Christian Zionism is a Heterodox Belief

What I am doing here is essentially criticizing Christian Zionism as a heterodox belief. To understand this, we should understand what heterodoxy is. It comes from the Greek meaning ‘the other opinion.’ In the context of Christianity, it means a deviation from established doctrine or the deposit of faith. The earliest appearance of christian zionism is in the 1600s with some Protestant thinkers. It never had popular support until 1897. In other words zionism is a modern phenomenon and only enjoys popularity for only about 6% of Christian history. A religious idea doesn’t become heterodox just because it is new (though it is a red flag). A religious idea is heterodox if it is a departure from true doctrine and the apostolic witness. No Catholic can knowingly adopt a heterodox belief and remain consistent in their faith. All forms of Christian Zionism are heterodox for this reason. To show this, we must examine the fundamental tenet of Christian Zionism. The return of the Jewish people to the land of Palestine in the formation of a Jewish State is necessary for the fulfillment of end-times prophecies. This belief is not found anywhere in Christianity for more than 90% of Christianity’s existence. It is an eschatology which was invented in the 1890s. That is a red flag for heterodoxy, but that alone doesn’t confirm it. What makes it heterodox is that it is contrary to the deposit of faith. The apostles and their successors taught that the end times are both individually and generally. Particular in the sense that when you or I die, we are judged. Universal in that there will be a second coming in which the whole world is judged. Most modern end-times ideas like Christian Zionism today or other movements, sects, or cults that tried to predict the day and the hour of the end times are more beholden to fanaticism than the love of Christ. They rely on politics and sensationalism. This behavior is not unlike that of the pagans who ‘tempt fate.’

Jews are not owed a nation anymore than any other group of people with a shared identity. For example the Romani, Kurds, or Chechens. These are all people with a shared identity, yet they do not have a state either. Mere existence doesn’t mean you are owed a nation state. The Land of Jerusalem, Mount Zion itself, is merely a type or shadow used to open humanity up to the God-man Jesus Christ. The promise of the land was a foreshadowing of the kingdom of heaven. That foreshadowing had been accomplished. The promise has been fulfilled. By associating the modern state of Israel with biblical Old Covenant Israel, we are being both irreligious and ahistorical. If you want to give the Jews a nation because of the Holocaust, then they should have been given the northwestern part of Germany. In creating the modern state of Israel, we see a phenomenon that played itself out in history time and time again. The victims of great atrocities becoming perpetrators. The Portuguese had been abused and occupied by the Moors, so their empire abused  and occupied various parts of Africa. The United States created Liberia from freed slaves, who became elites and masters of other Africans living in the land before they arrived.  What the State of Israel is doing to the Palestinians and what they plan to do to the region is similar in all its bloody and dehumanizing activities against Palestinians.

My argument in logical form:

No heterodox belief is an Orthodox Christian belief, since all heterodox beliefs deviate from Apostolic witness and doctrine.

All Christian Zionism is heterodoxy because it is a break from Christian history and apostolic doctrine.

Therefore, no instance of Christian Zionism can be considered Christian Orthodoxy.

Regardless of whether you’ve divorced faith from reason, both agree: Christian Zionism is a heterodox belief.