Pope Leo needs to reaffirm that the Church is the true Israel of God

The Ninth station in the Via Dolorosa is where Jesus falls for the third time. Jerusalem, Israel

(Catholic 460) — [Editorial note: The following essay is the reprint of an introduction to a three-part essay explaining why the state of Israel, founded in 1948, has never had a divine mandate, or authentic theological claim, to the occupied Palestinian territories. The author rejects redefinitions of antisemitism which include anti-Zionism.]

Where we are headed in a Three-Part Series, excerpt from the upcoming final part: “A false ecumenism which avoids condemning modern Christian theological errors – and the accompanying violations of natural and civil law (including international law) which silence engenders – must stop. Since the New Covenant, theologies which justify taking lands without divine mandates, along with the accompanying ethnic cleansing and war crimes, are akin to Christian apostasy (cf. Heb 6:6). False political theologies, false doctrines, and false prophecies work against the New Covenant and true peace. The errors must be condemned clearly in accord with Scripture in the Tradition [Scripture and Tradition are inseparable]. This can be done alongside condemnations of antisemitism and better definitions of it. Recent definitions of antisemitism which include anti-Zionism are false definitions and counterproductive…(especially since ‘theological’ Zionism must be condemned).”

Culturally, America’s founding was overwhelmingly by a majority population of Christians. Catholics paved and navigated the way for Anglicans to colonize America’s East Coast after the Spanish had established routes between Europe and the New World. At the same time further north, French Catholics established settlements in what became Canada. Before the other European settlements, Catholic Spain settled Florida and territory that eventually became the USA. Besides settlements that became California and Texas, Catholic Spain also settled Mexico and Central and South America (along with Catholic Portugal). After Spain permanently settled Florida, the Anglicans established the Thirteen Colonies of what initiated the USA.

The Americas is the result of an overwhelmingly Christian endeavor at the foundation of which formed the modern nations, cultures and laws. Christians from North to South America have an obligation to ensure Christian culture endures in a place of esteem and honor within their nations. This is owed not only for the sake of honoring good heritage but also the truth that Jesus is God’s ultimate revelation for the salvation of the human race. Nevertheless, as an American-born U.S. citizen and Catholic authoring this essay, it will focus on the USA as “America” and will criticize “theological” Zionism (as opposed to early 20^th century “political” Zionism). The goal is to reform American politics and stem a growing Christian apostasy. Renewal and reform are a necessity for every individual and nation.

About the last sixty years, U.S. Americans appropriated and developed a Zionist mindset which had always been foreign to Orthodox and Catholic Christians. Catholics and Orthodox outside the Middle East in general were not interested in preventing any gradual and peaceful immigration of Jews back to Palestine for the sake of their heritage (political Zionism) and so were not necessarily anti-Zionist when the movement was well-underway at the start of the 20^th century. Christians were especially open to Zionism for secular reasons (a.k.a. “political” Zionism) by the time of the 1930’s and the later Nazi holocaust of Jews. At that time of clear revelation of atrocities (1945) everyone, including Palestinians, wanted safety for Jews from such future crimes. Earlier lack of overt support was not from what some modern Jewish critics attempt to label falsely as antisemitism, or hate based on ethnicity. Middle East opposition was related to massive British-sponsored immigration of Europeans into the region, not antisemitism.

Rather, Catholic and Orthodox Churches maintained apostolic succession and Christ’s mandates to govern and teach the people of God which no other Christian communities could legitimately claim from Scripture and history. They were open to a homeland for Jews (political Zionism])for political reasons, but absolutely not in Palestine for primarily theological reasons (a.k.a. “theological” Zionism) in terms of a divine mandate. As authentic ministers and judges within the New Covenant of Christ the King, which all the law and prophets of ancient Israel had anticipated for the future Israel (cf. Rom 9:6-8), it was the duty of Catholic and Orthodox bishops to show love and mercy and make proper distinctions between “political” and “theological” acceptance. However, since bishops govern as stewards of a kingdom that is not of this world, they did not interfere in the mandates proper to secular governments like Great Britain and later enshrinements of international law at the United Nations (of which the Vatican has observer status).

