Should Christians Support Israel? by David K. Bernard July 26, 2021 ยท Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript) Kind: teaching Scripture: Psalm 122:6, Ephesians 2, Romans 11 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--should-christians-support-israel Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ That's a very good and relevant question for today. So let me break it into a couple of parts here. First of all, God does have a plan for the people of Israel. You quoted from Psalm. I think it's always appropriate to follow the admonition to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I would hasten to add that was given to the Israelites when Jerusalem was their capital. So I do think there's a principle that's bigger than any one nation. We should pray for the peace of our own nation. That doesn't mean we would support every policy of our government, but we should be good citizens. We should pray. And in ancient times, they didn't have democracy in Bible lands as we do, but we have greater opportunities to participate in government than they did. So I think extending the principle, we should pray. We should vote. We should participate in whatever we can. We should influence our community. We should try to influence our nation. So I think not only should we support the nation of Israel, we should support our own nation. Now, does that mean that we must approve of every policy of our own nation or every policy of the nation of Israel? No. That doesn't mean we have to agree with the government. It doesn't mean we have to agree with the government of Israel. Now let's go beyond just that general statement. It's evident in scripture that God chose the people of Israel for a certain purpose. Through him, he brought the message of the oneness of God. He brought the Old Testament scriptures and even the New Testament scriptures come from the Jewish people, Jewish Christians. He brought the Messiah, Jesus Christ. God very definitely used the nation of Israel, but he used it to bless the whole world. That was his plan. Israel sadly fell short over and over again. It wasn't God's plan just to bless Israel and nobody else. It was God's plan to bless Israel so that the whole world could be blessed. And while that was never fulfilled and it's full intention in the Old Testament, it has been fulfilled in Christ. Having said that, so today, everyone, both Jew and Gentile, both Jew and non-Jew, are supposed to believe on Jesus Christ and we're supposed to become part of the church through obeying the gospel. Ephesians 2 talks about how in the church, the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile is broken down, so there were all one in Christ. So God's plan for the people of Israel, for the Jewish people today of every nation, as well as the citizens of Israel, is for all of them to be saved according to the New Testament message of salvation. Acts 2.38 in Jesus Christ. Having said all that, there is still a place for the nation of Israel and God's plan. For example, you have many Old Testament prophecies which some, the church has inherited, but some it seems can only be fulfilled by an actual nation of Israel. We do have Romans 11 where even in the context of the church, the apostle Paul explains, God still has a plan to save Israel. And if you look at prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, it appears that in the last days, there will arise this evil ruler, which we often call the Antichrist who will try to take over the nation of Israel, set himself up as God. Israel will rebel against that. There will be a great and final battle. And at that time, Jesus Christ will come back to rescue the Jewish people. After all, he is a Jew by his own birth. And at that time, they will recognize him as their Messiah. And so a great multitude of Jewish people will be saved in the end. So it appears that God has a definite plan for Israel. From that, I do believe, yes, we should support the national identity that Israel has a right to exist as a nation. So that's not the same as saying, we support all the policies of any particular government of the nation of Israel. But it means we support Israel's right to exist as a nation because that is God's plan. And that's part of God's plan for the end time. So that does put Israel in a special position as opposed to other nations. Now, I also want to say very pragmatically that I believe as Christians, we respect all people of every race, every ethnicity. We also respect people's freedom of choice, freedom of religion. And so we do support democratic values. We believe they're based in biblical values. So I support the national identity of the various nations in the world. I do not think nations should try to conquer nations, should try to take over their freedom. I believe that other nations should respect the United States, which is my home country. I believe the United States should respect Canada and should respect Mexico. So we should invade other nations. We shouldn't kill people to get advantage over them for our nation. So there is a principle of respect for democracy, for freedom, and for national identity, for each nation to chart its own course, hopefully according to Godly values. With that in mind, the nation of Israel was created as the home for the Jewish people. Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis in Germany. Israel was dispossessed of their home for 1900 years. So the nations of the world gathered and in 1948 made Israel a nation again. That was the consensus of the world. And that was to give the Jewish people a home, their ancestral home before anybody else, before any other Palestinians was there. That was their home, which they were forcibly dispossessed from. And so I do, and Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that truly allows freedom of religion. And even they have some regulations, but they respect Christians, for example. So I believe as a practical matter, not only because of the unique place of Israel in God's plan and in prophecy, but based on our respect for democracy, freedom, and the value of each individual and the integrity of nations and being against conquest and warfare against nations, I feel like we should support the nation of Israel to have its own identity, its own existence, and to be able to defend its own integrity and its own people. So yes, we should pray for the nation of Israel. Now, when I say we should pray for the nation of Israel, we also respect all other peoples. We respect the Palestinians. We respect the Arabs. We respect the Muslim community. We also want democracy and freedom for every nation of the Middle East. We also want the Palestinian people, and we have many of our own believers who are Jews. We also have believers who are Palestinians, Palestinian Christians in Palestine. We have many believers in majority Arab nations or majority Muslim nations. So we want to respect the integrity of every nation. We want to respect the integrity of every ethnicity. And so I would also say that we pray for the Palestinians and we want to protect their human rights as well. We would not support any terrorism. We would not support any attempt to destroy the nation of Israel, wipe it out, take away its land, but we do support peaceful solutions and human rights and civil rights for Palestinians, for Arabs, for Muslims, and for all people.