Orthodox Christianity and Zionism are Morally Incompatible

November 17, 2023
American Life, Orthodox International Relations, Palestinian Rights, Theology, Western Civilization

It is common in America, and other Western countries, to use the term “Judeo-Christian” when speaking about culture and morals. This is done for several reasons. It emphasizes the common perception that Christianity was derived from Judaism. The phrase links the two religions together via the Old Testament, which seemingly gives them a common foundation in law and morals. The phrase is beloved of the ecumenical movement, as it implies that both religions, while different, are equally valid. The phrase also works as a way of forming a unified “tribe” against Muslims, and others, who are not part of “Judeo-Christian” civilization. In a hostile world, all of us “Judeo-Christians” have to stick together. We all have the same enemies, and the same friends. Our interests are perfectly aligned. Together, we’re the good guys!

Every bit of what is written above is completely false. The phrase “Judeo-Christian” is a propaganda slogan, not a statement of truth. Rabbinic Judaism, especially when infused with Zionism, is completely incompatible with Orthodox Christianity in all respects – morally, religiously, and culturally. For that matter, the same applies to Christian Zionism, which is even further afield from Orthodoxy than older, more “mainline” Protestants were until their moral collapse.

Before we explore how and why Zionism is incompatible with Orthodoxy, let’s get our religious timeline in order. Orthodox Christianity is actually older than Rabbinic Judaism, and did not “derive” from it. Following the Day of Pentecost, the Apostles and their disciples began spreading the Christian Faith far and wide. The Early Church used the Old Testament scriptures in Greek, and Christian liturgical worship was influenced by both the Temple in Jerusalem and Synagogue practices of the time. The Apostles were Hebrews, after all.

After the destruction of the Second Temple in A.D. 70., the heart of the Jewish religion was ripped out. The true Mosaic religion had been sacerdotal, based on sacrifices in the Temple to reconcile with God. Decades after the Temple was destroyed, rabbis gathering at a city called Jamnia around A.D. 90 started to lay the foundations for what became the modern faith of Rabbinic Judaism. These rabbis were grounded in the Pharisaic tradition, the same one that Christ had so often sharply criticized in His earthly ministry. Over succeeding centuries as Rabbinic Judaism developed, the Talmud was compiled. The Talmud contains the writings, teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis on a variety of subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, folklore, Biblical interpretation, and other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature. The compilation of the Talmud probably began prior to the birth of Christ, but continued in Babylon up till at least the 5th century. There are also Rabbinic commentaries that are considered part of Talmudic studies which were written as late as the 10th Century.

Rabbinic Judaism is not the religion practiced by Jesus while He was on Earth. It arose decades after His Ascension. Rabbinic Judaism was not a foundational influence on Christianity. Much of the Pharisaic teaching written in the Talmud are the same “traditions of men” that Christ repudiated as recorded in such scriptures as Matthew 15:9, “They worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commands of men.”

Christianity is a sacerdotal religion centered around Jesus’ sacrifice as represented in the Eucharist at the center of each Divine Liturgy. Rabbinic Judaism uses prayer and penitence to take the place of sacrifices which can no longer be offered in the absence of the Temple. In truth, Christianity seems to have had way more influence on the rabbis than the rabbis had on the Fathers of the Church.

Rabbinic Judaism is an explicit denial of Christ as the promised Messiah. It is incompatible with Christianity on that basis alone. Rabbinic Jews still await their messiah, whom Christians assert not only has already come, but Who is God Incarnate. While we could stop there, there is much more to consider such as the impact of Zionism.

Rabbinic Judaism, founded after Orthodox Christianity, is not even the same religion as it was a mere 100 years ago. Since its founding in 1897, the Zionist movement within Judaism has gone from a fringe idea, heavily opposed by rabbis as being a repudiation of God (who alone could re-found Israel, perhaps via the coming of the Messiah), to practically taking over the religion. The current War in Gaza has exposed the depths of religious fervor that Zionism now commands among what appears to be the vast majority of global Jews. (There are still Anti-Zionist Jews, more on that later.)

Christian Zionism got its start about 50 years earlier than the Jewish version. Heavily steeped in a particular understanding of “End Times Prophecies”, Christian Zionism has proven an essential support network for the modern State of Israel. Before we move on, let us once more observe the dates. Christian Zionism dates from the mid-19th Century. Jewish Zionism got its start in 1897.  The beliefs that human action could re-found the State of Israel without God, and that Biblical prophecies require a modern Jewish state for Christ to return, are not ancient but very, very modern. Their recent vintage alone are enough to make such beliefs suspicious to an Orthodox Church which is over 2,000 years old.

