"And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Revelation 21: 2
Do many Christian Zionists really believe that this Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven is literal, physical Jerusalem? I think maybe they do.
What about Jerusalem in Galatians 4: 26, "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." I suspect they think that this Jerusalem too is literal, physical Jerusalem.
What about II Kings 21: 13, "And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down."
How do you literally turn a city upside down?
Here is the problem of Christian Zionism: C. I. Scofield claimed that "Not one instance exists of a 'spiritual' or figurative fulfilment of prophecy... Jerusalem is always Jerusalem, Israel is always Israel, Zion is always Zion... Prophecies may never be spiritualised, but are always literal." C.I. Scofield, Scofield Bible Correspondence Course (Chicago, Moody Bible Institute), pp. 45-46.
The Christian Zionist starting point that says Israel must always mean Old Covenant Israel comes out of this literalist "Hermeneutic" and is apparently based upon the idea that the doctrines and practices of the multitude in Old Covenant Israel were of the letter, were literal and of that which is physical, and that idea tends to be true of the multitude.
In the New Testament, the word Israel does always mean Old Covenant Israel, until you get to to Romans.
In Romans 9: 6, Paul says "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel" The second Israel is Old Covenant Israel, but the first Israel here is not Old Covenant Israel. It is the elect of God in the New Covenant.
Galatians 6: 16 says "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." If you isolate this one verse and pretend you know nothing of what Paul says in Romans 9, in Galatians 3 and 4, in II Corinthians 3 and in Romans 2, there would be no reason to believe that this Israel of God is not Old Covenant Israel.
And here are the two verses that Christian Zionists insist proves their theology: "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:" Romans 11: 25-26
The blindness that in part has happened is to Old Covenant Israel, but ---
Again, the Christian Zionist literalist method of interpreting scripture insists that Israel in Romans 11: 26 must be Old Covenant Israel and not the Israel of God, meaning all the elect, regardless of their physical (or literal) DNA.
The "Hermeneutic" of Christian Zionism will not interpret scripture by use of other scripture, when that interpretation undermines their theology. But to make Romans 11: 26 agree with Romans 2, Romans 9, Galatians 3, Galatians 4 and Galatians 6 Israel there must be all the elect of God and not the multitude of Old Covenant Israel.
Look at Romans 11: 28, "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes."
This is a difficult verse. Because he says they are beloved for the sake of the fathers, you might think that Abraham, Issac and Jacob would love them as people of the Old Covenant. But look, he says touching the election, by which he means election to salvation in Jesus Christ. So, who are "they?"
They who are enemies of the Gospel are those of Old Covenant Israel who rejected Christ. But the "they" who are beloved as concerning the election are not Old Covenant Israel. They, or some of them, could be the remnant of Romans 11: 1-5 who accepted Christ, but this "they" is not the multitude of Old Covenant Israel who were cut off in Romans 11: 17-20. So, again Paul talks about two different Israels in the same sentence or refers to one Israel in one sentence and to another Israel in the next sentence.