From A to Z: ANTISEMITISM and ZIONISM
Antisemitism and Zionism are words that can be defined quite straightforwardly, but when used in the public sphere, often trigger controversy, terminate further conversation, and entrench polarization. Let’s learn what these words mean and what issues they relate to and prepare to use them appropriately, accurately and usefully.
Antisemitism
Simply stated, antisemitism is hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. It is considered the oldest, most pervasive and most widespread of all hatreds. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has developed a working definition of antisemitism:
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Globally, antisemitism has risen dramatically in recent years, especially since Oct 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Jewish families and young people in Israel and simultaneously launched a social media war against Israel. The spike in hatred began October 8, several weeks before Israel responded militarily. Since October 7, Canada has experienced a sharp increase in Jew hatred that is somewhat difficult for authorities to deal with because of our commitment to freedom of expression. The Government of Canada has developed the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, an excellent resource that includes instructive examples of how antisemitism is expressed in our context.
Spiritually, antisemitism can be understood as a demonically inspired rebellion against God’s sovereign choice to bless the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and through them extend His blessing to all nations. That blessing ultimately comes through Jesus, God’s Anointed, the Jewish Messiah. (See Genesis 12:1-4 and Genesis 15 for the Abrahamic Covenant and Matthew 1:1-17 for the genealogy of Jesus Christ.) God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants, the Jews, was unconditional and eternal. The New Covenant, instituted by Jesus, is essentially continuous with the Abrahamic covenant. Genesis 15:17, in which God Himself passes through the slain and divided animal carcasses while Abraham sleeps, foreshadows John 3:16 and 19:30 in which God makes provision for human sin (breaking the covenant) by sending His own Son as a sacrifice.
The Apostle Paul explains in Galatians 3 that the Mosaic covenant through Moses was conditional and temporary until it could be replaced by the New Covenant. To our shame, the Church, confusing the temporary Mosaic Covenant with the eternal Abrahamic Covenant, has historically justified and institutionalized Jew hatred by arguing that their rebellion against God nullified His promise to bless them. From early theologians such as Justin Martyr, Augustine, and John Chrysostom, to Roman Emperor Constantine and the 4th century Church Councils, to the Crusaders and European nations that cruelly expelled their Jewish diaspora communities, to the Catholic Church and Reformer Martin Luther, to today’s Replacement and Fulfillment Theologians, justification of antisemitism by the Church has permitted and often encouraged whole societies to hate and persecute Jews.
Replacement Theology (aka supersessionism) teaches that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan and therefore exclusively inherits all the prophecies, promises, and blessings once belonging to the Jews. The fruit of Replacement Theology has been pogroms, inquisitions, expulsions, the Holocaust, the October 7 attack on Israel, and violent attacks against Jewish synagogues in Canada.
Fulfillment Theology is a modern, softened adaptation of Replacement Theology that asserts God’s calling and purpose for Israel have been fulfilled by Jesus’s coming and the birth of the Church. Fulfillment theologians emphasize that God’s salvation plan is inclusive, ultimately extending to all nations, with no special place for Israel. (See ICEJ Fulfillment Theology and Israel)
Abrahamic Religions is a concept supporting Interfaith Dialogue. It proposes that the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, share a common origin in Abraham: Jews descend physically from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, Christians become Abraham’s children “by faith” (Romans 4:16), and Islam claims (without evidence) that Mohammed descended physically from Abraham through Ishmael.
Islam also claims that God sent Moses as a prophet to the Jews, and when they disobeyed, God rejected them and sent Jesus as a prophet to the Christians. The Christians also disobeyed, so God rejected them and sent Mohammed as the final prophet who supersedes all others. Islam is the ultimate replacement theology, reaped by Christianity for sowing the teaching that the Church has replaced the Jews in God’s plan. To the unsuspecting, it also provides a bridge of familiarity to enable Islamization of the West. (See Abrahamic Dreaming, by Mark Durie for Middle East Forum.)
