Jewish and Christian Zionists Must Stand Together

A 2018 survey conducted by Motti Inbari and Kirill Bumin found, astonishingly, that over 90% of evangelicals believe that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people. The pro-Israel organization Christians United for Israel (CUFI) claims an estimated 10 million members – more than the entire number of Jews in the United States. What explains the strong tendency among American Christians to love Israel?

To understand the roots of American Christian Zionism, it’s helpful to consider two key thinkers from early America: Increase Mather, a leading Puritan minister in 17th-century Massachusetts, and John Adams, the second president of the United States. Comparing selections from their writings highlights how Christian Zionism evolved from a theological doctrine in colonial America to a more politically oriented version in the early republic.

Long before the birth of the modern Zionist movement in the late 19th century, Puritans in New England envisioned a Jewish return to Zion. In his treatise “The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation” (1669), written in the aftermath of a failed Jewish messianic movement, Increase Mather insisted that the phrase “all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26) – in his view, a precondition for the second coming of Christ – refers not only to a “spiritual” salvation of national conversion but also a “temporal” (this-worldly) salvation: “Some that have believed and asserted a general conversion of the Jews, yet have doubted whether they should ever again possess the Land of their fathers; But the Scripture is very clear and full for this, that I see not how it can justly be denyed or questioned.”

While this sentiment seems to align with Zionism by emphasizing Jewish possession of their ancestral homeland, it has two key limitations. Firstly, Mather did not wish for Jewish restoration as a manifestation of the national right to self-determination. Instead, he hoped to see a return of the Jews to the Holy Land to fulfill his eschatological ambition. Zionism, by contrast, denotes the establishment of a Jewish state – not a waystation toward a fully Christianized world order.

Secondly, the specific form of government Mather envisioned for the polity of the restored Zion looked backward to the Bible rather than forward to the modern idea of the nation-state. He lamented that the Jews had suffered “near 1,600 years since the house of Israel was left unto them desolate.” However, he also observed that the ancient Israelites only experienced “oppression from their own Rulers” when they demanded a human king and “cast off that Theocraty, or Government by Judges which was of divine appointment.” Mather envisioned the political system described in the Book of Judges – a nonmonarchical leader appointed by God – as the form of governance in the restored Israel.

To support this view, Mather cited an Old Testament prophecy: “I will restore thy Judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning. Sion and her converts shall be redeemed with righteousness” (Isaiah 1:26-27). While his translation followed the King James Version, Mather made a subtle but highly significant tweak by capitalizing the term “Judges.” This editorial choice reinterpreted the vision as alluding not simply to a restoration of Israelite political power but rather the return of the theocratic judgeship. Such a model similarly conflicts with the principle of self-determination, which places agency in the hands of the people.

However, Christian Zionism evolved after the American Revolution. In this era emerged a vision of Jewish restoration inspired by the revolutionary ideals of independence and liberty. While still rooted in eschatology, these expressions in some ways anticipated modern political dimensions of Zionism as Jewish statehood.

Consider John Adams. Like his Puritan ancestors, Adams admired the Old Testament, which he hailed among the “greatest Wonders of Antiquity.” However, he also expressed a dim view of post-biblical rabbinic literature; in an 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson, Adams dismissively remarked that examining the entire corpus “would require the life of Methuselah, and after all, his 969 years would be wasted to very little purpose.”

Despite his ambivalence toward rabbinic Judaism, Adams embraced the idea of Jewish restoration in his correspondence with the Jewish diplomat and notable proto-Zionist Mordecai Noah. In an 1819 letter to Noah, Adams expressed his hope for “restoring your nation to the dominion of [Judea]—For I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.” Adams believed that the Jews, “once restored to an independent government & no longer persecuted they would soon wear away some of the asperities & peculiarities of their character possibly in time become liberal Unitarian Christians.”

Adams’ letter retained the Puritans’ theological limitation noted earlier of idealizing Jewish restoration only to effectuate a national conversion. However, Adams’ political outlook differed significantly from Mather’s. Whereas Mather’s imagination led him to the Bible, Adams framed Jewish sovereignty through the new reality of a post-revolutionary world – hence the term “independent nation.”

The advent of American independence, something that Mather could never have anticipated, might explain how theological and theocratic fantasies in the 17th century evolved into an embrace of Jewish statehood in the early 19th century. These ideas culminated with America’s embrace of Jewish self-determination in the 20th century. Indeed, a mere 11 minutes after Israel’s founding in 1948, U.S. President Harry Truman recognized the nascent Jewish state and cemented an alliance that endures today. Moreover, Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948 itself drew inspiration from the United States’ Declaration of Independence in 1776.

As America’s 250th birthday approaches, the history of Christian Zionism in early America highlights the importance of today’s ecumenical allyship. The ideals of 1776 and 1948 call for a united front against efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel. Jewish and Christian Zionists must stand together, championing Israeli sovereignty on its own terms and ensuring that Judea’s “independent nation” endures for generations to come.

Yisroel Benporat serves as the Senior Associate for Faculty Engagement in New York at the Academic Engagement Network. He holds a Ph.D. in early American history from CUNY Graduate Center.