Just last month, the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem issued a forceful statement condemning Christian Zionism as a “damaging ideology” that “misleads the public, sows confusion, and harms the unity of the church.” The statement, widely reported and hotly debated among Christians in the Holy Land, has sparked tension among different Christian traditions and sharp pushback from evangelicals who argue that their support for Israel is rooted not in politics, but in Scripture.
That controversy is not an isolated incident. It reflects a broader shift in how Zionism, including Christian Zionism, is now discussed, framed, and attacked. What was once treated as a historical and theological conviction has become a flashpoint, criticized simultaneously from the far left and the far right, though for very different reasons.
Before Christians can assess the attacks, we must be clear about what we are actually talking about.
Zionism, at its core, is the belief that the Jewish people have the right to exist as a people in their ancestral homeland, with continuity of history, faith, and self-determination.
That definition is not ideological spin. It reflects the standard, dictionary-level understanding of Zionism as a movement rooted in Jewish history, survival, and return. It does not require agreement with every Israeli policy. It does not claim moral perfection. It asserts belonging.
And it is precisely that insistence on Jewish continuity and belonging that is now being challenged.
On the far left, Zionism is increasingly reframed as a form of colonialism, detached from Jewish history and stripped of its ancient roots. Jewish connection to the land is minimized, reinterpreted, or dismissed as a modern invention. The goal is not merely to critique a government, but to question whether Jewish peoplehood itself has a legitimate claim to place.
On the far right, the attack looks different but leads to a similar erasure. Zionism is emptied of its covenantal and moral meaning and reduced to conspiracy, power, or leverage. Jewish presence is tolerated only insofar as it serves other ideological aims, and familiar antisemitic tropes quietly resurface under the language of “influence,” “control,” or “following the money.”
Different ideologies. Same outcome. Jewish history is flattened, and Jewish belonging is treated as conditional.
This is where Christians must think carefully, because Scripture does not allow us to treat Jewish history as disposable.
Which brings us to an uncomfortable but necessary question.
Was Jesus a Zionist?
Not in the modern political sense. Jesus did not campaign, legislate, or outline borders. But He was unmistakably rooted in the very story that Zionism insists the world must not erase.
Jesus was born a Jew in Judea. He walked the roads of Jerusalem. He worshiped at the Temple. He taught in its courts. He celebrated the feasts that bound faith to land and memory. When He spoke of Jerusalem, He did not speak of an idea, but of a city.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He lamented, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” He wept not over a metaphor, but over a place and a people.
Jesus affirmed Jewish particularity without apology. “Salvation is from the Jews,” He said, grounding God’s redemptive plan in a specific people and history. He did not universalize salvation by erasing Jewish identity. He fulfilled it.
The present controversy over Christian Zionism is not really about theology alone. It is about whether Jewish history is allowed to remain continuous, embodied, and real.
That continuity is visible not only in Scripture, but in stone.
Just days ago, Israel reopened a 2,000-year-old road in Jerusalem, known as the Pilgrim’s Path, linking the Pool of Siloam to the Western Wall. Built during the Second Temple period and buried after the Roman destruction in 70 CE, the road has now been uncovered and opened to visitors after decades of excavation.
It does not argue. It testifies.
It says Jews were here. They prayed here. They walked here. They did not vanish simply because empires tried to erase them.
At the same time, modern Israel continues to shoulder the responsibilities of statehood in an imperfect world. President Isaac Herzog recently declared the surge of violent crime in Arab-Israeli communities a national emergency, urging decisive action to protect citizens whose lives have been torn apart by gang violence. A Jewish state, rightly understood, is not defined by supremacy, but by responsibility. It is judged not by perfection, but by whether it confronts its own failures rather than denying them.
That moral seriousness stands in stark contrast to regimes that openly seek Israel’s destruction. Iran’s leaders continue to speak of wiping Israel off the map while pursuing nuclear capability and rebuilding terror networks. History has taught the Jewish people that such threats cannot be dismissed as rhetoric.
Jesus understood this pattern. He warned His followers that truth would not be welcomed and that fidelity would invite opposition. “If the world hates you,” He said, “keep in mind that it hated me first.”
So was Jesus a Zionist?
He was not a modern political actor. But He stood firmly inside the Jewish story that Zionism seeks to protect: a story of peoplehood, memory, covenant, and place. He never denied Jewish connection to the land. He never treated Jerusalem as replaceable. He never erased Jewish particularity in the name of universal love.
The current attacks on Zionism and Christian Zionism reveal something deeper than political disagreement. They reveal a discomfort with the idea that Jewish history did not end, that Jewish belonging is not symbolic, and that God’s dealings with Israel were not a temporary experiment.
Will Christians affirm the ongoing reality, dignity, and particularity of the Jewish people and their historical connection to the land and the story from which Christianity itself comes, or will we allow that story to be erased, spiritualized, or redefined by ideology?
This question has never been theoretical.
But it has become impossible to ignore.
Will we allow Scripture, history, and truth to shape our understanding, or will we let ideology redefine words that God Himself anchored in time and place?
The stones of Jerusalem are answering, whether the world likes it or not.
Today’s Prayer:
Lord, give us eyes to see clearly and courage to stand faithfully. Guard us from false narratives and teach us to love Jerusalem with wisdom, humility, and truth. Amen.
Peggy Kennedy is the co-founder of Christian Women For Israel, a global community devoted to prayer, education, and advocacy for Israel and the Jewish people. She has more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, ministry, and communications, with a focus on strengthening Christian–Jewish relations and standing against antisemitism. Peggy writes on faith, Scripture, Israel, and the role of women in responding faithfully to the challenges of our time.
