What Is Christian Zionism and Why Is It So Complex?

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:

As with “Christian nationalism,” this is a rather slippery term that can be used to browbeat religious and political opponents. The relation between Christianity and Israel is vastly complex, and this article can merely try to clarify a few aspects.

Merriam-Webster defines Zionism as “an international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in the historical region of Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel.” Since modern Israel was established in 1948, most Americans have had Zionist views in the elemental sense of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish homeland in peace and security, whatever the particular thoughts about, say, Prime Minister Netanyahu or the conflicts in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza.

A more sweeping definition is used by the Zionist Organization of America, which was founded in 1897 simultaneously with Theodore Herzl’s World Zionist Organization. The U.S. group naturally supports Jews and fights antisemitism, which it believes includes the anti-Israel boycott movement. In addition, it champions “the Jewish people’s lawful right to live in and settle historic Jewish lands,” rejects claims that Israel “is an ‘occupier’ of her own land,” and opposes a Palestinian state because it “would endanger Israel’s existence.”

A roughly opposite view is held by some liberal or “mainline” Protestants. For example, the summer after the vicious 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to “reject Christian Zionism in all its forms.” Last year, it was one of 9 mainline denominations that joined the National Council of Churches to denounce  Israel’s “unprovoked attack on Iran” along with the U.S. strikes against nuclear sites.

Crossing the line

The current furor, however, involves a split in which conservatives believe criticisms of Israel by some on the right cross the line into antisemitism. A seminal moment was star podcaster Tucker Carlson’s October platforming of brash antisemite Nick Fuentes, in an interview many found all too warm and fuzzy. Fuentes also won fame in 2022 when Donald Trump invited the troublesome Kanye West (a.k.a. Ye) to dinner and he brought Fuentes along.

On his show, Carlson deplored a “brain virus” among Republican politicians who back Israel, naming President George W. Bush, his advisor Karl Rove, Senator Ted Cruz, and Governor Mike Huckabee. Carlson noted that “most of them are self-described Christians. And then the Christian Zionists who are, well, Christian Zionists. Like, what is that? I can just say for myself, I dislike them more than anybody because what? Because it’s Christian heresy, and I’m offended by that as a Christian.”

Carlson pursued Christian Zionism further in a February interview with Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who is now Trump’s ambassador to Israel. Huckabee said fellow evangelical Protestants believe “the Bible, all of it, not part of it, but all of it, is the Word of the living God.” That includes the entire Old Testament and “a very specific call to the Jewish people that started with Abraham.”

Huckabee cited Genesis 12:3, where God says that “I will bless those who bless you; curse those who curse you.” Then God’s covenant in Genesis 17:8 ultimately gave Abraham’s descendants “the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.” There was a diplomatic kerfuffle when Carlson said this covers lands “from the Nile to the Euphrates” and Huckabee responded, ”I think it would be fine if the state of Israel took over all of the land” but “they’re not asking to take it over.” Such belief motivates Jewish and Christian supporters of increasing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which they refer to by the biblical title “Judea and Samaria.”

Shift by Popes

With the Catholic Church, Pope Pius X declined to endorse Zionism after a 1903 audience with Herzl. But in 1987, Pope John Paul II stated that following the Nazi Holocaust, which he himself lived through in Poland, “the Jewish people began a new period in their history. They have a right to a homeland as does any civil nation, according to international law,” to preserve ”precious testimonies to their history and their faith,” and live in security and peace. In 1993, John Paul’s Vatican granted diplomatic recognition to modern Israel.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church acknowledges God’s “irrevocable” covenant and gifts to Israel’s patriarchs and people, without specifying territory.  Christian theology on Israel inevitably involves prophecies in the Bible and Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. On that, the Catechism defines a moderate mainstream view. The church anticipates “the full inclusion of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation” in the end times (citing Paul in Romans 11:12,25). Before that occurs, Christians will undergo “a final trial” that shakes their faith, with persecution and “the supreme religious deception” led by the Antichrist.

A far more detailed theology of biblical prophecy and the end times is advocated by a Protestant movement known as Dispensationalism, which links varied Bible passages in a scenario that’s disputed by other evangelicals and fundamentalists. Movement founder John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) was an Irish Anglican priest who broke away to form the Plymouth Brethren. Long before Herzl, he consolidated prior Christian hints to teach that God would restore the Jewish nation regathered in Israel. His theology has gained U.S. influence well beyond Darby’s small denomination, through Bible commentaries, radio and TV preachers, conferences, Bible colleges, and Dallas Theological Seminary.

Unnerved by theology

Jews appreciate this movement’s steadfast support and love for Israel, over against “replacement theology” by which God’s biblical promises to Israel are now transferred to Christians. However, Jews are offended by evangelicals’ insistence on seeking converts. With Dispensationalism in particular, they are unnerved by the teaching that in the “Rapture” (based on I Thessalonians 4:13-17) true Christians will be taken into heaven while non-believers then undergo the “Great Tribulation,” during which two-thirds of Jews will die (based on interpretation of dire Old Testament prophecies and in particular Zechariah 13:7-9). This column cannot possibly convey the intricacies of Dispensationalism on Israel. For more, a good source is “On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend” by historian Timothy P. Weber.

Another scholarly book challenges the common idea that evangelicals unite behind Israel mostly due to end-times theologies. Matters are far more complex, according to “Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism” by Stephen Spector of Stony Brook University. For starters, experts estimate that hard-core Dispensationalists are perhaps only 10% of white evangelicals and 2.5% of the entire U.S. population.

Spector observes that in addition to the biblical teachings Huckabee cites, strong pro-Israel influences include Christianity’s rich heritage in the Holy Land, love toward the Jewish people with gratitude for their spiritual contributions, hostility toward  Israel’s Muslim antagonists since Iran’s 1979 revolution and resulting terrorism, conservative affinity with Israel as a democracy and ally of the United States, and “deep remorse for the Church’s abuse of Jews in the name of Christ for nearly 2,000 years.”

Recently, there has been a significant shift in Americans’ feelings regarding Israel. For years, the Gallup Poll has asked, “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?” As recently as 2020, 60% chose Israel versus 23% for Palestinians. Then came Israel’s fierce military campaign in Gaza in response to the 2023  Hamas attack and the against Hezbollah due to its attacks from Lebanon. In February, just before the American and Israeli war on Iran, Gallup said Palestinians had reached 41% support versus 35% for Israel. Among Democrats, since 2020 Palestinian support has increased from 38% to 65%. Republicans’ bond with Israel has been constant for many years but has now slipped a bit, to 70%.