I am a Christian. And I am a Zionist. But it took me years of being both to realize that I’m a Christian Zionist. Though I consider myself a strong Christian and a committed lover of Israel, out of college I was leery of calling myself a Christian Zionist. My definition of a Christian Zionist was unclear and muddled by stereotypes I had absorbed over time.

Where I got those stereotypes is no mystery. Any time you hear interviews with prominent Christian Zionist leaders, certain questions are guaranteed to come up:

“Gary Bauer from American Values, tell us why evangelicals are so eager for the apocalypse?”

“Susan Michael from International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, is church support for Israel merely a tool to convert the Jews?”

“Earl Cox from Israel Always, do Christian Zionists only support Israel to realize the scenario of Armageddon?”

The answers to these questions rarely matter. The question itself attempts to unmask alleged...