- 1. Overview
- 2. Etymology
- 3. Cultural Impact
For Christians who belong to Zionist denominations in southern Africa, see Zionist churches .
• “Christian restorationism” redirects here. For other uses, see Restorationism (disambiguation) .
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•
• v • t • e
Christian Zionism is a rather specific, some might say peculiar, political and religious ideology that exists within a broader Christian context . Its central tenet is the fervent belief in the return of the Jewish people to the ancestral Holy Land . This isn’t merely a historical or humanitarian aspiration; for Christian Zionists, the founding of Israel in 1948 wasn’t just a geopolitical event, but a direct, undeniable fulfillment of biblical prophecies meticulously laid out in the Old Testament . They contend that the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Levant —often termed the eschatological “Gathering of Israel "—is an absolute prerequisite for the grand finale, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ . The phrase “Christian Zionism” itself, a relatively modern construct, only gained traction in the mid-20th century. Before that, it was often referred to as Christian restorationism , but the shift occurred as proponents actively aligned themselves with Zionists in advocating for a Jewish national homeland .
One might assume this support is altruistic, a simple act of solidarity. But, of course, nothing is ever simple. The expectation of Jewish restoration among Christians isn’t some fleeting modern fad; its roots stretch back to 17th-century English Puritan thought, where the initial sparks of Christian pro-Zionist ideals first flickered. Indeed, contemporary Israeli historian Anita Shapira rather pointedly suggests that England’s Zionist Evangelical Protestants were so enthusiastic they “passed this notion on to Jewish circles” around the 1840s. One can only imagine the conversation.
However, here’s where the narrative takes a turn that might raise a few eyebrows, especially among those being “supported.” While vociferously advocating for a mass Jewish return to the Land of Israel , Christian Zionism simultaneously champions a rather inconvenient parallel idea: that these returnees should be actively encouraged, if not outright pressured, to reject Judaism and adopt Christianity . Because, naturally, their return isn’t truly complete until they conform to a different set of biblical prophecies . It’s a subtle distinction, perhaps, but one that has not gone unnoticed. Polling data and academic research have consistently revealed a widespread, and frankly unsurprising, distrust among Jews regarding the true motivations of Evangelical Protestants . These groups, after all, are simultaneously promoting robust support for the State of Israel while actively evangelizing the Jews . It’s almost as if they see a divine transaction rather than genuine partnership.
History before the 20th century
• Further information: History of Zionism and Proto-Zionism
Origins in Calvinistic millennialism
• Main articles: History of the Puritans , Millennialism , and Christian Zionism in England and Scotland
It’s often said that history repeats itself, but sometimes it just recycles old ideas with a fresh coat of paint. Take Thomas Brightman , an English Puritan, for instance. In 1615, he published “Shall They Return to Jerusalem Again?”, a title that leaves little to the imagination. This was one of the earliest, if not the earliest, explicit Restorationist works of its kind, laying groundwork that would prove surprisingly resilient.
Initially, the prominent Protestant leaders of the Reformation, figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin , didn’t exactly have “Jewish return to Palestine” high on their eschatological agenda. Their eschatological views were, shall we say, less geographically specific. Luther, ever the optimist, had initially hoped that Jews would flock to his particular brand of Christianity once he had decisively broken ties with the Catholic Church . When that didn’t quite pan out, he pivoted to rather harshly denouncing Jews . A classic move. Both the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church , mirroring the older Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church , comfortably viewed the Christian Church as the “spiritual Israel.” Faithful Christians were the exclusive “people of God ,” the true inheritors of the covenant through Jesus Christ , thus neatly assigning no special privileges or future role to individuals of Jewish descent. This theological framework, which effectively replaced the literal Israel with the Christian Church, would later be rather delicately termed supersessionism .
However, the Protestant emphasis on sola scriptura —scripture alone—and the burgeoning availability of the Bible in vernacular languages across Europe, inadvertently opened a Pandora’s Box of interpretations. Various radical Protestants began to pore over the scriptures, drawing their own conclusions, often diverging wildly from both established medieval Catholic tradition and the views of the very Magisterial Protestant leaders who had set them on this path. This exegetical freedom coincided with a broader cultural phenomenon: a general Hebraizing trend among these more radical Protestant factions. Rejecting the veneration of saints as outright idolatry , they instead fixated on the biblical patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament . It became fashionable, almost a statement, to name children Abraham, Cain (yes, Cain), Jeremiah, Zachary, Daniel, Sampson, and other such distinctly Old Testament monikers.
The notion of Jews returning to Palestine to reclaim it as their national homeland first gained significant traction among self-identified Christian groups in the 1580s. These were predominantly aligned with Puritanism , a particularly rigorous Reformed branch of Christianity that eventually spawned the Congregationalist denomination. It started subtly enough. During the reign of Edward VI of England , a child-monarch, a Calvinist-leaning Regency effectively governed England . This opportune moment allowed influential Continental Protestants like Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr Vermigli to teach at the venerable universities of Cambridge and Oxford. These two intellectual heavyweights advanced a biblical exegesis that, notably, carved out an important, if rather conditional, role for Jews—specifically, converted Jews—in the unfolding end times . Early versions of the Bible sanctioned by the English monarchy and the Anglican Church , such as the Great Bible and the Bishops’ Bible , were seen by many English Puritans and Lowland Scots Presbyterians as far too “Romanist” in their leanings, along with Episcopalianism and the established “Protestantism of the princes .” In response, a number of these Puritans and Presbyterians decamped to Geneva in the 1560s, placing themselves under the tutelage of Calvin’s successor, Theodore Beza . There, they meticulously developed their own translation, the Geneva Bible . This edition, critically, included footnotes to the Book of Romans that explicitly asserted the future conversion of the Jews to Christianity in the end times, thereby reorienting eschatological attention to Palestine as a central stage for these divine dramas. This perspective was enthusiastically adopted by a formidable roster of English Puritans, including Francis Kett , Edmund Bunny , Thomas Draxe , Thomas Brightman , Joseph Mede , William Perkins , Richard Sibbes , Thomas Goodwin , William Strong , William Bridge , Henry Finch , John Owen , and [Giles Fletcher]. It also found fertile ground among Lowland Scots Presbyterians such as George Gillespie , Robert Baillie , and [Samuel Rutherford]. Even some Continental Protestants, including Oliger Paulli , Isaac Vossius , Hugo Grotius , Gerhard Vossius , and [David Blondel], were swayed by these theories.
