Lorenzo Palon

Rethinking the Land, the People, and the Promise

In recent decades, Christian Zionism has gained remarkable traction in many church circles. It insists that the modern State of Israel occupies a special place in God’s unfolding prophetic plan — a fulfillment of Old Testament promises that must be supported by faithful Christians, both politically and financially. According to this view, biblical prophecy demands unwavering support for the Jewish people’s return to the land of Israel, and the rebuilding of the Temple is seen by some as a divine necessity for ushering in the end times.

But a careful reading of the New Testament reveals a different story — a radical redefinition of land, people, and promise through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. The early Christian movement did not continue the territorial ambitions of ancient Israel. Instead, it re-centered God’s purposes not around a piece of land, but around a crucified and risen King who reigns from heaven over all nations.

Jesus Redefined the Promise

Jesus himself does not speak of a renewed Jewish kingdom headquartered in Jerusalem. When challenged to assert nationalistic authority (as in John 6:15), he withdraws. When asked about the restoration of Israel (Acts 1:6), he redirects the question toward the global mission of the Spirit (Acts 1:8). He weeps over Jerusalem not as the center of future hope, but as a city blind to the day of its visitation (Luke 19:41–44). He tells the Samaritan woman that worship will no longer be tied to Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim, but will be “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21–24).

In Jesus, the territorial dimension of the promise is transfigured. The beatitude “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5) echoes Psalm 37:11, where the inheritance of land was Israel’s hope. But here, the “land” is now “the earth” — expansive, universal, no longer constrained by geography. Jesus does not cancel the promises. He fulfills and enlarges them.¹

Abraham’s Inheritance Becomes Global

Paul takes up this thread and weaves it into his gospel. In Romans 4:13, he declares that God’s promise to Abraham was not that he would inherit a land, but that he would become “heir of the world.” This is no small revision. It signals that the blessing given to Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3) is now understood as extending to all nations, without requiring migration to a particular plot of soil.

Indeed, Paul’s entire argument in Galatians 3–4 depends on the idea that the family of Abraham is no longer defined by law, ethnicity, or territory, but by faith in the Messiah. “If you belong to Christ,” he writes, “then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29). There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female — and by implication, no longer citizen or foreigner. Faith in Christ dismantles the old boundary markers, including the land-based identity of God’s people.²

The Church as the New Temple

One of the central tenets of Christian Zionism is the belief that the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before the Messiah returns. But the New Testament tells a different story. Jesus identifies his own body as the Temple (John 2:19–21). The early church picks this up: “You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Pet 2:5). Paul calls the church “God’s temple” (1 Cor 3:16), and the gathered community “the temple of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor 6:16).

Nowhere do the apostles urge believers to await or work toward the rebuilding of a physical sanctuary in Jerusalem. The locus of divine presence has shifted. The Spirit now dwells in a global people — mobile, scattered, diverse, and no longer tied to one mountain or city.³

Election Is Recentered in Christ

The New Testament does not abandon Israel’s election — but it redefines it in and through Jesus the Messiah. Israel’s vocation to be a light to the nations finds its fulfillment not in political sovereignty, but in the crucified servant. Jesus is the true Israelite, the faithful Son, the one who embodies all that Israel was meant to be. Those who are “in Christ” — whether Jew or Gentile — are grafted into this identity.

Paul’s metaphor in Romans 11 is striking. The olive tree is not replaced, but neither is it nationalized. Wild branches (Gentiles) are grafted in, and natural branches (Jews) can be restored — but only by faith in the Messiah. What matters now is not ethnic lineage or ancestral land, but inclusion in the Messiah’s body.⁴

The Kingdom of God Is Not of This World

Jesus tells Pilate plainly, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). It is not built on military conquest or real estate deals. The New Testament community never seeks to reclaim territory. Instead, it spreads good news, plants churches, feeds the poor, and breaks bread in exile.

The book of Revelation, often misused to justify Zionist expectations, climaxes not in a rebuilt temple but in a city that needs no temple — because the Lamb is its light (Rev 21:22–24). The nations stream in, not to serve a state, but to behold the glory of God.⁵

Conclusion: A Universal Promise, A Global People

The promises of God have not failed. They have exploded in scope. What was once tied to a single people and a single land is now offered to all people in all lands. The boundary markers of Torah — circumcision, food laws, Sabbath, and yes, the land — have been transcended by the arrival of the Messiah and the outpouring of the Spirit.

To teach that Christians must support one modern nation-state to remain faithful to biblical prophecy is to regress, to re-erect walls that the gospel tore down. It is not to fulfill the Bible, but to misunderstand it.

The New Testament does not teach Christian Zionism. It teaches something bigger — a Messiah who reigns from heaven, a Spirit who fills the earth, and a people drawn from every tribe and tongue. Not toward one mountain, but toward a new creation.⁶

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Footnotes:

• ¹ James D. G. Dunn, The New Perspective on Paul (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), esp. pp. 68–73.
• ² ———, Romans (Word Biblical Commentary), vol. 38A, commentary on Romans 4:13.
• ³ ———, Unity and Diversity in the New Testament (London: SCM Press, 2006), pp. 328–342.
• ⁴ ———, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), pp. 706–730.
• ⁵ See also N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), 2:1053–1075.
• ⁶ John Stott, The Incomparable Christ (Downers Grove: IVP, 2001), ch. 13.