Does the New Testament support Christian Zionism?

Abstract

This article evaluates Christian Zionism in light of the New Testament, with a focus on the Pauline corpus. In spite of the fact that the New Testament never mentions the promise of the land in terms of an outstanding promise of territorial inheritance for Israel, the land, which includes Jerusalem and the temple, is incorporated in God’s kingdom in the new era in Christ in a way that fulfils but transcends the original territorial form of the promise. In the New Testament, the land is spiritualised, universalised and eschatologised. The deeper criteria of being God’s people in the New Testament – faith and the indwelling Spirit – cohere with the understanding that historical Israel cannot be seen as continuing as God’s people in the New Testament era, or as still having a valid claim on God’s promises.