YAAKOV ARIEL An Unexpected Alliance

Yaakov Ariel
AN UNEXPECTED ALLIANCE: CHRISTIAN

ZIONISM AND ITS HISTORICAL
SIGNIFICANCE
Downloaded from http://mj.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Manchester on April 23, 2015

In 1840, the leader of the evangelical party in Britain, Lord Ashley
Cooper, the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, petitioned the British for-
eign minister, requesting that Britain initiate the establishment of a
Jewish state in Palestine.1 Fifty years later, an American evangelist,
William Blackstone, organized a petition to the president of the
United States, urging him to convene an international conference that
would decide to grant Palestine to the Jews. Shaftesbury and Blackstone,
whose attempts to create a Jewish state in Palestine antedated the rise
of political Zionism, were among the more well-known proto-Zionists
in the English-speaking world. A large number of clergymen, writers,
businessmen, and politicians supported, and at times labored actively
for, the restoration of the Jews to Palestine and the establishment of a
Jewish state. Motivated by a biblical messianic faith and the belief that
a Jewish commonwealth in the Land of Israel was a necessary stage in
the preparation of the way for the return of Jesus of Nazareth to
earth, Christian Zionists have, at times, been more enthusiastic than
Jews over the prospect of a Jewish state. When Jews launched the
Zionist movement, Christian protagonists offered support. Christian
political backing accompanied the birth of the State of Israel and its
history ever since, gaining special momentum after the Six-Day War
in 1967.
CHRISTIAN MESSIANISM AND ZIONISM
The messianic hope, which has served as the incentive for the rise of
Christian Zionism, draws on a long Christian messianic tradition.2 In
its early generations, Christianity was a messianic faith, its followers
expecting the imminent return of Jesus of Nazareth to establish the
kingdom of God on earth.3 Since the turning of Christianity into the
dominant religion in the Mediterranean world in the fourth and fifth
centuries, the predominant Christian trends became amillennial,
expecting the return of Jesus in a remote future and interpreting
doi:10.1093/mj/kjj005
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Christian Zionism and Its Historical Significance 75
biblical passages with messianic overtones as allegorical. According to

that view, the church has replaced Jesus on earth and has a mission to
instruct its followers and ensure their salvation. However, millennial
groups, which expected the return of Jesus to earth, came about dur-
ing the Middle Ages, drawing on messianic passages in biblical tracts,
such as Daniel and the Revelations of John, and predicting the immi-
nent end of the world-as-we-know-it.4
A burst of apocalyptic expectations came about in the wake of the
Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.5 Reading the Old

Testament in a new manner, a number of the messianic groups
expected the Jews to play an important role in the imminent events of
the End Times. The English Revolution in the mid–seventeenth cen-
tury also stirred the messianic imagination and gave rise to premillen-
nialist groups that took interest in the Jewish people and the prospect
of their return to Palestine. Messianic hopes played a part in the delib-
erations on the return of the Jews to England in the 1650s.6 Likewise,
premillennialist Christians in Britain and Holland followed with inter-
est the Jewish messianic movement stirred by Shabbatai Zvi in the
mid–seventeenth century, hoping that it would bring about the return
of the Jews to Palestine.7
The roots and early beginnings of Christian Zionism can be
tracked to the seventeenth-century Protestant messianic groups. It
was already at this stage that one could notice characteristics of Chris-
tian interest in the Jewish return to Palestine. Such Christians tended
to read their sacred scriptures in a more literal manner. In contrast to
other branches of Christianity, they saw the Jews as continuers of the
biblical sons of Israel, heirs to the covenant between God and Abraham,
and the object of biblical prophecies about a restored Davidic king-
dom in the Land of Israel. In their messianic scenarios, the return of
the Jews to Palestine was the first step in the advancement of the mes-
sianic timetable. Such Christians often envisioned the Jews and their
role in history without encountering Jews and with no knowledge of
the realities of Jewish life and Jewish aspirations. Their image of the
Jews was often mixed and ambivalent, based on the scriptures, not on
encounters with actual Jews.
Christian Zionism resurfaced with much vigor in the early
decades of the nineteenth century, with the rise of the evangelical
movement in Britain and a new wave of fascination with prophecy
and the prospects of the arrival of the messianic times.8 Two brands of
Christian messianic faiths gained prominence in the nineteenth cen-
tury, “historical” and “futurist,” differing as to when the events of the
End Times were to begin. For the most part, both messianic schools
shared ideas on the role of the Jews and the Holy Land in God’s plans
for humanity.9 Adherents of both schools became supporters of Zionist
76 Yaakov Ariel
initiatives, as well as of missionary activity among the Jews.10 In

Europe, the predominant messianic school was “historical,” identify-
ing current events with biblical passages, while the premillennialist
faith, in its “futurist,” dispensationalist form, became widely accepted
in America in the latter decades of the nineteenth century. Dispensa-
tionalism has become part and parcel of a conservative evangelical
creed, serving as a philosophy of history for conservative Christians
because it meshes well with their outlook on contemporary culture. It
has also served to provide hope and reassurance in the face of uncer-

tainty, for example, during the 1950s–1980s, when a threat of a
nuclear war between the two global powers seemed very plausible.11
In the premillennialist understanding of the course of human his-
tory, God has a different plan for the Jews, the church, and the rest of
humanity. Premillennialist Christians define the church as the body of
the true believers, composed of those who have undergone inner
experiences of conversion, have accepted Jesus as their personal Savior,
and have taken it upon themselves to live saintly Christian lives. They
alone will be saved and spared the turmoils and destruction that will
precede the arrival of the Messiah. According to the dispensationalist
school of Christian messianic thought, which has become predomi-
nant in our era, the messianic times will begin with the Rapture of the
church. The true believers will be snatched from earth and meet Jesus
in the air. Those believers who die prior to the Rapture will rise from
the dead and will also join the living in heaven. These saintly persons
will remain with Jesus for seven years (according to some versions, for
three and a half years) and thus be spared the turmoils and miseries
that will be inflicted on those who remain on earth during that period.
For the latter, this period will be marked by natural disasters such as
earthquakes, floods, and famines, as well as wars and murderous dic-
tatorial regimes. By the time Jesus returns to earth, about two-thirds
of humanity will have perished.12
For the Jews, the seven years that stand between the current era
and the messianic times will be known as the “Time of Jacob’s Trou-
ble” (based on Jeremiah 30:7). The Jews will return to their ancient
homeland “in unbelief,” without accepting Jesus as their Savior. They
will establish a political commonwealth there, not the millennial
Davidic kingdom but, still, a necessary step in the advancement of the
messianic timetable. Living in spiritual blindness, the Jews will let
themselves be ruled by Antichrist, an impostor posing as the Messiah.
Antichrist will inflict a reign of terror, directed, among others, against
Jews who will accept the belief in Jesus during this period.
The arrival of Jesus at the end of the Great Tribulation will end
Antichrist’s rule. Jesus will crush this Satanic ruler and his armies and
will establish the millennial kingdom. Those Jews who survive the
turmoils and terror of the Great Tribulation will accept Jesus as their
Savior. There will follow a period marked by the righteous rule of
Christ on earth, with the Jews inhabiting David’s ancient kingdom,
and Jerusalem serving as the capital of the entire world.
CHRISTIAN SUPPORT FOR THE ZIONIST CAUSE
The special place Jews occupy in Christian Protestant messianic faith

