View source for Christian Zionism

{{Short description|Political and religious ideology}}
{{About||Christians who belong to Zionist denominations in southern Africa|Zionist churches}}
{{redirect|Christian restorationism|other uses|Restorationism (disambiguation)}}
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{{Lead rewrite|date=August 2025|reason=Needs to summarise all of the body sections and reflect the weight in the body of different elements.}}
{{Zionism sidebar|Variants}}

'''Christian Zionism''' is a political and religious ideology that, in a [[Christianity and Judaism|Christian context]], espouses the return of the [[Jews|Jewish people]] to the [[Holy Land]].<ref name="e-Rea 2012">{{cite journal |author-last=Ben Barka |author-first=Mokhtar |date=December 2012 |title=The New Christian Right's relations with Israel and with the American Jews: the mid-1970s onward |journal=E-Rea |location=[[Aix-en-Provence]] and [[Marseille]] |publisher=[[Centre pour l'Édition Électronique Ouverte]] on behalf of [[Aix-Marseille University]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |doi=10.4000/erea.2753 |doi-access=free |issn=1638-1718 |s2cid=191364375 |quote=The Jews have cause to worry because [[Evangelicalism|Evangelicals]] are active on both fronts, promoting support for the State of Israel, and [[Proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews|evangelizing the Jews]] at the same time. While the [[Israeli government]] eagerly accepts public support of Evangelicals and courts the leaders of the [[Christian right|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 Judaism|“Messianic Jewish” movement]], whose concern is to promote awareness among the Jews as to God’s real plans for humanity and [[Conversion to Christianity|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 [[Eschatology|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.”}}</ref> Likewise, it holds that the [[founding of Israel]] in 1948 was in accordance with [[Bible prophecy|biblical prophecies]] transmitted through the [[Old Testament]]: that the re-establishment of [[History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel|Jewish sovereignty in the Levant]]—the eschatological "[[Gathering of Israel]]"—is a prerequisite for the [[Second Coming|Second Coming of Jesus Christ]].<ref name="e-Rea 2012"/><ref name="sharif" /><ref name="weber" /> The term began to be used in the mid-20th century, in place of '''Christian restorationism''', as proponents of the ideology rallied behind [[Zionism|Zionists]] in support of a [[Homeland for the Jewish people|Jewish national homeland]].<ref name="e-Rea 2012"/><ref>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</ref><ref>Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1993</ref>

An expectation of Jewish restoration among Christians is rooted in 17th-century English [[Puritan]] thought.<ref name="Paas2020"/><ref name="sharif">{{cite book |last=Sharif |first=Regina |title=Non-Jewish Zionism: Its Roots in Western History |url=https://www.palestine-studies.org/ar/node/229833 |year=1983 |type=translated in Arabic by [[:ar:قائمة عناوين سلسلة عالم المعرفة#01+|Ahmad Abdullah Abdul Aziz]] (1985) |publisher=[[Zed Books]] |location=London, UK |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701140241/https://www.palestine-studies.org/ar/node/229833 |archive-date=July 1, 2019 |url-status=live |access-date=July 1, 2019 |isbn=978-0-86232-151-2 |quote=The Zionist idea itself has its organic roots deep within the [[European imperialism|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 [[Hebrews|Hebrew people]], a people that lived in the Middle East more than two thousand years earlier, to [[17th-century England|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 (region)|Palestine]] had up until then been remembered as the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Holy Land]], unfortunately [[Muslim conquest of the Levant|lost to Islam]]. But in seventeenth century England it came to be regarded as the [[Homeland for the Jewish people|homeland of the Jews]], whose return to Palestine was, according to Old Testament prophecies, inevitable for the coming of the [[Second Advent of Christ]].}}{{,}}{{cite book |last=Samman |first=Khaldoun |title=Clash of Modernities: The Making and Unmaking of the New Jew, Turk, and Arab and the Islamist Challenge |chapter=The Anti-Semitic Gaze and the Making of the New Jew |year=2015 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[Abingdon, Oxon]], [[New York, NY]] |isbn=978-1-317-26235-0 |pages=49–92 |chapter-url={{google books|7zoeCwAAQBAJ|page=77|plainurl=yes}} |quote=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 [[Zionism#Non-Jewish support|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.{{'-}}}}</ref> Christian pro-Zionist ideals emerged in that context.<ref name="Paas2020">{{cite book |last1=Paas |first1=Steven |title=Christian Zionism Examined, Second Edition: A Review of Ideas on Israel, the Church, and the Kingdom |date=15 January 2020 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-7252-5454-1 |page=59 |language=en |quote=In their thought physical Israel continued to have a place in God's plan of salvation, due to His covenantal faithfulness. Consequently, probably beginning with Thomas Brightman, many Puritans expected that the Jews would return to their old geographical habitat in the Middle East. Later Puritans, like Samuel Rutherford, Joseph Mede, and Robert Maton, expected reconciliation of Israel with Christ and the flourishing of the Church after Christ's return.}}</ref> Contemporary Israeli historian [[Anita Shapira]] suggests that England's Zionist [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Protestants]] "passed this notion on to Jewish circles" around the 1840s.<ref name="shapira">{{cite book |last=Shapira |first=Anita |author-link=Anita Shapira |translator-last=Berris |translator-first=Anthony |title=Israel: A History |series=The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies |type=illustrated, reprint |publisher=[[Brandeis University Press]] |location=[[Lebanon, NH]] |page=15 |url={{google books|KHWxoAEACAAJ|plainurl=yes}} |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-61168-618-0 |quote=[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.}}</ref> 

While supporting a mass Jewish return to the [[Land of Israel]], Christian Zionism asserts a parallel idea that the returnees ought to be encouraged to [[Conversion of the Jews (future event)|reject Judaism and adopt Christianity]] as a means of fulfilling [[Bible prophecy|biblical prophecies]].<ref name="e-Rea 2012" /><ref name="lewis" /><ref name="com-mag">{{cite web|author=Hillel Halkin|title=Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren|url=http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/power-faith-and-fantasy-by-michael-b-oren/|work=[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary magazine]]|date=January 2007 |access-date=1 November 2013}}</ref> Polling and academic research have suggested a trend of widespread distrust among Jews towards the motives of Evangelical Protestants, who have been promoting support for the [[State of Israel]] and [[Proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews|evangelizing the Jews]] at the same time.<ref name="e-Rea 2012"/><ref>Stephen Spector, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ggLWBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT5 ''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!"</ref>

==History before the 20th century==
{{Further|History of Zionism|Proto-Zionism}}

===Origins in Calvinistic millennialism===
{{Main|History of the Puritans|Millennialism|Christian Zionism in England and Scotland}}
[[File:Thomas Brightman.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Brightman]], an English Puritan, published ''Shall They Return to Jerusalem Again?'' in 1615. This was one of the earliest [[Restoration Movement|Restorationist]] works.]]

The first wave of Protestant leaders, including [[Martin Luther]] and [[John Calvin]], did not mention any special [[Christian eschatology|eschatological]] views which included a return of the Jews to Palestine (converted to Christianity or otherwise).<ref name="lovers"/> More generally, Luther had hoped that the Jews would convert to his brand of Christianity once he had broken with the [[Catholic Church]], but later [[On the Jews and Their Lies|he harshly denounced Jews]]. Like the Catholic Church and the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran Church]] and the [[Calvinism|Reformed Church]] saw the Christian Church as being the "spiritual Israel" and considered faithful Christians the exclusive "[[people of God]]"—those with whom God had entered into a covenant through [[Jesus Christ]]—assigning no special privileges or role to persons of Jewish descent. (In later times this has been called [[supersessionism]].)<ref name="AlmenMadden2023">{{cite book |last1=Almen |first1=Lowell G. |last2=Madden |first2=Denis J. |title=Faithful Teaching: Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue XII |date=5 December 2023 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=978-1-5064-9560-6 |language=en |quote=In light of the history of supersessionism found in Catholic and Lutheran writers}}</ref><ref name="lovers"/> 

The Protestant focus on ''[[sola scriptura]]'' and the wider distribution of the [[Bible]] across Europe in the vernacular languages, however, allowed various [[Radical Reformation|radical protestants]] to interpret the scriptures in their own ways, in a manner which was not entirely reflective of either medieval [[Catholic tradition]], or, the views of the [[Magisterial Protestant]] leaders themselves.<ref name="lovers"/> Coupled with this was a general cultural [[Hebraism|Hebraising]] among more radical Protestants, as they saw the [[Calendar of saints|veneration of saints]] as [[idolatry]] and placed more focus on the [[Patriarchs (Bible)|biblical patriarchs]] and [[Prophets of Christianity|prophets]] of the [[Old Testament]], often naming their children Abraham, Cain, Jeremiah, Zachary, Daniel, Sampson, and the like.<ref>{{cite web |title=Revisiting Puritan Names in England, 1550–1600|url=https://community.dur.ac.uk/s.l.uckelman/slides/snsbi2018.pdf|publisher=Durham University}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref>

