One particular version of restorationism became popular in America in the second half of the nineteenth century – premillennial dispensationalism. It was developed by John Darby in Britain, who brought it to the United States after the civil war. According to Darby, rough times would befall humanity before the return of Jesus. Those who have accepted Jesus as their personal Savior will be spared this turmoil through the Rapture, whereby the true believers will be snatched from earth by Jesus. During the following seven years, there will be natural disasters and terrible wars in which two-thirds of humanity will perish. Meanwhile, the Jews will return to their ancient homeland without accepting Jesus. They will establish a state there ruled by the Antichrist posing as the Messiah. The Antichrist will inflict a reign of terror. The arrival of Jesus at the end of the Great Tribulation will end Antichrist’s rule and establish the millennial kingdom. Those Jews who survive will accept Jesus. Jesus will then rule, with the Jews inhabiting David’s ancient kingdom. The Temple will be rebuilt, and Jerusalem will serve as the capital of the entire world.15
Dispensationalism started as a minor part of the evangelical movement, but it gained support though populist preachers, like D. L. Moody, who were part of the revival movement. Dispensationalists were also prominent in the Bible Conference and Bible school movements, and they gained influence through the popular Scofield Bible, which has a dispensationalist commentary. Dispensationalists’ emphasis on the Bible gave them a prominent role as part of the conservative coalition against modernist liberal forces within the Protestant church.16
In the late nineteenth century, many Dispensationalists were excited by the rise of the Zionist movement and later by the foundation of the State of Israel itself in 1948. From the 1890s onward, Christian Zionists, most notably William Blackstone, became involved in pro-Zionist lobbying. However, these efforts were quite limited. This was both because, in the wake of the Scopes Monkey Trial, conservative evangelicals were politically quietist, and because the Zionist movement focused on winning the support of the liberal mainline, which it viewed as more influential.17 Apart from supporting Zionism, the premillennialist evangelical movement also gave rise to a large wave of missionary activity targeting Jews. The aims were to teach the Jews about their special role in history and to save them from the Great Tribulation. Blackstone himself was involved in such missionary activity.18
In 1967, the Six Day War gave a huge boost to evangelical support for Israel. Not only had Israel achieved what appeared to be a miraculous victory, but it also gained control over a united Jerusalem, including the site of the ancient Jewish Temple that, according to prophecy, needs to be rebuilt before the Second Coming. As the then editor of Christianity Today, the main evangelical magazine, reflected:
That for the first time in more than 2,000 years Jerusalem is now completely in the hands of the Jews gives the student of the Bible a thrill and a renewed faith in the accuracy and validity of the Bible.19
Contemporary Christian Zionism: Organizations and Elites
The rise in pro-Israel sentiment generated by the Six Day War was translated into political support because it coincided with the rise of the Christian Right. The relationship took off when Menachem Begin became Israeli prime minister in 1977. The Begin government encouraged evangelical tourism to Israel, and by 1980 the Israeli government estimated that nearly half of all American visitors to Israel were Christian tourists.20 Begin also forged links with Jerry Falwell. Support for Israel was one of the four elements that made up the founding manifesto of the Moral Majority. During the 1980s Falwell sponsored many Christian Zionist tours of Israel, in which pilgrims heard right-wing Israeli speakers. Falwell was awarded the Jabotinsky Medal by Begin in 1980.21 In the 1990s, Pat Robertson formed the Christian Coalition, which claimed to have more than a million members. His Christian Broadcasting Network donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Jewish immigration to Israel.22 According to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the director of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), ‘Evangelical support for Israel would not be so broad without Pat Robertson. He and Jerry Falwell were the first to really stand up … Because of them Christian support for Israel went from a tendency to a movement.’23
The first specifically American Christian Zionist organization was Bridges for Peace, founded in 1976. It was active in assisting Soviet-Jewish immigration to Israel. It also carries out large-scale programs of assistance to the needy Israelis, with a special emphasis on the absorption of new immigrants. The organization founded the first and largest food bank in Israel. Most of its contacts in Israel are at the municipal level.24 The second major Christian Zionist organization was founded in 1980 was the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem; though this is not a specifically American organization, it has eighty-two branches worldwide. It is most famous for its annual parade through the streets of Jerusalem on the Jewish festival of Succoth.