can well explain the interest those holding such beliefs have shown in
the Jews and the prospect of their national restoration. Beginning in
the nineteenth century, premillennialist Christians have come up with
a series of initiatives intended to bring about or promote the national
restoration of the Jews in Palestine. Such efforts predated the rise of
political Zionism. A number of evangelical Christians in Britain came
out with initiatives to restore the Jews to Zion, trying to persuade the
British government to intercede with the Ottoman Turks and propose
the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.13
American Christian Zionists have come up with similar initia-
tives. The most outstanding of them was that of William Blackstone
at the end of the nineteenth century. An evangelist and promoter of
the dispensationalist messianic faith, Blackstone visited Palestine in
1889 and was deeply impressed by the developments that the first
wave of Zionist immigration had brought about in a country he had
considered to be a desolated land. He viewed the agricultural settle-
ments and the new neighborhoods in Jerusalem as “signs of the
time,” indicating that an era was ending and the great events of the
End Times were to occur very soon.14 Blackstone decided to take an
active line and help bring about Jewish national restoration to Pales-
tine. In 1891 he organized a petition urging the president of the
United States to convene an international conference of the world
powers that would give Palestine back to the Jews. More than four
hundred prominent Americans signed Blackstone’s petition—con-
gressmen, governors, mayors, publishers and editors of leading
newspapers, notable clergymen, and leading businessmen. Although
it failed to bring the American government to take a meaningful
action regarding its request, the petition reflected the warm support
that the idea of the Jewish restoration to Palestine could receive
among American Protestants influenced by a biblical messianic out-
look on the Jews and Palestine.15
Blackstone devised a theory that has become a cornerstone of
American Christian Zionists ever since. The American evangelist
asserted that the United States had a special role and mission in God’s
plans for humanity: that of a modern Cyrus, to help restore the Jews
78 Yaakov Ariel
to Zion. God has chosen America for that mission on account of its
moral superiority over other nations, and America is judged accord-
ing to the way it carries out its mission.16 This theory enabled American
evangelicals to combine their messianic belief and understanding of
the course of human history with their sense of American patriotism.
Although they have often criticized contemporary American culture,
they have remained loyal citizens of the American commonwealth.
When Theodore Herzl, the father of political Zionism, began his
efforts in the mid-1890s to secure international recognition for the

idea of a Jewish state, Christian Zionists showed much interest in the
new movement and offered support. William Hechler, a German British
believer in the imminent Second Coming of Jesus, became an adviser
to Herzl and his liaison to the Protestant Christian rulers of Europe.17
Hechler introduced Herzl to the Grand Duke of Baden, who reacted
sympathetically and promised to support the Zionist cause. The
Grand Duke of Baden introduced Herzl to the German emperor,
whom Herzl wished to turn into a patron of the Zionist cause. When
the first Zionist congress convened in Basil in 1897, a number of
Christians came as guests to show support.
The characteristics of the relationship between Christian support-
ers and the Zionist leadership were laid down at that time. Herzl did
not comprehend at first what motivated Christians such as Hechler to
become supporters of the fledgling Zionist movement. He became sat-
isfied that Hechler was genuinely a friend, and that was all that mat-
tered. The Zionist leaders did not take the premillennialist theology
seriously, viewing it as a somewhat eccentric conviction and focusing
instead on the support it provided for their cause.18 Christian Zionists,
on their part, had mixed feelings about the Zionist movement. Their
immediate reaction to the Zionist endeavor was enthusiastically sup-
portive, and their reports on the rise of the Zionist movement and the
developments in Palestine were reminiscent of those of Jewish sup-
porters of the Zionist cause. They were, however, disappointed by the
secular character of the movement and saddened that the Zionists
were unaware of what they considered to be the real significance of
their wish to return to Palestine.
Christian Zionists began coordinating their work with that of the
Jewish Zionist movement. Receiving endorsement for his plan from
major Protestant churches, and coordinating his efforts with those of
the American Zionist leadership, William Blackstone organized a sec-
ond petition in 1916 calling upon the president of the United States to
help restore Palestine to the Jews. American Zionist leaders, such as
Louis Brandeis, Steven Wise, Jacob de Haas, and Nathan Straus, saw
the Christian efforts as beneficial to the Zionist cause and established a
warm relationship with Blackstone. Blackstone did not keep his
premillennialist motivations secret from his Jewish friends, but the

Zionist leaders were not bothered by his prediction that great turmoils
were awaiting the Jews when the events of the End Times would begin
to unfold. They did not expect the Rapture to take place and saw the
help that Blackstone was providing them as the only concrete out-
come of his messianic faith.
Historians have pointed out that the issuing of the Balfour Decla-
ration in 1917, in which Britain expressed its support for the building
of a Jewish national home in Palestine, resulted from a mixture of

political calculations and Christian support in Britain for Jewish resto-
ration in Palestine.19 Few, however, have taken notice of the efforts of
Christian Zionists in America to convince Woodrow Wilson to allow
the British to issue the declaration. Wilson himself did not wish that
his negotiations with Zionist leaders and their Christian supporters
become public knowledge and preferred to make pro-Zionist moves
behind closed doors.20
Christian Zionists welcomed the Balfour Declaration and the British
takeover of Palestine, interpreting these developments as further indi-
cations that the ground was being prepared for the arrival of the Mes-
siah. Their joy over the new regime in Palestine dominated two
“prophetic conferences” that took place in Philadelphia and New
York in 1918.21
Evangelical and pietist Christians maintained a profound interest
in the events that were taking place in the life of the Jewish people and
especially in the development of the Jewish community in Palestine.
They saw the struggles and turmoils that befell the Jewish nation in
the period between the two world wars in light of their eschatological
beliefs. Evangelical and pietist journals with pro-Zionist leanings, such
as Our Hope, The King’s Business, The Moody Monthly, and the Pentecostal
Evangel, regularly published news on developments that took place in
the life of the Jewish people, the Zionist movement, and especially the
Jewish community in Palestine. Christian Zionists were encouraged by
the new wave of Zionist immigration to Palestine in the years of the
British administration of the country, and events, such as the opening
of the Hebrew University in 1925 and the new seaport in Haifa in
1932, were publicized in their periodicals. They interpreted these
developments as signs that the Jews were energetically building a
commonwealth in their ancient land and that the great events of the
End Times were to occur very soon.22 Excited by the prospects of an
imminent Second Coming of Jesus to earth, they expressed dismay at
the restrictions on Jewish immigration and settlement that the British
were imposing. They also criticized the Arabs for their hostility toward
the Zionist endeavor and for their violence against the Jews. They saw
attempts at blocking the building of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine
80 Yaakov Ariel
as equivalent to putting obstacles in the way of God’s plans for the

End Times. Such attempts, they asserted, were futile, and the Arabs
would pay dearly for their rebellious attempts.23
Christian Zionist efforts and protests did not shape British policy
in Palestine, although they might have had some influence on modify-
ing it as they counterbalanced other points of view. During that
period conservative evangelical and pietist political power was on the
decline, and their political influence, both in Britain and in America,
weakened considerably. In Britain, the evangelical movement was just

a shadow of what it had been a century earlier, and in America, after
the Scopes trial in 1925, conservative evangelicals withdrew, to a large
degree, from the public arena. Evangelical leaders did not see them-
selves as influential national figures whose voices would be heard by
the policy makers in Washington or as people who could advance a
political agenda on the national or international level. On the
European continent, the rise of the Nazis to power subdued, if not
completely crushed, pro-Zionist pietist activity. In a very crucial
moment in the life of the Jewish people, its Christian supporters were
weak. Although Christian sympathizers could not prevent the Holocaust
and failed to persuade the British to open Palestine to unrestricted
Jewish immigration, they would resurface after World War II and the
birth of the State of Israel and would play again an important role in
mustering political support, especially in America, for the Jewish state.
CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS AND A JEWISH STATE
Christian Zionists’ response to the establishment of the State of Israel

in 1948 was enthusiastic. Evangelical journals published sympathetic
articles and followed the young Jewish state with great interest in an
attempt to interpret its significance for the advancement of God’s
plans in the ages. While they were not happy with the secular charac-
ter of Israeli government and society, some of the things they saw,
such as the mass emigration of Jews to Israel in the 1950s, from Asian,
African, and East European countries, enhanced their messianic
hopes.24 In their eyes, this was a significant development, one that had
been prophesied in the Bible, and a clear indication that the present
era was terminating and the events of the End Times were beginning
to occur.
Contrary to the common perception, Christian Zionists did take
notice and showed concern over the fate of hundreds of thousands of
Palestinian Arabs who lost their homes in 1948 and became refugees
in Arab lands. Although they criticized the Arab hostility against Israel
and supported the Israeli state in its struggles with its Arab neighbors,
they expressed a belief that the Land of Israel could maintain an Arab
population alongside its Jewish population and that Israel had an obli-
gation to respect human rights and treat the Arabs with fairness.25 A
few conservative Protestant churches, such as the Southern Baptists,
the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Assemblies of God, and the
Plymouth Brethren, have worked among Palestinians, offering relief
and educational services. In striving to reconcile premillennialist
teachings with the hopes and fears of Arab congregants and potential
converts, they emphasized that the ingathering of the Jews in the