Rabbinic Judaism, with its explicit denial of Christ, is religiously incompatible with a Christian Faith dedicated to worshipping Christ as God. In addition, any religion influenced by Zionism (whether nominally Jewish or Christian) is morally incompatible with Orthodox Christianity. We will see this clearly below, as we examine some of the common Zionist claims and compare them with the Orthodox perspective.

Jews are God’s Chosen People forever.

Some Rabbis teach that God made the world specifically for the Jews, who have divine souls while goyim do not. The goyim are merely beasts in the shape of men. This view posits that the primary reason for the existence of goyim is to serve Jews and do work for them.  A sort of global conquest seems to be implied in which Jews will eventually rule over all the non-Jews, perhaps as a result of the coming of their Messiah. Other Rabbis maintain that the divine purpose of the Jews is to teach and enlighten the non-Jews. There are other theories as well, but all of them tend towards some type of tribal narcissism – “Sure Our God is your God too, but He chose us!” Regardless of specifically why God chose the Jews, the practical implication of eternal, divine election is that Jewish lives have infinite value, and non-Jewish ones little or none at all. As an example of this, a prominent Israeli rabbi once explained in a published article that if a Jew needed a liver, it would be acceptable, even obligatory, to kill an innocent gentile and take his. If you can forcibly take a gentile’s liver to save a Jewish life, who is going to worry about stealing land from non-Jews or bombing them out of existence? This is not a slippery slope leading to possible oppression and genocide. This is an express train barreling straight towards them.  

Honest, philosophical Jews, concerned by where Theocratic Jewish rule can lead, have issued stark warnings that too few people have heeded:

The Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, whom Isiah Berlin called “the conscience of Israel,” warned that if Israel did not separate church and state it would give rise to a corrupt rabbinate that would warp Judaism into a fascistic cult.

 

“Religious nationalism is to religion what National Socialism was to socialism,” said Leibowitz, who died in 1994.

Christian Zionists don’t agree with their Jewish brethren that goyim have no souls, but they are totally on-board with Jews as the forever Chosen People of God. Christian Zionists, such as John Hagee, will excuse anything Israel does, no matter how horrific, based on their “chosen” status.  No Christian Zionist will ever express any concern for the lives of any Palestinians, Christian or Muslim, no matter how innocent or how brutally murdered.

The most radical Christian Zionists do not even believe Jews need Jesus Christ as their savior to inherit eternal life. They believe the Jews are “saved” by virtue of the Old Testament covenant. This makes Rabbinic Jews exempt from the judgment of us mere gentiles. How can we judge the moral behavior of Zionist Jews when their very DNA gets them a free pass to Eternal Life?

Zionist Rabbinic Judaism and Christian Zionism are both denials of Christ

Such teachings of superiority and salvation by DNA are, of course, completely immoral and heretical from an Orthodox Christian perspective. The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America issued a statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict which encapsulates the view of Orthodox Christians concerning the value of all human life:

Every human life is incalculably precious; each human person is a soul for whom Christ died. As violence sweeps the world and conflicts in Israel and Palestine claim ever more victims, we mourn for the destruction of human life and well-being, plead with the relevant authorities for an immediate cessation of hostilities, and call for meaningful dialogue between the contesting parties.

The Jews were chosen by God to bring forth Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. God’s purposes for Temple Judaism and the nation of Israel were fulfilled in Christ: “That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6) In Christ, we are all the same: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”  (Galatians 3:28)  

Indeed, the teaching of the Church from the beginning, as recorded in the New Testament, is that through Christ’s fulfillment of all Old Testament promises and expectations – the Church is Israel, not the Hebrews then worshipping in the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem prior to A.D. 70, and certainly not Rabbinic Jews who did not yet even exist.