The anticipation of Jews returning to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] and making it their national homeland was first heard among self-identified Christian groups in the 1580s, particularly those aligned with [[Puritanism]], a Reformed branch of Christianity that gave rise to the [[Congregationalist]] denomination.<ref name="Paas2020"/><ref name=pur>{{cite book |last=Murray |first=Iain |title=the Puritan Hope |publisher=Banner of Truth |date=June 1971 |location=Edinburgh |pages=326 |isbn=9780851512471}}</ref><ref name="lovers">{{cite web |author=[[Thomas D. Ice]]|title=Lovers of Zion: A History of Christian Zionism|url=https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=pretrib_arch|publisher=[[Liberty University]]|date=May 2009}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref> While [[Edward VI of England]] was the Tudor child-monarch of [[England]], a Calvinist-leaning Regency ''de facto'' ruled. This allowed Continental Protestants such as [[Martin Bucer]] and [[Peter Martyr Vermigli]] to teach at the prestigious universities of Cambridge and Oxford.<ref name="lovers"/> These two men forwarded a [[biblical exegesis]] which included an important role for the Jews, converted to Christianity, in the [[Eschatology|end times]].<ref name="lovers"/><ref group ="nb">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.</ref> Early versions of the Bible endorsed by the English monarchy and the [[Anglican Church]] included the ''[[Great Bible]]'' and the ''[[Bishops' Bible]]''. However, a number of English [[Puritans]] and [[Scottish people|Lowland Scots]] [[Presbyterians]] viewed these (along with Episcopalianism and the establishment "[[Magisterial Reformation|Protestantism of the princes]]"), in general, as too "[[Romanism|Romanist]]." In response, a number of these Puritans and Presbyterians spent some time in [[Geneva]] in the 1560s under Calvin's successor [[Theodore Beza]] and developed a translation of the Bible called the ''[[Geneva Bible]]'', which contained footnotes in reference to the ''[[Book of Romans]]'', specifically claiming that the Jews would be converted to Christianity in the end times and reorientating attention to Palestine as a central theatre.<ref name="lovers"/> This view came to be taken up strongly by English Puritans (such as [[Francis Kett]], [[Edmund Bunny]], [[Thomas Draxe]], [[Thomas Brightman]], [[Joseph Mede]], [[William Perkins (theologian)|William Perkins]], [[Richard Sibbes]], [[Thomas Goodwin]], [[William Strong (priest, died 1654)|William Strong]], [[William Bridge]], [[Henry Finch (died 1625)|Henry Finch]], [[John Owen (theologian)|John Owen]] and [[Giles Fletcher]]), Lowland Scots Presbyterians (such as [[George Gillespie]], [[Robert Baillie]] and [[Samuel Rutherford]]),<ref name=rutherford>{{cite book |last=Rutherford|first=Samuel |title=Letters of Samuel Rutherford|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofsamuelr0000ruth|url-access=registration|publisher=Banner of Truth |date=June 1973 |location=Edinburgh |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lettersofsamuelr0000ruth/page/208 208] |isbn=9780851511634}}</ref> and even some Continental Protestants (such as [[Oliger Paulli]], [[Isaac Vossius]], [[Hugo Grotius]], [[Gerhard Vossius]] and [[David Blondel]]).<ref name="lovers"/>

[[File:Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.jpg|thumb|left|The Puritans, once a "fringe" faction, came to power under [[Oliver Cromwell]] during the Commonwealth. Several of his closest advisors held Philo-Semitic millennialist religious views.]]
During the late Tudor and early Stuart period, these Puritans remained outsiders in England and bitterly opposed the [[Laudian]]-dominated Anglican Church (though the Presbyterians, who held very similar views, had established the [[Church of Scotland]] as the largest "[[Kirk]]" in Scotland). With the [[English Civil War]], the Puritans filled the ranks of the [[Roundheads|Parliamentarians]] and the [[New Model Army]]. Under the leadership of [[Oliver Cromwell]] they were victorious, executed [[Charles I of England]] and gained complete state power, establishing the [[Commonwealth of England]] between 1649 and 1660.<ref name="cz"/> The [[Philo-Semitic]] [[millennialist]] undercurrent came to have a direct influence on politics. A number of Cromwell's close advisors, such as [[John Dury]], [[John Sadler (Town Clerk of London)|John Sadler]] and [[Hugh Peter]], came into contact with [[History of the Jews in the Netherlands|Dutch-based Jews]] such as [[Menasseh ben Israel]] and advocated [[Resettlement of the Jews in England|Jewish resettlement in England]] (they had been banned from the country since the 13th century). Sadler, Cromwell's secretary, even argued that the British were one of the [[Lost Tribes of Israel]] in his pamphlet ''The Rights of the Kingdom'' (1649) and thus kindred to the Jews, initiating [[British Israelism]]. Other Puritans such as [[Jeremiah Burroughs]], [[Peter Bulkley]], [[John Fenwicke]] and [[John Cotton (minister)|John Cotton]],<ref name=owen>Owen, John "Complete Works", Vol.17. Exercitation 18, p. 560.</ref> some of whom lived in the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], saw Jewish re-entry to England as a step on the path to their eventual return to Palestine (all tied up within a millennialist eschatology, which would hasten the [[Second Coming]] of Jesus Christ and thus the [[final judgement]]).<ref>Crome (2014). p.179, 184–188</ref> Johanna and Ebenezer Cartwright, two Baptists who had spent time in [[Amsterdam]], held the same view and issued the original petition to [[Thomas Fairfax]]'s Council of War in January 1649 for Jewish readmission:<ref>Smith (2013). p.141</ref> the petition hoped, "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."<ref name="cz">{{cite web |title=Christian Zionist Hall of Fame|url=https://www.israelanswers.com/page/christian_zionist_hall_of_fame|publisher=Israel Answers}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref> Their ''de facto'' toleration in England was informally achieved by 1655 to 1656 and was not rolled back after [[Stuart Restoration|the Restoration]].

A prominent French-born figure [[Isaac La Peyrère]], who was nominally a [[Huguenot]] Calvinist, but came from a Portuguese [[New Christian]] (converted [[Sephardic Jewish]]) family was also a significant 17th century progenitor, with influence on both sides of the [[English Channel]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The History of Christian Zionism: The roots of the movement|url=https://uk.icej.org/media/history-christian-zionism|publisher=ICEJ|access-date=2020-10-24|archive-date=2020-10-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021194752/https://uk.icej.org/media/history-christian-zionism|url-status=dead}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref><ref name="cz"/>  La Peyrère in his millennialist work ''Du rappel des juifs'' (1643) wrote about a Jewish return to Palestine, predicted the [[Third Temple|building of the Third Temple]] and [[Jerusalem]] playing the most powerful role in world governance: all working towards the Second Coming.<ref name="cz"/> La Peyrère closely followed the developments of Oliver Cromwell's Dissenter regime and dreamed of overthrowing [[Louis XIV of France]] and replacing him with the [[Louis, Grand Condé|Prince of Condé]] (who he worked for as a secretary) as part of a millennialist proto-Zionist messianic project.<ref>John Christian Laursen, ''Millenarianism and Messianism in Early Modern European Culture Volume IV: Continental Millenarians: Protestants, Catholics, Heretics'' (2013), p. 80</ref> After the publication of La Peyrère's book the Amsterdam-based Menasseh Ben Israel informed his friend, [[Petrus Serrarius]] (a close associate of John Dury), about the importance of the theories, showing an early interplay between 17th century Jewish and Protestant proto-Zionism.<ref name="pop">R.H. Popkin, ''Jewish Christians and Christian Jews: From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment'' (2013), p. 62</ref> Other Continental Protestant millennialists enthused by La Peyrère's theories were the Germans [[Abraham von Franckenberg]] (a student of the [[Kabbalah]]) and Paul Felgenhauer.<ref name="pop"/> Menasseh Ben Israel himself would author ''The Hope of Israel'' in 1652. Serrarius ended up being the main supporter among Protestants in Amsterdam of the message that [[Sabbatai Zevi]] was the [[Messiah]], as proclaimed by [[Nathan of Gaza]] (his followers, the [[Sabbateans]], were based in the [[Ottoman Empire]] but he had significant support throughout the [[Jewish diaspora]]).<ref name="Nadler 2007">{{Cite book |last=Nadler |first=Steven |translator-last1=van Zetten |translator-first1=Frans |date=2007 |title=Spinoza |publisher=Olympus, Amstel Publishers |place=Amsterdam |isbn=978-90-467-0021-1 |pages=205, 208, 221, 235, 246, 270, 280, 284, 317, 323–325 |language=nl }}</ref>

