Opponents of Christian Zionism use the tragedy after the October 7, 23 massacre to condemn those of us who support Israel’s God-given right to its historic homeland. Joel Halldorf believes that it is time to expose Christian Zionism for what it is – a dangerous heresy that makes people turn a blind eye to war crimes. Bishop Emeritus Atle Sommerfeldt is also part of this condemnation. That is nothing new. In 2020, he fronted the bishops’ conference’s statement when they distanced themselves from Christian Zionism and found it “theologically and human rights untenable”. After a highly caricatured and one-sided presentation, it was established that Christian Zionism “is much worse than apartheid” and that “this is an aberration that has little to do with traditional Christianity.”
Halldorf claims that it has its background in the preaching of John Nelson Darby in the 1800s. He thus ignores the fact that Christian Zionism has a proud history, a history carried forward by Christian leaders who read the Bible, interpreted it literally, and discovered that God has certainly not rejected His people, Israel. Several of them had to pay a high price for what they believed in, even to the point of being burned at the stake. But they were true to what they had seen in the word of prophecy. When the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, Christian Zionists had been involved in preparing the ground for several hundred years.
The early church and the Middle Ages
The early church had many voices that wanted to distance themselves from the church’s Jewish heritage. Justin Martyr (160 AD) claimed that “the Christian church is ‘true spiritual Israel.'” Several of the Church Fathers’ statements about the Jewish people make frightening reading. The Bible’s prophecies about a future for Israel in its own land had to be interpreted figuratively, they believed. God had rejected Israel and the church had taken over. A vicious anti-Semitism characterized large parts of the church.
There were some glaring exceptions. Gerard of Borgo San Donnino (c. 1255) believed that some Jews in the time of the end would return to their homeland. John of Rupescissa (c. 1310-1366) believed that the Jews should return to their land. As proof, he referred to a literal interpretation of the prophets in the Old Testament.
From the Reformation to Pietism
In his book “That Jesus Christ is Born a Jew” published in 1523, Martin Luther uses very mild words about the Jews. If we treated the Jews kindly and guided them cautiously from the Holy Scriptures, many of them would convert to the Christian faith. This did not go as expected, because when Luther in 1543 published the anti-Semitic “On the Jews and Their Lies”, there was not much left of kindness and understanding for the Jewish people.
A Bible publication would bring about major changes. When Mary Tudor became Queen of England in 1553, many Protestants fled to Europe from the persecutions. Several theologians and Bible scholars came to Geneva and in 1560 published a new English Bible. It was especially intended for families and ordinary Bible readers. The Geneva Bible, which was the first complete Bible into English based on the original Hebrew and Greek texts, became known primarily for its notes and explanations. The theologian Theodore Beza had previously published a Latin translation of the New Testament with notes and explanations in the margins. These were included in the new Bible. “The Geneva Bible” and Bible commentaries on this Bible, paved the way for English Puritans to open themselves to the belief in a future restoration of the Jewish people in the end times. Not least, the notes to the Epistle to the Romans were important.
The Bible was thus made available to the average Bible reader in their own mother tongue. The reading of the Old Testament without the church’s allegorical replacement view created fertile ground for a growing Christianity. In the time of the end, Israel would return and be restored to its covenant land. This was the common view among the Puritans in the British Isles and later in the American colonies.
One of the greatest Puritan theologians in England, John Owen (1616-1683) wrote: “The Jews shall be gathered from all parts of the earth where they are scattered and brought back to their native land.” From the first part of the 1600s, the belief in a future restoration of the Jews was widespread among English Puritans.
Phillip Jacob Spener and the Halle Pietists
The beginning of the 1700s saw the emergence of a new movement in Christian-Jewish relations – German Pietism. The Halle Pietists’ pioneer mission, Institutum Judaicum, was an academic course where you were trained for missions among Jews. The work led to Pietist groups in Central and Northern Europe as well as among English-speaking believers being strongly influenced in their view of and treatment of the Jews.
The Pietists’ agenda was largely shaped by the founder of Halle Pietism, Phillip Jacob Spener (1635 – 1705). In his Pia Desideria (Pious Wishes), the most influential work among German Pietists, Spener described an alternative attitude towards the Jews. He encouraged treating them with kindness and goodwill. The Jews would again play a decisive role in the events leading up to the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth. They were in a covenant relationship with God and would eventually be restored as a nation.
