JD Hall, thank you for joining us.

I think you're one of the clearest writers on the internet, so it's an honor to have you here.

I've been trying to figure out for several years. You write on theology on Substack and other places, and very clearly, I just want to say, clarity being the goal of expository writing. You achieve that.

Right.

If you do. I've been trying for the last several years to figure out what Christian Zionism is,

not because I have an inherent interest, but because it's affected the shape of the world,

and a lot of people have died because of it and it has real world consequences that we can

we're living through right now what is christian zionism where does it come from is it christian

what's your assessment well if you listen to people online every christian is a zionist just

naturally right yes so the proponents of it will tell you that it is the de facto position on Israel,

and it always has been for Christians,

to believe in the establishment and support and protection of a Jewish ethno state in Palestine.

Christian Zionism... What doesn't't say in the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who don't will be cursed?

Yeah.

And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you've had probably about a thousand different people tell you that.

That's something that we hear every single day as Christians. I couldn't find it. I got my concordance out. I couldn't find it. Well, I remember the interview with Huckabee, and he couldn't find it either, which is weird when you cite it all the time. Or actually, that was Ted Cruz, that couldn't remember it where it was. I don't, I'm not sure that Ted even knew, like, if it was in the front of the Bible or in in the back of no idea

but yeah so Genesis chapter 12 verse 3 says I will bless those that bless thee and curse those that curse thee

and from that and I'm simplifying it but from that comes this more philosophical notion than theological,

that we as Christians have a duty-bound obligation to protect and to defend

and also to help establish a nation for the Jewish people in Palestine.

And it hasn't always been Palestine. You know, so when political

Zionism first developed, they had posited Morocco and Galveston, Texas, Ohio, Siberia, different

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