Land of Israel and the eventual reestablishment of the Davidic king-
dom did not necessitate the banishment of Arabs from that land. In
spite of such reassurances, only rarely did pietist or evangelical Arabs
become Christian Zionists.26
The Six-Day War had a dramatic effect on evangelical and pietist
theologies. Since the French Revolution in the last years of the
eighteenth century and the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, there has not been a political-military event that
has provided so much fuel to the engines of Christian prophetic
belief as did the war between Israel and its neighbors in June 1967,
which led to the taking over by the Jews of the historical sites of
Jerusalem. The dramatic Israeli victory, and the territorial gains it
brought with it, strengthened the premillennialists’ conviction that
Israel was created for a mission in history and was to play an impor-
tant role in the developments that were to precede the arrival of the
Messiah.27
During the 1970s–2000s, conservative evangelicals have been
counted among Israel’s most ardent supporters in the American pub-
lic arena.28 Likewise, the growing evangelical population in Latin
America has turned, at the turn of the twenty-first century, into a
powerful Christian Zionist constituency. In addition, evangelical and
pietist groups in countries such as Holland and Finland have served
during that period as pro-Zionist lobbies, counterbalancing anti-
Israeli sentiments in their countries. The growth of the evangelical
community in Korea has also turned that country into a Christian
Zionist stronghold. Christian Zionists all around the globe involved
themselves, in the 1970s–2000s, in such Jewish issues as the demand
to facilitate Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union.
Especially in America, Christian Zionists have turned into a pro-
Israel lobby that uses its political power to promote policies favorable
to the interests of the Jewish state. The decades following the Six-Day
War were marked by massive American support for Israel in terms of
money, arms, and diplomatic backing. For many conservative Chris-
tians in America, their pro-Israeli stand was an appreciation of the
importance of the State of Israel for the advancement of history. It
82 Yaakov Ariel
was, at the same time, a fulfillment of America’s historical role, as well

as going hand in hand with American interests.
The years following the 1967 Middle East war saw a dramatic rise
in evangelical influence in America. Growing in numbers and self-
confidence, evangelicals have become more visible and aggressive. In
1976, when Jimmy Carter was elected president, many Americans
who identified with liberal causes discovered in surprise that evangeli-
calism had grown considerably and is much more influential than they
had assumed. The liberal Carter was, however, a disappointment to

conservative evangelicals. Carter did take an interest in the Middle
East and brought Egypt and Israel together to sign a peace treaty, but
the role he played was that of an American statesman rather than an
evangelical Christian. The messianic hope of paving the way for the
Davidic kingdom was not his concern, and he did not give preference
to Israeli interests over and against Arab ones.
Ronald Reagan, who replaced Carter as president in 1981, was
influenced in forming his Middle East policy by Christian Zionist pres-
sure, if not by his own premillennialist understanding of the course of
history.29 Reagan’s policy toward Israel was adopted by his successor,
George Bush, who was also close to the Christian Zionist evangelicals
and relied on their support. A friendly attitude toward Israel has been
part and parcel of the evangelical vision for America’s global policy.
While other considerations, too, determined Reagan’s and Bush’s pol-
icy toward Israel, the favorable evangelical attitude toward that coun-
try and the Christian Zionist insistence that America should assist the
Jewish state played an influential part.30
Bill Clinton’s relationship with Israel has to be judged very differ-
ently from that of Reagan or Bush. Although nominally an evangelical
Christian himself, Clinton did not receive much support from evan-
gelicals, who have seen him as representing liberal values to which
they have been opposed. While in Arkansas, Clinton had remained,
however, a member of a Southern Baptist church. Upon his election
as president, his pastor delivered a sermon that included the message
that the newly elected president should not neglect his obligation to
protect Israel. This tells us perhaps more about the effect of premil-
lennialist thinking on Baptists in Little Rock, Arkansas, than it does
about Clinton’s personal faith. Yet it is important to be aware of the
fact that the roots and cultural background of the American president
who opened his administration to Jews more than any president
before, in addition to showing deep concern for Israel, were in the
Bible Belt and strongly influenced by a messianic biblical vision of
Israel.
Even more than those of previous presidents, George W. Bush’s
administration has been strongly influenced by evangelical, pro-Israeli
sentiment. A committed conservative Christian himself, Bush has

relied heavily on conservative support and, in addition to extending
political and financial support to the Jewish state, has been reluctant
to initiate diplomatic moves that might upset premillennialist support-
ers of Israel.
The evangelical premillennialist understanding of Israel has influ-
enced, at times more openly, the attitudes of other prominent American
public figures toward Israel. One noted example is that of Jesse Helms
from North Carolina, who served as a U.S. senator during the 1980s,

1990s, and early 2000s. A convinced premillennialist, Helms, who, as
the powerful chair of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, labored
to limit American financial support abroad, at the same time approved
of the extensive financial support that the United States offered Israel.
Helms’s supportive attitude toward Israel was not unique. In the
1970s–2000s, dozens of pro-Israeli Christian Zionist organizations
emerged in the United States. Besides mustering political support for
Israel, their leaders have also lectured in churches, distributed mate-
rial on Israel, and organized tours to the Holy Land. Numerous such
groups have also been engaged in evangelization efforts among the
Jews.
The years following the Six-Day War also saw an increase in the
actual presence and activity of Christian Zionists in Israel. Tours of
evangelical and pietist groups to that country increased, as did the
numbers of field study seminars and of volunteers coming to kibbutzim.
Evangelical Christians even established institutions of higher educa-
tion in Israel, one of these being the Holy-Land Institute set up by
Douglas Young, a premillennialist with a pro-Zionist orientation.
The most visible and better known Christian Zionist organization
in Israel is the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ).
Its story tells us a great deal about conservative Christian interest in
the Jews and Israel, about Christian Zionist activity, and about the
relationship that has developed between the Christian Zionist commu-
nity and Israeli society and government. In the 1970s, Christian Zionist
activists in Jerusalem founded a local fellowship that saw its aim in
mustering support for Israel. The participants met weekly, prayed,
sang, and discussed means to promote Christian support for Israel in
order to counterbalance anti-Israel sentiments in the Christian world.
One of the leaders of the group, the Dutch minister Jan Willem van
der Hoeven, suggested organizing large annual gatherings of Chris-
tian supporters of Israel from all over the world during Sukkoth, the
Jewish harvest festival commemorating the tent sanctuaries, or taber-
nacles, used during the Exodus. His theological rationale was that
according to the Bible (Zechariah 14:15) Gentiles were also com-
manded to gather in Jerusalem during the festival. In 1979 the group
84 Yaakov Ariel
launched its first yearly Tabernacles festival, a weeklong assembly of

Christian supporters of Israel, highlighted by a march through the
streets of Jerusalem.
In 1980, the Israeli Knesset passed the “Jerusalem Law,” which
declared the whole of the city to be the capital of the State of Israel. In
protest, almost all countries with embassies and consulates in Jerusalem
moved their diplomatic staffs to Tel Aviv. This evacuation provided a
dramatic point at which the Christian Zionist activists announced the
creation of the International Christian Embassy, as an act of sympathy
and support for Israel on the part of Christians.31 The embassy chose

as its logo two olive branches hovering over a globe with Jerusalem at
its center. “This symbolizes the great day when Zechariah’s prophecy
will be fulfilled, and all nations will come up to Jerusalem to keep the
Feast of Tabernacles during Messiah’s reign on earth,” the embassy’s
leaders announced.32 Israeli officials, including the Jerusalem mayor
Teddy Kollek, noted the propaganda value of the embassy’s creation
and welcomed the new organization. It made the point, they believed,
that even though many countries had removed their embassies and
consulates from Jerusalem due to Arab pressure, the Christian world
backed Israel.33
The embassy’s major work has been to promote support for
Israel among evangelicals worldwide and to initiate various philan-
thropic programs in Israel. The two tasks are closely related: its pro-
motional efforts are also fund-raising opportunities. The embassy
has wished to represent “true Christianity” worldwide and has made
a great effort to open branches and gain supporters in as many coun-
tries as possible. In the United States, its branches are mainly situ-
ated in the Bible Belt, while in Europe, representatives of the
embassy can be found in Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. There are
also volunteers for the embassy in predominantly Catholic countries—
Spain, Portugal, France, and Belgium. In recent years, representa-
tives have also worked for the embassy’s interests in Eastern
Europe—Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
and Romania.34 There are also representatives in Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, Zaire, and Nigeria, enhancing the interna-
tional image of the embassy. ICEJ has received support from Latin
American countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia, Brazil,
El Salvador, and Costa Rica, garnering support from the growing
number of Latin American premillennialists, thousands of whom par-
ticipate in the annual tours of the Holy Land sponsored or initiated by
the embassy. There has also been an attempt to attract supporters in
South Asia.
The embassy’s international work focuses on lecturing, mostly in