A Mixed Multitude
Our wonderful Lord foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament that Gentiles would be included in the New Covenant. Tamar, likely a Canaanite, bore Perez through Judah, son of Jacob, and made the trek to Egypt with the family to avoid famine. The Hebrews came out of Egypt with a “mixed multitude” (Exodus 12:38). Rahab, a Canaanite from Jericho who helped the Hebrew spies, is listed in Jesus’ genealogy as the great-great-grandmother of David. Isaiah prophesied that the LORD would bring foreigners to His holy mountain and His house would be called a “house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:6-8). And God the Father says of His Son,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)
The New Covenant provides for the expansion of God’s Kingdom by including Gentiles without rejecting the Jews as His distinct, original people (Deuteronomy 7:6).
Zionism
The word Zion can refer to the Jewish people, the Jewish homeland, the city of Jerusalem, a hill in the city of Jerusalem, and the heavenly Jerusalem. One of the Psalms of Ascent, sung by the Jews ascending to Jerusalem for required festivals, says this about Zion:
For the Lord has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:
“This is My resting place forever;
here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
I will abundantly bless her provisions;
I will satisfy her poor with bread.
Her priests I will clothe with salvation,
and her saints will shout for joy.
There I will make a horn to sprout for David;
I have prepared a lamp for My anointed.
His enemies I will clothe with shame,
but on him his crown will shine.” (Psalm 132:13-18)
And therein lies the cause of the controversy about Zion: YHWH has chosen a piece of property for Himself: Zion, the earth’s spiritual center and its most contested piece of property. Zionism, therefore, is about a land and the people who inherit it (see vv. 10-12).
Zionism, including Christian Zionism, is the belief that Jews have some basic rights:
- The right to exist
- The right to have a land (specifically Israel, the land promised to them)
- The right to gather in that land
- The right to defend themselves
It’s important to know what Zionism is not. Zionism DOES NOT claim that the State of Israel, its government and politicians, its military, its foreign policy, its judicial system or its people are perfect, holy, righteous, or even generally more worthy than any other nation. Zionism is not Judaism, and many Jews are not Zionist. Zionism is not a project to colonize lands that rightfully belong to others, and Zionism is not an evil entity controlling world affairs.
Anti-Zionism as the New Antisemitism
Anti-Zionism is the denial of the right of Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. It is based primarily on
- ignorance of the history of Jewish presence in the land for 3000 years despite multiple occupations and expulsions by other empires,
- sympathy for Palestinian causes without understanding how Arab governments and the Islamist Iranian regime have manipulated Arab economic migration and Palestinian discontent to challenge the State of Israel and get control over that one tiny piece of land in the Middle East that isn’t Islamic, and
- holding Israel to standards that no other nation is expected to meet – like insisting they lay down their arms when attacked.
For a helpful discussion of why anti-Zionism is a modern manifestation of antisemitism, see Defining Antisemitism: Why anti-Zionism is a Form of Antisemitism, World Jewish Congress.
There are multiple passages in Scripture in which YHWH clearly promises a specific piece of land to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob. God even says that the Jews will disobey His laws and be banished from the land – for a time – but He will sovereignly bring them back to the land He promised Abraham (see Deuteronomy 29 – 30:10). The current 8000 square miles on which Israel now sits is a fraction of the approximately 300,000 square miles God originally promised. If the Jews were exterminated and the land appropriated by others, God Himself would be shown to be a liar. Anti-Zionism attempts to challenge God’s faithfulness and His power to fulfill His promises. If the State of Israel were to disappear according to the demands of anti-Zionists, how could we Christians then trust in His promises to us through Jesus? If the Jews can be replaced, so can we.
Explore the following selected scripture passages and see for yourself what God says about the right of the Jews to possess their allotted homeland.
The Abrahamic Covenant:
Genesis 12:1-4a, 15, 26:2-5, 28:10-17, 35:9-15
God’s faithfulness to Israel: Isaiah 43-44, 62, Jeremiah 31 (and Hebrews 8:7-13), Romans 9-11
Curses and punishments for nations that harass and harm Israel:
Psalm 129; Isaiah 60:10-16; Zechariah 12:1-9, 14:12-21
The Jews’ full return to the land as a nation:
Ezekiel 36:24-38; Zechariah 12:10-14, 13:1; Matthew 23:39; Romans 11:23-29
[1] The one who walks between the animal carcasses in this type of covenant is saying, “Let this happen to me if I should break this covenant”.