Home at last: The first Christian Zionist to visit the modern Jewish state

There is no clearly documented account, nor is there anyone who is universally recognized, as the first prominent Christian Zionist to set foot in Israel after David Ben-Gurion’s declaration of the new Jewish State in 1948. However, if W.A. Criswell was not the first he was certainly among the very first to do so. Criswell had grown the First Baptist Church in Dallas to be recognized as the largest evangelical church in the western world at the time. Under his influence the church would become known as the most supportive of all Christian congregations of the Jewish state from its very founding and throughout the decades following.  

Zalli Jaffe, prominent Israeli international attorney and long time president of the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, said of Criswell, “To speak of Christian support of Israel without mentioning the name of W. A. Criswell would be like speaking of the blood circulation system coursing through your body without mentioning the heart.” Criswell’s own heart held a special place for God’s chosen people and his support for the formation of the Jewish state and his continuing love for the land and its people were well known by anyone who knew him, listened to his sermons, or studied his life.

In mid 1949, immediately upon the armistice declaring an end to Israel’s War of Independence, he set out on a long journey to the place he believed was the very fulfillment of the first part of Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37). Biblical history and prophecy was unfolding before the world’s eyes and he had every intention of witnessing it firsthand. Traveling from Dallas, Texas to Jerusalem, Israel was no easy task eighty years ago. It consisted of a long and arduous journey over air, land, and sea that would have taken from one to two weeks to traverse.

With a Bible in one hand and a suitcase in the other he boarded the train in Dallas for a journey half way across the American landscape to the east coast. For two days riding in his Pullman car he read the world’s newspapers reporting on the unfolding of the miracle of the new Jewish state and their swift miracle victory against several hostile Arab nations to gain their independence. From New York City he boarded a propeller driven aircraft belonging to Pan American World Airlines, one of the very few airlines of the day capable of spanning the vast Atlantic Ocean. Over the next several days with several refueling stops and plane changes his journey took him from New York to Newfoundland then to Ireland from there on to London. After a period of rest there he continued with stops in Rome, then to Cairo, and finally he landed in Lydda, Israel.  From there by taxi he made his way up the winding highway climbing the Judean mountains to Jerusalem. Along the journey he passed several burned out tanks, trucks and other debris that had been left along the roadside after battles that had taken place on those same spots only a few short weeks before. 

Upon arrival and setting his feet down on the airport tarmac he related that he had the distinct impression he had come “home at last.” There were no welcoming crowds or brass bands. He wasn’t there for pomp and circumstance. He came to make a statement of support. He did not make the journey simply to be a tourist. He was there as a witness to Biblical truth and unfolding prophecies which he had preached about all his life. Now, after an arduous journey of eight thousand miles he stood in the holy city of Jerusalem, David’s ancient capital. It was now the euphoric capital of a new nation which had just been born again. This was not the end of his journey…it was only the beginning of a new chapter which would result in rallying evangelical support for the Jewish people through his books and ministry that would faithfully extend over the next five decades of his life.

After checking into the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and freshening up, he went downstairs for dinner. And, who was also dining in the hotel restaurant that evening? None other than the founder of the state and its first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion along with his wife. Upon hearing that the pastor of the largest church in America was in the room, Ben-Gurion sent for Criswell to join them at his table. His wife was from Brooklyn and took an immediate liking to the charming young Baptist pastor. She delighted in conversation about the happenings back in America. 

This chance meeting in the dining room of the King David began an ongoing and mutually rewarding relationship between the two men. Criswell’s strong support for the Jewish people and the State of Israel became well known to each of the succeeding Prime Ministers.  His favorite of them all was Menachem Begin with whom he enjoyed a close relationship built upon the fact that they were both strong believers in the sacred scriptures. Begin’s love for the Bible and his conservative approach to life and politics found favor with Criswell. All the Prime Ministers, from Ben-Gurion to Yitzhak Rabin, stretching over the 90 plus years of Criswell’s own life, became personal friends. With each subsequent trip invitations for personal meetings with each Prime Minister would always be awaiting him upon arrival at his hotel.

Over the ensuing years, due to his steadfast friendship, unwavering support, and vocal and visible advocacy, Dr. Criswell was the recipient of numerous awards and honors from the Jewish State. In 1979, two years into his premiership, Prime Minister Begin awarded him the prestigious Israeli Humanitarian Award. In 1988 he received the Tree of Life Award from the Jewish National Fund. Today the W. A. Criswell Forest can be found in the Galilee near Mount Tabor with 10,000 trees planted in his honor. Visit Jerusalem’s magnificent Great Synagogue on King George Street and you will find his name etched in stone, along with only two other gentiles honoring his “contributions to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Through the decades of his ministry in the Dallas pulpit (1944-1994) his influence ran through the broader evangelical world like a mighty river resulting in multiplied thousands of pastors and church leaders getting caught up in his flow. His passion for premillennial eschatology was contagious resulting in a major rise of evangelical support for the new state of Israel and for Jewish people everywhere.

