Christian Zionism

Christian Zionism is a political and religious ideology that, in a Christian context, espouses the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land. Likewise, it holds that the founding of Israel in 1948 was in accordance with biblical prophecies transmitted through the Old Testament: that the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Levant—the eschatological "Gathering of Israel"—is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The term began to be used in the mid-20th century, in place of Christian restorationism, as proponents of the ideology rallied behind Zionists in support of a Jewish national homeland. An expectation of Jewish restoration among Christians is rooted in 17th-century English Puritan thought. Christian pro-Zionist ideals emerged in that context. Contemporary Israeli historian Anita Shapira suggests that England's Zionist Evangelical Protestants "passed this notion on to Jewish circles" around the 1840s. 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 reject Judaism and adopt Christianity as a means of fulfilling biblical prophecies. 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 evangelizing the Jews at the same time. The Christian churches of Jerusalem reject Christian Zionism as a "damaging ideology".