In 1983, Yechiel Eckstein, an Orthodox American Jewish Rabbi, founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which mobilizes evangelicals for more than 250 welfare projects in Israel.25 During the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, the organization paid for the renovation of bomb shelters in the north of Israel and in the area near Gaza. In 2002 Eckstein founded Stand for Israel, which is focused on political campaigning for Israel. That year it organized a nationwide day of prayer for Israel in which 15 000 churches and 5 million parishioners took part.26 Between 1993 and 2005 Eckstein is estimated to have raised between $100 million and 250 million from a base of more than 300,000 Christian donors, primarily by advertising on Christian TV channels in the U.S.27 In 2007 Eckstein was given a seat on the Jewish Agency for Israel’s highest governing committee, in return for pledging $45 million to the agency over three years.28 In 2008 the IFCJ claimed contributions of $84 million, reaching approximately $100 million in 2009.29 The IFCJ is ranked in the top 400 US charities, and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz listed it as Israel’s second largest charitable foundation.30
In the first decade of the twenty-first century the leading Christian Zionist has been John Hagee, the pastor of an eighteen-thousand-member megachurch in Texas. He is also the president and CEO of Global Evangelism Television, which is said to reach nearly 100 million homes across the world. He has been a pro-Israel activist since 1981. Hagee has given millions of dollars to Jewish organizations to help fund Jewish immigration and absorption in Israel.31 In 2006, Hagee re-formed the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) organization as a national grassroots movement focused on the support of Israel – a kind of Christian AIPAC. It has directors in every state, and city directors in more than ninety of America’s leading cities, with a purported 1 million members in 2012, and an annual conference attended by five thousand people. In July 2006, at the time of their conference, CUFI arranged 280 meetings for their members with congressmen.32 Hagee’s importance was recognized by AIPAC when he addressed its annual policy conference in 2007.
At the national level, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, several leading congressman belonged to the Christian Right and were avid Christian Zionists, included Sen. Jesse Helms (1980–2002) who was chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the former House Republican majority whip: Tom DeLay, a former House Republican leader: Dick Armey and Sen. Sam Brownback, who chaired the Senate subcommittee on Near East and South Asian Affairs. Other leading politicians in this mold were Gary Bauer and Mike Huckabee. President George W. Bush was also sympathetic to Israel, in part for religious reasons, but his approach to Israel diverged significantly from that of the Christian Right, as will be discussed later on.
Why Do American Evangelicals Support Israel?
Biblical Prophecy
According to Blackstone, America has a unique role to play in bringing about the final redemption by supporting Zionism. In this vein, Jerry Falwell declared, “God has raised up America for the cause of world evangelization and for the protection of his people, the Jews. I don’t think America has any
other right or reason for existence other than for those two purposes.”33 Falwell also called the existence of Israel, “the single greatest sign indicating the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”34 Other Christian Zionist leaders such as Hagee and Robertson often referred to the prophetic element in their support for Israel.35 In his 1998 book Final Dawn over Jerusalem, Hagee wrote: “We are racing toward the end of time, and Israel lies in the eye of the storm.”36 Nearly two-thirds of evangelicals believe in biblical prophecy relating to Israel37 and, according to a 2002 Tarrance survey, for about a third of evangelicals this is the number one reason they support Israel.38 This explains the popular success of Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth, which linked the birth of Israel and the Six Day War with the divine plan for the Second Coming. The book has sold more than 15 million copies and was the nonfiction bestseller of the 1970s. The Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye, which provide fictional accounts of the Second Coming, sold more than 60 million copies from 1995 to 2004. Six titles in the series reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list in that period.39
The Biblical Promise to Bless Israel and the Jewish people
In Genesis 12:3 God told Abraham: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee.” This is the verse cited most by Christian Zionists to explain their support for Israel, including Pat Robertson, former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Pastor John Hagee, Ted Haggard, who was head of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., who was highly influential on the Bush administration public policy. The verse also appears in the statement of faith of Hagee’s seventeen-thousand-member megachurch.40 As Falwell put it:
God has blessed America because America has blessed the Jew … If this nation wants her fields to remain ripe with grain, her scientific achievements to remain notable, and her freedom to remain intact, America must continue to stand with Israel.41
I personally believe that God deals with all nations in relation to how these nations deal with Israel … I premise that on what God said to Abraham: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee.” I therefore think America should without hesitation give financial and military support for the State of Israel. My political support for Israel in unconditional.42
About three-quarters of evangelicals believe in the biblical promise that God gave the land that is now Israel to the Jewish people. Twice as many evangelicals who held this belief expressed sympathy for Israel than those who did not.43
“Judeo-Christian Civilization” and “Islamic Fascism”
Another reason cited by evangelical leaders regarding their support for Israel is the sense of common religious-cultural foundations.44 Related to this is a sense that Israel and America are part of a shared democratic, Judeo-Christian civilization. Indeed, according to a 2002 Tarrance survey, 24 percent of evangelicals said they supported Israel primarily because it is a democracy that values freedom.45 This sense of commonality is reinforced by the fact that evangelicals have a strong tendency to view Islam as being involved in a clash of civilizations with the Judeo-Christian West, especially since 9/11. Evangelicals tend to view God and Allah as wholly distinct and the contemporary conflict with radical Islam as part of an ancient struggle, of which the Arab-Israeli conflict is apart. As one evangelical leader put it, “God’s covenant is with Isaac, not Ishmael.”46 Falwell referred to Mohammed as a terrorist;, Robertson called him a robber and a brigand, arguing on one occasion that Islam at its core teaches violence. A 2002 poll indicated that more than three-quarters of evangelical leaders held a negative view of Islam, and they were far more disapproving than other religious groups; the same goes for the evangelical public vis-à-vis the general public.47 Thus, during the 2000s a plurality of Americans had a favorable view of Islam. In contrast, most white evangelicals had an unfavorable view of Islam. In parallel, white evangelicals were far more likely to believe that Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions. This gap widened in the decade after 9/11 so that by 2011, while the general public was divided over the question 42–40, evangelicals’ negativity was reflected in their numbers: 60–24.48 In this confrontation with Islam, many evangelicals see Israel as a strong country on America’s side. Thus, in 2002, 19 percent of evangelicals said their main reason for supporting Israel was that it is a longtime ally that works with the U.S. in the war on terror.49
Remorse for Anti-Semitism
The final reason cited by evangelicals regarding their support for Israel is remorse for Christian anti-Semitism. In this vein, the Christian Zionist organization Eagles Wing created a “Watchmen on the Wall” program that denounces anti-Semitism.50
How Important are the Various Reasons for Supporting Israel?
