Christian Zionism

We should not let the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state pass without celebrating the role that we, as Dispensational Fundamentalists, played in the return of the Jews to the Holy Land.

Modern Zionism began officially with the publication in 1896 of The Jewish State by Theodore Herzl. Herzl was a Hungarian Jew who covered the Dreyfus Affair as a journalist. Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army who was accused of treason. His innocence was obvious from the first, but what Herzl witnessed at the trial convinced him that Jews would never be treated fairly anywhere in the world. For their survival and prosperity, the only viable answer was for them to return to their ancient homeland.

We recognize the late 1800’s as a time of renewed interest in biblical prophecy, the revival of the expectation of the Lord’s return and the emergence of proto-Fundamentalism. William E. Blackstone, a Chicago businessman turned evangelist, contributed powerfully to the new movement with his runaway bestseller: Jesus Is Coming. Blackstone circulated a petition, known popularly as the “Blackstone Memorial,” requesting President Benjamin Harrison to make the United States into a new Cyrus in facilitating the return of Jews to the Holy Land. Four hundred thirteen prominent Americans signed the petition, including wealthy businessmen and major figures in both political parties.

Blackstone’s motivations were threefold. First, as any good Christian, he hoped that the Jews would recognize Jesus as their Messiah and receive Him as Savior. Second, the wrongful treatment of the Jews throughout the world outraged his sense of justice. Third, he believed that the prophecies of the return of Christ could not be fulfilled until the Jewish state and temple worship were reestablished.

What was remarkable about the Blackstone Memorial was that it came in 1891, five years before Herzl’s book. Christian Zionism is older that Jewish Zionism. Louis Brandeis, the first Jew to serve on the United States Supreme Court, called Blackstone the true father of Zionism. Blackstone sent Herzl a copy of the Bible with verses highlighted that promised the Holy Land to Israel. Herzl proudly displayed that Bible in his office.

While our support for the Jewish people does not necessarily extend to a support of everything that the Jewish state does, that support is all the more important at a time of the reemergence of replacement theology (the idea that the promises made to Israel in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the church).¹

We should not be ashamed to stand with our forebears who expected the premillennial return of Christ and the pretribulational rapture of the church.

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Dr. David Potter serves as a missionary with Baptist World Mission. He is a graduate of Maranatha Baptist Bible College and holds PhD in New Testament from Bob Jones University.  He taught for 12 years at San Francisco Baptist Theological Seminary and has been ministering in Hungary since 1999.

Note: This article is based in part on a post at First Things: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2018/05/the-theology-of-foreign-policy.

1. Interestingly, according to this view, the blessings promised in the Old Testament are all for the church, but the curses are all for the Jews. One can even look at support for the Jews as an expression of his own self-interest (Gen. 12:3a). [↩]