Although removed from power in England itself, the millennialist [[Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)|Puritans who had moved to New England]] continued to have a deeper cultural legacy in society. As well as John Cotton, [[Increase Mather]], one of the early Presidents of [[Harvard University|Harvard College]] was a strong proponent of the restoration of the Jews to Palestine.<ref name=pur/><ref name="cz"/> An author of numerous works, his most notable in this regard was ''The Mystery of Israel's Salvation'' (1669).<ref name="cz"/> [[Roger Williams]], the Puritan proponent of [[religious liberty]] (including for Jews)<ref>{{cite web |title=The Jews of Rhode Island |url=https://www.brandeis.edu/hornstein/sarna/introscommnets/Archive/TheJewsofRhodeIsland.pdf|publisher=Ellen Smith}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref> in the [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Colony of Rhode Island]] that he founded has been citied as a proto-Zionist in speeches by later Jewish Zionist leaders such as [[Stephen S. Wise]], due to his comment that "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."<ref>{{cite journal |title=America and Zionism: Statement to The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20664249|publisher=Stephen S. Wise|jstor = 20664249|last1 = Wise|first1 = Stephen S.|journal = World Affairs|year = 1946|volume = 109|issue = 1|pages = 10–17}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref> Some important [[17th-century philosophy|17th-century philosophers]] who acted a bridge between the millennialist sectarians of their day and the approaching [[Age of the Enlightenment]] with its [[Scientific Revolution]] either held views associated with premillennial restorationists, or moved closely in their circles: this applies particularly to Sir [[Isaac Newton]] and [[Baruch Spinoza]]. Newton especially, who held [[Radical Reformation]] views [[Religious views of Isaac Newton|in terms of religion]] and also [[Isaac Newton's occult studies|dabbled in the occult]] (including the Kabbalah) predicted a Jewish return to Palestine, with the rebuilding of Jerusalem in the late 19th century and the erection of the Third Temple in the 20th or 21st century, leading to the end of the world no later than 2060.<ref>{{cite news |title=The first Christian Zionist? Secret writings by Isaac Newton reveal his views on the Jewish return to Israel |newspaper=Ynetnews |date=22 June 2007 |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3416287,00.html|publisher=Ynet News|last1=Lappin |first1=Yaakov }} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref><ref name="newton"/> Much of these private writings were embarrassing to his supporters who sought to uphold him as a man of reason and science against [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] and while the [[University of Cambridge]] inherited his scientific papers, they refused to take these private ones.<ref name="newton"/> Many of these, collected by [[Abraham Yahuda]], now rest in the [[National Library of Israel]] since 1967.<ref name="newton">{{cite web |last1=Heller |first1=Aron |title=Sir Isaac's Jewish writings enter the 21st century|work=The Times of Israel |date=19 February 2012 |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/sir-isaacs-jewish-writings-enter-the-21st-century/|publisher=Times of Israel}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref> Spinoza for his part, although Jewish himself, moved in circles in the Netherlands which included Petrus Serrarius, [[Henry Oldenburg]] and was even directly influenced by La Peyrère.<ref>{{cite book |series=Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science|year=1986|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-009-4514-2_7|publisher=Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science|doi=10.1007/978-94-009-4514-2_7|last1=Popkin|first1=Richard H.|title=Spinoza and the Sciences |chapter=Some new Light on the Roots of Spinoza's Science of Bible Study |volume=91|pages=171–188|isbn=978-94-010-8511-3}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref>

===Pietism, Evangelicalism, and British foreign policy===
{{See also|Pietism|Evangelicalism|Political Zionism}}
{{original research|secton|date=August 2025}}
With the rise of the [[House of Hanover|Hanoverians]] to power in Britain and the ascent of the Enlightenment, much of the 18th century mainstream elite adopted [[Philhellenism]], looking back to the culture and philosophies of the [[classical world]] for inspiration for the [[Georgian architecture|Georgian age]], rather than entertaining millennialist fantasies based on the Hebrew Old Testament (though Jews themselves enjoyed significant toleration in the [[British Empire]]). Although marginal at first, a religious underground was slowly growing from the 1730s which would eventually spout a second wave of Protestant Zionism and with it the birth of [[Evangelical Protestantism]].{{cn|date=August 2025}} This was precipitated in Germany by [[Philipp Spener]]'s [[Pietism]], a mystical and often millennialist take on Lutheranism, which 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 followers, [[Nicolaus Zinzendorf]], spread this into the [[Moravian Church]], linking the theory to Palestine, changing the Moravian liturgy to include a prayer "to restore the tribe of Judah in its time and bless its first fruits among us."<ref name="cz"/> [[John Wesley|John]] and [[Charles Wesley]], early leaders in [[Methodism]], inspired by the Pietists and Zinzendorf's Moravians, also promoted a Jewish return to Palestine with Charles Wesley even authoring a hymn dedicated to it.<ref name="cz"/><ref name="wes">{{cite web |url=http://www.wesley-fellowship.org.uk/Zionist_Hymn.html |title=''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 |publisher=The Wesley Fellowship |date=2010-07-01 |access-date=2014-07-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717011126/http://wesley-fellowship.org.uk/Zionist_Hymn.html |archive-date=2014-07-17 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The Baptist, [[John Gill (theologian)|John Gill]], who moved in similar circles to the Wesleys, authored works expressing similar views.<ref name="gill">{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/gill/deu030.htm |title=Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Deuteronomy 30 verse 5, by John Gill |access-date=2014-07-01}}</ref> By 1771, the Evangelical minister, [[John Eyre (evangelical minister)|John Eyre]], founder of the ''[[Evangelical Magazine]]'' and among the original members of the ''[[London Missionary Society]]'' was promoting a more developed version of these views with his ''Observations upon Prophecies Relating to the Restoration of the Jews''.<ref name="cz"/>

By the end of the 18th century, in the aftermath of the [[French Revolution]] and the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] decreeing in December 1789 that non-Catholics were eligible for all civil and military positions, the Revolutionary government in France made a [[Napoleon and the Jews|play for the allegiance of Jews]], in competition with Britain. During the [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|Egypt–Syria campaign]] of the [[French Revolutionary Wars]], [[Napoleon|Bonaparte]] invited "all the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather under his flag in order to re-establish the ancient Jerusalem."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.jpost.com/christian-news/this-day-in-history-napoleon-in-the-holy-land-446099|title=This day in history: Napoleon in the Holy Land|author=Jerusalem Post|date=25 February 2016}}</ref> Although Bonaparte himself was secular and the idea an early example of pragmatic [[Political Zionism]], the Jacobin idea itself may have originated from [[Corbet family|Thomas Corbet]] (1773–1804), an [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] Protestant émigrée who, as a member of the liberal-republican [[Society of United Irishmen]], was an ally of the [[Jacobin]]-government, engaged in revolutionary activities against the British and served in the French Army.<ref name="corb">{{cite news |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4943093,00.html|title=New exhibition shows letter advising Jewish state in Israel|author=Ynet News|date=3 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="dem"/> In February 1790, he authored a letter to the [[French Directory]], then under the leadership of Napoleon's patron [[Paul Barras]].<ref name="corb"/> In the letter he 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" saying, "Their riches do not console them for their hardships. They await with impatience the epoch of their re-establishment as a nation."<ref name="dem">{{cite news |url=https://archive.irishdemocrat.co.uk/features/religious-mysticism/|title=The perils of religious mysticism|author=Irish Democrat|date=29 December 2002}}</ref> Milka Levy-Rubin, a curator at the [[National Library of Israel]], has attributed Corbet's motivation to a Protestant Zionism based on premillennialist themes.<ref name="corb"/>

In New England during the 18th century, [[Ezra Stiles]], president of [[Yale University|Yale College]] was a supporter of Jewish restoration and befriended Rabbi [[Raphael Hayyim Isaac Carregal|Raphael Chaim Yitzchak Karigal]] of [[Hebron]] in 1773 during his visit.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Rabbi from Hebron and the President of Yale|url=http://hebron.org.il/history/363|access-date=2020-09-20|website=the Jewish Community of Hebron|date=21 February 2016 |language=en}}</ref> [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]] also anticipated a future return of Jews to their homeland.<ref name=Stein>Stephen J. Stein, editor, "Introduction," ''Jonathan Edwards, Works, Apocalyptic Writings,'' V. 8, pp.17–19.</ref> 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.{{cn|date=August 2025}} One [[David Austin]] of [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]] spent his fortune building docks and inns from which the Jews could embark to the Holy Land.{{cn|date=August 2025}} In 1825, [[Mordecai Manuel Noah]], a Jew who wanted to found a national home for the Jews on [[Grand Island, New York|Grand Island]] in New York as a way station on the way to the Holy Land, won widespread Christian backing for his project.{{cn|date=August 2025}} Likewise, restorationist theology was among the inspirations for the first American missionary activity in the Middle East<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/arts/26iht-IDLEDE27.4355844.html |last=Rodenbeck |first=Max |title=Of missionary zeal and its consequences |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2007-01-26 |access-date=2015-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616040751/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/arts/26iht-IDLEDE27.4355844.html?_r=0 |archive-date=2022-06-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and for mapping the Holy Land.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/199466 |last=Ben David |first=Lenny |title=American 'Manifest Destiny' Heads to the Holy Land in 1847 |work=Israel National News |date=2015-08-14 |access-date=2015-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150825131937/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/199466 |archive-date=2015-08-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Most early-19th-century British Restorationists, like [[Charles Simeon]], were [[Postmillennialism|postmillennial]] in eschatology.<ref name=lewis/> With the rise of [[James Hatley Frere|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.<ref name=lewis/><ref>{{Cite book |first= Ernest| last= Sandeen | title = Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism 1800–1930 | publisher = University of Chicago Press| location = Chicago | page = 336 | date = 2008-08-01 | isbn= 9780226734682}}</ref> As the demise of the Ottoman Empire appeared to be approaching, the advocacy of restorationism increased.{{cn|date=August 2025}}

[[File:Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury by John Collier.jpg|thumb|The [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury|Earl of Shaftesbury]], influenced by [[Evangelical Anglicanism]] and the views of [[Edward Bickersteth (priest)|Edward Bickersteth]] was one of the first British politicians to seriously endorse a Jewish return to [[Ottoman Syria|Ottoman Palestine]] as official policy.]]
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 the [[Syria (region)|region of Syria]] (including Palestine) by an expansionist Egypt, in the [[First Turko-Egyptian War]]. Although Britain forced [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|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]].<ref>''The Question of Palestine: British-Jewish-Arab Relations, 1914–1918'', Isaiah. Friedman, Transaction Publishers, 1992, see Chapter 1 with a summary in the Introduction</ref><ref>The foreign policy of Palmerston, 1830–1841: Britain, the liberal movement and the Eastern question, Charles Kingsley Webster, Pub. G. Bell, 1951</ref> 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 [[Church's Ministry Among Jewish People|London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews]], wrote to [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Prime Minister Aberdeen]] urging Jewish restoration as a means of stabilizing the region.<ref name=lewis/><ref>Shaftsbury as cited in [[Albert Montefiore Hyamson|Hyamson, Albert]], "British Projects for the Restoration of Jews to Palestine," American Jewish Historical Society, Publications 26, 1918 p. 140 [https://archive.org/stream/britishprojectsf00hyamuoft/britishprojectsf00hyamuoft_djvu.txt]</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Mel Scult |title=Millennial Expectations and Jewish Liberties: A Study of the Efforts to Convert the Jews in Britain, Up to the Mid Nineteenth Century |publisher=Brill Archive |year=1978 |page=91}}</ref>

