Christians and Israel -
Dr. Richard Booker

Biblical Zionism

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Shalom! In my previous two articles, I mentioned the four major Zionist movements throughout history and explained two of these: political Zionism and replacement theology Zionism. All of these are controversial simply because people have different beliefs and agendas and see things from different perspectives.

In this article I want to explain the third understanding of Zionism which I call Biblical Zionism. This is the oldest and “original” Zionist movement. It is called Biblical Zionism because the proponents of this view base their beliefs on the Bible.

A Biblical Zionist is simply a person who believes the biblical promises God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them and their descendants the land of Israel as an everlasting possession. There are literally hundreds of statements about this in the Bible such as the following:

The Lord said to Abraham, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God (Genesis 17:7-8).

While the Bible predicts that the Jews would be exiled from their land, as history has proven true, it also says that the God of Israel would preserve a remnant of His people and bring them back to their Promised Land. Since the prophecy of the exile proved to be true, Biblical Zionist also expects the prophecy of the return to be true.

Ezekiel believed he was speaking for the God of Israel when he wrote, “… Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone. … I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel’ ” (Ezekiel 11:16-17).

There are different views on the details and sequence of events that relate to this “Jewish homecoming.” Some believe this ingathering to be a work of the Messiah while others understand that more conventional human efforts will bring about the ingathering of the exiles. Still others see a combination of the two with the hand of the Almighty working through human efforts to realize the age old cry of the Jewish people, “Next Year in Jerusalem.”

No matter how they may differ on the details, Biblical Zionist understands the present ingathering of the Jewish people to Israel as a fulfillment of the Biblical prophecies. Throughout their two thousand-year exile, the Jewish people have prayed for this return as expressed in the tenth blessing of the Amidah which say, “Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather the exiles and gather us from the four corners of the earth. Bless are You, Hashem, Who gathers in the dispersed of His people Israel.”

The yearning to rebuild Jerusalem is also found in the Amidah (fourteenth blessing) which says, “And to Jerusalem, Your city, may You return in compassion, and may You rest within it, as you have spoken. May you rebuild it soon in our days as an eternal structure, and may You speedily establish the throne of David within it. Blessed are You, Hashem, the Builder of Jerusalem.”

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Dr. Richard and Peggy Booker are the Founding Directors of the Institute for Hebraic-Christian Studies (IHCS), a non-proselytizing, Christian Zionist educational organization. They have dedicated their lives to educating Christians in their Judeo-Christian heritage and the holocaust, building relations between Christians and Jews, and working tirelessly to give comfort and support to the people of Israel. To learn more about their work and study materials, or to have Dr. Booker speak to your group, contact them at www.rbooker.com

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