Understanding Israel and Palestine: British Israelism and the Roots of Christian Zionism

Stock Photo Illustration (Credit: kutaytanir/Canva/https://tinyurl.com/33a29t8u)

Some of the starkest images from the Capitol Riot of January 6, 2021, were of evangelical Christians and racist skinheads working side-by-side to topple American democracy.

In 1840, a self-educated Scotsman named John Wilson published a series of lectures in the book “Our Israelitish Origins,” wherein he posited that Israel’s 10 Lost Tribes had actually migrated through Europe and one tribe, Ephraim, ultimately settled in the British Isles.

This theory meant that the British people were the descendants of the Israelite nation and heirs to all of the promises in the Old Testament.

… the idea that the British people were indeed God's chosen nation, as spoken of in the Bible, was not difficult to absorb.

The cross and the Confederate flag are two symbols that should never occupy the same place. Their juxtaposition on January 6 revealed that the political agendas of the Aryan Nations and Ku Klux Klan align enough with the goals of a hyper-politicized white evangelicalism for skinheads and Christian nationalists to cooperate.

This would lead spectators to wonder whether there is much of a difference between the Identity theology of many white supremacists and the fundamentalism and Christian nationalism that have come to dominate white evangelicalism.

While politicized versions of white evangelicalism look like softer versions of white supremacism, the Identity theology of groups like the Klan is incompatible with evangelical theologies.

Perhaps the most significant difference between the Identity theology of the Racist Right and the Protestant fundamentalism of the Religious Right is antisemitism versus Christian Zionism.

Whether or not Christian Zionists are truly philosemitic is a different topic. Many Jews, though, oppose Christian Zionism as being antithetical to Jewish values and Israel’s national interests.

After all, Christian Zionism posits that the Jewish people are spiritually blind, that they will soon face a massive judgment from God that will make the Holocaust pale in comparison. Also, there will be a large-scale Jewish conversion to Christianity during the end times.

Further, Christian Zionism teaches that the Jewish people must live in enmity with their surrounding Arab neighbors and actively oppose any effort towards peace between Israel and Palestine. Still, much of the Bible tells the story of Israel and virtually every strand of evangelical theology agrees that the Israelites of the Old Testament and the Jews of the New Testament are the ancestors of today’s Jewish people.

Identity theology, on the other hand, begins with a pseudohistorical approach to the Bible and British nationalism, known as British Israelism. Folk beliefs consistent with British Israelism have been present since at least the Middle Ages and British Israelism as a doctrine emerged in the nineteenth century.

In 1840, a self-educated Scotsman named John Wilson published a series of lectures in the book “Our Israelitish Origins,” wherein he posited that Israel’s 10 Lost Tribes had actually migrated through Europe and one tribe, Ephraim, ultimately settled in the British Isles.

This theory meant that the British people were actually the descendants of the Israelite nation and heirs to all of the promises contained within the Old Testament. At a time when British nationalism had been bolstered by the global power of the British Empire, the idea that the British people were indeed the chosen nation of God, as spoken of in the Bible, was not difficult to absorb.

Members of the royal family became adherents of British Israelism, and today, there are members of the British Parliament – primarily from Northern Ireland – who are British Israelists.

British Israelism began as a philosemitic teaching in the sense that Wilson and other leaders of the movement claimed to be ethnic cousins of today’s Jews. Therefore, the now-recovered tribe of British Ephraim should cooperate in meaningful ways with the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, the two Israelite tribes who did not become “lost” but rather sired by the Jewish diaspora.

British Israelists celebrated the Zionist movement that sought to regather the diaspora in the Holy Land and they saw Britain as the guardian of Zionism.

While contemporary Christian Zionism in America does not promote British Israelism, today’s Christian Zionists see themselves as fulfilling the same role. They simply replaced Britain with the United States as the guardian of Israel.

However, when British Israelism crossed the Atlantic, its primary contribution was not the creation of Christian Zionism – which already existed – but rather the seeding of what would become Identity theology.

Wesley Swift served as a minister at Angelus Temple, America’s first megachurch and the home of the famous Pentecostal faith healer Aimee Semple McPherson. “Sister Aimee” may have been a British Israelist, as were many Pentecostal leaders in the first half of the twentieth century, including the father of Pentecostalism, Charles Fox Parham, and the revivalist/faith healer William Branham.

Swift went beyond British Israelism by developing Identity theology’s “serpent seed” theory.

British Israelism claims that both the white people of Europe, many of whom migrated to America, as well as the Jews, are simultaneously the Israel of the Bible.

Serpent seed theory, however, says that Jews are imposters who claim to be Israel but are not. Their ignoble heritage begins with the devil himself.

Swift claimed – drawing on ancient folk beliefs – that the devil had sex with Eve and caused her to conceive Cain. Cain, the literal son of Satan, became the father of the Jewish people, whose very existence is at enmity with the God of white Israel.

Violent antisemitism is baked into every component of Identity theology.

Christian Zionism is entirely incompatible with Identity theology yet Christian Zionists openly cooperated with Identity adherents on January 6. The dynamic between Christian Zionism and Identity is very complex and perhaps the wisest position in determining how to think about American responsibility in the Israeli bombing of Gaza is to stand outside of both traditions.

Christian Zionism carries substantial political power in America and Jews have absolutely no voice in the policies engendered by Christian Zionists and their proxies in Washington. On the far right, racist skinheads see the annihilation of all Jews as akin to ridding the world of evil.

There is no middle ground here, only perpetual violence against Jews, Palestinians and now Americans protesting an end to Israeli oppression in Gaza and the West Bank.

To borrow language from Jim Wallis, a man whose decades of work saved my faith when I began plunging into the theological and political atrocities of the Religious Right: “The only common ground is higher ground.”

I will unequivocally and unconditionally say that the war must end, Israel’s decades-long blockade in Gaza must be dismantled, and Israel must partner with the global community in rebuilding what is currently the world’s largest open-air prison. However, a true and lasting peace can only come if we give Jews and Palestinians the voice that antisemitism and Christian Zionism have stolen from them.

As long as Christian Zionism claims to speak for Jews and promotes policies that engender perpetual war in the region while partnering with the Racist Right in attempting to overthrow the American government, a total dehumanization of both Jews and Palestinians will continue.

And with it, a cycle of war and violence will continue for at least another generation.

Keri Ladner received her doctoral degree from the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of End Time Politics: From the Moral Majority to QAnon.