The Puritans, initially a “fringe” faction, found themselves in an unexpected position of power under Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. It’s almost amusing how quickly fringe ideas can become state policy when the right people seize control. Several of Cromwell’s closest advisors were, rather conveniently, adherents of Philo-Semitic millennialist religious views.
During the late Tudor and early Stuart periods, these Puritans remained marginalized outsiders in England, fiercely opposing the Laudian -dominated Anglican Church. Meanwhile, their Presbyterian counterparts, holding very similar theological convictions, had managed to establish the Church of Scotland as the dominant “Kirk ” in Scotland. The English Civil War proved to be their moment, as Puritans swelled the ranks of the Parliamentarians and the formidable New Model Army . Under the decisive leadership of Oliver Cromwell , they emerged victorious, executing Charles I of England and consolidating complete state power, which ushered in the Commonwealth of England between 1649 and 1660. This shift in power allowed the deeply ingrained Philo-Semitic millennialist undercurrent to directly influence state policy. A number of Cromwell’s trusted advisors, including John Dury , John Sadler , and Hugh Peter , actively engaged with Dutch-based Jews like Menasseh ben Israel . They passionately advocated for Jewish resettlement in England , a remarkable turnaround given that Jews had been formally banned from the country since the 13th century. Sadler, who served as Cromwell’s secretary, even went so far as to argue in his pamphlet The Rights of the Kingdom (1649) that the British were, in fact, one of the Lost Tribes of Israel , thereby establishing a kinship with the Jews and inadvertently initiating the controversial movement of British Israelism . Other Puritans, such as Jeremiah Burroughs , Peter Bulkley , John Fenwicke , and John Cotton —some of whom had migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony —saw Jewish re-entry into England as a crucial step towards their ultimate return to Palestine. This entire sequence of events was meticulously woven into a grand millennialist eschatology, designed to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and, consequently, the final judgement . Johanna and Ebenezer Cartwright, two Baptists who had spent time in Amsterdam , shared this fervent view and were instrumental in submitting the original petition to Thomas Fairfax ’s Council of War in January 1649, advocating for Jewish readmission. Their petition optimistically declared, “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.” By 1655–1656, a de facto toleration for Jews in England was informally established, a policy that, surprisingly, was not reversed even after the Restoration .
A notable French-born figure, Isaac La Peyrère , though nominally a Huguenot Calvinist, hailed from a Portuguese New Christian family (converted Sephardic Jewish ). He emerged as a significant 17th-century progenitor of these ideas, wielding influence on both sides of the English Channel . In his millennialist work Du rappel des juifs (1643), La Peyrère not only wrote extensively about a Jewish return to Palestine but also boldly predicted the building of the Third Temple and foresaw Jerusalem assuming the most powerful role in global governance—all envisioned as preparatory steps for the Second Coming . La Peyrère closely monitored the developments of Oliver Cromwell’s Dissenter regime, even harboring dreams of overthrowing Louis XIV of France and replacing him with the Prince of Condé (for whom he worked as a secretary) as part of a grand millennialist, proto-Zionist messianic project. Following the publication of La Peyrère’s book, the Amsterdam-based Menasseh Ben Israel recognized the significance of these theories and brought them to the attention of his friend, Petrus Serrarius , a close associate of John Dury. This interaction highlights an early, intriguing interplay between 17th-century Jewish and Protestant proto-Zionism. Other Continental Protestant millennialists, including the Germans Abraham von Franckenberg (a scholar of the Kabbalah ) and Paul Felgenhauer, were equally captivated by La Peyrère’s theories. Menasseh Ben Israel himself would later author The Hope of Israel in 1652, further cementing these ideas. Serrarius, for his part, became the primary supporter among Amsterdam’s Protestants for the declaration that Sabbatai Zevi was indeed the Messiah , a claim propagated by Nathan of Gaza (whose followers, the Sabbateans , were based in the Ottoman Empire but garnered significant support across the Jewish diaspora ).
Even though they were removed from power in England, the millennialist Puritans who had migrated to New England left a lasting cultural legacy on society. Beyond John Cotton, Increase Mather , one of the early Presidents of Harvard College , was a fervent advocate for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine. A prolific author, his most notable contribution in this regard was The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation (1669). Roger Williams , the Puritan champion of religious liberty (a concept so radical it even extended to Jews) in the Colony of Rhode Island , which he founded, has been posthumously hailed as a proto-Zionist by later Jewish Zionist leaders like Stephen S. Wise . This attribution stems from his profound comment, “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.” Some influential 17th-century philosophers , who effectively bridged the gap between the millennialist sectarians of their era and the burgeoning Age of the Enlightenment with its Scientific Revolution , either held views consistent with premillennial restorationists or moved closely within their circles. This is particularly true for Sir Isaac Newton and Baruch Spinoza . Newton, especially, harbored Radical Reformation views in terms of religion and also notoriously dabbled in the occult , including the Kabbalah. He meticulously predicted a Jewish return to Palestine, complete with the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the late 19th century and the erection of the Third Temple in the 20th or 21st century, all culminating in the end of the world no later than 2060. Much of these private writings proved rather inconvenient and embarrassing for his supporters, who were keen to uphold him as a paragon of reason and science against the likes of Leibniz . Consequently, while the University of Cambridge eagerly inherited his scientific papers, they conspicuously declined to accept these more esoteric private ones. Many of these, later collected by Abraham Yahuda , now reside in the National Library of Israel since 1967, a somewhat ironic final resting place. Spinoza, though Jewish himself, moved in intellectual circles in the Netherlands that included Petrus Serrarius and Henry Oldenburg , and was even directly influenced by La Peyrère, demonstrating the interconnectedness of these early intellectual currents.
