Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Who's side should Christians take?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Who's side should Christians take?

Whether you get your news from social media or speaking to congregants of mainstream Evangelical churches, an abundance of statements such as “Let us pray for the peace of Israel,” or “Israel is under attack, the end is near” is what you will hear and that gives you a sense that perhaps most Christians in the United States and Canada are pro-Israel. In fact, I have not heard a joint statement from any major evangelical church or ministry calling on adherents to pray or raise funds in support of the Palestinian people.

Clearly, individuals and privately-funded organizations should have the right to support like-minded entities but what is interesting to note, is the fanatical support most evangelicals have for the state of Israel each time it finds itself warring against any other Arab nation. Curiously, this tendency which American evangelicals have toward siding with Israel, can be traced to evangelical theological and Biblical interpretation rather than historical or cultural ties.

The key biblical text that most evoke evangelicals' support for the State of Israel, is Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” In fact, on June 2, 2010, the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez cursed Israel for the attack against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the viral rumor was that God had stricken the man with a deadly cancer for cursing Israel.

Interestingly, you do not need to be an expert theologian to realize that the aforementioned Bible verse, when read in its full context, does reveal a promise that all the land Abraham saw, was to be possessed by his earthly offspring. The book of Joshua gives the historical description of the partial conquest of the promised land. However, history will tell you that in two successive periods, 722 BCE and 568 BC, the Assyrians and Babylonians uprooted and exiled Israel from Judea and from that point and on, Jerusalem and what is now know as Israel, has been intermittently ruled by other powers. The Ottoman Turks were the last rulers of Palestine, the land formerly known as Judea until the Romans changed it to Syria Palaestina in 135 C.E.

With the above context in mind and prior to the Zionist vision to find a national home for all Jews, Christian theology maintained that the true offspring of Abraham were all people, Jews and non-Jews, who had come to Abraham's God through Jesus, the promised Christ. In other words being a Jew by bloodline is not what makes you a true Israelite but “it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” as Paul taught early Christians (Rom. 9:6-8). So, how did millions of evangelical North-Americans become fanatical supporters of the State of Israel and those politicians who support Israel's interests? One answer is in the Scofield's Bible Annotated Commentary. This widely distributed Bible in North American churches, turned evangelicals into uncritical Christian Zionists.

What Zionists and Christian Zionism share in common is their desire to install a Jewish State ahead of Jesus' coronation as the Davidic King of kings. To elaborate, the Zionists see the strategic value of Palestine while the Christian Zionists, forgot that God's kingdom is not of this world and therefore, they owe no uncritical allegiance to any earthly state. When the State of Israel goes rogue and bombs innocent civilians, it must be denounced with the same firm voice one would denounce antisemitism. In addition, the February 18, 2022 Congressional Research Service report on US Foreign Aid to Israel shows that to date, “the United States has provided Israel $150 billion” since its creation.

Now, from a pure secular perspective, one can admire the talent, determination, and genius of the Jewish people in all fields of human learning and industry. Undoubtedly, one would be ungrateful not to recognize how much Jews have contributed to human civilization. However, holding the State of Israel accountable for its atrocities against Palestinian civilians who are Hamas terrorists' hostages in their own land, is the right and fair-minded thing to do.

When one considers the billions of US tax-payer dollars given to Israel, all the blood, suffering, and countless American lives lost in Middle-East armed conflicts associated with the survival of the State of Israel, I must ask the millions of evangelical Christians in North America which theology, the Pauline or Zionist, informs their political support in this man-made never ending struggle?