According to Christ’s mandates as judges and stewards, Catholic and Orthodox bishops rightly interpreted how the promises of God had taken final form (cf. Heb 9:10) in the renewed Israel of God (cf. Gal 6:16) of the “new covenant” (Jer 31:31), the Church. Any kind of Zionism that would pretend ancient Israelites and their descendants “according-to-the-flesh” (Rom 9:3) still had a divine mandate to take forcibly the lands of ancient Israel was known to be false doctrine and contrary to the doctrines of Jesus Christ. Jews could lawfully acquire land in accord with natural and international law in Palestine (political Zionism), but no one should pretend there was a divine mandate or necessity for such acquisitions since the time of Christ and destruction of the Second Temple. For this reason, most Christians by the 1940’s originally went along with what was more a secular or “political” Zionism rather than what later became a “theological” Zionism, claims to a divine mandate and right to Palestinian lands.

Jewish Zionists have no divine mandate to forcibly take land from Palestinians or territories under the control of other countries or peoples. God’s plan in Christ “reformed” (cf. Heb 9:10; Eph 1:10) all mandates. Mandates are the issue at the heart of the wars and conflicts in Palestine and the Middle East where illegal Jewish settlers continue to try and take land from Palestinians and others. In a recent Vatican News article (28 July 2025) about the illegal Jewish settlers trying to run Christian Palestinians off their land in the Palestinian West Bank, German Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert commented upon the matter: “Whether the target is a Christian village or a Muslim community, these extremist settlers may claim divine mandate, but in truth they are criminals, strangers to any authentic faith.” (Emphasis mine.)

As Middle East wars and politics became more divisive after 1967 when the state of Israel expanded through wars and occupations, American corporate media monopolized the narrative and led Americans not to question the political Zionism which rapidly was becoming theological Zionism. Christian fundamentalists in America were adopting theological Zionism as a part of their prior false dispensationalist prophetic views (Christian Zionism) related to the Book of Revelation. Many Dispensationalist views did not accept the Church as the new or “reformed” (cf Heb 9:10) Israel. Christian Zionists, especially Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority of the 1980’s, brought theological Zionism to bear in American foreign policy in both major political parties and the growing deep state.

Christian Zionism basically infused theological Zionism into American foreign policy and so the governing elite (Jews, Catholics, Protestants, etc…) implicitly adopted in their outlooks the false doctrine of theological Zionism: that Jews still had a divine mandate for sole possession of the lands of Palestine and it overrode natural rights. It’s understood that theological Zionism can have more moderate views than the illegal settlers. Nevertheless, comments of recent cabinet picks of President Trump, especially a Catholic Congresswoman, specifically advocated that Israel had a divine mandate for the land during Senate confirmation hearings.

NO ONE, no single group alone, has a divine mandate any longer for the lands. Early 20^th century acceptance of the past’s secular (or “political”) Zionism mistakenly led to growing acceptance of “theological” Zionism by the 1980’s. It has only grown worse when 21^st century Senators like Ted Cruz tell Americans we have an obligation to support the state of Israel because basically “the Bible says so.” Herein, America behaves theocratically and needs Papal counsel.

Theological Zionism colonized the American mind and led to endless modern Middle East false crusades as Americans adopted Christian Zionism as a standard political ethos: Christians had to help the Jews, despite an illegal occupation according to international law, because “the Bible says so.” Is “crusades” too strong a term? Have people already forgotten that in 2001 George W. Bush called American response to 9/11 a new “crusade” days after the terror attacks? “This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while.” A group of Jewish Zionist Israelis (not representative of all Jews) danced in New York City because they knew this attack would drag America more deeply into their wars for more Palestinian lands. The truth is that American acceptance of theological Zionism had already dragged Congress into today’s acceptance of Netanyahu’s politics since the 1990’s and into 2025 with starvation of Gazans. Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress in 2024 just before the ICC issued arrest warrants for war crimes in Gaza. In turn, the U.S. sanctioned ICC members for Netanyahu (and probably their own protection).

In 2001, Bush’s speechwriters knew America’s European and Christian heritage, but Zionism had distorted the heritage. Nevertheless, the Zionist mindset behind Bush’s modern false “crusade” and the neo-conservative desire to remake the Middle East, was destructive to Christian identity and mission. Its true ends, theological Zionism, were injurious to Christian culture in America. It was about making the Middle East and America safe for theological Zionists (misled Christians and crypto-Kahanists), but not necessarily for authentic Christianity and Rabbinic or Talmudic Jews.

