Were the Apostles Zionists?

A temptation that we see today in Christian Zionism is as old as the Bible itself. Throughout the New Testament era Jews eagerly sought the restoration of political Israel. They connected three ideas: God’s promise to bless Abraham, the importance of Jewish ethnicity, and the significance of the land. These three ideas form the foundation of modern Christian Zionism today which leads to the ethnic nationalism we see in the modern State of Israel.

The early followers of Jesus were as tempted by this idea as are modern Christian Zionists. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he saw palm branches waving and heard songs of praise. They cried out, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!” (Mark 11:9-11). They were cheering a national-political desire for Israel’s restoration. At another point in Jesus’ ministry, a crowd even tried to “take him by force” and make him their “king” (John 6:15). But Jesus fled.

After the resurrection, the apostles were dazzled by what they were seeing. Their despair had been changed to hope; the crucified Jesus was now alive. For forty days he instructed them on the deepest meaning of his kingdom (Acts 1:3), but the old temptation resurfaced. “Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Now that Jesus had been resurrected in power, would he fulfill the political dream of Judaism? Would he restore national Israel as King David once knew it? Jesus’ curt response (1:7) told them that this sort of thinking was none of their business. God had other plans that they could barely understand.

When the apostles were anointed by the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they began their work not building Israel, but building the Kingdom of God among the nations of the world. The Holy Spirit’s provision of other languages symbolized Jesus’s vision of restoration of all humanity.  It was not a political agenda but a spiritual one.

The entire story of the Book of Acts unfolds the message that began at Pentecost. The apostles do not work to build up Israel; they work to build up the church. God is at work not in national Israel but in cities like Ephesus and Philippi and Rome. God’s project is the reclamation of his creation and the restoration of all nations. This explains why the message carried by the apostles to the end of the earth is good news. No one ethnicity, nation, or history is privileged over others. Now in Christ there is no longer “Jew nor Gentile” (Galatians 3:28).

Christian Zionism is a return to the political mindset of the early apostles. “Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” The New Testament consistently rejects this and for good reason. It reduces the vision of the kingdom to one nation and one ethnicity while God’s efforts have no such limitations. We must not allow political agendas to overwhelm our spiritual sensibilities.