At the same time, the visit of [[John Nelson Darby]] to the United States{{when|date=August 2025}} catalyzed a new movement.{{cn|date=August 2025}} Darby was the founder of a theological framework known as [[dispensationalism]]. Darby’s dispensationalist theology is often claimed to be a significant awakener of American Christian Zionism.<ref name=Kuttab>{{cite journal |url=https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/Pages%20from%20JQ%2076%20-%20Kuttab.pdf |title=Palestinian Evangelicals and Christian Zionism |last=Kuttab |first=Jonathan |journal=[[Jerusalem Quarterly]] |year=2018 |issue=76 |publisher=[[Institute of Jerusalem Studies]] |location=[[Ramallah]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616205126/https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jq-articles/Pages%20from%20JQ%2076%20-%20Kuttab.pdf |archive-date=June 16, 2019 |archive-format=PDF |url-status=live |access-date=June 20, 2019 |pages=70–78 |doi=10.70190/jq.I76.p70 |quote=Christian Zionism was never a fundamental or integral element in evangelical thinking. It was a peripheral movement which grew among some evangelicals, but also other Christians in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among its luminaries are Reverend John Darby and Cyrus Scofield. The publication of the Scofield Bible, which included commentary in the margins that reflected the teachings of Christian Zionism, contributed to its popularity among Christians, including evangelicals. [...] Christian Zionism found a home among many Christians, even those who were themselves anti-Semitic. }}</ref> 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-Semitism|philo-semitic]], opposed Zionism as a movement born in self-confidence and unbelief.<ref name="weber">{{Citation | last= Weber | first= Timothy| title= Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism, 1875–1982 | publisher = Univ of Chicago Press | location= Texas | date= April 1987 |isbn= 9780226877327}}</ref> While dispensationalism had considerable influence through the [[Scofield Reference Bible]] (first published by OUP, 1909),<ref name=Kuttab/> Christian lobbying for the restoration of the Jews preceded its publication by over a century,<ref name=lewis/> and many Christian Zionists and Christian Zionist organizations such as the [[International Christian Embassy Jerusalem]] do not subscribe to dispensationalism.{{cn|date=August 2025}} Many non-dispensationalist Protestants were also strong advocates of a Jewish return to their homeland, [[Charles Spurgeon]],<ref name="restor">{{Citation | last= Spurgeon | first= Charles | title= Sermon preached in June 1864 for the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews | work= Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit | volume= 10 | date= 1864 |url= http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons10.xxxvi.html}}</ref> both [[Horatius Bonar|Horatius]]<ref name=Bonar>'The Jew', July 1870, ''The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy''</ref> and [[Andrew Bonar]],{{cn|date=August 2025}} [[Robert Murray M'Cheyne|Robert Murray M'Chyene]],<ref name=MCheyne>Sermon preached 17th November 1839, after returning from a "Mission of Inquiry into the State of the Jewish People"</ref>{{Verify source|date=August 2025}} and [[J. C. Ryle]]<ref name="ReferenceA">Sermon preached June 1864 to London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews</ref>{{Verify source|date=August 2025}} 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".<ref>Sermon on 'Jesus Christ Immutable', ''Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit'', 1869, vol. 15, no. 848 [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/spurgeon/sermons15.i.html].</ref> In 1864, Spurgeon wrote:
{{blockquote| 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.<ref name="restor" />}}

Darby’s dispensationalism was expressed at the [[Niagara Bible Conference]] in 1878,{{cn|date=August 2025}} 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:
{{blockquote|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wessinger |first=Catherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zgUTDAAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-061194-1 |pages=508 |language=en}}</ref>}}

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.<ref>WEDGWOOD FAVORS JEWISH HOME LAND; Sees in Palestine Restoration Plan the Final Solution of the Eastern Problem. COMES HERE TO ADVOCATE IT Hopes Ambassadors from the New State Will Be in Every National Capital of the World; ''New York Times'', Feb 4, 1918</ref><ref>''Persecution of the Jews, The Living Age'', Littell, Son & Company, 1883, p. 604 ff.</ref><ref>Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism, Victoria Clark, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 111</ref> 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]].{{citation needed|date=February 2015}} [[Winston Churchill]] endorsed Restoration because he recognized that Jews fleeing Russian pogroms required a refuge, and preferred Palestine for sentimental reasons.<ref>Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft, By Michael Makovsky, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 68</ref>

===In the United States===
[[File:Memorandum_to_Protestant_Monarchs_of_Europe_for_the_restoration_of_the_Jews_to_Palestine,_Colonial_Times_1841.jpg|thumb|"Memorandum to the Protestant Powers of the North of Europe and America", ''[[Colonial Times]]'', Hobart, Australia, 1841]]
In 1818, President [[John Adams]] wrote, "I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation", and believed that they would gradually become [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] Christians.<ref>{{cite book |title=American Consuls in the Holy Land, 1832–1914 |first=Ruth |last=Kark |publisher=Wayne State University Press |year=1994 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LkAvPDl5yfgC|isbn=0814325238 }}</ref>

In 1844, [[George Bush (Biblical scholar)|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 [[Conversion of the Jews (future event)|converted to Christianity]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3TbDDxRB_t4C Valley of vision: or, The dry bones of Israel revived: an attempted proof, from Ezekiel, chap. xxxvii, 1–14, of the restoration and conversion of the Jews, George Bush, 1844] "When the Most High accordingly declares that he will bring the house of Israel into their own land, it does not follow that this will be effected by any miraculous interposition which will be recognized as such....The great work of Christians, in the meantime, is to labor for their conversion. In this they are undoubtedly authorized to look for a considerable measure of success, though it be admitted that the bulk of the nation is not to be converted till after their restoration; for it is only upon the coming together of bone to his bone that the Spirit of life comes into them, and they stand up an exceeding great army."</ref> 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."<ref name=com-mag />

[[Herman Melville]] expressed the idea in a poem, "Clarel; A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land":
{{blockquote|<poem>the Hebrew seers announce in time
the return of Judah to her prime;
Some Christians deemed it then at hand
Here was an object. Up and On.
With seed and tillage help renew –
Help reinstate the Holy Land</poem>
}}

The tycoon [[William Eugene Blackstone]] was inspired by the conference to publish the book ''Jesus is Coming'', which took up the restorationist cause. 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]].<ref name=Merkley/> 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.<ref name=Merkley/> 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?"<ref>Yaakov Ariel, ''On Behalf of Israel; American Fundamentalist Attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, 1865–1945'' (New York: Carlson Publishing, 1991), pp. 70–72.</ref>

===In Great Britain===
{{Main|Zionism#British influence|Christian Zionism in the United Kingdom}}
[[File:Ordecharleswingate.jpg|thumb|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 written about the restoration of the Jews as early as the 16th century, and the idea had strong support among Puritans.<ref name="shapira"/> While Jewish nationalism in the early 19th century was largely met with hostility from [[British Jews]],<ref name="friedman">{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Isaiah |title=The Question of Palestine: British-Jewish-Arab Relations, 1914–1918 |series=Armenian Research Center collection. Judaica history |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |location=[[New Brunswick, NJ]] |page=458 |url={{google books|AdpHnwEACAAJ|plainurl=yes}} |year=1992 |type=reprint |orig-year=1991 |isbn=978-0-88738-214-7}}</ref> ideas favoring the restoration of the Jews in Palestine or the Land of Israel entered the [[British Empire|British]] public discourse in the 1830s. Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety of [[Protestant]] beliefs,<ref name=lewis/><ref>[http://www.leaderu.com/common/british.html The Untold Story. The Role of Christian Zionists in the Establishment of Modern-day Israel] by Jamie Cowen (Leadership U), July 13, 2002</ref>
or by a streak of [[philo-Semitism]] among the classically educated British elite.<ref>[http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/green.html Rethinking Sir Moses Montefiore: Religion, Nationhood, and International Philanthropy in the Nineteenth Century] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080217075328/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/green.html |date=2008-02-17 }} by Abigail Green. (The American Historical Review. Vol. 110 No.3.) June 2005</ref>

At the urging of [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury|Lord Shaftesbury]], Britain established a consulate in [[Jerusalem in Christianity|Jerusalem]] in 1838, the first diplomatic appointment to Palestine.<ref name=lewis>{{cite book | last = Lewis | first = Donald | title = The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury And Evangelical Support For A Jewish Homeland | publisher = Cambridge University Press | date = 2 January 2014 | location = Cambridge | page = 380 | isbn =9781107631960}}</ref>