By the years 2024 to 2025 of the Christian Era, theological Zionism made American Christians and politicians blind to a genocide in Gaza and ICC concerns under the false banner of primarily fighting Islamic terrorists. Yes, Islamic terrorist ideology must also be resisted always and everywhere, and the state of Israel has a right to defend itself, but arming and funding an Israeli military involved in genocide and/or ethnic cleansing is not Christian heritage and remains contrary to American law. There will be serious need for serious deprogramming of people who advocated for starvation and slaughter of civilians.

For decades, propaganda machines and social media have been militarized and funded by the state of Israel for Zionist goals. The military-industrial complex of a foreign nation specifically targets Americans to stop the questioning of Zionism and so preserve American military support for Israel’s theological Zionist expansionism. It is partly why Congress passed a non-binding resolution in December 2023 which threatened authentic free-speech and falsely labeled anti-Zionism as hate speech and antisemitism. Israel sponsors limiting free speech concerning Zionism under the pretense that it is identical with Judaism.

Americans rightly love our Jewish neighbors and hate real antisemitism, but Americans are now supposed to be afraid to question “Zionism” which can include “theological” Zionism. American Christians must realize Zionism is not the sole representative of Judaism, but an attempt to use Judaism for political ends and what Christians have always known to be a false Messianism. Yes, militant Islam, always a threat within and from Islam itself, is a threat to Christianity, but this does not make Zionism in its “religious” or “theological” form an ally or friend of Christianity. Christians still seek authentic friendship with all Jews and Muslims of goodwill.

Theological Zionism is not just held by a vast number of Jews, but especially by large swaths of Christians in America (primarily fundamentalists who originally spread it, but shockingly many American Catholics who absorbed it). Late 19^thcentury Zionism originally was basically a movement about a homeland for the Jews that romanticized about returning to what was once ancient biblical Israel 3,000 years ago. Who wouldn’t romanticize such a return after various persecutions in Christian and Communist countries and countless pogroms? In its romanticization and zeal, ideological adherents forget to mention ancient Israel was destroyed 2,700 years ago when most of it was overrun by the Assyrians and left only the small remnant of Judea and their land (Judah, one tribe of the original 12 which eventually encompassed Benjamin and a mix of Levites, became known as the Jews).

A hundred years after the Assyrian destruction of Israel 2700 years ago, Judea was basically occupied from that time forward by foreign world empires until Judea was destroyed 2,000 years ago. Judea and the capitol Jerusalem were destroyed exactly forty years after Jewish leaders rejected and condemned Jesus Christ, exactly as Jesus Christ prophesied. Since then, and until the Zionist “return” movement of the late 19^th century – which later was officially adopted by the British government in the early 20^th century – Jews had been an extremely small population in what had become Palestine for 1900 years. About 1880 A.D., the Jewish population in Palestine (according to Ottoman records) was about 2-5% of the population of the territory (cf. Jonathan Mendel in Ilan Pappe’s 10 Myths About Israel). Zionists originally wished to legally acquire the land from the centuries-old legal inhabitants of Palestine. Many Arabs will explain that what once started as legal became the Nakba, forced and violent displacement due to both political and theological Zionism.

In all blunt actuality, Zionism, a political movement motivated by religious romanticism for an era that hadn’t existed for 3,000 years, rode on the back of anti-Catholic and Freemasonic British sponsorship under the 1917 Balfour Declaration and ensuing British rule over Palestine, basically through a League of Nations mandate. (“Freemasonry” matters because it is inherently relativist and indifferentist when it comes to Christian doctrine and relation of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.) Palestine in the early 1920’s became known as British Mandated Palestine through 1948. This is when Jews began larger and rapid migrations into Palestine and eventually began to expel Palestinians from the Palestinian homelands where Christians were 15% of the population and Muslims were 80% of the population before modern political Zionism. Since that time, the romanticized political movement of Zionism grew into a religious movement or “religious Zionism.” It was due to fundamentalist Chrisitan political “forces” in America joining with fundamentalist Jewish Zionists; all due to false prophecies and false interpretations of God’s covenants (which relied on false “theological” Zionism).