Pietism, Evangelicalism, and British foreign policy
• See also: Pietism , Evangelicalism , and Political Zionism
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With the ascension of the Hanoverians to power in Britain and the pervasive influence of the Enlightenment, much of the 18th-century mainstream elite cultivated a sophisticated Philhellenism . Their gaze turned to the classical world—the philosophies and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome—seeking inspiration for the elegant Georgian age , rather than indulging in the “millennialist fantasies” based on the Hebrew Old Testament. (Though, it must be noted, Jews themselves enjoyed a significant, if still circumscribed, degree of toleration within the expanding British Empire ). Yet, beneath this veneer of classical rationality, a religious underground was quietly, persistently growing from the 1730s onward. This nascent movement would eventually erupt into a second, powerful wave of Protestant Zionism, marking the true birth of Evangelical Protestantism . This resurgence was initially catalyzed in Germany by Philipp Spener ’s Pietism , a mystical and often millennialist interpretation of Lutheranism, which boldly prophesied the “conversion of the Jews and the fall of the Papacy as the prelude of the triumph of the Church.” One of Spener’s devoted followers, Nicolaus Zinzendorf , played a crucial role in spreading these ideas into the Moravian Church , explicitly linking the theory to Palestine. He even went so far as to modify the Moravian liturgy to include a prayer “to restore the tribe of Judah in its time and bless its first fruits among us.” John and Charles Wesley , the foundational leaders of Methodism , drawing inspiration from both the Pietists and Zinzendorf’s Moravians, also actively promoted a Jewish return to Palestine. Charles Wesley, in a testament to his conviction, even penned a hymn specifically dedicated to this theme. The Baptist theologian, John Gill , who moved in similar intellectual and religious circles as the Wesleys, authored works that articulated very similar views. By 1771, the Evangelical minister John Eyre , notable as the founder of the Evangelical Magazine and an original member of the London Missionary Society , was championing an even more developed version of these restorationist perspectives with his influential Observations upon Prophecies Relating to the Restoration of the Jews.
As the 18th century drew to a close, the seismic events of the French Revolution and the subsequent decree by the National Assembly in December 1789—which declared non-Catholics eligible for all civil and military positions—prompted the Revolutionary government in France to make a calculated bid for the allegiance of Jews, directly competing with Britain. During the Egypt–Syria campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars , Bonaparte , ever the pragmatist, extended an invitation to “all the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather under his flag in order to re-establish the ancient Jerusalem.” While Bonaparte himself was undeniably secular and this initiative served as an early, strategic example of Political Zionism , the core Jacobin idea itself may have originated with Thomas Corbet (1773–1804). Corbet, an Anglo-Irish Protestant émigré and a member of the liberal-republican Society of United Irishmen , was actively engaged in revolutionary activities against the British and served in the French Army. In February 1790, he authored a letter addressed to the French Directory , then under the leadership of Napoleon’s patron, Paul Barras . In this letter, he explicitly 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,” adding, “Their riches do not console them for their hardships. They await with impatience the epoch of their re-establishment as a nation.” Milka Levy-Rubin, a curator at the National Library of Israel , has convincingly attributed Corbet’s motivation to a distinct Protestant Zionism rooted in premillennialist themes.
Across the Atlantic, in New England during the 18th century, Ezra Stiles , the president of Yale College , proved to be a steadfast supporter of Jewish restoration. He notably cultivated a friendship with Rabbi Raphael Chaim Yitzchak Karigal of Hebron during the latter’s visit in 1773. Jonathan Edwards also foresaw a future return of Jews to their ancestral homeland. In 1808, Asa McFarland, a Presbyterian minister, articulated a widely held belief that the imminent fall of the Ottoman Empire would pave the way for Jewish restoration. A certain David Austin of New Haven reportedly expended his entire fortune constructing docks and inns, presumably to facilitate the departure of Jews bound for the Holy Land. In 1825, Mordecai Manuel Noah , a Jewish figure who harbored ambitions of establishing a national home for Jews on Grand Island in New York—conceived as a temporary staging post en route to the Holy Land—garnered extensive Christian backing for his ambitious project. Similarly, restorationist theology served as a significant inspiration for the earliest American missionary endeavors in the Middle East and for the meticulous mapping of the Holy Land .
Most early-19th-century British Restorationists, such as Charles Simeon , were, rather unfashionably, postmillennial in their eschatology. However, a significant ideological shift occurred in the 1820s with the emergence of figures like James Frere , James Haldane Stewart , and [Edward Irving]. This period saw a marked turn towards premillennialism , which brought with it a renewed and intense focus on advocating for the restoration of the Jews to Israel. As the inexorable decline of the Ottoman Empire became increasingly apparent, the calls for restorationism grew louder and more insistent.
The Earl of Shaftesbury , deeply influenced by Evangelical Anglicanism and the views of Edward Bickersteth , stands out as one of the first British politicians to seriously champion a Jewish return to Ottoman Palestine as an official policy objective.
The crumbling edifice of the Ottoman Empire presented a significant strategic threat to the British route to India, particularly concerning the vital Suez Canal . This instability also imperiled various French, German, and American economic interests in the region. In 1831, the Ottomans were forcibly dislodged from the region of Syria (which, inconveniently, included Palestine) by an aggressively expansionist Egypt during the First Turko-Egyptian War . Although Britain successfully compelled Muhammad Ali to retreat to Egypt, the Levant was left in a brief, but telling, state of governmental vacuum. The persistent weakness of the Ottoman Empire prompted some in the West to seriously consider the possibility of a Jewish state emerging in the Holy Land . A number of influential figures within the British government, including Charles Henry Churchill , actively advocated for such a plan. Again, during the tense lead-up to the Crimean War (1854), another opportunity for political reconfigurations in the Near East presented itself. In July 1853, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury , who also served as President of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews , penned a letter to Prime Minister Aberdeen , earnestly urging Jewish restoration as a pragmatic means of stabilizing the volatile region.
Concurrently, the visit of John Nelson Darby to the United States (the precise date of which seems to be lost to the mists of history, or perhaps just poor record-keeping) proved to be a catalytic event, sparking a new movement. Darby was the architect of a distinct theological framework known as dispensationalism . His dispensationalist theology is frequently credited as a significant catalyst for American Christian Zionism. He first articulated the distinct hopes of the Jews, the church, and the gentiles in a series of eleven evening lectures delivered in Geneva in 1840. These lectures were swiftly published in French (as L’Attente Actuelle de l’Eglise), followed by English (1841), German, and Dutch (1847) editions, thus initiating the global dissemination of his teachings. It’s worth noting that some dispensationalists, such as Arno Gabelein, despite being philo-semitic , actually opposed Zionism, viewing it as a movement born of human self-confidence and unbelief, rather than divine decree. While dispensationalism certainly exerted considerable influence, particularly through the widely distributed Scofield Reference Bible (first published by Oxford University Press in 1909), Christian lobbying for the restoration of the Jews predated its publication by over a century. Furthermore, many contemporary Christian Zionists and their organizations, such as the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem , do not subscribe to dispensationalism, proving that even within a niche ideology, there’s room for diverse interpretations. Many non-dispensationalist Protestants were also fervent advocates for a Jewish return to their homeland. This group included influential figures like Charles Spurgeon , both Horatius and [Andrew Bonar], Robert Murray M’Cheyne , and [J. C. Ryle], all of whom championed the importance and significance of a Jewish return to Israel. However, Spurgeon, with his characteristic wit, famously quipped 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 articulated his own nuanced anticipation:
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.
