Jesus vs Zionism

A provocative biblical challenge to Christian Zionism that asks believers to choose the nonviolent way of Jesus over nationalism, tribalism, and the politics of perpetual war.

In Jesus vs. Zionism, writer and broadcaster David Gornoski challenges one of the most deeply entrenched beliefs in American evangelical Christianity: that biblical faith requires Christians to support the modern State of Israel and its military actions. Returning to the teachings of Jesus, the letters of Paul, the Abrahamic covenant, the story of Jonah, and the history of the early Church, Gornoski argues that Christianity's central political ethic is not nationalism or holy war but radical peacemaking, nonviolence, forgiveness, and love of one's enemies. He traces the rise of dispensationalism and the influence of C. I. Scofield on American Christian Zionism, while connecting those theological developments to contemporary U.S. foreign policy and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Polemic, biblical argument, history, and personal testimony combine in a book intended primarily to challenge Christians to reconsider assumptions they may have inherited about Israel, prophecy, war, and America's role in the Middle East. Importantly, Gornoski explicitly rejects the idea that opposition to Zionism should become hostility toward Jewish people; his larger target is the human tendency toward tribalism, scapegoating, and violence in any ideological form.