Christian Zionism and the Idea of a ‘Chosen People’

Yakov Rabkin, professor of History at the University of Montreal talks about how the Christian idea of Jews physically returning to the Holy Land predates modern Jewish Zionism by many centuries. The idea that the return is in accordance with biblical prophecy and is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus, dates back to the Reformation. Moreover, some Christian groups in Britain, Germany and the United States have believed that they replaced the Jews as God’s “Chosen People.”