Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians
that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land
and the establishment of the state of Israel
in 1948 were in accordance with Bible prophecy.
The term began to be used in the mid-20th
century, superseding Christian Restorationism.Traditional
Catholic thought did not consider Zionism
in any form. However Christian advocacy grew
after the Protestant Reformation in support
of the restoration of the Jews. A contemporary
Israeli historian suggests that evangelical
Christian Zionists of the 1840s "passed this
notion on to Jewish circles", while Jewish
nationalism in the early 19th century was
widely regarded with hostility by British
Jews.Some Christian Zionists believe that
the gathering of the Jews in Israel is a prerequisite
for the Second Coming of Jesus. The idea has
been common in Protestant circles since the
Reformation that Christians should actively
support a Jewish return to the Land of Israel,
along with the parallel idea that the Jews
ought to be encouraged to become Christians
as a means of fulfilling Biblical prophecy.
== History prior to the First Zionist Conference
==
=== 
Protestant Reformation ===
Christian advocacy of the restoration of the
Jews in Palestine was first heard following
the Protestant reformation, particularly in
the English-speaking world among the Puritans.
It was common practice among Puritans to anticipate
and frequently pray for a Jewish return to
their homeland. John Owen, a 17th-century
English Covenant theologian, for example,
wrote: "Moreover, it is granted that there
shall be a time and season, during the continuance
of the kingdom of the Messiah in this world,
wherein the generality of the nation of the
Jews, all the world over, shall be called
and effectually brought unto the knowledge
of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ; with
which mercy they shall also receive deliverance
from their captivity, restoration unto their
own land, with a blessed, flourishing, and
happy condition therein." John Gill took a
similar position.Samuel Rutherford, a seventeenth-century
Scottish theologian, expressed the ardent
spirit of prayer of many of his contemporaries:
"O to see the sight, next to Christ's coming
in the clouds the most joyful! Our elder brethren
the Jews and Christ fall upon each other's
necks and kiss each other! They have long
been assunder, they will be kind to one another
when they meet. O day! O longed-for and lovely
day-dawn!"In 1762, Charles Wesley wrote:
O that the chosen band
Might now their brethren bring,
And gather'd out of every land
Present to Sion's King;
Of all the ancient race
Not one be left behind,
But each impell'd by secret grace
His way to Canaan find!
Christian support for Jewish restoration was
brought to America by the Puritans who fled
England. In colonial times, Increase Mather
and John Cotton, among many others, favored
Jewish restoration. Later Jonathan Edwards
also anticipated a future return of Jews to
their homeland. However it was not until the
early 19th century that the idea gathered
political impetus.
Ezra Stiles at Yale was a supporter of Jewish
restoration. 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 of New 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 on Grand 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 and for mapping
the Holy Land.Many Christians believed that
the return of the Jews to Judea, as prophesied
in the Bible, was a necessary preliminary
step towards the Second Coming. In this particular
interpretation, after the Jews returned they
would both accept Jesus as their savior and
rebuild the Temple, which would usher in the
Second Coming of Christ.
=== Restorationism, Dispensationalism and
its Detractors ===
Most early-19th-century British Restorationists,
like Charles Simeon, were Postmillennial in
eschatology. With the rise of James Frere,
James Haldane Stewart and Edward Irving a
major shift in the 1820s towards Premillennialism
occurred, with a similar focus on advocacy
for the restoration of the Jews to Israel.
As the demise of the Ottoman Empire appeared
to be approaching, the advocacy of restorationism
increased. At the same time, the visit of
John Nelson Darby, the founder of a variant
of Premillennialism called Dispensationalism
to the United States catalyzed a new movement.
This was expressed at the Niagara 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.
The dispensationalist theology of John Nelson
Darby which motivates one stream of American
Christian Zionism is often claimed to be a
significant awakener of American Christian
Zionism. 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,
whilst philo-semitic, opposed Zionism as a
movement born in self-confidence and unbelief.
