By Amal Zadok
The Sacralization of Atrocity
Christian Zionism is one of the most absurd theological distortions and moral crimes in the modern Christian lexicon. Glamorising the modern state of Israel and justifying, or ignoring, the deaths of Palestinians, it has turned a biblical faith into an ideology of death.
Based on hermeneutical distortions and the lifeblood of the colonial imagination, Christian Zionism is denounced by the Word of God, the Catholic Magisterium and the whereabouts of the Risen One among the ruins.
It does not ashamedly engages its theological heresies and moral inadequacies, which render possible genocide.
I. Weaponizing Scripture: Theological Perversions
Covenant-Disruption and Christological-Ecclesiology
Christian Zionism shatters the drama of scripture by dividing God’s covenants from their intended fulfilment in Christ. When St. Paul writes that “all the promises of God find their fulfilment in [Christ]” (2 Corinthians 1:20), Christian Zionists move messianic promises onto a statist terrain.
The Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12:1-3) is turned into a real estate agreement for ethnic Jews, ignoring the NT teachings that “it was those of faith who are the sons of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7) and that Christ is the only “seed” (Galatians 3:16).
This is a rejection of the Incarnation in and of itself, for if promise-fulfilment occurs instead space than in Christ, then “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) becomes vacant of eschatological content.
2. Eschatological Narcissism
Premillennialism Dispelsationalism
The central tenet of Christian Zionist theology — Jews must control Palestine, to bring about the return of Christ. And within this structure, the Jew plays a role of eschatological placeholder, “he is a figure whose continued existence functions as an indispensable, even if often hated, prior condition not only for the salvation of the Christian, but also for his conversion or, failing that, his annihilation.” (Revelation 19:17-21).
This is what Palestinian theologian Munther Isaac calls “soteriological narcissism,” a theology that “cashes in Palestinian lives — including lives of indigenous Palestinian Christians — for the apocalyptic fantasies of western Christians.”
Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37) is weaponised: national resurrection is detached from its ethical conditions (fidelity to God’s justice) and tied to mere territorial conquest.
3. Ecclesiological Subversion
In breaking up God’s equipoised people as ”ethnic Israel” and “Church,” Christian Zionism refutes the revolutionary recalibration of the New covenant: “There is neither Jew nor Greek…for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
The Church—together, Jew and Gentile in Messiah—is “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), but Christian Zionists delay this unity at any cost to support Jewish nationalism. That is ecclesiological heresy according to the Vatican: “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (2015) maintains that God’s covenant with Jews persists, but rejects the contemporary state of Israel as “fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy”.
II. Moral Disasters: How is Genocide Possible?
1. Theology of Dehumanisation
Christian Zionism removes Palestinians — body and soul — from theological imagination. By defining Palestine as “a land without a people”, it puts into practice what Palestinian Christians have called “ideological genocide”: the erasure of indigeneity prior to colonial conquest. This reflects the Canaanite genocides (Joshua 6-11), but distorts Torah ethics where inhabiting land was contingent on justice (Leviticus 18:24-28).
The cacophony of Christian Zionist silence, after Gaza’s children are buried under rubble, mirrors Caiaphas’ calculation: ”It is better… that one man should die for the people” (John 11:50)—a willingness to sacrifice Palestinians on the altar of “prophetic necessity”.
2. Complicity Through Silence
As the death toll rises in Gaza, toward 180,000 (estimate in The Lancet ), Israel and Christian Zionist leaders deny the genocide even as evidence surfaces from:
– International Court of Justice (South Africa vs. Israel)
– Special Rapporteur to the UN Francesca Albanese
- 55 Holocaust/genocide scholars
The denial here is churchly betrayal: churches prioritise political collusion with empire over Amos’ injunction: “Let justice roll down like waters” (Amos 5.24). Munther Isaac accuses the western churches: “History will remember [them] as genocide deniers”. Their silence fulfills Christ’s rebuke, “naked and you did not clothe me” (Matthew 25:43)—for Christ today wears a keffiyeh among the ruins of Gaza.
3. Idolatry of Nationalism
To deify Israel is a violation of the First Commandment. D-9 bulldozer-gift Christians will bestow upon an evicted Palestinian who’s seen his home bulldozed for months on end without himself once using his copy of the Torah, which defines oppression: “You shall not oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).
This idolatry shares features with Trump-era politicians such as Mike Huckabee (we will not admit that Palestinian people exist) and Elise Stefanik (Israel has a “biblical right” to the West Bank”).
Nationalism becomes the new Cross, with the State as a worthy idol – a heresy condemned by Pope Pius X: “We cannot give approval to the Jewish State of Political Zionism, nor can we favor Jewish control over the Holy Land… which was radiated by the life of Jesus Christ” (1904).
III. Catholic Magisterium
Clear Repudiation Of Them There can and must be for the Church one and only one Magisterium, which is divinely guaranteed: A juridical official interpretive Magisterium.
The Church opposes point-blank the principal tenets of Christian Zionism:
Nostra Aetate (1965): Rejects supersessionism, but reaffirms Christ’s identity as “fulfillment of the Law and Prophets” (Matt5:17), and not territorial restoration.
– Catechism (§528): The Presentation in the Temple of Christ proclaims “Israel’s recognition of her long-expected Messiah,” recognition which is fulfilled in the universal Church.
– Pope Francis (2023-): Calls for genocide investigation in Gaza Vatican Nativity scenes feature a kaffiyeh-clad Jesus—says the Lord “identifies with those covered in rubble”.
The Holy See respects Israel as a political state (1993), not a divine reinforcement and also equally respects Palestine, a view obliterated by Christian Zionist intransigence.
IV. 6 Conclusion: The Crucified People as Theological Imperative
Christian Zionism is threefold apostate
1. Denial of Christ: In relegating covenant promises from Christ to a nation.
2. Ecclesiological Schism: Breaking up the one Body of Christ into ethnic parts
3. Perversion of Morality: In calling genocide “prophetic necessity”
Palestinian Christians call for a Lenten summons: See ‘Jesus in the rubble’ of Gaza.
To stand up for Israel’s genocide is to pound the nails into their hands while yelling “Crucify!” —committing the same sin as Jerusalem’s leaders, who were troubled by Jesus “bringing Roman destruction” (John 11:48). Gaza is Golgotha today: a place where theology is worked out by whether or not we see God “in the least of these” (Matthew 25:45).
As the Accra Confession puts it: “Theological legitimation of empire is idolatry”. Christian Zionism is that idolatry—that scandal, that mockery, that affront—nothing less, nothing but. For as long as Christians do not throw down the idolatrous god of nation for the God of the cross, they worship a golden calf made of tank bodies and settlement slabs.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil … who justify the wicked for a bribe.”
(Isaiah 5:20, 23).
©️2025 Amal Zadok. All rights reserved
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