A precis of chapter 3 of Lewis, D. (2021) A Short History of Christian Zionism.  IVP Academic.

The hopes of the early church for Christ’s imminent return were tempered by Augustine, who held a less optimistic view of what the church could achieve in this present age.

The English Puritans found new hope in the apocalyptic writings of the Bible – especially Daniel and the Revelation.

The Puritans believed that God had a plan not only for individuals, but for nations.  England had the task of leading the international Protestant cause, of defending the faith against Catholic foes, and of supporting the spiritual and physical restoration of the Jewish people.

Many Puritans held a historicist interpretation of Rev 4-20, according to which these chapters described the history of the church from Apostolic days to the time of Elizabeth I.  They believed that the Reformation was a decisive work of God and that the collapse of the Roman church (‘Babylon the great’, Rev 14:8), the overthrow of Islam and the conversion of the Jews, was imminent.  This optimism was shared by both postmillennialists and premillennialists.

A form of historicist postmillennialism was developed by Thomas Brightman (1562–1607, but whose works were suppressed until 1644).  With Eze 37 (the valley of dry bones followed by restoration) Brightman anticipated great suffering for the church, but beyond this embraced a hope of latter-day glory:

‘Brightman sees the Jewish people in the future engaged in the great battle with Gog and Magog (Revelation 20:8)—that is, the Turks and their allies. The Jewish people, now converted, will be returned to their native homeland but will be surrounded by the Turks (Revelation 20:9). God will then miraculously intervene on behalf of his ancient people and destroy their enemies; the full conversion and restoration of the Jewish nation will constitute a great resurrection (Revelation 20:11-12). Revelation 21–22 then becomes a description of the new kingdom, refounded in a renewed Jerusalem, which will become the center of the earth “in which all men confess Jesus as Lord.” But while he envisioned a unity of Jews and Gentiles in the millennial age, he believed that “God had separate earthly plans for each. Even in the millennial period, they would remain radically different. Indeed, the millennium would be a period of Jewish dominion over the earth.” At the end of this period the second coming of Christ will occur and be followed by the final judgment.’

Brightman, then, expected a large-scale conversion of Jews to Christianity, and then, eventually, their restoration to their homeland.

Sir Henry Finch (1575–1653) followed Brightman in a number of repects.  He argued that Scripture references to Israel refer to the Jews, and not to the church.  Thus:

‘Scriptural references to their return to their land, the defeat of their enemies, and their rule of the nations are to be understood literally.’

Furthermore, Finch held that:

‘The conversion of the Jews will include the ten lost tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel as well as the two tribes of the southern kingdom (Ezekiel 37:16, 19; Hosea 1:11; Jeremiah 3:12-14; Isaiah 11:12-13).’

With his historicist approach, Finch felt able to set dates for various events, including the defeat of the Turks by the Jews on the shores of Galilee in 1695.

Brightman was following by William Gouge and John Owen (1616–1683) in maintaining that:

‘the end of the current age would be characterized by what they termed as a period of “Latter-Day Glory for the church,” which would come after the downfall of the papacy and the conversion of the Jewish people. A great revival of Christianity was to be expected, which would be inaugurated through the preaching of Spirit-filled men, both Jews and Gentiles.’

The present age would end soon.  It would be followed by the Millennium, at the end of which Christ would return in judgment.

The philo-Semitic views of the Puritans of the 1640s may be summarised as follows:

Five words come to mind: esteem, gratitude, love, longing, and realism.

First, esteem. Rejecting the medieval “teaching of contempt” toward the Jews as “Christ killers,” Puritans advanced a “teaching of esteem” rather than of contempt toward the Jews. In Thomas Draxe’s words, the Jews remain a “chosen nation, the particular people, and a royall Priesthood.” Jews were to be celebrated for their many accomplishments and the great gifts they had given to the world. This emphasis on esteeming the Jews and celebrating the ways in which they have been a blessing to the nations runs through Puritan writings and resurfaces often in nineteenth-century British evangelical writings, and is often repeated in twenty-first-century Christian Zionist circles.

Second, gratitude. The Puritans were aware that Paul in Romans 11:28a had said that the Jews were loved “on account of the patriarchs” (NIV). Thus another important theme developed by Draxe is that of Christian gratitude and indebtedness to the Jews—that is, the rich inheritance of Judaism had prepared the way for the Christian faith, and the Jews were chosen and beloved of God because of their role in guarding that inheritance (echoing Augustine’s arguments). Christians should nurture a sense of gratitude for the inheritance that the Jews had received which had so enriched the world.

