Historian Daniel Hummel’s New Book Argues Christian Zionism Is Not What Critics Commonly Assume

Critics of Christian Zionism often describe it as a hidden anti-Jewish project. Bible professor Candida Moss is quoted as writing that in this view “Jews must convert or die,” and political scientist Elizabeth Oldmixon is cited as describing evangelicals who want to hasten a future millennium in which “the Jews, will convert.” Benjamin Koatz criticizes Christians United for Israel for what he calls “esoteric anti-Semitism,” and Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb’s article “Anti-Semitism Behind the Christian Zionist Lobby” follows a similar line. The essay notes that this account is especially popular with liberal and leftist Jews, and it argues that the account is not accurate. It also cites a statistic that “nine out of ten” American evangelicals reject end-time prophecies involving Jewish control of the Holy Land.

The essay’s main source for its counterargument is Daniel G. Hummel’s new book, “Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations.” According to the essay, Hummel describes Christian Zionism as “less about apocalyptic theology or evangelism” than about “mutual and covenantal solidarity.” Hummel argues that the movement was not ancient, that its founders were largely innovating in response to the Holocaust, and that many Christian Zionists argue vociferously against missionizing. The essay reports his view that end-time prophecies motivate some believers but not the majority, and that the movement began through interfaith dialogue and was cultivated by the Israeli government.

Hummel’s history begins in Jerusalem after World War II, when American Christians came to Palestine and then Israel as missionaries. The essay reports that in 1949 there were more than fifteen thousand Christian missionaries in Israel, more per capita than anywhere else. Their work was largely unsuccessful. European Jews were deeply hostile to Christianity after the Holocaust, and the Israeli state placed sharp legal limits on proselytizing and tried to limit Christian Bible shipments. The essay also notes that Southern Baptists and Lutherans fell under the authority of the Jewish Chief Rabbinate, which refused to perform their marriages until the mid-fifties.

According to the essay, some missionaries came to doubt the morality of their efforts. They “sparred with” Jewish academics in Jerusalem and came to see the long history of Christian anti-Semitism, the Jewish background of the Gospels, and the importance of Zionism in Israeli Jewish life. Some argued for replacing conversion with what they called “witnessing,” a shift that downplayed conversion, embraced Zionism, and honored Jewish history and culture. The essay reports that this shift was highly controversial. Carl Henry, editor of Christianity Today, clashed with Donn Odell, his pro-Israel correspondent in Jerusalem, over coverage of Israeli anti-missionary measures. Hummel writes that Henry focused the magazine’s coverage on “a critical view of religious liberty in the country,” while Odell called for “simple, loving witness for Christ.”

The essay also describes theological tensions within the movement. It attributes the theology of covenantal dualism, which posited “separate eternal states for Israel and the church,” to the Anglo-Irish theologian John Nelson Darby. Although the essay says this dualism never became mainstream, it remained at the edges of Christian Zionism, and Christian Zionists were often attacked as heretical by other Christians. The essay notes that Billy Graham faced repeated critique for disavowing Jewish conversion. It further reports that the American Institute of Holy Land Studies, a Christian college in Jerusalem, persuaded Israeli officials that American Christianity was an untapped base of support, and that by one account more than half of the institute’s lecturers were Israeli scholars or government officials.

Hummel also describes Israeli promotion of tourism to American evangelicals, particularly after 1967. The essay reports that the Ministry of Tourism and El Al Airlines produced pamphlets promising visitors they could “relive the biblical epics.” It also states that Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum advised Billy Graham and other Christian leaders on how to speak and write about Israel. The essay’s later sections turn to the Christian Right, including the role of Jerry Falwell and Pastor John Hagee, and to what it calls the recent globalization of Christian Zionism. It reports that when Hummel visited the “International Christian Embassy’s Feast of Tabernacles celebration,” he heard a Nigerian preacher addressing an international audience with only a muted American presence.

The essay also says the global movement associates Israel with far-right, ultra-nationalist politics. It cites Brazilian Pentecostalist Rene Terra Nova, who, according to the essay, “administered a mass baptism in the Jordan river to a group of Brazilian tourists before leading a chant in support” of Jair Bolsonaro, a gathering that reached large Brazilian audiences through social media. The essay notes that Hummel does not present Christian Zionism uncritically. It quotes him on the “dark underside of reconciliation” between Jews and Christian Zionists, in “the erasure of concern for Arab Christians and… Palestinians.”

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