churches, about Israel’s role in history and the work of the embassy on
behalf of Jewish immigration and settlement. “Embassies” around the
globe distribute ICEJ journals, brochures, leaflets, and cassettes of
“Davidic music” and sermons. Embassy representatives also recruit pil-
grims for the annual Tabernacles gatherings and collect money for the
embassy’s philanthropic enterprises in Israel. The day-to-day work of
the embassy in Israel is devoted to this international mission. The
Jerusalem headquarters supervises the work of the representatives in

various countries, administers the finances, maintains public relations
and publications departments, and oversees the production of video
and audiocassettes in a number of languages, including English,
German, Dutch, Finnish, and Russian. A special department produces
material for Latin American countries in Spanish and Portuguese. The
radio department prepares a special program, A Word from Jerusalem,
which is broadcast to evangelical radio stations. The embassy also pro-
vides welfare services in Jerusalem, distributing money and goods to
new immigrants as well as other needy Israelis. Aware that many Jews
are suspicious of Christian charitable enterprises, ICEJ often distrib-
utes its parcels through Israeli public agencies.35
The embassy leaders have spent much of their time fund-raising
in evangelical communities around the globe. A considerable amount
of funding has come from Germany.36 Along with the Holyland Fel-
lowship of Christians and Jews, the embassy has been the first Chris-
tian institution that has systematically donated money to Zionist
enterprises. Most Christian Zionists, by contrast, have supported mis-
sionary agencies that have aimed at converting Jews. The embassy has
thus set new norms in the relationship between Christians and Israel.
The Feast of Tabernacles serves as the focal point of the year for
the International Christian Embassy. A major convocation of thou-
sands of supporters from around the world, it provides an opportu-
nity to present the embassy and its message to the Israeli public.
Activities include tours of the country for the pilgrims, a march
through Jerusalem’s main streets, a “biblical meal” served and cele-
brated on the shore of the Dead Sea, and assemblies in Jerusalem.
Some of the gatherings take place in Binyanei Ha’Uma, the largest
convention hall in Jerusalem; booths exhibit publications and feature
programs and enterprises promoted by the embassy.
During the 1980s–2000s, Jan Willem van der Hoeven, who was
the embassy’s ideologue, emerged as one of the better-known spokes-
men on Israel and its role in history in the Christian Zionist camp.37
His ideas are therefore worthwhile taking notice of. Van der Hoeven
has shared the premillennialist vision of Israel as a transitory but nec-
essary vehicle on the messianic road. According to that view, the Jewish
86 Yaakov Ariel
political entity will exist in rebellious unbelief until the arrival of Jesus.
At the same time, its existence and security are a positive, even reas-
suring development in the unfolding of history, and it is therefore
pertinent to protect Israel against forces that would undermine it.
Many conservative Christians have seen Arab hostility toward the
Zionist enterprise as an attempt to jeopardize the advancement of
God’s plans. In van der Hoeven’s view, the Palestinian resistance
organizations have been instruments of Satan, and he has insisted that
there is no room in the Holy Land for Arabs who militate against

Israel’s existence. Arabs who are “true Christian believers” support
the Israeli cause, he has claimed.38
Like that of many Christian Zionists, van der Hoeven’s attitude
toward the Jews has been ambivalent. He has firmly believed that the
Jews are the heirs of biblical Israel, God’s chosen people, destined for
a glorious future in the messianic age, but he also has harbored nega-
tive attitudes toward Jews, including feelings of frustration, disap-
pointment, and anger. He has expressed bitterness, for example, that
so many Israelis have been unwilling to support a more firm, right-
wing political agenda. In order to be accepted by the liberal, decadent
West, he complained, they were willing to compromise their national
aspirations and, in so doing, betray their historical role, their purpose
in God’s plans for the End Times.39 In a speech delivered during the
embassy’s 1989 Tabernacles celebration, he attacked moderate and
left-wing Israeli politicians, declaring that giving up the territories
Israel had occupied since 1967 would mark the second time the Jews
rejected God.40
For him, “land for peace” is not a pragmatic political decision
aimed at enhancing the well-being of the region; such a decision could
have disastrous cosmic implications and would impede the divine plan
for human redemption. The Jews are not just another people who can
make choices according to their political needs; they have a burden to
carry, a duty and purpose in history. For the Jews to refuse to play
their role would constitute unforgivable treachery toward all human-
kind. Van der Hoeven’s words convey the bitterness felt by many
Christian Zionists regarding the Jewish refusal to accept Jesus as the
Savior. In their view, the Jews should have been the first to recognize
him as Messiah. A second refusal to accept him, or to prepare the
ground for his arrival, would be even worse than the first, for the Jews
would miss their second opportunity for redemption.
Over the years the International Christian Embassy has become
one of the more controversial of the Christian groups and agencies
that work in the Middle East or take an interest in its fate. Middle
Eastern churches, as a rule, have no contact with the embassy and
reject its message and its activities. Middle Eastern Christianity generally
holds to “replacement theology,” the claim that the Christian church

is the continuation and heir of biblical historical Israel and that Juda-
ism has no further purpose in God’s plans for humanity. Most of these
churches have Arab constituencies, are sympathetic to Arab national
feelings, and have expressed support for the Palestinian uprising.
They see the embassy as an institution offering one-sided support for
Israel and, as members of the Middle East Council of Churches, have
signed petitions condemning its activities.41
The ICEJ has also aroused resentment among many liberal Prot-

estants, who have little patience for conservative Christianity and the
premillennialist messianic conviction. Mainline Protestant churches
are committed, in principle, to social and political justice, supporting
movements of national liberation and expressing sympathy for the
Palestinians’ quest for independence from Israeli rule. In their opin-
ion Israel should be judged, like all other countries, on the basis of
political justice and morality.42
The Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), an institution affil-
iated with the World Council of Churches, represents both mainline
Protestant and Middle Eastern churches. It has opposed the embassy’s
Christian Zionist agenda, fearing that the ICEJ might succeed in rais-
ing support for Israeli political causes. In its May 1998 meeting in
Cyprus it discussed ways to combat the embassy. In denouncing one-
sided Christian supporters of Zionism, the MECC declared, “The con-
sultation was referring here especially to the western fundamentalist
Christian Zionist movement and its political activities conducted through
the self-declared International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.”43
While Arabs and pro-Arab Christian churches have resented Christian
Zionist activity, the Israeli leadership has welcomed its unexpected
allies with open arms.
ISRAELIS AND CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS
In general, the Israeli leadership has not fully comprehended the

nature of the special attitudes of Christian Zionists toward the new
state and has therefore overlooked elements in the Christian Zionist
theology and activity to which, in principle, it objects. Israeli officials
could not tell the difference between its mainline Christian support-
ers, who showed sympathy for Israel on the basis of political or
humanitarian considerations, and its conservative evangelical sup-
porters, whose attitudes have been rooted in a biblical messianic
faith.44 They were certainly unaware of the details of the Christian
eschatological hopes and had never heard of such terms as “the Great
Tribulation” or the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.”
88 Yaakov Ariel
Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is a case in point.

