Christian Zionism: What it is and how it affects the US and Israel

The US has supported Israel throughout the war on Iran and the genocide in Gaza. Much of that backing is rooted in Washington's long-standing regional and strategic interests.

But within the administration of President Donald Trump and beyond, prominent Christian Zionists have sometimes framed conflicts in the Middle East in biblical terms, invoking scripture to justify support for Israel.

Christian Zionism is a political and religious ideology that advocates Jews returning to the Holy Land, an area primarily covering modern-day Israel and Israeli-occupied Palestine, as well as neighbouring parts of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. 

This return, Christian Zionists say, will fulfil biblical prophecies and bring about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the End Times, when all Christian believers, both dead or alive, will be suddenly taken to heaven during The Rapture.

Christian Zionists support the State of Israel: some go further, back the Israeli occupation and settlement of Palestine, including Gaza and the West Bank.  For some Jews, such beliefs are regarded as supportive of Zionism.

But Christian Zionists also believe that once Jews return to the Holy Land they must then convert to Christianity - something that many Jews regard as antisemitic.

What are the origins of Christian Zionism?

The origins of Christian Zionism can be traced back to early 16th-century Europe and the aftermath of the Reformation, a Christian schism when Protestants split from the Catholic establishment.

During this period, some Protestant theologians in England and Scotland viewed Jews as fundamental to the fulfilment of biblical prophecies, including the coming of a thousand-year Messianic Age as prophesised in the Book of Revelation.

Throughout the 17th century, Puritans, who followed a strict form of Protestantism, colonised North America, taking such ideas with them.

Christian Zionist ideas gained further traction during the 19th century within the Dispensationalist movement. Led by Anglo-Irish minister John Nelson Darby, it took a literal interpretation of the Bible and the idea that history is divided into multiple ages called “dispensations”, including the Rapture and an age of Tribulation (Biblical upheaval). 

During this time, influential Christian political figures such as British social reformer Lord Shaftesbury urged the return of Jews to Israel. Similar ideas emerged in the US, where Evangelical pastor William Blackstone published Jesus is Coming in 1878, a bestseller that similarly advocated Christian Zionism.

Such beliefs were to eventually dovetail with those of Jewish Zionism, and especially those of the secular Jewish pamphleteer Theodor Herzl, who played a major role in promoting Zionism internationally.

In the UK and elsewhere, many politicans were sympathetic to Christian Zionism. They included UK foreign minister Arthur Balfour, who in 1917 sent the Balfour Declaration, in which Britain pledged support for a Jewish state in Palestine, to Lord Rothschild, a leading Zionist.

Who believes in Christian Zionism today?

Today, Christian Zionist beliefs are most prominent among Evangelical Christians.

In its religious context, “Evangelical” is an umbrella term which describes Christian denominations that promote preaching of the Christian Gospel to non-believers. The Bible is interpreted as factually and historically accurate, and the ultimate source of truth and guidance on how to live.

Evangelicalism includes various denominations, including Baptist and Pentecostal, as well as more independent and non-denominational Christian groups. 

Given its loose definition, estimates of the number of Evangelicals worldwide vary from 300m to 600m of the more than two billion Christians worldwide. 

In the US, where Christian Zionism is most widespread and influential, 73m Americans identified as Evangelical Protestants in 2024, according to polling from Pew Research Center - around 21 percent of the overall population. There were 5.8m Jews in the US in 2020, according to Pew’s most recent survey.

Over half of Evangelical Christians in the US live in the Southern states and southern Midwest, sometimes referred to as the Bible Belt, where they form a foundational voting bloc.

Known for its social conservatism, the Republican Party has dominated the region since the 1960s: every state in the region voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 US presidential election. 

How influential is Christian Zionism on US politics?

Christian Zionists Evangelicals have been influential in US policymaking for more than a century. 

In the 1940s, for example, Evangelicals were a central force within the American Christian Palestine Committee, which lobbied for the founding of the state of Israel in Palestine..

And in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan, who identified as a “born again” Protestant, courted Evangelical voters with frequent references to Armageddon theology.

Today, key members of the Trump administration are Evangelical Protestants and identify as Christian Zionists, including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the current Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. 

The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson is also an Evangelical supporter of Israel, as is Mike Pence, vice-president in the first Trump term.

Christian Zionist televangelists have served as advisers during the Trump administrations, including Paula White-Cain, Trump’s personal spiritual adviser. 

In July 2024 her website stated: “In this pivotal moment in human history, we are called to STAND with ISRAEL! This isn’t about politics; this is about living in harmony with the WORD of God!”

Christian Zionist lobby groups include Christians United for Israel (CUFI). Led by televangelist John Hagee, it is the largest Zionist organisation in the US with more than 10 million members - twice as many as the influential Jewish-led, pro-Israel lobby group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

It says its lobbying has influenced US policy in the Middle East, such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018.

Hagee told the Jerusalem Post in 2019: “I’ve met with President Trump and we discussed his moving the US embassy to Jerusalem - which he of course announced he would do some months later."

He added that “there has never been a more pro-Israel president than President Donald Trump”.

