As someone who attended an evangelical, fundamentalist Baptist church as a child (Hyles Anderson), it is very much their view as well as larger groups like Independent and Southern Baptists (the largest Protestant denomination in the United States) that the existence of the nation of Israel and support for it is a precursor for the second coming of Jesus and the fulfillment of Gods plan.

Additionally, “Christian Zionism” is embraced by Christians in Australia and Western Europe as well.

There are academic sources for this everywhere, but feel free to watch their sermons on YouTube too:

[1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religio...

[2] https://www.brandeis.edu/israel-center/news/newsletter-5-rob...

This might definitely not be your intent - but that is for sure how I am currently parsing your comment.

1. Obviously anti-semitic

2. Not even true. The Christian Right lobby is HUGE and includes evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and LDS.

3. The Christian far right is significant and spent over 10% of the total lobbying spend in the last election cycle.

Sources:

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2011/...

[2] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/trump-us-christian-spe...

And depending on your definition of 'Zeal' the christian zionists often have more. A educated Neo-Conservative might be a strong Zionist but not will not come across as having Zeal, while a Baptist Christian Zionists might come of as pure Zeal.

What's really infinitely more likely is that israel and usa share some common enemies, and usa doesn't really have all that many geopolitical allies in the region to chose from. I don't know why everyone reaches for weird religious conspiracies when the obvious geopolitical explanation will do.

Without these cultural and religious layers, what remains is same for everyone. A human body.

But that also means Jews/Christians have a very rocky road together. Technically, "Christians" performed the Holocaust, for starters.

It begs a question - when you add in Islam, why do Christians and Jews suddenly become political allies?

It's important to note that we throw around terms like The Muslims as though all Muslims and Christians, etc have the same beliefs and agenda, and that's clearly not the case.

The subject is completely invisible to us except when we discuss interesting parts of the religions we believe.

I for one believe that religion is an ethics and conscience system, and when practiced correctly, all of them points to the same direction, albeit with different narratives and paths.

Goes back to the Crusades, the Islamic invasion of Europe and the fall of Constantinople

It’s not like Christianity embraced Jews either, but they did not present an existential threat

> And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it - Zechariah 12:3

The (mis-)interpretation being that for the return of God to occur, the existence of Jerusalem is a pre-requisite. It can't disappear, again. So for that to happen, we should protect Israel, who will protect the city. We should especially protect them because the world will gather against them.

The logic has some major flaws to it, and can be easily worked around, but I've heard it a few times.

isn't it amusing how humans think their deity isn't powerful enough so they have to make things possible for him?

There are several times when significant figures such as Moses, David, Jeremiah, and so on, negotiate a new outcome with their God. There are also other times that their God refuses to act, because the faithless have fallen away.

They "wandered around in the desert", a rather small patch of desert, mind you, because of a lack of faith. The 40-ish years in the desert, to age out those who failed in their duty, rather than to enter into their "Promised Land". Moses was also forbidden from entering Cana'an, because he tried to act on his own, instead of in tandem with his god.

> > odd facet of belief found in some American Protestant belief systems - that for Jesus to come back, the State of Israel has to exist

This seems to be overwhelmingly true[1].

> "...80% of the surveyed evangelicals believe that the modern rebirth of Israel and the return of millions of Jews to that land are a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and show 'we are getting closer to the return of Jesus Christ.'[1]

> more likely is that Christians feel a certain affinity towards Israel due to a shared Judeo-Christian heritage

This wouldn't really explain it.

Muslims also have a Judeo-Christian heritage (and even believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah), and there's no reason to believe the historical parts of Israel would be different if they were under Muslim control. After all, the Palestinians living there prior to Israel's formation preserved all that stuff for hundreds of years.

1. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/25/753720351/as-u-s-jews-cool-to...

If you seek to 6 min 5 seconds, the narrator describes an Evangelical pastor by the name of Urban Baxter whose End Time ministry leads a tour to Israel twice a year. The pastor then explains to his tour group / congregation the significance of Armageddon in relation to the current location of the tour group, Megiddo.

Up until they actually travel to the Holy Land to see 1) that the Christians there are either of European descend, or Palestinians (there are very few Christians of Israeli descend), 2) how Palestinians are treated by the State of Israel.

This is kinda eye-opening. You imagine that there is some "shared Judeo-Christian heritage", but after seeing this firsthand you associate the Land more with barbed wire than with Jesus.

Source: been there, seen that.

It still shocks me how people that know nothing are the ones that define what Christian’s believe / behave.

I don't think historically this makes any sense at all. It's normally just a thing used by right wing politicians to say that muslims are not ok.