publicly announced its initiative at Masada under the slogan 'Masada shall never fall again.'[2] The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, or ICEJ, was established in 1980 in response to national embassies leaving Jerusalem after passage of the Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel.[2] Its opening during the Feast of Tabernacles that September included Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, and 800 evangelicals marched through the city in solidarity.[2]

Genesis 12:3—'I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee'—is a prominent scriptural basis for Christian Zionist support for the Jewish people and Israel.[3] John Hagee and other advocates invoke this passage as an enduring religious obligation, while CUFI figures have also cited Joel 3:2.[3] Covenant-centered support emphasizes God's faithfulness to promises made to Jews, rather than requiring a detailed timetable of end-time events.[3] Some Christians support Jewish control of Jerusalem on that covenantal basis, while others connect Christ's return with the rebuilding of the Temple.[6]

Prophetic interpretations have circulated through books and biblical study materials as well as churches.[2] Blackstone helped popularize modified dispensationalist ideas connecting Jewish national restoration with prophecy in North America.[2] The Scofield Reference Bible, Hal Lindsey and Carole C. Carlson's The Late Great Planet Earth, and Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins's Left Behind series spread related connections among evangelical audiences.[2] Some dispensationalist interpretations regard Jewish return as a prophetic prerequisite while treating support for Jews as an obligation rather than making conversion a condition of that support.[1]

John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, in 2006 as a vehicle for American Christian advocacy.[1] Its founding conference in Texas in February attracted 400 Christian leaders following earlier unsuccessful efforts by Hagee to establish a Christian pro-Israel lobby.[13] CUFI describes its work as educating and empowering Americans to defend Israel and the Jewish people, including through lobbying the United States government.[1] Its grassroots activities have included advocacy, fundraising, and trips to Israel.[14]

CUFI's reported membership figures are time-specific organizational claims: it claimed more than one million members in 2012, was reported as having more than 1.6 million in a 2013 profile, and claimed more than ten million in 2021.[3][15][16] A 2024 account likewise reported stated membership exceeding ten million.[1] By 2013, Hagee's humanitarian work was reported to include more than $80 million in donations to Israeli charities.[15] In 2021, CUFI reported taking more than 1,000 pastors to Israel and having more than 4,000 students on American college campuses.[16]

Annual Washington conferences have brought CUFI supporters into contact with members of Congress for lobbying on Israel-related issues.[16] CUFI has cited its involvement in the 2018 opening of the American embassy in Jerusalem and the 2019 American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights among its achievements.[16] Other American Christian organizations have included Christians Concerned for Israel, founded in 1967, and the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel, which grew out of it in 1978.[14] The earlier American Christian Palestine Committee drew principally from liberal churches.[14]

Organizational networks also include the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Bridges for Peace, the Christian Embassy, and Christian Friends for Israel.[6] Such institutions provide infrastructure for outreach and support concerning Jerusalem, while religious institutions and clergy discussions of political questions can help mobilize participation.[6] Ministries and individual volunteers may describe this engagement as service, friendship, or religious calling rather than primarily as lobbying.[2]

Assistance with aliyah, or Jewish immigration to Israel, is a practical expression of Christian Zionism.[4] In 2014, ICEJ stated that it had helped more than 115,000 Jews immigrate since beginning operations, mostly from former Soviet Union countries.[4] Bridges for Peace stated that it had helped 1,756 Jews immigrate from Ukraine since the conflict there began.[4] These figures described the organizations' reported assistance at that time rather than independently established present-day totals.[4]

Religious tourism and pilgrimage bring international supporters into direct contact with Israel.[1] A 2017 Feast of Tabernacles gathering attracted more than 6,000 evangelical pilgrims from 100 countries and included donations for Holocaust survivors and new immigrants.[17] Participants understood visiting Israel and supporting the Jewish people as religious obligations.[17] ICEJ president Jürgen Bühler estimated that visitors would spend approximately NIS 15 million in Israel that year.[17] Pentecostal and charismatic participation includes some adherents, particularly from developing countries, who expect material blessing from blessing Israel rather than being motivated principally by geopolitics or detailed end-time teaching.[1]

Christian Zionist commitment has also taken the form of community life and industry in Israel.[18] A 2008 profile described the Beit El community in Zikhron Ya'akov and Binyamina as regarding Jews as God's chosen people and invoking the promise of blessing for those who bless Israel.[18] German sisters Emma and Elsa Berger founded the community after arriving in Israel in 1963, and it had approximately 500 members at the time of the profile.[18] Members established the Noah's Ark factory in the 1970s to manufacture collective air-filtration and chemical, biological, and radiological protection systems.[18] Its reported customers included the Israel Defense Forces, Israel's Ministry of Defense, Rafael, the Prime Minister's Office, NATO, and Singapore's government.[18]