Ben-Gurion believed that Christian supporters viewed the establish-
ment of the State of Israel as the ultimate fulfillment of biblical proph-
ecies rather than as a step toward the realization of that millennial
kingdom, and he gave expression to such views in an address he wrote
for the opening of an international Pentecostal conference that con-
vened in Israel. Israeli officials who sat at the opening session were
puzzled by the coolness of the Pentecostal reaction to the prime minis-
ter’s speech.45 They certainly were not aware that messianic hopes

encouraged not only support for Zionism and for Israel but also
aggressive missionary activity among the Jews.
A major feature of the Christian Zionist relation to the Jews has
been the mission. Since the rise of the pietist movement in central
Europe at the turn of the eighteenth century, and the evangelical
movement in Britain at the turn of the nineteenth century, missions to
the Jews have occupied an important place on the premillennialist
Christian agenda and have come to characterize the messianic-
oriented Christian interaction with the Jews even more than pro-Zionist
activity. Its meaning for evangelicals and pietists has gone far beyond
attempts to capture souls. They have seen missionizing the Jews as
taking part in the divine drama of salvation. Propagating Christianity
among the Jews meant teaching the people of God about their role
and purpose in history, as well as saving some of them from the tur-
moils of the Great Tribulation.
When at the turn of the nineteenth century a strong evangelical
premillennialist movement came into being, it gave rise not only to
Zionist initiatives but to a large missionary movement as well.
Throughout the nineteenth century, evangelicals established numer-
ous missions to the Jews, operating all around the Jewish world.46
Often, the same persons would be active on both fronts, promoting
support for Zionism and evangelism of Jews at the same time. The
best-known of today’s missions, Jews for Jesus, also works to promote
pro-Zionist sentiments, calling its music band the “Liberated Wailing
Wall.”47 The rise of Jews for Jesus took place in the same years that
another Christian Zionist movement associated with the missionary
movement came into being: Messianic Judaism. A movement of Jewish
converts to evangelical Christianity, Messianic Jews see themselves as
overcoming the historical differences between Judaism and Christianity
and amalgamating the Christian faith with the Jewish tradition. They
have strongly influenced the missionary movement, transforming its
ideology and rhetoric. Missions to the Jews have emphasized since the
1970s that becoming Christian does not work to eradicate Jewish iden-
tity. On the contrary, it turns Jews into “complete Jews,” true to the
real goal and purpose of the Jewish people. During the 1970s–2000s,
more than four hundred messianic congregations were established in

Israel, Britain, Argentina, South Africa, and other Jewish communi-
ties. Like missions to the Jews, messianic Jews see it as their duty to
promote support for Israel in Christian circles.
Missions to the Jews have seen it as their goal to increase support
in the Christian community for the premillennialist idea of the cen-
trality of the Jews in God’s plans for humanity, as well as the need to
evangelize that nation. For institutions such as the American Messianic
Fellowship or the Friends of Israel, the two aims are inseparable.48

Their premillennialist convictions motivate both their Zionism and
their zeal to evangelize God’s chosen nation. An important part of
their work is lecturing in churches and distributing written or
recorded material in which they advocate their outlook on the Jewish
people and Israel’s historical role and the importance of supporting
Israel and evangelizing the Jews.
Secular Israeli leaders, however, were not particularly bothered
by Christian missionary activities. Their view of such activities was
often cynical, as they believed that such activities were doomed to
futility.49 The Israeli government has tried to build good relations
with Christian groups and considered it essential to assure them that
the government would not interfere with their work. Christian mis-
sionaries continued their operations in Israel without interruption.50
Orthodox Jewish activists protested against the missionaries’ work in
Israel, and some Jews occasionally attempted to harass missions, but
the government refused to change its policy, and the police were
given the task of protecting missionary centers.51
Since the late 1970s, as the evangelical pro-Zionist influence on
American political life has become more and more apparent, the
Israeli government has taken more notice of this segment of Chris-
tianity and has taken measures to establish contact with it.52 Among
other things, Menachem Begin appointed a special liaison for evan-
gelical Christians. Israeli officials spoke at evangelical conferences,
and evangelists met with Israeli leaders as part of their touring sched-
ules in Israel. After the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi atomic plant in
1981, Begin called Jerry Falwell, leader of the conservative Christian
group the “Moral Majority,” and asked him to back Israel. During the
1980s–2000s, Israeli officials relied on the International Christian
Embassy as a vehicle to reach the Protestant Christian community,
believing that it represents a large segment of Christianity.53 Israeli
leaders met frequently with embassy leaders and granted the ICEJ
permission to hold gatherings in the courtyard of the Israeli parlia-
ment, the Knesset, as part of its Tabernacles celebrations.54 In April
1990, the speaker of the Knesset presented the embassy with the
Quality of Life Award, for its positive role in Israeli life.
90 Yaakov Ariel
Ironically, many of the more enthusiastic allies of the Christian

Zionists are in the nationalist-religious wing of Israeli society. In 1988
the magazine Nekuda (Settlement), an organ of the Jewish settlements in
Judea and Samaria, published a favorable article on the International
Christian Embassy in Jerusalem entitled “Without Inhibitions: Christians
Committed to Judea and Samaria.” Emphasizing that the embassy
had no missionary intentions, Nekuda described it as a Christian pro-
Israel group that, unlike many Jews, realized that the Bible autho-
rized the Jews to settle their land.55

One example of the Israeli ignorance of the nature of Christian
interest in Zionism is the reaction to attempts by Christian supporters
of Israel to evangelize Jews in Israel. One of the Begin government’s
earliest acts of legislation, in the late 1970s, was intended to restrict
missionary activity, not realizing that this activity was carried out by
the same elements in Christianity with whom it was trying to establish
a friendly relationship. When the proposed law was being debated,
prior to the enactment of the legislation in 1978, many evangelists
were worried that it might bring their activity to an end. They were
relieved when they saw the wording of the law, which forbade the
offering of economic incentives in exchange for conversion, since it
clearly did not place restrictions on the sort of work they did. Con-
trary to Jewish myths, missionaries were not “buying” converts, and at
any rate, the Israeli government was reluctant to enforce the law.56
In the 1990s, antimissionary sentiments were again running high,
and a number of Orthodox and non-Orthodox members of the Knesset
came out with initiatives to outlaw missionary activity.57 In 1996, an
initial, first-round proposal to curtail missionary activity passed the
Knesset vote. But then the complex and paradoxical nature of the
relationship between the evangelical community and Israeli society
became unprecedentedly clear. Missionaries operating in Israel called
upon their supporters around the globe to raise their voices against
the impending law. “We call upon the international Christian commu-
nity to join us in our opposition to this law,” reads one of the appeals:
“As Christian believers in the God of Israel and in Jesus the Messiah
and Savior of the world, we have a special respect and appreciation
for the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. We seek and pray for
the welfare of all of God’s people in the land. We view with grave con-
cern the erosion of Israel’s democratic freedom by this proposed
law.”58 Israeli embassies and consulates in countries with evangelical
populations were virtually flooded with letters of protest against the
law. Many wrote directly to the prime minister in Jerusalem. The
standard letters emphasized that they were written by friends of Israel
who wished the country well and were writing to warn the govern-
ment that the passing of such a law would turn its current supporters
against it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who at first offhand-

edly supported the bill, changed his mind and promised evangelical
activists he would oppose it.59 The aborted attempts at curtailing mis-
sionary activity in Israel highlight the paradoxical nature of the rela-
tion of evangelical Christians toward Jews: the evangelization of a
people they see as chosen and whose country they strongly support. It
also points to the nature of Israeli realpolitik: accepting help from
Christians whose values and agendas differ from their own.

CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS AND THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
One of the important outcomes of the Six-Day War for Christians

expecting the Second Coming of Jesus was the Israeli takeover of the
territory on which the Temple could be rebuilt and the priestly sacrifi-
cial rituals, reinstated. The Temple, or rather the prospect of its build-
ing, excited premillennialist Christians as the one event standing
between this era and the next.60
A striking demonstration of the prominence of the Temple in
Christian messianic thought can be found in Hal Lindsey’s The Late
Great Planet Earth, an evangelical Christian best-seller of the 1970s.
Lindsey, like other premillennialist Christians, was strongly impressed
by the Six-Day War and its consequences and placed Israel at the cen-
ter of the eschatological drama.61 For him, the rebuilding of the Temple
and the rise of Antichrist to power were major components of the
Great Tribulation, without which the coming of the Messiah could not
take place. There remained, however, a number of obstacles to the
advancement of this stage in the prophetic timetable, the most striking
one being a lack of interest among the Jews in building the Temple.
Many Israelis understood the outcome of the Six-Day War in messi-
anic terms, but most of them did not wish to rebuild the Temple.62
There was the unavoidable reality that the Temple Mount was a Mus-
lim site, complete with magnificent mosques and administered by the
Muslims. The Israeli minister of defense at the time, Moshe Dayan,
designed a policy that insisted on maintaining the status quo on the
Temple Mount as well as in other Muslim and Christian sites. In addi-
tion, a number of rabbis declared that Jews were forbidden to enter
the Temple Mount. Most rabbinical authorities have viewed the Tem-
ple Mount as being as sacred as it was when the Temple was standing.
The Mishnah, the postbiblical compilation of law, outlines the various
degrees of sanctity of areas on the Temple Mount and the rituals of
purification people need to perform in order to enter these areas.63 All
Jews are required to purify themselves with the ashes of the red heifer
before entering the Mount, and there are no red heifers to be found.64
92 Yaakov Ariel
Rabbis also feared that Jews might step on restricted sacred ground,
such as the Holy of Holies, into which ordinary Jews, and even ordi-
nary priests, are not allowed to enter. Most observant Jews at the time
accepted the rabbinical ban and saw entrance to the Temple Mount as
taboo.65
An Australian premillennialist Christian, Dennis Michael Rohan,
decided to change the existing reality. After spending some time as a
volunteer in an Israeli kibbutz, Rohan visited Jerusalem in July 1969
and there, convinced that God had designated him for that task,