Third, Christians were to be taught to love the Jews rather than to despise them. Repeatedly the Puritans castigated the medieval Catholic treatment of the Jews, a theme that runs down the centuries in Christian Zionist writings (although, as will be seen, it has largely disappeared in the twenty-first century and the blame placed on supersessionism, whether Catholic or Protestant).

Fourth, this love was to lead to a longing for their conversion. Jews, of course, did not view the Puritans’ desire for their conversion in a positive light, but it was logically consistent from the Puritans’ point of view that they saw such efforts as a means of blessing the Jews.

Fifth and finally, there was a degree of realism urged on them by Paul. The other half of the same verse that says they are loved “on account of the patriarchs” reads “As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake” (Romans 11:28). So, on the one hand, Christians were urged to be grateful for the contributions of the Jews, but on the other, they are not to be naïve and realize that the unbelieving Jews regard the Christian gospel as nonsense and disavow the fundamental Christian claim about the salvific work of Christ and his cross.

These five aspects of the Puritans’ attitudes have to be appreciated if one is to understand their attitudes to the Jews and how they play out in the history of Christian Zionism.

(Reparagraphed)

17th century postmillennialists were often strongly restorationist.  This is in contrast to the supercessionism of some of their modern counterparts.  Boettner, for example, argued that:

”since the Messiah has come and has fully performed his work of atonement, this special role assigned to the Jews has been fulfilled.’

The rending of the temple veil at the time of the crucifixion meants that:

‘the old order of ritual and incense . . . and of the Jews as a separate people and Palestine as a separate land—all of that as a unit had fulfilled its purpose and was abolished forever.’

Less popular that postmillennialism among the Puritans, historicist premillennialism nevertheless had influential advocates.  Joseph Mede (1586–1638) followed Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638) in believing that the thousand-year period described in Rev 20 would be inaugurated by Christ’s return.

Mede believed that

‘the return of the Jews to the true Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, and to the land promised to Abraham by God, would usher in the millennium, or, at least, be one of the first things accomplished in the millennium.’

In this he was followed by Thomas Goodwin and Nathaniel Holmes.

As the 17th century wore on, the premillennial position gradually seemed more plausible.  Postmillennial optimism, which expected the imminent overthrow of Rome and Islam, was disappointed.  The Puritans found themselves experiencing the wrath of Charles I.  Only the dramatic personal return of Christ, as posited by the premillennialists, seemed likely to reverse the situation.

Many Puritans adopted a theory according to which one day in the prophetic literature equates to one year.  They theory originated in a reading of Eze 4:4-6, and was applied to time scales mentioned in Rev 11:2 and 13:5.

In 1290 King Edward I had banished the Jews from England.  In 1649 two English Puritans living in Amsterdam urged the English government to allow the readmission of Jews to England, as a precursor to their being supported to return to their homeland.

In 1664 the residence of Jews in England was duly authorised, and in 1673 their religious rights became protected in law.

Even after the Puritans were expelled from the Church of England in 1662, Jewish restorationism did not disappear.  But it did become moderated, emphasising spiritual conversion more than physical return to Palestine.  Eventually, the double hope – of conversion and return – was relegated to the more distant future.

The ‘Jew Bill’ of 1753 sought to address the problem that foreign-born Jews were disadvantaged in terms of colonial trade, customs rates, naturalisation and ownership of land.  It was passed, and then repealed, in the same year.  Some opponents argued that it played into the hands of the Deists:

‘If Jews could be naturalized…this would disprove the curses against them in the Old Testament, demonstrating the Bible’s inaccuracy.’

Others feared a Jewish takeover of England.

Supporters of the Bill, on the other hand, thought that naturalized Jews would more readily convert to Christianity and thus fulfil their prophetic destiny.

Restorationist interest was maintained through the writing of Thomas Newton (although not an Evangelical) and the high Calvnist John Gill (1697–1771).

In summary, the Puritans promoted a doctrine of love towards the Jews which was in contrast to the doctrine of contempt adopted by late Medieval Catholicism.  They respected Jewish learning and the Hebrew language.  They looked forward to the eventual conversion of the Jewish people (although they did not make great efforts to facilitate this).  Their optimism also extended to the overthrow of Rome and of Islam.