Darby’s dispensationalism was prominently articulated at the Niagara Bible Conference in 1878, which culminated in a 14-point proclamation. This declaration, drawing heavily on biblical passages such as 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, included the assertion:
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.
Late-19th-century non-messianic restorationism, a rather pragmatic iteration, was largely propelled by a profound concern for the plight of Jews within the Russian Empire. These communities were increasingly subjected to abject poverty and devastating, government-instigated pogroms. It was a widely, if grimly, accepted truth that Western nations harbored little desire to accept large numbers of Jewish immigrants. In this context, restorationism presented itself as a convenient, charitable avenue for individuals to assist oppressed Jews without the inconvenience of actually accepting them as neighbors and fellow-citizens. It’s a classic case of “we care about you, just not here.” In this sense, restorationism bore a striking resemblance to the efforts of the American Colonization Society to repatriate blacks to Liberia , or the endeavors of British abolitionists to establish Sierra Leone . Even Winston Churchill lent his endorsement to Restorationism, recognizing the desperate need for a refuge for Jews fleeing Russian pogroms, and, rather sentimentally, preferring Palestine for this purpose.
In the United States
“Memorandum to the Protestant Powers of the North of Europe and America”, Colonial Times , Hobart, Australia, 1841
In 1818, President John Adams , a man not known for mincing words, articulated his sentiment: “I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.” He also, perhaps rather optimistically, believed they would gradually convert to Unitarian Christianity.
By 1844, George Bush , a professor of Hebrew at New York University and, interestingly, a cousin of an ancestor of the future Presidents Bush, published a book with the rather evocative title, The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived. In it, he vehemently denounced “the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them (the Jews) to the dust.” His solution? To “elevate” the Jews “to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by facilitating their restoration to the land of Israel, where, he conveniently added, the vast majority would eventually be converted to Christianity . This, according to Bush, would not only benefit the Jews but all of mankind, forging a “link of communication” between humanity and God. “It will blaze in notoriety…”, he predicted, with perhaps a touch of hyperbole. “It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth.”
The esteemed tycoon William Eugene Blackstone was so profoundly moved by the aforementioned conference that he felt compelled to publish his own book, Jesus is Coming, which vigorously took up the restorationist cause. His work was even translated and published in Yiddish , ensuring its message reached a wider, and perhaps more directly relevant, audience. On November 24–25, 1890, Blackstone meticulously organized the Conference on the Past, Present and Future of Israel at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago . This gathering brought together leaders from numerous Christian communities, signaling a growing interest in the matter. While resolutions expressing sympathy for the oppressed Jews in Russia were duly passed, Blackstone remained unconvinced by mere words, however prominent the signatories. He became a passionate advocate for the direct resettlement of Jewish people in Palestine. In 1891, he spearheaded a lobbying effort directed at President Benjamin Harrison , presenting a petition, now famously known as the Blackstone Memorial , bearing the signatures of 413 prominent Americans. This impressive roster included the US Chief Justice, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, several other congressmen, and industrial titans like Rockefeller and Morgan. The petition eloquently argued, 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?” It’s almost a shame that such a clear, if rather simplistic, argument didn’t immediately resolve everything.
In Great Britain
• Main articles: Zionism § British influence , and Christian Zionism in the United Kingdom
By the time of Mandate Palestine , the British struggled to balance sympathies for Jews and Arabs. Some, such as Orde Wingate , fought alongside the Haganah as part of the Special Night Squads .
British Reformationists had been articulating the concept of Jewish restoration as early as the 16th century, and this idea found particularly strong support among the Puritans. While early 19th-century Jewish nationalism was largely met with outright hostility from British Jews , the notion of restoring Jews to Palestine or the Land of Israel began to permeate British public discourse in the 1830s. It’s important to note that not all such attitudes were necessarily benevolent towards the Jews; these sentiments were shaped by a complex interplay of diverse Protestant beliefs, or, in some cases, by a distinctive streak of philo-Semitism prevalent among the classically educated British elite.
At the persistent urging of Lord Shaftesbury , Britain made a rather significant diplomatic move in 1838 by establishing a consulate in Jerusalem . This marked the first official diplomatic appointment to Palestine, a subtle but clear signal of burgeoning interest.
In 1839, the Church of Scotland dispatched a mission of inquiry to assess the condition of Jews in Palestine. This delegation comprised Andrew Bonar , Robert Murray M’Cheyne , Alexander Black, and Alexander Keith . Their subsequent report, widely disseminated, detailed their journey through France, Greece, and Egypt, and then overland from Egypt to Gaza . On their return, they also visited Syria , the Austrian Empire , and several German states. Their primary objective was twofold: to engage with Jewish communities regarding their openness to accepting Christ and, separately, to gauge their preparedness for a return to Israel, as prophesied in the Bible. Alexander Keith later chronicled this journey in his 1844 book, The Land of Israel According to the Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. It was within this very book that Keith coined the now-infamous slogan, “a land without a people for a people without a land,” which gained considerable traction among other Christian Restorationists. In 1844, he revisited Palestine with his son, George Skene Keith (1819–1910), who achieved the distinction of being the first person to photograph the land.
An often-overlooked, yet profoundly important, figure in British support for the restoration of the Jews was William Hechler (1845–1931). This English clergyman of German descent, serving as Chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna , cultivated a close friendship with Theodor Herzl , the secular visionary of modern political Zionism. Hechler’s diplomatic activities were instrumental in assisting Herzl, making him, in a very real sense, the founder of modern Christian Zionism. When the twenty-fifth anniversary of Herzl’s death was commemorated, the editors of the English-language memorial volume aptly described William Hechler as “not only the first, but the most constant and the most indefatigable of Herzl’s followers.” A testament to dedication, or perhaps, a cosmic exhaustion with lesser mortals.
