Page 5 - TORCH Magazine #30 - Spring 2026

C
hristian Zionism is Biblical.
To deny this is to deny God’s
Word and turn our backs on the
Jewish people.
This is why the statement issued by the
Patriarch leaders of churches in Jerusalem
(an ecumenical body that includes Catholic,
Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and other
church leaders) in January 2026 is so
divisive. The Bible is Zionist. God made a
Covenant with the nation of Israel, giving
the Jewish people the Land as an everlasting
possession. Their framing of Christian
Zionism as a “dangerous ideology” is
therefore unbiblical and another deception
resulting from the false teaching of
Replacement Theology. It has also been
seized upon by Christian influencers online,
who have been turning up the heat recently
against Christian Zionism to serve their own
anti-Israel agenda.
Christian Zionism is under attack. To
defend it is to defend the Bible. But doing
so also safeguards the Jewish-Christian
relationship, which has suffered every time
the Church has tried to redefine what
Scripture says about Israel. Consequently,
this denial of Zionism within the Church
has almost always led to an increase in
antisemitism and hostility towards Israel. We
must not allow this to happen in this new
era. Reclaiming Zionism is essential if the
Church is to remain faithful to God’s Word
and faithful to the Jewish people, to whom
the Church owes a debt of gratitude for the
very foundation of Christianity.
A silent Church
Many sincere church leaders in the
UK hold the view that talking “Zionism”
is a political subject that is best avoided
in church as it might cause unnecessary
controversy and lead to division. Not talking
about it, however, could be one of the
biggest mistakes made by the Church today.
The Church is silent because many have
bought the lie that Zionism – the view that
Zion is the homeland for Jewish people – is
a political topic or worse still, a dirty word.
It is a political topic when a person makes
it one. Zion (mentioned 150+ times in the
Bible) is in fact central to Christian faith and
theology. Why not talk about it? Why not
discover what God has to say about Zion,
the place the Bible describes as the City of
God?
When antisemites attack “Zionists” they
usually mean Jews. As Christians, this should
be enough for us to rally to the defence
of our Jewish brothers and sisters. But the
Church needs to wake up and realise that
an attack on Zionism is also an attack on
Christians.
Others say “anti-Zionism” is not against
Jews, but against the State of Israel. If they
mean criticism of Israeli policy, then why not
call it that? What they usually mean is they
have a problem with Israel’s existence, or
putting it another way, the presence of Jews
in Israel.
This is antisemitic pure and simple. It is
racist and evil, and Christians should be at
the forefront of speaking out against it.
An offence to Christians
It’s worth pointing out that “Zionists”
include Christians and others also. So, an
attack on “Zionism” is also an attack on
Christian belief. The Church should be
hurting right now. It should be calling into
question how a view so central to our faith
is allowed to be attacked. It should be
defending the hundreds of thousands (if not
millions) of Christians across the country
who describe themselves as Zionists. It
should be offended and bruised. It should
feel an urgency to seek justice. But due to
either silence or blindness it still remains a
“Jewish problem” only.
Any church leader that contributes to this
kind of anti-Zionism should be ashamed. The
damage caused by the delusional opposition
by some within the Church towards Israel
has consequences that may only be realised
when the Church becomes the next target
of the same ungodly antisemites.
The Church’s silence on this anti-Zionism
is a failure that the Church may still have
time to address – but time may be running
out.
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