When U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee sat down for an interview with commentator Tucker Carlson last week, he probably didn't expect his theological musings to set off a diplomatic firestorm. And yet, here we are.
It all started when Carlson pressed Huckabee about a biblical verse in which God promises Abraham's descendants land "from the wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates."
Asked whether Israel had a divine right to claim that territory (a stretch encompassing modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and parts of Saudi Arabia) Huckabee replied: "It would be fine if they took it all."
The backlash was swift. A joint statement from the foreign ministries of over a dozen Arab and Muslim nations expressed their "strong condemnation and profound concern," calling the remarks dangerous and inflammatory. Huckabee later tried to walk things back, saying his comments "somewhat hyperbolic" and clarifying that Israel is not looking to expand its territory.
But was it really hyperbole?
Regardless of how they were intended, Huckabee’s comments reflect a very real movement within Christianity known as Christian Zionism.
So What Exactly Is Christian Zionism?
At its core, Christian Zionism is the belief that the modern State of Israel represents the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and that Christians have both a spiritual duty and a moral obligation to support it.
The "Zionism" part refers not to Jewish nationalism in the traditional sense, but to a distinctly Christian reading of the Old Testament: that God's covenant with Abraham, which promised his descendants a specific stretch of land in the Middle East, remains active and binding today.
Exact numbers are hard to come by, but by some estimates there are tens of millions people in the United States that hold these beliefs – spread across mostly evangelical and Protestant denominations.
For Christian Zionists, Israel’s success is important because it’s a sign that the world is moving toward the end times described in the Book of Revelation. And that conviction seemingly shapes everything: how they pray, how they vote, and (perhaps) how they conduct diplomacy.
History of Christian Zionism
It would be easy to assume Christian Zionism is a relatively recent invention, especially because the state of Israel wasn’t formed until 1948.
But its roots go back centuries further than that, to a time when Protestant reformers began reading the Bible with fresh eyes and arriving at some very consequential conclusions.
During the Reformation in the 16th century, Protestant Christians questioned the Catholic Church's view that Christianity had replaced Judaism as God's chosen people. A new school of thought began to take hold: What if those biblical land promises were not obsolete, as Catholic doctrine taught? What if God still intended to restore the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland?
By the 17th century, Puritan theologians in England were wrestling seriously with that question. The topic was controversial enough that in 1589, a man named Francis Kett was burned alive for his heretical ideas, which included proclaiming that the Bible foretold a Jewish return to the land.
Zionism Goes Mainstream
Fast forward to the 19th century, and these once-radical notions had grown more mainstream and made their way into the British establishment.
Lord Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, petitioned the British foreign minister in 1840 to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine – half a century before Theodor Herzl launched what most people think of as modern Zionism.
In a surprising historical twist, it was a controversial Christian belief that helped plant the seeds of a Jewish return to the Holy Land.
Dispensationalism and God’s Will
The real accelerant, though, was the theory known as “dispensationalism.” Popularized by Anglo-Irish minister John Nelson Darby, dispensationalism holds that history unfolds in distinct eras, or "dispensations," each representing a different phase of God's relationship with humanity.
Under this framework, the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral land is one of the prophecies that must be fulfilled before the Second Coming of Jesus can occur. This is the piece of the puzzle that explains so much of Christian Zionism's urgency and passion.
For believers in this tradition, supporting Israel carries the weight of divine prophecy – a conviction that is reinforced by one of the most frequently cited verses in Christian Zionist circles, God's promise to Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you."
Applied to the modern State of Israel, that passage is both a theological mandate… and a warning.
From Pews to Policy
Over the decades, American evangelicals have translated these convictions into serious political muscle. Evangelical leader John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI) in 2006, and the organization has grown into one of the most influential pro-Israel lobbying forces in the country.
Ambassador Huckabee, a Baptist minister and lifelong Christian Zionist, sits squarely in this tradition – which is why some experts argue his comments were less "hyperbolic" than he claims.
Huckabee may have walked back his claims, but there’s no getting around the fact that the underlying worldview he expressed has tens of millions of adherents, significant political influence, and a very specific vision of how the Middle East fits into God's plan for the end of time.
It's also important to point out that many Jewish groups feel uncomfortable about these beliefs, and in some case outright reject them. In a statement responding to the controversy, an American Jewish group condemned Huckabee's comments:
Whether you find this Christian Zionist vision compelling, unsettling, or something in between likely depends on your own faith tradition – and your own read of the Bible.
But it also raises some interesting questions.
For decades, U.S. administrations have publicly supported Israel on the grounds of national defense and maintaining a strong ally in a region hostile to Western ideas.
In light of the religious beliefs at play, skeptics (perhaps rightfully) ask: could there be ulterior motives behind American support for Israel? Is it possible there is a theological component to U.S. foreign policy decisions in the Middle East?
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