Balfour Declaration
On 2 November 1917, UK Home Secretary Arthur Balfour dispatched a letter to Lord Walter Rothschild , a document that would become known to history as the Balfour Declaration . This rather terse, yet monumentally significant, correspondence famously stated that “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” As Philip Alexander astutely observed, “A crucial ingredient in Balfour’s Zionism [may have been] his Christian belief or, to put it a little more subtly, his Christian formation.” He points to the Canadian historian Donald Lewis’s 2010 monograph, The Origins of Christian Zionism, as the most persuasive advocate of this thesis, a view echoed by a number of other scholars. Indeed, both Lord Balfour and the then British Prime Minister David Lloyd George were demonstrably influenced by Christian Zionism. It’s almost too convenient how deeply held religious convictions can align so perfectly with geopolitical ambitions.
Between World War I and the 1948 Palestine War
In the United States
In the tumultuous decades leading up to the 1948 Palestine war and the eventual establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 , the most prominent and politically engaged American Christian supporters of Zionism were largely from the liberal and mainline Protestant denominations. Their support for the movement often stemmed from motivations entirely separate from esoteric biblical interpretations. These Christian proponents of Zionism perceived Palestine as an urgently needed safe haven for Jews desperately fleeing intensifying persecution in Europe. They frequently believed that their advocacy for Zionism was an integral part of a broader, commendable effort towards interfaith rapprochement . The Pro-Palestine Federation, a Christian pro-Zionist organization founded in 1930, explicitly called for the promotion of “goodwill and esteem between Jews and non-Jews” and simultaneously urged the British government to uphold the terms of its Mandate for Palestine , which, after all, included a pledge of support for the establishment of a Jewish national home.
Amidst the unfolding horrors of World War II and the dawning, grim awareness of the Holocaust , American Jewish Zionists shrewdly coordinated the establishment of two non-Jewish Zionist organizations: the American Palestine Committee and the Christian Council on Palestine. These two entities later merged to form the American Christian Palestine Committee (ACPC). Composed predominantly of liberal and mainline Protestants, the ACPC quickly rose to become the leading American Christian lobby vigorously advocating for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. After Israel’s establishment in 1948, the ACPC, rather unsurprisingly, continued its lobbying efforts. For instance, it actively orchestrated opposition to the United Nations’ proposals to internationalize the city of Jerusalem, which had been unceremoniously divided between Israel and Transjordan following the 1948 War.
During these same years, dispensational premillennialism quietly, yet steadily, gained popularity among conservative American Protestants. Many dispensationalists viewed the Zionist movement as, at the very least, a partial fulfillment of biblical prophecy, or perhaps a modern manifestation of God’s enduring covenantal promises to the Jewish people. In the 1930s, Southern Baptist missionary Jacob Gartenhaus, himself a convert from Judaism, rather boldly asserted that “Zionism is going to win whether anybody likes it or not…To oppose it is to oppose God’s plan.” Such certainty is, if nothing else, admirable. However, for the most part, these deeply held beliefs rarely translated into concrete political action on behalf of the movement during this era. A minor exception was J. Frank Norris, a fundamentalist Baptist who split his time between pulpits in Fort Worth, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. While Norris didn’t organize elaborate lobbying efforts in the manner of the ACPC, he did passionately preach to his followers that it was their Christian duty to support the Zionist cause. He even wrote directly to President Truman in 1947 and 1948, advocating for Zionist claims to Palestine. Norris also maintained a loose coordination with the ACPC, occasionally publishing their materials in his periodical, The Fundamentalist.
After the founding of the State of Israel
The Flag of Israel , flying alongside the Union Flag and the Ulster Banner . In the Protestant Unionist community of Northern Ireland , sympathy for Israel is frequently expressed by communal flag-flying.
In the United States
• See also: Israel–United States relations
In the decades following the establishment of Israel, and particularly after the pivotal 1967 Six-Day War , the most vocal and prominent American Christian supporters of Israel have undeniably emerged from the evangelical wing of American Protestantism . American evangelicalism itself underwent profound transformations around the time of Israel’s birth, with a “new” evangelicalism, championed by figures like Billy Graham , rising to considerable cultural prominence. It was within these “new evangelicals” that the contemporary movement now most commonly associated with the term “Christian Zionism” truly took root and flourished.
Many of these new evangelicals either adhered to dispensationalism or, at the very least, embraced beliefs heavily inspired by it. Most notably, they subscribed to the dispensationalist understanding that Jews retained a special, enduring covenantal relationship with God. Crucially, for the development of Christian Zionism as a tangible movement, American evangelical leaders began to cultivate direct relationships with both American and Israeli Jews. They also started forging institutional connections with Jewish organizations and, perhaps most significantly, with the Israeli government itself. Central to the establishment of these relationships was a highly motivated cadre of American evangelicals residing in Israel, chief among them G. Douglas Young, the founder of the American Institute of Holy Land Studies. Through his institute, Young dedicated himself to convincing American Christians that supporting the Jewish people and the Jewish state was, in fact, their biblical duty. He also served as an indispensable intermediary for Jewish organizations and Israeli government agencies actively seeking to build bridges with American evangelicals. Such focused activism provided the essential groundwork for Christian Zionism to evolve from a theological concept into a robust, organized movement.
Christian Zionist Pastor John Hagee with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely in November 2018
Such activism, it should be noted, was in many ways distinct from the explosion of prophetic speculation about the State of Israel that followed the 1967 Six-Day War —though both certainly shared common theological and hermeneutical antecedents. This later wave of activism notably includes the wildly popular writings of the American dispensationalist evangelical writer Hal Lindsey . His works meticulously attempted to integrate Israel into a dispensationalist end-time narrative. In The Late Great Planet Earth , for example, Lindsey famously anticipated that, in accordance with Ezekiel 39:6–8, Jews would heroically repel a “Russian ” invasion before recognizing their miraculous deliverance and, finally, converting to Christianity. Their lives, he predicted, would be spared the great fire that God would unleash upon Russia and the people of the “coastlands.” And, in a detail drawn from Zechariah 13:8–9, one-third of the converted Jews would be spared. Lindsey, it should be mentioned, has faced considerable critique for his highly specific, and frequently failed, predictions, even from those who share his broader eschatological framework, such as John MacArthur . Predicting the apocalypse is a tricky business, it seems.