In 1839, the [[Church of Scotland]] sent [[Andrew Bonar]], [[Robert Murray M'Cheyne]], Alexander Black and [[Alexander Keith (Free Church minister)|Alexander Keith]] on a mission to report on the condition of the Jews in Palestine. Their report was widely published.<ref>''A Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland in 1839'' (Edinburgh, 1842) {{ISBN|1-85792-258-1}}</ref> They traveled through France, Greece, and Egypt, and from Egypt, overland to [[Gaza City|Gaza]]. On the way home they visited [[Syria]], the [[Austrian Empire]] and some of the German states. 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 (Free Church minister)|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, [[George Skene Keith (physician)|George Skene Keith]] (1819–1910), who was the first person to photograph the land.<ref>[http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/mccheyne/friends.htm M'Cheyne's friends] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512013817/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/d.haslam/mccheyne/friends.htm |date=2008-05-12 }}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Jerry Klinger |url=http://jewishmag.com/145mag/herzl_hechler/herzl_hechler.htm |title=Reverend William H. Hechler—The Christian minister who legitimized Theodor Herzl |work=Jewish Magazine |date=July 2010 |access-date=2014-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140418025605/http://jewishmag.com/145mag/herzl_hechler/herzl_hechler.htm |archive-date=2014-04-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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 Herzl's death, the editors of the English-language memorial volume said that William Hechler was "not only the first, but the most constant and the most indefatigable of Herzl's followers".<ref name=Merkley>{{cite book|last=Merkley|first=Paul Charles|title=The politics of Christian Zionism, 1891–1948|date=1998|publisher=F. Cass|isbn=0-7146-4850-7|page=240|location=London|oclc=38478548}}</ref>
====Balfour Declaration====
On 2 November 1917, UK Home Secretary [[Arthur Balfour]] sent a letter to [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild|Lord Walter Rothschild]]. This letter, known as the [[Balfour Declaration]], famously stated that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." As noted by Philip Alexander, "A crucial ingredient in Balfour's Zionism [may have been] his Christian belief or, to put it a little more subtly, his Christian formation. The most persuasive advocate of this thesis is the Canadian historian Donald Lewis in his 2010 monograph, ''The Origins of Christian Zionism'', but it has been espoused by a number of other scholars as well."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Philip|year=2017|title=Why did Lord Balfour back the Balfour Declaration?|url=https://scienceopen.com/document?vid=dd2c2252-4215-4d7d-9722-a7cffc72ae11|journal=Jewish Historical Studies|volume=49 |doi=10.14324/111.444.jhs.2017v49.050|issn=2397-1290|access-date=17 September 2021|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Donald M.|title=The origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury and evangelical support for a Jewish homeland|date=2010|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press & Assessment]]|isbn=978-0-521-51518-4|location=Cambridge|oclc=422753455}}</ref> Both Lord Balfour and then British Prime Minister [[David Lloyd George]] were influenced by Christian Zionism.{{refn|Donald E. Wagner, Walter T. Davis (2014). ''Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land''', ''Chapter Six: The Mainline Protestant Churches and the Holy Land'' by Donald E. Wagner. Quotation: "both Balfour and his prime minister David Lloyd-George were predisposed to the Zionists' arguments for at least two reasons. First and foremost was their political goal, which was essentially the expansion of British rule from the Levant to the “Jewel in the Crown” of the empire—India.<br>However, another motivation was in play, and it is one rarely discussed by historians and political analysts. Both Balfour and Lloyd-George were products of fundamentalist Christian Zionism and as such were predisposed to support Zionism based on their premillennial dispensationalist reading of the Holy Scriptures. Both politicians are examples of how Christian Zionism can orient one to embrace the Zionist narrative for both political and theological reasons. His references to the “age-long traditions” and “future hopes of far profounder import” in the above quotation are evidence of Balfour’s blend of evangelical Christian Zionism with his colonialist political vision."}}

==Between World War I and the 1948 Palestine War==
=== In the United States ===

In the decades leading up to the [[1948 Palestine war]] and [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|establishment of the State of Israel in 1948]], the most prominent and politically active American Christian supporters of Zionism were [[Liberal Protestantism|liberal]] and [[mainline Protestants]] whose support for the movement was often unrelated to their interpretation of the Bible.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The fervent embrace: liberal Protestants, evangelicals, and Israel|last=Caitlin|first=Carenen|date=2012|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814708378|location=New York|oclc=779828048}}</ref> These Christian supporters of Zionism viewed Palestine as a needed safe haven for Jews who were fleeing from intensifying persecution in Europe and they frequently believed that their support of the movement was part of a broader effort at [[Christian–Jewish reconciliation|interfaith rapprochement]]. The [[Pro-Palestine Federation]], a Christian pro-Zionist organization which was founded in 1930, called for the promotion of "goodwill and esteem between Jews and non-Jews" and it also called for the British government to adhere to the terms of its Mandate for Palestine, which pledged support for the establishment of a Jewish national home.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The politics of Christian Zionism, 1891–1948|last=Merkley|first=Paul Charles|date=1998|publisher=F. Cass|isbn=9781136316296|location=London|oclc=815969328}}</ref>

Amidst World War II and their growing awareness of [[the Holocaust]], American Jewish Zionists helped coordinate the establishment of two non-Jewish Zionist organizations, the American Palestine Committee and the Christian Council on Palestine, which were later merged into the [[American Christian Palestine Committee]] (ACPC). The ACPC, which was composed largely of liberal and mainline Protestants, became the leading American Christian lobby in support of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carenen|first=Caitlin|date=2010-10-01|title=The American Christian Palestine Committee, the Holocaust, and Mainstream Protestant Zionism, 1938–1948|url=https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article/24/2/273/618509|journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies|language=en|volume=24|issue=2|pages=273–296|doi=10.1093/hgs/dcq025|s2cid=143544757|issn=8756-6583|url-access=subscription}}</ref> After the establishment of Israel in 1948, the ACPC continued its lobbying efforts. For instance, it coordinated opposition to the United Nations' efforts to internationalize the city of Jerusalem, which was divided between Israel and Transjordan in the 1948 War.{{cn|date=August 2025}}

During these years, [[Premillennialism#Dispensational school|dispensational premillennialism]] grew in popularity among conservative American Protestants. Many [[Dispensationalism|dispensationalists]] viewed the Zionist movement as at least a partial fulfillment of biblical prophecy or they viewed it as a modern fulfillment of God's covenantal promises to the Jewish people. In the 1930s, [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptist]] missionary Jacob Gartenhaus, himself a convert from Judaism, argued that "Zionism is going to win whether anybody likes it or not...To oppose it is to oppose God's plan."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Robins|first=Walker|date=2017|title=Jacob Gartenhaus: The Southern Baptists' Jew|url=http://jsreligion.org/vol19/robins/|journal=Journal of Southern Religion|volume=19}}</ref> But for the most part, such beliefs did not translate into political action on behalf of the movement in this era. One slight exception was J. Frank Norris, a [[Christian fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] Baptist who split time between pulpits in Fort Worth, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan.<ref>{{Cite book|title=God's rascal : J. Frank Norris & the beginnings of Southern fundamentalism|last=Hankins|first=Barry|isbn=9780813149899|edition= Paperback |location=Lexington, Kentucky|publisher=University Press of Kentucky |oclc=903955383|date = 2015-01-13}}</ref> While Norris did not organize lobbying efforts in the way that the ACPC did, he did preach to his followers that it was their Christian duty to support the Zionist cause and wrote President Truman in support of Zionist claims to Palestine in 1947 and 1948. Norris also loosely coordinated with the ACPC, at times publishing their materials in his periodical, ''The Fundamentalist''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Robins|first=Walker|title=Between Dixie and Zion : Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel|year=2019|isbn=978-0-8173-9279-6|location=Tuscaloosa|publisher=University of Alabama Press |oclc=1143219783}}</ref>

== After the founding of the State of Israel ==
[[File:Union, Ulster and Israel flags Broughshane.JPG|thumb|300px|The [[Flag of Israel]], flying alongside the [[Union Flag]] and the [[Ulster Banner]]. In the [[Ulster loyalism|Protestant Unionist]] community of [[Northern Ireland]], sympathy for Israel is frequently expressed by communal flag-flying.<ref>{{cite news |title=Northern Ireland's Protestants and Catholics Adopt Israeli, Palestinian Flags as Symbols|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israeli-palestinian-flags-adopted-as-n-ireland-symbols-1.5263235|newspaper=Haaretz}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref>]]

=== In the United States ===
{{Seealso|Israel–United States relations}}
In the decades since the establishment of Israel, and especially since the 1967 [[Six-Day War]], the most prominent American Christian supporters of Israel have come from the [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] wing of [[Protestantism in the United States|American Protestantism]]. [[American evangelicalism]] itself underwent significant changes in the years surrounding Israel's birth, as a "new" evangelicalism led by figures like [[Billy Graham]] emerged from [[Protestantism]] and came to cultural prominence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hummel|first=Daniel|title=Covenant Brothers|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0812296242|location=Philadelphia|pages=15, 65, 138 }}</ref> It was among these new evangelicals that the contemporary movement that most commonly associated with the term "Christian Zionism" originated.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hummel|first=Daniel|title=Covenant Brothers|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0812296242|location=Philadelphia}}</ref>