In 2020, Trump told a rally in Wisconsin that the embassy move was “for the Evangelicals”, adding: “You know, it’s amazing with that, the Evangelicals are more excited by that than Jewish people, it’s incredible!” 

Stephen Walt, the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and co-author of the influential 2003 study The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, told Middle East Eye that Christian Zionism has “broadened support for Israel beyond some portions of the American Jewish community

“Christian Zionism has reinforced the activities of Aipac and other groups by influencing the attitudes of specific individuals, such as the current US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee,” he said. 

But he emphasised that support for Christian Zionism among American Evangelicals is decreasing. 

“I believe it is less influential than it once was, in part because Evangelicals have focused on other issues and because some parts of the Evangelical community have been disturbed by Israel’s behaviour, which has caused its support to plummet within the US population.”

Polling last month by Pew Research Center showed that support for Israel is waning among all segments of the US population, including Evangelicals, amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza.  

How do Christian Zionists see war in the Middle East?

Christian Zionist leaders have been accused of encouraging the US-Israeli war on Iran by saying it fulfils biblical prophecy. 

Hagee said in a sermon on 1 March, only hours after the attacks began that “prophetically, we’re right on cue”. Later, he prayed that “God Almighty is brought onto the battlefield and the enemies of Zion and the enemies of the United States can be destroyed before our eyes. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered.”

Hegseth has quoted Bible verses in statements throughout the conflict, including a fictional verse featured in the film Pulp Fiction. Earlier in the war, he called for "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy” during a Pentagon prayer service.

US military commanders have also been accused of invoking Evangelical rhetoric about “End Times” to their regiments. 

One anonymous officer told The Military Religious Freedom Foundation NGO in March that his commander had instructed him “to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’, and specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”

What about Christian Zionists outside the US?

In Europe, Christian Zionism has less influence, given the lower proportion of Evangelical Christians in the continent, estimated at around three percent of the population.

Elsewhere, Christian Zionism is growing in parts of Africa, amid a rise in Evangelicalism and in South Korea, where approximately 20 percent of the population are Evangelical. 

In Brazil, Christian Zionism was influential during the premiership of far-right Evangelical President Jair Bolsonaro from 2019 to 2023. 

Bolsonaro promised to move Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2018 during his election campaign, although he never did. His son, Flavio, a candidate in October’s presidential election, promised the same in January.  

How does Christian Zionism regard Judaism and other religions?

O’Loughlin told MEE that “Christian Zionism does not see any purpose in Judaism, which it views as only a passing phenomenon. It sees Christians as having superseded Judaism.”

He said that Christian Zionism only supports the return of the Jews to the Holy Land due to beliefs that “the Jews must be gathered back so that when the whole scattering of Israel is reversed, they can then be given a chance to convert to Christianity” and that this means that Christian Zionism “ultimately is antisemitic”.

Several prominent Christian Zionist figures have been criticised for remarks against other religions, including Judaism. 

Robert Jeffress, a Christian Zionist televangelist and adviser to Donald Trump during his first term, said in a 2010 interview: “Judaism - you can’t be saved being a Jew. You know who said that, by the way? The three greatest Jews in the New Testament: Peter, Paul and Jesus Christ. They all said Judaism won’t do it."

He also said during the interview: “Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Mormonism is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell.” 

Jeffress later led the inaugural prayer at the opening ceremony of the US Embassy in Jerusalem in May 2018.

In the late 1990s, discussing the Holocaust, Hagee said: “How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.” 

What do Jews think of Christian Zionism?

In recent years, Israeli leaders have cultivated a close relationship with influential Christian Zionists. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a panel of Evangelical leaders in Palm Beach, Florida on 31 December 2025: “You are representatives of the Christian Zionists who made Jewish Zionism possible.”

He added: “It’s hard for me to conceive the emergence of the Jewish state, the re-emergence of the Jewish state, without the support of Christian Zionists in the United States, also in Britain, but the main thrust was in the United States in the 19th century.”

But for many Jews, the notion that they should return to Israel only so  that they may convert to Christianity evokes centuries-old antisemitism.

Rabbi Dow Marmur, a prominent Jewish thinker, criticised Christian Zionism on such grounds in 2015, charging it with “deliberately ignoring the rich and varied development of Jewish thought and practice for the last 2,000 years".

What do other Christian groups think of Christian Zionism?

Today, Christian Zionism is generally rejected by non-Evangelical Protestant denominations, such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism, which originated in Germany and England respectively in the 16th century.

It has also long been rejected by Orthodox churches, which are strongest in eastern Europe and the Middle East, and the Catholic Church, which waited until 1993 to begin diplomatic relations with Israel, and today advocates a two-state solution. 

In January, the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem jointly condemned Christian Zionism amid ongoing Israeli violations of the Status Quo agreements applied to shared holy sites. 

“Recent activities undertaken by local individuals who advance damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism, mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock,” the statement said.

Thomas O’Loughlin, Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham, told Middle East Eye that Christian Zionist beliefs hold little traction beyond non-Evangelical theologians. 

“Orthodox theologians view Christian Zionism as a confusion within human thought,” he said.