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• v • t • e
Examples of Protestant leaders who seamlessly blended political conservatism with Christian Zionism include Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson , both towering figures on the Christian Right throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1981, Falwell, with characteristic declarative zeal, proclaimed: “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.” This rather convenient interpretation finds its scriptural backing in a passage from the blessing of Isaac at Genesis 27:29, which states, “Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed.” A powerful, if somewhat selective, reading, don’t you think?
Martin Luther King Jr. has also been cited as a Christian supporter of Israel and Zionism, adding a rather different dimension to the discussion.
It’s a rather staggering figure: tens of millions of Americans belong to Evangelical churches that, for deeply religious reasons, offer unwavering support to Israel. And, as if that weren’t enough, there are tens of millions more Christians who self-identify as Christian Zionists beyond the borders of the United States. The sheer scale is, if nothing else, impressive.
The largest Zionist organization currently operating, Christians United for Israel , boasts a staggering 10 million members and is helmed by John Hagee . One can only imagine the logistical nightmare of coordinating that many fervent believers.
According to a Pew Research survey conducted in 2003, a significant majority of Evangelical Christians in the U.S.—over 60%—and approximately 50% of Black Americans agreed that the existence of Israel was a direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The survey also revealed that the Bible itself was cited as the primary influence for supporting Israel by about 55% of respondents, a figure eleven times higher than those who attributed their support to their church. This suggests a direct, personal interpretation, bypassing institutional filters.
A subsequent LifeWay poll conducted in the United States in 2017 further solidified these findings. It found that a remarkable 80% of evangelical Christians believed that the creation of Israel in 1948 represented a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, a critical event that would hasten Christ’s return. Moreover, more than 50% of Evangelical Christians explicitly stated that they supported Israel because it was deemed crucial for the fulfillment of prophecy.
However, the landscape appears to be shifting, even in the realm of unwavering faith. In 2025, Shibley Telhami , an American professor who diligently monitors public perception of Israel, reported a notable decline in sympathy. Among American evangelicals aged 18-34, only 32% expressed sympathy for Israel, a figure strikingly more than 30 points below that of the older generation. Perhaps the younger generation is less inclined to accept prophecies at face value, or maybe they’re just tired of waiting for the end times.
In Israel
The government of Israel, ever pragmatic, has offered official encouragement to Christian Zionism, going so far as to permit the establishment of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem in 1980. This embassy has been instrumental in raising substantial funds to help finance Jewish immigration to Israel, particularly from the former Soviet Union . Furthermore, it has actively assisted Zionist groups in establishing Jewish settlements in the controversial West Bank . It’s a rather transactional relationship, some might observe: support, funds, and settlement expansion, all wrapped in a veneer of shared prophecy.
The Third International Christian Zionist Congress, convened in Jerusalem in February 1996, issued a proclamation that, to say the least, left little room for ambiguity. It declared:
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 received a significant, almost sensational, boost around the year 2000 with the release of the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins . These wildly successful novels are meticulously constructed around the prophetic role of Israel in the apocalyptic end times, bringing complex theological concepts to a mass audience in an easily digestible, if somewhat terrifying, format.
Critical views within Christianity
• See also: Anti-Zionism § Christian anti-Zionism , and Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism
General
For the vast majority of Christians, a concept as abstract as “the City of God ” (as found in Psalm 46:4, Septuagint : ΜΕ:5: “ἡ πόλις τοῦ Θεοῦ”, romanized: “hē pólis toũ theoũ”, lit. ’the city of God’) has absolutely nothing to do with prosaic matters like Jewish immigration to Israel or the perpetually messy Israeli–Palestinian conflict . Instead, for many, it’s a theological concept that found its roots in the sack of Rome (410) and is central to the teaching of Saint Augustine of Hippo , predicting a spiritual, not earthly, reality. Eastern Orthodox Christians , for example, have historically taken a rather detached view of Zionism in any overtly political form. As one observer noted, “[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.” Their focus, rather than on a worldly kingdom or an earthly Jerusalem, is firmly fixed on the heavenly Jerusalem , the eternal kingdom of the triune God , as eloquently captured by Hesychius of Jerusalem :
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.
Nor did traditional Catholic Christians historically lend their support to Christian Zionism; it’s generally considered a marginal, post-World War II phenomenon within Catholicism. Following the devastating events of the Gaza genocide , some Christians, deeply critical of Christian Zionism, even published a book vehemently decrying the arguments of those who either justified Israel’s assault or maintained a complicit silence. It seems even divine mandates have their limits when confronted with human suffering.
Catholic Church
• Main article: Catholicism and Zionism
Pope Pius X : Theodor Herzl had an audience with Pope Pius X in 1904. The Pope explained that the Catholic Church could not theologically endorse Zionism and control of Holy Places in Jerusalem.
The Catholic Church —a rather significant entity, being the largest branch of Christians globally—has never officially endorsed the theological premises underpinning millennialist Restorationism, particularly as it has been propounded by dispensationalists . Historically, it has generally expressed strong reservations, if not outright opposition, to the prospect of Jewish governance over the Holy Places in Palestine, which it deems of paramount importance to Christianity. Theodor Herzl , the visionary but decidedly secular Jewish founder of modern political Zionism, secured an audience in the Vatican with Pope Pius X in 1904. This meeting, arranged by the Austrian Count Berthold Dominik Lippay, was an attempt to ascertain the official position of the Catholic Church on Herzl’s audacious project for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Pope Pius X, with an almost weary pragmatism, 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 the life of Jesus Christ . As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The Jews have not recognized our Lord , therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people.” After Herzl meticulously clarified that his rationale for the creation of a Jewish state was not a religious statement but rather a secular interest in land for national independence, Pope Pius X famously, and perhaps somewhat dismissively, replied, “Does it have to be Gerusalemme ?”
Beyond its outright rejection of a theological basis for Zionism, a paramount concern for the Holy See was the ultimate fate of the Holy Places associated with Jesus Christ, should they ever fall under the governance of such a state. By the mid-19th century, relations between the Vatican and Istanbul were, remarkably, quite collegial. The Muslim Ottomans, at that time, permitted the Vatican to operate among the Arab Catholics in Palestine and allowed relatively free access to the Holy Places, making the existing status quo quite workable for them. Following the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine , the Vatican formally advocated for Jerusalem to be designated as a separate “international city ,” a position articulated in the encyclical Redemptoris nostri cruciatus . Until the Second Vatican Council , the Catholic Church was remarkably forthright in its international lobbying efforts against Zionism, with even the Catholic Church in the United States actively participating, particularly as the United States had become Zionism’s most powerful international endorser. The State of Israel and the Holy See only established full diplomatic relations in 1993, a move that was explicitly a recognition of political and civic reality, not a theological endorsement. In the 20th and 21st centuries, a handful of Catholic theologians, such as André Villeneuve, Gary Anderson, and Gavin D’Costa , have indeed written in support of Christian Zionism, framing it as a sign of God’s fidelity, though these views remain a distinct minority within the broader Catholic tradition.