Many new evangelicals adhered to dispensationalism or at least, they adhered to beliefs which were inspired by it—most especially, they adhered to the dispensationalist understanding that Jews remained in a special covenantal relationship with God. Most important to the development of Christian Zionism as a movement, though, was the fact that American evangelical leaders began to build relationships with American and Israeli Jews and they also began to build institutional connections with Jewish organizations and the Israeli government itself. Crucial to the building of these relationships was a motivated coterie of American evangelicals who resided in Israel, most notably, the founder of the American Institute of Holy Land Studies, G. Douglas Young. Through his institute, Young worked to convince American Christians that it was their biblical duty to support the Jewish people and the Jewish state. He also worked as a go-between for Jewish organizations and Israeli government agencies which were seeking to build relationships with American evangelicals.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hummel|first=Daniel G.|date=2015|title=A "Practical Outlet" to Premillennial Faith: G. Douglas Young and the Evolution of Christian Zionist Activism in Israel|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/religion-and-american-culture/article/practical-outlet-to-premillennial-faith-g-douglas-young-and-the-evolution-of-christian-zionist-activism-in-israel/58906298AB25FDCDBF77E90BBCCC949C|journal=Religion and American Culture|language=en|volume=25|issue=1|pages=37–81|doi=10.1525/rac.2015.25.1.37|s2cid=146393019|issn=1052-1151|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Such activism provided the basis for the development of Christian Zionism as a movement.
[[File:Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg event - 2 - November 2018.jpg|left|thumb|250px|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 prophetic speculation about the State of Israel that exploded after the 1967 Six-Day War (even as it had somewhat common theological and hermeneutical antecedents). This activism includes the wildly popular writings of the American [[Dispensationalism|dispensationalist]] [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] writer [[Hal Lindsey]], which sought to fit Israel into a dispensationalist [[Christian eschatology|end-time]] narrative. In ''[[The Late Great Planet Earth]]'', for example, Lindsey anticipated that, per {{bibleref2|Ezekiel|39:6–8}}, Jews would fight off a "[[Russia]]n" invasion before realizing their miraculous deliverance and converting to Christianity. Their lives would be spared the great fire that God will put upon Russia and people of the "coastlands." And, per {{bibleref2|Zechariah|13:8–9}}, one third of Jews alive who have converted will be spared.<ref>Hal Lindsey, Carole C. Carlson, ''The Late Great Planet Earth'', Zondervan, 1970, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cWt3rSMgmm8C&q=Zechariah+13%3A8&pg=PA47 p. 167–168], {{ISBN|0-310-27771-X}}, 9780310277712</ref> Lindsay has been critiqued for highly specific, failed predictions even by those who share his eschatology, like [[John F. MacArthur|John MacArthur]].<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/41-69/the-final-generation-part-1 | title = Sermon: The Final Generation | first=John | last= MacArthur | work= Grace To You Website | date=2011-04-03| access-date=2017-05-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170514142242/https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/42-264/the-final-generation-of-the-future-judgment | archive-date= 2017-05-14}}</ref>

{{Conservatism US|Principles}}
Examples of Protestant leaders who combined political conservatism with Christian Zionism are [[Jerry Falwell]] and [[Pat Robertson]], leading figures on the [[Christian Right]] in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1981, Falwell said: "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."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Fundamentalist Phenomenon|last=Falwell|first=Jerry|publisher=Baker Publishing Group|year=1981|isbn=978-0801029585|location=Grand Rapids|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fundamentalistph0000dobs_z8k7/page/150 150]|url=https://archive.org/details/fundamentalistph0000dobs_z8k7/page/150}}</ref> They cite part of the blessing of [[Isaac]] at {{bibleref2|Genesis|27:29|HCSB}}, "Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed."{{cn|date=August 2025}}

[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] has also been cited as a Christian supporter of Israel and Zionism.<ref name=Sundquist>Sundquist, Eric J. (2005). ''Strangers in the land: Blacks, Jews, post-Holocaust America'' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 110.</ref>

Tens of millions of Americans belong to [[Evangelicalism in the United States|Evangelical churches]] that strongly support Israel for religious reasons,<ref>{{cite news |title=Video: The Christian Right and the Shaping of American Policies in Israel/Palestine |url=https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/news/2021/10/26/video-the-christian-right-and-the-shaping-of-american-policies-in-israel-palestine |publisher=Harvard Divinity School |date=26 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=A sizeable US demographic, many Evangelicals are sending money and manpower to Israel |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-sizeable-us-demographic-many-evangelicals-are-sending-money-and-manpower-to-israel/ |work=The Times of Israel |date=12 November 2023}}</ref> and there are tens of millions more Christians who identify as Christian Zionists outside the United States.<ref>{{cite news |title=Israel's Current Crisis Exposes Christian Zionism's Contradictory Ideals |url=https://newlinesmag.com/argument/israels-current-crisis-exposes-christian-zionisms-contradictory-ideals/ |work=New Lines Magazine |date=27 July 2023}}</ref>

The largest Zionist organisation is [[Christians United for Israel]], which has 10 million members and is led by [[John Hagee]].<ref name="Rubin">{{Cite news |last=Rubin |first=Jennifer |date=August 2, 2010 |title=Onward, Christian Zionists |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/onward-christian-zionists |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100726135421/http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/onward-christian-zionists |archive-date=July 26, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Savage |first=Sean |date=9 March 2021 |title=How CUFI has awakened the 'sleeping giant' of Christian Zionism |work=Jewish News Syndicate |url=https://www.jns.org/how-cufi-has-awakened-the-sleeping-giant-of-christian-zionism/ |access-date=5 September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kornbluh |first=Jacob |date=8 May 2022 |title=He was the head of Christians United for Israel. Now he's running as a Jewish candidate for Congress |work=The Forward |url=https://forward.com/news/501610/david-brog-nevada-election-christians-united-for-israel-congress/ |access-date=5 September 2022}}</ref>

According to a [[Pew Research]] survey in 2003, in the US more than 60% of the Evangelical Christians and about 50% of Blacks agreed that the existence of Israel fulfilled biblical prophecy. About 55% of poll respondents said that the Bible was the biggest influence for supporting Israel, 11 times the number of people who said church was the biggest influence.<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/> 

A 2017 [[LifeWay]] poll conducted in United States found that 80% of [[Evangelicalism|evangelical Christians]] believed that the creation of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would bring about Christ's return and more than 50% of Evangelical Christians believed that they support Israel because it is important for fulfilling the prophecy.<ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/05/14/half-of-evangelicals-support-israel-because-they-believe-it-is-important-for-fulfilling-end-times-prophecy/|title=Half of evangelicals support Israel because they believe it is important for fulfilling end-times prophecy|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=2020-02-15}}</ref>

=== In Israel ===
The government of Israel has given official encouragement to Christian Zionism, allowing the establishment of the [[International Christian Embassy Jerusalem]] in 1980.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} 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]].{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

The Third International Christian Zionist Congress, held in Jerusalem in February 1996, issued a proclamation which said:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://christianactionforisrael.org/congress.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719161650/http://christianactionforisrael.org/congress.html|url-status=dead|title=christianactionforisrael.org|archivedate=July 19, 2012|website=christianactionforisrael.org}}</ref>
{{blockquote|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]].<ref>Rammy Haija. "The Armageddon Lobby: Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine." ''Holy Land Studies'' 5(1): 75–95. 2006.</ref> The novels are built around the prophetic role of Israel in the [[Apocalypticism|apocalyptic]] end times.

==Critical views within Christianity==
{{See also|Anti-Zionism#Christian anti-Zionism|Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism}}

===General===
For most Christians,{{cn|date=August 2025}} [[the City of God]] ({{langx|grc-x-koine|"ἡ πόλις τοῦ Θεοῦ"|"hē pólis toũ theoũ"|the city of God|label=[[Psalm]] {{bibleverse-nb|Psalms|46:4|KJV}} ([[Septuagint]]: [[s:el:Ψαλμοί του Δαυίδ/ΜΕ#p5|ΜΕ:5]])}}) has nothing to do with [[Aliyah|Jewish immigration to Israel]] and the ongoing [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]; instead, it predicts the [[sack of Rome (410)]] and it is cited in the [[teaching of Saint Augustine of Hippo]].{{cn|date=August 2025}} [[Eastern Orthodox Christians]] did not consider Zionism in any political form: "[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, [[Ignatius IV of Antioch|Patriarch Ignatius IV]], head of the church in the Middle East, reiterated that the people were his concern in Jerusalem, not the stones."<ref name="ght">{{cite web |author=Ghada Hashem Talhami |title=Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land |publisher=[[Middle East Policy Council]] |type=[[book review]] |access-date=June 6, 2019 |url=https://www.mepc.org/zionism-and-quest-justice-holy-land |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915081849/https://www.mepc.org/zionism-and-quest-justice-holy-land |archive-date=September 15, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Not a worldly kingdom, not an earthly Jerusalem is sought after,but the focus is on the [[heavenly Jerusalem]], the kingdom of the [[triune God]]:<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Saint Hesychius (Priest) of Jerusalem |title=The Way of a Pilgrim and a Pilgrim Continues His Way |author-link=Hesychius of Jerusalem |editor-last=Hopko |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Thomas Hopko |translator-last=Savin |translator-first=Olga |encyclopedia=[[The Pilgrim Continues His Way|The Way of a Pilgrim and the Pilgrim Continues His Way]] |chapter=The Teachings of the [[Holy Fathers]] on the Interior [[Prayer of the Heart]] |year=2001 |publisher=[[Shambhala Publications]] |location=[[Boulder, CO]] |isbn=978-1-57062-807-8 |pages=193–238}} {{google books|dSx3JVmNoFoC|The Way of a Pilgrim and the Pilgrim Continues His Way|page=212}}.</ref>
{{blockquote|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{{space|thin}}—{{space|thin}}with Whom He is of one Essence{{space|thin}}—{{space|thin}}and with the venerable Holy Spirit.|author=[[Hesychius of Jerusalem]]}}
Nor did traditional [[Catholic Church|Catholic Christians]] support Christian Zionism.<ref name="catholic">Catholic Zionists are a marginal [[post-World War II]] phenomenon: [[Alan Keyes]] (USA), [[Menahem Macina]] (France), [[Roy Schoeman]] (USA).</ref>{{clarify|date=August 2025}}

