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Washington Post: Half of evangelicals support Israel because they believe it is important for fulfilling end-times prophecy

Discussion

Tue, 05/15/18

Selected quote:

“Jerusalem has been the object of the affection of both Jews and Christians down through history and the touchstone of prophecy,” Jeffress told CNN last year. “But, most importantly, God gave Jerusalem — and the rest of the Holy Land — to the Jewish people.”

The latter half of that quote hints at the deep religious meaning of the existence of Israel for Jeffress and other Christians. As University of North Texas professor Elizabeth Oldmixon told Vox last year, the issue of recognizing Jerusalem is inextricable from that belief.

“The tenet of Christian Zionism is that God’s promise of the Holy Land to the Jews is eternal. It’s not just something in antiquity,” Oldmixon said. “When we talk about the Holy Land, God’s promise of the Holy Land, we’re talking about real estate on both sides of the Jordan River. So the sense of a greater Israel and expansionism is really important to this community. Jerusalem is just central to that. It’s viewed as a historical and biblical capital.” …

…

But it’s also worth picking out another part of what Jeffress said to CNN. Jerusalem, he said, is “the touchstone of prophecy.” That prophecy is the biblical prophecy of the return of Jesus Christ and the beginning of the Rapture — the end times.

“What kick-starts the end times into motion is Israel’s political boundaries being reestablished to what God promised the Israelites according to the Bible,” Pastor Nate Pyle told Newsweek in January.

This is not an uncommon view.

The LifeWay poll found that 80 percent of evangelicals believed that the creation of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would bring about Christ’s return.

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Jim's Doctrinal Statement

Tue, 05/15/18

The most persuasive untruths are always the ones that are mostly true. Nobody thinks it’s “great” that so many are lost and face God’s judgment.

For me, “support of Israel” is moral support. As a people that lost its land and has been helped to get it back, and as a nation that is expected to survive with more disadvantages than any modern nation has ever been expected to survive with, it’s a mystery to me how any fair minded person can not root for them.

Biblically, I believe there is a future for a nation of Jews in that location. But the nation there now isn’t precisely that nation. Still, there’s enough overlap to root for them on that score also.

… and Mossad is just amazing.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

Tue, 05/15/18

Of course, Bird isn’t a dispensationalist, but I thought this was funny:

This is clearly an example of Zionism and Dispensationalism making for very bad foreign policy and people need to point out that this has nothing to do with biblical prophecy, nothing to do with promises fulfilled, and will only hasten conflict inside Israel. As I tweeted earlier and I say again:

I’ve read my Bible cover to cover several times, I have a PhD in NT, I’ve been to Jerusalem, and let me tell you that moving the US embassy to Jerusalem is to the apocalypse what Kale is to Texas BBQ.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

Wed, 05/16/18

[Aaron Blumer]

Biblically, I believe there is a future for a nation of Jews in that location.

I agree (Ezekiel 36:24, 36). Though the modern state of Israel does not necessarily fulfill this expectation, it does potentially “set the stage” for certain events of the future tribulation period to occur. (I say this from a dispensational, pre-tribulational perspective.)

Thomas Overmiller
Pastor | StudyGodsWord.com
Blog | ShepherdThoughts.com