While Dispensationalism had considerable influence
through the Scofield Bible, Christian lobbying
for the restoration of the Jews preceded the
publication of the Scofield Reference Bible
(first published by OUP, 1909) for over a
century, and many Christian Zionists and Christian
Zionist organizations such as the International
Christian Embassy Jerusalem do not subscribe
to dispensationalism. Many non dispensationalist
Protestants were also strong advocates of
a Jewish return to their homeland, Charles
Spurgeon, both Horatius and Andrew Bonar,
Robert Murray M'Chyene, and J C Ryle 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". In 1864, Spurgeon wrote:
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.
=== Secular motivations ===
The crumbling of the Ottoman Empire threatened
the British route to India via the Suez Canal
as well as sundry French, German and American
economic interests. In 1831 the Ottomans were
driven from Greater Syria (including Palestine)
by an expansionist Egypt, in the First Turko-Egyptian
War. Although Britain forced Muhammad 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, including Charles Henry
Churchill. Again during the lead-up to the
Crimean 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 the London
Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst
the Jews, wrote to Prime Minister Aberdeen
urging Jewish restoration as a means of stabilizing
the region.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.
In this, Restorationism was not unlike the
efforts of the American Colonization Society
to send blacks to Liberia and the efforts
of British abolitionists to create Sierra
Leone. Winston Churchill endorsed Restoration
because he recognized that Jews fleeing Russian
pogroms required a refuge, and preferred Palestine
for sentimental reasons.
=== Early religious views in Protestant America
===
In 1818, President John Adams wrote, "I really
wish the Jews again in Judea an independent
nation", and believed that they would gradually
become Unitarian Christians.In 1844, George
Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York University
and the cousin of an ancestor of the Presidents
Bush, published a book titled The 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 be converted to Christianity. 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."Herman Melville
expressed the idea in a poem, "Clarel; A Poem
and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land":
==== Blackstone Memorial ====
The tycoon William Eugene Blackstone was inspired
by the conference to publish the book Jesus
is Coming, which took up the restorationist
cause, and also absolved the Jews of the need
to convert to Christianity either before or
after the return of the Messiah. His book
was translated and published in Yiddish. On
November 24–25, 1890, Blackstone organized
the Conference on the Past, Present and Future
of Israel at the First Methodist Episcopal
Church in Chicago 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 President Benjamin Harrison for the
restoration of the Jews, in a petition signed
by 413 prominent Americans, that became known
as the Blackstone Memorial. 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. 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?"
=== Views in the British Empire ===
Ideas favoring the restoration of the Jews
in Palestine or the Land of Israel entered
the British 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. Not all such attitudes
were favorable towards the Jews; they were
shaped in part by a variety of Protestant
beliefs,
or by a streak of philo-Semitism among the
classically educated British elite,
or by hopes to extend the Empire. (See The
Great Game)
At the urging of Lord Shaftesbury, Britain
established a consulate in Jerusalem in 1838,
the first diplomatic appointment to Palestine.In
1839, the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar,
Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Alexander Black and
Alexander Keith on a mission to report on
the condition of the Jews in Palestine. Their
report was widely published. They traveled
through France, Greece, and Egypt and, from
Egypt, overland to Gaza. On the way home they
visited Syria, the Austrian Empire and some
of the German principalities. 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 book The 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, Dr George Skene Keith (1819–1910),
who was the first person to photograph the
land.In August 1840, The Times reported that
the British government was considering Jewish
restoration.
An important, though often neglected, figure
in British support of the restoration of the
Jews was William Hechler (1845–1931), an
English clergyman of German descent who was
Chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna
and became a close friend of Theodor Herzl.
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 the death of Theodor Herzl,
it was noted by the editors of the English-language
memorial volume that William Hechler would
prove "not only the first, but the most constant
and the most indefatigable of Herzl’s followers".
== Later political analysis and developments
==
Hal Lindsey, one of the most popular American
promoters of dispensationalism, has written
in The Late Great Planet Earth that per Ezekiel
39:6–8, after Jews fight off a "Russian"
invasion, Jews will see this as a miracle
and convert to Christianity. Their lives will
be spared the great fire that God will put
upon Russia and people of the "coastlands."
And, per Zechariah 13:8–9, one third of
Jews alive who have converted will be spared.
Lindsay has been critiqued for highly specific,
failed predictions even by those who share
his eschatology, like John MacArthur.Examples
of Protestant leaders combining political
conservatism with Christian Zionism are Jerry
Falwell and Pat Robertson, leading figures
of the Christian Right in the 1980s and 1990s.