===Catholic Church===
{{Main|Catholicism and Zionism}}
[[File:Pius X, by Francesco De Federicis, 1903 (retouched, colorized).tif|thumb| '''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]]—the largest branch of Christians in the world—does not endorse the theological premises underlying millennialist Restorationism as propounded by [[Dispensationalism|dispensationalists]] and it has generally inveighed against the prospect of Jewish governance over Holy Places in Palestine which it deems of importance to Christianity.<ref name="vi"/><ref name="hp"/> [[Theodor Herzl]], the secular Jewish founder of modern political Zionism, had an audience in the Vatican with [[Pope Pius X]] in 1904, arranged by the Austrian Count Berthold Dominik Lippay, seeking out the position of the Catholic Church on Herzl's prospective project for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Pope Pius X 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|life of Jesus Christ]]. As the head of the Church I cannot tell you anything different. The [[Judaism's view of Jesus|Jews have not recognized our Lord]], therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people."<ref name="hp"/> After Herzl explained that his reasoning behind the project for the creation of a [[Jewish state]] was not a religious statement, but interest in secular land for national independence, Pope Pius X replied "Does it have to be ''[[Jerusalem|Gerusalemme]]''?"<ref name="hp">{{cite web |title=THEODOR HERZL: Audience with Pope Pius X (1904)|date=26 January 1904 |url=https://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/herzl1904|publisher=Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref>

While it rejected a theological basis for Zionism outright, a major concern for the [[Holy See]] was the fate of the [[Holy Places]] which were associated with Jesus Christ if they should ever fall under the governance of such a state.<ref name="vi">{{cite web |title=The Vatican, American Catholics and the Struggle for Palestine, 1917–1958: A Study of Cold War Roman Catholic Transnationalism|url=https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1501&amp=&context=etd&amp=&sei-redir=1&referer=https%253A%252F%252F|publisher=Western University}} Retrieved on 20&nbsp;March 2018.</ref> By the mid-19th century, relations between the Vatican and [[Istanbul]] were fairly collegial; by that time, the Muslim Ottomans permitted the Vatican to work among the [[Melkite Greek Catholic Church|Arab Catholics]] in Palestine and they also permitted the Vatican to access the Holy Places quite freely so the ''status quo'' was already workable for them. Following the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine]], the Vatican advocated the position that Jerusalem should be treated as a separate "[[Corpus separatum (Jerusalem)|international city]]", as laid out in the encyclical ''[[Redemptoris nostri cruciatus]]''. Until the [[Second Vatican Council]], the Catholic Church was forthright in its international lobbying against Zionism (including the [[Catholic Church in the United States]], because the [[United States]] had become Zionism's most powerful endorser).<ref name="vi"/> The [[State of Israel]] and the Holy See only established [[Holy See–Israel relations|full diplomatic relations]] in 1993 and this was a recognition of political and civic reality, not a theological statement.<ref name="vi"/> In the 20th and 21st centuries, certain Catholic theologians such as André Villeneuve, Gary Anderson and [[Gavin D'Costa]], have written in support of Christian Zionism, holding it to be a sign of God's fidelity.<ref name="Villeneuve2024">{{cite web |last1=Villeneuve |first1=André |title=Why Israel Matters: The Biblical Roots of Catholic Zionism |url=https://www.hprweb.com/2024/07/why-israel-matters-the-biblical-roots-of-catholic-zionism/ |publisher=[[Homiletic & Pastoral Review]] |access-date=16 November 2024 |date=26 July 2024|quote=Biblical support for Israel does not contradict or undermine the Catholic faith in any way, but is wholly in continuity with God’s revelation. Respected Catholic theologians have recently made compelling cases for Catholic Zionism. Gary Anderson believes that the Jewish return to Zion, though also a call to responsibility and justice, is “part of God’s providential design and eternal promise to His people Israel,” even despite the uncertainty that surrounds the future of the current State of Israel. Gavin D’Costa, likewise, in his article “Catholic Zionism,” argues that “the existence of the Jewish State is a sign of God’s fidelity to his people,” even if this does not require endorsing a particular form of government for the Jewish state.}}</ref><ref name="D’Costa2020">{{cite web |last1=D’Costa |first1=Gavin |title=Catholic Zionism |url=https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/01/catholic-zionism |publisher=[[First Things]] |access-date=16 November 2024 |language=en |date=1 January 2020}}</ref>

===Protestantism===
[[Political Zionism]] has also been critised by some Protestants:
{{blockquote|[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.|source=''[[The Christian Century]]'': 144–145. December 1929<ref name="ght" />}}
{{blockquote|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.|author=[[John Stott]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Donald E. |year=1995 |title=Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians |location=[[Scottdale, Pennsylvania]] |publisher=Herald Press |isbn=978-0-8361-3651-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/anxiousforarmage00wagn/page/80 80] |url=https://archive.org/details/anxiousforarmage00wagn/page/80 }} ''The introduction by [[Stephen Sizer]] to [[John Stott]]'s sermon "The Place of Israel" (see below) renders similarly:'' "[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/cr/rRSO8676035D2R Zionism, both political and Christian, is incompatible with biblical faith.]" {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606183046/https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/cr/rRSO8676035D2R |date=June 6, 2019 |nolink=y }}{{,}}{{cite web |last=Stott |first=John |title=The Place of Israel |publisher=Stephen Sizer |type=[[sermon]] preached at [[All Souls Church, Langham Place]] |access-date=June 6, 2019 |url=http://www.stephensizer.com/2018/04/john-stott-the-place-of-israel/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190312121228/http://www.stephensizer.com/2018/04/john-stott-the-place-of-israel/ |archive-date=March 12, 2019 |url-status=live |quote=It is an amazing statement that Paul makes. '[[s:Bible (King James)/Romans#2:28|He is not a real Jew who is one outwardly by descent from Jacob. Nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, that is by faith in Jesus. And real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal.]]{{'-}} }}</ref>}}

The [[La Grange Declarations]] of 1979 and 1981 were issued by a broad array of (mostly Protestant) Christian leaders critical of Christian Zionism who advocated for a change in church and governmental positions on Israel and Palestine. The 1979 statement, drafted at a conference in [[LaGrange, Illinois]], criticized Israel’s territorial actions, recognized the right of Palestinians to self-determination, and called for the U.S. to end its unconditional backing of Israel, though it stopped short of denying Israel's legitimacy. The 1981 declaration took a more assertive stance, challenging the religious justification for Israel’s claims to the land, demanding a full cessation of U.S. military aid to Israel, and denouncing American policies that restricted the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO). Both declarations represented a growing Christian movement that sought to oppose pro-Israel evangelical perspectives and bring attention to Palestinian political and humanitarian concerns.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=May 26, 1979 |title=Christian Declaration on Palestinians' Plight Hit by Jewish Church Groups |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/158878501 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=February 18, 2025 |id={{ProQuest|158878501}} }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Abernathy |first=Ralph |date=July 1979 |title=La Grange Declaration |journal=Sojourners |volume=8 |pages=24–25}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=June 21, 1981 |title=Anti-Falwell Christians Talk of Financing Rotating Staff of Spies in Israel to Assist PLO |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/371534220 |work=The New York Jewish Week |page=3 |access-date=February 18, 2025 |id={{ProQuest|371534220}} }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=La Grange Declaration II: A Christian Call for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land |journal=Sojourners |volume=10 |date=July 1981 |page=11}}</ref>

In the 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:
<blockquote>
* 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"<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-11-04 |title=Response to Christian Zionism |url=http://www.ncccusa.org/NCCpolicies/christianzionism.htm |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=National Council of Churches USA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104064154/http://www.ncccusa.org/NCCpolicies/christianzionism.htm |archive-date=4 November 2013 }}</ref></blockquote>

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."<ref>{{cite web|title=Position on Christian Zionism|url=https://www.rca.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=3839|publisher=[[Reformed Church in America]]|access-date=1 November 2013}}</ref> The [[Mennonite Central Committee]] has criticized Christian Zionism, noting that in some churches under its influence the "congregations 'adopt' illegal Israeli settlements, sending funds to bolster the defense of these armed colonies."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Introduction |last=Weaver |first=Alain Epp |url=https://mccintersections.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/pon_2005_07-09-vol-35-no-3-christian-zionism.pdf |volume=35 |issue=3, ''Christian Zionism and Peace in the Holy Land'' |date=July–September 2005 |journal=Peace Office Newsletter |publisher=[[Mennonite Central Committee]] |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060321025527/http://mcc.org/peace/pon/PON_2005-03.pdf |archivedate=2006-03-21}}</ref>{{primary inline|date=August 2025}} As of September 2007, churches in the US that have criticized Christian Zionism include the [[United Methodist Church]], the [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Berman |first=Lazar |title=Presbyterian Church group: Zionism is the problem |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/presbyterian-church-group-zionism-is-the-problem/ |access-date=2023-10-23 |website=[[The Times of Israel]] |date=11 February 2014 |language=en-US |issn=0040-7909}}</ref> and the [[United Church of Christ]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Resources on the Middle East |publisher=Global Ministries: a common missional witness of the [[Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)]] and the [[United Church of Christ]] |access-date=June 6, 2019 |url=https://www.globalministries.org/mee_resources_index |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190130102113/https://www.globalministries.org/mee_resources_index |archive-date=January 30, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{primary inline|date=August 2025}}

