The Evangelical Alliance with Israel

The Evangelical Alliance with the Nation of Israel

In the July 27, 2006 edition of The Wall Street Journal is an article on the front page entitled: “A Texas Preacher Leads Campaign to Let Israel Fight.” The article tells about how John Hagee, a Texas Christian evangelical has rallied support of evangelicals for Israel through an organization entitled “Christians United for Israel”. This organization according to the Journal “lobbies politicians in Washington, rallies grassroots support for Israel and aims to educate Christians on what it calls the “biblical imperative” of supporting the Jewish state.”

It also tells about a meeting of Christian evangelicals in Washington to support Israel and its military campaign against Hezbollah.

The article reports the following:

Israel was praised for doing God’s work in a war of good against evil

Calls for restraint, according to Mr. Hagee, violate “God’s foreign policy statement.”

New York congressman, Eliot Engel, according to the article stated that the Israel’s enemies “do the work of Satan.”

Evidently the Israeli ambassador attended the meetings and George Bush sent his regards to his supporters.

The article makes mention of the Christian-Zionist movement which believes that this conflict is a prelude to Armageddon. The movement supports Israel and President Bush. It is an alliance between evangelicals and the Jewish nation.

Further, HarleyDad has some good friends who were in Washington to show their support of Israel and who are strong supporters of Israel.

All of that being said, why do I feel vaguely uncomfortable. After all, I too believe we are in the “last days.” I further believe that the conflict between Islam and Christianity is a part of the end times and there are parts of Scripture that appear to distinctly refer to it. I too also know that God has a plan for Jews, Christians and non-Christians.

However, I am not prepared to throw in the towel and believe that everything the Jewish nation does is correct because just because they are Jewish.

I believe that God’s plan is what it has always been—which is to build a people of faith. To graft, a people into that ancient tree of Abram’s faith-- be they Jewish, Gentile or Arab .

I stand for the proposition that there is still only one way for salvation which is through Jesus Christ. And I suspect that this proposition is no more popular at this point among my Jewish friends than it is among my Arab friends.

As a historian I can tell you that those who have opposed the nation of Israel have not done well. However, I will also say that as a Christian I also believe that I am part of the “New Israel.”

Eventually, the Dome of the Rock, the Mosque of Omer, may be no more and the Jewish Temple will be rebuilt. If so, I am sure that my evangelical friends shall rejoice. But regardless of whether the Mosque of Omer remains or the temple is rebuilt, Jesus Christ has already built a better temple which is the temple of His people in which the Holy Spirit lives.

And so as a thinking Christian, I believe that our destiny lies with the people of Christ, be they of Jewish background, Arab background or Gentile background. My brother and sister are the black and oriental Christians as well as other Christians wherever they are from for they are part of the new temple and the new Israel. And somehow, I think that these brothers and sisters are getting forgotten in the “end time” focus.

The views I hold are not popular. The Jews and evangelicals will not like them because they do not give blind, unqualified support to Israel. Islam does not like it; because Islam is anti-Christian and through their laws block much of the world from hearing the good news and having religious freedom.

In John 4, the story is told about how Jesus and his disciples went through Samaria and he met a woman at the well who had experienced five husbands.

The woman said to Jesus in John 4:20: “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

Jesus responded in John 4:23 : “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit , and those who worship Him must worship in spirit in Spirit and truth.”

And so I believe it is the last times. However, I also believe that God is continuing to build a people who worship him in spirit and truth (as opposed to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem). I believe that this new temple made of many people will include many Jews and Arabs who will find a new unity in Jesus Christ.

Jesus foresaw that the Temple of Herod would be pulled down but a new Temple would be build up –that new temple is His body, the people of God that the Holy Spirit of God will inhabit forever.

It is a shame that we are not as excited by the prospects of the New Jerusalem as much as we are about a rebuilding of an old temple in the old Jerusalem.

God is not through with the building of the New Temple yet. There are exciting things ahead. One of the most exciting will be as Jews come to know the true Messiah and Arabs come to know the true Mahdi, Jesus Christ. Then the descendants of Israel and Ishmael will dance and rejoice and the family of God will be reunited again.

HarleyDad