Nurturing the Miracle of Christian Support for Israel

The miracle of Christian support of Israel should not be confused with the specific calling and interactions within Jewish-Christian relations! There are tens of millions of Christians around the world who actively pray and advocate for Israel’s protection, donate to organizations that help Jews make Aliyah, and provide humanitarian aid for Holocaust survivors and others who are financially challenged in the country.

Many of these sincere Christians have never met a Jew, nor did they take a course on Judaism. Unlike most committed Jews who live in constant collective memory, Christians today, who are beginning their walk of supporting Israel, are not fully knowledgeable about the past horrific acts of the church toward the Jewish people or the intricacies of Replacement Theology.

As Jews, we need to embrace our faithful friends. It is easy to buy into secular media’s brushstroke portrayal of Christian support of Israel in that this is all part of a doom-and-gloom eschatological agenda. These opinion personalities simply cannot accept that “standing in the gap” for Israel is a divine download. It would also be convenient to ignore this remnant within Christendom based on Christianity’s past record of antisemitism. However, in my humble opinion, we would be missing a huge moment in sacred history in advancing Zechariah 8:23 as well as other prophetic visions yet to be fulfilled with the nations of the world. Our return from the four corners of the earth to Israel is not a Jewish VIP club phenomenon. To fully actualize our complete national and faith identity in the stewardship of this divine geographic location, it must be in a covenantal bond with other nations and peoples.

Instead of projecting unwarranted accusations of their intentions, we need to carefully listen to our Christian friends when they quote their spiritual foundations of their commitment to Israel and her people, which include the following:

Genesis 12:3 – “I will bless those who bless you…”
Esther 4:14 – ” Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Ruth 1:16-17 – But Ruth said, “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your G-d, my G-d. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. The L-RD do so to me, and more also if anything but death parts you and me.”
Isaiah 62:1 – “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet.

Besides acknowledging God’s covenant with the Jewish people, this particular group of Christians have become our defenders. What a radical transformation from the time of the early church when they taught that Christians replaced the Jews as His covenantal people and are in perpetual condemnation of deicide. Today’s Christian supporting Israel is saying, “there is no me without you.”

Some of you may accuse me of not addressing the elephant in the room – doesn’t a Christian want a Jew to believe in Jesus? The answer to that question is very simple – “yes.” However, ninety-nine percent of Christian support of Israel is not contingent on a Jewish person’s acceptance of Jesus.

For a faithful Christian, Jesus is everything! The scriptural duo of John 3:16 and 14:6 have become doctrinal creeds that a relationship with G-d and salvation is through Jesus. At the same time, Christians today understand that a belief in Jesus must come through a personal encounter of acceptance without pressure or using subversive tactics to force one to believe in Jesus.

Obviously, in the history of the church, many Jews were put into the position of “covert or die.” This is not the situation today. In fact, more and more Christian theologians, leaders as well as laity are adopting a Jewishness of Jesus approach as part of their walk with Christianity – making the leap that Jesus was Jewish to Jesus is Jewish. They wish to know Jesus of Nazareth – the Judaism of Jesus. While this may be foreign to the ears of a Jew, the fact remains that it is happening. As Jews, we should not play the role of judge and jury, to give a guilty verdict of the marvel Christian support of Israel. This is a huge opportunity in a rapprochement between our faith communities if we are willing to accept the Christian in his or her journey when it comes to Israel. We should not proclaim a need for a type of pre-packaged Christian to nurture the relationship. We must allow in the divine mystery the diversity of expressions on how one walks in their support of Israel.

In the context of Jewish-Christian relations, where people are trained and educated about each other’s faith, consistent meetings with people who are involved in this calling as well as a commitment to explore the commonalities and differences between Judaism and Christianity, this field has become an oasis to respectfully take a deep dive into the sensitivities of building up a relationship between one another. The theological advancements and statements in the field of Jewish-Christian relations do not mean the average Christian who supports Israel is aware of these milestones, nor should be placed in a position to faithfully accept the revelations that have been established within this very small exclusive group of people.

In the 75^th anniversary of the State of Israel, we have a diamond opportunity to be part of redemptive history in embracing our Christian brothers and sisters as they actualize their walk of supporting Israel and the Jewish people. May we all merit the opportunity together in fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy – Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the L-RD, to the temple of the G-d of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the L-RD from Jerusalem.

David Nekrutman is an Orthodox Jewish theologian with over two decades experience in the calling of Jewish-Christian relations. He currently serves as the Executive Director of The Isaiah Projects, Founder of Biblical Excavations, and is the Jewish Adviser to The Chosen. In 2018, he received his master’s in Biblical Literature from Oral Roberts University.

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