planned and executed the burning of the El-Aksa Mosque on the
Temple Mount in an attempt to secure the necessary ground for the
building of the Temple.66 The mosque was damaged, and Arabs in
Jerusalem rioted. Rohan was arrested, put to trial, found insane, and
sent to Australia to spend the rest of his life in an asylum.67
Most premillennialist Christians have not taken the law into their
own hands but, rather, have sought legal and peaceful means to
advance their agenda. Numerous Christian premillennialist groups
and individuals in the 1970s–2000s have promoted the building of the
holy Jewish shrine through a variety of activities, most of them centered
on encouraging Jews to prepare for the building of the Temple. Dur-
ing the 1970s and 1980s, premillennialist Christians discovered groups
of Orthodox Jews interested in the building of the Temple. Some of
these groups were advocating their agenda publicly, while others were
preparing more quietly for the reinstatement of the sacrificial system in
a rebuilt Temple.68 Such Jews, who were studying the Temple rituals,
manufacturing utensils to be used for sacrificial purposes according to
biblical or Talmudic measures, or trying to breed a new brand of heif-
ers, served to sustain the Christian messianic imagination. Premillenni-
alist Christians marveled at such groups and their activities, viewing
them as “signs of the time,” indications that the current era was ending
and the apocalyptic events of the End Times were near.69
Chuck Smith, a noted minister and evangelist whose Calvary
Chapel in Costa Mesa, California, has, since the 1970s, been one of the
largest and most dynamic Charismatic churches in America, sup-
ported the Jewish group, the Temple Foundation, and invited its
leader, Stanley Goldfoot, to come to California to lecture in his
church. Smith secured financial support for exploration of the exact
site of the Temple.70 An associate of Smith’s, Lambert Dolphin, a
California physicist and archaeologist and the leader of the “Science
and Archeology Team,” took it upon himself to explore the Temple
Mount.71 Dolphin used sophisticated technological devices and meth-
ods, such as wall-penetrating radar and seismic sounding, in his
search for the ruins of the previous Temples. In both bringing his
sophisticated instruments into Israel and preparing to explore the
Temple Mount, Dolphin worked in cooperation with and received

help from Goldfoot. His attempts to research the Temple Mount to
find conclusive evidence regarding the Temple’s exact location were
frustrated by the Israeli police, who, confronted by Muslim protests,
refused to allow the use of such devices on or under the Mount.72
Many premillennialists have not waited for conclusive findings by
Dolphin and have embraced the theory that the location of the Tem-
ple is between the two major mosques, El-Aksa and the Dome of the
Rock. The Temple, they have concluded, could therefore be rebuilt

without destroying the existing mosques, thus providing a “peaceful
solution” to the dilemma of how to build the Temple at a site that is
holy to the Muslims.73
Christian proponents of building the Temple have not limited
their efforts to discovering the exact site of the Temple. Some have
searched for the lost ark, a quest that inspired a number of novels and
a movie based in part on a real-life figure.74 Some premillennialists
have also searched for the ashes of the red heifer, necessary in order
to allow Jews to enter the Temple Mount, while others have sup-
ported attempts at breeding red heifers.75 A new interest has arisen in
Christian conservative circles in the Temple building, its interior plan,
and its sacrificial works, as well as in the priestly garments and uten-
sils.76 The rebuilt Temple has also played an important role in novels
and other fiction. The most popular of them has been the series Left
Behind, which was published in the late 1990s and early 2000s and
has sold millions of copies. The novel takes place in the aftermath of
the Rapture. It describes the struggles of those left behind, not least of
them the rise to power of the Antichrist, one of whose “achievements”
is orchestrating the removal of the mosques to New Babylon.77
Another Israeli group that has established a working relationship
with premillennialist Christians is the Temple Mount Faithful. Since
its inception in the 1970s, the Temple Mount Faithful has been the
best known of all the Jewish groups aiming at rebuilding the Temple.
Its periodic attempts to organize prayers on the Temple Mount, not to
mention its plans to install a cornerstone for the rebuilt Temple, have
enjoyed much media coverage. The relationship between the group
and Christian supporters has advanced more slowly than in the case of
the Temple Foundation. Yet, by the early 1990s, the group’s leader
Gershon Solomon had carved a niche for himself and his group
among premillennialist Christians. Pat Robertson, the renowned
leader of the 700 Club and a onetime presidential hopeful, offered his
support and hospitality to Solomon. In August 1991, the 700 Club aired
an interview with Solomon. Robertson described Solomon’s group as
struggling to gain the rightful Jewish place on the Temple Mount. “We
will never have peace,” Robertson declared, “until the Mount of the
94 Yaakov Ariel
House of the Lord is restored.”78 Solomon, for his part, described his
mission as embodying the promise for a universal redemption of
humanity. “It’s not just a struggle for the Temple Mount, it’s a strug-
gle for the . . . redemption of the world,” he declared.79
The peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians
and the Oslo peace agreement have caused alarm among some
premillennialist Christians, but for most Christians expecting the Sec-
ond Coming of Jesus, their hopes for the rebuilding of the Temple
have remained just as strong at the beginning of the new millennium
as before.80 One cannot tell what would happen if Israel were to give

up its official control of the Temple Mount. Some fear that such a
prospect might stir Jewish and Christian extremists to take steps that
would “secure” the Jewish presence on the mountain.
CONCLUSION
Christian Zionism has been an extraordinary development in the his-

tory of the relationships between religious communities. In no other
case have members of one religious community considered members
of another religious tradition to hold a special role in God’s plans for
human redemption and to be God’s first nation. The unique nature of
Christian Zionism is highlighted when one bears in mind the bitter
history of the relationship between the two religious communities. For
most of its history, the major trends in Christianity, almost unani-
mously, have seen Judaism as replaced by the church.
To comprehend the almost incredible relationship that has devel-
oped between Christian Zionists and Jews, one should compare the
relationship to “a marriage of convenience.” Premillennialist Christians
have perceived the rebuilding of the Jewish state and the Temple by
the Jews as necessary stages toward the realization of the messianic
age. Similarly, Jewish statesmen do not care for the Christian messi-
anic faith more than Christian premillennialist groups appreciate the
Jewish faith, but they see such details as being beside the point. The
important thing for them has been the Christian willingness to sup-
port their cause.
The phenomenon of Christians supporting the Jewish Zionist
cause on behalf of their faith is full of paradoxes. Being committed,
indeed fervent, evangelicals or pietists, Christian Zionists have insisted
on the exclusivity of their faith as the only true fulfillment of God’s
commands and as the only means to assure salvation. The Christian
Zionist relations to the Jews have therefore been characterized by two
conflicting sentiments: one, supportive and appreciative, and the
other, dismissive and patronizing.
While evangelical and pietist Christians have enthusiastically sup-

ported Zionist initiatives, they have viewed the Jews as the people who
fail to recognize and accept the true Messiah and have thus deprived
themselves of both eternal life and sound moral guidelines. Christian
Zionists have held, therefore, many of the stereotypes of Jews in West-
ern Christian culture at the same time that they have expected Jews to
regain their ancient position as the leading nation in the millennial
kingdom. Such mixed, dual opinions have characterized the attitudes
of pro-Zionist Christian activists who, while supporting Jewish causes