Where Zionism was originally a romanticized ethno-political movement in the late-19^th and early-20^th century under Theodore Herzl, and initially led by agnostic and Jewish atheists wanting a homeland where Jews would not be persecuted for their ethnic identity and Rabbinic or Talmudic Judaism (practicing Judaism without a Temple and without animal sacrifices), it became more religious and fundamentalist by the 1980’s-90’s. This fundamentalist turn or “religious” Zionism embraced theological Zionism and has led to endless violations of the rights of Palestinian Christians and Muslims. It also must be noted that many Jews in America and throughout the world also oppose these violations of Palestinian rights and they reject violent settlers in their theological views.

After the long-term Likud party leadership of the 21^st century, extreme “theological” Zionists entered Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet since 2022 with Itamar Ben Gvir, etc… With these more recent political-theological events in mind, the true Israel of God (the Church of the New Covenant) has an obligation to remind the world of its mandate and condemn any form of theological Zionism by Christians (particularly Americans) and Jews which has led to lawlessness by Israeli Jewish settlers and/or prolonged denial of rights to Palestinians. After all, why would the American State Department remove sanctions on illegal Jewish settlers in 2025 given the extreme conditions in the West Bank of 2024-2025? In union with the Christian Patriarchs of the Palestinian territories and territories of the state of Israel, it is hoped the Pope will officially condemn the errors of theological Zionism. An encyclical is a good tool of magisterial authority to affirm the faith that Jesus established as King of “the Israel of God,” the new Israel (Gal 6:16; cf. LG #9.3).

This essay will expand this argument into three parts: Part I: an explanation on how ancient Israel lost its divine mandate for the land, but the Church, the reformed and new Israel (cf. Heb 9:10; Gal 6:16; Rom 9:4-8; LG #9.3) has the spiritual mandate to teach and clarify God’s promises; Part II: the present situation and long-suffering of Palestinians necessitating intervention; and, lastly, Part III: legal papal interventions available. It wishes to condemn antisemitism and simultaneously protect the rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The essay strives to maintain proper distinctions to accomplish this. It needs a charitable reading since the audience is at different levels of background and there are many complexities which it tries to summarize fairly.

This introduction first appeared on Professor Tsakanikas’ Substack page “Catholic 460: ‘Deification in Christ’ (2 Peter 1-4).” Part I: Second Temple Israel Lost Its Mandate & the True Israel Has the New Temple & New Mandate per Saint Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews & Book of Revelation 21:14] will appear at a later date.

The author is correct, as both protestants and Catholics including Christians all the way back to the post-apostolic era believe that the Israel of God is no longer fleshly, natural Israel but rather all believers in Jesus—along with a remnant of Godly believers of old.

Summary. Jesus fulfilled all of the promises to Old Covenant Israel (Matthew 5:17; Luke 1:67-79; 24:44-47; Acts 13:32-34; Romans 1:1-4; 15:8-9; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Galatians 3:16). “Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” (Romans 9:5-8). The church extends beyond natural Israel to include Gentiles (Luke 2:32; Acts 9:15; 11:1, 18; Romans 11:11-32; Galatians 3:6-9, 25-29). This is not “replacement theology,” but rather “inclusion theology.” Here is a sampling of passages about this:

Galatians 6:14-16. In the context of the rest of Galatians (3:15-29; etc.), Paul refers to the “ISRAEL OF GOD” as those who walk according to the Spirit—by faith in Jesus Christ (and specifically not by works of the Jewish Old Covenant ceremonial law, including circumcision).

Galatians 3:6-9, 25-29. Heirs to the promise, i.e. the true sons of Abraham, come from faith in Christ, not physical descent.

Galatians 4:21-31. Physical Jerusalem, that is, the old covenant, is cast out making way for the New Spiritual Jerusalem (“the Jerusalem above”)—the new children of the promise.

Matthew 3:7-11. John the Baptist tells the Pharisees and Sadducees not to count on their physical descent. Indeed, they are about to be cut down in the wrath about to come (AD 70).