Pietists and Puritans saw the Jews as heirs to their historic homeland and worked for their return to the Holy Land. They were convinced that the biblical references to Israel, Judah, Zion, and Jerusalem should be understood literally. The prophecy about Israel in the Old Testament applied to the Jewish people. Faith in Jesus’ imminent return gave their work among the Jews a central place. They taught about the Messianic role and historical mission of the Jews.
British Restorationism in the 1800s
One of the foremost restorers (Zionists) in England in the 1800s was Antony Ashley Cooper (1801-1886), later Lord Shaftesbury. As head of the London Association for the Promotion of Christianity among Jews, he helped the Anglican Church establish a bishopric in Jerusalem with a converted Jew as its first bishop. Shaftesbury’s most important contribution to the Restoration movement was the influence he had on the political development in England to allow the Jews to return to their homeland. It is said that throughout his adult life, Lord Shaftesbury wore a ring engraved with “Pray for peace for Jerusalem”. What had originally been a religiously motivated belief among Christians became official British policy in Palestine and the Middle East from the 1840s.
Charles Henry Churchill (1814-1877), British officer and diplomat in Ottoman Syria, put forward one of the first plans for the creation of an Israeli state. Through tireless efforts, he helped the Jews to get rid of the infamous accusations of ritual murder of Christian children.
British Zionism in the 1900s
British Restorationism led to England gaining control of the Holy Land after World War I. In the early 1900s, some of the most devoted Christianists ensured that the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate of Palestine saw the light of day.
James Balfour (1848-1930) was born in Scotland and grew up in a Christian home. His interest in the Bible gave him love for the Jews. For a number of years, he held high positions in British politics. For a period also as prime minister. His interest in the establishment of a Jewish state was biblically justified. From his upbringing, he had developed an intellectual admiration and sympathy for Jewish philosophy and culture, and the problems the Jews experienced in the modern world engaged him greatly.
After many attempts, Balfour finally managed to convince the British War Cabinet that the time had come to declare the British’s support for a Jewish re-establishment in their homeland. The Balfour Declaration was signed on November 2, 1917, and was a letter addressed to the Zionist leader Lord Rothschild: “His Majesty’s Government looks with support to the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The Balfour Declaration had a tremendous effect on the Zionist movement.
David Lloyd George (1863-1945) was British Prime Minister when the Balfour Declaration was written. Lloyd George, who was from Wales, had been taught the Old Testament by his mother as a child. As a politician and Christian, he was determined to gain control of Palestine so that England could carry out what he believed to be God’s predestined mission.
William Hechler
The founder of secular Zionism was Theodor Herzl (1860-1904). His first and closest advisor was the Rev. William Hechler (1845-1931). Born in India to German missionary parents, he attended college in Basel, Switzerland, where Hechler first met Herzl. Hechler became one of the most zealous Christians of all time and completely absorbed in the goal of the Jews once again settling in their old homeland.
In 1882, Hechler published the book entitled The Restoration of the Jews in Palestine According to Prophecy. In 1885, Hechler was appointed chaplain at the British Embassy in Vienna, and in 1886 he met Herzl and became Herzl’s main aide, guide, and advocate. With his connections in both Germany and England, Hechler opened doors for Herzl to meet high-ranking politicians. For short but crucial periods, Herzl left almost the entire Zionist project to the Christianist Hechler.
Blackstone and American Christian Zionism
One of the foremost examples of Christian Zionism can be found in the American William E. Blackstone (1841-1935). In 1891, the situation of persecuted Jews in Russia was precarious. Blackstone collected the signatures of 413 prominent Americans and asked President Benjamin Harrison to help them find a new homeland in Palestine. He later sent a similar appeal to the Christianist President Woodrow Wilson, which led Wilson to later support the Balfour Declaration. In Israel, there is today a separate forest in his honour, the “Blackstone Forest”.
Harry Truman and the recognition of Israel.
President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) grew up in a godly Christian home. He began to read the Bible at an early age and by the age of 14 had read it four times. His Christian Zionism was built on the love of the people of the Bible combined with responsibility for persecuted Jews.
Truman’s Christian Zionism was deeply rooted long before he became president of the United States. This was made clear by two important decisions: during the discussion of the partition proposal at the UN in November 1947, and later by the recognition of the newly established Israel. On both occasions, all of Truman’s personal advisers and the military leaders stood against him. But the president stuck to his convictions. He instructed the US delegation to the United Nations to support the partition plan and on 14 May 1948. Seventeen minutes after David Ben-Gurion had declared the State of Israel established, a telegram was sent to Tel Aviv with US recognition.
The God of Israel is the God of history. In a miraculous way, the right people with prophetic conviction have influenced and made decisive decisions on the road to modern Israel.