Why I still support Israel

An Error in Christian Nationalism’s Anti-Israel Stance

Since the beginning of the Israeli war with Hamas, bad anti-Israel theology, like the screenshot below, has been a prominent feature of the Christian Nationalist response. But saying "Israel was founded upon the rejection of Jesus Christ" is incorrect. My thesis here is that Israel was founded upon God’s Gospel promise to Abraham (Gen 12) and Abraham's receiving this promise by faith (Gen 15).

Abraham: Israel’s Gospel-Believing Foundation
First, Israel was founded on the Gospel and Abraham’s faith in that Gospel from the beginning. To put that another way, if Israel was founded upon rejecting Christ, then why does the Bible say it was founded on faith in the Gospel? Why is God’s promise to Abraham called “the Gospel preached beforehand” (Gal 3) and why is Abraham, the father of Israel, called the father of those who have faith (Rom 4; Gal 3)? So Israel cannot be founded on rejecting Christ since it was founded in precisely the opposite way.

The New Testament’s View of Israel
Second, according to the New Testament, the church is founded upon Israel (Rom 9-11), Israel’s Gospel (Gal 3; c.f., Gen 3; 15; Isa 53; Ezekiel 36; Jer 31), and its covenants (Rom 9). Yes, most Israelites rejected Christ (Rom 11) but none of this changed Paul’s opinion about Israel as God’s covenant people in the post-33 AD world.

How Christian Nationalists Will Object
The objection to what I am saying will likely be, “I was talking about modern Israel.” But here’s why that dog won’t fetch. Israel today is the same unbelieving Israel as in the time of Moses, Joshua, the Judges, the Kings, the Exile, its return, Jesus, and the apostles. Yet Israel, even in New Testament times, was considered to be founded on God’s promise to Abraham and Abraham’s faith. They exist today precisely because of the Gospel of Christ. True, most Israelites like most people lack faith. Yet Israel exists because of its foundation in the man of faith. This is why, even AFTER Israel’s rejection of Christ and AFTER Christ’s pronouncing curses on them (Matt 23), Paul called Israel the people of the covenants (Rom 9), beloved of God (Rom 11), and the root that supports the church (Rom 11). The Christian Nationalist description of Israel is not how Scripture describes Israel.

God’s Pattern of Restoring Israel
Another misconception by Christian Nationalists is that God has no plan to restore Israel in the modern era. But this ignores God’s patterns in Scripture. After God scattered Israel into exile in the Old Testament, he restored them to their land 70 years later. So when Matthew 23 speaks of God’s judgment on Israel for rejecting Christ, there is no reason to assume that God will not gather Israel again. God has a history of restoring Israel after cursing her. So, it is not outside of the God’s ways to restore her again. In fact, Romans 11 reads to many scholars as though God plans to turn his attention to Israel yet again in the last days.

God Has Not Rejected Israel
Another problem with the Christian Nationalist view of Israel is that Scripture explicitly says that God has not rejected Israel. So while Christian Nationalists may have rejected Israel, God has not. Notice that even after Christ’s pronouncement of a Deuteronomy-like judgment upon Israel in Matthew 23-24, Paul says, “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means!” (Romans 11:1). Yet the common position of Christian Nationalism is to say that God is done with Israel as a particular nation. This contradicts Scripture.In case I am being misunderstood, what I'm NOT saying is that unbelieving Jews belong to God. Paul is very clear on this subject in Romans 9-11. Only believing Israel is Israel (Rom 9). Yet, never once did the unbelief of the many Israelites cause Israel to cease as a people. There has always been a remnant, a minority will believe just as a minority from every nation will believe.

God Continues to Have Plans for Israel
The pattern of all Scripture is that, regardless of Israel’s context in the Promised Land, sojourning, or exile, Israel has never ceased to be “Israel” the people. So why would this be any different after 33AD? Paul clearly seems to think that Israel will be a people until the end of Gentile times (Rom 11). And Paul calls their status “irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). In fact, God saves the Gentiles with the intention of drawing Israel to Him. Thus, if Israel ceased to be a central people in the future, it would be impossible for God to fulfill his stated purposes in Romans 11. It sure looks like God is not finished with Israel’s centrality.My conclusion is this: Israel is still God's central nation because it was founded on the Gospel from its inception, and upon Abraham's faith, and upon God's covenants. Oh, and one more thing, Jesus is still King of the Jews.

The land of Israel has been populated by the Jewish people since 2000 BC. Here’s the timeline, in case you didn’t realize that it is their homeland, as designated by Yahweh.
1900 BC: Abraham chosen by God as the Father of the Jewish Nation.
1900 BC: Isaac, Abraham’s son, rules over Israel.
1850 BC: Jacob, son of Issac, rules over Israel.
1400 BC: Moses leads the people out of Egypt and back to Israel.
1010 BC: King David unites the 12 tribes into one nation.
970 BC: King Solomon, son of David, builds the first temple structure in Jerusalem
930 BC: Israel is divided into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.
800s BC: The rise of the prophets, God’s messengers.
722 BC: Kingdom of Israel is conquered by Assyrians.
605 BC: Kingdom Judah is conquered by the Babylonians.
586 BC: Solomon’s Temple is destroyed by the Babylonians.
539 BC: Persians conquer the Babylonians and take control of Israel.
538 BC: The Jews return to Israel from exile.
520 BC: The Temple is rebuilt.
450 BC: Reforms made by Ezra and Nehemiah.
433 BC: Malachi is the end of the prophetic age.
432 BC: The last group of Jews return from exile.
333 BC: The Greeks conquer the Persian empire.
323 BC: The Egyptian and Syrian empire take over Israel.
167 BC: Hasmonean’s recapture Israel, and the Jews are ruled independently.
70 BC: Romans conquer Israel.
20 BC: King Herod builds the “third” temple
6 BC: Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem
70 AD: Romans destroy the temple
After that, the people were captives to the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, and Crusaders. Through all of these events, the Jewish people continued to live in Israel. There were more or less of them, depending on the centuries, but there was never a time when the Jews didn’t live in the land. They stayed, they built their communities, they raised their families, practiced their faith and they suffered at the hands of many outside rulers, but they always kept their faith. It is what sustains them, even now.
In 1948, the UN established the State of Israel, the nation of Jews. Don’t buy the Palestinian lies that they are entitled to the land. It simply is not true. Yahweh will also provide a way for his chosen people to live in Israel, as He has for thousands of years. Pray for the people of Israel.