Matthew 21:18-19. Jesus curses the fig tree, an Old Testament symbol for Old Covenant Israel (Jeremiah 24; Hosea 9:10; Luke 13:6-9), and the fig tree withered away forever.

Matthew 21:33-45. Parable of the Tenants. Jesus tells the Jews that the kingdom is being taken away from them and given to another group, obviously the church. (cf. Isaiah 65:16)

Matthew 22:1-4. The Parable of the Wedding Feast. It was obviously the Jews who were invited to the wedding, but their refusal to accept Christ as Messiah would lead to their demise—“destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (Matthew 23, the next chapter, details why the Jews were the object of Jesus’ wrath. Not only were they exceedingly sinful, but also refused to accept Him as Savior.)

John 1:12-13. The children of God are believers, and not by blood.

John 8:31-47. Jesus explains to the Jews of his day that they are not truly offspring of Abraham, but rather are offspring of the devil.

Romans 2:28-29. “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the letter.”

Romans 9:5-8. Paul taught that not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel (“FOR THEY ARE NOT ALL ISRAEL WHO ARE ISRAEL”), and not all are children of Abraham. It is not the children of the flesh (i.e. their ethnicity) who are children of God (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:16.)

Romans 11:5, 11-32. Branches (of Israel 11:21) were broken off because of unbelief and Gentiles grafted in by faith in the Hebrew Messiah. Whoever accepted Christ, both Gentiles and a remnant of faithful Jews are saved (11:5).

Ephesians 2:11-3:13. Gentiles are no longer aliens but are fellow citizens in a new dwelling place, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (cf. Revelation 21:14).

Ephesians 2:15-16. Jews and Gentiles became “one new man in place of two,” thus “one body.”

Philippians 3:3. The church is the real “circumcision.” Circumcision is the special sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and Israel (Genesis 17:10, 13), so the Christian church has become God’s covenantal people.

Colossians 1:13, Revelation 1:6. The first century Christians were already in the kingdom, which is the church.

Colossians 2:6-3:17. Paul explains in this passage that physical circumcision had been replaced by spiritual circumcision, thus spiritual Israel—believers being made spiritually alive IN CHRIST. (See also Philippians 3:3).

Hebrews 8:5-13. The Old Covenant was being replaced by a New Covenant as predicted in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 31:31-34; etc.)

1 Peter 2:4-10. The new chosen race is the Christian church (building motif).

1 John 1:23; 2 John 9. Anyone who denies Christ does not have God. (That would exclude non-believing Jews from the kingdom.)

Revelation 2:9; 3:9. There are those who say they are Jews, but are really are a “synagogue of Satan.”

Revelation 19:7, 21:2, 9-27. The New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ, the church—which is built on the foundation of the apostles (ref. Ephesians 2:20).

Conclusions. This is about the changing of the covenants. Israel’s covenant with God was contingent on obedience (Deuteronomy 28-32)! Throughout the Bible, Israel’s relationship with God is portrayed as a marriage (Isaiah 54:5; 62:4; Jeremiah 2:2; 3:14, 20; 31:31-34; Ezekiel 16:8, 32, 38; Hosea 2:2, 7, 16; Malachi 2:14). Whenever Israel was unfaithful, she is characterized as a harlot or adulterer (Deuteronomy 31:16-18; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:6-9; Ezekiel 6:8-9; 16:15, 26, 28; Hosea 1:2; 6:10; 9:1). The central theme of Revelation is a story of two women—the harlot Babylon who is judged/divorced (Revelation 17:1, 5, 15; 18:9, 21; 19:2) and God’s new bride the New Jerusalem (Revelation 19:7; 21:2, 9). The faithless harlot is apostate Old Covenant Israel. The new bride is the Christian church, the wife of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 3:12; 19:7; 21:2, 9-27). Compare to the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:1-14, as well as such passages as John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27.

The notion that Israel is separate from the church, and that Israel will re-emerge as pre-eminent among nations is not supported by the texts.

*****
See also, “Were God’s Promises to Israel Forever?”

https://prophecyquestions.com/were-gods-promises-to-israel-forever

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Pope Leo needs to reaffirm that the Church is the true Israel of God

Since the New Covenant, theologies which justify taking lands without divine mandates, along with the accompanying ethnic cleansing and war crimes, are akin to Christian apostasy.