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:

 

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”

 

7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”

 

8 and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”

 

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

 

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:4-10

When Orthodox Christians read the Old Testament, we always do so using the “lens” of the New, as the Hebrew scriptures clearly foretold the coming of Christ through Whom all is fulfilled:

37 And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

John 5:37-40

Unlike the Zionists, however, Orthodox Christians do not believe that those outside of Israel (the Church) are somehow “less human” or “less valuable” than those in Christ. Every human being is made in the image of God, and each life is incalculably precious. Whether one accepts or rejects Christ makes no difference in his worth as a bearer of the Divine Image. For Orthodox Christians, even the lives of our enemies matter. That is a profound distinction that one cannot simply ignore. From the bombing campaign in Gaza, to the ongoing oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank, Zionists continually show the world their “morality” is vastly different from, and inferior to, that of Orthodox Christians.

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The land of “Israel” belongs to the Jewish “people”.

According to Zionists, Jewish DNA is a land grant from the Almighty. This idea presupposes that Rabbinic Jews are a distinct race of people whose ancestors originated in Palestine, were ejected from it by the Romans, and who then wandered the Earth for 2,000 years of suffering. Unfortunately for the Zionist case, there is no “DNA” test for who is and isn’t a Jew, especially since Palestinian Christians and Muslims are themselves largely descended from the Israelites. Despite a history of conversions to Judaism, Zionists must pretend that the multi-racial, multi-cultural members of world Judaism are really all the same race of people with an inherited right to the land of Palestine. Anti-Zionist Jews, quite correctly, say that Judaism is a religion and not a race, nationality, or ethnicity.

A by-product of such racialist teaching is that radical Zionists are neither looking to convert the Palestinians to Judaism nor to culturally assimilate them nor to even live peacefully next to them. For radical Zionists, non-Jews are the unclean who must be “cleansed” from the State of Israel. This includes Christians as well as so-called “radical Islamists”. Over the years, prominent Israeli rabbis have even publicly debated whether Jewish power is sufficiently established that all the Christian churches of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and nearby areas can finally be destroyed. After that, the entire Holy Land can be completely cleansed of all traces of its Christian contamination. The love of Evangelical Christian Zionists for Israel is quite unrequited.

At time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Jews made up only 8% of the population of Palestine. How non-native European Jews came to dominate Palestine, and remake it as the modern State of Israel, is a tale of Zionist terrorism (Zionists introduced political terrorism into the Middle East), illegal gun running, political intrigue, Mafia involvement, intense lobbying / bribery in the US (including $2 million to rescue President Truman’s failing presidential campaign), and questionable methods of recruiting Jewish immigrants (including cooperation with the Nazis and pressure on the Roosevelt Administration to redirect Jewish refugees from Europe to Palestine). By the start of the 1947-1949 war, Jews made up 30 percent of the Palestinian population but owned only 6-7 percent of the land. That is when the real push for land began with a bloodthirsty campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing the Palestinian victims refer to as “The Nakhba”. Over 720,000 Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike, were forced off their land and became homeless refugees.

Zionism is nothing but an ideologically-motived, cruel land grab in the name of God.

The radicals in the Netanyahu Government are not content with just the land already stolen. Israeli officials talk openly of ethnically cleansing Gaza and the West Bank to make room for more Jewish settlements. Many Zionists want to go much, much further. They believe that Israel should encompass all the lands of “Greater / Eretz Israel” based on the borders of the Kingdom of Solomon. See a representation of that below:

Territory from multiple independent countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria would have to be seized to realize the dream of “Eretz Israel”. Obviously this could only happen through war, one which Zionists believe would be entirely justified based on Biblical promises. Such a war would almost certainly require the active participation of the United States, as Israel’s Jewish population of 7 million could hardly be expected to successfully conduct such extensive campaigns against multiple adversaries. Before the complete capture of the US government by Zionism, many intelligence, military, and diplomatic leaders explicitly warned that embracing the Zionist project would lead us into what is now called “Forever War”.

A 1948 report of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated that, “The Zionist strategy will seek to involve [the U.S.] in a continuously widening and deepening series of operations intended to secure maximum Jewish objectives.”

Intelligence agent Kermit Roosevelt wrote at the time: “The present course of world crisis will increasingly force upon Americans the realization that their national interests and those of the proposed Jewish state in Palestine are going to conflict.”

The US has given Israel over $260 billion in aid since WWII. We have fought, and supported, wars in the Middle East that were contrary to our own national security interests. But all that may be inconsequential compared to what Netanyahu’s radicals could drag us into next. Very shortly, we could easily find ourselves in a devastating regional war fought for the dreams of Biblically-minded madmen seeking to rebuild a Kingdom lost 3,000 years ago.