Criswell’s love for Israel and the Jewish people was not simply some superficial attraction to a persecuted group of people who had faced constant turmoil and heartache across the centuries culminating in the mass slaughter of six million in Hitler’s death camps. His deep love and commitment to these people and this land was rooted, like everything else in his life, in his confidence that the Bible was true and trustworthy. In Criswell’s hermeneutic, there was no place for spiritualizing away what the Bible stated plainly. He insisted that when the Bible speaks of a “Jew” it is talking about a Jew and especially when it refers to one “according to the seed of Abraham” or one who is a “Jew according to the flesh.” To Criswell a Jew was a Jew and Israel was Israel. When the Bible repeatedly promised the Jews the land of Canaan for an “everlasting” possession, he believed everlasting meant everlasting. Such unbiblical ideas of replacement theology were an afront and anathema to him.

Criswell had an unshakable confidence in the fact that what God had promised and prophesied in the scriptures He would perform. In a message from his Dallas pulpit on July 21, 1985 entitled “The Rising of Israel” he stated, “If the Lord breaks His promises and covenants He made with Israel, how do I know but that He would also break His promises to me?…My only hope of salvation lies in the fact that God will keep His promise and honor His covenants.” Like Christian Zionists of our day he was moved and motivated by his firm conviction that the Lord is a promise keeper and it is “impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). To Criswell, witnessing the fulfillment of of God’s unconditional promises to Israel was one of the greatest proofs the the Bible is authoritative, true and trustworthy.

During my own days of pastoring the First Baptist Church in Dallas as his pastoral successor, he requested that I take him on one final journey back to Jerusalem. In the fall of 1995 my wife, Susie, and I took him and his wife, Betty, for this emotional final journey. At the time he was approaching his 86th birthday and knew this would be the last of so many trips to this land he loved. It was on this trip that an indelible image was seared in my mind of this man and his love for this promised and precious land.

During the 1990’s Israel absorbed a tremendous infusion of Jewish immigrants from the four corners of the earth. This was primarily fueled by the Russian Aliyah, which itself brought one million Russian Jews to Israel in the span of less than a decade. This infusion of such enormous proportions brought incredible challenges to the infrastructure of the state. It was not uncommon to see brilliant Russian physicians and learned university professors temporarily cleaning bathrooms in hotels or seeing accomplished Russian musicians from the great symphonies of Moscow and St. Petersburg playing their instruments on Jerusalem street corners with their hats at their feet in hopes of collecting a little spare change from some passerby.

One night, after dinner, a small group of us strolled along the pedestrian mall known as Ben Yehuda Street in the heart of Jerusalem. It is lined with street vendors, entertainers, small restaurants, ice cream shops, coffee houses, jewelry stores and other places of commerce that nightly attract the locals as well as visitors from around the world. 

As we were browsing in one of the shop windows, I suddenly became aware that Criswell was absent from our little group. Walking briskly back down the street, I began a search for him. And, there he stood, near the bottom of Ben Yehuda Street, before an aged Russian violinist standing on the street corner and stroking his violin to the tune of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem. Hatikvah means “hope’ expressing the desire of every Jewish heart for their homeland and it has one of the most mesmerizing melodies of any tune ever composed. 

As I approached the two aged white haired men, I noted the tears running down Criswell’s cheeks. He stood there in amazement listening to the old violinist play what Criswell viewed as the fulfillment of Bible prophecy he had preached and believed all his life. That old Russian violinist represented all those who had returned from all over the world to the land of their fathers in fulfillment of the Bible prophecies found in the book of Amos and many of the other prophets. To this day, when I think of W.A. Criswell, that is the image that surfaces in my mind and speaks volumes of his confident belief that the establishment of the modern state of Israel and the regathering of the Jews from the four corners of the earth is proof positive that God not only promises, He performs.

Criswell died without witnessing the second coming of Christ which was to him his enduring “blessed hope.” However, he lived everyday with a childlike wonder that these events could unfold on any given day. His love for God’s chosen people, the Jews, moved and motivated him across the years to bless them in myriad of ways. He taught three generations of evangelicals to love Israel and to always stand by the side of the Jewish people…because God still “blesses those who bless Israel” (Genesis 12:3). 

He was among the very first “friends of Zion” and his unwavering love and support for Israel will remain legendary until the Messiah returns to the holy city of Jerusalem to rule and reign on the throne of David. As Criswell was known to often say, when the Messiah does return to Jerusalem, the primary question for Him from our Jewish friends will be…”Is this your first or second trip to Jerusalem?”

As is said of righteous Abel, “Though he is dead, he still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4). W.A. Criswell has been dead now for two and a half decades.  But, he, too, still speaks. Count me among the vast throng who have been caught up in his flow and stand with the Jewish people. We evangelicals are not going away. Not now. Not ever. We say to our Jewish friends what the gentile Ruth said to the Jew, Naomi, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” 

May Dr. Criswell’s memory be a blessing along with millions of faithful evangelicals who upon stepping foot in the promised land felt like Criswell…that they, too, were finally…home at last!

(For more information on the life of W.A. Criswell see CRISWELL: HIS LIFE AND TIMES by O.S. Hawkins)