The elephant in the room: Christian Zionists, the Gospel, and the Jews

Our Israeli friends are quick to acknowledge that evangelicals, especially of the Christian Zionist variety, are among their most fierce and loyal supporters. However, if we are completely honest, we both must admit that there is “an elephant in the room” with us. This idiom describes a situation where two people are discussing a certain topic while at the same time conveniently avoiding an issue that is as big as an elephant standing in the room with them that can not be ignored. It refers to an obvious truth that everyone notices but no one wants to discuss because it is uncomfortable for some, awkward for others, and potentially confrontational and controversial to everyone.

Evangelicals who are both Christians and Zionists live with a bit of an unintentional dichotomy. The core calling and essence of the Christian faith is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the whole world baptizing them and teaching them to do all the things the Lord has commanded us. This is what it means to be an evangelical. The very word, evangelical, comes from a Greek word in the Christian Bible meaning “bearer of the good news.” The commission left to all Christians from the Lord’s own lips was to share His gospel with the entire world. And yet, the fear of many of our Jewish friends is that in embracing Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and coming to faith in Him means assimilating into a form of gentile Christianity, thereby potentially undermining the very idea and essence of Zionism itself. 

This tension has led some Christians to abandon all missionary efforts particularly in their relationships with Jews. Others move to the opposite extreme abandoning Zionism altogether eventually ending in a form of replacement theology that contends God has rejected the Jews, replaced them with the church and revoked their covenant promises. And, then, there are others who walk the fine line of not compromising on either of the principles of being a Christian or of being a Zionist at the same time. They strongly believe God is in covenant relationship with the Jewish people, particularly as it relates to the land, while not hiding what they believe and unashamedly sharing their faith. They believe it is possible to assent to the claims of the Christian Bible without losing a Jewish identity.

Thus, there are three approaches found within the confines of evangelicalism that play out in their relationship with their Jewish friends. One approach is to put the evangelism and missionary aspect of their faith aside in order to cooperate with Jewish Zionists in hopes of gaining their trust. They believe that the establishment of the Jewish people back in their ancient homeland and their continued existence there is an essential focus. They leave it to God to reveal the Messiah to the Jewish people at some time in the future. These are often referred to as the “non missionary Christian Zionists.”

Then there are the “non Zionist missionaries” within the Christian circles. They take the opposite approach even to the extent of targeted missionary activity toward Jews and are unconcerned with the issue of eventually erasing Jewish identity. They see Jewish people as no different than Hondurans or Italians or any other people group on earth.

Finally there are those in the evangelical world who insist that both being a fruitful evangelical and a faithful Zionist can exist together.  That is, that it is possible to see the Jewish people as heirs to the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenantal promises of God that are “everlasting” and “forever,” while, at the same time, not compromising their core belief that Jesus Christ is the promised Jewish Messiah. This group see themselves, as Paul delineates, as “wild branches” grafted into the Olive Tree and believe as the Apostle proclaims that “the branches do not support the root of the tree but the root supports the branches” (Romans 11:18). 

This latter group insists that both these truths can exist simultaneously in a way for those Jews who might come to faith in Messiah to still maintain their Jewish identity. They would never ask a Jew to stop being a Jew. They contend that the Jews did not “occupy” Israel in 1948 but returned to their homeland to reestablish what was already theirs. In a similar way they believe for a Jew to place his or her faith in Messiah is not so much converting to a foreign religion, but, in a sense, returning to their own spiritual heritage.  Jesus said the gospel came first to the Jew, and then to the gentiles.

So it follows that evangelicals fall into these three distinct groups when it comes to the term “Christian Zionists.”  Some take a compromised approach, some a conflicted approach, and others a complementary approach to this elephant that exists in the room.

A COMPROMISED APPROACH

Some Christian Zionists adopt what might be called a compromised approach. They arrive at a point of compromise when it comes to the claims of the gospel in order to accept what in some cases results in a sort of dual covenant approach to the issue. This approach basically removes the term “Christian” from Christian Zionism.  This group intentionally avoids their own Biblical mandates as believers eliminating any evangelistic talk what so ever, even to the extent of seldom, if ever, even mentioning the name of Jesus to their Jewish friends.  They end up compromising their own professed beliefs that are at the very center and core of the Christian gospel.