Needless to say, Orthodox Christians can support none of the above. Forcing others off their land in the name of God will never be a Christian concept. That “Christians” have sinfully done so in the past does not make it righteous. Nor can Orthodox support perpetual occupation and subjugation of others. We support mercy and reconciliation instead. Orthodox Christians are capable of living side-by-side with others, just as was happening in the early 20th Century when 20% of the population of Palestine were Christians living in peace with native Jews and Muslims. Just as is happening now in multi-ethnic, multi-confessional states such as Russia and the United States. Orthodox Christians are also counseled to be loyal to their native lands. We could never prioritize the security interests of a foreign state, even an Orthodox one, over that of our own nations.

The Old Testament makes genocide justifiable, maybe even obligatory, for Israel.

For Zionists, both Christian and Jewish, the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) provides legitimate guidance on the conduct of war in the 21st Century.  Prime Minister Netanyahu, in a speech on October 28, justified the Israeli slaughter of civilians in Gaza based on a biblical reference to Amalek:

You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember. And we fight. Our brave troops and combatants who are now in Gaza and in all other regions in Israel, are joining the chain of Jewish heroes, a chain that has started 3,000 years ago, from Joshua ben Nun, until the heroes of 1948, the Six-Day War, the October 73 War, and all other wars in this country. Our hero troops, they have one supreme main goal: to completely defeat the murderous enemy, and to guarantee our existence in this country.

Who were the Amalekites and how did they end up in a speech by a modern Prime Minister as a call to war? According to Jewish sources:

The Amalekites, descendants of Amalek, were an ancient biblical nation living near the land of Canaan. They were the first nation to attack the Jewish people after the Exodus from Egypt, and they are seen as the archetypal enemy of the Jews.

The Jews defeated the Amalekites in battle, killing their strongest warriors while allowing the others to return home.  Forty years later, as the Israelites stood poised to enter the Promised Land, Moses reminded them of the command to combat Amalek:

In Deuteronomy 25:17–19, The Israelites are specifically commanded to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” once they have taken possession of the promised land in retribution for “what Amalek did to [them] on the way as [they] were coming out of Egypt.” Earlier, in Deuteronomy 7:1–16 and Deuteronomy 25:16–18, they are commanded to utterly destroy all the inhabitants of the idolatrous cities in the promised land and their livestock; scripture purports that King Saul ultimately loses favor with Yahweh for failing to kill King Agag and the best livestock of the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15 in defiance of these commandments.

 

In 1 Samuel 15:1–9, Samuel identifies Amalek as the enemy of Israelites, saying “Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.”[18] God then commands Saul to destroy the Amalekites.[19] In 1 Samuel 15:33, Samuel identifies king Agag of Amalek as an enemy and killer, saying “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.”

Despite their defeat and slaughter in the Old Testament, the Amalekites metaphorically remain the eternal enemy of Israel to this day. Amalek has come to be associated with Rome, Christianity, Arabs, various European nations, and Iran (Persia). The villain of the Book of Esther, Haman, is referred to as an Agagite, a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag. That is why the hanging of Haman with his ten sons and the massacre of 75,000 Persians are often conflated in Jewish tradition with the extermination of the Amalekites and the brutal execution of their king. The Torah reading on the morning of Purim is taken from the account of the battle against the Amalekites, which ends with the conclusion that “Yahweh will be at war with Amalek generation after generation” (Exodus 17:16)

Apologists for Israel deny the intentional targeting of civilians, and claim that all the fault lies with Hamas for using civilians as “human shields”. Unfortunately for the supporters of genocide, no one with any biblical knowledge can mistake the intention of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s words, and those of others, when conflating Palestinians with the Amalekites. 

In the Hebrew Bible, God commands His Chosen People to slaughter more than just the Amalekites.  Upon the Israelites entering the land of Canaan and attacking Jericho, “They utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep and donkeys, with the edge of the sword” (Joshua 6:21).

For Zionists, the Hebrew Bible (especially as interpretated via the Talmud) is God’s first and last word on every subject. Muslims feel the same about the Koran. If God commanded the Israelites in antiquity to put their enemies utterly to the sword, then such commands are as valid today as when first given. When Israeli leaders quote scriptures that call for mass murder of Israel’s enemies, they mean such sentiments quite literally.

