Well, the short answer is: a lot of people, especially on the right. The next question is: Are they correct to be afraid?
It depends, of course, on what you mean by the term, which can be taken to mean too much or too little. The word “socialism” has been claimed by everyone from Lenin to Hitler to printmaker William Morris. (The late historian John Lukacs liked to infuriate people by referring to Sweden’s welfare state as “national socialism.”) Likewise, “Christian Zionism” requires a definition, and once defined, deserves some calm reflection.
The most alarming meaning which “Christian Zionism” can carry is the one that Tucker Carlson likely had in mind when he vented his contempt in an interview for which he has since (sort of) apologized: A theological position which claims that the establishment of Israel in 1948 by irreligious socialists with weapons from the Eastern Bloc is the fulfillment of Old Testament promises to the Jewish people, which remain in force forever. Further, Israel’s refounding is a sign that the end times are coming, and after a series of horrifying events predicted in the Book of Revelation, we’ll enjoy a peaceful millennium, or the Second Coming, and all our troubles will be over. As part of this culmination, a large part of the Jewish people will be destroyed by their pagan neighbors, but the remnant will turn to Jesus, fulfilling St. Paul’s long-ago prediction.
The most zealous, and eccentric, adherents of this “dispensationalist” view have been known to breed red heifers in Palestine, Texas, in the hope that they might be sacrificed in a Third Temple, rebuilt in Jerusalem on the current site of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Demolishing that Muslim holy site would surely trigger an apocalyptic turn of events, as Israel’s Muslim neighbors would be motivated to take revenge. So this form of Christian Zionism seems an awful lot like trying to force God’s hand. That is something He doesn’t appreciate, as even a cursory reading of the Bible might show. (Recall that Jesus refused to throw Himself off the temple mount, at Lucifer’s puckish suggestion. I doubt he wants us to throw His people off that mount into a potentially genocidal war.)
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