The question of what is the primary motive for evangelical support for Israel is one with important political consequences. Critics of Christian Zionism emphasize prophecy. This could mean that Christian Zionists are supporting Israel only as a means to bring Armageddon, which would involve the deaths of millions of Jews and the conversion of those who remain. It also implies that Christian Zionism may actually threaten the State of Israel, since it might support moves that would bring Armageddon closer. This is a charge that Christian Zionists and their Jewish supporters deny. They accept that the prophetic element is the wellspring of Christian Zionism without which the movement would not exist, but they deny that this is dangerous. Instead, they emphasize Genesis 12:3 as the key reason.51
A 2003 Pew survey found that nearly two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants who believe that Israel fulfills biblical prophecy say they sympathize with Israel compared with just under half of white evangelicals who do not hold this belief.52 Evangelical pro-Israel activists are particularly inspired by prophetic Zionism;53 and pastors who speak most frequently in church about Israel come from denominations where belief in biblical prophecy is especially strong. Support for Israel among congregants rises significantly after they have spoken.54 Moreover, evangelical philanthropic donations to Israel are focused on immigration and absorption, issues that relate directly to Biblical prophecy. For example, Bridges for Peace’s promotional piece is: “Don’t just read about prophecy, when you can be a part of it.”55
As for the issue of “hastening the end times,” there are many Christian Zionists who look forward to the rebuilding of the Temple. The Temple Institute, a museum in Jerusalem that reconstructs Temple utensils, has become a pilgrimage site for many Christians who believe in biblical prophecy. During the 1980s a Christian Zionist organization called the Jerusalem Temple Foundation was active. Its goal was the rebuilding of the Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They received backing from Christian Zionists in America. Gershon Salomon, the leader of the Temple Mount Faithful – a very small group of Israeli Jews who want to rebuild the Temple – is very popular with evangelical tour groups. The Temple Mount Faithful and the Jerusalem Temple Foundation reportedly receive significant funds from evangelicals. A few evangelicals are also involved in efforts to breed a red heifer, a religious prerequisite for the conducting sacrifices in the Temple.56
The construction of a Third Temple would presumably involve the destruction of the mosques on the mount. This could lead to a massive war between Israel and Muslim Arab states. Hence, the Israeli security services are concerned about such activity. This concern reached its height toward the end of 1999, as the new millennium was identified by some believers as a possible date for the Second Coming. At that time, Israel’s security services rounded up members of a messianic group called “Concerned Christians” who planned to commit mass suicide or perhaps damage the mosques on the Temple Mount. Israel also arrested, deported or refused to entry to dozens of Christians who came to Jerusalem to witness the Second Coming of Jesus.57
Another concern is that Christian Zionists are trying to hasten end times by encouraging a confrontation between I
srael and Iran. In his 2006 book Jerusalem Countdown, Hagee charts the way in which a future confrontation with Iran will lead to Armageddon. At the same time, Hagee has supported a preemptive Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This has led to speculation that Hagee and his followers support for Israel represents a cynical and highly dangerous attempt to trigger the end times. Hagee has strongly denied this. He claims that his support for an Israeli strike is motivated by his concern for Israeli and U.S. security. In any case, he explained, “we don’t believe that we can speed up the end of days one second. Why? Because we believe that God is sovereign. That He has set the time. We are powerless to change God’s timetable. That’s what makes Him God.”58
Indeed, despite the fact that biblical prophecy drives some evangelical extremists to undertake dangerous activities, for the overwhelming majority of Christian Zionists this is not the case. Christian Zionists are not, generally speaking, driven by a desire to hasten the end times, nor is biblical prophecy the most important reason for their support of Israel. Thus, of the hundreds of evangelicals interviewed by Prof. Chris Smith, not one stated that they were trying to hasten end times.59 Moreover, according to the 2002 Tarrance poll, when evangelicals were asked to cite their main theological reason for supporting Israel, 59 percent said it was the Hebrew Bible’s promise to bless Israel and the Jewish people, while only 28 percent cited Biblical prophecies.60 The 2008 National Survey of Religion and Politics confirmed this order of priorities.61
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