The 2009 film ''[[With God On Our Side (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, from a Christian perspective.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://alexchediak.com/2010/07/with_god_on_our_side.php|title=With God On Our Side|website=alexchediak.com}}</ref>{{SPS|date=August 2025}}

In the United Kingdom, the [[Church of Scotland]], despite its Restorationist history,<ref>{{cite book |last=The Church Of Scotland |title=Narrative of a Mission of inquiry|publisher=Presbyterian Board of Publication |location=Philadelphia |page=535 |date=1845 |url=https://archive.org/stream/narrativeofmissi00bona#page/n9/mode/2up}}</ref> has recently been critical of Zionism in general, and in turn has received strong criticism over the perceived injustice of its 2013 report, [[The Church of Scotland#"The Inheritance of Abraham: A Report on the 'Promised' Land"|"The Inheritance of Abraham: A Report on the Promised Land"]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/church-of-scotland-jews-do-not-have-a-right-to-the-land-of-israel.premium-1.518932 |title=Church of Scotland: Jews do not have a right to the land of Israel A new church report challenging Jewish historic claims and criticizing Zionism has drawn anger and harsh condemnation from the local Jewish community. |work=Haaretz |access-date=2014-06-29}}</ref> which resulted in its republication in a briefer form.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/church-of-scotland-thinks-twice-grants-israel-the-right-to-exist/2013/05/12/ |title=Church of Scotland Thinks Twice, Grants Israel the Right to Exist |publisher=The Jewish Press |date=2013-05-12 |access-date=2014-06-29}}</ref> On 9 July 2012, the Anglican General Synod passed a motion affirming support for the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2012/13-july/news/synod/israel-palestine |title=Support work for peace in divided region, Synod urged |work=Church Times |date=2012-07-13}}</ref> This was criticised by the Board of Deputies claiming the Synod 'has chosen to promote an inflammatory and partisan programme'.<ref name=JChron>{{cite web|url=http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/69714/board-deputies-statement-synod-eappi-vote |title=Board of Deputies statement on the Synod EAPPI vote |work=Jewish Chronicle |date=2012-07-12 |access-date=2014-08-02}}</ref> 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.<ref name=JChron /><ref>{{citation |last1=Quinn |first1=Ronan |last2=Botnen |first2=Trond |title=40 ways to end the occupation |journal=Chain Reaction |pages=25 | year=2007 |issue=6 |url=http://www.ngo-monitor.org/data/images/File/Chain_Reaction_6th_edition.pdf}}</ref>

==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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ismael |first1=Tareq Y. |last2=Rippin |first2=Andrew |title=Islam in the Eyes of the West: Images and Realities in an Age of Terror |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rExZBwAAQBAJ&q=In+addition+to+and+often+within+the+context+of+its+support+for+Israel+as+a+Jewish+state+and+for+ZIonist+principles+and+practices,&pg=PA42|publisher=Routledge |year=2010 |page=42 |isbn=9780415564144}}</ref>

===Other doctrines===
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.{{cn|date=August 2025}} Among the many texts which address this subject in counterbalance are the words of Jesus, as for example in [[Gospel of Matthew|Matthew]] {{bibleverse-nb|Matthew|21:43|KJV}}, "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it".{{OR|date=August 2025}}

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.{{cn|date=August 2025}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity}}
{{div col|colwidth=28em}}
* [[Center for Jewish–Christian Understanding and Cooperation]]
* [[Christian–Jewish reconciliation]]
* [[Christian views on the Old Covenant]]
* [[Christianity in Israel]]
* [[Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites]]
* [[History of Zionism]]
* [[International Fellowship of Christians and Jews]]
* [[Jewish views on religious pluralism]]
* [[Jews as the chosen people]]
* [[Judaizers]]
* [[Muslim Zionism]]
* [[Philosemitism]]
* [[Sacred Name Movement]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|30em}}

* Samuel Goldman. ''God's Country: Christian Zionism in America'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018).

* {{cite journal |last=Conforti |first=Yitzhak |date=March 2024 |title=Zionism and the Hebrew Bible: from religious holiness to national sanctity |journal=[[Middle Eastern Studies (journal)|Middle Eastern Studies]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=483–497 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2023.2204516 |doi-access=free |issn=1743-7881 |lccn=65009869 |oclc=875122033 |s2cid=258374291}}
* Andrew Crome. ''Christian Zionism and English National Identity, 1600–1850.'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
* Robert O. Smith. ''More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism.'' Oxford University Press, 2013.
* Barbara Tuchman. ''Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour.'' W&N, 2001.
* [[Nahum Sokolow]]. ''History of Zionism, 1600–1918.'' Longmans, Green and Company, 1919.
* Paul Richard Wilkinson. ''For Zion's Sake: Christian Zionism and the Role of John Nelson Darby.'' Paternoster, 2007.
* Douglas J. Culver. ''Albion and Ariel: British Puritanism and the Birth of Political Zionism.'' P. Lang, 1995.
* Mikael Knighton, Christians Standing with Israel, Copyright 2007 – [http://www.christians-standing-with-israel.org/Theological-Background-Christian-Zionism-Reflection.html ''The Theological Background of Christian Zionism''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107190852/http://www.christians-standing-with-israel.org/Theological-Background-Christian-Zionism-Reflection.html |date=2017-11-07 }}
* Mark Dunman. ''Has God Really Finished with Israel?'' New Wine Press 2013. {{ISBN|978-1-905991-87-7|}}
* Paul Richard Wilkinson. ''For Zion's Sake: Christian Zionism and the Role of John Nelson Darby'' {{ISBN|978-1-84227-569-6|}}, Paternoster Press, Authentic, Carlisle 2008.
* Zev Chafets. ''A Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance.'' HarperCollins, 2007.
* Victoria Clark. ''Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism''. Yale University Press, 2007.
* Grace Halsell. ''Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War''. Lawrence Hill & Co., 1986. {{ISBN|0-88208-210-8|}}.
* Donald E. Wagner. ''Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians''. Herald Press, 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-8361-3651-7|}}
* Donald M. Lewis. ''The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury and Evangelical Support for a Jewish Homeland'' Cambridge University Press. 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-521-51518-4|}}
* Donald M. Lewis, ''A Short History of Christian Zionism from the Reformation to the Twenty-First Century''.  InterVarsity Press, 2021. {{ISBN|978-0-8308-4697-9|}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=qhcaEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Christian+Zionism%22&pg=PP6 online]
* Rammy Haija, "[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/holy_land_studies/v005/5.1haija.html The Armageddon Lobby: Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine]." ''[[Holy Land Studies]]'' 5(1): 75–95. 2006.
* Irvine Anderson. ''Biblical interpretation and Middle East policy: the promised land, America, and Israel, 1917–2002.'' University Press of Florida. 2005. {{ISBN|0-8130-2798-5|}}.
* [[Tony Campolo]]. "The Ideological Roots of Christian Zionism." ''[[Tikkun (magazine)|Tikkun]]''. January–February 2005.
* Gershom Gorenberg. ''The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount''. Oxford University Press. 2002. {{ISBN|0-19-515205-0|}}
* Paul Charles Merkley. ''The Politics of Christian Zionism 1891–1948''. Frank Cass. 1998. {{ISBN|0-7146-4850-7|}}
* Paul Merkley, ''Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel'', Mcgill Queens Univ Press, Montreal, Sep 2001. {{ISBN|978-0773521889|}}
* Lawrence Jeffrey Epstein. ''Zion's Call: Christian Contributions to the Origins and Development of Israel''. University Press of America. 1984.
* [[Michael Oren]]. ''Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776–Present''. New York, 2007.
* [[Barbara W. Tuchman]]. ''Bible and Sword''. New York, 1956.
* [[David Pawson]]. ''Defending Christian Zionism'' Terra Nova Publications, 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-901949-62-9|}}
* Iain Murray, ''The Puritan Hope''. Banner of Truth, June 1971. {{ISBN|978-0851512471|}}
* Shalom Goldman, ''Zeal for Zion: Christians, Jews, & the Idea of the Promised Land.'' University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
* Stephen Spector, ''Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism.'' Oxford University Press, 2009.
* Yaakov Ariel, ''An Unusual Relationship: Evangelical Christians and Jews.'' New York University Press, 2013.
* Daniel G. Hummel, ''Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations.'' University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.
* Walker Robins, ''Between Dixie and Zion: Southern Baptists and Palestine Before Israel.'' University of Alabama Press, 2020.
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/ Christian Zionists – Bridges for Peace]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090413034557/http://www.sazionism.co.za/ Jewish and Christian Zionists – SAZ – Support Association for Zionism]
* [http://www.strategicoutlook.org/interviews/news-christian-zionism-and-its-religious-arguments-to-create-conflict.html/ Christian Zionism and Its Religious Arguments to Create Conflict, Strategic Outlook]
* [http://christians-standing-with-israel.org/ Christians Standing with Israel: Support Israel, What is a Christian Zionist? Stand Against Anti-Semitism]
* Rabbi [[Eliezer Melamed]], [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/10597#.UdrvGDv0Fsl Christians Who Love Israel] on [[Arutz Sheva]].

{{Zionism}}
{{Christianity and Judaism}}
{{Religion in Israel}}
{{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States}}


[[Category:Dispensationalism]]
[[Category:Christian Zionism| ]]
[[Category:Christian eschatology]]
[[Category:Christian and Jewish interfaith dialogue]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]