FROM THE DAWGHOUSE…
How Should Christian View the Modern State of Israel?
A totally relevant question! Here’s what a FORGE brother asked me:
“ My… question is associated with modern day Israel. Have all the promises of God to the Israelites in the Old Testament been fulfilled? Is modern day Israel as a nation like any other people group in that they need the Gospel? Is the church considered to be the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant after God rejected Israel in the first century? Do we have an obligation to Israel?”
Quick answers, then explanation:
- Have the promises of God to the Israelites in the Old Testament been fulfilled? Yes.
- Is modern day Israel as a nation like any other people group in that they need the Gospel? Yes.
- Is the Church considered to be the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant after God rejected Israel in the first century? Yes.
- Do we have an obligation to Israel? Yes.
Have the promises of God to the Israelites in the Old Testament been fulfilled? Yes.
2 Corinthians 1:20 teaches just that point:
“For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”
The ESV Study Bible has a helpful and clarifying note at this verse:
“God’s promises find their fulfillment in Christ, indicating that the OT Scriptures should be read as pointing to Christ (see the Overview of the Bible, pp. 23-26). Paul expresses his agreement-ie, his Amen (the Gk. Form of the Heb. Word meaning “to confirm”)—thus confirming what God has done through Christ (through him) not only by preaching Christ (v.19) but also by acting like Christ toward the Corinthians, including changing his plans in order to minister to them.”
The Old Testament is Messianic literature. The Bible, as the Bible Project says, is “The unified story that leads to Jesus”. God’s plan from right after the intentional rebellion of Adam into sin was to redeem the world through the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), and so He built a nation through Abraham to do just that. Read Genesis 12, 15 and 17 and you will see the thread of covenantal redemption that simply cannot be missed. The Israelites were to be the holy and peculiar people redeemed out of Egyptian slavery to be the people through whom God would bring Messiah Jesus to all the nations, tribes and tongues of people on earth. In other words, Israel was chosen to be His relational and salvational conduit to the rest of humankind. Israel was not to be a nation with an end in itself any more than the church is to be an end in itself, we are here for the lost whom God intends to find and save.
Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan. All of God’s promises to Israel and through Israel were fulfilled in Jesus. That’s simply New Testament teaching.
Read Ephesians 2 carefully and you will see that Christ Jesus our Lord as the Anointed One (Messiah=Hebrew; Christ=Greek) has built a new people of God, the Church. All the promises of God made to the Israelites in the Old Testament have been fulfilled in Christ and will be fulfilled through Christ’s Church up until the Second Coming and establishment of the New Heavens and New Earth.
Is modern day Israel as a nation like any other people group in that they need the Gospel? Yes.
Of course. Almost the whole Book of Acts records how the Church is applying to the Israel of Jesus’ day their need to repent and believe in Jesus as Messiah. The leaders of Israel consistently rejected and eventually crucified Jesus and then persecuted the Apostles and Christians. But there is only one name for all nations tribes and tongues through whom salvation can come: Jesus.
Acts 4:1-12 ESV
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among menby which we must be saved.”
The modern state of Israel is a secular state. Christians are a small minority. Modern Israelis get no special standing with God in terms of salvation. John 3:16 applies to them.
Is the Church considered to be the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant after God rejected Israel in the first century? Yes.
This is quite easy to substantiate from the New Testament:
Galatians 6:14-16 ESV
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Who is the Israel of God? Those who have received Jesus as Messiah, the Church.
Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God bythe Spirit.
The Ephesians were gentiles but now in Christ have been joined into the household of God, a reference to the true Israel of God.
Ephesians 3:6-7 ESV
6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.
1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The true Israel are people who have received Messiah as Savior and Lord. God now is reaching people of every nation to come to faith in Jesus. That’s what the Great Commission is about (Matthew 28:18-21). He is redeeming Jews and Syrians and Russians and Iranians and Americans and Pakistani’s. He’s calling people from all the nations of mankind to be His special people.
Do we have an obligation to Israel? Yes.
As a country we Americans have a long-standing relationship with the modern state of Israel. From its founding and inception in 1949 Israel has been a parliamentary democracy and the only true democracy in the region. There are roughly as many people of Jewish background in the U.S. as in Israel. That ties us together to some degree. All of the nations surrounding Israel are not democratic in any way and in fact are governments where church and state exist as one and dominate the people with totalitarian laws, military enforcement and a command economy. Because of these realities it makes sense that the U.S. would continue to have an obligation to Israel as democratic and historic allies.
Having said that, we as Americans and certainly as Christians are not obligated to Israel out of some sense that they are God’s Chosen People. This is a common misconception many American Christians have about Israel today. The Promises of God to Israel as seen above have been and will be fulfilled in Jesus and the Church. Consequently, Christians should not have the view of whatever Israel decides is right and good and we must rubber stamp every one of their policies or actions. A Christian is not “antisemitic” just because he or she believes a policy or action of the modern state of Israel is wrong any more than a person is “anti-American” because you oppose a policy of a democrat or a republican or our standing government.
Having this balanced view can help American Christians look to the Bible for how they ought to decide moral issues of all governments including our own. It can help us have a better view to developing our international relationships and foreign policy. Some American politicians say in essence that we must support Israel to be on God’s side. That is inconsistent with the Bible’s teaching. The modern state of Israel is not the true Israel. The Church of Jesus Christ is the true Israel. The modern state of Israel is a secular state and at many points in great opposition to Christian and Biblical teaching.
Our call as Christians it to go to all people regardless of their ethnicity and seek to bring them to saving faith for eternity in our Head, The Lord Jesus Christ!
May we have Jesus’ vision for being His people!
You take it to heart!
Pete Alwinson
** Resources
The Israel Delusion, Challenging Christian Zionism and Reclaiming the Church as the True Israel, By Dale Partridge 57 pgs.
The Bible and the Future, Anthony Hoekema
