Christian Zionism Is a Heresy

On January 17, 2026, the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem—including the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III—released a joint statement titled, “A Statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in the Holy Land on Unity and Representation of the Christian Communities in the Holy Land.” In it, they explicitly condemn “damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism,” declaring that recent activities by individuals promoting it “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock.” 

The Council recently published a report as well, warning of “threats to Christian heritage—particularly in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Gaza alongside issues of unjustified taxation.” Such violations “are the source of ongoing concerns that threaten the existence of the community and the churches,” the Council warns. It goes on to speak of the “urgent need to protect Christian communities and our places of worship extend throughout the West Bank, where settler attacks increasingly target our churches, people and properties.”

This statement marks a rare and unified intervention from the custodians of Christianity’s birthplace. For years, Eastern Christian leaders—Orthodox, Catholic, and others—have been reluctant to issue such direct critiques of Christian Zionism. The fear was palpable: any condemnation might be twisted in Western media and political circles as tacit support for militant groups like Hamas, further isolating the already vulnerable Palestinian Christian population amid escalating violence, displacement, and demographic pressures. 

Yet the situation has become so dire that silence is no longer an option. This letter is a desperate plea, a wake-up call to Western Christians, particularly American Evangelicals. It urges them to reject (what Orthodox tradition views as) a grave heresy that distorts the Gospel and undermines the Church’s witness.

Christian Zionism fundamentally misunderstands God’s covenant people. The core truth of the New Testament is that the Church itself is Israel—the true, spiritual continuation and fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. This is not a rejection of the Jewish roots of Christianity but the recognition that in Christ, the covenant has been universalized, embracing all who believe.

St. Paul makes this abundantly clear in his Epistle to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:28-29). Paul insists that inheritance flows not through ethnic descent or fleshly circumcision but through faith in Christ, who is the singular Seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16). 

Likewise, in his Epistle to the Romans, he employs the olive tree metaphor to show one continuous people of God. Unbelieving branches, like some ethnic Jews, may be broken off; believing Gentiles are grafted in; nevertheless, the root—the Righteous Patriarchs—continues to flower. “Do not boast against the branches,” he warns. “But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” (Rom. 11:18). 

The “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16) is the Church, the new covenant community where ethnic distinctions no longer define covenant status.

The Church Fathers, of course, follow Paul’s understanding. For example, St. Justin the Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho, declares: “As, therefore, Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been quarried out from the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race.” 

Likewise, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, in Against Heresies, explains: “The Church is the seed of Abraham; and for this reason, that we may know that He who in the New Testament ‘raises up from the stones children unto Abraham,’ is He who will gather, according to the Old Testament, those that shall be saved from all the nations.”

By positing that the modern state of Israel retains a distinct, Christian Zionism irrevocable covenantal role separate from the Church, reintroduces a division that the New Testament abolishes. It’s a Judaizing heresy, much like the one confronted by the Apostles at the Council of Jerusalem (cf. Acts 15). It also politicizes eschatology, turning support for a nation-state into a supposed biblical mandate. And this, as the Council warns, frequently leads Western Christians to overlooking or even justifying injustices against our brethren in the Holy Land.

American Evangelicals aren’t known for putting much stalk in patristics or patriarchs. Yet the Bible alone makes it abundantly clear: the Christian Church, not the Zionist state, is the true “Israel of God.” May the Council’s prophetic and heartfelt plea soften the hearts of our Christian Zionist friends. May they abandon this despicable heresy—but without dampening their zeal, leading them to rise in defense of the Martyr-Church in the Holy Land.

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