Falwell said in 1981: "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."
They cite part of the blessing of Isaac at
Genesis 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.The
government of Israel has given official encouragement
to Christian Zionism, allowing the establishment
in 1980 of the International Christian Embassy
Jerusalem. The embassy has raised funds to
help finance Jewish immigration to Israel
from the former Soviet Union, and has assisted
Zionist groups in establishing Jewish settlements
in the West Bank.The Third International Christian
Zionist Congress, held in Jerusalem in February
1996, issued a proclamation which said:
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
to Eretz 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 the Left Behind series of novels by
Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The novels
are built around the prophetic role of Israel
in the apocalyptic End Times.
== Disapproval by other churches ==
=== Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism
===
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (Catholic),
the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Jerusalem,
the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the
Middle East and the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Jordan and the Holy Land, in 2006 published
the Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism,
which rejects Christian Zionism as substituting,
in its view, a political-military program
in place of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
It criticizes Christian Zionism as an obstacle
to peace and understanding in Israel-Palestine.
=== United States ===
The General Assembly of the National 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 the Jerusalem Declaration on Christian
Zionism)
relationships with Jews, since Jews are seen
as mere pawns in an eschatological 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"
The Reformed 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."
The Mennonite Church published an article
that referenced what is called the ongoing
illegal seizure of additional Palestinian
lands by Israeli militants, noting that in
some churches under the influence of Christian
Zionism the "congregations 'adopt' illegal
Israeli settlements, sending funds to bolster
the defense of these armed colonies." As of
September 2007, churches in the USA that have
criticized Christian Zionism include the United
Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church
(USA), and the United Church of Christ.The
film With God On Our Side, by Porter Speakman
Jr. and Kevin Miller (the latter of whom also
co-created the film Expelled: No Intelligence
Allowed), criticizes both the underlying theology
behind Christian Zionism as well as its negative
influence on the church.
=== Scotland ===
The Church of Scotland, despite its Restorationist
history, 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", which resulted
in its republication in a briefer form.
=== Church of England ===
On 9 July 2012, the Anglican General Synod
passed a motion affirming support for the
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine
and Israel (EAPPI). This was criticised by
the Board of Deputies claiming the Synod 'has
chosen to promote an inflammatory and partisan
programme'. 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 the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions campaign against Israel. The Church
has been consequently criticised for its advocacy
of a body that selectively ignores terror
attacks against Israelis and solely blames
Israel for the conflict, along with the 'demonisation
and delegitimisation of Israel'.
== Biblical interpretations ==
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
patriarch Jacob) or Judah (taken to mean the
remaining faithful adherents of Judaism).
These prophecies are seen as requiring the
presence of a Jewish state in the Holy Land,
the central part of the lands promised to
the Biblical patriarch Abraham in the Covenant
of the pieces. This requirement is sometimes
interpreted as being fulfilled by the contemporary
state of Israel.
=== Prophetic and Messianic texts ===
Among the principal relevant prophetic texts
are those found in the Old Testament in the
Book of Daniel, the book of Isaiah and the
Book of Ezekiel, and those found in the New
Testament in the Book of Revelation.
Although many Christian Zionists believe that
conversion of the Jews to Christianity is
a necessary adjunct of the Second Coming or
the End of Days, conversion of the Jews is
not part of the theology of Christian Zionists
such as John Hagee and was not thought to
be required by the nineteenth-century restoration
advocate William Eugene Blackstone.
=== Other ===
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 in
Matthew, "the kingdom of God will be taken
away from you and given to a nation producing
the fruits of it".
In Defending Christian Zionism, David Pawson,
a Christian Zionist in the United 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 of Stephen
Sizer, an evangelical Christian who rejects
Christian Zionism.
== Notable proponents ==
William Marrion Branham
== See also ==
== 
References ==
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
Christian Zionists - Bridges for Peace
Jewish and Christian Zionists - SAZ - Support
Association for Zionism
Christian Zionism and Its Religious Arguments
to Create Conflict, Strategic Outlook
Christians Standing with Israel: Support Israel,
What is a Christian Zionist? Stand Against
Anti-Semitism
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Christians Who Love
Israel on Arutz Sheva.