Survey evidence distinguishes belief in an enduring Jewish covenant from belief that Israel's statehood fulfills prophecy.[19] Among evangelical Protestant leaders surveyed globally in 2011, 48 percent agreed that Israel fulfilled biblical prophecy relating to Jesus's Second Coming, while 42 percent disagreed and 10 percent gave no response.[2][19] Regional agreement ranged from 58 percent in sub-Saharan Africa to 38 percent in Europe.[2] In the same survey, 73 percent of leaders worldwide and 67 percent of American leaders said God's covenant with the Jewish people continued.[19] These results describe surveyed leaders, not all evangelicals or a count of Christian Zionists.[19]

A 2013 survey found that 82 percent of white evangelical Protestants, compared with 40 percent of Jewish respondents, said Israel had been given to the Jewish people by God.[1] The figures measure agreement with that religious proposition rather than membership in a Christian Zionist organization or agreement with particular Israeli policies.[1] Earlier population estimates also used varying definitions: one account estimated 60–70 million American evangelicals, while a 2006 report cited approximately 75 million and noted a wider range of estimates.[6][13] The 2006 report said 70 percent of evangelicals in the survey it discussed supported Israel.[13]

Christian Zionist organizations have provided Israel with networks of advocates, donors, visitors, and volunteers.[2][4] Their historical development connects Protestant biblical interpretation with practical cooperation on Jewish immigration, opposition to antisemitism, and support for Jewish statehood.[2][12] In contemporary American politics, churches and grassroots organizations provide mechanisms for turning religious commitments into public participation and advocacy.[6][16]

Arkush interprets contemporary American Christian Zionism as frequently conservative and influenced by dispensationalist eschatology, while observing that covenant has become more prominent than prophecy in its public appeals.[8] He reports Goldman's assessment that Christian Zionist activism helped mobilize votes for pro-Israel candidates.[8] The movement also maintains personal connections with Israeli public figures: evangelical leader Mike Evans recalled that his relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu began after the 1976 Entebbe rescue operation and described visiting the Netanyahu family in 1980 while Netanyahu grieved his brother Yonatan.[20]

For some supporters, solidarity with Israel also expresses a response to Christian persecution of Jews.[3] In a 2024 interview, CUFI outreach official Kasim Hafeez linked the organization's support both to biblical promises in Genesis and to a desire to address that history.[21] Cooperation has included Jewish organizations working with Christian donors, even as Jewish communal responses have varied.[4] These relationships give Christian Zionism significance beyond electoral politics by linking religious interpretation, remembrance, philanthropy, and direct encounters with Israeli society.[2][4]

Jewish concerns about Christian Zionism have focused on proselytization, apocalyptic expectations, and differences over Israeli territorial policy.[22] A small subset of evangelical Zionists has been criticized for treating Jewish return as a means to bring about the Rapture and Second Coming, potentially making Jews instruments of a religious narrative or targets for conversion.[23] Some Jerusalem-based ministries, however, affirm belief in Jesus as Messiah while maintaining that they do not conduct missionary activity in Israel.[2] ICEJ representatives and CUFI representatives have likewise described their organizations as non-missionary or non-conversionary.[4][17]

Territorial compromise has generated significant disagreement.[22] Some Christian Zionists oppose Israeli withdrawal or concessions on the grounds that the land was given to Jews by God.[22] In 2006, CUFI director David Brog said many evangelicals opposed transferring territory but would respect an Israeli decision, while resisting American pressure for concessions.[13] Reform leader Rabbi Eric Yoffie criticized Hagee's territorial positions in 2008 and also challenged his remarks about Catholicism; Hagee denied anti-Catholic intent, while Senator John McCain distanced himself amid the controversy.[24]

Palestinian Christian advocacy has challenged established evangelical support for Israel through the Bethlehem conference Christ at the Checkpoint and Porter Speakman Jr.'s 2010 documentary With God on Our Side.[3] The documentary circulated in churches and college campuses, encouraging consideration of the consequences of theology for people living in the region, particularly among younger evangelicals.[3] These debates intersect with wider disagreements about Palestinian rights and the political implications of biblical interpretation.[3][22]

Definitions, origins, and influence also remain subjects of scholarly discussion.[2][5] Accounts distinguish early restorationist theology from active support for the modern Jewish national movement, and researchers caution against reducing contemporary Christian Zionism to dispensationalism alone.[2][5] Christian Zionist ideas may have partly influenced Balfour, but religious motivation does not establish exclusive causation of British policy.[1] Arkush similarly notes that electoral mobilization does not demonstrate that Christian Zionism substantially diverted American foreign policy from its existing course.[8]