Christian support for Israel
...There is much more. This guy obviously understands the support for Israel in this country better than most in the media. He also shoots down many of the theories that have been used to explain that support.
... In my book, I argue that the main source of evangelical support for Israel is their theology towards the Jews. Unlike so many generations of Christians in Europe, evangelicals interpret the word “Israel” in the Bible to mean “the Jews” and not “the Church.” This small change in interpretation has enormous theological ramifications. It means that the Jews are still the chosen people, that they are still in covenant with and beloved by God, and that they are still the rightful heirs of the land of Israel. Christians who read their Bible this way tend to reject anti-Semitism and embrace both the Jewish people and their national aspirations in Israel. This positive theology towards the Jews originated with some small Protestant sects in Europe. When the seeds of these ideas crossed the Atlantic, they took root and richly flourished to the point that they have become the dominant theology in America. How, indeed, can we explain such rapid growth?I think that Americans were especially receptive to this theology for two reasons. First, this literal interpretation of the Bible (i.e. that “Israel” means a physical people, the Jews, and not a spiritualized new Israel, the Church) has enormous appeal to the conservative and literalist theologians who built the American fundamentalist movement. In other words, this theology was very much in tune with the times. It was embraced by the early fundamentalists and grew along with the fundamentalist movement itself. When fundamentalists and their offspring, the evangelicals and the charismatics, emerged onto the political playing field in the 1980’s, they did so with Israel as a central passion.
In addition, I think there is a second reason why this philo-Semitic theology flourished so richly in American soil. Unlike Europe, America did not have a history of popular anti-Semitism. True, many European immigrants brought anti-Semitic ideas with them to America. But from the start these ideas ran counter to the prevailing culture and never took root. The American Founding Fathers were free of this hatred, and instead had such reverence for the Bible and the Jews that they seriously considered making Hebrew the official language of the new nation. George Washington wrote his famous letter to the members of the Touro Synagogue warmly welcoming their civic participation and condemning bigotry in the strongest terms. Thus in America, the philo-Semitic theology of the evangelicals fit easily into the broader civic culture that surrounded them.
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... Christian support for the Jews and Israel is solidly rooted in the Old Testament. It is based upon the many promises in Genesis that Israel will inherit the Land of Israel. And it is based upon the promise of Genesis 12:3 that, “He who blesses Israel will be blessed, and he who curses Israel will be cursed.” To people who interpret “Israel” to mean the Jews – such as evangelical Christians and the Jews themselves – Genesis thus becomes an exhortation to both Zionism and philo-Semitism.
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a) Christians who support Israel do not expect any kind of quid pro quo from the Jewish community. No less a critic of evangelical politics than the ADL’s Abraham Foxman has agreed that, “at no point have we heard them [Christian Zionists] place any conditions on their support [for Israel]. There is no quid pro quo.”
Evangelical support for Israel is a genuine expression of Christian love for the Jews and respect for God’s promises to them, and it comes with no strings attached. I and other Jews who have worked closely with evangelicals are unanimous in asserting that we’ve simply never been asked for something in return.
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b) No, Christians are not partnering with Jewish groups in order to convert them. I and others who have worked with Christians in support of Israel all report that no one has ever tired to convert us. Do Christians think that Jews should accept Jesus as their savior? Of course they do. But they also think that Hindus, Muslims, and their Christian neighbors who have yet to be born again should also accept Jesus. And Christians believe this whether or not they support Israel. The only difference is that Christians who support Israel tend to know more Jews and to understand their sensitivities better than Christians who do not. Thus, they have learned that Jews find “Jesus talk” offensive, and they tend to leave it out of the dialogue.
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