Zionism: A Black Christian Perspective
- Nd® POLITICS
- 60 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Published September 7, 2026 at 7:00 AM EDT
The Black Christian response to Zionism must remain Christian first, with fidelity to Scripture.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL —The Israeli conflict has created a false choice for many American Christians: either support the modern State of Israel unconditionally or be accused of abandoning the Jewish people.
Scripture presents a more complicated picture.
Zionism is the modern political movement that sought the establishment and preservation of a Jewish national homeland in the historic Land of Israel. It emerged as an organized movement in the late 19th century and ultimately contributed to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
Zionism, therefore, should not automatically be equated with Judaism, the Jewish people or biblical redemption. It is possible to love Jewish people while questioning whether a modern political movement represents the fulfillment of God's promises.
For Christians who interpret Ezekiel's restoration of Israel literally, Ezekiel 36 and 37 provide a framework for making that distinction.
Stage 1: The Dry Bones — Physical Israel Without Spiritual Life
Ezekiel sees a valley filled with dry bones, which God identifies explicitly: “These bones are the whole house of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:11).
God then causes the bones to come together. Sinews appear, flesh covers them and skin forms over them. A recognizable body now exists.
But Scripture adds the critical qualification:
“There was no breath in them” (Ezekiel 37:8).
Under this interpretation, this is Israel's current stage.
The Jewish people have been regathered. The State of Israel exists. It has territory, government, institutions, economic power and military strength. The body has taken physical form.
But the biblical restoration is not complete merely because the body exists.
There is still no breath.
Stage 2: Israel's Spiritual Awakening
Ezekiel 36 describes something beyond physical regathering:
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (36:26).
Ezekiel 37 likewise describes God commanding breath to enter the assembled bodies. Only then does Scripture say “they lived” (37:10).
Zechariah adds another dimension to this future awakening: “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him” (Zechariah 12:10).
For Christians who read these prophecies literally and Christologically, Israel's restoration therefore cannot end with Zionism, statehood or military security. Its culmination requires spiritual transformation and recognition of God's Messiah.
Stage 3: Israel Fully Restored Under God
Ezekiel's prophecy culminates not merely in national survival but reconciliation with God.
“My servant David shall be king over them” (Ezekiel 37:24), followed by God's declaration:
“My tabernacle also shall be with them” (37:27).
Romans 11 complements this expectation. Paul describes Israel's present condition as a “blindness in part” and then anticipates a future in which “all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:25–26).
That brings us to the proper Christian response during Stage 1.
Paul does not tell Gentile Christians to despise the unbelieving natural branches. He tells us precisely the opposite:
“Boast not against the branches” (Romans 11:18).
And:
“Be not highminded, but fear” (Romans 11:20).
For Black Christians, the Israeli conflict carries an additional cultural tension. Black Americans and Jewish Americans share important chapters of the American civil-rights story, including Jewish participation in the struggle against segregation. Yet that relationship has also experienced periods of distrust and disagreement over race, political influence, economic opportunity, affirmative action and, increasingly, Israel and Palestine. Today, some Black Americans identify strongly with Palestinians through the language of oppression and liberation, while others remain sympathetic toward Jews because of their history of persecution and antisemitism. Black Christians can therefore find themselves pulled between competing racial and political loyalties.
But Scripture cannot be subordinate to either loyalty. Our history as Black Americans should make us sensitive to injustice against Palestinians, but it should also make us particularly unwilling to tolerate hatred, collective blame or discrimination against Jews. Neither solidarity with Palestinians nor friendship with Jews requires us to baptize every political cause associated with them. The Black Christian response must remain Christian first: judge governments by righteousness, defend innocent human life regardless of ethnicity, reject antisemitism as firmly as other forms of racial hatred, and remember that God's promises to Israel are not a blank check for everything done by the modern State of Israel. Our responsibility is neither unconditional Zionism nor reflexive anti-Zionism, but fidelity to Scripture.
Christians should therefore love Jewish people, oppose antisemitism, pray for their protection and salvation, and recognize God's continuing purposes for Israel. But loving Jews does not require treating Zionism as Christianity or granting a secular government unconditional moral approval.
We should stand with Jews in love—but never stand with anyone in sin.
And American Christians should be particularly cautious about judging Israel's dry bones without examining our own.
Christ warned the church at Sardis: “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1).
America has churches, Bibles, Christian institutions and Christian political power. We certainly have the outward body.
Before obsessing over whether Israel's dry bones have received God's breath, American Christians should look inward and ask a far more uncomfortable question:
Have we?
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