In essence, this approach leads to being recognized more as a Zionist Christian rather than a Christian Zionist. Desirous of gaining the trust and acceptance of their Jewish friends they put what they claim to believe about the gospel message off to the side in hopes of gaining support and cooperation. They believe the big issue is seeing the Jews back in the land of Israel as a precursor to prophetic events of the “last days.” While still contending they believe the gospel, they trust God to reveal Himself to the Jews at some time in the future, while abstaining from pressing the claims of the gospel to the hearts of their Jewish friends.

A CONFLICTED APPROACH

Some evangelicals choose a more conflicted approach. While those adhering to the more compromised approach basically remove the term “Christian” from Christian Zionists, this second group is guilty of removing the term “Zionist” from the equation. They do not see Israel as any different from any other country in the world nor do they think Jews are different from any other people group in God’s economy. 

This particular group of evangelicals would prefer to avoid the term Zionism altogether. They have adopted the error of Replacement Theology believing that God has rejected the Jews and replaced them with the church.  Thus, they contend that all God’s promises given to the Jews are now bestowed upon the church.  The importance of maintaining Jewish identity, even after the horrors of the Holocaust and thousands of pogroms in thousands of places, is of no importance to them.

In their spiritual blindness they do not see all the unconditional promises God gave to the Jews especially through the Abrahamic Covenant. They stray from the heart of Jesus Himself who stated His primary mission and assignment was to come first to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). The Apostle Paul echoed this truth in his introduction to his great theological treatise to the Romans saying that the gospel came “to the Jew first and then to the the Greek” (Romans 1:16) even going so far as saying he wished himself to be “accursed and cut off from Christ” for the sake of his Jewish brothers (Romans 9:3). The early church was totally a Jewish phenomenon until we arrive at the first gentile convert in Caesarea recorded in Acts, chapter ten.

A COMPLEMENTARY APPROACH

Finally, a segment of Christian Zionism prefers a more complementary approach. This group keeps both the Christian and the Zionist elements intact while unashamedly claiming the term, “Christian Zionism.” They believe it is possible to not compromise their faith and belief system while at the same time supporting the Jewish people and the Jewish state with passion and commitment. 

They understand the Jewish covenants. Having just emerged from centuries of Egyptian slavery God declared to Israel at Mount Sinai—“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). Israel’s assignment was to show all the nations of the earth what it looked like to live under the reign and rule of the one true God. Obedience to the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19-24), including the Ten Commandments, was the pathway to accomplishing this task. 

But, in no way did this Mosaic Covenant, which was conditional, replace or cancel the unconditional promises God had previously given the Jewish people under the Abrahamic Covenant. Unlike the covenant with Moses, which was conditional and temporary, God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham, repeated to Isaac and Jacob, rests entirely on God’s own promises and not on Israel’s performance. 

Since the law, while it defined holiness and exposed sin, could never be kept nor could transform the inner man, it did stir a hope for something greater—The New Covenant. Jeremiah records the words of God, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people…for they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest…For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). 

Israel’s utter failure to meet the demands of the Mosaic Covenant could never undo what God had earlier and unconditionally promised to Abraham. Centuries later the Apostle Paul would address this in his Galatian letter reminding us that the law came four centuries after the promises to Abraham—“The law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void” (Galatians 3:17). Even when Israel failed miserably under the Mosaic law, God’s purposes for His chosen people Israel remained anchored firmly in the promises He had earlier made to Father Abraham.

Consequently, those Christian Zionists who take a complimentary approach to the issue do not compromise their own faith. At the same time they also insist that there is a particular promise (“I will make you a great nation”-Genesis 12:2) to a particular people (“To You I will give the land”-Genesis 17:8) in a particular place (“The land of Canaan”-Genesis 17:8) for a particular purpose (“In you all the families of the earth will be blessed”-Genesis 12:3).

Our Jewish friends are wise enough to know that a true Christian Zionist is just that. First, a Christian who has placed his or her faith and trust in Jesus, whom they believe to be the Jewish Messiah. And, they are also Zionists who respect Jewish heritage and who believe God still has a plan for this special people whom He has chosen and loves. They believe God when He says of the Jews, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you…it is because the Lord loves you” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8).

Christian Zionists tend to care deeply for the people who are central to the storyline of their entire Bible. When true Christian Zionists and their Jewish friends live in mutual respect for one another, are honest with one another while remaining focused on their respective callings and mutual objectives, they suddenly discover a new dynamic. And the result? There is no longer…an elephant in the room.