Orthodox Christians, however, treat the Old Testament very differently. For Orthodox Christians, the Old Testament records how God worked with His people to lead them from immaturity to maturity. Fr. Lawrence Farley of the OCA explains:

Thus Saint Paul writes that before Christ came, Israel was confined under the Law, so that the Law was Israel’s custodian, taking care of them like a tutor cares for a young child (Galatians 3:23-4:3). The Law with its provisions was never meant to be God’s final word to His people. It was a stage through which they had to pass on their way to mature adulthood in Christ. It suited them then and was necessary for their development at the stage they were once at, but it was never meant to be the goal of their national life. That goal, that end (Greek telos) was Christ (Romans 10:4).

 

The Law with its provisions was given to Israel as it became a nation after the Exodus at the foot of Mount Sinai. We say this and affirm that Israel was God’s nation, but often do not stop to reflect on what this nationhood necessarily involved. In a word, it involved Israel beginning its national existence with military combat, fighting for its existence and for a place to live in the same way and using the same methods that everyone else used at that time. That is where all the hard parts of the Book of Joshua come in. For Israel to survive as a nation, there was no other way. All Canaan was occupied by peoples bigger, stronger, better-armed, and crueler than they. Peaceful co-existence was not on anyone’s agenda back then. The options available to Israel as an infant nation entering Canaan they way they did, were either to conquer to retain their identity, or to be assimilated to the other nations, or be annihilated by them. There was ultimately no other happy option, and the provisions of the Law presuppose their existence in this hard and cruel world. Those laws—with commands to conquer, and kill, and to build altars and sacrifice animals, to circumcise the young, to keep certain food laws—were not the final goal of the nation’s existence. Christ was the final goal. The Old Testament is the divine record of how God worked with His people until Christ came. The God of Joshua did transition to the Father of Jesus Christ. Israel did prepare the way for the divine power of the Cross. The Old Testament, with all its hard parts, was part of that preparation.

The commandments to mass slaughter enemies were considered necessary by God given the immature moral development of the Israelites, their precarious existence in a hostile land, and the viciousness of their adversaries.  The OT commandments were for specific times, specific places, and for specific people only. Especially after the Incarnation of Christ, no one of any religion can rightfully use OT commandments to justify the modern day slaughter of innocent civilians. Christians can neither support nor fund the ongoing murder in Gaza without mutilating the Christian Faith.

It is also necessary to point out that Orthodox Christians and Rabbinic Jews approach the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible completely differently. Many Jews, even learned Rabbis, don’t approach the Hebrew Bible directly. Instead, they approach the scriptures through the Talmud, which is enormously large, complex, and somewhat contradictory. Among large numbers of Jews, the Talmud is supplemented by the Kabala, another large collection of accumulated writings, mostly focused on mysticism and all sorts of magic. The understanding Rabbinic Jews have of the Old Testament, therefore, can be greatly different from what we Christians believe. Not only do Christians read the OT directly, but we also read it (as noted) through the “lens” of the Incarnation.

Even something which is supposed to “unify” Rabbinic Judaism and Orthodox Christianity, common possession of the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible, turns out to be just another source of division between the two faiths. We are simply not the same.

Final Thoughts

Israeli leaders have long partnered with Christian Zionists.  Israeli politicians have understood that this powerful American political bloc serves their interests. In speeches, Benjamin Netanyahu has played to a Zionist Christian audience, even referencing  End Times prophecies to invoke Christian support for Israel. The Christian Zionists, such as Hagee, are out there working as hard as ever to whip up support for Israel’s war. The mainstream media is still spreading Zionist propaganda 24/7. The US Government is a securely Zionist outpost. War funds are flowing. Calls for censorship  are everywhere. Anyone not supporting Netanyahu’s War on Gaza is immediately labeled not just an anti-Semite, but also a traitor to America.

We’ve seen all this before. But this time, it just isn’t working as well. An ever larger number of Americans are seeing the truth for what it is. America First! has had much to do with that. Many Americans are sick of fighting foreign “forever wars”. Our economic pain is causing working Americans to demand more focus on our own nation. The crash and burn of so much propaganda in the past few years over COVID, the Jabs, and Ukraine has made more people skeptical. More widespread exposure to Orthodoxy also plays a role. Americans are increasingly abandoning Evangelical churches, particularly the most Christian Zionist ones. More and more disoriented Americans are looking for the authentic Christian Faith, and they realize Hagee’s brand of snake oil isn’t it.

Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America

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