Protestantism
Political Zionism has also, rather predictably, faced its share of criticism from within Protestant circles:
[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.
The La Grange Declarations of 1979 and 1981 were issued by a diverse coalition of (predominantly Protestant) Christian leaders, all united in their critique of Christian Zionism. These declarations vociferously advocated for a fundamental shift in both church and governmental positions concerning Israel and Palestine. The 1979 statement, meticulously drafted at a conference held in LaGrange, Illinois , sharply criticized Israel’s territorial actions, unequivocally recognized the right of Palestinians to self-determination, and called for the U.S. to terminate its unconditional financial and military backing of Israel. Notably, however, it stopped short of denying Israel’s fundamental legitimacy. The 1981 declaration, in contrast, adopted a far more assertive stance. It directly challenged the religious justifications underpinning Israel’s claims to the land, demanded a complete cessation of U.S. military aid to Israel, and openly denounced American policies that sought to restrict the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Both declarations powerfully signaled the emergence of a growing Christian movement that actively sought to counter prevalent pro-Israel evangelical perspectives and to draw urgent attention to Palestinian political and humanitarian concerns.
In the United States, the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches approved a resolution in November 2007 for further study, a resolution which rather pointedly 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, rather bluntly declared “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.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement. The Mennonite Central Committee has also voiced strong criticism of Christian Zionism, highlighting a particularly troubling trend: in some churches influenced by this ideology, “congregations ‘adopt’ illegal Israeli settlements, sending funds to bolster the defense of these armed colonies.” As of September 2007, a number of prominent churches in the U.S. had publicly criticized Christian Zionism, including the United Methodist Church , the Presbyterian Church (USA) , and the United Church of Christ . It seems the consensus is far from universal.
The 2009 film With God On Our Side , a collaboration between Porter Speakman Jr. and Kevin Miller (the latter also co-created the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed ), offers a critical examination of both the underlying theology of Christian Zionism and its perceived detrimental influence on the church, all presented from an internal Christian perspective.
In the United Kingdom , the Church of Scotland , despite its own complex Restorationist history, has recently adopted a critical stance towards Zionism in general. This shift, however, was met with strong condemnation over the perceived injustices within its 2013 report, “The Inheritance of Abraham: A Report on the Promised Land ,” which ultimately led to its republication in a significantly briefer, perhaps more palatable, form. On 9 July 2012, the Anglican General Synod passed a motion affirming its support for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). This move, predictably, drew sharp criticism from the Board of Deputies, which claimed the Synod “has chosen to promote an inflammatory and partisan programme.” The advocated group, EAPPI, simultaneously faced criticism for its public call for sit-ins at Israeli Embassies, its involvement in hacking government websites to propagate its message, and its overt support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. It seems neutrality is a rare commodity in this particular discourse.
Biblical interpretations
Some Christian Zionists approach prophetic texts with a rather literal interpretation, seeing them as meticulously detailed blueprints for inevitable future events. These events, in their view, primarily concern Israel (understood as the literal descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob ) or Judah (interpreted as the remaining faithful adherents of Judaism). These prophecies, they argue, necessitate the physical presence of a Jewish state in the Holy Land , specifically the central portion of the lands promised to the Biblical patriarch Abraham in the ancient Covenant of the pieces . This requirement is often seen as being directly fulfilled by the contemporary state of Israel , making it, in their eyes, a living prophecy.
Other doctrines
Christian schools of doctrine that incorporate other teachings to temper or counterbalance these literalist interpretations, or those that interpret them through distinctly different eschatological theories, tend to be significantly less receptive to Christian Zionism. Among the many texts that offer a counter-narrative, or at least a more nuanced perspective, are the words attributed to Jesus himself, as found, for instance, in Matthew 21:43: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.” This particular verse, depending on one’s theological lens, can be seen as a rather pointed re-evaluation of divine favor.
In his work, Defending Christian Zionism, David Pawson , a prominent Christian Zionist in the United Kingdom , articulates the case that the return of Jews to the Holy Land is a direct fulfillment of scriptural prophecy. He contends that Christians are therefore obligated to support the existence of the Jewish State (though he prudently adds “not unconditionally its actions”) on theological grounds. Pawson also argues that prophecies specifically concerning Israel relate exclusively to Israel, and not to the church, thereby rejecting what is often termed “replacement theology.” However, he is notably critical of Dispensationalism , which he describes as a largely American movement that, despite holding similar views on Israel, often diverges in other theological areas. Pawson was prompted to write this book in direct response to the work of Stephen Sizer , an evangelical Christian who, rather vehemently, rejects Christian Zionism. The theological debates are, it seems, as intricate as they are passionate.
See also
• Center for Jewish–Christian Understanding and Cooperation
• Christian–Jewish reconciliation
• Christian views on the Old Covenant
• Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites
• International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
• Jewish views on religious pluralism
Notes
• ^ According to Dick Wursten, a Doctor of Theology from Belgium, in his Clément Marot and Religion (2010), Bucer, a prominent Reformation Christian Hebraist , has been categorised as a Judaizer due to his reliance on later rabbinical Jewish commentators, external to Christian tradition, for his Commentary on the Psalter (1529). In particular, for his millennialism and views for a future Messianic Age , he drew from Abraham ibn Ezra and David Kimhi , from whom he shared their sense of " derek ha peshat " (an exegesis which prefers a literalist historicalism above allegorical or moral speculation) but syncretised this with Christian elements which would include a Jewish conversion in the end times. In addition to this he referenced the medieval Talmudic commentator Shlomo Yitzchai, also known as Rashi , though drew from him to a lesser extent than the others. Bucer owned a copy of the Mikraot Gedolot —a version of the Hebrew Bible preferred by medieval Rabbinic Judaism —and drew from it freely.