politically and genuinely claiming to show love and kindness toward
the Jews, have also expressed unfavorable opinions on that people.81
Viewing the Jews as a people in need of improvement, Christian Zionists
have been active in the building of missions to the Jews, busily spread-
ing the Gospel among the children of Israel. Missions to the Jews have
become the twin sister of Christian Zionist activity, deriving from the
same theological roots. The missions themselves have become Christian
Zionist agencies par excellence, promoting support for the Christian
Zionist cause.
In no other realm has the paradoxical nature of the relation of
Christian Zionists to Jews demonstrated itself as in the Christian
attempts to help traditionalist Jews rebuild the Temple. Christians
expecting the Second Coming of Jesus have formed historically
unprecedented friendships and alliances with Jews that would have
been difficult to imagine at other times and places. There is, therefore,
something surreal about Christian Zionists, as their actions transcend
the historical dynamics of Jewish–Christian interaction. The unique
relationship that has developed between Jews and Christians, over the
building of a Jewish state in Palestine and the hopes that such Chris-
tians have placed on Jews preparing the ground for the arrival of the
Messiah, has brought about scenes that are almost in the realm of the
fantastic, including Christians marveling at and receiving reassurance
for their messianic faith from Orthodox Jews taking steps toward the
reinstatement the sacrificial system. Although each of the groups has
had a different vision for the messianic times, they have both shared
the same agenda for the near future.
One has to conclude that the Christian interest in the Jewish reset-
tlement of Palestine in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and
their support of the Jewish Zionist cause have derived first and fore-
most from their messianic hope and their mode of interpreting bibli-
cal passages. Their support of Jewish causes represents an attempt to
promote their own agenda. Pro-Israel sentiments and concern for the
physical well-being of Jews derive from the function of the Jews in the
advancement of history toward the arrival of the Lord. Christians
advocating and acting on such views see themselves as supporting and
96 Yaakov Ariel
working toward a great cause, the greatest of all, the unfolding of the
messianic age and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
NOTES
1. On Ashley Cooper, the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, and his proto-Zion-

ist efforts, see Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword (London, 1983), pp. 175–207.
2. Cf. Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium (New York, 1970).
3. Cf. Bart Ehrman, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (New
York, 1999).
4. Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium.
5. George Williams, The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia, 1970).
6. David Katz, Philosemitism and the Return of the Jews to England (Oxford,
1982).
7. Cf. Gershom Scholem, Shabbatai Zvi: The Mystical Messiah (New York,
1970).
8. Cf. Yaakov Ariel, “The French Revolution and the Reawakening of
Christian Messianism,” in The French Revolution and Its Impact, ed. Richard
Cohen (Jerusalem, 1991), pp. 319–338.
9. Ernest Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Mille-
narianism, 1800–1930 (Grand Rapids, MI, 1978).
10. For example, Tuchman, Bible and Sword.
11. A. G. Mojtabai, Blessed Assurance: At Home with the Bomb in Amarillo,
Texas (Boston, 1986).
12. For details on this eschatological hope, see, for example, Hal Lindsey’s
best-seller, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids, MI, 1971).
13. Tuchman, Bible and Sword, pp. 175–207.
14. See William Blackstone, Jesus Is Coming, 3rd ed. (Los Angeles, 1908),
pp. 211–213, 236–241.
15. See Yaakov Ariel, “An American Initiative for a Jewish State: William
Blackstone and the Petition of 1891,” Studies in Zionism, Vol. 10 (1989),
pp. 125–137.
16. William Blackstone, letter to Woodrow Wilson, November 4, 1914;
and telegram to Warren G. Harding, December 10, 1920, Blackstone Per-
sonal Papers, Billy Graham Center, Wheaton, IL.
17. On Hechler and his relationship with Herzl, see Amos Elon, Herzl (Tel
Aviv, 1975), pp. 212–219, 296, 321–323, 438; and Paul Merkley, The Politics of
Christian Zionism, 1891–1948 (London, 1998), pp. 3–43.
18. See Yaakov Ariel, “William Blackstone and the Petition of 1916: A
Neglected Chapter in the History of Christian Zionism in America,” Studies in
Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 7 (1991), pp. 68–85; Merkley, The Politics of Christian
Zionism, pp. 75–96.
19. Cf., for example, Tuchman, Bible and Sword.
20. Cf. Ariel, “William Blackstone and the Petition of 1916.”

21. William L. Pettingill, J. R. Schafler, and J. D. Adams, eds., Light on
Prophecy: A Coordinated, Constructive Teaching, Being the Proceedings and Addresses
at the Philadelphia Prophetic Conference, May 28–30, 1918 (New York, 1918);
Arno C. Gaebelein, ed., Christ and Glory: Addresses Delivered at the New York Pro-
phetic Conference, Carnegie Hall, November 25–28, 1918 (New York, 1919).
22. See, e.g., George T. B. Davis, Fulfilled Prophecies That Prove the Bible
(Philadelphia, 1931); and Keith L. Brooks, The Jews and the Passion for Palestine
in Light of Prophecy (Los Angeles, 1937).
23. James Gray, “Editorial,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, Vol. 31 (1931), p. 346.

24. Louis T. Talbot and William W. Orr, The New Nation of Israel and the Word
of God (Los Angeles, 1948); M. R. DeHaan, The Jew and Palestine in Prophecy (Grand
Rapids, MI, 1954); Arthur Kac, The Rebirth of the State of Israel: Is It of God or Men?
(Chicago, 1958); George T. B. Davis, God’s Guiding Hand (Philadelphia, 1962).
25. John Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy (Grand Rapids, MI, 1962), p. 19.
26. On Palestinian Arab Christian Zionists, see Sahri Huri, Udat al Masiah
(Jerusalem, 1939).
27. For example, L. Nelson Bell, “Unfolding Destiny,” Christianity Today
(1967), pp. 1044–1045.
28. See, e.g., Peter L. Williams and Peter L. Benson, Religion on Capitol
Hill: Myth and Realities (New York, 1986); Allen D. Hertzke, Representing God in
Washington (Knoxville, 1988); Mark Silk, Spiritual Politics (New York, 1989);
and Michael Lienesch, Redeeming America: Piety and Politics in the New Christian
Right (Chapel Hill, 1993).
29. See Martin Gardner, “Giving God a Hand,” New York Review of Books
(August 13, 1987), p. 22.
30. Cf. Lienesch, Redeeming America; Silk, Spiritual Politics.
31. James McWhirter, A World in a Country (Jerusalem, 1983), pp. 160–174;
Marvin Watson and Merla Watson, interview by the author, Jerusalem, October
16, 1992; Menahem Ben Hayim, interview by the author, Jerusalem, October
14, 1992.
32. Jan Willem van der Hoeven, “If I Forget Thee O Jerusalem,” in A word
From Jerusalem, (Jerusalem, 1991) p. 4.
33. Haim Schapiro, correspondent for religious affairs of the Jerusalem
Post, interview by the author, Jerusalem, October 6, 1992.
34. A typewritten list of ICEJ international representatives, February
1992, included representatives in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Caro-
lina, Texas, Maryland, California, and Wyoming.
35. On the various activities of the ICEJ, see its brochure, “The Ministry of
the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem” (Jerusalem, 1992). Arlynn
Nellhaus, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” Jerusalem Post Magazine (October 9,
1992), pp. 6–7.
36. In 1991, for example, Germans offered more financial support for
bringing Russian Jews to Israel than supporters in any other country.
“Wohnungsbau for Sowjetische Juden,” Ein Wort aus Jerusalem (March–April
1992). p. 6. As premillennialism and messianism are not strong among German
Protestants, this may be attributed to guilt and a wish to help the Jewish state,
regardless of its role in the events that precede the arrival of the Messiah.
98 Yaakov Ariel
37. On van der Hoeven’s views on Israel, see his book, Jan Willem van der
Hoeven, Babylon or Jerusalem (Shippensburg, PA, 1993).
38. Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Le Maan Tzion Lo Echeshe (Heb.; Jerusa-
lem, 1990), p. 13.
39. Jan Willem van der Hoeven, interview by the author, Jerusalem,
August 19, 1991.
40. The Reverend Michael Krupp, interview by the author Jerusalem,
August 20, 1991. See also Michael Krupp, “Falsche Propheten in Jerusalem,”
October 3, 1988, sent to the Protestant religious press in Germany.
41. On Middle Eastern churches and their relation to Zionism and Israel,

