With all the recent activity in the Middle East, and the strong partnership between the United States and the nation of Israel, there has been renewed discussion among American Christians about what level of support we should give to Israel. In this article, I want to offer a fresh, biblically grounded perspective that helps believers think carefully about how to pray for and respond to the nation of Israel.
Much of the support that American Christians have for Israel comes from Genesis 12:1–3, where God makes His covenant with Abraham:
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” From this passage, it is clear that:
- God promised to make Israel a great nation
- God promised to bless Israel
- God promised to deal favorably with those who bless Abraham and his descendants
Given these promises, it is understandable why many Christians conclude that they should strongly support Israel. However, a fuller reading of Scripture requires us to ask an important question:
What exactly are we being called to support? Defining who and what Israel is provides a good first step at answering that question.
Who is Israel?
I believe this is the first area where many American Christians are unclear. The modern nation of Israel is not identical to the covenant nation of the Old Testament. While it includes many who are ethnically Jewish, it is largely a secular state and, as a whole, remains in spiritual unbelief, rejecting Jesus as the Messiah.[1]
Even passages like Romans 11, where Paul the Apostle affirms that God has not rejected Israel, remind us that God’s promises are tied to His sovereign plan and future redemption, not to unqualified endorsement of a present-day nation-state.
To understand Genesis 12 correctly, we must also understand who the promise was originally given to. God was speaking to Abraham and his covenant line: his physical descendants as a people. But that covenant community was never defined by ancestry alone. It also included those who were joined through covenant faith. Ruth is a clear example of this. When she declared, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God,”[2] she identified herself with the people of God and entered into that covenant community.
Throughout the Old Testament, belonging to Israel was not about genetic purity, but about covenant commitment: faith in the God of Israel, identification with His people, and participation in their shared life under His rule.
The New Testament adds an essential layer. The promises made to Abraham ultimately find their fulfillment in Christ, and all who belong to Him by faith are counted as Abraham’s offspring.[3] This means the blessing of Abraham is not confined to a single nation, but extends to all who are in Christ.
Those who are in Christ share in the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant through faith, but this does not mean the Church replaces Israel or that the promises of Genesis 12 can be directly applied to any modern nation-state.
This is where many American Christians have an incomplete understanding. They take a promise given within a specific covenant context and apply it directly to the modern nation of Israel. But Scripture does not establish a covenantal category today that requires Christians to give unqualified political support to any nation, including Israel.
One of the most debated questions surrounding these promises is the role of the land itself. In the Old Testament, God clearly promised a specific land to Abraham and his descendants. However, the New Testament appears to expand this promise. For example, Romans 4:13 speaks of Abraham inheriting “the world,” suggesting that the fulfillment of God’s promise extends beyond a single geographic region. Faithful Christians differ on how these passages should be understood. Some see a future, literal fulfillment of the land promises for Israel, while others understand the promise as ultimately fulfilled in Christ and extended to all who belong to Him. What is important for our purposes is this: Scripture does not clearly establish that these promises require Christians to give unqualified political support to any modern nation-state.
No Government Is Beyond Accountability
At the same time, it is important to say clearly that recognizing Israel’s right to exist and defend itself as a nation is not the same as giving unqualified support to everything it does. Like any country, Israel has legitimate concerns for security and the protection of its citizens. Christians can acknowledge this as a matter of basic justice. But that recognition does not place Israel beyond moral evaluation or accountability.
Scripture is consistent on this point: no nation, including Israel itself, is exempt from God’s standards of justice and righteousness.
Throughout the Old Testament, God repeatedly held Israel accountable for its sin. The prophets did not offer blind support; they called the nation to repentance when it acted unjustly. Being chosen by God never meant being above correction.
That same principle must apply today. To support Israel in a biblical sense cannot mean endorsing every action of the modern state without question.
A biblical critique of a nation’s actions is not the same as animosity toward its people. In fact, throughout Scripture, calling a nation to righteousness is often an expression of deep concern, not hostility.
At the same time, we must not overlook the reality that there are believers on both sides of the Israel–Palestine conflict. Many Palestinian Christians have expressed that they feel overlooked by their American brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet these believers worship the same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. They are part of the same body. As Scripture reminds us, “If one member suffers, all suffer together.”[4]
In the midst of the Israel–Palestine conflict, Palestinian Christians have lost homes, livelihoods, and even loved ones. If innocent people, including fellow believers, are harmed, it is not enough to dismiss it as “the cost of war.” A biblical response must wrestle seriously with justice, righteousness, and the value of every human life made in God’s image.
How Should Christians View Israel?
If we are going to think biblically about Israel, we must hold together what Scripture actually teaches, without drifting into either uncritical support or dismissive indifference.
First, we should affirm clearly: God is not finished with Israel. As Paul the Apostle makes clear in Romans 11, God has not rejected His people. There remains a future in which God will bring about the salvation of Israel according to His sovereign plan. Christians should reject any idea that God’s promises to Israel have failed or been abandoned.
Second, we should recognize that the Jewish people are deeply significant in God’s redemptive story. Through Israel came the Scriptures, the covenants, and ultimately the Messiah.[5] That reality alone should produce a posture of humility and gratitude.
At the same time, we must be equally clear about this: our primary concern for Israel is not political, but spiritual. The greatest need of the Jewish people, like all people, is reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul expresses this plainly in Romans 10:1 when he writes, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.”
This guards us from a subtle but serious error. If our “support” for Israel is primarily political or national, we may lose sight of the very thing Scripture emphasizes most—their need for the gospel.
Third, our perspective must be shaped by the reality that our ultimate allegiance is to Christ, not to any nation. Christians are citizens of a different kingdom.[6] While we may care deeply about nations and global events, we are never called to give unquestioned loyalty to any government.
Finally, we must remember that the body of Christ transcends national and ethnic boundaries. Our brothers and sisters are not defined by geography, but by their union with Christ. That means we care about Jewish believers, Palestinian believers, and all who belong to Christ with equal concern and love.
A faithful Christian posture, then, is not one of blind allegiance or disengaged neutrality. It is a posture that:
- affirms God’s ongoing purposes for Israel
- longs for the salvation of the Jewish people
- evaluates all nations by God’s standards of righteousness
- and prioritizes unity within the global body of Christ
Conclusion
The question is not whether Christians should care about Israel. We should. The question is how we should care and whether our thinking is shaped by Scripture or by assumption.
God’s promises to Abraham are real and will be fulfilled. But those promises find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ and extend to all who belong to Him by faith. They do not require uncritical political support for any modern nation.
Our calling is not to defend a nation, but to be faithful to Christ—holding fast to His truth, loving His people wherever they are found, and longing for the day when all His promises are fulfilled.
[1] Romans 9–10
[2] Ruth 1:16
[3] Galatians 3:7, 16, 29
[4] 1 Corinthians 12:26
[5] Romans 9:4–5
[6] Philippians 3:20