References
•
• ^ a b c d e Ben Barka, Mokhtar (December 2012). “The New Christian Right’s relations with Israel and with the American Jews: the mid-1970s onward”. E-Rea. 10 (1). Aix-en-Provence and Marseille : Centre pour l’Édition Électronique Ouverte on behalf of Aix-Marseille University . doi :10.4000/erea.2753. ISSN 1638-1718. S2CID 191364375. The Jews have cause to worry because Evangelicals are active on both fronts, promoting support for the State of Israel , and evangelizing the Jews at the same time. While the Israeli government eagerly accepts public support of Evangelicals and courts the leaders of the New 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 and Israel , 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 and the need to accept Jesus as a Savior . In this respect, Gershom Gorenberg lamented the fact that “people who see Israel through the lens of Endtimes 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.”
• ^ a b • Sharif, Regina (1983). Non-Jewish Zionism: Its Roots in Western History (translated in Arabic by Ahmad Abdullah Abdul Aziz (1985)). London, UK: Zed Books . ISBN 978-0-86232-151-2 . Archived from the original on July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019. The Zionist idea itself has its organic roots deep within the European imperialist movement . […] England of the seventeenth century was, in Carlyle’s own words, an England of ‘awful devout Puritanism ’. [Note: Thomas Carlyle , Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches (Boston, 1884), 1:32] Puritanism meant the invasion of Hebraism as transmitted through the Old Testament , but distorted by the effort to apply the ethics, laws and manners of the Old Testament Hebrew people , a people that lived in the Middle East more than two thousand years earlier, to post-Renaissance England . [Note: In the words of Matthew 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 the Christian Holy Land , unfortunately lost to Islam . But in seventeenth century England it came to be regarded as the homeland of the Jews , whose return to Palestine was, according to Old Testament prophecies, inevitable for the coming of the Second 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 of Theodor Herzl and other prominent Jewish nationalists, as Regina Sharif has so persuasively argued, there had already existed a significant non-Jewish Zionist movement within Europe . […] [W]hen an influential U.S. evangelist named William 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.’
• ^ a b • Weber, Timothy (April 1987), Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism, 1875–1982, Texas: Univ of Chicago Press, ISBN 9780226877327
• ^ Christian Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, p. 131, Wesley Haddon Brown, Peter F. Penner, 2008, 11, “Western Restorationism and Christian Zionism: Germany as a Case Study
• ^ Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1993
• ^ a b • Shapira, Anita (2014). Israel: A History (illustrated, reprint). The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies. Translated by Berris, Anthony. Lebanon, NH : Brandeis University Press . p. 15. ISBN 978-1-61168-618-0 . [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.
• ^ a b c d e f g • Lewis, Donald (2 January 2014). The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury And Evangelical Support For A Jewish Homeland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 380. ISBN 9781107631960 .
• ^ a b • Hillel Halkin (January 2007). “Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren”. Commentary magazine . Retrieved 1 November 2013.
• ^ Stephen Spector, Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism, Oxford University Press 2009 • ISBN 978-0-195-36802-4 p.vii: “The alliance that many born-again Christians offer to Israel and the Jewish people is astonishing to many Jews. Bible-believing Christians are the last people whom Jews expect to love, defend, and even idealize them. Polls have shown just how much the Jewish community distrusts them. In 2004, when asked to give a ’thermometer rating’ of their feelings towards groups of people… Jews gave evangelicals a frigid average rating of twenty-four degrees. More than one-third of them (37%) rated evangelicals at zero!”
• ^ a b c d e f g h • Thomas D. Ice (May 2009). “Lovers of Zion: A History of Christian Zionism”. Liberty University . Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ • Almen, Lowell G.; Madden, Denis J. (5 December 2023). Faithful Teaching: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue XII. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-5064-9560-6 . In light of the history of supersessionism found in Catholic and Lutheran writers
• ^ • “Revisiting Puritan Names in England, 1550–1600” (PDF). Durham University. Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ a b • Murray, Iain (June 1971). the Puritan Hope. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth. p. 326. ISBN 9780851512471 .
• ^ • Rutherford, Samuel (June 1973). Letters of Samuel Rutherford. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth. pp. 208. ISBN 9780851511634 .
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• ^ Owen, John “Complete Works”, Vol.17. Exercitation 18, p. 560.
• ^ Crome (2014). p.179, 184–188
• ^ Smith (2013). p.141
• ^ • “The History of Christian Zionism: The roots of the movement”. ICEJ. Archived from the original on 2020-10-21. Retrieved 2020-10-24. Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ John Christian Laursen, Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture Volume IV: Continental Millenarians: Protestants, Catholics, Heretics (2013), p. 80
• ^ a b R.H. Popkin, Jewish Christians and Christian Jews: From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (2013), p. 62
• ^ • Nadler, Steven (2007). Spinoza (in Dutch). Translated by van Zetten, Frans. Amsterdam: Olympus, Amstel Publishers. pp. 205, 208, 221, 235, 246, 270, 280, 284, 317, 323–325. ISBN 978-90-467-0021-1 .
• ^ • “The Jews of Rhode Island” (PDF). Ellen Smith. Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ • Wise, Stephen S. (1946). “America and Zionism: Statement to The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry”. World Affairs. 109 (1). Stephen S. Wise: 10–17. JSTOR 20664249. Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ • Lappin, Yaakov (22 June 2007). “The first Christian Zionist? Secret writings by Isaac Newton reveal his views on the Jewish return to Israel”. Ynetnews. Ynet News. Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ a b c • Heller, Aron (19 February 2012). “Sir Isaac’s Jewish writings enter the 21st century”. The Times of Israel. Times of Israel. Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ • Popkin, Richard H. (1986). “Some new Light on the Roots of Spinoza’s Science of Bible Study”. Spinoza and the Sciences. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. Vol. 91. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science. pp. 171–188. doi :10.1007/978-94-009-4514-2_7. ISBN 978-94-010-8511-3 . Retrieved on 20 March 2018.
• ^ • " A Wesley ‘Zionist’ Hymn? Charles Wesley’s hymn, published in 1762 and included by John Wesley in his 1780 hymn-book, A Collection of Hymns for the use of the People called Methodists” . The Wesley Fellowship. 2010-07-01. Archived from the original on 2014-07-17. Retrieved 2014-07-05.
• ^ • “Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Deuteronomy 30 verse 5, by John Gill”. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
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• ^ Stephen J. Stein, editor, “Introduction,” Jonathan Edwards, Works, Apocalyptic Writings, V. 8, pp.17–19.
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• ^ • Ben David, Lenny (2