see Dafna Tsimhoni, “The Arab Christians and the Palestinian Arab National
Movement,” in The Palestinians and the Middle East Conflict, ed. Gavriel Ben Dor
(Ramat Gan, 1978) pp. 101–128; Paul Charles Merkley, Christian Attitudes
towards the State of Israel (Montreal, 2001), especially pp. 9–102, 161–194; and
Gabriel Zeldin, “Catholics and Protestants in Jerusalem and the Return of the
Jews to Zion,” Ph.D. dissertation, Hebrew University, 1992.
42. In some cases, such as in Holland, mainline Protestant church mem-
bers often have more positive attitudes toward Israel than their leadership;
consequently the embassy, which is regarded as representing pro-Israel senti-
ments, enjoys support even when the church establishment is hostile toward
its activities. The Reverend Simon Schoon and the Reverend Geert Cohen-
Stuart, the Dutch Reformed Church, interview by the author, Southampton,
July 14, 1991.
43. Middle East Council of Churches, “Signs of Hope,” 1988 annual report
(Limasol, Cyprus, July 1989). See also Middle East Council of Churches, What
Is Western Fundamentalist Christian Zionism? (Limasol, Cyprus, April 1988; rev.
ed., August 1988). The second, revised edition is somewhat more moderate
than the first.
44. A striking example of this failure to understand can be found in
Michael Pragai’s Faith and Fulfillment (London, 1985). The author, who served
as the head of the department for liaison with the Christian churches and
organizations in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs for many years, demon-
strates a complete lack of knowledge of the nature of the evangelical support
of Zionism and of the differences between conservative and mainline/liberal
churches.
45. Yona Malacy, American Fundamentalism and Israel (Jerusalem, 1978),
pp. 106–111.
46. A. E. Thompson, A Century of Jewish Missions (Chicago, 1905).
47. Cf. Yaakov Ariel, “Counterculture and Missions: Jews for Jesus and the
Vietnam Era Missionary Campaigns,” Religion and American Culture, Vol. 9,
No. 2 (summer 1999), pp. 233–257.
48. The Reverend William Currie, former head of the American Messianic
Fellowship, interview by the author, Jerusalem, September 1991. Currie had
little appreciation for the embassy.
49. For example, David M. Eichorn, Evangelizing the American Jew (Middle
Village, NY, 1978).
50. For example, Robert L. Lindsey, Israel in Christendom (Tel Aviv, 1961).
51. Per Osterlye, The Church in Israel (Lund, 1970).
52. “Israel Looks on U.S. Evangelical Christians as Potent Allies,” Washing-

ton Post (March 23, 1981), p. A11.
53. “Israel’s Leaders Greet the Embassy,” in Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord
[A publication of the International Christian Embassy, no author given]
(Jerusalem, 1991), pp. 4–5.
54. For a photograph of such a gathering, see Tzipora Luria, “LeLo
Tasbichim: Notztim Mechuiavim LeYesha” [Without inhibitions: Christians
committed to Judea and Samaria], Nekuda, No. 128 (March 17, 1989), p. 31.
55. Luria, “LeLo Tasbichim,” pp. 30–34.
56. Cf. Yaakov Ariel, Evangelizing the Chosen People: Missions to the Jews in

America 1880–2000 (Chapel Hill, 2000), pp. 277–278.
57. Daniel Ben Simon, “Doing Something for Judaism,” Haaretz, English
ed. (December 18, 1997), pp. 1–2.
58. For example, Noam Hendren, Baruch Maoz, and Marvin Dramer,
letter circulated through the Internet.
59. Hendren, Maoz, and Dramer, letter, March 1997.
60. Raymond L. Cox, “Time for the Temple?” Eternity, Vol. 19 (January
1968), pp. 17–18; Malcolm Couch, “When Will the Jews Rebuild the Temple?”
Moody Monthly, Vol. 74 (December 1973), pp. 34–35, 86.
61. Lindsey, The Late Great Planet Earth, pp. 32–47.
62. Cf. Gideon Aran, “From Religious Zionism to Zionist Religion: The
Roots of Gush Emunim,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 2 (1986), p. 118.
63. Mishna, Kelim 1, 8. Cf. “Har Ha Bayit,” in HaEncyclopedia HaTalmudit,
Vol. 10, pp. 575–592.
64. Cf. Numbers 19.
65. Cf. Ehud Sprinzak, The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right (New York,
1991), pp. 279–288.
66. I am indebted to Avinoam Brog for sharing with me information and
impressions on Rohan’s stay in the kibbutz and his motive for burning the mosque.
67. See Jerusalem District Court Archive, Criminal File 69/173.
68. On the Jewish groups aiming at building the Temple, see Sprinzak,
The Ascendance of Israel’s Radical Right, pp. 264–269, 279–288.
69. Cf. Grant R. Jeffrey, Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny (New York,
1990), especially pp. 108–150. See also, for example, Don Stewart and Chuck
Missler, The Coming Temple: Center Stage for the Final Countdown (Orange, CA,
1991), pp. 157–170.
70. On Chuck Smith, see Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestant-
ism (Berkeley, 1998).
71. On Dolphin and his premillennialist thinking and connections, see his
extensive Web site, www.Ldolphin.org; see also a series of tracts the Californian
physicist has published, copies of which are in my collection.
72. Stewart and Missler, The Coming Temple, pp. 157–170.
73. See Yisrayl Hawkins, A Peaceful Solution to Building the Next Temple in
Yerusalem (Abilene, TX, 1989).
74. On the premillennialist fascination with the lost ark, see Doug
Wead, David Lewis, and Hal Donaldson, Where Is the Lost Ark? (Minneapolis,
n.d.); Don Stewart and Chuck Missler, In Search of the Lost Ark (Orange,
CA, 1991).
100 Yaakov Ariel
75. Lawrence Wright, “Forcing the End,” New Yorker, Vol. 74, No. 20 (July 20,
1998), pp. 42–53; “Christian Help Jews Build the Temple” Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, September 2, 1999, available at www.jta.org/sep99/02-cows.htm.
76. See, for example, C. W. Sleming, These Are the Garments (Fort Washington,
PA, n.d.); Wead, Lewis, and Donaldson, Where Is the Lost Ark?; Stewart and
Missler, In Search of the Lost Ark; Thomas Ice and Randall Price, Ready to
Rebuild (Eugene, OR, 1992).
77. Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Wheaton, IL, 1995). The
series has sold more than twenty million copies. On the Temple, see, for exam-
ple, LaHaye and Jenkins, Left Behind, p. 415; Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins,

Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist (Wheaton, IL, 1997), p. 369; and Tim LaHaye and
Jerry B. Jenkins, Tribulation Force (Wheaton, IL, 1996), pp. 208, 277.
78. Quoted in Robert I. Friedman, Zealots for Zion (New York, 1992), p. 144.
79. Friedman, Zealots for Zion, pp. 144–145.
80. See articles in the Middle East Intelligence Digest, a publication of the
International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem in the 1990s; cf., for example,
the series Left Behind.
81. Charles Y. Glock and Rodney Stark, Christian Beliefs and Antisemitism
(New York, 1966); L. Ianniello, Anti-Defamation League press release, New York,
January 8, 1986.

YAAKOV ARIEL An Unexpected Alliance

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What is the relationship between Christian messianism and Zionism according to the text?

What is the relationship between Christian messianism and Zionism according to the text?

Yaakov Ariel

AN UNEXPECTED ALLIANCE: CHRISTIAN

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CHRISTIAN MESSIANISM AND ZIONISM

biblical passages with messianic overtones as allegorical. According to

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initiatives, as well as of missionary activity among the Jews.10 In

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CHRISTIAN SUPPORT FOR THE ZIONIST CAUSE

The special place Jews occupy in Christian Protestant messianic faith

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premillennialist motivations secret from his Jewish friends, but the

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as equivalent to putting obstacles in the way of God’s plans for the

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CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS AND A JEWISH STATE

Christian Zionists’ response to the establishment of the State of Israel

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was, at the same time, a fulfillment of America’s historical role, as well

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sentiment. A committed conservative Christian himself, Bush has

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launched its first yearly Tabernacles festival, a weeklong assembly of

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The embassy’s international work focuses on lecturing, mostly in

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holds to “replacement theology,” the claim that the Christian church

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ISRAELIS AND CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS

In general, the Israeli leadership has not fully comprehended the

Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is a case in point.

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more than four hundred messianic congregations were established in

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Ironically, many of the more enthusiastic allies of the Christian

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against it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who at first offhand-

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One of the important outcomes of the Six-Day War for Christians

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Temple Mount, Dolphin worked in cooperation with and received

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Christian Zionism has been an extraordinary development in the his-

While evangelical and pietist Christians have enthusiastically sup-

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1. On Ashley Cooper, the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, and his proto-Zion-

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20. Cf. Ariel, “William Blackstone and the Petition of 1916.”

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52. “Israel Looks on U.S. Evangelical Christians as Potent Allies,” Washing-

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